The Gaming Den

While I started on AD&D, I never had the need/use for a swarm of insects in a game, so it's only now that I notice this. Were they really this powerful? On average, they have 2500HP if you take the generous reading that 20 bugs are killed per point of damage. As far I'm aware, this is the most HP of anything in the game, and parties would be dead long before they could scatter the swarm.

parties would be dead long before they could scatter the swarm.

that was probably deliberate. however a single burning hands spell could save the day

Wow that is pretty crazy. The average swarm size is 101,000 (1d100*10,000*2 for locusts), which is actually 5,050 HP. (side note, at 20 locusts per cubic foot, that is also 5050 cubic feet of locusts, or a 17-18ft solid cube of locusts (though most likely they'd be less high and more spread out)


It seems like they don't expect you to ever kill the locust swarm, but instead to disperse it with smoke/fire, or jump in water to avoid it. So basically hope you have enough HP to get to the nearest river or to be able to live long enough to start a fire. Or have the Wizard fireball them and make them all run away I guess.

well they arent a maribunta. you can see them and avoid them, and a lit torch is all it would take to scatter them because of the smoke they would go to avoid it and change directions or just go around it.

they would likely also go around a camp with a fire for the most part.

you would have to be in daytime, and either walk into a swarm and sit still, or stand in the path to really be affected...not at all a very effective "monster".

more aggressive and intelligent bugs like live in colonies would be a much biger threat.

HP and numbers dont always present a threat.

I'm not sure how to handle area of effect spells. Would a fireball just do single damage to the swarm or would it do damage for every square/hex that the fireball covers? That could easily mean all the difference (there would also be the dispersal effect as well but that's a side issue).

Shouldn't a fireball, you know, hit (almost?) everything in the area? Like, 95%+?

tzor wrote:I'm not sure how to handle area of effect spells. Would a fireball just do single damage to the swarm or would it do damage for every square/hex that the fireball covers? That could easily mean all the difference (there would also be the dispersal effect as well but that's a side issue).

AoEs used to hit everything in the swarm, so a single spell would clear them. This made them puzzle monsters because a single AoE damaging spell would clear them.

this is a good example of older editions vs. newer editions. I kind of prefer the way they did this