My players asked me this weekend why you can aim a splash weapon at a grid intersection but not a 5ft square. They wanted to hit a spider swarm and said that instead of aiming at the creature (AC 17) they wanted to just hit the square (AC 5). After a long discussion we went with RAW but I still feel I owe them a better answer as to why you can aim at the intersection but not a swarm square.
Well they wanted to hit the ground "where the spiders are." With the clown you would be dealing with a tall creature so your right, it would only be hit a little, but with the spider swarm, it tons of tiny bugs covering the square. They argued that against swarms only, you should only have to hit the square, not the creatures AC. The problem with this is that it then makes a swarm's AC pointless as it can not be hit by weapons or targeted magic spells. They wanted to do the full damage to the swarm just by hitting the square.
Loved the example though! :D
You can definitely target the square for just splash damage - you can always do that with a thrown weapon. It's still technically the intersection, but it IS only AC5.
Think of the swarm's AC as the spider's ability to scurry out of the way of the thing being thrown at them - sure there is a lot of spiders, but with a poor throw a bunch of them can all flee in different directions and leave empty ground where the alchemist's fire hits. That explanation might placate your players.
Just say that swarms are more than the sum of their parts. They have an AC because there's more to it than killing as many of the little buggers as possible. You have to hit key members of the swarm, or something.
The swarm rules are abstract, anyway (that's why the swarm damage will not decrease with HP, even though less of the buggers are around).
Thanks everyone! You've given me a different way to try and explain it to my players. You guys are awesome.
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Thanks everyone! You've given me a different way to try and explain it to my players. You guys are awesome.
Was this perhaps about the alchemist bombs? I've had something of an issue with it too, so don't feel bad. One of my players decided to try his hand at playing the class and I felt like I was relearning psionics again. Not to mention the MASSIVE damage capabilities the bombs have at low levels.
Actually it was part of a Kingmaker game and Acid Flasks vs a Spider Swarm. I've looked at the alchemist bombs and there is a very good reason I'm not telling my players about them, lol. :P
Quick point in the rules:
"You can instead target a specific grid intersection. Treat this as a ranged attack against AC 5. However, if you target a grid intersection, creatures in all adjacent squares are dealt the splash damage, and the direct hit damage is not dealt to any creature. You can't target a grid intersection occupied by a creature, such as a Large or larger creature; in this case, you're aiming at the creature."
IF the creature is large or larger you can not target the intersection he is occupying. You can target the ones around him (on the edges of the space he occupies) but not the one he is centered over (or four he is centered over if huge, etc).
Awesome, I didn't catch that last part about the large creature when I looked up the rules. Thanks!