How does Elemental Adept and Oath of Ancients' Aura of Warding interact?

Question

Elemental Adept allows a spell to ignore resistance to the damage type that is chosen when the Feat is taken. Let's say a Draconic Sorcerer chose Fire when taking the Feat.

An Oath of Ancient's Paladin gets Aura of Warding at level 7, which gives resistance to damage from spells.

The Draconic Sorcerer casts Fireball on an area including the level 7 Oath of Ancients Paladin. Does the Paladin resist the damage?
What if the Paladin has Fire Resistance from another source, like being a Tiefling?

Jeremy Crawford has tweeted that the intent is that Elemental Adept bypasses Aura of Warding, but his tweets are no longer official rulings. https://www.sageadvice.eu/does-the-elemental-adept-feat-ignore-the-resistance-by-the-paladins-aura-of-warding/ — Payden K. Pringle, Jan 14 '22 at 15:08
Usually, it is recommended to ask just one question per post: why in this case the resistance to Fire from being a tiefling is different from the resistance to Fire provided by the paladin's aura? — Eddymage, Jan 14 '22 at 15:23

Eddymage · Answer 1 · 2022-06-01T15:12:27.177

-2

No, the paladin can not resist the damage.

The Elemental Adept feat says:

When you gain this feat, choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder.

Spells you cast ignore resistance to damage of the chosen type. [...]

[...]

While the Warding Aura of the paladin says:

Beginning at 7th level, ancient magic lies so heavily upon you that it forms an eldritch ward. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have resistance to damage from spells.

In this case, the spell damage consists in fire damage: the spell description says (emphasis mine)

[...] A target takes 8d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

The Warding Aura grants resistance to damage from spells, in this case the resistance is granted against the fire damage caused by the spell Fireball. But there is no particular rule that attests that the paladin's Warding Aura overcomes the Elemental Adept feat: hence the paladin (and their friendly creatures within 10ft of them) can not benefit from resistance to fire against the Fireball cast by the Draconic Sorcerer.

edited Jun 01 '22 at 15:12

answered Jan 14 '22 at 15:21

Eddymage

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I think you need to support that Warding Aura actually grants "resistance to the damage of the chosen type" which is what Elemental Adept can ignore; or state that Elemental Adept doesn't exclusively ignore that. Either way, I feel part of the argument is missing – Exempt-Medic Jan 14 '22 at 15:29
What I was going to say in my answer before the question was closed was "There is no resistance to fire damage of Elemental Adept to overcome". – Thomas Markov Jan 14 '22 at 15:34
@Exempt-Medic I do not really see how adding those details will improve my answer, but since it has been a while that I do not answer here I have to get used (again) to the RPG.SE's level of pedantr... precision! :-) – Eddymage Jan 14 '22 at 15:42
@ThomasMarkov what do you mean? – Eddymage Jan 14 '22 at 15:48
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I mean "Elemental Adept overcomes resistance to fire damage. Does the paladin have resistance to fire damage? No." – Thomas Markov Jan 14 '22 at 15:48
@ThomasMarkov So what kind of resistance does the Warding Aura provide in your opinion? – Eddymage Jan 14 '22 at 15:53
It doesn't provide resistance to any damage type. It provides resistance to damage from spells. – Thomas Markov Jan 14 '22 at 15:57
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Thomas Markov Jan 14 '22 at 16:03

How does Elemental Adept and Oath of Ancients' Aura of Warding interact?

1 Answers1

No, the paladin can not resist the damage.

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