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A tiefling cleric casts Warding Bond on a human. That human takes 10 fire damage. How much damage does the tiefling cleric take?

The Warding Bond description says (regarding the target):

it has resistance to all damage. Also, each time it takes damage, you take the same amount of damage.

So, the human takes 5 damage, the tiefling takes 5 damage. Keeping in mind that it will be still fire damage, won't it be mitigated to 2 damage due to the Hellish Resistance? Or does "you take the same amount of damage" imply it ignores all resistances and vulnerabilities? Since "take damage" basically is the game term, that means "subtract hit points".

Warding Bond: What is the Order of Operations for calculating cleric damage taken? is related, but it's about the target's resistance, not about the caster's.

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    \$\begingroup\$ duplicate of rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/62821/… ? \$\endgroup\$
    – AngryCarrotTop
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 11:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ Possible duplicate of Warding Bond: What is the Order of Operations for calculating cleric damage taken? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 12:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ @AngryCarrotTop The related question asks about the target's resistances, not the caster's ones. \$\endgroup\$
    – enkryptor
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 12:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Mindwin one is about the caster's resistance, another one is about the target's resistance. Answers might differ. \$\endgroup\$
    – enkryptor
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 14:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Mindwin Defending it when they feel reason to is fine; that's what our Help center says to do if they disagree with the duplicate suggestion. In any case, this isn't a duplicate: duplicate closes are for matching questions, not different questions that have matching answers. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 15:07

2 Answers 2

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The fire resistance would be fine in this case as confirmed by J Crawford:

http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/11/04/warding-bond/

Q bout Warding Bond spell if target and cleric has resistance, is damage halved twice or only once?

JC- Resistance is applied only once to any instance of damage. See the Player's Handbook, page 197.

Q Thanks. Warding Bond is 1 or 2 instance of damage though? Doesn't each one takes seperate damage?

JC- Ah, I misunderstood your original question. If the cleric has resistance, nothing in the rules says it doesn't work.

Normally resistances wouldn't stack (as per PHB 197) however the Tiefling Cleric's resistance would take effect as the Tiefling Cleric is not benefiting from "double resistance". The Human target has only 1 resistance (the ward), and the Tiefling has only 1 resistance (racial feature).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Perhaps it is just my poor English. I meant more that warding bond uses the words "resistance" a lot, in this case on the surface it would appear that resistance was being used twice. If you drill down then it is not. \$\endgroup\$
    – AngryCarrotTop
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 13:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ AngryCarrotTop I edited this answer to remove the ambiguity that @Andras mentioned. Please review to make sure you agree with how I phrased that. If that isn't what you mean, please edit again or revert to the original before my edit. \$\endgroup\$
    – KorvinStarmast
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 14:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ it is fine. forgive my clumsy English. \$\endgroup\$
    – AngryCarrotTop
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 15:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ I added in the quoted material from the relevant tweets. Generally, it is a good idea to put those into the body of the answer, since links can go dead over time. \$\endgroup\$
    – keithcurtis
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 15:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ Might be worth rephrasing the end of the last sentence slightly, maybe something along the lines of "the Tiefling then takes damage equal to the Human, which is separate damage caused by the Warding Bond, which the Tiefling then has their own resistance to." \$\endgroup\$
    – Rycochet
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 15:41
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Yes, it is reduced to 2

If a damage can not be reduced or prevented, the description says so.

Compare it to Divine Allegience from Oath of the Crown paladin:

This damage to you can't be reduced or prevented in any way. - p133, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Wish:

you take 1d10 necrotic damage per level of that spell. This damage can’t be reduced or prevented in any way. - p289, PHB

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