My players want to try to use aqueous orb as an anti-swarm spell but I am leaning both ways and seeking guidance on how this would work.
Any creature in the path of the aqueous orb takes 2d6 points of nonlethal damage.
A swarm rendered unconscious by means of nonlethal damage becomes disorganized and dispersed, and does not reform until its hit points exceed its nonlethal damage.
Make it work as intended, swarms are pretty annoying to begin with and the party should have at least one good 'weapon' against those encounters.
Check Archives of Nethys on Aqueous Orb and Swarms to seek more info about how those two interact with each other.
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Aqueous orb is an area of effect and it engulfs large or smaller creatures, so yeah, works normally (including the 50% bonus damage for being an aoe vs swarms). As for nonlethal damage, it covers that under the swarm subtype: "A swarm rendered unconscious by means of nonlethal damage becomes disorganized and dispersed, and does not reform until its hit points exceed its nonlethal damage."
Since a swarm acts as a single large creature, it would fill up the orb.
Being able to swim makes no difference, as per the spell the swarm would get a single reflex save each round in order to escape.
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The only downside I envision to using the spell is that it deals nonlethal, which only disperses the swarm. Your typical swarm would reform in 5 hours or so. (nonlethal heals at HD/hour)
The upside is that you could roll a swarm filled water ball over other enemies dealing nonlethal and swarm damage, which would be totally awesome. Sadly the swarm would fill the ball, so you couldn't pick up anything else, but you could pick up an enemy and roll them into the swarm instead. Oh the possibilities.
Aqueous orb is an area of effect and it engulfs large or smaller creatures, so yeah, works normally (including the 50% bonus damage for being an aoe vs swarms). As for nonlethal damage, it covers that under the swarm subtype: "A swarm rendered unconscious by means of nonlethal damage becomes disorganized and dispersed, and does not reform until its hit points exceed its nonlethal damage."
Since a swarm acts as a single large creature, it would fill up the orb.
Being able to swim makes no difference, as per the spell the swarm would get a single reflex save each round in order to escape.
^ This
The only downside I envision to using the spell is that it deals nonlethal, which only disperses the swarm. Your typical swarm would reform in 5 hours or so. (nonlethal heals at HD/hour)
What if you left the swarm in the orb a bit longer? Non-lethal damage is leathal once it reaches max hp.
They also have the issue of not breathing.
/cevah