Temporary hit points and resistance

[Punchycal]

Hi, can anyone clarify how temporary hit points work when you also have resistance to the damage type? For example if I have 8 temporary hit points and resistance and sustain 24 damage, would this half to 12, then use the 8 THPs to take 4 damage or would the THPs come off first, reducing the damage to 16 which is then halved to 8?

 

[crashtestdummy]

The rules clearly state that temporary hit points are not hit points. They are essentially a 'buffer' for when you take damage.

On that basis, the temporary hit points would be after resistance, because damage is determined after resistance is taken into account.

 

[Sunseeker]

Resistance applies to the damage BEFORE you subtract it from your HP.
So, Bob the red dragonborn takes 20 fire damage. He has 5 THP.
Bob's resistance applies first, reducing the damage to 10.
Then Bob's THP soaks 5 points.
So Bob only takes 5 damage.

 

[Coredump]

Shidaku as the right of it. For almost all intents and purposes.... THP operate the exact same as regular HP. Resistance will half the damage before subtrating THP.

OTOH, if you have 10 THP, and get hit for 5 damage.... you can still be poisoned, or paralyzed, or whatever. Losing your THP is just like losing regular HP.

 

[Punchycal]

Thanks very much for that folks, that's the way I was hoping it would work. I'm currently playing in a campaign with only 1 other pc (a moon Druid) and need to be very resilient. I'm playing an eldritch knight and have the heavy armour master feat from being a variant human and false life spell. I'm planning on using blade ward every other round in combat once I reach level 7 and get the war magic feature. I was thinking of taking 2 levels of warlock and pact of the fiend to get better access to temporary hit points, is this a good idea, or is it better to keep adding fighter levels? (I'm level 4 atm)

 

[crashtestdummy]

Multiclassing is always a question of whether the features you gain are worth the features you lose or delay. Is waiting an extra two levels before you get the higher level fighter features going to be worthwhile? That's your call, not ours.

 

[Giant2005]

Two levels of Warlock would be quite excellent for you if your survival is your highest priority. In addition to the Fiend's temp hp on kill ability, you can get the Fiendish Vigor and Devil's Sight invocations for unlimited castings of False Life (With its long duration it isn't unreasonable to assume it will equate to an extra 8 HP every encounter), and the Darkness/Devil's Sight combo for imposing disadvantage on attacks against you.
If you are only taking two levels of Warlock, you won't be able to pick up Darkness until EK 7. Between that and the two levels of Warlock, that is quite a significant wait. I'd recommend taking a third level of Warlock to get the spell a lot earlier as well as upgrade your pact magic spell slots to level 2 in order to get a whole lot more casting power.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Thanks very much for that folks, that's the way I was hoping it would work. I'm currently playing in a campaign with only 1 other pc (a moon Druid) and need to be very resilient. I'm playing an eldritch knight and have the heavy armour master feat from being a variant human and false life spell. I'm planning on using blade ward every other round in combat once I reach level 7 and get the war magic feature. I was thinking of taking 2 levels of warlock and pact of the fiend to get better access to temporary hit points, is this a good idea, or is it better to keep adding fighter levels? (I'm level 4 atm)

As Crash said: thats your call. Personally I'd stick with Fighter long enough to get that additional attack though.

 

[mellored]

Resistance applies to the damage BEFORE you subtract it from your HP.
So, Bob the red dragonborn takes 20 fire damage. He has 5 THP.
Bob's resistance applies first, reducing the damage to 10.
Then Bob's THP soaks 5 points.
So Bob only takes 5 damage.

Bob still takes 10 points of damage. (it matters for concentraion checks).
But he only loses 5 HP.