Can Swarms stack?

[Stalker0]

I was reading the new creeping doom, and it got me thinking. The swarm description says that swarms can move through obstacles and enemies without issue. So I'm thinking, can I have all the swarms of a creeping doom move into the same square and attack the same people?

So a 20th level casting of it could do 20d6 plus poison damage to everything in a 10 foot square. Now considering before it could technically do 1000 points of damage to a single creature (and if you didn't have DR, you were dead), I don't have a problem with that, but is it legal?

 

[jgsugden]

I was reading the new creeping doom, and it got me thinking. The swarm description says that swarms can move through obstacles and enemies without issue. So I'm thinking, can I have all the swarms of a creeping doom move into the same square and attack the same people?

So a 20th level casting of it could do 20d6 plus poison damage to everything in a 10 foot square. Now considering before it could technically do 1000 points of damage to a single creature (and if you didn't have DR, you were dead), I don't have a problem with that, but is it legal?

Being able to move through a square s not the same thing as occupying the same square at the end of movement. PCs can pass through allied squares freely, but may not end their movement in an occupied square.

That being said, the swarm description (under Coombat on page 237 of the MM) says:

[A swarm] can occupy the same space as a creature of any size, sinc3e it crawls all over its prey, but remains a creature with a 10-foot space.

This indicates to me that mutlipel sets of swarms may occupy the same area.

On the other hand, I do not think they can all attack the same targets. The swarm crawls all over a target. There is only so much room on a target to allow for creatures to crawl on them. If that space is filled, other creatures may not crawl on them. In other words, I think that one swarm covers a foe to capacity. This is just my interpretation based upon the descriptions of swarms. It is not backed by a clearly stated rule that I can see.

 

[youspoonybard]

Multiple swarms just make a bigger one...and can't stack.

What you REALLY need to fear is being caught in a large swarm...when you're large or bigger. All these "Enlarge Person" users? They can be bitten by 4 swarms simultaneously...

 

[hong]

On a related note, I'm thinking of representing big groups of mooks (say 10-20) as a "swarm" of some sort. So instead of having 10 orc minis/counters on the map, rolling dice 10 times, and keeping track of 10 sets of hit points, I'd have one 20-foot-square thing with one hit point total and one attack roll. Makes things much simpler all round.

Watch this space.

 

[the Jester]

On a related note, I'm thinking of representing big groups of mooks (say 10-20) as a "swarm" of some sort. So instead of having 10 orc minis/counters on the map, rolling dice 10 times, and keeping track of 10 sets of hit points, I'd have one 20-foot-square thing with one hit point total and one attack roll. Makes things much simpler all round.

Watch this space.

I'm working on a "swarm of creatures" template for an upcoming book of adversity that I'm publishing (along with others, of course). Can't wait to work out the details...

As for the initial question, I'd have to think carefully about it, but I think I lean towards letting them stack.