Blade Ward: This Will Hurt Me More Than It Hurts You
Usable By: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: Cantrip
School: Abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Duration: 1 round
Components: V, S
You extend your hand and trace a sigil of warding in the air. Until the end of your next turn, you have resistance against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt by weapon attacks.
Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
I’m going to let you in on a secret, dear reader. Something dark and mysterious that Dungeons and Dragons DMs don’t want you to know. There is a mythical action, any character can take; an action that imposes disadvantage on ALL attack rolls made against you, plus it grants you advantage on ALL Dexterity saving throws you make for a whole round. It's a little known tool in everyone's belt called the Dodge action. You don’t need to be a special class or race; you, yes you, can simply say “I take the Dodge action” and BAM! You do it!
Alternatively, you could spend one of your precious cantrip slots on Blade Ward. Blade Ward lets you spend an action to lessen incoming bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. Now, let's quickly compare the thing every character can do for free, and the thing you have to spend a learned cantrip on!
Imposing disadvantage on attack rolls gives you more instances where you take ZERO damage, and it doesn’t care what kind of attack is made. Getting shot with an arrow? Dodge helps! Getting fried by a Scorching Ray? Dodge helps! Not only does it empower your defenses against all forms of attack rolls, you also get bonuses on Dexterity saving throws. Alternatively, with Blade Ward, you can halve incoming damage from specifically three damage types. For this to be worth it, you would need to be getting hit had you not imposed disadvantage, and care about the difference in damage. If you’re a low level character who is already injured, Blade Ward does functionally nothing. Half of 14 damage still probably kills you in one hit. Dodge, on the other hand, gives you a chance to not die.
All of this is to point and say dodging is slightly better than Blade Ward in most cases. If you are likely getting hit regardless of imposing the disadvantage, halving the damage at higher levels can be slightly better, but then I must ask you: Why, in such a precarious predicament, are you opting to cast a CANTRIP that does so little still? How many cases are you going to end up in where you’ll just need to stick it out in place and take a beating when you can Disengage and run, attempt to Dash away, or, you know, cast a real spell that can teleport you, give you the power of flight, or obliterate the things trying to kill you?
There are just so few instances where any character will meaningfully gain something from Blade Ward. It is without a doubt one of the worst cantrips you could consider. Don’t go near it. Take utility cantrips, take Light, heck, take Resistance. Sure, both are bad, but at least you can reasonably prepare Resistance before a trap. Just don’t waste your time with Blade Ward.
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