[RPG] Does dealing 0 damage to a concentrating spellcaster require a saving throw

concentrationdamagednd-5e

Wizard is currently concentrating on a spell. Wimpling has a -1 Strength modifier, and makes a melee attack on Wizard. The attack hits, but Wimpling rolls a 1 on the damage roll, meaning that after applying his Strength modifier, he deals 0 damage.

Per the SRD, Damage Rolls (and in more recent Player's Handbook printings):

With a penalty, it is possible to deal 0 damage, but never negative damage.

From the Spellcasting chapter, Concentration:

The following factors can break concentration:

Taking damage. Whenever you take damage while you are concentrating on a spell, you must make a Constitution saving throw to maintain your concentration. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you take, whichever number is higher. If you take damage from multiple sources, such as an arrow and a dragon’s breath, you make a separate saving throw for each source of damage.

But I'm not sure if "dealing 0 damage" means that the target "takes damage".
Does Wizard need to make a Constitution saving throw to continue concentrating on the spell?

I'd prefer official sources or references if available. If there aren't any, then I would accept any semi-official or well-informed well-reasoned arguments, preferably backed up by whatever evidence is available.

Best Answer

No saving throw is triggered

I found two relevant Q&A twitter posts from Jeremy Crawford (the Lead Designer and Managing Editor for DnD 5e) that shed some light on this. However, Jeremy's tweets are no longer considered official, but they can provide some guidance into his thought process at the time he wrote the tweet.

Question:

if a raging barbarian makes no attack, but takes one damage that is reduced to zero, does rage drop?

Answer:

Taking 0 damage is the same as taking no damage.

If you took no damage, you didn't take any damage.

Taking 0 damage does not count as taking damage, therefore it shouldn't trigger any effect conditioned upon taking damage.

I also found a specific example of a different effect that triggers on damage (in this case, drow poison from the DMG):

Question:

If the Battlemaster maneuver parry, reduce the weapon Drow damage to zero, the poison damage still work ?

Answer:

Drow poison in the DMG is delivered by piercing/slashing damage (0 dmg = 0 poison).

To me, this lays out a clear line of logic. Dealing damage applies Drow poison. If you deal 0 damage, it does not apply the poison according to Jeremy Crawford. Therefore, dealing 0 damage does not count as dealing damage for effects that trigger on dealing/taking damage. This would logically include concentration checks.