Regarding Tomb of Levistus and Armor of Agathys

[aram1338]

So I have a question regarding the combination of Armor of Agathys (AoA) with Tomb of Levistus (ToL).

I know that temporary hit points don't stack. But I wonder whether or not the temporary hit points from AoA remain 'dormant' under ToL and thus trigger the cold damage.

AoA reads as the following;
"... You gain 5 temporary hit points for the duration. If a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, the creature takes 5 cold damage."

So say that I'm a lvl 10 warlock and I have 25 temporary hit points from 5th lvl AoA. I am about to be hit with 10 attacks à 10 dmg (2d6+3) so I immediately cast ToL. This bumps my temp hp to 100.

Does this mean that;
A. every attack causes 25 cold damage?
B. the first seven attacks suffer no cold damage, the last three each suffer damage for eating into the 25 AoA-hp?
C. ToL overrides the AoA and all attacks hit without consequence?

I assume that reactive damage from spells such as Fire Shield and Shadow of Moil remain unchanged.

Thanks for reading!

[MaxWilson]

C. ToL overrides the AoA and all attacks hit without consequence?

This. Per the temp HP rules in the PHB, gaining temp HP replaces any existing temp HP that you have. If you gain the temp HP from Tomb of Levistus, you no longer have any HP from Armor of Agathys.

So what you do instead is eat the 10-HP attacks until your Armor of Agathys reaction runs out, and then you activate Tomb of Levistus with your reaction to avoid dying.

[strangebloke]

This. Per the temp HP rules in the PHB, gaining temp HP replaces any existing temp HP that you have. If you gain the temp HP from Tomb of Levistus, you no longer have any HP from Armor of Agathys.

So what you do instead is eat the 10-HP attacks until your Armor of Agathys reaction runs out, and then you activate Tomb of Levistus with your reaction to avoid dying.

Yup.

TBH shouldn't be a serious problem most of the time since you don't use tomb of Levistus unless you're in a baaad way, and armor of agathys tends to run out pretty quickly.

Humorously, a multiclassed barbarian/warlock's tomb would take half damage if he was raging.

[LudicSavant]

So I have a question regarding the combination of Armor of Agathys (AoA) with Tomb of Levistus (ToL).

I know that temporary hit points don't stack. But I wonder whether or not the temporary hit points from AoA remain 'dormant' under ToL and thus trigger the cold damage.

AoA reads as the following;
"... You gain 5 temporary hit points for the duration. If a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, the creature takes 5 cold damage."

So say that I'm a lvl 10 warlock and I have 25 temporary hit points from 5th lvl AoA. I am about to be hit with 10 attacks à 10 dmg (2d6+3) so I immediately cast ToL. This bumps my temp hp to 100.

Does this mean that;
A. every attack causes 25 cold damage?
B. the first seven attacks suffer no cold damage, the last three each suffer damage for eating into the 25 AoA-hp?
C. ToL overrides the AoA and all attacks hit without consequence?

I assume that reactive damage from spells such as Fire Shield and Shadow of Moil remain unchanged.

Thanks for reading!


If you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the ones you have or to gain the new ones. For example, if a spell grants you 12 temporary hit points when you already have 10, you can have 12 or 10, not 22.

So, you can choose between keeping your AoA temp hp, or you can give them up (and therefore no longer have THOSE hit points) and get the ToL hit points instead.

In other words, one overrides the other. However, you choose which overrides.

Presumably, cases like this are precisely why you are allowed to keep one set of temporary hit points rather than simply automatically getting whatever's higher.

In the specific case of ToL though, you can totally just wait until the 10 damage attacks eat through your AoA, then use ToL as a reaction midway through the enemy's attack sequence.

[Kadesh]

Temp HP don't stack. Abilities tied to specific sources of Temp HP only take effect while you have that Temp HP. If you don't have that Temp HP, you don't have that effect of that HP.

'Please tell me I can't read' is a god awful question to ask.

[Vessyra]

Humorously, a multiclassed barbarian/warlock's tomb would take half damage if he was raging.

Actually, damage resistances are applied after temporary hit points, so the temp hp would take the damage, then any remaining damage would be halved. So if you took 12 damage and had 10 temporary hit points, then temp hp would take 10 damage and vanish, then the remaining 2 damage would be halved to 1, so the temp hp would vanish and you would take 1 damage.

An arcane ward from a multi classed abjuration wizard/warlock would work, though. You could choose to have your arcane ward instead of the temp hp take the damage, allowing you to keep armour of agathys up longer.

I don't believe that there are any other ways to make your armour of agathys go on longer, for all of the reasons discussed above explaining why other sources of temp hp don't stack with armour of agathys.

[MaxWilson]

Actually, damage resistances are applied after temporary hit points, so the temp hp would take the damage, then any remaining damage would be halved.

It sounds like you're getting the rules for temp HP mixed up with Arcane Ward. Resistance comes before THP depletion, but after Arcane Ward, because the Arcane Ward has no resistances.



An arcane ward from a multi classed abjuration wizard/warlock would work, though. You could choose to have your arcane ward instead of the temp hp take the damage, allowing you to keep armour of agathys up longer.

Or just a deadlock and an abjuror working together, no multiclassing necessary. Abjurors can use Arcane Ward to protect others, at IIRC 6th level.



I don't believe that there are any other ways to make your armour of agathys go on longer, for all of the reasons discussed above explaining why other sources of temp hp don't stack with armour of agathys.

Various damage reduction reactions (Lore Bard Cutting Words, Ancestor Barb aura, etc.) can allow you to take a hit triggering AoA damage but not lose HP, temp or otherwise. And of course if you're immune to the attack, thanks to Invulnerability or a Magic Jar into a Wearbear or True Polymorph into a demilich/etc. that works too.

[LudicSavant]

Actually, damage resistances are applied after temporary hit points, so the temp hp would take the damage, then any remaining damage would be halved.

[citation needed]