Paladins and Swarms

[thecasualoblivion]

Just made a discovery in my game last night, and that is that Paladins are the archenemies of swarms. The Paladin's divine challenge is a close effect, and is considered an attack that deals damage. This means that the swarm is vulnerable to it. Also, the main offensive threat to a swarm is their aura which attacks anyone who is in it. This triggers the Paladin's challenge, which creates a lose-lose situation.


I was DMing this encounter, which involved an enemy controller holding the party in place surrounding the swarm. The Paladin tactic occurred to me, but not to the party's Fighter(with Paladin multiclass) and after I described this to my players after the combat I gave them a minute or so to smack him silly.

 

[Anthony Jackson]

Just made a discovery in my game last night, and that is that Paladins are the archenemies of swarms. The Paladin's divine challenge is a close effect, and is considered an attack that deals damage. This means that the swarm is vulnerable to it. Also, the main offensive threat to a swarm is their aura which attacks anyone who is in it. This triggers the Paladin's challenge, which creates a lose-lose situation.

This has come up on this board before. It's not entirely clear whether the damage from DC is actually considered to be a burst, or whether the burst effect is just placing the mark, and the damage from DC is an untargeted effect of the mark. In addition, if a swarm's aura attacks the paladin, it probably doesn't trigger DC regardless of who else it attacks.

 

[Kordeth]

Just made a discovery in my game last night, and that is that Paladins are the archenemies of swarms. The Paladin's divine challenge is a close effect, and is considered an attack that deals damage. This means that the swarm is vulnerable to it. Also, the main offensive threat to a swarm is their aura which attacks anyone who is in it. This triggers the Paladin's challenge, which creates a lose-lose situation.

Divine Challenge isn't an attack, and it isn't actually "considered to be an attack that deals damage." There's no attack roll and no "hit" line, and the burst portion of the power is only to choose a target.