Can swarms damage other swarms

[Undone]

Simple question I could not find an answer to.

[MurphysParadox]

Technically yes.

They are mindless, so theoretically, they'd attack anything in their area, regardless of faction (PCs or monsters).

That said, it is unlikely swarms of the same type would attack each other. It also depends on the swarm type; a tick swarm and a wasp swarm wouldn't do anything to each other, but a rat swarm and a flesh eating beetle swarm would probably hurt each other. This would require some GM consideration.

I'd also rule that this counts as AOE damage, thus not mitigated by swarm protections against single target attacks.

[justaworm]

I would agree with MurphysParadox in that a GM would need to make a ruling on whether they interacted or not.

[Undone]

I asked because I wanted to know if mad monkeys was a valid solution to swarms.

[Draco Bahamut]

I call using mass combat rules to resolve that.

[_Ozy_]

Ants from different hives will attack each other. Don't see why you would grant damage immunity when it isn't noted anywhere.

[Saldiven]

_Ozy_ wrote:

Ants from different hives will attack each other. Don't see why you would grant damage immunity when it isn't noted anywhere.

The rules can't account for every eventuality, and sometimes a little basic reasoning has to come into play. A swarm of army ants and a swarm of wasps are unlikely to interact with one other (they certainly wouldn't do full damage to each other), whereas a swarm of monkeys and a swarm of ticks (described as "dog sized") most likely would interact.

[thorin001]

Since swarms are essentially AOE damage they should damage other swarms at the 1.5 damage rate.