D&D 5E (2024) Tremorsense and Incorporeal Creatures (Movement)

[EzekielRaiden]

This is consistent with the D&D 5E SRD, which clarified: Tremorsense can’t be used to detect flying or incorporeal creatures.



An incorporeal creature "has no body." In essence, it has nothing that would cause a vibration in the ground or otherwise create the movement necessary for an ability that by its very name senses "tremors" (aka a slight earthquake). Its ability to pass through solid objects does not make it cease to be incorporeal. With a rule saying otherwise, it's always incorporeal and can't be detected by a sense designed to detect earth movement.

I would say that the in-the-moment ruling was a reasonable "let's get going" choice, but that you are correct for the long-term, and it's best to tell the players this ASAP so that they can use that knowledge when making choices in the future.

 

[beaumontsebos]

Thanks everybody.

Taking all your replies into consideration, it seems my ruling abides by the RAW and RAI.

Especially when you take into consideration the 2024 definition of Tremorsense purposely omits the 2014 restriction on detecting incorporeal creatures.

Also, I should clarify that I probably should have used "incorporeal movement" instead of "incorporeal creature". There are no "incorporeal creatures" in 5E as far as I can tell. The rules do use "etherealness", which is a whole different thing. Tremorsense would not detect a creature that is ethereal.