[RPG] Are the insects from the Insect Plague spell affected by other damaging spells

area-of-effectdamagednd-5espells

Are the locusts created by the Insect Plague spell affected by other spells like Fireball, Cloudkill, Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting or similar spells? By similar spells I mean spells that deal damage on an area greater or equal than the 20-foot-radius sphere of the Insect Plague spell.

The Insect Plague spell does not describe the locusts as a creature (as a Swarm of Insects, for example) nor gives HP or clues on how damage them. I strongly believe that if someone throws a Fireball inside this swarm some effect would arise, which will be different by the effect provided by an Ice Storm or by a Cloudkill: I find the wording of Insect Plague quite ambiguous.


This question is an offshoot of this one: Cloudkill plus Insect Plague – What do the players see?. The comments there give some insights about the presented issue, but I think the topic deserves a full answer.

Best Answer

RAW, No.

Usually, we interpret spells assuming a “spells do only what they say they do” principle. Since insect plague doesn’t assign any of the appropriate statistics or give any end conditions involving the insects taking damage, we can say that damage from a fireball doesn’t affect the insect. They are magic bugs, after all.

As an example of what such an end condition would look like, the staff of swarming insects has a helpful example:

Insect Cloud. While holding the staff, you can use an action and expend 1 charge to cause a swarm of harmless flying insects to spread out in a 30-foot radius from you. The insects remain for 10 minutes, making the area heavily obscured for creatures other than you. The swarm moves with you, remaining centered on you. A wind of at least 10 miles per hour disperses the swarm and ends the effect.

The DM may rule otherwise.

Intuitively, it may make sense that something like a fireball centered on an insect plague should destroy the insects, and this wouldn't be an entirely unreasonable ruling. If my players thought of this plan, I would almost certainly let it happen because of rule of fun and rule of cool.