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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Robtheman" data-source="post: 5298345" data-attributes="member: 89625">Disallowing Grabbed, Slow or Prone is pretty brutal when fighting a swarm. The entire goal is to hit it with area or burst effects, from range if possible. Nothing better than a Prone or Slow effect, or having the Fighter take it down.Plausible descriptions for grabbed.Grabbed: The huge fighter slams his body down on the pile of crawling skeletal hands; You throw your cloak down on the mass of scarabs; You slam a ax down on the pile of lizards then use your shield to press them into the groundThis is a situation that really tests the DMs emotive abilities - and thats a good thing! I love the opportunity to explain the inexplicable. The players love to hear exactly how a axe could flatten a swarm of lizards to a prone position, for example.Last night a weapon attack with an axe had the added effect of knocking the target(s) prone. In this case the attack was made with the flat edge of the double axe and the creatures were smashed into the earth. It was enough that the swarm of the creatures had to work to get out of the muck. The creatures mindset is to stay with the group. While some of the swarming creatures were not technically prone they waited for the rest or helped them get free instead of striking out on their own.If nothing makes sense that would hit the whole swarm, another option would be splitting the swarm in two, with half hp's and half damage.This feels like a super fun result. The players' thinking goes like: "awesome job fighter now we can get clear; Oh crap there's more of them - screw you GM; Oh phew it hits less hard, i guess that was a good idea after all. Do that to the other one!"There you have it, for what it's worth.</blockquote>

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