Guardian of Faith: A Slap in the Faith
Usable By: Cleric
Spell Level: 4
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Duration: 8 hours
Components: V
A Large spectral guardian appears and hovers for the duration in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range. The guardian occupies that space and is indistinct except for a gleaming sword and shield emblazoned with the symbol of your deity.
Any creature hostile to you that moves to a space within 10 feet of the guardian for the first time on a turn must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 20 radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The guardian vanishes when it has dealt a total of 60 damage.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
I adore Guardian of Faith, even if it's a bit on the lower end of power. It’s an action for a 10 ft. radius guardian that dishes out 60 damage, then bails. There are definitely some small rules things to address, but for the most part if you’re a cleric and in desperate need for some area of effect damage, this is a perfectly fine option at handling two to three reasonable threats with moderate damage. Not a ringing endorsement, but a way clerics interface with damaging spells. I think it's novel to have this clear distinction between the arcane and divine casters; wizards roll a bunch of dice and can hit harder, but clerics get consistent numbers in protected spaces with supportive tools and better survivability (generally).
From my understanding of creatures dropping to 0 hit points, because there isn’t negative damage to be assigned, if the Guardian of Faith drops a creature to 0 hit points, it only “spends” as much damage as the creature has remaining hit points. This spell is exceptional at dealing with lots of tiny, annoying low health enemies with this ruling, and won’t overspend damage on low HP creatures. This specific rules interaction is pretty major in determining the power of the spell, as each instance of overkill would reduce the total pool of damage, and makes it terrible against creatures with less than 20 hit points who fail the save, making you hope weaker things pass. I don’t believe that’s the case, but I’d talk with your DM prior about how they intend to rule this in that scenario, as it’ll definitely affect when you’ll want to cast Guardian of Faith.
Against larger enemies, though, having a source over three to four rounds that will hit for 60 damage can be absurd. Disintegrate is a 6th level spell that deals roughly 75 damage: clerics have a tool that can do 60 to a single target over the course of a fight for a 4th level spell. It doesn’t even cost you your concentration. Once it's up, even if you’re getting smashed, your Guardian of Faith can be smashing back.
Positioning is critical in getting juice out of this spell, but when tactically cast, you know exactly what you’re getting, and can take comfort in this spell’s consistency. I think it shines brightest against a group of two to three bigger threats in tight corridors, but can also be a great crowd control tool to slim the numbers of smaller swarms of baddies. There will be a lot of fights against middling HP enemies where one or two medium creatures takes 20 damage, a pair of bigger ones takes 10 each, and you’re left somewhat underwhelmed compared to the giant explosive damage of Fireball. Poor positioning or wide open maps with lots of room to spread out and avoid this can lead it to feel difficult to place, and short encounters can lead to this hitting once and never again after that. A lot does have to go right for this to feel good, but when it nugs the dragon and his lead sorcerer for 60 over two rounds, it’ll feel excellent.
It can be challenging to use, and definitely wants to be at tables with tactical, dynamic battlemaps, but in those environments, I highly recommend Guardian of Faith.
Guardian of Faith FAQ:
Can I have multiple Guardians of Faith at once?
Yes. While it’s likely not the best use of your spell slots, there’s nothing stopping you from casting the spell multiple times and having a bunch of Guardians on the battlefield.
Does Guardian of Faith deal damage to hostile creatures that start their turn in range?
No. Guardian of Faith is triggered by a creature’s movement. Just being within ten feet of it doesn’t trigger the spell. Confirmed my Jeremy Crawford HERE.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
