ok, here’s a question for #dnd5e rules buffs
the rules sometimes use the term ‘living creature’ but I’m not sure how that is actually defined because for things like golems, devils or animated tables this is weird territory is it creatures with a soul, because that's one thing, and what about creatures that are pure soul, or have no soul
what about revenants. they are undead but canonically have their souls
or is it just sentient beings, because at what point is the intelligence cut-off
— Oliver Clegg 🌈 (@deathbybadger) June 22, 2020
In D&D, “living creature” means a creature that isn’t dead, regardless of the creature’s type.
See the “Dropping to 0 Hit Points” section in the “Player’s Handbook” for the rules on dying in the game (p. 197–8). #DnD To be clear, "living creature" almost never appears in 5th-edition D&D. A few times, the term has appeared accidentally—a ghost of a previous edition of the game—and other times, the term is used for a corner case in the rules.
The term has no special meaning in the game. #DnD
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) June 22, 2020
So an undead creature would be considered “a living creature”
Is this why some spells/abilities that talk about creatures as targets specifically rule out undead and constructs? Yes.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) June 22, 2020
So there is no difference between “Creature” and “Living Creature” then? The bag of devouring is one of the only places in the game where "living creature" appears intentionally in a rule. The effect isn't triggered if you put the arm of a corpse into the bag, for instance.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) June 22, 2020
So earlier it was mentioned that after it’s dead, the corpse is an object.
Revivify works only on a *creature* that’s been dead for up to 1 minute. If it’s become an *object*, it means the spell can’t work.
Def a great example of RAW/RAI.
/1 In a D&D rule, all the words work together. For example, targeting "a creature" is different from targeting "a creature that has died within the last minute."
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) June 22, 2020