Just wondering if Animate Object was meant to work on a plant, like a normal tree or vine.  I looked around the source material with searches.  Unless I missed it, it was not covered.  

I saw no official Animate Plant spell.  With that lacking, I'm thinking a normal non-sentient, non-magical, "Normal" plant is an object.

Would earth be considered an object.   Rocks are.   What about air or water.  

Thoughts? 

Quote from User32 >>

Just wondering if Animate Object was meant to work on a plant, like a normal tree or vine.  I looked around the source material with searches.  Unless I missed it, it was not covered.  

I saw no official Animate Plant spell.  With that lacking, I'm thinking a normal non-sentient, non-magical, "Normal" plant is an object.

Would earth be considered an object.   Rocks are.   What about air or water.  

Thoughts? 

•  Yes, non-creature plants are, by definition, objects, due to not being creatures.  Animate Objects will work on them.
• The spell you missed that turns plant objects into plant creatures (Animate Objects makes constructs) is Awaken.
• Separately, there's also the spell Speak With Plants, which gives you some control over plant objects while leaving them as plant objects.

I think I disagree with at least something in each of quindraco's points.

• If the definition of object is not a creature, then what does being a monster have to do with being a creature? You conflate the two words (as the rules do too), but the first sentence of what is a monster tells you that not all creatures are monsters, and therefore might not have stat blocks.
• The plant creature type defines itself as "In this context... not ordinary flora" but doesn't tell about that context. Are we talking about plant creatures that could be monsters and appear with stat blocks in the monster manual? That is a reasonable context.
• Awaken doesn't mention "plant objects" at all. It lists plants and another creature type as possible targets.
• Transport via plants does note that there is a distinction between inanimate and other plants, but it doesn't call them objects or the other types plant creatures either. Certainly inanimate has connotations, but unless the spell means "dead-standing trees only" then inanimate cannot just mean "not alive" in the spell -- It must mean "not alive like animals and human[oid]s."
• This is a very superficial distinction between what a creature is and what an object is. It's a lot like "It's not alive because it doesn't have a face."
• By quindraco's argument, a giraffe is an object too.

And as to the OP question, "Is water an object?" No. We have a rules definition of object.

For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.

Fluids like air and water would be difficult to describe as discrete items.

Maybe using that definition, the OP can decide for themselves what constitutes an object. But also to quindraco's point, the rules leave a large swath of things that aren't described as being "an object" or "a creature."

Quote from User32 >>

Just wondering if Animate Object was meant to work on a plant, like a normal tree or vine.  I looked around the source material with searches.  Unless I missed it, it was not covered.  

I saw no official Animate Plant spell.  With that lacking, I'm thinking a normal non-sentient, non-magical, "Normal" plant is an object.

Would earth be considered an object.   Rocks are.   What about air or water.  

Thoughts? 

Technically the rules state an Object is:  a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.  

The exact effects are best left to your DM.  There is a lot of grey area with some of the thoughts.  Though creative, always balance the creative/abusive line carefully (depending on intent).

And Object in D&D is typically an inanimate item like a chair, a boulder, a table, a chest, and so on.   One could reasonable say a tree or shrubbery is a living thing, but then again for the purpose of some spells a DM could easily make the case they count as either a plant or an object, or both!  

If I were the DM the answers would probably be 

• Plant:  No/Maybe
• Water: No
• Rock: Yes (if it fits the size)

For the plant it would depend.  Was the player intent to abuse the system?  Would there be unintended consequences?  One could imagine if you could do a tree, it can't move from its spot due to a vast root structure (seriously, tree roots go deep/wide).  Maybe there is a dead tree?  Or a ton of very big branches?  Sure, then we can work with it.  Vines?  Maybe.  Again, intent?  

As a 5th level spell I'd be somewhat forgiving.   As a once off effect I might do a spur of the moment allowance, with a deeper look at the rules later.  One thing I always am careful of is never letting a lower level spell duplicate the effects of a higher level spell.  Or push too far outside the bounds of the spells intended effect.

Hope this helps!

The rules are a bit unclear on what a nonmagical, immobile, brainless plant is in terms of creatures and objects. A plant is technically living, and thus not an object, but on the other hand it isn't a creature in most cases either. I'd say this is a "talk to the DM to see if it's okay" situation.