I have to admit, I hate swarms. Mainly because I encounter them all the time and no one seems to know the specific rules about them:
(1) if a cleric uses selective channel, can he choose to disclude a swarm from the channel? Or can channel energy even affect a swarm? I thought the hit point total represents a percentage of the swarm getting killed off, which means that healing couldn't bring them back to life. After all, it's not like it becomes unconscious when under 0 HP, so I'm not sure how it can be healed.
(2) if you throw a splash weapon at a swarm at the same square where a PC occupies, does both the swarm and the PC take full damage, or does only the swarm take the full damage? And beyond that, if you throw a weapon at a swarm and you miss, how do you determine where the splash weapon lands? Is there no chance that the PC would take the direct hit? And if you rolled a d8 and determined that the weapon hit another swarm square, does the swarm take full damage? And does the splash damage count for other swarm squares? Would a splash weapon cause 150% damage or does it cause 150%+3 damage or does it just cause normal damage +3?
There is always a debate about swarms when I run into them, and then the rules seem to be up to the GM and different every occasion.
I don't know about the first question, but the PC doesn't take full damage unless the PC is the target. Even if you miss and hit the PC's square, it hits the square and never the PC.
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1) it isn't really clear, channel energy talks about creatures, selective channeling talks about targets. Its a GM call, but if channel energy heals them, the selective channeling could exclude them.
2) This is a big area of confusion, but its really pretty simple, if you target a square, you only EVER deal splash damage. To deal full damage, one must target the creature (in this case the swarm) and you deal full damage ONLY if you hit them (using their touch AC). Any miss, will scatter and deal only splash damage. If you do manage to hit a swarm with a splash weapon, the swarm does take 50% additional damage, but no extra damage for splash. Only other creatures adjacent to the target square of the swam take splash damage. The other squares the swarm occupies are considered part of the same "creature", hence no additional splash damage.
Now for my personal rant versus swarms, their touch AC is generally equal to their regular AC in most cases, and it can be relatively high, primarily due to the adjustment in AC due to size. But if I'm throwing a grenade-like weapons, into a large mass, they shouldn't get their size adjustment to AC. But that isn't RAW and it's why you see so many variations about how GMs handle swarms.
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It's much easier to target a square and throw the flask there. Splash damage does 1 point per square , swarm has large size so he gets 4 splash damage that way. It's not much , but it's hell a lot easier then hitting their touch AC.
Lower level swarms such as, Spider Swarm , have only 9 Hp, so 3 acid flasks is enough to get them down. If every team member has 1 flask at least, they can go down in first round easily.
Bill, I'm not so sure. Swarms can't be a "target" and selective channeling let "target" excludes. Channel is area affect, so they would get the heal and not be selectively excluded. Now, how healing works on dead bugs? Well, it is *diving*magic*.
It's much easier to target a square and throw the flask there. Splash damage does 1 point per square , swarm has large size so he gets 4 splash damage that way. It's not much , but it's hell a lot easier then hitting their touch AC.
Lower level swarms such as, Spider Swarm , have only 9 Hp, so 3 acid flasks is enough to get them down. If every team member has 1 flask at least, they can go down in first round easily.
Is this how the damage is calculated? If you're a giant and someone throws acid into one of your squares, do you take 4 damage? More if you're gargantuan? I thought the +50% damage accounted for their swarmyness and beyond that they were considered one creature?
Is this how the damage is calculated? If you're a giant and someone throws acid into one of your squares, do you take 4 damage? More if you're gargantuan? I thought the +50% damage accounted for their swarmyness and beyond that they were considered one creature?It's much easier to target a square and throw the flask there. Splash damage does 1 point per square , swarm has large size so he gets 4 splash damage that way. It's not much , but it's hell a lot easier then hitting their touch AC.
Lower level swarms such as, Spider Swarm , have only 9 Hp, so 3 acid flasks is enough to get them down. If every team member has 1 flask at least, they can go down in first round easily.
Your last statement assumption is the correct one Kwauss.
