Quote from SaltimusMaximus69 >>

“A revenant forms from the soul of a mortal who met a cruel and undeserving fate. It claws its way back into the world to seek revenge against the one who wronged it. The revenant reclaims its mortal body and superficially resembles a zombie. However, instead of lifeless eyes, a revenant’s eyes burn with resolve and flare in the presence of its adversary. If the revenant’s original body was destroyed or is otherwise unavailable, the spirit of the revenant enters another humanoid corpse. Regardless of the body the revenant uses as a vessel, its adversary always recognizes the revenant for what it truly is.“

Also; “If its foe is too powerful for the revenant to destroy on its own, it seeks worthy allies to help fulfill its quest.”

Seems like a random encounter with a revenant wouldn’t necessarily be hostile.  Perhaps it would strike up a conversation; “Are you lot off to kill Count Chocula?  I’d quite like to tag long, if you please?”

 Yes, maybe it could ask for help fighting a big foe, hell you could have the revenant be an extra party member against the BBEG

Quote from Sangheilioz >>

Would a revenant living in the corpse of a non-human gain any benefits from that corpse's biology? For example, would a revenant in a dragonborn corpse have a breath weapon? Would a changling corpse retain its shapeshifting? Would an aaracokra corpse be able to fly? Etc.

 I would think so.

In a Curse of Strahd campaign with two players, one of my players became a vampire spawn from the dinner in Ravenloft and my other play this last session got blown up by Ezmerelda's wagon, so now they are a revenant.

I think I may have given them too much power, but I've given them Resistances to Necrotic, Psychic Damage, Immunities to Poison, Condition Immunities to Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Poisoned, Stunned. Rejuvenation, Turn Immunity, Vengeful Tracker, Vengeful Glare and set their charisma and constitution to 18 at the cost of .their skin, sanity, ability to create fire and empathy.

They were already an aasimar so I changed their subrace to fallen aasimar form protector and they already had the necrotic resistance.

I think of any monster, the revenant is certainly amongst my favourites and one of the best (with some nerfing) for PCs (particularly vengeance paladins, like this one).

Does the bonus bludgeoning damage from the Fist attack also occur if they are using a weapon? Or is it exclusively from the Fist attack?

Per the MM, there is a variant rule for Revenants that states spellcasters might retain some of all of their abilities and any armor or weapons might also still be wielded.

I would probably rule that this would extend to racial traits as well. Every DM will handle this differently, but I think that's how I would handle it.

The MM also states that if the Revenant's body is destroyed before it can exact its revenge, the soul will fly forth and seek out a new corpse to inhabit so that it can continue its hunt until revenge is exacted or one year has passed, whichever comes first. So, theoretically, this could be used to beef up a Revenant that can discern what racial traits will play in its favor when determining which type of corpse to inhabit. I think that might make it a slightly higher CR encounter, but there could be a lot of fun in that!

Quote from FlapplePie3427 >>

In a Curse of Strahd campaign with two players, one of my players became a vampire spawn from the dinner in Ravenloft and my other play this last session got blown up by Ezmerelda's wagon, so now they are a revenant.

I think I may have given them too much power, but I've given them Resistances to Necrotic, Psychic Damage, Immunities to Poison, Condition Immunities to Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Poisoned, Stunned. Rejuvenation, Turn Immunity, Vengeful Tracker, Vengeful Glare and set their charisma and constitution to 18 at the cost of .their skin, sanity, ability to create fire and empathy.

They were already an aasimar so I changed their subrace to fallen aasimar form protector and they already had the necrotic resistance.

I think of any monster, the revenant is certainly amongst my favourites and one of the best (with some nerfing) for PCs (particularly vengeance paladins, like this one).

 

My wizard got stabbed to death by a fellow party member (which I gave permission for him to do), and what my DM did was he made my dude a reborn with the Vengeful Tracker and Vengeful Glare traits, and that's about it.  The implication is there without all of the power.  I like that ruling.

Is it playable race?

I suppose this could also be used to hunt down a robot named after a favorite smell?

Dude that's exactly what I was thinking.

or just charm the tarrasque so its willing and cast nystuls on it to make it a humanoid somehow kill it and boom revenant tarrasque

Quote from Meroboth >>

or just charm the tarrasque so it's willing and cast nystul's on it to make it a humanoid somehow kill it and boom revenant tarrasque

 Nystul’s Magic Aura is an illusion that tricks divination magic.  It doesn't change the creature's actual type, that would probably require transmutation magic.

"You place an illusion on a creature or an object you touch so that divination spells reveal false information about it."

And because if it was that easy, every revenant would doing it (or something like it).

Idea: What if the Revenant killed a party member and took over their corpse, gaining their physical stats and abilities whilst also inflicting potentially soul-crushing trauma on the party?

It's very interesting that to the casual observer, the revenant is identical to any zombie. I'm writing a hq where a paladin is hunting "zombies" that keeps comming back to kill his lord. As the "zombies" keep comming day after day even when He destroys them with his divine smites, and the clerics can't turn them to keep them away, He seeks the help of an undead specialist: A necromancer.

It's becoming a very fun adventure because one is the oposit of the other.

Imagine this guy pummelling that one cocky player

Quote from Morgen_McMuffel >>

Idea: What if the Revenant killed a party member and took over their corpse, gaining their physical stats and abilities whilst also inflicting potentially soul-crushing trauma on the party?

 Evil DM laughter 

Thats how they do it in "Curse of Stradh", Sir Godfrey Gwilym for example is a revenant with the spell block when he was alive.

For more powerful revenant I would allow this. For clerics or other divine powers, I would not allow it. Maybe for a Death Cleric or an Oathbreaker, for some reasons.

Rather than a target for revenge, they could have a target that they’re sent to kill on the behest of the necromancer, no reasoning necessary. Basically an undead tracker/assassin. 

Quote from SwiftStormwolf >>

 Revenant doesn't appear for me in the create monster lists so that I can modify it.  Anyone else have this problem?  

 I think because it's from the Monster Manual not Basic Rules; the only reason we can view it is because it's in the Frozen Sick adventure. I guess you only modify basic rules monsters unless you buy the Monster Manual ebook. 

Quote from Turbor90 >>

In Frigid Woe module, what sort of hostility would it have towards the party, if at all? My party would basically get two-shot by this thing, they are at lvl2. Could they talk to it and compromise or persuade it not to attack?

Turn Immunity. The revenant is immune to effects that turn undead.

What exactly does this mean. Is the Revenant immun to the channel divinity Turn Undead action from the Cleric or generell spells that would turn a creature into an undead.