[RPG] Does Cloud of Daggers affect the caster

area-of-effectdnd-5espellstargeting

New to 5e and this has been a painful rabbit hole coming for 3.5. I have a pc who wants to cast cloud of daggers centered on himself as a sort of shield to protect himself from melee attackers. I said that the magical daggers would hurt him at the beginning of his turn and he has retorted with several days worth of arguments saying that it shouldn't affect the caster.

Best Answer

You are a creature.

Cloud of daggers states:

A creature takes 4d4 slashing damage when it enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there.

You are a creature, so you are affected while in the spell's area. The idea here is that cloud of daggers makes no exception for the caster, when other area of effect spells do. For example, spirit guardians says:

When you cast this spell, you can designate any number of creatures you can see to be unaffected by it.

Unless an area of effect spell explicitly provides for excluding the caster, the caster can be affected by the spell.