Do Trees have Hit Points?

[LibraryOgre]

So, wounded wizard in a forest, has only Vampiric Touch memorized.

Can he use Vampiric touch to drain HP from a tree?

[Lord Torath]

As I recall, treants can 'animate' trees, and each tree they animate has a move speed, AC, THAC0, and most importantly hit dice and hit points.
Trees are alive, so I could see allowing the wizard to cast Vampiric Touch on one. I mean, there are tons of plant-monsters, and it presumably works on them, right?

[LibraryOgre]

As I recall, treants can 'animate' trees, and each tree they animate has a move speed, AC, THAC0, and most importantly hit dice and hit points.
Trees are alive, so I could see allowing the wizard to cast Vampiric Touch on one. I mean, there are tons of plant-monsters, and it presumably works on them, right?

Oooh, I'll have to find a cite for that. I've started this discussion on multiple boards (because it's a fun question), and animated trees having HP is a neat line to throw in.

[Easy e]

Do you want them to have hit points?

[JadedDM]

It's from the Monster Manual:


Treants have the ability to animate normal trees. One treant can animate up to two trees. It takes one round for a normal tree to uproot itself. Thereafter the animated tree can move at a rate of 3 per turn and fights as a full-grown treant (12 Hit Dice, two attacks, 4-24 points of damage per attack). A treant must be within 60 yards of the tree it is attempting to animate. Animated trees lose their ability to move if the treant who animated them is incapacitated or moves more than 60 yards away.

So if we assume a normal tree has 12 HD, then they could have quite a few HP then. Somewhere between 12 and 96.

[Mechalich]

Trees are alive, so I could see allowing the wizard to cast Vampiric Touch on one. I mean, there are tons of plant-monsters, and it presumably works on them, right?

2e vampiric touch says only "Undead Creatures are unaffected by this spell" that means presumably you use could use it to drain a Construct (most 2e constructs are immune to magic, but not all of them) or even something really weird like a Xeg-Ya.

[thirdkingdom]

So, wounded wizard in a forest, has only Vampiric Touch memorized.

Can he use Vampiric touch to drain HP from a tree?

That's how you get Dark Sun . . .

[Lord Torath]

That's how you get Dark Sun . . .Close. But not quite. :smallbiggrin:

[thirdkingdom]

Close. But not quite. :smallbiggrin:

Hah! Yeah, I know.

~~~~~

Seriously, though, if I were to allow it I would allow a small, but non-zero chance of a ramification, likely in the form of an undead fey creature rising from the drained tree or the caster becoming partially tree-like (because, um, the tree is a different form of life, or something. This idea may require some work).

[gnomish dwelf]

and so is true of sessile animals, I am not sure if sea stars, anemones, sea urchins and the like count as sessile animals, but they have life force to... however they do not have hit points, they have structural points, which can be converted to hit points through this spell in this case...

[SpoonR]

2e vampiric touch says only "Undead Creatures are unaffected by this spell" that means presumably you use could use it to drain a Construct (most 2e constructs are immune to magic, but not all of them) or even something really weird like a Xeg-Ya.

Hm. Taking that quote literally & technicality, you could say trees are not creatures, so no worky. More generally, if you can drain trees you should be able to drain grass. As personal ruling, i,d say you can’t vampire inanimate plants except in Dark Sun. Constructs are iffy, maybe you could drain the magical energy animating them.

Trees do have hitpoints. That’s how you know how long it takes to chop one down. No vital organs so can’t coup de gras though.