It’s clear that creatures like humanoids, giants, dragons, beasts, and plants all are alive, and that undead are not alive. But what about celestials, fiends, elementals, and constructs? What about non-creature plants? The game refers to “living” creatures for some effects (e.g., the clone spell), are there any criteria by which a creature is living under the game’s rules?
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Can you include some examples of saying "living creatures"? – MivaScott May 29 '22 at 21:40
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@MivaScott The Clone spell is an example. – Nobody the Hobgoblin May 30 '22 at 05:39
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I removed the [life] tag you created for this question, I don’t think it’s a useful tag. Besides this question, I can’t think of any other sort of question that the tag would apply to. What tag description were you thinking of putting on it? – Thomas Markov Jul 28 '22 at 07:47
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@ThomasMarkov I thought it might be useful for questions about if something is alive or dead. There is neither a life nor death tag, and undead, sentinent items etc. are quite a common trope in RPGs. – Nobody the Hobgoblin Jul 28 '22 at 07:53
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@GroodytheHobgoblin We already have tags for undead and sentient magic items. – Thomas Markov Jul 28 '22 at 07:55
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I can’t find any definitive statements for 5e on this subject, aside from the undead being “once-living,” i.e. implied to no longer be so, per page 7 of the Monster Manual. I don’t have a lot of the monster-focused books, but web searches suggest none of them address this directly either.
In prior editions of D&D, constructs and undead were the non-living creatures. The “monstrosity” type, which is new to 5e, is used as a “catch-all” (again, Monster Manual pg. 7), so a non-living monstrosity is conceivable, but would presumably be called out as such in its entry and would be an exception.
In prior editions of D&D, celestials, elementals, and fiends were living, but did not have “dualism,” that is, a separate body and soul. Instead, they were souls incarnate, soul-and-body as one unit. This is what allowed for the way they can change forms, and also things like possession, but also caused difficulty raising them.
Notably, some creatures that are fey in 5e were “native outsiders.” (“Outsider” is a category that included celestials and fiends, as well as other creatures, and all lacked dualism.) So it’s possible that some 5e fey creatures are monistic, too.
But monistic creatures are still alive.
KRyan
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I'm not sure what "prior editions' you are referring to with the lack of dualism. At least in first edition, fiends whose body was slain or destroyed on the Prime would have their partite soul return to their home plane, whereupon it would reform a body. Fiends slain on their home plane would have their 'true form' destroyed, from which they could not recover - and which was worth much more xp to any PC able to do so. – Kirt May 29 '22 at 23:55
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