Divine Allegiance: Starting at 7th level, when a creature within 5 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction to magically substitute your own health for that of the target creature, causing that creature not to take the damage. Instead, you take the damage. This damage to you can't be reduced or prevented in any way.
If a level 7 Oath of the Crown Paladin with 5 temporary hit points uses their divine allegiance to absorb an attack delivered to an ally and that attack did 10 points of fire damage, would that damage be dealt to the paladin's temporary hit points and max hit points, or would it solely affect their max hit points? The ability itself says that the damage can not be reduced or prevented in any way, but in this case, the 10 points of fire damage was not reduced to a lower number. For example, resistance and the heavy armor master feat would not be compatible with the ability because they reduce the overall damage number, but in the hypothetical that was brought up earlier, 10 points of fire damage were still dealt to the paladin, even if 5 of those points were to the paladin's temporary hp. The way I see it, the 10 points of damage was also not prevented as the damage still took effect and damaged the paladins temporary and max hit points. What I'm trying to say is that I think that in this scenario, the full amount of damage was inflicted on the paladin and was thus not reduced, and the damage bypassed the paladins temporary hit points and affected their max hit points so it wasn't prevented.
The focus this text places on the damage itself and not the paladins hit points creates a quite a confusing feature. Historically, when an ability bypasses a creatures temporary hit points, like in the case of sleep and power word kill, the ability would specify that it affects the targets hit points, therefore bypassing their temporary hit points. Do you think that specification was deemed not necessary and implied by WOTC in SCAG, or do you think that specification of was left out intentionally?
Also if the original target of the attack had resistance to fire damage, would the paladin using divine allegiance take 5 or 10 points of damage using their ability? My group decided that the oath of the crown paladin absorbs the damage itself, not the damage dealt to the ally, but I was curious what you all would have to say on the matter.
If a level 7 Oath of the Crown Paladin with 5 temporary hit points uses their divine allegiance to absorb an attack delivered to an ally and that attack did 10 points of fire damage, would that damage be dealt to the paladin's temporary hit points and max hit points, or would it solely affect their max hit points? The ability itself says that the damage can not be reduced or prevented in any way, but in this case, the 10 points of fire damage was not reduced to a lower number. For example, resistance and the heavy armor master feat would not be compatible with the ability because they reduce the overall damage number, but in the hypothetical that was brought up earlier, 10 points of fire damage were still dealt to the paladin, even if 5 of those points were to the paladin's temporary hp. The way I see it, the 10 points of damage was also not prevented as the damage still took effect and damaged the paladins temporary and max hit points. What I'm trying to say is that I think that in this scenario, the full amount of damage was inflicted on the paladin and was thus not reduced, and the damage bypassed the paladins temporary hit points and affected their max hit points so it wasn't prevented.
The focus this text places on the damage itself and not the paladins hit points creates a quite a confusing feature. Historically, when an ability bypasses a creatures temporary hit points, like in the case of sleep and power word kill, the ability would specify that it affects the targets hit points, therefore bypassing their temporary hit points. Do you think that specification was deemed not necessary and implied by WOTC in SCAG, or do you think that specification of was left out intentionally?
Also if the original target of the attack had resistance to fire damage, would the paladin using divine allegiance take 5 or 10 points of damage using their ability? My group decided that the oath of the crown paladin absorbs the damage itself, not the damage dealt to the ally, but I was curious what you all would have to say on the matter.
Hmm... I'm not sure. Leave it up to DM?
Damage taken by temporary HP is still damage taken.