D&D 5E How do you run Warding Bond and Protection from Energy or Poison combination

[Celtavian]

We ran into an odd rule situation. Warding Bond is supposed to be like Shield Other. It works strangely with other defensive spells.

The rules state that damage resistance doesn't stack.

Warding Bond gives the target damage resistance to all types of damage. The caster takes the same amount of damage. It ultimately amounts to the same effect as Shield Other.

Protection from Energy provides damage resistance against one type of energy.

We cast both these spells on the fighter when fighting a dragon to protect against the breath weapon. According to the rules, these two abilities don't stack. Do you think that is intentional? Normally, Shield Other worked in conjunction with protection from energy. It seems like both spells should work together. Otherwise the target protected by Warding Bond and the cleric take full damage with Protection from Energy providing no bonus. It doesn't seem right due to the way Warding Bond is designed that the final effect of the spell combination is the breath weapon doing full damage.

How would you run the stacking of these two spells? Warding Bond is not concentration and Protection from Energy is. So they can be stacked together. Would it possibly work better putting protection from energy on the cleric rather than the target of the Warding Bond? Would that make it work providing damage resistance against lightning damage through the bond link?

 

[Mephistopheles]

It seems like a deliberate choice to state that the recipient gets damage resistance and the caster takes the same amount of damage as the recipient, rather than just stating that damage dealt to the recipient is split between recipient and caster. My guess is that it's intentional.

As you've suggested, putting protection from energy on the cleric seems like a legitimate way to combine the two.

 

[steeldragons]

It does seem that it is intentional. And, as you say yourself, the rules tell you they do not stack. So the question, "How do I get these to stack [because I think they should]" is kind of moot.

In 5e there is "resistance" and "immunity". You [the fighter] can not have "resistance + resistance." Warding bond, as you said, already gets you resistance no matter what the breath weapon is. You can not have a resistance + a resistance to give you immunity (or 1/4 save for 1/8th damage, as in previous editions). It's just not how the system is set up to work. And it says so.

If you want to have the Protection from Energy on the cleric while the fighter has the Warding Bond and the cleric is taking the damage from the WB, mitigated by the Pro from Energy, that seems to make sense. The cleric is not "getting resistance" from WB, they are just taking on the damage the fighter is taking. So you're [the cleric is] not "doubling up" on resistance.

 

[Joe Liker]

There is some room for interpretation here:

"Also, each time it takes damage, you take the same amount of damage."

It doesn't say that the damage you take is of the same type, but then again, I don't believe there's such a thing as untyped damage in 5e, so maybe it's implied.

I'd certainly allow protection from energy/poison to work on the cleric, but I'm just pointing out that DMs who like to say "no" may not.

 

[Rune]

Even if mitigating damage that the cleric takes through the bond with the protection spell did work (and I'm not sure that the damage the cleric receives would be of any specific type), the cleric would still take a quarter of the original damage because the resistance is applying to the damage the cleric is taking, rather than the original damage inflicted.

Overall, it costs you two spells and concentration to spread three quarters of the original damage over two characters. I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[Celtavian]

Even if mitigating damage that the cleric takes through the bond with the protection spell did work (and I'm not sure that the damage the cleric receives would be of any specific type), the cleric would still take a quarter of the original damage because the resistance is applying to the damage the cleric is taking, rather than the original damage inflicted.

Overall, it costs you two spells and concentration to spread three quarters of the original damage over two characters. I'm not sure it's worth it.

It would have been worth it the last fight because the breath weapon doing full damage to the fighter did the cleric in. The difference between half of 60 and a quarter of 60 is substantial. This was the breath weapon of a young dragon that wasn't legendary.

 

[Rune]

It seems to me that putting the protection on the fighter with no bond and just keeping the cleric out if the way might be more efficient.

 

[Celtavian]

It seems to me that putting the protection on the fighter with no bond and just keeping the cleric out if the way might be more efficient.

We were trying to protect him from the melee damage as well. Have the cleric split the damage and heal himself. The dragon had some potent servants with us that hammered us good before we took it one. There isn't enough disposable magic to get back to full hps before taking on the dragon. Low spell slots would be taken up healing without magic. The damage output of some of these creatures is pretty nuts.

 

[Roger]

Hmmm. Yeah, I'd probably be pretty okay with ruling that Warding Bond, despite its wording, doesn't really provide resistance in the usual sense of the term; each party takes half the damage, so it's more of a damage redistribution.

If they want to get really carried away and drop Energy Prot on both parties of the Warding Bond, then that's enough effort on their part that I don't mind giving them something for it.

On the other hand I'd probably pass things like ghoul paralysis through the Warding Bond too, so it's not all sunshine and happiness.

So, yeah, I'd probably houserule it in this direction. Others might not. That's fine.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Fanaelialae]

We ran into an odd rule situation. Warding Bond is supposed to be like Shield Other. It works strangely with other defensive spells.

The rules state that damage resistance doesn't stack.

Warding Bond gives the target damage resistance to all types of damage. The caster takes the same amount of damage. It ultimately amounts to the same effect as Shield Other.

Protection from Energy provides damage resistance against one type of energy.

We cast both these spells on the fighter when fighting a dragon to protect against the breath weapon. According to the rules, these two abilities don't stack. Do you think that is intentional? Normally, Shield Other worked in conjunction with protection from energy. It seems like both spells should work together. Otherwise the target protected by Warding Bond and the cleric take full damage with Protection from Energy providing no bonus. It doesn't seem right due to the way Warding Bond is designed that the final effect of the spell combination is the breath weapon doing full damage.

How would you run the stacking of these two spells? Warding Bond is not concentration and Protection from Energy is. So they can be stacked together. Would it possibly work better putting protection from energy on the cleric rather than the target of the Warding Bond? Would that make it work providing damage resistance against lightning damage through the bond link?

I'd simply allow the more beneficial effect to take precedence. So because Protection from Energy is better than Warding Bond against the breath weapon, PfE applies. If the dragon claws the fighter, Warding Bond applies.

I wouldn't allow the cleric to benefit from PfE though. It says "you take the same amount of damage" but nothing about damage type, so I'd rule that the shared damage from WB is untyped and therefore unable to be reduced by PfE.