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Fifth Edition has a number of items that require attunement by a spellcaster.
If the prerequisite is to be a spellcaster, a creature qualifies if it can cast at least one spell using its traits or features, not using a magic item or the like.
I am creating a magic item that I would like to restrict to creatures that are not spellcasters. Using another franchise, the wording would be:
Requires attunement by a muggle
Is there an term for this set of creatures in any of the official rules?
Eberron: Rising from the Last War, p.226, "Library Vault Adventures":
Destroy a scroll containing an incantation that allows even non-spellcasters to animate the dead.
A search of D&D Beyond for the term non-spellcaster suggests that it's not a very commonly used term, perhaps because very few game mechanics exist which exclusively affect people who cannot cast spells.
There is a parallel term for creatures who cannot fly, non-flying creature, which does appear in the DMG, as does "a creature of non-lawful alignment" (a prerequisite of the artifact Blackrazor), and "non-dwarf" (a curse on the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords).
From the DMG Errata (P.1):
About Attunement (PHB 136)
The first paragraph ends with a new sentence: “If the prerequisite is to be a spellcaster, a creature qualifies if it can cast at least one spell using its traits or features, not using a magic item or the like.”
For the purpose of attunement:
If a creature is able to cast a spell by virtue of their own ability (not from an item), whether that be race, class, or feature, they are a spellcaster.
If a creature isn't able to cast a spell by virtue of their own ability (not from an item), whether that be race, class, or feature, they aren't a spellcaster.
The books until Eberron: Rising from the Last War offers no further terminology about non-spellcasters that goes beyond "creature" which also applies to spellcasters, so for the purpose of the restriction and clarity I recommend the term "non-spellcaster" which are defined as lacking all the qualities a spellcaster has without introducing any lingo.
I have done so while homebrewing magic-items and my table understood what non-spellcasters were after I told them how they are distinct from spellcasters.
In Eberron: Rising from the Last War non-spellcasters are mentioned exactly once on the table for Library Vault Adventures (ERftLW 226)
Destroy a scroll containing an incantation that allows even non-spellcasters to animate the dead.
There is no consistent use of that language elsewhere.
