dtgreene: In the computer games:
* Clerics are the same, but note that they lost the ability to gate in their element, making them feel rather useless.
* Druids lost their minor access to the second elemental sphere.
* Templars aren't available as a class for player characters; hence, I don't even know if templars are implemented as a class. (It's quite possible that templar enemies could just be coded like monsters, without having class tables, which would mean no XP tables.)
* Rangers actually get major access to the chosen elemental sphere. This means that a Ranger/Cleric dual-class actually gets major access to 2 elemental spheres. (Doesn't work with multi-class, because you can only choose one element at character creation, but I'm wondering how WotR handles dual-class humans that have been reincarnated into another race.)
UndeadHalfOrc: Also:
Clerics gain access to Turn Undead, Druids don't. This is IMHO the main reason to even choose a cleric over a druid. Instantly deals 9999 damage to any undead. Very effective vs templars/defilers who like to surround you with a bunch of summoned ghosts, or skeleton warriors.
About your ranger/cleric reincarnation: Given how janky Dark Sun 2: WotR already is, I would not expect anything less than a game freeze or crash. But please test it, for science!
Turn Undead, however, is highly situational. In battles where there's no undead (which, I'm guessing, is the majority of them), it's useless.
Thing is, to get Turn Undead, you're basically giving up *all* healing spells except for the 1st-level one (which is extremely weak) and those of water (which requires giving up the spells of any other sphere, unless you use that trick I've mentioned); furthermore, you'll have very few spells to choose from of levels 4 and higher.
As for Reincarnation, I haven't fully tested the human -> non-human case. But what I do know is this:
* Stats like HP don't chance (in case you chance from/to Half-Giant).
* I don't remember if thri-kreen gain/lose their extra attacks.
* I'm not sure what happens if your level exceeds your racial level cap.
* In my testing, I never had a non-human become human, which is rather curious.
By the way, I would expect most spells that you can actually get to be at least somewhat functional and not crash the game; this doesn't hold true for 8th and 9th level spells. Also, one WotR bug (not in the first game) is that, if a character's HP is already above its maximum, healing will increase HP further; with the help of a Half Giant with Lend Health (in WotR, it's a Psychometabolism wild talent) and someone with Heal/Water of Life, this could be used to get someone very high HP.
As for the 8th and 9th level spells, which you can get with the cheat that gives you all the spells, they vary in how well they're programmed:
* Meteor Swarm allows you to target 4 fireball area attacks. These do not need to be near each other. This spell is probably better than in table top.
* Time Stop gives you infinite turns. The catch, however, is that your movement doesn't recover between turns. If you are unable to reach the remaining enemies, it's a softlock because there's no way to end your turn so that someone else can act.
* Prismatic Sphere outright crashes the game.
Edit: Also, with healing, why are there no Cure Wounds spells for 2nd *and* 3rd level? There's 2 consecutive levels without healing spells, and the healing spell you do get isn't adequate. It's something I've always wondered, and it's always felt like a design flaw to me (including in Wizardry 1-5, which copied the AD&D healing spells). It's the sort of reason I don't want to play Pool of Radiance, as you don't even get the second healing spell, resting doesn't bring you back to full, and there's no shortcut to bring your party back to full quickly (in real time), even if you're at a perfectly safe location.