Swarms can't cross a Wind Wall. What level are you?
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If you're all alone, you could use an origami swarm to distract the swarm; let the two swarms fight it out while you walk away.
Otherwise, see if you can help the wizard with Aid Another on his concentration checks (or maybe Guidance) so he can burn them away. It's quite possible that this is one of those cases where you need to help other people solve the problem.
If you're feeling masochistic, you can stand in the middle of the swarm so that it doesn't move towards other PCs.
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Vermin repellent is 5gp and forces a DC 15 fort save to enter your square. Could just ignore them if applied to you. Use it to strategically maneuver them or let them chase you to a corridor that you apply it to the ground and walk away.
Always have Vermin Repellent!
I suggest Keros Oil. It's not exactly 'safe' to use, but you get a lot for your money and it's utterly, completely awesome.
An elixir of fire breath is a bit expensive, but should do the trick.
Keros Oil needs a target - you can't target swarms.
Sound Burst is the only real spell option - 1d8 sonic AoE isn't that bad for a damaging spell.
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I've always kinda found swarms to be poorly designed. Even if you have a blaster caster, the "fight" consists of everyone else in the party sitting around and waiting for it to die. Even for casters, they get distracted easily and hate swarms too.
At low levels a full grown orc fighter can die to a swarm of mosquitoes. That's just not right.
Fire domain would help.
Nobody should go adventuring in a classical campaign without bringing some alchemist fires. Especially at 1st or 2nd level.
If its a home-campaign then a lot of 3rd party material pops up. Heck Players handbook 2 from 3.5 can probably help too.
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Okay, so swarms can only be attacked with melee weapons, and then only tiny swarms can take damage from them.
And a swarmbane clasp does not get around the inability to target them with ranged attacks.
Good to know. I'm sure all my archers will be crying about that.
So swarms are unable to be targeted by melee and ranged attacks?A swarm made up of Tiny creatures takes half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage.Only tiny swarms take half damage from weapons. Smaller swarms take 0. The oil isn't classified under piercing or slashing. It is an effect that targets a specific number of creatures and you make a touch attack to target it. By RAW it doesn't work.
If there was any language that made it an AoE or splash it would do 1 point of fire damage, but there is none.
its this interpritation of swarm rules thats far to static and silly, i reall think for the RAW people that the swarm rules should be ammended to say elemental damage hurts swarms. cuz honestly they are just trying to say you can stomp enough bugs to do meaningful damage to a swarm, but lets think for a second and realize that breathing flamible oil at a swarm of whatever (usually insecs ut maybe small birds or something) is going to hurt multipul members of the swarm thus doing swarm damage. RAI is that you cant melee them to death and they want you to use spell resources or alchemical items to fight the swarms.
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its this interpritation of swarm rules thats far to static and silly, i reall think for the RAW people that the swarm rules should be ammended to say elemental damage hurts swarms.
Please note that for the most part we are saying 'this is what the rules actually say' and not 'this is how it should be'. I knew the swarm rules were clunky, but these discussions have enlightened me to how ridiculous they actually are.
its this interpritation of swarm rules thats far to static and silly, i reall think for the RAW people that the swarm rules should be ammended to say elemental damage hurts swarms.Please note that for the most part we are saying 'this is what the rules actually say' and not 'this is how it should be'. I knew the swarm rules were clunky, but these discussions have enlightened me to how ridiculous they actually are.
i never realized how clunky they were either till reading some of these threads. i always used to let torches for example do their full fire damage to a swarm, by RAW would that be legal? (torches do one d4 i think, dont have my books on me though)
edit: google is helpful, they do (at medium size) 1d3 + 1 fire damage, so to rephrase my question, would the swarm still take the point of fire damage?
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If you can find a citation about weapons not being effects, that would be great.
i never realized how clunky they were either till reading some of these threads. i always used to let torches for example do their full fire damage to a swarm, by RAW would that be legal? (torches do one d4 i think, dont have my books on me though)
You use them as improvised weapons, so they would either deal half or none of their physical damage. I think the 1 point of fire damage would also apply.
In 3.x, swarms were particularly called out as being vulnerable to torches and energy damage from weapons, but that wording was dropped in Pathfinder.
Swarms are extremely difficult to fight with physical attacks. However, they have a few special vulnerabilities, as follows:
A lit torch swung as an improvised weapon deals 1d3 points of fire damage per hit.
A weapon with a special ability such as flaming or frost deals its full energy damage with each hit, even if the weapon’s normal damage can’t affect the swarm.
Magma Elementals (2nd level spell) have an area attack.
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Leaving spell slots open is a good tactic for prepared spellcasters just for situations like this where you suddenly need a spell you've never considered before. It's even better for Clerics and Druids with their complete insta-knowledge of all spells on their lists (or on their core rulebook lists anyhow, depending on your GM). If you're a Cleric of Nethys there's an excellent Feat called 'Magical Epiphany' in the Inner Sea Gods book that once per day lets you prepare a spell in an open slot as a standard action - great if you've not got room to (for example) back away from the swarm to plan and prepare to sort it out.
Otherwise... a flask of oil (or three...) poured over a 5ft square (plus a tindertwig - casually thrown over your shoulder after lighting a cigar for added dramatic effect...) usually does the trick... but that's hardly Cleric-specific.
Bane is mind-affecting so won't affect vermin swarms without a hive mind. Also, swarms don't make attack rolls, so a -1 penalty to them doesn't really help.
Ah, the "alchemist fire is useless against swarms" argument. I remember it well. Because it keeps happening.
Basically, if you want to go by strict, raw RAW, it's debateable. Even then, I think I've won once or twice, but the strict, raw RAW is dumb anyways. ;)
What else can a cleric do?
Befriend an alchemist. Bombs work quite well against swarms, I've discovered. :)
On the matter at hand: Buy a swarmsuit and laugh at your buddies. Or heal them. Whatever.
I actually don't know what Keros Oil is. Sorry, it sounded like a splash weapon. :P
Yeah, I'm inclined to let it happen just because the visual is kinda badass.
Summon some bralani and let them go to town with lightning bolts.
Flame strike the swarm.
...what?
Buy the swarmsuit anyways, and pointedly refuse to attack the swarm. "No, no, guys, remember how you always tell me to just heal you and let you do all the fighting?"
A swarm is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creaturesBy RAW Keros Oil doesn't work.
I always took that to mean effects that specifically state "Target: one creature", "Creature(s) touched" or "(up to) X number of creatures", like a lot of spells do, that aren't rays or areas. And it would make sense because, a swarm consists of hundreds of creatures, so a single one of them being dominated by a dominate monster will not do anything great to stop them for example.
Swarms of tiny sized creatures specifically state that they take reduced damage from weapon attacks, so they have to be "targetable" with attacks.
With a ranged weapon, you can shoot or throw at any target that is within the weapon's maximum range and in line of sight.Ranged attacks are effects that target a specific number of creatures.
So you can't shoot inanimate objects?
Bunch of just going around in circles unless the OP comes back and lists his domains, as well as describes what flavor of swarm he's dealing with. Worst case, light a torch and start swinging...
The cleric can cast resist energy (fire) communal so the arcane caster can kill the swarm with little collateral damage.
Apart from that cleric spells that would help:
- Blood blaze
- raging rubble
- repel vermin (only works on vermin swarms)
- it could be argued that shield of dawn works, too as each creature to attack the one shielded is dealt fire damage, meaning it is not a limited number of creatures.
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Basically, if you want to go by strict, raw RAW, it's debateable. Even then, I think I've won once or twice, but the strict, raw RAW is dumb anyways. ;)
Swarms 150% damage from splash weapons, not to be confused with the single point of splash damage dealt on a miss.
A swarm takes half again as much damage (+50%) from spells or effects that affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells.
Emphasis mine.