Swarms, such as a swarm of insects or a swarm of rats, deal double damage when they're at full hit points. But I think since their hit points symbolize the number of creatures in the swarm, instead of dealing more damage, they should have more chances to hit. This would also be simpler to run the swarms instead of trying to find out the damage distinction. What do you think of changing their stat blocks thus?
Multiattack. If the swarm has half its hit points or more, the swarm makes two Bite attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack:+2 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm's space. Hit: 3 (1d6) piercing damage.
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I don't see any issue with this except that it slightly prolongs combat. That said, it is a bit more realistic to allow a swarm to attack multiple targets.
It means the opportunity attacks when someone tries to move out of a swarm are smaller (because it's reach 0, moving out of the actual space of the swarm is an opportunity attack). It doesn't have other meaningful balance implications.
The increased damage isn't due to an individual member biting for more damage - it is representing the accumulation from MANY, MANY small bites which are occurring in that single combat round.
Exactly. So why do all of those many, many bites either have to all hit, or ALL miss? Having Multiattack spreads out the damage in a more realistic curve so that the swarm will have more than one chance for the round for all of its members to hit.
I run my swarms as having one attack. The reason is that it takes less time to roll and calculate the effects of potentially two die rolls (attack roll + damage roll) instead of potentially eight die rolls (4Xattack rolls + 4Xdamage rolls). If you don't mind rolling a bunch of dice all the time, then, sure, go with the multi-attack route. Just keep in mind that this is effectively focus-firing on one PC since a swarm's attack range is typically 0 feet.
Exactly. So why do all of those many, many bites either have to all hit, or ALL miss? Having Multiattack spreads out the damage in a more realistic curve so that the swarm will have more than one chance for the round for all of its members to hit.
The amount of damage could represent if more or less of the swarms entities hit. Which doesn't mean i'm against a second attack above half hp.
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Swarms, such as a swarm of insects or a swarm of rats, deal double damage when they're at full hit points. But I think since their hit points symbolize the number of creatures in the swarm, instead of dealing more damage, they should have more chances to hit. This would also be simpler to run the swarms instead of trying to find out the damage distinction. What do you think of changing their stat blocks thus?
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
I don't see any issue with this except that it slightly prolongs combat. That said, it is a bit more realistic to allow a swarm to attack multiple targets.
It means the opportunity attacks when someone tries to move out of a swarm are smaller (because it's reach 0, moving out of the actual space of the swarm is an opportunity attack). It doesn't have other meaningful balance implications.
The increased damage isn't due to an individual member biting for more damage - it is representing the accumulation from MANY, MANY small bites which are occurring in that single combat round.
Exactly. So why do all of those many, many bites either have to all hit, or ALL miss? Having Multiattack spreads out the damage in a more realistic curve so that the swarm will have more than one chance for the round for all of its members to hit.
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
I run my swarms as having one attack. The reason is that it takes less time to roll and calculate the effects of potentially two die rolls (attack roll + damage roll) instead of potentially eight die rolls (4Xattack rolls + 4Xdamage rolls). If you don't mind rolling a bunch of dice all the time, then, sure, go with the multi-attack route. Just keep in mind that this is effectively focus-firing on one PC since a swarm's attack range is typically 0 feet.
The amount of damage could represent if more or less of the swarms entities hit. Which doesn't mean i'm against a second attack above half hp.