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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 9269689" data-attributes="member: 58197">Per the PHB: &quot;If you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the ones you have or to gain the new ones.&quot; So, to gain temp hp from false life, you have to give up the ones from armor of Agathys. And since armor of Agathys triggers if &quot;a creature hits you... while you have these hit points,&quot; i.e., the ones you gained from casting armor of Agathys, it seems pretty clear that you lose the retaliation effect if you swap them out for temp hit points from another source.Anyway: When playing a wizard at mid- to high level, I don't leave home without absorb elements. Every now and then you get hit by a freight train of elemental damage (enemy caster throwing fireball, dragon's breath, etc.) and absorb elements can save you a world of pain. The question is, is it really worthwhile for a warlock? How often are you going to want to burn one of your two spell slots on it? And with a campaign at tier 1 to very low tier 2, you won't face a lot of of those elemental freight trains, which tend to show up in tier 2 and later. If you have an opening in your spell lineup and you don't know what to do with it, sure, take absorb elements, but I wouldn't let it displace another spell I wanted as a low-level warlock.For damage mitigation to extend the lifespan of AoA: The ideal at this low level would be Heavy Armor Master, although that requires you to pick up heavy armor proficiency somehow. Spells that could help include blade ward and ray of enfeeblement, but I'm not sure there's any way to make those spells worth the action cost to cast them.For banshee song, spell picks I could see include cause fear and its big brother fear, enthrall, or (as [USER=6801209]@mellored[/USER] suggested) shatter.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 9269689, member: 58197"] Per the PHB: "If you have temporary hit points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the ones you have or to gain the new ones." So, to gain temp hp from [I]false life[/I], you have to give up the ones from [I]armor of Agathys.[/I] And since [I]armor of Agathys[/I] triggers if "a creature hits you... while you have [I]these[/I] hit points," i.e., the ones you gained from casting [I]armor of Agathys[/I], it seems pretty clear that you lose the retaliation effect if you swap them out for temp hit points from another source. Anyway: When playing a wizard at mid- to high level, I don't leave home without [I]absorb elements.[/I] Every now and then you get hit by a freight train of elemental damage (enemy caster throwing [I]fireball[/I], dragon's breath, etc.) and [I]absorb elements[/I] can save you a world of pain. The question is, is it really worthwhile for a warlock? How often are you going to want to burn one of your two spell slots on it? And with a campaign at tier 1 to very low tier 2, you won't face a lot of of those elemental freight trains, which tend to show up in tier 2 and later. If you have an opening in your spell lineup and you don't know what to do with it, sure, take [I]absorb elements[/I], but I wouldn't let it displace another spell I wanted as a low-level warlock. For damage mitigation to extend the lifespan of AoA: The ideal at this low level would be Heavy Armor Master, although that requires you to pick up heavy armor proficiency somehow. Spells that could help include [I]blade ward[/I] and [I]ray of enfeeblement, [/I]but I'm not sure there's any way to make those spells worth the action cost to cast them. For banshee song, spell picks I could see include [I]cause fear[/I] and its big brother [I]fear[/I], [I]enthrall[/I], or (as [USER=6801209]@mellored[/USER] suggested) [I]shatter[/I]. [/QUOTE]

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