• calabast@lemm.ee
    4·
    5 months ago

    I don’t really know d&d well, but I just looked up the spell and I think it says you can transform “any number of willing creatures”. So the DM could make an argument about whether insects had the intelligence to even qualify as being able to be “willing” for that.

    On the other hand, I am a big fan of Operation Dumbo Drop Multistrike

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 months ago

    A modern iteration on a classic. Word of advice, never eat a grape that you know was a hill giant two combat rounds ago.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
      0·
      5 months ago

      IDK replace the elephants with Large creatures such as horses and it seems to me like this would work

      • cryptiod137@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        TLDR: You wouldn’t polymorph a fireball.

        Basically nothing about this works.

        So first off, the insect plague isn’t a creature at all, it’s just a magical effect that appears like a bunch of locusts. It has no hit points or AC or Saving throws or any other game statistics.

        When spells do summon a creature of some sort, they list a creature type, a maximum CR (or how many of each CR) you can summon, how to determine their initiative, their disposition towards you and your allies, what happens when they get to 0 Hp and what happens to them when the spell ends.

        Animal shapes needs a few things to work that we don’t have here.

        First off, the spells says to choose any number of willing creatures to transform, but we don’t have creatures, we have a magical effect. How could you say a magical effect that has no intelligence, will, thoughts, and lacks the ability to communicate in any way is “willing”?

        Animal Shapes states the effect last the duration for each creature or until it drops to 0 HP. After that, it states that the creatures assumes the HP of the transformation, and then returns to its original HP when it’s transformation drops to 0 and any excess damage applies to the original form, but the insect plague doesn’t have any HP.

        In between the information about HP, it states that it’s game statistics are replaced by the creature choosen, other than alignment and it’s mental stats. What game statistics? Insect plague doesn’t have any. What happens when one of the (Large or smaller creatures) is in the air and has no mental stats? It would either totally unable to act, or dead depending on how you interpret ability scores being zero. If it’s dead right after it gains it new form, it reverts to its original form, so again this just doesn’t work.

        The worst part about this combo, is that you could probably do this, just not using insect plague. A couple of the conjure spells summon intelligent or even sentient creatures who could at least be interpreted as being willing. Find one that can fly, send them up in the air, and ready shape animals to cast then they are 30ft away. Note that that doesn’t mean 30ft up, you have to account for horizontal distance as well.

        • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
          0·
          5 months ago

          You really want to do this? Alright, let’s go!

          Not all spells and other magical effects list off AC, HP, CR etc. Some do, especially if they’re expected to fight, but some like Bags of Tricks don’t, but if you need the stats they can all be looked up.

          Swarming, biting locusts fill a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point you choose within range.

          Source

          Insect Plague clearly states locusts appear, not an illusion or force resembling ones. And yes, Swarm of Insects does have stats.

          So yes, Insect Plague spawns the insects and they do have stats, it’s very well possible even purely RAW.

          Also for the distance, the Druid could very well already be within 30 ft of wherever the insects spawn, on a keep’s wall or a cliff for instance.

  • sbv@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    For the “do the locusts consent?” question, I’m a fan of an oracle die.

    I’ve been paying Cyberpunk RED recently, so I get the player to roll a d10 under their current LUCK stat. If they roll under, then they’re in luck and they get what they want.

    For funsies, I’d say that succeeding indicates the locusts are a gestalt entity that is down for anything. In the context of the campaign, the party will encounter a gestalt locust swarm that wants something from the party.

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 months ago

    I feel like there might be an issue where the volume of each individual elephant is so much greater than each individual fly that you won’t just be pachybombarding one BBEG, but the entire area, including where the players are standing.