So one of the upcoming mini-bosses in my campaign is a wihsaak sahkil - these guys get vomit swarm as an at-will spell-like ability (CL 8th).
To me this seems very OP - he can have up to 8 swarms going all the time, or 7 if he stops to make a full attack every now and then.
Am I missing some rule that limits summons, or some weakness of swarms? Otherwise I'm thinking of making it the SLA 3/day.
I think that a swarm of wasps, even one summoned every round, is something a party with access to magic could handle.
It seems nothing keeps him from summoning wasps every turn. If you want to balance it more, you could say that he can have only one summon at a time. However, it should be noted that swarms can't precisely occupy the same spaces as each other (the rules imply they don't, but in any event they would likely harm each other if they tried), and he's giving up his turn to call them, so that's him not using Droning Madness or anything else.
How many rounds do you expect the fight to last anyway? If it manages to get off 3 of these I would be surprised.
Vomit swarm is a standard action. At that level, it can summon a wasp swarm which is cr3. The swarm lasts rounds per level, so 8. If this thing knows you are coming before you get to it, it would likely start committing swarms before the fight. It does seem a bit strong for a CR 6 encounter. Basically, if you don't catch it unprepared, you should run away and try again later.
How many rounds do you expect the fight to last anyway? If it manages to get off 3 of these I would be surprised.
Yeah, that seems like the basic war of attrition whenever you face enemy spawners.
Ignore the swarms, and just attack as hard as possible. Of course, AoEs that target both are preferred, obviously.
Also, this is a flying monster that can summon flying swarms before a lot of classes have reliable access to fly.
Also, this is a flying monster that can summon flying swarms before a lot of classes have reliable access to fly.
Oh, wow. Yeah, that changes the dynamics here by a lot.
If it was ground based, then it would be simple- charge over, and then use full attacks (if available) until it dies. But flight makes things much harder to get ahead with the attrition.
Even if you can get close to it, it can emit 100 ft confusion aura that it can maintain as a move action, while vomiting swarms as a standard action. Also it's immune to swarms, so can stand in the middle of them. Also it has at will blur which lasts for 8 minutes a pop, so if it is even close to expecting combat that is probably active. And it has a gaze to cause Shaken. And it has DR and SR.....
This thing should be at least CR 7.
Edit: And it has at will greater teleport, so if you are beating it, it can just run away and come back later.
Even if you can get close to it, it can emit 100 ft confusion aura that it can maintain as a move action, while vomiting swarms as a standard action. Also it's immune to swarms, so can stand in the middle of them. Also it has at will blur which lasts for 8 minutes a pop, so if it is even close to expecting combat that is probably active. And it has a gaze to cause Shaken. And it has DR and SR.....
This thing should be at least CR 7.
Edit: And it has at will greater teleport, so if you are beating it, it can just run away and come back later.
So a shadow demon situation, on steroids. A step below 'rocks fall'.
Still a one round action to Summon Swarm.
I was sure that all SLA were a standard action, but I'll be damned:
"A spell-like ability has a casting time of 1 standard action unless noted otherwise in the ability or spell description."
Nobody tell my players!
So that and the AoO make it quite a bit more costly for him to create swarms.
Even if you can get close to it, it can emit 100 ft confusion aura that it can maintain as a move action, while vomiting swarms as a standard action. Also it's immune to swarms, so can stand in the middle of them. Also it has at will blur which lasts for 8 minutes a pop, so if it is even close to expecting combat that is probably active. And it has a gaze to cause Shaken. And it has DR and SR.....
This thing should be at least CR 7.
For funsies, this particular wihsaak has the swarmblooded template from Advanced Bestiary, meaning it automatically creates a wasp swarm whenever it bleeds, is slashed, is crit'd, or dies. >:D But you're right, it already has a slurry of defenses already, maybe the swarmblooded is overdoing it?
My hope is they use a bit of thinking in this battle, instead of 'bashy bashy done'.
It's not summon swarm. It's vomit swarm. So it's a standard action.
My two copper, the item swarm suit would grant dr5/- against the swarms and it only costs 20 gold. If they are aware of what they are fighting they should prepare for it.These kinds of preparations would significantly change the difficulty of the encounter.
Perhaps this is off topic, my apologies.
I just looked over Vomit Swarm, and I have to say it really isn't that bad. It will lack finite control over it without standard action concentration, so it is more of a projectile attack than a summon monster deal.