When death ward activates, a creature is saved from either instant death or being dropped to 0 hit points. Before that, though, is there a visual or audible effect that would clue other creatures into the fact that this creatures has death ward cast on them. The spell does not say anything about this.
Death Ward has Vocal and Somatic components... so if someone were to witness one character casting Death Ward on the other, they would know that a spell of some sort is being cast. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they know that the spell is Death Ward... as I recall, identifying a spell as it's being cast requires a DC13+the spell's Level Arcana check. Beyond that, any visual or audio effects would purely be flavoring from the player or DM, and if a character with Death Ward cast on them out of sight were to step forward the only way to tell would be something like Detect Magic, which would reveal that some form of abjuration spell is affecting the Death Warded creature, but not specifically that it's Death Ward.
Without detect magic or similar, as TransmorpherDDS suggests, there is no way to recognise that a creature is warded simply by observing it, as the spell doesn't describe any kind of obvious effect that would persist (doesn't describe the warded creature as glowing, or having a shimmering energy field around them or whatever).
A creature might notice the spell being cast, but this depends whether it can hear the vocal component, recognises it as magic, and recognises the spell (a big series of questions for most creatures), or if the somatic component is somehow recognisable which seems unlikely as in the absence of a description it's probably just the act of touching the target.
However, when the effect actually triggers it should be obvious, as a target that should have died, didn't. Now whether a creature might recognise that this was the work of a spell, or the type of spell etc. depends on the creature, but most creatures should recognise that the target somehow resisted being killed. Though this still depends how well the creature observed this, and how certain it is that the target should have died etc.
What's interesting is if we assume a creature that has no experience with these types of effects (as most won't be) then they may not know that it only works once (a less intelligent creature might assume the target is invincible, especially if the target claimed this in advance), or they might assume it only works against a certain type of effect (e.g- if it was triggered by a fall, they might assume it only protects against falling) and so-on.
When death ward activates, a creature is saved from either instant death or being dropped to 0 hit points. Before that, though, is there a visual or audible effect that would clue other creatures into the fact that this creatures has death ward cast on them. The spell does not say anything about this.
A spell does what it says it does and your DM steps in to fill in any blanks, but unless a spell says it provides sensory cues, it ordinarily just won't. This is true across all spells.
As noted in this thread, Detect Magic would change the answer. The only other thing I can think of to add is that any ability that must leak information in order to work leaks information. For example, Dispel Magic will have the caster roll a check if they cast it on a Death Warded person, which means they know they're rolling a check, i.e. there's a spell of level 4 or higher to be dispelled on the target. However, all answers we give you along these lines will involve some special rule the observer has access to - the baseline answer is that Death Ward isn't observable on the target.
When death ward activates, a creature is saved from either instant death or being dropped to 0 hit points. Before that, though, is there a visual or audible effect that would clue other creatures into the fact that this creatures has death ward cast on them. The spell does not say anything about this.
No, not explicitly. The DM/player could change this, but I don't think it is intended to be noticeable.
Nothign in the spell description indicate its perceivable in any way.
Death Ward has Vocal and Somatic components... so if someone were to witness one character casting Death Ward on the other, they would know that a spell of some sort is being cast. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they know that the spell is Death Ward... as I recall, identifying a spell as it's being cast requires a DC13+the spell's Level Arcana check. Beyond that, any visual or audio effects would purely be flavoring from the player or DM, and if a character with Death Ward cast on them out of sight were to step forward the only way to tell would be something like Detect Magic, which would reveal that some form of abjuration spell is affecting the Death Warded creature, but not specifically that it's Death Ward.
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Without detect magic or similar, as TransmorpherDDS suggests, there is no way to recognise that a creature is warded simply by observing it, as the spell doesn't describe any kind of obvious effect that would persist (doesn't describe the warded creature as glowing, or having a shimmering energy field around them or whatever).
A creature might notice the spell being cast, but this depends whether it can hear the vocal component, recognises it as magic, and recognises the spell (a big series of questions for most creatures), or if the somatic component is somehow recognisable which seems unlikely as in the absence of a description it's probably just the act of touching the target.
However, when the effect actually triggers it should be obvious, as a target that should have died, didn't. Now whether a creature might recognise that this was the work of a spell, or the type of spell etc. depends on the creature, but most creatures should recognise that the target somehow resisted being killed. Though this still depends how well the creature observed this, and how certain it is that the target should have died etc.
What's interesting is if we assume a creature that has no experience with these types of effects (as most won't be) then they may not know that it only works once (a less intelligent creature might assume the target is invincible, especially if the target claimed this in advance), or they might assume it only works against a certain type of effect (e.g- if it was triggered by a fall, they might assume it only protects against falling) and so-on.
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Unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all. An effect like crackling lightning is obvious, but a more subtle effect, such as an attempt to read a creature's thoughts, typically goes unnoticed, unless a spell says otherwise.
Many spells create obvious effects: explosions of fire, walls of ice, teleportation, and the like. Other spells, such as charm person, display no visible, audible, or otherwise perceptible sign of their effects, and could easily go unnoticed by someone unaffected by them. As noted in the Player’s Handbook, you normally don’t know that a spell has been cast unless the spell produces a noticeable effect.
A spell does what it says it does and your DM steps in to fill in any blanks, but unless a spell says it provides sensory cues, it ordinarily just won't. This is true across all spells.
As noted in this thread, Detect Magic would change the answer. The only other thing I can think of to add is that any ability that must leak information in order to work leaks information. For example, Dispel Magic will have the caster roll a check if they cast it on a Death Warded person, which means they know they're rolling a check, i.e. there's a spell of level 4 or higher to be dispelled on the target. However, all answers we give you along these lines will involve some special rule the observer has access to - the baseline answer is that Death Ward isn't observable on the target.