Capricious Zephyr versus Swarms

[Ammanas]

Hey everyone,

Can anyone give me input on how Capricious Zephyr (SC, p86 - http://dndtools.eu/spells/spell-compendium--86/capricious-zephyr--4012/) interacts with Swarms?

According to RAW, Swarms cannot be affected by a bull rush (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Swarm_Subtype#Traits), which is exactly what Capricious Zephyr does. However, I would argue that Capricious Zephyr does affect swarms, since the spell description describes it as "a roiling ball of dust and gale-force winds". Specifically, it is a 5-ft.-diameter sphere. As such, I would argue that Capricious Zephyr is an area of effect spell, at least when it comes to dealing with swarms or any kind of situation in which multiple creatures occupy a single square.

Moreover, Capricious Zephyr bull rushes in a random direction (1d8). I would argue that this would heavily damage swarms, as the swarm would be effectively divided into eight parts. Perhaps the swarm would need a round to regroup? To add to this, Gust of Wind (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Gust_of_Wind) has special rules for Tiny or smaller creatures. Capricious Zephyr can blow back swarms a fair distance. E.g. a bull rush from a Capricious Zephyr (d20+6) against a Locust Swarm (d20-17) can push the Swarm up to 30 feet away. Could the damage rules from Gust of Wind be applied here? I.e. taking 1d4 points of nonlethal damage per 10 feet for creatures on the ground, and 2d6 points of nonlethal damage for creatures in the air.

Thanks in advance for your input friends!

[Curmudgeon]

Hey everyone,

Can anyone give me input on how Capricious Zephyr (SC, p86 - http://dndtools.eu/spells/spell-compendium--86/capricious-zephyr--4012/) interacts with Swarms?

According to RAW, Swarms cannot be affected by a bull rush (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Swarm_Subtype#Traits), which is exactly what Capricious Zephyr does. However, I would argue that Capricious Zephyr does affect swarms, since the spell description describes it as "a roiling ball of dust and gale-force winds".
Spells only do what they say they do. A +6 bonus to Bull Rush attempts means nothing to creatures which cannot be affected by such an attack. If the spell description said that it moves creatures below a specific size, it would do that based on the composition of the swarm. However, it doesn't say that. Plus the wind is explicitly described as capricious (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capricious?s=t&path=/), meaning if applied to each swarm element it's just going to distribute the swarm evenly in all the surrounding squares, making it bigger. Is that what you want to accomplish?

[Ammanas]

Spells only do what they say they do. A +6 bonus to Bull Rush attempts means nothing to creatures which cannot be affected by such an attack. If the spell description said that it moves creatures below a specific size, it would do that based on the composition of the swarm. However, it doesn't say that. Plus the wind is explicitly described as capricious (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capricious?s=t&path=/), meaning if applied to each swarm element it's just going to distribute the swarm evenly in all the surrounding squares, making it bigger. Is that what you want to accomplish?

Hey, thanks for your input. My argument would be that the bull rush affects all the individual units of the swarm separately, bypassing the bull rush immunity of the swarm. Assuming this, the swarm would indeed be distributed over the surrounding squares (though over quite a few squares, since they can be blown quite far away). But would this not mean that the swarm needs to gather back into a group? Can a swarm simply split up and still exist effectively as a unit?

To reinforce my first argument: I'm visualizing a ball of wind coming into contact with the swarm. At this point, the capricious zephyr would either:

Affect the swarm.
Not affect the swarm.


In case of the second, the swarm would simply come into direct contact with the ball (i.e. the ball is in the middle of the swarm) and the swarm would be inside the ball unaffected. This makes no sense to me.

In case of the first, the swarm is affected by the zephyr, in which case it boils down to how it is affected. I would argue that (part of) the swarm is blown away by the zephyr, in which case they are distributed (at the very least).

I feel like they used bull rush as a mechanic to determine how far the affected creature(s) are blown away. They are not actually being bull rushed (maybe technically by the wind).