[RPG] What happens if a sorcerer is hit with Disintegrate while he has turned into a potted plant

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During the last game of D&D 5E I DMed, my party containing a level 5 Wild Magic Sorcerer encountered a Beholder Zombie. During this fight a Wild Magic Surge effect turned him into a potted plant. Fortunately for him the beholder did not get the chance to use its Disintegration Ray on him but I was wondering what would have happened if it did? (Howerver the beholder did land an Enervation Ray that dropped my player unconcious right away)

First of all would he have been able to save against it? The PHB tells us that turning into a potted plant incapacitates him and make him vulnerable to all types of damages but does that mean that he could still move while turned into a plant? On the spot I ruled it as Paralysis not allowing him to move and allowing him to make a Consitution Saving throw against the Enervation Ray but reading back the PHB made me wonder if I made the right decision.

Secondly, if he did get hit by the Disintegration Ray (and went down below 0 hitpoint), would he have been disintegrated or would the potted plant form would have been disintegrated? Since both effect take place when he goes down to 0 hitpoints I don't really know which effect to apply first. Since it would totally sentence the character to permanent death at this level I wouldn't like to make my player reroll a character after literally getting one shotted by an enemy within its capabilities if there is a chance he did not actually die.

Best Answer

A potted plant has 0 movement speed, so while you can move while incapacitated in some instances, you can't move in potted plant form anyways.

This creation from the wild magic surge does not have a creature statistics block associated with it. Due to this, the character is not considered a creature, but rather an object. Yes, plants are alive, yes you are free to adjudicate he is a creature of the plant variety. A potted plant generally lacks mobility. Some fast growing vines and whatever my wife keeps in the kitchen that eats my dishes are the exceptions.

As for what happens with Disintegrate, well nothing is really clear there. It's going to be up to the DM since there's RAI and RAW that directly contradicts in numerous places.

The Disintegrate spell, upon reducing a creature to zero HP, turns the target into ash. We know from clarifications that features that prevent you from hitting zero HP don't prevent this effect like Relentless Endurance. Support for this is from the rules answers in 2016:

If the damage from disintegrate reduces a half-orc to 0 hit points, can Relentless Endurance prevent the orc from turning to ash? If disintegrate reduces you to 0 hit points, you’re killed outright, as you turn to dust. If you’re a half-orc, Relentless Endurance can’t save you.

However, this is countered by the fact that disintegrate does not turn you to ash with polymorph, shapechange or wildshape. This is evidenced here:

Disintegrate during polymorph, shapechange, wildshape

Basically that question has two answers, both correct, about what happens. Sage Advice covers the RAW which means the target is disintegrated and does not revert. RAI from the designer, Crawford, states that the base creature must hit 0 HP, which contradicts the RAW.

Thanks to these layers of confusion with respect to the consistency of disintegrate, you are stuck with only one possible answer:

DM adjudication.

In my games, if you hit zero in any form while getting hit by disintegrate, it bypasses anything except for spells or items specifically designed to block it. That way it retains its lethality.

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