With attacks of opportunity, the PHB is pretty clear that your reaction occurs as an interruption to your opponent’s move, just before they move beyond your reach, then they resume their turn. Fair enough.
However, there are some abilities that happen during an opponent’s attack – for example, the Shield spell, and a Tempest cleric’s Wrath of the Storm ability. These both say they happen when you’re “hit” by an attack – but the Shield spell raises your AC, so I assume that occurs before rolling damage, and makes it possible for you to be retroactively not hit by the attack. Is the same true for Wrath – that your reaction might KO your opponent, and you wouldn’t have to worry about taking damage?
(I was planning to include Hellish Rebuke in this question but I see it specifically refers to “being damaged”, so I assume that means it happens on your opponent’s turn but definitely after getting hit, meaning you can only cast it if you’re still conscious.)
In general, reactions occur as a response to whatever action they are reacting to, but only once that action has been resolved:
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger.
In the case of Wrath of the Storm it happens when you choose to react to this trigger:
When a creature within 5 feet of you that you can see hits you with an attack
This triggers your reaction, but the enemy’s attack has not yet been resolved. Since the trigger happens before the damage (on the hit), but the enemy’s action has not yet resolved, you must wait for the damage to be applied and any other effects from the enemy’s attack to resolve before your reaction can occur.
The spell Shield is a reaction you take when you are hit by an attack. You are missing an important part of the spell description:
An invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile.
So in this case, it is a specific exception to the rule that happens as a reaction to an attack that hits you, and it increases your AC against the triggering attack so that if the attack originally hit you, it might now miss.
Specific beats general.
The general rule is that reactions happen after the trigger is completed.
A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind
The word “response” requires the thing being responded to to have happened first.
Shield is an exception as are attacks of opportunity as their specific rules make them happen before the trigger.
The Tempest cleric’s wrath contains no such exception so you must still be conscious after the trigger.
Wrath of Storm does not protect from the damage of the triggering attack.
A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind
This means that a reaction is preceded by the trigger chronologically, as a general rule. In the case of WoS, no further specific rules are given, so the general rule stands and the hit (and thus the damage) still occurs. For Shield, such a reading would render the AC bonus useless against the trigger. The text, however, reads:
+5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack
The specific rule here states that the spell has a retroactive effect on it’s trigger. This is why it has this unique ability, one which Wrath of Storm would not.
You’re also entirely right about Hellish Rebuke, the reference to damage makes it a nonissue.
Related
How does the timing work for reactions in DND5e? – rpg.stackexchange.com #JHedzWorlD
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