I had a thought about damage getting through a force ward and i'm not sure what the right way to handle it would be. This hasn't come up in a game yet and for the sake of theorizing i'm just going to make up some numbers.
Let's say i'm a level 3 kineticist with a force ward that has 3 temp hp.
Then let's say i'm hit with an attack that does 1d4 physical damage and 1d4 cold damage.
When the dice are rolled the damage comes out to 3 physical damage and 3 cold damage.
Since the force ward only has 3 hp, 3 points of damage will get through but what would be the order in which the damage gets reduced by the force ward? Would it reduce all of one type of damage first or would it reduce each type of damage as similarly as possible?
I know its super nitpicky but i'm unaware of any official rule for this sort of scenario so i was curious what other people think.
As it is temporary HP, Force Ward only comes into play when you're actually taking damage. Things that reduce damage (e.g. energy resistance) apply before you get to that step.
So if you have Cold Resistance 5, and you take 1d4 physical and 1d4 cold from the same attack, the cold damage will be negated by the resistance and then the physical will hit your force ward (and possibly you.)
If you don't have anything that cares what kind of damage you're taking, it really shouldn't matter in what order it hits you.