I saw a few other threads discussing Arcane Ward, but since this question is slightly different I felt it warranted a new thread!
This is my first homebrewed campaign, and I'm building a custom slippery wizard boss for my group to fight. Regarding Arcane Ward, I have a question about the following description text:
''While the ward has 0 hit points, it can’t absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell.''
When my wizard first activates Arcane Ward, it will have 22 hit points (level9 x2 + INT modifier of 4). If it drops to 0 hit points, the magic remains - meaning if I cast a level 3 Abjuration spell, it will then have 6 hit points. However, I'm unsure how this will work for reaction spells.
Scenario: I have 13 AC. A player makes an attack roll of 19 to hit, doing 6 damage. If I cast Shield as a reaction at level 3, knowing that the +5 AC is not sufficient to dodge the attack, does that mean that the Arcane Ward will activate in time to absorb the 6 damage from the triggering incoming attack?
Yeah I'm aware it's a big expense of resources to prevent 6 damage - this was more of a theoretical example to make sure I'd understood the functionality. In any case, you do still get the additional 5 AC for any further attacks made until your next turn.
Thanks for the suggestions on feats, I'll definitely look into those now!
As a lover of Abjuration Wizards, I like your question and I've thought about it a bunch before. I'd like to run with a few different use case scenarios.
I agree with the others, IF the Arcane Ward is low or out of HP, the Reaction comes before the damage roll so the ward would regain HP first reducing total damage.
On the other hand because of the order if say on the first turn of combat the player's wizard throw a Fireball and the Antagonist casts Absorb Elements, because it's the first turn and no damage as been delt the Arcane Ward is already at max hp. So Absorb Elements would trigger reducing damage by half, but Arcane Ward would gain nothing from the spell because it was at max at the time of the attack.
Remember the Arcane Ward doesn't benefit from the Resistance of the Absorb Elements. The Arcane Ward takes full damage, then you half the damage that goes to the Antagonist. This is the negative of the fact that if damage only is dealt to the Arcane Ward then the Antagonist doesn't have to take any Concentration rolls for spells.
How does Arcane Ward interact with temporary hit points and damage resistance that an abjurer might have? An Arcane Ward is not an extension of the wizard who creates it. It is a magical effect with its own hit points. Any temporary hit points, immunities, or resistances that the wizard has don’t apply to the ward.
The ward takes damage first. Any leftover damage is taken by the wizard and goes through the following game elements in order: (1) any relevant damage immunity, (2) any relevant damage resistance, (3) any temporary hit points, and (4) real hit points.
Side Note: I love the idea of a slippery Abjuration Wizard for an antagonist. I'd recommend going Svifneblin. As at 9th lvl it can have 2 feats so Svifneblin Magic and Fade Away feat. Svifneblin Magic gives it blur, and disguise self once a day and nondetection at will to allow it to recharge 6 points of Arcane Ward as an Action. Fade Away lets it turn Invisible as a reaction to damage as a good escape mechanism. This could mean the Wizard can look different at will with disguise self, and if the Wizard runs out of shield, could turn invisible run away recharge the shield and come back before the party expects.
That's actually a really interesting addition to the idea! My current iteration of him is an Eladrin, using Misty Step (as racial trait and as a spell) to make him hard to lock down. I'll have to compare with Svifneblin to see which I'll end up going with!
Building him around using abjuration spells such as Mage Armor, Shield, Absorb Elements and Counterspell, all of which grant him extra hit points to his Arcane Ward. I'm also thinking of making him blind, giving him truesight (Daredevil style) and using the spell Darkness to make things more interesting. Given that I'm DMing for a group of 7 people and I don't want to use smaller enemies in the fight, I need to give him more unique ways of surviving each turn with low hit points.
Any additional suggestions to help his survivability would be a great help!
Depending on how super creepy you want to go. Curse of Strahd has expanded Dark Gifts table if a character (under 5th lvl) dies and get resurrected for "free".
The 1st "Gift" on there is the character's eye melt away giving them Blindsense to 60'. Keep in mind that this is both a bonus and a penalty. Beyond 60' the character is blind as so any has Advantage on attack rolls beyond that range. So the character is likely only going to show up in semi-confined spaces. That said, IF the Antagonist also has an Erstaz Eye, it could attune to it and have hollowed out sockets for eyes and a single mechanical magic item for an eye. Giving them both normal vision and Blindsense.
That said such a character is likely to use the 1st lvl spell Fog Cloud a lot. As makes the Antagonist Heavily Obscured in a 20' radius, but having Blindsense is immune to the penalty. The first time or two they fight this antagonist they will likely be very annoyed as fighting blind is always annoying. That said if you have a Wizard in the party (swapping out spell) the 2nd lvl spell Gust of Wind should disperse the cloud as well as the the cantrip Gust might.
Survivability? When I made a tanky-abjuration wizard. I made a Svifneblin with 1st lvl in Knowledge Domain, (Expertise in Arcana and 1 other) and the rest in Abjuration Wizard. I lost a spell level and 2 points of Arcane Ward, but gained medium armor and shield proficiency. With Svifneblin having +2 Int and +1 Dex is easy to have Dex: 14 to max out medium armor. This Antagonist sounds more tricky then my character so I'd say use chain shirt or breastplate with training in Stealth instead of scale mail or half plate. Wear a shield and keep the other hand open. This will mean the Wizard is rocking an AC of 17-18! Also, he never has to cast Mage Armor. It also gives some minor healing magic, so if your Antagonist has minions, he can use Healing Word to give them another 1d4+WIS in HP after they fall. An Owl familiar giving the Help Action to the most powerful ally every turn. The PC might decide to nuke the owl, but it will require spending attacks not on the big bads.
IF you're looking for a tricky recurring villain. Don't make him a blaster caster. Make him someone who focuses on buff spells. He buffs his allies, makes them better in combat, and then fades away shouting "You've defeated me THIS time, but Next time! NEXT TIME!" That depending on how Saturday Morning Cartoon villain s/he is. If the Antagonist is low on allies consider Animate Dead for some shock troops (but uses up available spells) or use Summon Lesser or Greater Demon then RUNNING away, so it doesn't matter if the demon breaks the bindings.
Final note: if the Antagonist ever makes it to lvl 14th lvl. At 12 the Antagonist could have Shield Master, and at 14th gain Spell Resistance. So the Antagonist has Adv on all spell saves, and a bonus to Dex saves from Shield Master. It means the Wizard could basically be immune to the 1st fireball every round. This would make the character very hardy. For comedy, attune the character to Gauntlets of Orge Strength, and the Wizard can punch PCs for 5 damage (1 base plus +4 Str), and Shove with the shield.
Hi all,
I saw a few other threads discussing Arcane Ward, but since this question is slightly different I felt it warranted a new thread!
This is my first homebrewed campaign, and I'm building a custom slippery wizard boss for my group to fight. Regarding Arcane Ward, I have a question about the following description text:
''While the ward has 0 hit points, it can’t absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell.''
When my wizard first activates Arcane Ward, it will have 22 hit points (level9 x2 + INT modifier of 4). If it drops to 0 hit points, the magic remains - meaning if I cast a level 3 Abjuration spell, it will then have 6 hit points. However, I'm unsure how this will work for reaction spells.
Scenario: I have 13 AC. A player makes an attack roll of 19 to hit, doing 6 damage. If I cast Shield as a reaction at level 3, knowing that the +5 AC is not sufficient to dodge the attack, does that mean that the Arcane Ward will activate in time to absorb the 6 damage from the triggering incoming attack?
Thanks for your help!
I think that works. In your example, you just spent a 3rd-level spell slot to prevent 6 damage, but I'm pretty sure the 6 damage is prevented.
May I suggest giving the character my Spell Shaper (Shield) feat and the marilith's Reactive trait?
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I think in the case of Shield yes, it would give the 6 absorption hit points before the incoming attack.
Generally, a reaction takes effect after the trigger, but Shield is an exception to this rule.
Hey thanks for the reply!
Yeah I'm aware it's a big expense of resources to prevent 6 damage - this was more of a theoretical example to make sure I'd understood the functionality. In any case, you do still get the additional 5 AC for any further attacks made until your next turn.
Thanks for the suggestions on feats, I'll definitely look into those now!
Welcome Bovinobard!
As a lover of Abjuration Wizards, I like your question and I've thought about it a bunch before. I'd like to run with a few different use case scenarios.
I agree with the others, IF the Arcane Ward is low or out of HP, the Reaction comes before the damage roll so the ward would regain HP first reducing total damage.
On the other hand because of the order if say on the first turn of combat the player's wizard throw a Fireball and the Antagonist casts Absorb Elements, because it's the first turn and no damage as been delt the Arcane Ward is already at max hp. So Absorb Elements would trigger reducing damage by half, but Arcane Ward would gain nothing from the spell because it was at max at the time of the attack.
Remember the Arcane Ward doesn't benefit from the Resistance of the Absorb Elements. The Arcane Ward takes full damage, then you half the damage that goes to the Antagonist. This is the negative of the fact that if damage only is dealt to the Arcane Ward then the Antagonist doesn't have to take any Concentration rolls for spells.
D&D FAQ: July 2015
Side Note:
I love the idea of a slippery Abjuration Wizard for an antagonist. I'd recommend going Svifneblin. As at 9th lvl it can have 2 feats so Svifneblin Magic and Fade Away feat. Svifneblin Magic gives it blur, and disguise self once a day and nondetection at will to allow it to recharge 6 points of Arcane Ward as an Action. Fade Away lets it turn Invisible as a reaction to damage as a good escape mechanism.
This could mean the Wizard can look different at will with disguise self, and if the Wizard runs out of shield, could turn invisible run away recharge the shield and come back before the party expects.
Arcane Ward definitely recovers HP before you take damage:
"(1) You make an attack roll. (2) You hit or miss. (3) You roll damage if you hit. "When you hit" happens at number 2."
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That's actually a really interesting addition to the idea! My current iteration of him is an Eladrin, using Misty Step (as racial trait and as a spell) to make him hard to lock down. I'll have to compare with Svifneblin to see which I'll end up going with!
Building him around using abjuration spells such as Mage Armor, Shield, Absorb Elements and Counterspell, all of which grant him extra hit points to his Arcane Ward. I'm also thinking of making him blind, giving him truesight (Daredevil style) and using the spell Darkness to make things more interesting. Given that I'm DMing for a group of 7 people and I don't want to use smaller enemies in the fight, I need to give him more unique ways of surviving each turn with low hit points.
Any additional suggestions to help his survivability would be a great help!
Depending on how super creepy you want to go.
Curse of Strahd has expanded Dark Gifts table if a character (under 5th lvl) dies and get resurrected for "free".
The 1st "Gift" on there is the character's eye melt away giving them Blindsense to 60'. Keep in mind that this is both a bonus and a penalty. Beyond 60' the character is blind as so any has Advantage on attack rolls beyond that range. So the character is likely only going to show up in semi-confined spaces. That said, IF the Antagonist also has an Erstaz Eye, it could attune to it and have hollowed out sockets for eyes and a single mechanical magic item for an eye. Giving them both normal vision and Blindsense.
That said such a character is likely to use the 1st lvl spell Fog Cloud a lot. As makes the Antagonist Heavily Obscured in a 20' radius, but having Blindsense is immune to the penalty. The first time or two they fight this antagonist they will likely be very annoyed as fighting blind is always annoying. That said if you have a Wizard in the party (swapping out spell) the 2nd lvl spell Gust of Wind should disperse the cloud as well as the the cantrip Gust might.
Survivability?
When I made a tanky-abjuration wizard.
I made a Svifneblin with 1st lvl in Knowledge Domain, (Expertise in Arcana and 1 other) and the rest in Abjuration Wizard. I lost a spell level and 2 points of Arcane Ward, but gained medium armor and shield proficiency. With Svifneblin having +2 Int and +1 Dex is easy to have Dex: 14 to max out medium armor. This Antagonist sounds more tricky then my character so I'd say use chain shirt or breastplate with training in Stealth instead of scale mail or half plate. Wear a shield and keep the other hand open. This will mean the Wizard is rocking an AC of 17-18! Also, he never has to cast Mage Armor.
It also gives some minor healing magic, so if your Antagonist has minions, he can use Healing Word to give them another 1d4+WIS in HP after they fall. An Owl familiar giving the Help Action to the most powerful ally every turn. The PC might decide to nuke the owl, but it will require spending attacks not on the big bads.
IF you're looking for a tricky recurring villain. Don't make him a blaster caster. Make him someone who focuses on buff spells. He buffs his allies, makes them better in combat, and then fades away shouting "You've defeated me THIS time, but Next time! NEXT TIME!" That depending on how Saturday Morning Cartoon villain s/he is.
If the Antagonist is low on allies consider Animate Dead for some shock troops (but uses up available spells) or use Summon Lesser or Greater Demon then RUNNING away, so it doesn't matter if the demon breaks the bindings.
Final note: if the Antagonist ever makes it to lvl 14th lvl. At 12 the Antagonist could have Shield Master, and at 14th gain Spell Resistance. So the Antagonist has Adv on all spell saves, and a bonus to Dex saves from Shield Master. It means the Wizard could basically be immune to the 1st fireball every round. This would make the character very hardy.
For comedy, attune the character to Gauntlets of Orge Strength, and the Wizard can punch PCs for 5 damage (1 base plus +4 Str), and Shove with the shield.