Swarms can be an interesting and dangerous threat to throw at your players. They don’t generally have, or need, any motivation. By sheer volume of numbers, they have no fear. And they’re hard to injure! Swarms can occur “naturally” in the wild, be called by angry nature spirits, or be summoned/united by spellcasters. You can make swarms of just about any insect-size, or even some larger creatures, like crows or rats. Swarms usually no or minimal damage from weapons, and need fire or other energy effects to effectively destroy or disperse. This means that lit torches suddenly become useful, as well as oil and acid. However, their attacks are so constant and all-pervading that there is no defense against them, and the circumvent an attack roll altogether, just causing damage on anyone whose space they are occupying. This can lead to some great tense battles, especially at low levels (watch The Birds, if you need some inspiration). The 3.5 Monster Manual even included some options for higher-level swarms, like Hellwasps, which would kill someone and then crawl inside the body and animate it as a zombie. This principle can even be carried through to mobs of humanoids, inflicting trample damage if you manage to fall beneath their feet. The question can then be whether to (and how to) subdue the mob without just cutting through them all. (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 21 May 2018) Categories All Comments are closed.
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