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Wizards has released Tasha's errata. Some of them are quite enigmatically worded, such as:

Gathered Swarm (pg. 60). In the second sentence, “Until you die” has changed to “While you’re alive.”

What is the distinction between "until death" and "while living", and why is it so important? Is there a rules effect to these alternate wordings?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure this question is about designer intent. The crucial (and answerable) question is whether there is a difference between "Until you die" and "While you're alive". The answer could be "No", which would then lead to an unanswerable question as to why the change was made, but that doesn't invalidate this question. I've edited to remove the part that asks about all of the other changes in TCoE. \$\endgroup\$ Dec 13, 2021 at 22:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ Given that my original q was asking about the collection of the impacts of all changes, am I to interpret the editing-down of the scope to a single change to mean that each change should (in theory - cannot be asked, in practice!) get its own question? \$\endgroup\$
    – order
    Dec 13, 2021 at 23:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ @order Yeah, you can make a new question asking about each errata change, but I would recommend only doing for the ones you are genuinely curious about, rather than asking for the sake of asking. \$\endgroup\$ Dec 13, 2021 at 23:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Akixkisu I can see how you read it that way. But that does stray into designer intent. I think this version of the question is the more answerable one. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin
    Dec 13, 2021 at 23:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Akixkisu Agreed. I think this the better question though. If OP wants to ask that variant they can. Though as you say, it will be a disappointing answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – linksassin
    Dec 13, 2021 at 23:34

2 Answers 2

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Resurrection is a thing

In a world where people can be resurrected, there is a meaningful distinction between "Until you die" and "While you're alive." Therefore, this change clears up a potential point of contention in the rules. In fact the original wording was unclear enough to generate a question on our stack.

The point at which you die is a discrete event in time. It could imply the first time you die(d), or the next, the rules are not specific enough to indicate which.

Conversely, living is a state of being. Any living creature, regardless of number of times they have 'died', is affected by this.

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"Until you die" implies it has an end condition. "While you are alive" suggests it starts again when (if) you get brought back to life.

For a permanent class feature that distinction is quite important.

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