Warding Bond on Self through a Find Steed mount

Question

Could I, as a paladin mounted on a mount summoned as per the Find Steed spell, cast Warding Bond so that I am granted the +1 to AC & Saving Throws and so that I get the resistance to damage and the mount takes the other half?

Warding bond is touch range, touch ranged spells are allowed to target self:

Some spells can target only a creature (including you) that you touch.

Find Steed then states:

While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed.

Warding bond then states:

This spell wards a willing creature you touch and creates a mystic connection between you and the target until the spell ends. While the target is within 60 feet of you, it gains a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws, and it has resistance to all damage. Also, each time it takes damage, you take the same amount of damage.

This thread is similar and concerns the same question using a familiar instead: Can I use my familiar to cast Warding Bond on myself?

Answer 1

No

You run into several problems trying to cast Warding Bond on yourself and have your steed take the damage. You seem to be able to cast warding bond on yourself (which seems fine, you get +1 AC take half damage but then take the damage twice). The target of the spell is the one who gets the AC and the resistance, the caster of the spell is the one who takes the damage. Find steed does not make your horse the caster of the spell therefore you cast it on yourself and your horse and you both get the benefits while you take all the extra damage. Additionally I'm not sure how a horse could wear a ring but (assuming you can get a ring on a horse) you would most likely need three rings (2 for yourself and 1 for the horse).

Answer 2

No, you cannot use Find Steed to obviate Warding Bond's requirement of two distinct creatures.

The text of Find Steed states the following (which I will call the target-transference property):

While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed.

However, since you can't target only yourself with Warding Bond (see context below), then Warding Bond does not meet the requirements to trigger the target-transference property. So that property is irrelevant to the casting of Warding Bond and does not give you any unusual options.

The only possible casting configuration with just yourself and your steed is to target the steed. Then you and the steed become a bonded pair and the steed has the AC and saving throw bonuses and the damage resistance.

Context on the requirement of two distinct creatures.

The relevant description of the Warding Bondspell:

This spell wards a willing creature you touch and creates a mystic connection between you and the target until the spell ends.

The spell components:

...a pair of platinum rings... which you and the target must wear for the duration...

Although it is not explicit, the components strongly imply via the emphasized portion that two distinct creatures are required. Jeremy Crawford has ruled as much (see this tweet):

Warding bond—you can't target yourself with it.

So the bonded pair must include two distinct creatures.

Answer 3

How about this. Both you and your steed get targeted by YOUR one warding bond, which means you and your steed have +1 to AC and saves and super resistance. Since you are the caster, you are now on the receiving end of both targets of warding bond. You are going to take 1/2 the damage that both you and your steed take, and your steed takes none of your damage, since it was not the caster. The damage you take from your own halved damage (super resistance) will then be halved because it is a separate moment of damage dealt, and you clearly still have super resistance. In the end, you would take 3/4 of initial damage dealt to you (1st half plus half of that shared damage) and 1/4 of initial damage dealt to your steed (half of shared damage from steed's half damage). woot...