Augment Summoning on swarms?


Rules Questions

Silver Crusade

Does the Augment Summoning feat affect swarms? It says it affects summoned creatures, but I don't know if a swarm counts as a creature for stuff like this.

Liberty's Edge

I do not see why it wouldn't. It's a summon spell. EDIT: Furthermore, the Swarm Subtype states that they are a group of smaller creatures that act as a single creature. Yeah, it should work just fine.


All this does is boost the swarm's Fort and HP; the increase in STR doesn't do anything really useful as swarms auto-hit for set damage and don't use their CMB/CMD that often. But yes, the feat would work on swarms, as per HangarFlying's explanation.

Silver Crusade

Heh. My conjuration/summoning focused sorcerer already has the feat to go with Summon Monster 1 and 2. Looking at level 3 spells, Mad Monkeys just looked appealing. This could be fun. But I'll probably wait until after more generically useful spells. He already has Haste at level 6, so I was looking at stuff like Aqueous Orb and Dispel Magic for his next level 3 spell.

Sovereign Court

Fromper wrote:

Heh. My conjuration/summoning focused sorcerer already has the feat to go with Summon Monster 1 and 2. Looking at level 3 spells, Mad Monkeys just looked appealing. This could be fun. But I'll probably wait until after more generically useful spells. He already has Haste at level 6, so I was looking at stuff like Aqueous Orb and Dispel Magic for his next level 3 spell.

Mad Monkeys is incredibly entertaining (more so for the player than for the GM), but not always as useful as one might think. I have a druid with augment summoning, and it gets pretty powerful on stuff with a lot of attacks (cats, eagles)


IIRC the DC for some swarm effects (like distraction) are based upon constitution. Thus those DCs are increased as well.


Rikkan wrote:
IIRC the DC for some swarm effects (like distraction) are based upon constitution. Thus those DCs are increased as well.

i thought the constitution part was referring to the attacked creature not the attacker???

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Nope. From the PRD:

PRD wrote:
Distraction (Ex) A creature with this ability can nauseate the creatures that it damages. Any living creature that takes damage from a creature with the distraction ability is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 creature's HD + creature's Con modifier) negates the effect.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Man, looking at that they really should have used something other than creature to refer to both the attacker and target. But if it was the creature attacked, the DC would vary depending on their hit dice and CON--you'd have different save DCs for the same swarm depending on who it was attacking, and the higher a target's level and CON the higher its save DC would be. Yeah, no. I don't think mosquitoes get more distracting as you get more competent and healthier.


Poison (Ex or Su) A creature with this ability can poison those it attacks. The effects of the poison, including its save, frequency, and cure, are included in the creature's description. The saving throw to resist a poison is usually a Fort save (DC 10 + 1/2 poisoning creature's racial HD + creature's Con modifier; the exact DC is given in the creature's descriptive text). Poisons can be removed through neutralize poison and similar effects.

OH....good to know.


Rain of frogs uses centipede swarm stats...which are calculated wrong at DC 13 fort since it says it includes a +2 racial bonus and than does add the +2 to the 10 + 1/2 HD(4=9/2) + con modifier(-1). It should be DC 15...but specific trumps general so DC 13 it is. Til of course you augment it than it does become DC 15 fort save for the posion...and the distraction also.

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