Armour of Agathys would trigger on any of those attacks, before damage, and any effects triggered by that (such as Dark One's Blessing) would naturally happen when Armour of Agathys happens.Įrgo, in our example, the Warlock would take all 5 damage from his new temporary hp (or some from his new temporary hp, and others from his regular hp total). A character may be immune to the kind of damage an attack does (such as Fire, or Necrotic). Some attacks don't do regular damage but instead have other effects. With Heavy Armour Master or other abilities, it's entirely possible for an attack to hit and do zero points of damage. Armour of Agathys specifies hits, and does 5 cold damage to them when the attack hits. An attack 'hits' and then you roll and apply damage. However, in general, an attack is rolled and compared to AC before damage is rolled.

5E does not have explicit order of operations, and there are several notes that if there is dispute about how an ability works the DM simply decides. If a creature hits you with a melee attack while you have these hit points, the creature takes 5 cold damage.Įmphasis mine. You gain 5 temporary hit points for the duration. The warlock does not take damage to his hp, but rather to the new temporary HP.Īrmour of Agathys has the following text (this is the whole text of the ability, bar the 'at higher levels' note)Ī protective magical force surrounds you, manifesting as a spectral frost that covers you and your gear. After the creature dies, and after it's attack and damage is resolved. It falls over, frozen and dead, and the Dark one blesses you with extra HP. It more happens like this: A creature attacks you, your Armor of Agathys is holding at 1hp, barely there anymore, 1 damage is eaten up by the barrier and the remaining 4 cleave into your shoulder (Since he broke the barrier with damage remaining we assume teh attack follows through, if only a little bit.) and the creature takes cold damage as a result of the Armor of Agathys doing it's job.

The creature doesn't hit you, take damage, your Armor of Agathys goes away but you gain more temp HP because the Armor of Agathys damage killed it and you reaped it's energy with Dark Ones Blessing. Combat happens very quickly (an entire round happens in the span of 6 seconds) and things don't really happen at once when it comes down to the rules. So then, you have to think in order of events. (Found here: Dark One's Blessing and Armor of Agathys Synergy? )

This one is a little bit more tricky to answer than your previous question about Temp HP from one effect canceling out any others that rely on Temp HP from another effect.

Dark sheep attack