I'm considering implementing a house rule whereby swarms and troops, when they deal automatic damage, also allow you a Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 HD + Dex mod) to halve the damage. I like swarms and troops quite a bit as enemies, and tend to use them more often than I think is common in your average AP or campaign. With that in mind, I've never really liked the idea of automatic damage with no means of mitigating or avoiding it. Also, I'm figuring this would give a small boost to classes that possess evasion and improved evasion, which I think could be nice, since those rarely tend to be the most powerful classes.
Does this sound reasonable? I realize that in the average campaign, swarms and troops will figure as enemies so rarely that it probably would not be worth the bother, but since I am planning on utilizing these two subtypes more frequently, even at higher levels where especially swarms tend to be quite rare?
Cheers,
- Gears