Awakening a tree -- Con score

[Dyir]

How does that preclude the creature from benefiting from its construct abilities? It gets to keep anything not expressly removed by the change.

Look, take a half-dragon/human for example. As soon as you place the half-dragon template on the human, you change it to a [Dragon] type. Does it lose it's human benefits or abilities? No. It still gets the extra feat and the extra skill points.

How does that preclude the creature from benefiting from its construct abilities? It gets to keep anything not expressly removed by the change.

Technically, the example abilities that you mention are "racial traits" and not "type traits." Therefore the half-dragon/human has the Dragon type but all of the racial abilities of both human and half-dragon (since the template doesn't remove the human racial traits).

A better example would be a draco-lich. I don't have my books with me, but I assume that a dragon that becomes such a creature has its type changed to "undead." I believe that it probably looses all of the "Dragon type" traits and gains all of the "Undead type" traits. However, it retains all of the racial traits it had while alive except those that the template specifically takes away.

By the rules a creature can have only one type, but I've only seen in one place where a creature with one type has abilities from a different type: the Abominations in the Epic-Level Handbook. I suppose it makes sense for an animated tree to follow suit and have traits from both types, but it would be the other other example I could think of.

 

[Corwin]

I disagree with your disagreement.

Human do have a type, it's [Humanoid]. Some types (humanoids being one of them) are so broad that they require subtypes, in this case: [Human].

Regardless, the same can be said, using my same example, with other creatures.

Does a Half-Dragon Pit Fiend not retain it's fiendish abilities? Does a red dragon ghost stop having it's dragon abilities just because it takes the [Undead] type?

Changing a creatures type does not remove its previous type features. The only time it would do so is if the change describes it doing so or the previous type has conflicting abilities that would necessarily have to be discarded to accommodate the new type.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Technically, the example abilities that you mention are "racial traits" and not "type traits."

Technically, races are effectively subtypes of humanoids.

EDIT: Corwin, said it better.

 

[Dyir]

I disagree with your disagreement.

Human do have a type, it's [Humanoid]. Some types (humanoids being one of them) are so broad that they require subtypes, in this case: [Human].

Regardless, the same can be said, using my same example, with other creatures.

Does a Half-Dragon Pit Fiend not retain it's fiendish abilities? Does a red dragon ghost stop having it's dragon abilities just because it takes the [Undead] type?

Changing a creatures type does not remove its previous type features. The only time it would do so is if the change describes it doing so or the previous type has conflicting abilities that would necessarily have to be discarded to accommodate the new type.

I believe you mistook my mention of racial vs. type traits. Does a pit fiend retain its fiendish traits: yes. It's outsider traits: no. Thus, it would keep all of its spell-like abilities, SR, elemental resistance, etc. but not the "outsider type" traits (i.e. Darkvision and its inability to be raised, although Darkvision would come back because that's also a Dragon type trait). "Human" is both a race and a subtype, but "Humanoid" is an exception, not the rule. The human racial abilities are not a feature of its subtype, but its race. This is the same as an elf, as a gnome, as a pixie, as a great wyrm red dragon. They all have abilities based upon their types and their races.

Most types have so few traits that changing them is negligable. If an animal became a magical beast, what abilities would change? A humanoid to a monsterous humanoid? But the difference between two that have quite a few type traits (like the plant, undead, and construct) could be meaningful.

Its fine that an awakened tree has no Constitution score, as that is not required to be a Plant really. It can be treated an an animated object with the Plant type, but it does not have the Construct type nor any abilities associated with it.

 

[Dyir]

Technically, races are effectively subtypes of humanoids.

As I just listed above: races are not subtypes. Red dragon is not a subtype. Pit-fiend is not a subtype. Only humanoids have subtypes based upon race. Even outsiders (the only other type that has manditory subtypes) don't go by race, but by alignment. The MM has a list of all of the available subtypes, but you'll never find "Titan" or "Ghaele" or "Lich."