Hey there

So we got this situation today while playing. The mage is attacked by some reanimated, 3 models adjacent to him (other then the attacker) with the warrior just behind him with 1 model adjacent to him. One of the re-animated attacks, the warrior (knight) declares he uses defend and the attack now targets him. How do you calculate swarm?

On a surge, does the attack deal +3 (3 models adjacent to the mage) or +1 (1 model adjacent to the warrior)? Raw i think it would be +1, since it only says range and LOS is measured to the original targets space. But RAI seems to be +3. I haven’t found anything in the FAQ.

What do you think, or how do you play?

Thanks for the clarification.

I am inclined to say the attack gains +1 based on monsters adjacent to the knight. I need to do a little checking to see if similar questions have come up before. However, "swarm" is definitely not range/los.

Well, Swarm says +1 damage for each monster adjacent to the TARGET, so since the Knight is the new target the total bonus surely is +1?

I agree with the consensus so far. Defend changes the target of the attack. Swarm is calculated based on the number of monsters adjacent to the target.

I agree, too. Here's my explanation why:

Defend must be activated in step 1 of combat (Declare weapon and target) because that is the triggering condition on Defend ("is targeted by an attack"). Rolling dice and spending surges are steps 2 and 3, respectively and therefore are resolved clearly after the target is changed to the knight. Thus, for Swarm, monsters surrounding the new target (the knight in this case) are relevant.

Thanks for the clarification, thats just make defend even better against swarm