What kind of damage does Warding Bond do?

[Man_Over_Game]

Warding Bond says that when your ward takes damage, you take just as much damage, but it doesn't mention what type of damage it is that you take.


If the original attack was non-magical, and you're taking damage due to a spell, do you now take magical damage?
Do you take the same type of damage from the attack, or do you consider it "typeless" damage?
Do you consider Warding Bond damage to be impossible to mitigate (like with the effects from the Redemption/Crown Paladin)?



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Officially, Crawford (Lead Designer of DnD fifth edition) has stated that "All damage has a type (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/808833377621057536)", that "When you take damage via warding bond, you're taking damage from whatever caused damage to the target of warding bond (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/805222825183219712)", and that [in regards to mitigating Warding Bond] "If the [character] has resistance, nothing in the rules says it doesn't work . (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/11/04/warding-bond/)

However, I'm still interested to know how other DMs treat Warding Bond at their own tables.

[thoroughlyS]

After rereading the spell, I'm inclined to agree with Crawford. In regards to your specific questions:
Yes, the damage would be magical because it comes from the spell.
You take the same type of damage. (This is based on the flavor of the spell.)
No, because it lacks a clause saying so. Compare to the evoker's Overchannel feature. "This damage ignores resistance and immunity."

[Man_Over_Game]

After rereading the spell, I'm inclined to agree with Crawford. In regards to your specific questions:
Yes, the damage would be magical because it comes from the spell.
You take the same type of damage. (This is based on the flavor of the spell.)
No, because it lacks a clause saying so. Compare to the evoker's Overchannel feature. "This damage ignores resistance and immunity."

I do feel like your first bullet does disagree with JC's ruling, though.

[LudicSavant]

Warding Bond says that when your ward takes damage, you take just as much damage, but it doesn't mention what type of damage it is that you take.


If the original attack was non-magical, and you're taking damage due to a spell, do you now take magical damage?
Do you take the same type of damage from the attack, or do you consider it "typeless" damage?
Do you consider Warding Bond damage to be impossible to mitigate (like with the effects from the Redemption/Crown Paladin)?



-----------

Officially, Crawford (Lead Designer of DnD fifth edition) has stated that "All damage has a type (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/808833377621057536)", that "When you take damage via warding bond, you're taking damage from whatever caused damage to the target of warding bond (https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/805222825183219712)", and that [in regards to mitigating Warding Bond] "If the [character] has resistance, nothing in the rules says it doesn't work . (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/11/04/warding-bond/)

However, I'm still interested to know how other DMs treat Warding Bond at their own tables.

My ruling:
You take the same damage, including the type. It is possible to mitigate.

[PeteNutButter]

No matter the ruling there are serious ways to exploit this.

If it's magic because of the spell, it might still be mitigated by Heavy Armor Master since it specifies magic weapons.

If it's magic because of the spell then the spell is dealing the damage meaning being near a 7th level or higher ancients paladin causes the damage to be cut in half again (you take 1/4 of the damage). Ancients Paladin 7/Divine Soul Sorcerer 3 anyone?

Only reason I don't have this character already is the inconsistency of the rulings (and I play mostly AL). I really like the idea of a character that takes the party's damage for them, but at a greatly reduced rate.

[Man_Over_Game]

No matter the ruling there are serious ways to exploit this.

If it's magic because of the spell, it might still be mitigated by Heavy Armor Master since it specifies magic weapons.

If it's magic because of the spell then the spell is dealing the damage meaning being near a 7th level or higher ancients paladin causes the damage to be cut in half again (you take 1/4 of the damage). Ancients Paladin 7/Divine Soul Sorcerer 3 anyone?

Only reason I don't have this character already is the inconsistency of the rulings (and I play mostly AL). I really like the idea of a character that takes the party's damage for them, but at a greatly reduced rate.

I do see a lot of the combinations you're mentioning, but balance-wise, I don't think that's too much of a concern in most instances I see. Characters with Warding Bond generally enjoy having Concentration spells (and generally can't enjoy them now), and spending a level 2 spell slot to enhance someone's ability to tank while making yourself more of a risk and forcing the two of you to be within 60 feet to maintain the effect doesn't really scream "overpowered".

As for the Heavy Armor Master feat, I feel like that just gives the feat a little bit more mileage that it actually needs. If you're picking it up around level 10 and Warding Bond is something you're considering to use it with, you're probably not the primary tank and you're likely not going to get much use out of it.

Even in the Ancients Paladin example, you're taking 100% of a damage source, cut in half for both of you and cut in half again for just you. Your friend is taking 50% of the damage, you're taking 25%, so your grand investment that you spent 10 levels for cutting the total damage that your buddy takes down to 75%. But you can't afford to have any Concentration spells, which includes almost all of your Oath spells.

The Ancients Paladin is so dull that I'd just give it a pass, especially since this really spices up combat a bit on a level when AoE damage is more rampant.

[Chronos]

Warding Bond doesn't do damage. The sword or fireball or whatever does damage. It's just that, with the spell active, the sword (partly) damages you, instead of your buddy. If it's a magic sword, then it's like a magic sword hitting you. If it's a nonmagical sword, then it's like a nonmagical sword hitting you.

[PeteNutButter]

I do see a lot of the combinations you're mentioning, but balance-wise, I don't think that's too much of a concern in most instances I see. Characters with Warding Bond generally enjoy having Concentration spells (and generally can't enjoy them now), and spending a level 2 spell slot to enhance someone's ability to tank while making yourself more of a risk and forcing the two of you to be within 60 feet to maintain the effect doesn't really scream "overpowered".

As for the Heavy Armor Master feat, I feel like that just gives the feat a little bit more mileage that it actually needs. If you're picking it up around level 10 and Warding Bond is something you're considering to use it with, you're probably not the primary tank and you're likely not going to get much use out of it.

Even in the Ancients Paladin example, you're taking 100% of a damage source, cut in half for both of you and cut in half again for just you. Your friend is taking 50% of the damage, you're taking 25%, so your grand investment that you spent 10 levels for cutting the total damage that your buddy takes down to 75%. But you can't afford to have any Concentration spells, which includes almost all of your Oath spells.

The Ancients Paladin is so dull that I'd just give it a pass, especially since this really spices up combat a bit on a level when AoE damage is more rampant.

I don't think it'd be overpowered, but it could be potent.

If I were to optimize this there's a couple ways to go about it, but I'll take a stab at it.

Ancients Paladin 7/Divine Soul Sorc 4 Variant Human, starting stats 16, 8, 16, 8, 8, 16

ASIs: HAM (racial feat), chax2

Cast warding bond on any non-barbarian ally that can reliably stay within 60 feet. Only lasts an hour so, best in dungeons and the like. Only do it pre-combat, don't waste rounds if its not up. Go S&B for max AC + tank. You don't want to go down.

Boosting cha over str makes the con save +8 already. Grab a cloak/ring of protection to make it +9, or take resilient con if really worried about it. Either way warding bond no longer affects concentration provided your teammate isn't getting hit for excess of 44 damage in one hit.

I'd probably take next Paladin 8 (eventually to 11) and grab Inspiring Leader. All those THP should really make a big difference. when you can spread the damage around.

Not only does it allow you to redirect damage from your squishier teammates, and spread the damage around to reduce the chance any single player hits zero, but its even better than 25% damage reduction. I first thought of it as a 25% reduction in team damage, but since rounding odd numbers goes down, and you are halving twice, its actually significantly better.

Just taking a quick gander at foes in early tier 3, they seem to average about 15 damage per hit (doing several hits). If your warded teammate gets hit with this they take 7 damage, and you take 2, reducing the damage the team took by 40%.

To show this data isn't cherry picked, here is a quick spreadsheet to show the whole data array: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-d0r7uwzrQrAc5mf0f6b_tvhniij9GqebmFBtRGcBao/edit?usp=sharing

If you assume damage numbers 1-30 are evenly distributed its about a 44% reduction in damage received, even 1-50 damage numbers make it a 38.5% reduction in damage received for the team. It's quite sizable.

None of that is to say its overpowered, but I don't think its weak either. We're still talking about a defensive sorcadin here, who can do all the tricks entailed.
To answer your question in the OP, personally I'd allow my players to do all this, so long as it didn't slow down game play too much. I'm a fan of encouraging players to be team players.