2nd Level Cleric spell guide: Warding Bond

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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:27 Warding Bond
2:42 Splitting Damage
5:58 Defensive bonuses
7:48 Target yourself
9:15 Concentration saves

[TreantmonksTemple]

FYI: I was informed that Jeremy Crawford tweeted that Warding Bond cannot be cast on yourself, so take that for what it's worth.

[NoNameBoi]

If you read warding bond as two separate instances of damage when cast on yourself, then you have to make a lot more than just the initial save for concentration on spirit guardians. Because the spell reads “each time it takes damage, you take the same amount of damage.”

So you would take 41 halved to 20 plus 20 halved to 10, but you took that 10 damage from warding bond so you would take an additional 10 halved to 5, plus 5 halved to 2, and then 2 halved to 1

20+10+5+2+1

In total, you would take 38 damage, which is better than the 41 you would have taken, but now you need to make FIVE saving throws to maintain concentration.

[LesbianWitchAcademia]

My favoeite use of Warding Bond, by far, is as a Battle Smith Artificer. Make yourself a number of identical rings equal ro your party size +1, and infuse one of those rings and give it to your Steel Defender. Since the ring is infused, and you can now use it as a spellcasting focus, you can make it a spell-storing item, and put Warding Bond in it. Then all you have to do is use your bonus action to tell your Steel Defender to run up to the party member of your choosing and touch them before activating the item. Now you have near infinite uses of Warding Bond, with a big slab of free hit points to protect people with. As someone who adores utility builds, its my favorite thing to do.

[ramn_goblin]

I used warding bond for a dramatic betrayal in a short adventure I ran. The NPC the party was escorting ended up being the BBEG, very original, I know.

The party's mission was to recover an artifact of Orcus before a death cult could get to it. Our paladin really went in for protecting the "artifact expert." She just so happened to have a pair fancy, matching platinum rings that she can store warding bond within, so that anyone willing to take a vow with her can cast the spell with her as its target. An easy History check to determine that these were elven *marriage* rings really sold it. How romantic!

Welp. She's a Death Cleric. And the rings are curse so you can't take them off.

She got the paladin alone, and after a dramatic speech and magical goth transformation, she was floating in the air and casting Vampiric Touch. She attacked...herself! Each attack dealt half to the paladin and half to her, but she healed the full amount. With no good ranged options, the paladin was slowly defeated, despite some hints that she could have broken down the door to escape. PCs won in the end and the paladin got some redemption. Scariest monologue ever!

[TonkarzOfSolSystem]

IMO the split damage effect of this spell is actually intended to be a negative trade off to balance out the +1 to AC and saving throws.

[Baymax]

In the current season of Dimension 20: Fantasy High: Junior Year, one of the PCs is a barbarian/artificer multi class and he gets access to warding bond. This is the best use case I’ve ever seen for this spell. He has cast it as a pre-buff (on the cleric actually, lol) and then rages for the rest of the combat. Since it’s non-concentration, there is no conflict with rage. The spell says nothing about the caster using resistances to damage so the barbarian is halving a lot of the damage he’s taking when the cleric takes damage and the cleric is helped with maintaining her concentration on her big spells like “Circle of Power” or even “Bless”

[Jahodakristof]

I like these kind of videos. Its so easy to skip past 80% of my characters spell options, these realy help ME widen my scope.

[PatRiot-lerd]

Thanks for highlighting this spell. I joined an already underway campaign that had lost 3 players, and I'm playing a light domain cleric to cover the party's gaps in support and AOE. My spell choices have mostly been healing and AOE damage focused, so I completely slept on the utility of Warding Bond. But now I see how much more valuable than Death Ward it would have been on "protect the NPC" type quests.

[robinthrush]

My only problem with this spell is that in all my groups the clerics have either had the HP pool of a stereotypical wizard or thought they were front line fighters. In other words, the cleric wouldn't survive.

[CivilWarMan]

Warding Bond also pairs really well with characters that have non-resistance damage reduction abilities. Characters like Goliaths, Fathomless Warlocks, and Clockwork Soul Sorcerers. They end up double-dipping on the damage reduction, since they reduce the damage before Warding Bond splits it between the warded characters.

[yingosensei]

BG3 warding bond is amazing with the way flat damage reduction from armor works.

[jimithegamer]

It's probably a very dumb idea, but a familiar can deliver touch spells as if it was the caster. That is an extremely convoluted and pricy way to give yourself 1-5 bonus hp and +1 to ac and saves. I find it kinda funny.

[ChristnThms]

So... for those tables either allowing setting specific content or taking place in one of these settings, Mark of the Sentinel (Eberron) and Selesnya (Ravnica) offer Warding bond as an additional spell on your character's spell list(s). Instead of Battlesmith, this makes the Artillerist the GOAT, because that thp cannon can apply its thp to both instances.
Artillerist thp cannons were already amazing at keeping the front rows alive. This just turns it up a notch.

[mykullthecimmerian]

Just started playing a Cleric and am about to pick up my 2nd level spells! Perfect timing Chris!

[pauljenizm]

My first character was Totem Barbarian/Cleric, so Warding Bond was probably the most optimal spell I could've taken. It could be cast long before combat so I still got to Rage and attack on turn 1 and I halved whatever damage came my way through the Bear Totem, so it severely dampened enemy damage output.

[Aaron-pjky]

A great use for this spell is on an 11th level Battle Smith. By then, you will probably have budgeted in a feat for Crossbow Expert or Polearm Master, so you don't need your Steel Defender to attack anymore. So what use is it now? For holding your Spell Storing Item, casting Warding Bond on you, and becoming a pool of extra hit points that can restore back to 100% with a Mending cantrip in between combats.

[aaronjames]

Regardless to whether or not you can warding bond yourself, Chris’s analysis regarding the overall mechanical benefits to the spell are spot on. Additionally I would point out that the ability to use a better throughput cure wound on yourself rather than a same spell slot healing word means more effective usage of spell slots for cures.

[rtifex]

Cast on self = Extra damage taken. The echo, echoes, echoes, echoes.

[theresnoracelikegnome]

Warding Bond is a really great spell. One note, though. Your math is a little off on the savings throw chances. The 41 damage no Bond chance is 69.75%, not 64%, and the next two are 87.75 and 82.81%. You’re scooting all the d20 rolls over by one.

[JohnRichardsII]

My artificer just got this spell. Thanks for the tips 🙏