Diminutive swarms impossible to beat

[Warboss Tuska Daemon-Killa]

Looked up what to do, suggestions were elemental weapons, call lightning, area attacks with alchemist. I'm grey ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tower in act 1 and I can't beat the 3 swarms summoned by whats-her-name in the dining hall. I have tried the fight 10 times now and I'm ready to uninstall (for the second time).
1. Don't have an alchemist.
2. Call lightning doesn't work on diminutive swarms. Tried it.
3. Only Ember has burning hands and it does 6 damage most of the time, at best 12 or so. Three swarms with 25hp each and they deal like 26 damage a turn.
4. Woljiff has the burning shortsword. Everyone dies before he can kill the swarms.
5. Even with Grease in the doorway and grasping vines slowing everyone in the room, there isn't enough time to deal with the 10 enemies and the swarms.
I am on Core btw.

[mk11]

They are summons. Ignore them and kill her instead.

Failing that, scrolls are always good.

[Warboss Tuska Daemon-Killa]

Originally posted by mk11:

They are summons. Ignore them and kill her instead.

Failing that, scrolls are always good.

I thought that wouldn't work because earlier I had killed a succubus and the person under her control was still fighting me. Guess I shoulda tried that

[hilburnashua]

In this game summons do disappear when the caster dies.

When combat ends most non-permanent spells cast by enemies ends. There are some exceptions (confusion being a big one). But in the case of dominate since the ally is hostile combat won't end until they get dropped or the spell effect is removed.

Trouble with swarms is even with weapons with an energy effect it still won't kill them because a weapon hits one opponent and diminuative swarms ignore attacks that effect one creature. What you want to use are things like Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ice Storm, alchemical bombs (fire and acid - even the ones you buy off merchants, some damage is better then no damage), Shout, Firebreath. Anything that lets you do damage over an area. Swarms take x1.5 damage from such attacks BUT those attacks usually also give a saving throw to take half damage and swarms do tend to have good reflex saves.

Grease won't effect a swarm at all.

[Shahadem]

Originally posted by hilburnashua:

Grease won't effect a swarm at all.

But it should because it is still made of creatures would each be affected by Grease individually.

[otis da great]

Those alchemist fire vials and the acid vials work great on lowbie swarms. Should have a ton in your loot from the tower

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

just use alchemists fire/acid ... they do not have much health... no swarms do and they take 50% extra damage from AOE's. TBH i've done that fight a few times recently and i've never had him cast the swarms... he seems to buff his allies and bum rush me instead. Maybe because i kill him in first or second round? not sure--- but other folks are right,

Kill the caster ASAP and the swarms disappear. Its always more ideal to just kill the caster then it is mess with killing summons.

[The Rain King]

Reminds me of how yesterday, my level 14 angel/oracle ran into some swarms in Areelu's lab and just stormed them down in one shot. That was satisfying. No longer will swarms be an issue.

[Zemann The Mann]

That fight can be pretty tricky on core. What I tried was going for those rangers first (since their damage was really messing my team up), and leaving Seelah to tank the demons. Try to bring Daeran along, as he's the best healer at that stage unless you build the commander for it. And while I don't like his character much, Lann is a godsend on core. He's killed so many enemies for me when all the others keep missing with low rolls. The time I won the fight was when she didn't summon the swarms and just ran toward my melee instead, thus I managed to take her out with a couple of lucky crits from Lann.

Another tactic to dealing with swarms is to bring Ulbrig along: he comes with a necklace that allows him to deal full damage to swarms and negate their damage resistance to physical attacks.

[Deo]

It's just metagaming bro. Wotr is all about that - knowing which enemies you will encounter, and how to deal with them.

See that evil cleric Jeslyn in Gray Garrison? That's who you need to rush and focus with whole party, before she summons her swarms. If not - reload and try again. At this level you cannot kill her swarms effectively. Disabling her with Grease (or Winter's Grasp) before she summons swarms works too, her Reflex save is lowest.

Going in Leper Smile? Hire mercenary and make him Alchemist. Tanglefoot bombs do wonders to swarms - they are just standing in one place, stuck. Don't like Alchemist? Pick Sorcerer/Wizard with bolstered Lightning Bolt. Both will need corresponding Ascended Element, ofc.

Or just set difficulty to Story. Then you can basic attack everything and don't bother.

[ChompyRiley]

There's an ungodly number of ways to deal with swarms. From Swarmbane clasps to AOE of various sorts. They can be a bit persnickety to deal with, but you have a LOT of options if you actually look rather than go whining to the forums the first time you have a little difficulty.

[Outlaw]

Originally posted by Deo:

I
Going in Leper Smile? Hire mercenary and make him Alchemist. Tanglefoot bombs do wonders to swarms - they are just standing in one place, stuck. Don't like Alchemist? Pick Sorcerer/Wizard with bolstered Lightning Bolt. Both will need corresponding Ascended Element, ofc.

Just buy Ice Storm scrolls. Vescavors dont have resistance to cold damage and take double from bludgeoning.

[Babbles]

100% use turn based in this fight.

I never thought I would say that.

On Unfair, this is 100% a Turn Based fight.

[Babbles]

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

There's an ungodly number of ways to deal with swarms. From Swarmbane clasps to AOE of various sorts. They can be a bit persnickety to deal with, but you have a LOT of options if you actually look rather than go whining to the forums the first time you have a little difficulty.

Wow - way to be a healthy help to other gamers, dude ... the OP listed many things they had tried ...

And, fyi, you responded to a forum post by saying "don't forum post" ... weird flex ...

[Outlaw]

Originally posted by Babbles:

100% use turn based in this fight.

I never thought I would say that.

On Unfair, this is 100% a Turn Based fight.

Nah. With Hulrun inqusitors help you can ignore demons, run with whole team to summoner and kill him with alpha strike

[Warboss Tuska Daemon-Killa]

Originally posted by hilburnashua:

In this game summons do disappear when the caster dies.

When combat ends most non-permanent spells cast by enemies ends. There are some exceptions (confusion being a big one). But in the case of dominate since the ally is hostile combat won't end until they get dropped or the spell effect is removed.

Trouble with swarms is even with weapons with an energy effect it still won't kill them because a weapon hits one opponent and diminuative swarms ignore attacks that effect one creature. What you want to use are things like Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Ice Storm, alchemical bombs (fire and acid - even the ones you buy off merchants, some damage is better then no damage), Shout, Firebreath. Anything that lets you do damage over an area. Swarms take x1.5 damage from such attacks BUT those attacks usually also give a saving throw to take half damage and swarms do tend to have good reflex saves.

Grease won't effect a swarm at all.

Good info

Originally posted by Zemann The Mann:

That fight can be pretty tricky on core. What I tried was going for those rangers first (since their damage was really messing my team up), and leaving Seelah to tank the demons. Try to bring Daeran along, as he's the best healer at that stage unless you build the commander for it. And while I don't like his character much, Lann is a godsend on core. He's killed so many enemies for me when all the others keep missing with low rolls. The time I won the fight was when she didn't summon the swarms and just ran toward my melee instead, thus I managed to take her out with a couple of lucky crits from Lann.

Another tactic to dealing with swarms is to bring Ulbrig along: he comes with a necklace that allows him to deal full damage to swarms and negate their damage resistance to physical attacks.

I just ran my main (cavalier) and woljiff in deep to kill her first while the rest CC'd and picked off rangers. It was rough but very doable. I honestly failed so many times because I thought summons were permanent.

Originally posted by Deo:

It's just metagaming bro. Wotr is all about that - knowing which enemies you will encounter, and how to deal with them.

See that evil cleric Jeslyn in Gray Garrison? That's who you need to rush and focus with whole party, before she summons her swarms. If not - reload and try again. At this level you cannot kill her swarms effectively. Disabling her with Grease (or Winter's Grasp) before she summons swarms works too, her Reflex save is lowest.

Going in Leper Smile? Hire mercenary and make him Alchemist. Tanglefoot bombs do wonders to swarms - they are just standing in one place, stuck. Don't like Alchemist? Pick Sorcerer/Wizard with bolstered Lightning Bolt. Both will need corresponding Ascended Element, ofc.

Or just set difficulty to Story. Then you can basic attack everything and don't bother.

I've played loads of pathfinder on the actual table top, along with nearly every other system imaginable. I don't want to lower difficulty ESPECIALLY when it says outright that you will have a flat damage reduction and enemies will act dumber. I want to really feel the whole experience. Its the minutia of pathfinder mechanics that sometimes trip me up from how little I've encountered them irl.

Originally posted by Babbles:

100% use turn based in this fight.

I never thought I would say that.

On Unfair, this is 100% a Turn Based fight.

I just do turnbased only. Is that weird? I like turns

Originally posted by Babbles:

Originally posted by ChompyRiley:

There's an ungodly number of ways to deal with swarms. From Swarmbane clasps to AOE of various sorts. They can be a bit persnickety to deal with, but you have a LOT of options if you actually look rather than go whining to the forums the first time you have a little difficulty.

Wow - way to be a healthy help to other gamers, dude ... the OP listed many things they had tried ...

And, fyi, you responded to a forum post by saying "don't forum post" ... weird flex ...

he's got 2k hours. dude has forgotten what its like to play a new game.