[RPG] Does Spirit Shield reduce Damage before or after it carries over because of Warding Bond

damage-reductiondnd-5espells

The warding bond spell says

While the target is within 60 feet of you, it gains a +1 bonus to AC and saving throws, and it has resistance to all damage. Also, each time it takes damage, you take the same amount of damage.

Let's say the Cleric casts warding bond on the wizard. The wizard gets hit for 24 damage. Because the Warding Bond gives him resistance to all damage he only takes 12. Now the (Path of the Ancestral Guardian) Barbarian uses his Spirit Shield feature to reduce this damage by 6.

Does the Cleric receive the initial 12 damage or the reduced 6?

Best Answer

The cleric takes 9 damage

To start with, resistance takes effect after all other damage reductions. So the 24 damage is reduced before resistance is considered. This rule can be found in the Combat chapter of the Basic Rules:

Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage.

After the damage is reduced to 18 (Xd6 = 6 in this example), it is halved to 9 from the resistance granted by warding bond. The cleric then takes the same amount of damage:

each time [the target] takes damage, you take the same amount of damage.