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I'm playing a Phoenix Soul sorcerer in a campaign, and in trying to stay true to my theme I'm picking up a lot of fire-based spells. Most of them are of course damage dealers, but I'm having a harder time finding spells that can help the rest of my party (in any way other than dealing damage).

It occurred to me that it would be great to be able to give the other members of my party resistance to fire, but I haven't been able to find any spells that do that; Absorb Elements would be great but it's got a range of Self. Are there any spells on any class's list (my DM lets themed subclasses use theme-appropriate spells from other classes' spell lists) that allow the caster to grant other characters resistance, either specifically fire or a choice from among a group that includes fire?

I ended up homebrewing, in collaboration with my DM, a version of Absorb Elements whose target is a creature you can see rather than self.

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Protection from Energy

Sorcerer list, range of touch, and grants resistance to one of {acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder}.

Resistance, funnily enough, doesn't grant resistance. In my opinion it's also not very good, but maybe it's worth a look for you.

Warding bond is worth a look, too: L1 cleric, ups the target's AC, grants them resistance to everything, but you also take damage when they do. (Basically, the damage they would have taken is split in two and half applied to you, instead.) I don't really think it fits, thematically, but it's not my game. Maybe there's a modification to the spell that would make sense for you, though...?

Good point from Kirt:

Absorb Elements combos nicely with warding bond; when your warded ally takes fire damage, half of it gets applied to you, which is then both resisted by AE (lessening total damage) and allows you to power your next attack.

Oh, and you could always polymorph them into something with resistance =)

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    \$\begingroup\$ @JoelDerfner :thumbsup: As a side-note, don't forget some of the other mythical themes seen with the phoenix: long life, resurrection, the sun (and a golden halo), judgment.... IMO one or two spells a little off the "phoenix=fire" brand could go a long way to fleshing this concept out. \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 ♦
    Oct 30, 2021 at 11:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ notably, there are only two creatures eligible for Polymorph that have fire resistance; the CR 1/2 Fiendish Giant Spider and the CR 1/4 Stench Cow. Neither of which is a particularly good choice, because while I don't have access to the spider's stat block (it's from Out of the Abyss), the cow only has 15 HP. To have access to Polymorph, you (and presumably the rest of your party) have to be level 7+, which means you have access to creatures with far more HP, even considering resistance \$\endgroup\$
    – PixelMaster
    Oct 30, 2021 at 22:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ Even a CR4 elephant already has 76 HP, and a CR7 Giant Ape has 157 HP. There are beasts of higher CR according to D&D Beyond, but they either have less HP than the ape (e.g. T-Rex) or I don't have access to their stat block. Either way, resistance to fire would effectively double one's HP against fire attacks, so the spider would need roughly 80HP to be as resilient against fire as a Giant Ape. I doubt that a CR 1/2 creature has this much health. \$\endgroup\$
    – PixelMaster
    Oct 30, 2021 at 22:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ I ended up homebrewing something in collaboration with my DM, but it was based on a combination of Absorb Elements and Protection From Energy so I'm accepting this answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Joel Derfner
    Nov 4, 2021 at 5:20
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Fizban's Platinum Shield

It is a new 6th level bonus action concentration spell that grants you or another creature within 60 feet resistance to fire damage, as well as other benefits, and it is on the sorcerer and wizard spell lists. Unlike similar spells, it also lets you switch which creature benefits from the spell as a bonus action.

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Also: All Sorcerers, AND the metamagic adept feat:

Careful Spell PHB p102 When you cast a spell that forces other creatures to make a saving throw, you can protect some of those creatures from the spell's full force. To do so, you spend 1 sorcery point and choose a number of those creatures up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one creature). A chosen creature automatically succeeds on its saving throw against the spell.

This will usually block half the damage of fire attacks and all secondary effects.

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It's not a spell, so technically not what you're looking for - but worth a full answer as it seems to fit the spirit of your build (and could potentially give two levels worth of "helpful" spells that aren't fire based).

Multiclass with two levels in Wizard - School of Evocation.

At 2nd level (of wizard) you get Sculpt Spells -

Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of relative safety within the effects of your evocation spells. When you cast an evocation spell that affects other creatures that you can see, you can choose a number of them equal to 1 + the spell's level. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save.

Notably there is no requirement for the spell to be cast as a wizard, just that it's Evocation school, and most (all?) of the fire-based damage spells fall into that category.

This does take a bit more work and would depend on how quickly you're going to level up (and also not wanting to have a pure sorcerer) :-)

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