Excerpt: Swarms

[Mighty Veil]

The new Indiana Jones movie has a scene in it you'd might like.

No doubt

Russians do not have DR vs. swarms.

 

[Mouseferatu]

No doubt

Russians do not have DR vs. swarms.

In Soviet Union, action points spend you.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Now all we need is for the swarm of locusts to be able to drop full plate mail as treasure and we can play some Diablo II...

Anyway, like the swarm rules, simple and effective and it does give me a cool idea about an encounter where a whole cavern or chasm is filled with a huge swarm of bugsa and they'll need to blast (or run) their way through it somehow...

 

[MindWanderer]

This was exactly the first thing I thought about; can we have minion swarms? Swarms of minions? Swarms of swarms? :hehhehheh:

No swarms of swarms: "A swarm is considered a single monster even though it is composed of several Tiny creatures. Most single swarms are Medium, but some can be larger." The constituent creatures must be Tiny. No larger, and a swarm is always at least Medium. Also note that it's exactly Tiny, which rather heavily implies that Tiny is the smallest size category now.

BTW, when does ongoing damage happen in 4? Is it before the save get rolled? And do they stack? That could make a really bad situation for someone dog piled by stirge swarms.

It happens at the beginning of the victim's turn, and the save happens at the end, so unless a buddy helps you out somehow, you're guaranteed to take the damage. Ongoing damage of the same type does not stack.

 

[Family]

In Soviet Union, action points spend you.

Mouseferatu, I put to you sir: Are you now or have you ever been, or associated with, a member of the Communist Party?

 

[That One Guy]

"That's a level of AWESOME you just can't beat..."

Totally sent that comic to friends just now. Rad.

As far as the minion swarm goes... I like the idea of the PCs dealing with groups of goblins all at once rather than a bunch of minions. Could be fun. Could get old... but I think it would really help for those truly epic PC parties that take on armies, or could really give the players that feeling of "Yeah, we are BAMFs." Also, swarms of weaklings may give a good sense of flavour for a party in the middle of a war. I hope the rules at least allow me to make a sweet war session without a headache... or that they give me a really easy way to houserules it up.

All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with the swarm rules.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

In Soviet Union, action points spend you.

I'm at work, dammit! Quit making me laugh!

I'm loving this article - not having kept up with 3e books I'd never fought or used swarms in a game, so this is all new to me, and it looks like great fun.

I love how 4e is making sense - one thing leads neatly into another, like with the drakes here. Move action to close - minor action to pull down - standard action for chow time!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Well, the release of the new game is right around the corner, so it's time to blow the lid off this thing. Since 4E was first announced, gamers have besieged us with phone calls, emails, and even a protest march demanding one thing above all else: How do swarms work in 4E?

I'm guessing this is deliberate hyperbole, because I've not seen the question of 4e swarms raised even once on ENworld... (unlike pretty much everything else!).

Stirges as swarms makes a lot of sense (because you're not having to worry about micro-managing the grapple attempts of dozens of the little beggars), although it will lose a little bit of its scare factor... like the time when the Large PC was successfully attacked by about 16 stirges, and he knew that on their next action he would be exsanguinated with a vengeance and so he cried out "fireball me! fireball me NOW!".

One genre staple that seems to be missing is the opportunity to use a torch to fend off swarms (whether insects or snakes - go Indy!). Perhaps anyone with a torch could use "Attack vs Will" in order to prevent the swarm approaching close enough to 'aura' them.

 

[hong]

I'm guessing this is deliberate hyperbole, because I've not seen the question of 4e swarms raised even once on ENworld... (unlike pretty much everything else!).

I think the bit where they throw the designer into a box with 100,000 ants might be hyperbole as well.

 

[Boarstorm]

I think the bit where they throw the designer into a box with 100,000 ants might be hyperbole as well.

Such cynicism!

You know, hong, sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.