A swarm is a collection of beasts, not one. Wild Shape lets you transform into a single beast. It also lines up with a number of unofficial rulings on Twitter about using Wild Shape to turn into a swarm - by Jeremy Crawford in January 2016 and again in November 2016, and by Chris Perkins in June 2015 - as well as an unofficial ruling on Twitter by Crawford in January 2015 about whether a swarm of quippers counts as one fish for the purpose of the trident of fish command (which can be used to cast dominate beast on ' a beast that has an innate swimming speed').Īs you can see, the rules themselves, the official ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium, and a number of unofficial rulings on Twitter all indicate that a swarm is not 'one beast', but rather a collection of beasts.

This official ruling is simple and straightforward, and matches the rules referenced above.

Conjure animals summons individual creatures, and swarms are The designers have been remarkably consistent in their interpretations of the rules regarding swarms: they are not a single beast.Īs of October 2020, this question is explicitly addressed by an official ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium: Rather, they're a result of some malevolent influence, disturbing the natural order of things in some way. It's clear from the rules that swarms aren't designed to be treated like mundane animals, and that they don't simply congregate naturally or for benign reasons. Even druids can’tĬharm these swarms, and their aggressiveness is borderline unnatural. Swarms of poisonous snakes slithering in its wake. Ravens against her enemies, while a yuan-ti abomination might have A hag might have the power to turn swarms of Mummy lord can cause scarab beetles to boil up from the sand-filledĭepths of its tomb. A vampire can summon swarms of bats and ratsįrom the darkest corners of the night, while the very presence of a They form as a result of some sinister or The swarms presented here aren’t ordinary or benign assemblies of 337) clarifies what swarms really represent: Thus, a swarm of any sort of animal would not qualify for any of the four options listed in the conjure animals spell.įurthermore, the 'The Nature of Swarms' sidebar in Appendix A (MM, p. The creatures within a swarm are not treated as distinct entities when treating the collective group as a swarm. 337-339), each of the swarms listed there is a 'Medium swarm of Tiny beasts' a swarm is not a single 'beast'. No conjure animals summons a specified number of beasts of a certain CR, not a swarm of themĪs written, the conjure animals spell summons a specified number of beasts, and a swarm is a collection of an indeterminate number of creatures. If there happens to be a Jeremy tweet clarifying this, great! But a RAW answer is what I'm looking for if such a tweet does not exist. Also note that, although I mentioned the designers above, this is not a designer-reasons question this is a RAW question. Hence I would prefer for answers to be derived from the books rather than D&DBeyond where they differ. Note that D&DBeyond is not quite in sync with the books on this in the description of the conjure animals spell, it lists example beasts, which include the swarms, but no such listing appears in the PHB's spell description, implying that these suggestions are the opinions of D&DBeyond's staff, not the designers (more likely it's just a listing of every monster of type 'beast' for each CR). Which interpretation is correct (or is there a third interpretation)? the number of individual beasts in four swarms of insects is MANY more than 'four beasts').

On the one hand, I can see how the answer could be yes, simply because technically it is of type beast and is within the correct CR range, so RAW it should be possible to summon, say, four swarms of insects.īut on the other hand I can also see how the answer could be no, since it goes against the idea that you are summoning a specific number of beasts, and swarms are considered a 'medium swarm of tiny creatures', meaning many creatures, many more than conjure animals says it can summon (i.e. Is it possible for conjure animals to summon a 'swarm of X' creature, such as a swarm of rats or a swarm of insects? Two beasts of challenge rating 1 or lowerįour beasts of challenge rating 1/2 or lowerĮight beasts of challenge rating 1/4 or lower

Choose one of the following options for what appears: You summon fey spirits that take the form of beasts and appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range.

5e conjure animals list