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JandK Offline OP
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When my abjuration wizard uses Armor of Agathys the resulting temporary hit points are pretty high. About 22, I think it is.

I believe those hit points are combining the ones from the armor spell and the ones that the wizard gets from the arcane ward.

Is it supposed to work this way?

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By the book, no it isn't - temp hit points don't stack, and if you have a situation where you would receive temporary hit points from more than one source, you chose which one you keep, and the other is lost. This is important for avoiding breaks and abuses with effects that last only while the temp hit points they granted remain.

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I hope this was reported as a bug - I think I encountered other broken stacking rules, but I haven'ty played for about 8 months, so can't remember the situation. Thanks to all the folks still testing and looking out for inconsistencies - hopefully there will be something closer to 5E RAW at the end.

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Originally Posted by booboo
I hope this was reported as a bug - I think I encountered other broken stacking rules, but I haven'ty played for about 8 months, so can't remember the situation. Thanks to all the folks still testing and looking out for inconsistencies - hopefully there will be something closer to 5E RAW at the end.

Just to be clear, I don't mind if it's not RAW.

I'm okay playing it that way if it's the intended design by Larian, but if it's an oversight that Larian means to correct, then I don't want to build a character around that concept, if that makes sense.

I'm trying to come up with the character I want to play for when the full game releases.

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Yes it works that way. The abjurer's ward is not temporary hit points, it is a shield of sorts. It simply grants a buffer of bonus hit points that get used up first, but that are not "temporary hit points"

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It is a very strong build actually, where you combine low AC, longstrider, crusher's ring, click heels, an upcast of Armor of Agathys with Arcane Ward and Blade Ward, then run near enemies to trigger opportunity attacks and retaliate for 10 cold damage up to 10 times or more. I think it is a fun build but that seems like an unintended behavior that needs fixing.

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Originally Posted by Nebuul
Yes it works that way. The abjurer's ward is not temporary hit points, it is a shield of sorts. It simply grants a buffer of bonus hit points that get used up first, but that are not "temporary hit points"
Well if that is true, then Armour of Agathys almost certainly should not give damage, if attack is absorbed by that Ward. O_o

But it still seems more logical that they should not stack.


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Does Arcane Ward stack with False Life? I'm not sure that it does.

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Armor of agathys gives damage whenever you are hit as long as temporary HP from AoA are still available. Whatever hits you doesn't have to do even damage. For example, if you were immune to physical and got hit by an axe, AoA would still damage the attacker.

Last edited by Nebuul; 02/08/22 09:40 PM. Reason: Autocorrect typo
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Originally Posted by Nebuul
Yes it works that way. The abjurer's ward is not temporary hit points, it is a shield of sorts. It simply grants a buffer of bonus hit points that get used up first, but that are not "temporary hit points"

Actually yes, double checking - I can confirm that this is, or should be, accurate.

The ward is functionally an independent object with its own HP; things do not hit the ward, they hit you, but the ward takes the damage until it has no hit points left, at which time you take the remaining. The ward isn't meant to be temp HP so it doesn't conflict with any temp hp you may have. Nebuul is also correct that Agathys only requires you to be hit while you have the temp, and doesn't require that those temp actually take damage.

The way the interaction should work here is:
- Player has level 2 Agathys up, and it was their first abjuration spell for the day - so their ward has 12Hp (level 4 x 2, Plus 4 for 18Int, let's say), and they have 10Hp from Agathys.
- They run past two melee goblins, who both swipe and hit; they hit the players, so at this point Agathys will trigger (individually when each one processes its damage), and the goblins will take 10 damage each, and die.
- First goblin's damage roll is 6 damage, second goblin's damage roll is 7 damage; these are both absorbed by the ward *first*, so only 1 point of damage goes through to Agathys, which is reduced to 9Hp.
- Player casts Mage Armour at 1st level (because they forgot), and the ward gains 2 new hit points.
- Player keeps running and triggers a third opportunity attack - this goblin hits and deals 4 damage; two is absorbed by the ward, and two goes through to Agathys, reducing it to 7 Hit points, while the goblin takes 10 damage and dies.

- At this point, the ward is pretty spent for the day, since it's only going to regenerate small pips of Hp when you use your remaining spell slots, which are limited, but it's done its job.

Edit: What IS worth mentioning here is that natively, Armour of Agathys is NOT on the Wizard spell list, so this utility should be harder to wrangle than it is in BG3.

Last edited by Niara; 03/08/22 03:59 AM.

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