D&D 5E Santuary and "deals damage to another creature"

[ECMO3]

From the sanctuary spell:

If the warded creature makes an attack, casts a spell that affects an enemy creature, or deals damage to another creature, this spell ends.


What exactly is meant by "deals damage to another creature"?

If I am a Rune Knight and I make an enemy redirect an attack, does that count as me "dealing damage"? How about if a Runke Knight has someone in Fire Rune shackles and takes damage at the begining of a tunr. What if I am concentrating on a wall of fire and an enemy walks into it? How about if I am concentrating on crown of madness and I make the charmed creature attack someone?

Do these count as me "dealing damage"?

 

[Davies]

Yes.

 

[Irlo]

Yes.

 

[Blue]

Yes.

 

[TerraDave]

Its never been a great spell. Across editions, I think I have seen it used in play maybe twice.

 

[Iry]

Yes.

 

[overgeeked]

Yes.

 

[Maxperson]

Another yes.

 

[ECMO3]

Its never been a great spell. Across editions, I think I have seen it used in play maybe twice.

I have not seen it used a lot, but I think it could be pretty darn effective on a Gish-martial with a lot of spell slots. Something like an EK or Paladin-cleric multiclass. Use attack-cast sanctuary-attack-cast sanctuary-attack ....

Could combine it with something like goading strike to make it harder to attack others too.

 

[humble minion]

I've used it with my paladin, but only to ward other people in extremis, not myself. Best result was getting a remorhaz to forget about and drop the very-low-hp ranger it was busily chewing on. But it can be helpful when you're trying to protect an NPC too. There isn't really a simple way around its restrictions that allows you to both deal damage and stay sanctuaried. Continually re-Sanctuary-ing yourself after attacking on your own round means you run out of spell slots real fast, especially if you're casting damaging spells or using divine smite.

If you were playing a pure support cleric it might have some uses. Keep Sanctuary on yourself while casting cures, aid, warding bond etc or using the Help action to help out your party members. But a lot of the best support spells are concentration duration, so wouldn't work with that strategy, and of the ones that aren't, you'e restricted to buffing friends, not hindering enemies. From a pure power point of view, I'm sure there's more optimal ways to play a cleric, but you could do it. Might be a good way to play a NPC cleric who's travelling with a PC party for extra healing when you only have a couple of players, for instance.