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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nogray" data-source="post: 3649925" data-attributes="member: 28028">I have some low-level PCs that are playing through "The Forgotten Forge" from the Eberron Campaign Setting. One of the first encounters in part three of the adventure is a CR 2 swarm of beetles (diminutive Vermin). I know that swarms of fine or diminutive creatures (like this swarm) are immune to effects and attacks that target a specific creature or number of creatures.My question is this: how do low-level PCs (specifically, mine) deal with the swarm?The party consists of a human warblade, a human sword sage, a human (vow of poverty, shapeshifting variant) druid, a human favored soul, and a whisper gnome spell thief. All of them are first level.My first impulse was splash weapons, but most of those deal only a single point of damage to those in the splash area (and I would think that the direct damage would be a thing that "targets a specific creature," like a regular weapon). I don't recall how many splash weapons the party has access to, either. I would also disagree that a torch could be used effectively (one of the module suggestions), due to the swarm traits. I don't know if my players will think to avoid the swarm, but that is an option presented in the adventure.More generally, area-of-effect attacks would be best, like the Burning Hands spell, but the party is notably missing a primary arcane caster, and even then, the Burning Hands spell isn't that great at first level. It's less than even odds that a given party will have access to it. So, what other AoE spells are there at first level? What about maneuvers? (I think the first AoE maneuver is 2nd or 3rd level in Desert Wind. Am I right about that?)I was considering planting a bit of low-level treasure for the party before the swarm encounter, such as a single-use burning hands item (caster level 3 or 4--the swarm has 4d8 hit points). Do you have any other suggestions for me?</blockquote>

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