Description
The Armor of Agathys has a protective magical force surrounds you and also manifesting like a spectral frost which covers you and your gear. You actually gain 5 temporary hit points for the particular duration. If the creature hits you by using the melee attack while you’re having these hit points, actually the creature takes 5 cold damage. Now you can imagine why this would be incredibly useful if you’re playing a gift caster or a warlock in a very tight spot.
Mechanics
- Level: 1
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: Self
- Components: V, S, M
- Duration: 1 Hour
- School: Abjuration
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Cold
The cast time is 1 Action, the range is self, the duration is an impressive one hour. The effect at a glance is as followed
. Essentially so long as you have those hit points you deal 5 cold damage every time someone attacks you which is pretty cool
Effects
When armor of Agathys was cast, it created a layer of thick, black ice around the body of its caster, adding to their vitality for several minutes and injuring enemies who came too near with its frigid power. The deadliness of the ice depended upon the durability of the warlock. Armor of Agathys drew heavily on a warlock’s power and it could only be cast once per day.
After the Sundering warlocks could cast it any number of times according to ability
How does Armor of Agathys work with Tomb of Levistus in 5e Dungeons and Dragons? There are undoubtedly some exclusions. However, temporary hit points from multiple sources do not stack. You must choose which ones you keep. Since the invocation provides the temp HP, for a specific purpose of the invocation and imposes several penalties, I would rule that those temp HP take the place of the spells HP. Spell reacts to damage will reduce temp HP and apply damage.
The player reacts (using Reaction) by using invocation. The Warlock usually has HP equal to invocation amount to soak remaining damage. And additional damage until Warlock’s next turn. The Warlock does not have the benefit of Armor of Agathys while encased, even if the spell was still active. (And all the temp HP have been lost from the tomb.) Once the character starts their next turn, their spell will resume its protection and benefits, with whatever temp HP remaining from the spell.
What does Armor of Agathys do?
To thoroughly understand the benefits of the Armor of Agathys spell, it should be broken down into benefits. First, the temporary hit point benefit from the spell, and second the damage capability of the spell. Keep in mind this spell is designed for melee-heavy warlocks. Ranged attack-based characters can probably find a better use of the slot.
First, AoA grants temporary hit points. The caster gains 5 HP per spell level used. Since warlocks always cast at the highest level, it is easy to see what the benefits of the spell will be. At higher levels, a warlock should gain enough hit points to withstand a few attacks, with these hit points meaning more damage will come out of the spell.
Second, as long as the caster has some of the temporary hit points remaining, they continue to deal the damage from Armor of Agathys. Using Armor of Agathys at 3rd level gives the caster 15 temporary hit points. If an enemy hits the caster for 3 damage, the enemy takes 15 damage. At this rate, the enemy will hit 5 times before the temporary hit points are gone. During that time, the enemy would take 5 x 15 in damage for a total of 75 damage.
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