In my opinion, the abjuration wizard's arcane ward works especially well with Armor of Agathys. If you can get that combo (by Magic Initiate, multiclassing, Eberron's dragonmark, or whatever), you're going to be very hard to kill thanks to the massive amount of temporary hit points you're going to get.
Temp hitpoints don't stack, do they? I feel like what would happen is, AoA would grant you 5 tempHP upon cast, then the ward would instantly kick in and grant you (probably) more, but negate the AoA and its effects. (Or you could choose to keep the 5 tempHP from AoA, but that prevents the ward from activating)
In my opinion, the abjuration wizard's arcane ward works especially well with Armor of Agathys. If you can get that combo (by Magic Initiate, multiclassing, Eberron's dragonmark, or whatever), you're going to be very hard to kill thanks to the massive amount of temporary hit points you're going to get.
Temp hitpoints don't stack, do they? I feel like what would happen is, AoA would grant you 5 tempHP upon cast, then the ward would instantly kick in and grant you (probably) more, but negate the AoA and its effects. (Or you could choose to keep the 5 tempHP from AoA, but that prevents the ward from activating)
The arcane ward doesn't produce temporary hit points, so they stack. You just won't also get the retaliatory damage from the spell while the ward is absorbing damage. And you can't choose to not use the ward. It's automatic.
In my opinion, the abjuration wizard's arcane ward works especially well with Armor of Agathys. If you can get that combo (by Magic Initiate, multiclassing, Eberron's dragonmark, or whatever), you're going to be very hard to kill thanks to the massive amount of temporary hit points you're going to get.
Temp hitpoints don't stack, do they? I feel like what would happen is, AoA would grant you 5 tempHP upon cast, then the ward would instantly kick in and grant you (probably) more, but negate the AoA and its effects. (Or you could choose to keep the 5 tempHP from AoA, but that prevents the ward from activating)
The temp hp from AoA are not the same as the Ward feature's, thus they can "stack". The Ward always takes damage first, so while you have the temporary hit points from AoA, the effects of AoA will still trigger.
Temp hitpoints don't stack, do they? I feel like what would happen is, AoA would grant you 5 tempHP upon cast, then the ward would instantly kick in and grant you (probably) more, but negate the AoA and its effects. (Or you could choose to keep the 5 tempHP from AoA, but that prevents the ward from activating)
The arcane ward doesn't produce temporary hit points, so they stack. You just won't also get the retaliatory damage from the spell while the ward is absorbing damage. And you can't choose to not use the ward. It's automatic.
No, StylesStriker is correct and you're both incorrect. Here's the interaction assuming a level 20 Abjuration wizard with Int 20 and Con 16 casting AoA at level 9, just so I can have some hard numbers (I'm aware this is hard to actually build, I just want actual numbers to put down - you can scale it to an actual build on your own):
Wizard wakes up from long rest, casts AoA at level 9, also triggering Ward creation. They now have 139 hit points, their Ward has 45 hit points, and they have 45 THP from AoA on them as well.
Suppose the Wizard gets hit with a melee attack. AoA will trigger, because the Wizard has THP from AoA and AoA triggers on melee attacks hitting you while you have THP - it not only doesn't trigger on your THP taking damage, it doesn't even trigger on damage (AoA will react to totally non-damaging hits, like from Dispel Evil and Good). Anyway, AoA will trigger and deal 45 cold damage on hit, not on damage, so the attacker gets hurt before the wizard does. Supposing the attack deals 20 damage, the Ward is now at 25 - the AoA THP is still at 45, so it's still at full capacity. It will continue to deal 45 cold damage to melee attackers until all 45 THP are used up.
Because the wizard I made up is level 20 and 20 is more than 18, our wizard can regenerate their Ward every turn using Spell Mastery. Shield is a popular choice for this.
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Temp hitpoints don't stack, do they? I feel like what would happen is, AoA would grant you 5 tempHP upon cast, then the ward would instantly kick in and grant you (probably) more, but negate the AoA and its effects. (Or you could choose to keep the 5 tempHP from AoA, but that prevents the ward from activating)
The arcane ward doesn't produce temporary hit points, so they stack. You just won't also get the retaliatory damage from the spell while the ward is absorbing damage. And you can't choose to not use the ward. It's automatic.
The temp hp from AoA are not the same as the Ward feature's, thus they can "stack". The Ward always takes damage first, so while you have the temporary hit points from AoA, the effects of AoA will still trigger.
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No, StylesStriker is correct and you're both incorrect. Here's the interaction assuming a level 20 Abjuration wizard with Int 20 and Con 16 casting AoA at level 9, just so I can have some hard numbers (I'm aware this is hard to actually build, I just want actual numbers to put down - you can scale it to an actual build on your own):
Wizard wakes up from long rest, casts AoA at level 9, also triggering Ward creation. They now have 139 hit points, their Ward has 45 hit points, and they have 45 THP from AoA on them as well.
Suppose the Wizard gets hit with a melee attack. AoA will trigger, because the Wizard has THP from AoA and AoA triggers on melee attacks hitting you while you have THP - it not only doesn't trigger on your THP taking damage, it doesn't even trigger on damage (AoA will react to totally non-damaging hits, like from Dispel Evil and Good). Anyway, AoA will trigger and deal 45 cold damage on hit, not on damage, so the attacker gets hurt before the wizard does. Supposing the attack deals 20 damage, the Ward is now at 25 - the AoA THP is still at 45, so it's still at full capacity. It will continue to deal 45 cold damage to melee attackers until all 45 THP are used up.
Because the wizard I made up is level 20 and 20 is more than 18, our wizard can regenerate their Ward every turn using Spell Mastery. Shield is a popular choice for this.