Touch of death and Mastery of Death

[Brianwk]

I have a person who wants to play LD Monk. I do not mind the temporary HP from touch of death. My only question is if you are fighting undead they do not have life. How do you get life back as temporary HPS from something already dead ? I may be wrong but it seems undead to me are not living. I can see getting them from goblins what not. Another point is, I was reading on some boards about the abuse of this skill. I wonder if it be out of line to say ya you can get the temp hit point only from creatures who in fact have that many HPS to get it from >?

Lastly mastery of death should he go to 0 before expending ki to activate this skill ? we got in argument because I said he had to go to 0 and he wanted to do it at 1. As far as I can tell it means when you get unconscious not still have 1hp. Any advice be helpful thanks

[Zacchaeus]

Touch of Death describes the target as a creature and although not specifically defined that basically means anything - including undead. It's up to you whether you want to refine this to exclude undead. (Bear in mind that everything has hit points - even undead).

The description of Mastery of Death specifically says that when you are reduced to 0hp you can use a ki point to have 1 hp instead. So, for example the character has 5 hp and suffers 6 wounds thus taking them to 0hp they can spend a ki point to have 1 hp instead. This is similar to features that other classes and creatures have.

[GavinRuneblade]

I have a person who wants to play LD Monk. I do not mind the temporary HP from touch of death. My only question is if you are fighting undead they do not have life. How do you get life back as temporary HPS from something already dead ? I may be wrong but it seems undead to me are not living. I can see getting them from goblins what not. Another point is, I was reading on some boards about the abuse of this skill. I wonder if it be out of line to say ya you can get the temp hit point only from creatures who in fact have that many HPS to get it from >?

Note the wording in the rules, it is not exactly "life"

Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your study of death allows you to extract vitality from another creature as it nears its demise. When you reduce a creature within 5 feet of you to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier + your monk level (minimum of 1 temporary hit point).
It is "vitality". Vitality means more than "just" life, it includes activity, senses, behavior, energy, youth, the ability to exist, etc. It is like all trucks are automobiles but not all automobiles are trucks. Vitality includes life (trucks) but includes other things too (sedans, motorcycles, SUVs, jeeps, tanks, etc.). The monk can take vitality from a Jeep (undead) or a scooter (goblin). Only the goblin has life, but both have vitality.