The vitality trait marks effects that heal living creatures, deal vitality damage to undead or creatures with void healing, or otherwise manipulate vitality energy.

Vitality is not the same thing as healing. A vitality effect might heal, such as heal or lay on hands, but it can also deal damage, as with vitality lash, or empower attacks, as with infuse vitality. Likewise, not every healing effect is a vitality effect; some healing works without the vitality trait and can restore creatures that wouldn’t normally benefit from vitality healing.

The core rule interaction is this: living creatures benefit from vitality healing and are typically immune to vitality damage, while creatures with void healing—including most undead—are damaged by vitality damage and are not healed by vitality healing effects. However, certain spells are explicit exceptions. For example, heal and lay on hands both say that they heal a willing living creature or damage an undead creature, so they carry out both functions because their text says so—not because every vitality effect automatically does both.

This distinction matters in play. A spell like vitality lash is a vitality effect that only deals damage to an undead or void-healing target; it does not heal living creatures. A general healing effect without vitality or void, on the other hand, can often heal a wider range of targets depending on its wording.