Jan 08, 2016 by [ "James R. Miller"
]
Categories:
rpgs
Tags:
dnd
5e
cantrips
spells
Blade Ward is the next in our look at the 5E cantrips. To be perfectly honest, I’ve yet to see it used in a live game. There’s a good reason why I haven’t seen it in a game. Read on to find out why.
It’s not present in the basic rules.
Take these comments with a grain of salt as I’ve never seen it used in game, whether as a player or as a GM.
I think it’s a horrible cantrip and should never be chosen to take up a cantrip slot. Just use the dodge action in combat instead of this; your armor class will likely be lower since you’re a caster. At least with the dodge action you have the chance of taking no damage at all. This cantrip just lets you reduce the damage you take by half from certain types of damage, and only from weapons.
Yes folks, you heard me. Only from weapons. Talons, claws, bites, etc. get to bypass the resistance granted by the cantrip. It also won’t help against traps. You can’t even cast it if you’re falling to try and reduce the damage.
About the only time this cantrip makes sense is if you know you’re about to take very many weapon attacks all in one round (perhaps 5-10 weapons attacks), so that there’s a high likelihood you’re going to be hit anyways. The cantrip would let you reduce the damage by half from bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks.
But then again, you could’ve just taken the dodge action and then all those various attacks would have been at a disadvantage which is an approximate +5 boost to your armor class.
I’ve seen some suggest to make this cantrip castable as a reaction, but then that turns the cantrip into something insanely overpowered; the ability to at will only take half damage from bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage each round while also using your action during your main turn is too powerful.
Perhaps a good fix would be to change the duration of the cantrip to 1 minute or three rounds or something like that? It’s just not strong enough to spend your Action casting it if the effect only lasts a single round. Or make it a concentration spell so the caster has to make a CON save each time he takes damage or the effect stops after that weapon hit?
Here’s a link to a reddit comment discussing how it may be useful to Eldritch Knights until about level 11, but in limited circumstances.
Here’s another post from a forum that discusses other uses of Blade Ward. Specifically, it mentions that any creature who’s speed is reduced to 0 as a result of being restrained or grappled can’t take the dodge action. Another idea would be for a high-elf rogue to take the cantrip, cast it, and then use Cunning Action to dash, thus moving 60’ through area that may trigger opportunity attacks.
Meh. I’m not convinced. I think there would be stronger builds out there than trying to make Blade Ward work. I don’t like it and you shouldn’t either. If you disagree, hit me up on twitter or email and let me know why.