Is an Echo Knight fighter's "echo" a tangible object, for the purpose of physical interaction?

Question

The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount sourcebook contains a new Fighter subclass, the Echo Knight. Echo Knights have the ability to summon an "echo" of themselves; per the overall subclass description (p. 183):

the Echo Knight has mastered the art of using dunamis to summon the fading shades of unrealized timelines to aid them in battle.

The Manifest Echo feature also describes it as follows:

This echo is a magical, translucent, gray image of you [...] It is the same size as you, and it occupies its space.

In this unofficial tweet from March 2020, Jeremy Crawford confirms that an echo is an object.

Is an "echo" a tangible object, for the purpose of being interacted with (e.g. a giant picking it up from the ground like a large bottle of beer)?

Answer 1

The echo is intangible

A plain English reading of "This echo is a magical, translucent, gray image" indicates that this is not a tangible phenomenon. In English, an "image" is intangible, therefore unless you add some adjective that necessitates it being tangible, it's intangible.

Your DM should make rulings

Since the rules don't explain what to do, you should rely on your DM. If a hostile giant tries to pick up the echo, it probably makes sense to play it as an attack roll and have the echo destroyed if it is picked up.

Answer 2

The Echo is Tangible.

Crawford's tweet states that the Echo is an object. Objects are by default tangible. No one argues whether a table or painting or sword is tangible, do they? The ability description also explicitly states:

"(The Echo) is the same size as you, and it occupies its space"

It is in effect a gray, translucent, tangible shade statue made in the image of the fighter. Whether or how easily an enemy can move through the object's space is another question entirely.

The Echo also deals the same damage as the fighter when used as the point of attack. Only a tangible object would be able to deal physical damage like slashing, piercing or bludgeoning. The Echo can also be attacked, has Hit Points and an Armour Class- features that only exist in tangible objects.

Some may wrongly argue that the word "image" in the description negates the rest of the evidence pointing towards the Echo's tangibility. This is a very narrow reading of the word (not to mention ignoring the game rules altogether), because its definition extends to more than just 2d and imaginary representations, going so far as to explicitly include statues and "a tangible or visible representation".

I would also point out that Illusion spells that specifically create images such as Minor Illusion or Major Image always explicitly state:

"physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it."

If the Echo was meant to be intangible, its ability would say so, just as Illusion spells do. But it doesn't, so it isn't. Spells like Creation do not have to specify whether or not its created objects are tangible because of course they are! Objects are always tangible, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Answer 3

The echo is tangible RAW

The definition of tangible is perceptible by touch (adjective).

Firstly the Echo Knight's echo is able to be attacked RAW. This means that it is able to be touched by whatever is attacking it. Since it can be touched it is tangible.

Secondly RAW the description of the echo says that "it occupies its space", therefore it has to be tangible since something intangible cannot take up space. For example air and light (which can be considered intangible) is considered to be in multiple spaces in game play quite often but they still leave spaces unoccupied/unfilled unlike the echo knight's echo.

Any object that takes up space can be picked up like any other object using your object interaction.

"You can also interact with one object or feature of The Environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to Attack.": from https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Combat#content