Level
Cantrip
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
Touch
Components
V, S
Duration
Concentration
1 Minute
School
Abjuration
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Buff
You touch a willing creature and choose a damage type: Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Radiant, Slashing, or Thunder. When the creature takes damage of the chosen type before the spell ends, the creature reduces the total damage taken by 1d4. A creature can benefit from this spell only once per turn.
A rare example of making a cantrip no one uses into one that even fewer people will ever use. I am amazed at how terrible they made it.
HAHAHA! This one is hilarious. Resistance was bad as it was, now it's abominable. HAHAHA!
This requires minimum a Upgrade cantrip per level, 5 / 11 / 17 an additional 1D4 each upgrade.
I guess I will continue to use the UA version of Resistance that was a reaction to cast. My players have been using those versions of guidance and resistance and they have been great. Way better than whatever this is.
On first glance this cantrip is terrible, however, consider the following:
Level 5 PCs face off against a pack of thugs. The cleric casts resistance to bludgeoning damage on the barbarian as she wades into enemies. Each thug attacks twice with advantage (pack tactics) and lands at least once hit for 1d6+2 (5) bludgeoning damage. The barbarian reduces the damage by 1d4 against each thug that hits her one or more times (once per turn; each thug has its own turn) and then applies resistance to bludgeoning from rage. If four thugs hit the barbarian at least once each, that saved 10 damage before applying resistance from rage.
It's certainly not glamorous, and it's niche/situational, but it can work.
If it scaled 1d4 per tier like other cantrips, it would be really nice in those situations, potentially reducing the damage from some hits to 0. The challenge is how often is saving those hit points worth the cleric's concentration? Definitely not good in a boss fight, but against lots of minions, I think it can work..
Resistance would have been great if it didn't have the once per turn restriction. It should have been more effective against mobs instead of having to rely on enemies being separate in initiative to trigger once per turn resistance. Mobs share the same damage type but that's less likely for separate enemies. Seems like a backwards design decision to me.
Even if the DM has monsters act on the same initiative count, they each have their own turns. So resistance would apply once per enemy in that case.
I almost grabbed this for a 2024 Twilight Cleric build I was creating, then I realized it doesn't scale by level like many other Cantrips (and as others have pointed out), so this only seems good at low levels, when saving a max of 4 damage will actually make a difference.
Yeah, it would make a lot more sense if this spell added an extra die of damage reduction at the usual cantrip upgrade levels.
It may still be worth taking at low levels and then swapping out later. Under 2024 rules, all classes with cantrips can swap one out when gaining a level.
Make it scale with level (add a die or 2 at levels 5, 11, and 17), make the resistance to damage include your spellcasting ability modifier, and make the spell not require concentration.
Once per “their turn too”? (Multiple per round)
"Once per turn" means once per turn, not once per round, so yes, it can trigger more than once in the same round.
So, for instance, if three different enemies each attack the target once on each of their turns, this will trigger against all of them. But if one enemy attacks the target three times on the same turn, it will only apply to one of them.
Okay buff spell, but I personally have two issues with it...
1. It is a concentration spell. If currently in use, other concentration spells are not available.
2. It is an action that lasts one minute and would be most ideal to cast before combat. If it were a reaction similar to absorb elements, it would be more useful.