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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JiffyPopTart" data-source="post: 8102281" data-attributes="member: 4881">In 5e a cranium rat swarm is defined to be size medium.  5e does not define swarm as being a particular amount of individual creatures of the type of what makes it up, that is left up to the GM.  Because of this the "size" of a swarm might vary from table to table.  For me, a "swarm" is more than "some" or even "a lot".  I define a swarm as an overwhelming amount of something such that it presents an actual threat to an adventurer.  Thus, in my campaigns a swarm of cranium rats  would stand out from the background rat population in a sewer not only because of the exposed brains or glowing heads but because its so many more rats than normal in one 5' square area that it becomes a distinct mechanical thing than just 10 or 20 individual rats taking up the same space.Cranium rats aside, however, what has been described in your game wasn't even an encounter in the traditional sense of the word.  You had an environment in which you introduced an enemy that isn't going to be noticed in play (because of defensive spell abilities of cranium rats AND you not separating them out as being a swarm or glowing).  You then used a spell-like-ability to affect the party without giving them a chance to notice the casting OR identifying the source of it.  Finally you allowed the cranium rats to exit the area safely, once again without any reasonable chance of being discovered.This isn't an encounter, its just some narrative actions in your campaign that ended with the party knocking out a comrade and no other apparent damage done.  I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with using scenes like this in an adventure, nor do I think that monsters can only be used in "encounters".  I don't think, however, it is a fair use case for describing the difference in power between a psionic monster and PC balance in an encounter since even if the rats had the VS components attached to their spells the player characters wouldn't have noticed because it would have just been some rats squeaking and jumping around a little bit which you would describe as not different than all the other rats around them acting.</blockquote>

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