Swarms (3.5/PF)

[Tanuki Tales]

As I understand it, Swarms merely fall apart into their component creatures when reduced to 0 hit points (or into a lesser version of the swarm depending on the swarm).

So if, by any multitude of ways, a player is playing as a swarm and takes damage and then heals by resting or magic, how does that affect the body of the swarm? Do members of it that were originally killed suddenly respawn or is the swarm slowly whittled down until eventually only 1 creature remains?

[Mauril Everleaf]

Well, barring the fact that swarms are not designed to be played as characters since most all the ones that I know of have no LA (in 3.5) and usually have "Int --", healing on swarms could probably be flavored as regaining some of its constituent creatures. Swarms require a certain number of creatures (at least in PF) to be considered a swarm. So, in order to remain a swarm character (which again shouldn't exist) you would need to maintain a certain number of critters in your "body" to still be considered a swarm.

[GenPol]

Actually I think there's a template that allows a Vampire to turn into either a swarm of rats or a swarm of bats... Of course, Vampire PCs aren't incredibly common...

Mechanically, I would assume that when a swarm is healed, more of whatever little creature magically return... From a realistic stand point, that seems strange, to say the least... Although, most forms of healing HP in DnD are magic, so who knows what's possible....

But, yeah, I don't think swarms were meant to be played as characters....

[arguskos]

Well, barring the fact that swarms are not designed to be played as characters since most all the ones that I know of have no LA (in 3.5) and usually have "Int --", healing on swarms could probably be flavored as regaining some of its constituent creatures. Swarms require a certain number of creatures (at least in PF) to be considered a swarm. So, in order to remain a swarm character (which again shouldn't exist) you would need to maintain a certain number of critters in your "body" to still be considered a swarm.

Uh... there's a way or two to play a Swarm. I think the Vermin Lord can do it.

What about Shapechanging into a Swarm, taking damage, then getting healed while in Swarm form? Same deal.

[Tanuki Tales]

Uh... there's a way or two to play a Swarm. I think the Vermin Lord can do it.

What about Shapechanging into a Swarm, taking damage, then getting healed while in Swarm form? Same deal.

And in Pathfinder Monster PCs are based off only CR so a player could play any intelligent swarm

[BobVosh]

Remember swarms are immune to targetted spells. Like almost every heal. However since it is pathfinder you should have someone with a channel.

I would say the heal just attracts local creatures. There is no real good fluff reason for this. Who cares?

[Mauril Everleaf]

Okay, well, I guess I should have prefaced that most of my experience is Pathfinder related. Aside from special DM permission, it's not possible to play a swarm in Pathfinder. Also, there are only two (animal) intelligent swarms, the bat and rat swarms. They would likely need to be awakened to be player characters. Even then, the rules on playing monstrous characters are rough guidelines at best. Paizo's dev team has been very adamant about saying that they don't like the monstrous PCs and (regardless of your opinions on it) their game is not designed around using something that doesn't come with character stats.

That aside, healing a swarm is probably best fluffed as regaining some of the constituent critters or partially healing the constituent critters if the base creature has more than one hit point, or a combination thereof.