Does harming a companion indirectly with Warding Bond affect their approval?

Question

If one of my companions casts Warding Bond on my main character, and therefore takes damage whenever "I" do, does harming them in that way cause their approval to decrease?

I would think not, since the caster should understand how their own spell works, but Shadowheart often (maybe half the time?) complains about the redirected damage as if it was intentional, asking for example, "Did you do that on purpose?!".

Example screenshot of the combat log (Tav is my main character):

Is her approval dropping because of that?

I can't tell from the in-game approval display because it is just a meter with no number, making it very hard to notice small changes.

I've done some searching but it's been difficult to avoid spoilers. For example, I haven't read the entire Warding Bond article linked above because it quickly descends into "OP strats", etc., which I don't want to see.

Answer 1

After some experimentation, I conclude that no, harming companions indirectly with Warding Bond does not affect their approval. They complain, but the complaints are inconsequential.

First, I'll note that the approval is available as a number, just in a different part of the UI than where I was looking. Specifically, in the "details" tab, it's near the bottom:

Checking this number after each action, I discovered:

• Direct damage does affect approval. If my main character hits Shadowheart with three melee attacks (even fists), she will lower her approval by 10, and a message "Shadowheart disapproves" appears briefly in the center of the screen (not in the corner like for dialogue). Missed attacks have no effect on approval.

• Complaint dialogue lines ("Watch it, oaf!") have no connection to approval. Any time she takes damage or is attacked (even on a miss) and attributes the source of damage to my character, she has about a 25% chance to speak a complaint line. (I didn't test with other companions doing damage.)

• Damaging her indirectly with Warding Bond never affects approval, regardless of whether the damage is environmental or from an attack, and regardless of whether the damage incapacitates her.