Our party recently ran into a swarm.
Our wizard does not believe in blasting so he does not have a single AE spell. Unfortunately, no one else in the party has abilities that affect an area either.
We ended up with my Eidolon moving into the swarm to keep it in place, then pelting her with oil and finally setting her on fire.
She was not pleased. The plan was for the rest to delay until after her initiative. - They didn't.
The plan worked, the swarm burned too.
However, it did illustrate a glaring weakness in our party. I want to remove that weakness, so I turn to your collective knowledge.
How can we find a reliable and cheap and re-producible source of area effect damage that is sufficient and scalable to cover our needs?
Of course I will ask our wizard to branch into AE spells, but besides that, what would you do?
Greek fire just isn't tough enough for higher levels.
I don't believe in blasting as a focus, but I think every caster should have it as an option.
Is it the wizard or the player that does not believe in blasting. If it is the player I think they have taken the anti-blasting past its intended point. If it is the wizard I think the experience should have enlightened him. I would not do anything other than try to get them to take a blasting spell here or there. Well maybe asking another party member to cover the spot with depending on current party composition, but that is about it. Those who fail to adapt suffer the consequences.
A little more info about your group... classes, races, levels, etc. would help.
The first thing to jump into my mind is an elixir of fire breathing, but even that is single target. Same with circlet of blasting.
OK, got it. Necklace of Fireballs.
Other then that, I think Use Magic Device might be needed.
Oh yeah, as a summoner, can't you summon some creatures that can blast a little? Mephits, Azata Bralani?
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A cleric might be able to toss out a sound burst, but it's a terrible, terrible source of AoE damage. A much better cleric option, if you've got a non-good cleric, would be negative energy channeling. Nice damage, against a save that's generally pretty low for swarms. Putting a glyph of warding (blast glyph) on some item the cleric carries, which can be thrown down into the swarm (which will, pretty much immediately, end up 'passing it' as little buggy-wuggies crawl over it, and triggering it), might work.
Depending on Domain choices, the cleric may have other options, such as wind wall (Air), burning hands (Fire) or entangle (Plant), and depending on your GM's interpretions of their effects, the blast rune power of the Rune Domain might be useful, or a clever use of heat metal (Sun Domain) on a large shield tossed down into the swarm (which will end up crawling all over it as they cross that square) might do some harm.
A druid has flaming sphere, which is a fairly useful spell for the level, and affects all creatures in a square (so, a tiny AoE), as well as possibly being able to use chill metal, heat metal, gust of wind, entangle or fire trap creatively, if the GM is amenable to that sort of thing.
Plus there's the hawt swarm-on-swarm action of having the druid cast summon swarm, just to see what happens...
Of course I will ask our wizard to branch into AE spells, but besides that, what would you do?
Greek fire just isn't tough enough for higher levels.
Clerics/Druids have plenty of AoE options later on. In the early levels, you'll need to depend on either items (alchemist fire/acid) or depend on weaker AoE attacks from clerics/druids (gust of wind, flaming sphere, sound burst, etc).
Would a net work against a swarm, provided the constituent creatures aren't too small?
how to get a reliable source?
You rang?
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Everybody should carry several flasks of alchemist's fire, once you reach level 3+. You can certainly afford it and it is also effective against them nasty trolls.
And a great way for the DM to wipe the party with a well placed fireball! ;) You can always have someone who's able carry scrolls. Or just learn to run from encounters you cant win. People always seem to have that problem in Table Top games.
You rang?
Yes, we needed you for our AoEs. Please stand right over there, while we ready our flasks, spells and a net. And could you try "swarming" a bit? Thank you.
There are many spells at various levels that can deal AOE damage between all of the classes. If they do not want to use them all the time, then having a wand or scroll for special situations is very much worth it.
Other then that flasks of Alchemist Fire and Torches will work at lower levels.