Summoning has always been one of my favorite things to do with my druid (5+ years of play) and here are a few things I learned: 1- Summoning is not just for combat! There are plenty of situations that summons can solve, from tripping traps and distractions to short-term mounts for the whole group. 2- It's my responsibility to make sure the turns my summons take go as expeditiously and smoothly as possible, so that I don't slow down gameplay as much as, say, savage attacker or confusion would. 3- I am open to my fellow players giving me suggestions on how to use my summons, so when I do it, they get to take credit for the idea. 4- If you're shy about attacking with every single summoned creature and slowing the game down but still want to summon, and your party would benefit greatly from advantage, have your creatures spend their turns on the help action. "Cow 1 helps Gorrak, and Cow 2 helps Liethelle." Done! No rolls, and the DM would feel compelled to waste action economy on getting rid of your little helpers. 5- Summoning is amazing thematically. It is a great feat to boast about, be mischievous with, or create hilarious memories. It offers innumerable opportunities for roleplay. Don't shy away from using it for that purpose. 6- Know with whom you are playing. If you're playing with a group full of optimancers, they will understand when you summon for DPR purposes, but heavy RPers might dislike it if you only uncork your summons for combat and roll the 32 attacks individually. Have fun with it, make macros, and talk to your DM and fellow players. It's a fantastic feature, and with the right people, you don't have to give up on it for the sake of convenience.
100% Agree. I've got a 2 year old druid character and the conjure spells are so much BETTER than the Tasha summon spells. The Tasha summon spells are entirely designed around combat but if you use them in combat they make the martials feel bad because your summon is almost the same as a standard unoptimized martial character - it acts the same, does similar damage, and has similar utility. They really feel like "I summon an extra martial character" spells. Whereas the Conjure spells are almost always going to give you creatures that feel very different from the martials in your party, and they have so many other uses. IMO using Conjure spells for the purpose of consistent DPR in combat is bad, that isn't really what they are designed for nor a good way to play the game. Instead, using them for battlefield control - as mounts or med-evacs, or as physical barriers or for their special senses to find hidden / invisible enemies.
Good thought. To add to them, I played a wildfire Druid to level 13. I skipped conjure animals entirely, except for temporary mounts, and only used a one creature summon spell every other session or so. Table was good with that and it didn’t negatively impact gameplay.
A time management trick is that the summoner only issue his command during this turn. Then DM gets to control how all the summons react based on the command issued/ their INT/ and spell effect. By RAW, even a familiar should be under DM's control. In this way, the summoner won't take forever during his turn.
There are actually great shortcut damage and hit tables out there for mass combat the DM can use. Sly Flourish's Lazy DM resources for instance. Sure it's extra work to deal with more critters on the board, but someone just chucking evocations and buffs around is pretty boring and not nearly as magical as making whole sports teams of randomly chosen critters show up and lay an @ss whuppin' on a Bullette.
Im so happy you've decided to cover that topic!!! The comunity is such an echo chamber that its really frustrating sometimes... Summon spells are such a flavourfull adition to the game and giving my swords bard summon undead was one of the best decisions ive ever made... It might not be the best use of a 6th level slot, but having a badass ghost fighting alongside you as you slash through fear induced enemies never stops being hella fun!
I've been a fan of Tashas Summons for a while now, glad to see I'm not the only one! I do think Summon Greater Demon deserves some credit too, it's a very fun spell with an element of risk to it.
I have a Shepherd Druid in the campaign I DM. When he took the subclass, I told him that I would let him choose what he summons and have them go after him in turn (that's our rule for any and every summon/pet/companion/ally, just because we have potentially a lot of players). In one of the games I play, my brother plays a Land Druid and started playing with using Conjure Animals and Summon Beast. The first time he used Conjure Animals, the demon teleported away and Fireballed them, wiping out most of the animals and nearly taking down the warlock and my paladin. Since then he's been a little more strategic with his placement to avoid those kinds of AOE attacks.
If the critters are getting fireballed and not the party because you summon them somewhere else it has definitely been a good use of a 2nd level spellslot. The alternative would have been a 3rd level counterspell. Sounds like a good choice to me. If the critters are all dead or half dead, cast it again and get them back in the fight!
Another intriguing thing about these summons is since they upcast so cleanly, they really reduce the sting of multiclassing at certain levels. I haven't really looked at it but I think this could boost the performance of something like ranger 5 or 6 into Cleric, being able to consistently boost your damage with summons or spirit guardians as appropriate. At very high levels, three sharpshooter attacks and a celestial firing beams as you ride it through the sky seems enticing.
I give out cards of creatures my players find in the area as they find them. This allows them to be creative and tactical while controlling what they have at that point in the campaign. It encourages exploration, is thematic, and tells them the stat block and number of summons. It also makes it so the druid/ranger grows in power as they become an expert in-that area. Add that to letting it go after players and i think its way more fun then the base rules
A thing I did was make a Wizard and make sure someone took "Inspiring Leader" because giving temp HP is nice. Since I know that my whole thing is doing summoning I do the 1 hour spells, and the added HP keeps them alive. Then I was also an abjurer, which sounds odd when conjurer is available, but using the projected shield kept them alive for a long time - and if it was me being hit, I was able to protect concentration by taking less damage, and could better counter spell the rare times that someone tried to dispel one.
I’m glad you made a video about these spells because I’ve had so much fun with them. I’m playing a Yuan-Ti Dao Chainlock that uses almost all of the 'Summon' spells, and I made it a point to flavor her summons' appearances and personalities with parts of her backstory. Basically, she was a normal human before she being kidnapped as a slave and cursed into a Yuan-Ti Pureblood. What drove her to adventure was to find a 'cure' to get rid of her serpentine blood and regain the emotions she lost long ago. She started researching a plethora of monsters, folk tales and Magic items from the planes, and sorta became a less notorious female version of Volo, which eventually led her to her Patron. Since her familiars are tied to her Patron's magic, they take on more elemental or desert based forms. Her Imp looks like a little Gargoyle and her Sprite has bug features more akin to a locust than a dragonfly. With Summon Fey, her summons look like mini versions of herself disguised as various fey creatures she met in her travels as to emulate the emotions she lost. 'Mirthful' looks like a Pixie, 'Tricksy' like a Quickling and 'Fuming' like a Redcap. Summon Shadowspawn depicts twisted versions of characters in her past that caused her fear, despair and rage. With Summon Aberration, her summons take more serpentine forms as to show the influence of the Yuan-Ti on her magic. The Beholderkin has eyestalks like vipers and the Slaad has the face of a giant cobra. Also since these spells have some pretty costly and unusual material components, it gave my DM opportunities to create side quests for my character to access her summons, which I think was fantastic. Anyway sorry for the long comment, I just really like those spells!
There's one other "summoning" spell that I think bears mention, and that's Animate Dead. Now this spell also has some *serious* table problems, but it tends to have different table problems from conjure animals: the creatures you summon are all one of two types, that don't get access to multiple attacks or spellcasting. There's also a subclass that can support this spell, that being the necromancy Wizard. So assuming you're playing in a campaign where your marching with an army of skeletons isn't a problem, it can be an option worth considering.
I've been having fun with the summon 1 creature spell. Been making an eladrin (always spring) conjuration wizard that summons 1 creature then I use my actions so support alies and get them in good positions. Teammates trust me, so I just choose how to focus fire, and I'm my plan is having all summoning spells. I never use conjure animals. EDIT we do have a homebrew half feat. Summoning adept, my summoned creatures ignore damage resistance.
Definitely the feat is outright stronger than elemental adept. But honestly homebrew is fun cuz it's strong typically. And honestly, DND 5e isn't exactly balanced anyway, so who even cares
I'd love this video so much, I agree with everything about conjure animals and it's the main reason why I've never played a Conjurer before, thanks for the insight on the other "Summon" spells and for reinforcing the idea that we should never trust our gut instincts.
summon shadowspawn as a noob saibot shadowclone is the coolest concept I could think of. Ive seen a picture of a guy in leather armor running with 2 spectral wolves (I think you have used it a few times), and it made me want to combine druid with 6 levels of bladesinger. Couldnt really figure it out tho
This video was so needed. I have a lot of issues with conjure animals and you described the catch 22 elegantly. I’m glad you’re giving the summon spell line hype because they are amazing. Way more flavor and they can do amazing things like AOE fear or poison which lets us pick the “right” summon for the job. Bravo!
Fantastic content over the last few weeks Chris! The mutliclass guides will be really helpful for reference material and this summoning deep-dive is really needed. I'm excited to see what builds you come up with. Summon Fey has been very effective on my war mage wizard and I didn't even optimize it at all.
I want to ask you a question. How your DM treat the case when we give the Fey a magical shortsword? Is the Fey proficient with this magical weapon? The d6 force damage could be applied with another weapon, that is not from the statblock (in other words, is the force damage property of the sword or of the Fey?)
@Wizard Volovik I did not have a magical shortsword to use, but my DM said he would allow it to be used, and the force damage would be coming from the fey, not it's sword.
I love the idea of Conjure Animals, and acknowledge the numerical strength of it. But, out of consideration for the party and the DM, I never ever use it.
Shameless self plug: I wrote the Conjurer, on DMsGuild to provide a class that would basically work as a pokemon trainer in combat (the spell list is mostly support/utility). Three archetypes (undead, wilderness, and elemental) and over 70 unique disciplines, that grant a spell and a feature derived from said spell when you summon your Minion... as if you were channeling that spell through it. For example, a discipline might grant you the Web spell, and the option of summoning a "webby" minion - when it is hit, it exudes a mini web centered on it.
Chris, you know even if you did talk about the Feats and Stuff that could boost a Summoner, I would still be watching the next video when it comes out 😂 Good stuff, dude! I’ve always wanted to learn summoning in D&D… -Ian
I played a Hexblade pact of the blade warlock in tomb of annihilation and at level 8 I picked up summon shadow spawn. not only did it fit super well since my characters magic always involved shadows, and thus the summon was their own shadow standing up off the ground and viciously attacking their enemies, but to me it made my warlock spell slots seem to last so much longer. For the whole campaign until then my slots seemed to go poof, but the summon lasts an hour! Overall it's my favorite spell in the game now. I am biased of course, in that summoning is very cool to me, and conjuration is by far my favorite school of magic.
I DMed Tomb for a friend, she played a Dow Genie Warlock with Chain Pact (invested chain master invocation). It took her some pre battle or a couple of turns, but if I left her unchecked on combat she would become a turret of DPS. I don't quite remember the order, but it would be something like this (without any before combat prep) Turn 1 - Action summon undead, bonus action magic stone and give it to the familiar. Summon attacks. Turn 2 - Action eldritch blast (+cha dmg). Bonus action imp attack with magic stone. Summon attacks. If she could prep (summon ready and/or stone ready) it was even faster. And it wasnt even her optimal choice, since her favorite move was spike growth + pushing stuff with blast + genie stuff edit: on this table i banned multiple creature summon spells from the start
I loved it when my bard player picked summoning spells for his magic secrets. There's nothing I enjoy more than watching as his character drops over 30 snakes on the battlefield and chaos ensues. It's honestly not that hard to keep track if you do what most DMs do when handling mobs, which is to group them into 4-8 initiative groups, do attacks as an unit, and take average results. The fantasy is really worth it. For the single summon spells, we had the spirits taking form become characters of their own players had to win over, bargain with, and even mourn when they fell. It was like letting them build and customize their favorite npc to aid them in combat, and it added a ton of RP and lore drop opportunities.
My main way of dealing with conjure animals is to: A) disallow any more than 4 summoned creatures at a time, six if casting at level 9, but we've never played there B) give the player a pool of 6 or so options they will pick from so they know what to do but the animals arent broken Haven't had problems so far, the only thing close to an issue was grappling with summons but that wasn't any more OP than what hypnotic pattern does at third level anyways
I don't know how much you'll talk tactics in these upcoming videos, but I've been having a blast with my Summon Undead phasing through walls and floors to avoid opportunity attacks after causing the frightened condition. Safe (potentially multi target at higher levels) long lasting control and damage from your spell slots. [Move forward 5 ft, Attack, move down 5 feet, move back 5 feet, move up 5 feet]
Really excited for the next series of videos about your concepts for summoners! I've been wanting to play a summoner for a while now but never really found the best way to do it.
I ran a 5th level christmas one shot with my family using pre-genned characters. I had my mother play a hill dwarf shepherd druid, and one of the ways I streamlined druid for a complete novice player was by specifying the forms that her wildshape and similar features could create. I prepared a list, a slimmed down profile for each, and a mini for each! Part of that process was also pre-assigning what animals she could summon with conjure animals. The main one, and I circled it in bold, was 8 elk with 50ft fly speed. I also wrote a note that she could only use the spell this way if she recited "Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer, now Vixen, on Comet, on Cupid, on Doner, on Blitzer". The moment when she pulled this out, everybody cheered. It still slowed down combat, but after one round it was clear that they would win and the monsters surrendered. They rode the reindeer to their next fight. One of the reasons this was possible was because my players had nothing to compare it to, so they trusted me to make it fun, and weren't all up in my grill about doing it "properly". A welcome change from my usual gaming group! (jk I love all my players)
I’m currently playing a bard 12/warlock 2, and I went with lore bard. The idea was for someone who flunked out of a wizard academy so they went to a college of lore. For the magical secrets at 6 & 10, I took counterspell, find steed, summon shadowspawn, and wall of force. Upcasting shadowspawn can give up to 3 attacks (3d12+27) in addition to eldritch blast. You can lower their movement while you can move up to 120, and there’s a built-in fear. It still allows you to do damage while casting other spells, and makes a nice distraction for enemies to attack instead of you
I think there's another reason I prefer conjure animals to the new summons. There's something really cool in the fantasy of summoning a horde of creatures rather than just one. You could reflavour your summoned beast as a swarm of small beasts I guess but that really doesn't fulfil the feeling
I have also played a Shepherd Druid from 1st - 17th level. In my experience, with my DM. We worked out that the theme of my druid, is all about wolves. I could always choose wolves, but if I wanted anything else, he'd random roll 'within reason' for the area we were in. To keep my 'turns' from absolutely wrecking combat pacing, we made it so I would give control to the other players and the wolves would take their turns after each player. There were 4 players, who then had control of two pet wolves each. To me it was fun being the party pet supplier, and the party had fun because each got their own pets to command around, so I wasn't monopolizing the combat turns. It made it so my 'thematic' spell would always get me what I want, but if I wanted something else, it would be down to the natural creatures in that area.
Here is my Summoner concept. It comes from "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by Ursula Vernon. In the book, wizards have magic specialties; they can only manifest their powers with specific materials. The main character, Mona, can "inject" her magic into dough, so she is a wizard baker. My goal with my D&D character was to recreate Mona by re-flavoring spells. After examining options, it seemed like artificer was the closest match in tone. She has a sourdough starter familiar that dissolves things with acid, so I would use Acid Splash and Tasha's Caustic Brew. She has a gingerbread man that can perform tasks (unseen servant) and stand watch (alarm). And at the end of the book (spoiler alert), she can create giant bread golems (summon construct, clay).
Played a level 9 one-shot. I played a Pact of the Chain Fiendish Warlock. Took the Imp with the Investment of the Chain Master & Summon Shadow Spawn. With this character I could us my bonus action to command the Imp to make an attack on it's turn. And, I could use my attack action (giving up my attack) to have the Imp attack as it's reaction. Then I could use my free action to tell the Shadow Spawn to attack on it's turn. My Warlock never had to lift his own finger to attack a couple of monsters each round. Was fun.
I actually liked how 4e did summons, it needed maybe a bit more oomph but it was close. The tasha ones are pretty close as well but I feel those are still on maybe the too good side, and conjure animals can get even better with the right build. I think the Tasha ones need to have more health but do less damage and have more non damage options. I know this is a optimization channel so maybe its not the right audience, but i play with non optimizers and frequently the summon in its own is matching the damage of the fighter type in the party. Yeah they are a lot tankier, than the summon but it just feels bad. The spell caster isn't really building for it, they just cast the spell and poof mini fighter. Depending on how you look at it I guess your numbers kind of reflect that. Though I will say I have not seen a universal ruling on whether the damage is magical or not. Some DMs see these as more magical creations and the slashing etc damage is more like blade barriers or cloud of daggers slashing damage and therefore magical, others see them more as just conjured creatures and therefore its not. Depending on campaign and build this is a huge thing and could swing them to being a somewhat weak spell outside a couple of them. But at the levels most people play I don't think its a huge impact.
As a DM, I "fixed" summoning in my campaign by modeling it after Final Fantasy X. There were pre-made character sheets for every possible summon, but in order to add something to your list of summons, you needed to go find a temple and complete a trial there. Surprisingly, after years, the players have never exploited this. They are content with just having a handful of summon options, because they really don't need more than two HD 4 summons to help handle most of their opponents. They haven't yet encountered the NPC evil summoner that can call an Avatar of Apophis the sun eater. But I have that planned to be the introduction of enemies that benefit from the homebrew summoning mechanics
My ideal summoner is the Eloquence Bard with Infernal Calling as one of their Magical Secret. With Silver Tongue, your persuasion or deception check cannot go lower than 10+charisma_modifier. Add in expertise in persuasion and deception and advantage from knowing the devil's name, there are a whole bunch of devils who cannot break free and must obey your all verbal commands.
There's two routes to fix summoning in 5e so that it works for the entire playgroup. 1. Strong singular summons that go down in 1 hit and can be resummoned at no cost. Look up the Echo Knight. It's a fantastic summoner class. 2. Hand out puppeteering duties. If you're going to allow multiple summons do not let one player bog down combat with 15 attack rolls each time their turn comes up. Pick the highest CR solo critter the spell can summon or pick the CR that summons a number of critters equal to the players at the table. Maybe double the players at the table. When you summon a group of creatures have them go together at the end of initiative. Have them only attack or move towards the nearest enemy they will attack. When the summoned critter turn comes up everyone rolls their attacks together. Acquisitions Incorporated did it fantastically in one of their PAX stage shows. Morgan Webb brought a pre Tasha's ranger with Conjure Animals and prepared stat block flash cards to the game. She cast Conjure Animals twice. Once when the 4 players needed to cross a river/lake and everyone got a personal alligator to ride on. The second time she summoned 4 panthers during the final boss fight. The 4 players focused fire on the minions and when the Panthers' turn came up each player rolled for the attacks one of the panthers made against the boss. Literally all you need to know is the Attack bonus of the main attack the summoned critter is going to make over and over. If you want to do something fancy summon one caster or bruiser type critter at the highest CR you have access to. For all other purposes summon one skirmisher/attacker type critter per party member, have the stat block prepped beforehand, and tell the table the number they'll add to the one type of attack they are going to make each time initiative comes around to the "dogpile on the big bad turn."
Your mention in the very end about the palette for these summon spells being proven and twekable set off a light bulb on my brain. Guess I HAVE to subscribe to see the next video.
I made an oathbreaker hexblade that would spawn a 3 skellies, 1 greater demon and 1 (greater)steed and it was probably the most fun summoner build i've played, while also still doing badass paladin stuff. It wasnt very intrusive since the couple of skeletons would die very quickly but the greater demon and (greater)steed were still rocking with the +5 to damage from aura of hate.
I've played in a game ranging from 5-7th level using these spells with a Wizard, and Warlock (basically Summon Fey). At that level, the damage resistance didn't come into play, and they seemed like Very Effective Concentration spells. When you're a Warlock putting out one of these, it's not just 20% over Baseline, it's *120%* over baseline, because you're still there casting Eldritch Blast (I didn't do the math, you'd lose some damage from not having Hex running). The duration and movement of it really puts it over other concentration spells like Web, or Hypnotic Pattern, where it's only going to be around for one encounter as well. As for survivability, generally any attack that's aimed at the summon won't be aimed at a PC, so that's a win as well.
I've had the concept of a summoner build that uses a stars druid to maintain concentration. Then using the easier summon spells and flavour it as you calling upon their constellation.
the real standout in the summon spells is summon fey for being an hour long unlimited use charm person that doesn't turn the target against you once it wears off.
I aways have lots of house rules around conjure animals too, to solve thease problems: 1 - The player picks the summon, but they can only choose from the ones presented at the end of the players handbook (appendix D), unless that the creature was seen by the character during gameplay; 2 - The monsters go right after the player; 3 - The monsters do average damage, and I use the Handling mobs table from the DMG to see if they hit.
I was able to use Summon Beast quite effectively in our Dragon Heist campaign’s last fight, not for damage but for utility. Since the beast has a Strength of 18, it’s carrying capacity is 270 as there’s no penalty for Small sized creatures. So my DM allowed me to have it my action to pick characters up and have them fly away without opportunity attacks on account of Flyby. Even with the halved speed, that’s still really nice for low levels
I know you're focusing on this one type of summons. But I think there are other builds that need considered too. The Beastmaster, Battle Smith, Artillerist, Wildfire type summons are a thing too. Then the "lesser" familiar and homonculous exist. Finally, the least traditional, but maybe easiest to use well summons, the Echo. With this many versions of summons in play, there's no excuse for not being creative.
Are we forgetting the stupid material component requirement? I'm playing a tomb of anihilation campaign and you can bet I cannot find any of the components for those summoning options and in many games where gold isn't dealt out so freely it might be way too late when you finally get to a city or similar to change your gold into that specific component
I think that's a "your DM is being a jerk" problem rather than a problem with the summoning spells. And if your DM remains adamant on being a jerk and not letting you play the game you want, use a spellcasting focus instead of a component pouch. That'll solve your issues.
Love this video Chris! I have a Concept of a war forged clockwork soul sorcerer. He was sent by a cult of Primus on Mechanus to the material plane to find a particular pentadrone that was lost in the last Modron march. He has a pet monodrone that evolves as he levels up and when he casts summon construct it magically comes to life. It would be awesome if the construct can be viable for mid to high tier play.
One thing I would point out is there are going to be sometimes when you have to spend your whole first turn just summoning and commanding it and you don't get to attack with it. If your game uses a lot of dungeons or clearly dangerous areas and you can pre-summon, that's not an issue. I've had an experience where my DM like to attack us on the road or in places you would never expect to be attacked, and since I was playing a ranger and was trying to have my beast summon and beast master pet and me get to a point we could all attack, because I couldn't pre-summon so often it would take a 3 rounds to really enjoy that combo
i dont get it. the conjure animal spell and i thought the other spells say they can attack immediately, and conjure beast or summon beast WHATEVER, says that it requires no action to direct. So where's the lost turn?
@@youtubeseagull probably didn't make it clear that I talking about summon beast, but even then, if you are a beast master ranger doing the shillelagh/SB combo at the start of combat, it goes: Round 1: summon beast, bonus action command your own beast Round 2: cast shillelagh, use one of your attacks to command your beast, attack with other part of attack, and SB attacks Round 3: you attack, beast attacks as BA, and summon attacks on its own
I think Summon Undead can be so flavourful for so many concepts. Be it your ancestor spirits watching over you, the warrior spirit of your family's bodyguard sworn to protect, the spirits of the drowned in service to your fathomless patron or your deceased mentor fighting besides you. The limit is your imagination.
Without doing much in the way of optimization, it became quickly apparent that Summon Fey and later Summon Aberration was the best spell my Genie Warlock could cast. He can blast away with Eldritch Blast, then add two more eye rays from his Beholderkin. They just float in the sky and make my DM's life hell. It's amazing.
Unique Summoner --- 1) Take arcana feat and start building magic missile wands. 2) Conjure Minor Elementals and take mephits (assuming DMs allows you to choose) and give them each a wand.
Thank you for doing this. I've used these spells as a wizard and a warlock, and had good luck w them. It wasn't a heavily optimized table, but it wasn't a table of people taking Dungeon Delver and the Find Traps spell either. Looking forward to the next vid!
Great video! Playing as a cleric for two years, summon celestial was my go to spell against single targets instead of spirit guardians. I am also playing a wizard with summon fey(this campaign is at 6 level and we haven't encountered creatures with resistances yet) and so far, it's working fine.
I've tried making a summoner class that had different summons based on ur subclass. I eventually gave up bc in trying to balance it was either too strong or too weak. I did make sure they summon(s) shared initiative with the pc.
Dude, I haven’t been this excited for your build videos since…. Your last one lol. No but seriously this trminds me of your wizard builds where you made one of each, I went from being totally lost in paralysis by analysis to absolutely LOVING the wizard class and feeling very confident with spells
I've been running an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer for a while and Summon Aberration has done crazy damage numbers on top of my regular spellcasting. I like how each summon spell has multiple modes within it - gives you so many options!
I play a hexblade chain pact warlock. Having the familiar and undead ( invocation) means starting of with 2 Summons, while Still keeping the option open to either summon undead, attack with the hex weapon, or drop a Nuke spell. Furthermore when droppin a humanoid to 0 hp you can transform it into a spectre. This build is pretty fun as you can create your army duiring combat
I’m making a plasmoid sorlock that’s main move set is based on summoning. Draconic ancestry with pact of the chain for a BA poisoning attack. Focusing more on warlock levels (I like 7 or 8 for ASI), you can summon undead (or other options situationally), allowing you to potentially poison, incapacitate, or paralyze opponents, all while still allowing you to benefit from eldritch blast nova rounds. Worth a look!
When I think of the gold standard for summoners as a concept, I give credit to the Final Fantasy games. Specifically FFX - FFXII, where the game designers continued to give you more & more control over the creatures that you summon. These summons also have their own lore baked into the world, which gives them a connection to the world; there is (or could be...) a reason why Bahamut has appeared, for example. This gives them character, and also aids world building.
I was working on a wisdom based Ranger druid mix, beast master ranger that focused on the summon beast and summon fey spells. I also made a vampire build undead warlock that used the shadow spawn and undead summons a bit.
The very fact that you are summoning in principle is a giant utility and defensive bonus. When enemies drop your summon and turn to you, they still potentially have to close the distance to attack you, maybe even coming short losing a round of damage. You can put your summons forward in harms way, while not coming anywhere near danger. You can attack with your summon, while you yourself are hiding or donging or doing something like that. Of course the summon should have less health and DPR than a martial of equivalent level.
When I use conjure animals, I go for the CR 1 beasts, there are a lot of fun options. You only get two so it doesn't bog down combat as much. My favorites: Giant Spider. Get enemies stuck in webs Giant Toad. Grapple and swallow medium sized or smaller creatures Giant Hyena. Shreds through groups of squishy enemies
I have a Bladesinger with Summon Shadowspawn. I've found it effective spell to use my concentration on with an upcast slot through levels 8-12 Wizard while spending my own actions in melee or casting non-concentration spells. As long as not all enemies are flying or resistant/immune to cold. The Dreadful Scream offers a strong fear effect, and Weight of Sorrow movement control.
It of course starts being strong from the 7th level, when you can upcast it first time. For the 5th lvl spell slots my favorite was Transmute Rock to Mud, but on occasion I preferred to use my concentration on Wall of Force or Animate Objects (although both are good only for one encounter, and the Shadow Spirit usually lasts more than one). But your Warlock build really made even better usage of Shadowspawn!
Obligatory WoW reference, demon summoning Warlock would be very cool. I think there's possibly a variety of casters that could find ways to give bonuses to their summons somehow, but thematically, it would be cool to use the Warlock. One problem I could see this running into is concentration, so you might mention ioun stones or the like as a potential power up, but if you could find a way to get concentration on the summon and something else, or some buff spells that don't require concentration, a superpowered fiendish battleservant would be super cool. Also keeping in WoW theme would be a beastmaster hunter, with a very strong resummonable "pet."
School of Necromancy Wizard using Summon Undead (Skeletal), is an absolute machine with level 6 when you get Undead Thralls being a highlight. the only downside to the Tasha’s summoning spells is the high barrier to entry that they have with the material component cost being a huge once off gold cost
I was playing a necromancer type character in RotFM, and had loads of fun with shadowspawn and undead. As I leveled higher I spent more time focusing on my ability to raise the dead (and burry them in the snow whenever I needed to go into town, just close enough I could come back every morning and make sure that I didn't lose control) but I spent a lot of time running around with a shadowspawn and a band of both zombies and skeletons. The shadowspawn and a couple zombies would rush into the fray with the barbarian and the ranger, while I sat in the back with the skeletons sniping where I saw fit. Ironically enough I was usually sending in the undead, summoning the shadowspawn, then casting forebolt from the back row. To keep things from getting bogged down all the undead acted on the same initiative count and I rolled the attacks in groups as long as they were all the same damage, much like playing Warhammer.
It's not optimal I know, but I've always enjoyed the idea of a hexblade warlock summoner based on certain Necromancer builds from Diablo II. It's far from an exact one-for-one, but I think you can get a very similar aesthetic and feel.
11 mins in and I want to share my Character on my Westmarch server: -Artificer 1/Enchanter Wizard 12. Theme is that I get other people to do things for me, including animated objects. At 3rd level, I was using Unseen Servant in combat. Not for much value, but having it hold a shield has been slightly useful, giving cover sometimes or eating an attack is valuable enough. Otherwise, using a bonus action to grab stuff isn’t bad on a Wizard. Side note: works well at tying people up while using Hypnotic Gaze in them. Ever since I got 3rd level spells, I have been using Tiny Servant to make a bipedal Skullboi to throw my Magic Stones. I like using Dragon’s Breath on it when I only have one. However, when I got 4th level spells, making 3 Tiny Servants to throw all three of my Magic Stones in one turn. Now with 6th level spells, Create Homunculus, Animated Objects, Summon Construct, all doing the good work and doing plenty of damage and eating lots of attacks. Additionally, I have managed to get some Wands of Magic Missile and a Circlet of Blasting. Having the little Skullbois play Hot Potato with the Wand and rapid firing missiles at people. At peak, I am firing 9 magic missiles as a bonus action for 6 rounds in a row while using Sunbeam and reaction spells to control the Battlefield…. BTW, Sunbeam has been a crazy clutch spell to concentrate on when Animated Objects won’t pass the BBEGs resistances.
So happy to see Tasha's summons get the credit they deserve. They're so underrated and so good for the game. Its been a joy to see my girlfriend's conjuration wizard kick ass with her tasha's summons in game
Warlock summoner is fun. You get the most summon spells, and being high level spells doesn't matter because all your slots are max level and short rest recovery. Wizard summoner is fun, you get temphp and concentration protection to keep them alive, free items, and you have planar bonding to keep them around.
My guess is there will be an undead warlock taking summon shadow spawn. If you pick the fury variant you get advantage on the shadowspawn’s attacks when the target of those attacks is frightened. This is easy enough to go do when you trigger fear saves every turn. In that scenario I’m seeing ~25 dpr from the shadowspan when cast at 5th level. For fear immune engines, weight of dispair combos wel with forced movement from eldritch blast.
I love exploring new angles and concepts. Why this is my #1 must watch channel. And while I agree with how problematic Conjure Animals can be, decrying the delightful class of a Shepherd druid with conjure animals as boring is rich. And this is from someone that has never played one or cast conjure animals as a player, as I mostly DM. Sorry that some have played several hundred hours of D&D and find it yawn, no need to shout down players yet to play one, or cast conjure animals because sorry, it's been done.
I think you missed a spell, Dance Macabre from Xanathar's. While it isn't literally a summoning spell it functionally is one that just has a material component of corpses.
It's a very interesting spell, it scales very unusually, 2 more skeletons or zombies per spell slot. They aren't very durable but they can be pretty bursty. If you throw out some extra short swords to your skeletons before they attack you can make 10 attacks that add your casting mod, could be 50+20+10d6 damage as a bonus action effectively with an extra 12+2d6 per level of spell slot.
I've been rolling with a Summoner as my main, a now-15th Level Earth Genasi Genielock that leverages Pact of the Chain to get an Imp that absolutely dominated in T1 (getting extra attack at LEVEL 3!!! through Investment of the Chain Master and doing crazy poison damage with each one) and has been scaled up with magic items as I levelled (he crushed with a Tentacle Rod in T2, and now in T3 he slings my Instant Fortress for me). My main jam is actually Infernal Calling for White Abishai, which recently got a MMoM boost (Skill Expert for Expertise in Intimidation, then Cloak of Flies for advantage in Intimidation, vs. Insight +1), but I sometimes use Tasha's Summons and they're very solid, especially when you pair them with Agonizing Blasts instead of d8 Cantrips, plus throw in the damage from my Imp (and I have a Boros Keyrune for a Veteran too, lol... and Awakened Shrubs to handle my Elemental Gems). Looking forward to Level 17 when I can use Wish to add a Simulacrum (plus his own Imp and Summon) and a couple of Find Greater Steeds to the team, and I spend most of my adventures chilling in my Sanctuary Vessel with wine, while pumping out White Abishais to support the Imp/Simulacrum/Sim-Imp/Sim-Summon/FGSs/Veteran.
I played a Circle of the Shepard Druid Old Grandpa Gnome for a game of Decent into Avernus. It was really fun... and broken... But I found it to be really adaptable! I learned to roll damage and hits for all summoned creatures before my turn and note them on a piece of paper. Once I figured out the AC I'd just say how many hit and the overall damage. Worked out well for my table.
I have been working on a warlock summoning and control build. Its based on the threefold synergy between the undead patron, the pact of the chain and the summon undead/summon shadospawn spells. The basic idea is to use the form of dread to inflict the frightened condition, the investment of the chain master invocation to attack with a sprite/quasit familiar to inflict the poisoned condition, and the summon undead (putrid) form to paralyze poisoned foes. All while using your action to push enemies into place with EB+AB+RB. The summon shadowspawn spell is used as a control backup when fighting constructs or undead (tend to be immune to both frightened and poisoned), to reduce their movement by 20ft and then push them away. (Alternatively also to get advantage on attacking frightened enemies). The build doesnt benefit much from going Warlock beyond Lvl 7, so I have started to play around with multiclasses after. Sorcerer is an option, but not much is gained from this, since our concentration is already spoken for and the summon spells are very economical. Quicken spell would allow 1 extra EB when fighting poison immune enemies, which imo is not worth it. Instead I think going paladin for additional support options works great here.
When you talked about reliability and damage typesit is good to keep in mind that while yes there are enemies a plenty with resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning piercing slashing damage and secondly fire , at lower levels there are fewer enemies with it. I don't know how you would add that into the formula but it should be considered.
Chainlock 5, Investment of Chain Master Invocation, Summon Wretched Undead, Pseudodragon familiar. Still one of the most awesome combos I've put together. Wretched undead has a chance to poison/paralyze, the familiar has chance to KO. Even if the Familiar's poison doesn't KO the target, it is poisoned for an hour making every wretched undead attack a chance to paralyze.
As a way to avoid the headache of nonmagical damage from the summons is to make a house rule that all effects created by spells deal magical damage. This makes the summons able to be viable at every level of play without being overtuned
I've been playing a PAM blade-daolock summoner and it's been effective & fun. Have used summon undead (for backstory reasons, any of the 3rd level summon spells would work fine), summon greater demon, and conjure elemental to good effect. The hour duration on the summon spells pair nicely with the low number of spell slots for the warlock. I've also played a fathomless bladelock with a whip and the slasher feat who used Summon Shadowspawn (despair) to control the battlefield by reducing enemies speed to zero/near zero
I also think you put too much emphasis on the reliable damage issue. Yes, against some enemies it is a big deal but against many enemies it's not and this is also why I take 2 or 3 different options on my spell list if I want to lean into summoning. Maybe I want to summon fey most of the time but if I also have summon shadowspawn then I can pick what fits best for the expected situation. Also, if you know that the reliability of damage will be a problem in the specific combat, cast something else. For example, if you're playing a bladelock then take spirit shroud and you can reliably increase your damage for that combat and get some useful secondary effects.
I played a goblin conjurer focused on summon X spells and stealth. Aside from summon undead (necromancy spell) they all benefit from focused conjuration (and durable summons). Using benign transposition to switch places with the summoned creatures (as long as they were small or medium) was quite handy in and out of combat. I got a lot of mileage out of summon aberration (beholderkin). It was good source of damage and a nice mount. My only complain was (and still is) that Wall of Stone is not a conjuration spell.
Honestly, the things that hamper summoning most is that there's really no support for summoned creatures outside shepherd druid. In previous editions, concentration worked differently, so you could make up for the fact that summons were fixed and honestly kinda squishy by being able to buff them. Additionally you could still do other things once your summons were thrown out. 5e's a bit overzealous with concentration if I'm honest, and very hesitant to actually let certain playstyles exist instead of actually providing support for those playstyles so they aren't agony to run for inexperienced tables.
Not very long ago I had a hexblade character in my game who considered all her summons to be her familiar. It was a small reflavoring where any of the summons she used took the form of a displacer beast she befriended as a 'kitten' and later died, with various flares depending on type: It might be mossy and very fey in appearance or raw and savage or come in with an angelic aura. I see the numbers in the video showing the damage works out but in actual play, she never felt overly powerful. Competently viable, sure, but a lot of that did come from the scenarios she found herself in. That said, she was still a hexblade. She summoned very often but she was, in fact, still a 7th level hexblade who was viable in combat without her pet active. The point is that if, say, a wizard summoner finds themselves in a situation where none of their summons really work very well, he needs to remember he's not 'a 10th level summoners,' he's a '10th level WIZARD.' If his pet can't shoot up, he can still chuck a fireball into those harpies.
I'm looking forward to your future videos on this. I'm running my funnily thru strixhaven. My kids are druids. They're new to DnD and don't like doing the study in order to fully build their own characters. So, I narrow down the options for them. I'm only going to allow them to choose the Tasha's summoning spells.
There are a few other things you're missing 1. What other utility does the creature provide? Maybe the summons can get us places our characters can't - over a wall Maybe the summons can move faster that we can on a normal, non-magical mount Maybe the summons can detect things we can't - traps, spells, etc.. Maybe the summons can get places because they're small and can report back to us. 2. Even if something doesn't get pack tactics, if using the optional rules regarding facing and flanking, they may be able to get advantage regardless 3. Is there a way to change out the damage type of these creatures? I mean if sorcerers can switch out damage types, why can't they change the damage type of their summons? 4. Can you toss up the creatures stuck in melee to be able to reach the flying monsters, or place them where they're more effective - maybe atop a summoned wall? Or, depending on the size, ride on another flying creature? Just a couple of things to consider
I have a fix for Conjure Animals that, in my opinion, makes it more table friendly and balanced. In addition to letting the player choose the animals and have them take their turn immediately after their own, they cannot choose the “8 Beasts of CR 1/4 or lower”. I know, sounds outlandish, but I’ll explain why I think it works. Getting rid of the 8 creatures option means that the maximum number of creatures you can have at once is halved, which means less creatures for the player to manage and less space being taken up on the battlefield. It’s also worth noting that 4 tiny creatures can occupy the same 5ft square (if I’m not mistaken) which makes tiny creatures like Velociraptors even easier to manage. This also means that the best summoning option for damage is the “4 creatures of CR 1/2 or lower” and still choosing Velociraptors (I’ve checked, no CR 1/2 creature out-damages them). Now even though Conjure Animals has taken an arguably huge nerf from my change, the spell STILL does more damage than Animate Objects when both spells are cast at the same level. Only now it does slightly more damage rather than more than double (when using Velociraptors). So the spell is still very viable in terms of damage, but it’s not so overpowered that it’s game breaking.
Im planning on building an Aasimar wildfire druid focusing on these spells for an upcoming campaign, damage isn't massive but it has infinite controll and utility. Really like these new spells more they are more flavourfull and easier to play with not needing 100+ pages of monsters at your table.
Opened with "Can you prevent a war? Apprehend the apocalypse?" and I was SO ready to hear about how Conjure Animals can stop an apocalypse.
Lol, I had the exact same thought
same
Conjure Animals is the apocalypse. It can be so bad for gameplay that people stop having fun, and the campaign ends.
Summoning has always been one of my favorite things to do with my druid (5+ years of play) and here are a few things I learned:
1- Summoning is not just for combat! There are plenty of situations that summons can solve, from tripping traps and distractions to short-term mounts for the whole group.
2- It's my responsibility to make sure the turns my summons take go as expeditiously and smoothly as possible, so that I don't slow down gameplay as much as, say, savage attacker or confusion would.
3- I am open to my fellow players giving me suggestions on how to use my summons, so when I do it, they get to take credit for the idea.
4- If you're shy about attacking with every single summoned creature and slowing the game down but still want to summon, and your party would benefit greatly from advantage, have your creatures spend their turns on the help action. "Cow 1 helps Gorrak, and Cow 2 helps Liethelle." Done! No rolls, and the DM would feel compelled to waste action economy on getting rid of your little helpers.
5- Summoning is amazing thematically. It is a great feat to boast about, be mischievous with, or create hilarious memories. It offers innumerable opportunities for roleplay. Don't shy away from using it for that purpose.
6- Know with whom you are playing. If you're playing with a group full of optimancers, they will understand when you summon for DPR purposes, but heavy RPers might dislike it if you only uncork your summons for combat and roll the 32 attacks individually.
Have fun with it, make macros, and talk to your DM and fellow players. It's a fantastic feature, and with the right people, you don't have to give up on it for the sake of convenience.
100% Agree. I've got a 2 year old druid character and the conjure spells are so much BETTER than the Tasha summon spells. The Tasha summon spells are entirely designed around combat but if you use them in combat they make the martials feel bad because your summon is almost the same as a standard unoptimized martial character - it acts the same, does similar damage, and has similar utility. They really feel like "I summon an extra martial character" spells. Whereas the Conjure spells are almost always going to give you creatures that feel very different from the martials in your party, and they have so many other uses. IMO using Conjure spells for the purpose of consistent DPR in combat is bad, that isn't really what they are designed for nor a good way to play the game. Instead, using them for battlefield control - as mounts or med-evacs, or as physical barriers or for their special senses to find hidden / invisible enemies.
Good thought. To add to them, I played a wildfire Druid to level 13. I skipped conjure animals entirely, except for temporary mounts, and only used a one creature summon spell every other session or so. Table was good with that and it didn’t negatively impact gameplay.
A time management trick is that the summoner only issue his command during this turn. Then DM gets to control how all the summons react based on the command issued/ their INT/ and spell effect. By RAW, even a familiar should be under DM's control. In this way, the summoner won't take forever during his turn.
There are actually great shortcut damage and hit tables out there for mass combat the DM can use. Sly Flourish's Lazy DM resources for instance. Sure it's extra work to deal with more critters on the board, but someone just chucking evocations and buffs around is pretty boring and not nearly as magical as making whole sports teams of randomly chosen critters show up and lay an @ss whuppin' on a Bullette.
Im so happy you've decided to cover that topic!!! The comunity is such an echo chamber that its really frustrating sometimes... Summon spells are such a flavourfull adition to the game and giving my swords bard summon undead was one of the best decisions ive ever made... It might not be the best use of a 6th level slot, but having a badass ghost fighting alongside you as you slash through fear induced enemies never stops being hella fun!
As a College of Spirits Bard enthusiast, I know what you mean.
I've been a fan of Tashas Summons for a while now, glad to see I'm not the only one! I do think Summon Greater Demon deserves some credit too, it's a very fun spell with an element of risk to it.
best 4th spell.
I really like that it's actually tied to narrative with the whole "true name" thing
I love using it as a "flashbang." Open door, SGD into the room, close and lock the door, let the problem sort itself out
What’s the strongest demon to summon
@@Almighty_Mage I've used the Balgura and the Tanarruk. Usually don't need it to be SUPER deadly (idea is to soften up the fight) but fairly thumpy
I have a Shepherd Druid in the campaign I DM. When he took the subclass, I told him that I would let him choose what he summons and have them go after him in turn (that's our rule for any and every summon/pet/companion/ally, just because we have potentially a lot of players). In one of the games I play, my brother plays a Land Druid and started playing with using Conjure Animals and Summon Beast. The first time he used Conjure Animals, the demon teleported away and Fireballed them, wiping out most of the animals and nearly taking down the warlock and my paladin. Since then he's been a little more strategic with his placement to avoid those kinds of AOE attacks.
If the critters are getting fireballed and not the party because you summon them somewhere else it has definitely been a good use of a 2nd level spellslot. The alternative would have been a 3rd level counterspell. Sounds like a good choice to me. If the critters are all dead or half dead, cast it again and get them back in the fight!
Another intriguing thing about these summons is since they upcast so cleanly, they really reduce the sting of multiclassing at certain levels. I haven't really looked at it but I think this could boost the performance of something like ranger 5 or 6 into Cleric, being able to consistently boost your damage with summons or spirit guardians as appropriate. At very high levels, three sharpshooter attacks and a celestial firing beams as you ride it through the sky seems enticing.
I give out cards of creatures my players find in the area as they find them. This allows them to be creative and tactical while controlling what they have at that point in the campaign. It encourages exploration, is thematic, and tells them the stat block and number of summons. It also makes it so the druid/ranger grows in power as they become an expert in-that area. Add that to letting it go after players and i think its way more fun then the base rules
To be honest, I think this is exactly the intended style of play.
A thing I did was make a Wizard and make sure someone took "Inspiring Leader" because giving temp HP is nice. Since I know that my whole thing is doing summoning I do the 1 hour spells, and the added HP keeps them alive. Then I was also an abjurer, which sounds odd when conjurer is available, but using the projected shield kept them alive for a long time - and if it was me being hit, I was able to protect concentration by taking less damage, and could better counter spell the rare times that someone tried to dispel one.
Abjurers that can summon honestly sound really solid.
I’m glad you made a video about these spells because I’ve had so much fun with them. I’m playing a Yuan-Ti Dao Chainlock that uses almost all of the 'Summon' spells, and I made it a point to flavor her summons' appearances and personalities with parts of her backstory.
Basically, she was a normal human before she being kidnapped as a slave and cursed into a Yuan-Ti Pureblood. What drove her to adventure was to find a 'cure' to get rid of her serpentine blood and regain the emotions she lost long ago.
She started researching a plethora of monsters, folk tales and Magic items from the planes, and sorta became a less notorious female version of Volo, which eventually led her to her Patron.
Since her familiars are tied to her Patron's magic, they take on more elemental or desert based forms. Her Imp looks like a little Gargoyle and her Sprite has bug features more akin to a locust than a dragonfly.
With Summon Fey, her summons look like mini versions of herself disguised as various fey creatures she met in her travels as to emulate the emotions she lost. 'Mirthful' looks like a Pixie, 'Tricksy' like a Quickling and 'Fuming' like a Redcap.
Summon Shadowspawn depicts twisted versions of characters in her past that caused her fear, despair and rage.
With Summon Aberration, her summons take more serpentine forms as to show the influence of the Yuan-Ti on her magic. The Beholderkin has eyestalks like vipers and the Slaad has the face of a giant cobra.
Also since these spells have some pretty costly and unusual material components, it gave my DM opportunities to create side quests for my character to access her summons, which I think was fantastic.
Anyway sorry for the long comment, I just really like those spells!
That’s a really creative idea! Props, and I might steal some of this idea 👀
There's one other "summoning" spell that I think bears mention, and that's Animate Dead. Now this spell also has some *serious* table problems, but it tends to have different table problems from conjure animals: the creatures you summon are all one of two types, that don't get access to multiple attacks or spellcasting. There's also a subclass that can support this spell, that being the necromancy Wizard. So assuming you're playing in a campaign where your marching with an army of skeletons isn't a problem, it can be an option worth considering.
I've been having fun with the summon 1 creature spell. Been making an eladrin (always spring) conjuration wizard that summons 1 creature then I use my actions so support alies and get them in good positions. Teammates trust me, so I just choose how to focus fire, and I'm my plan is having all summoning spells. I never use conjure animals. EDIT we do have a homebrew half feat. Summoning adept, my summoned creatures ignore damage resistance.
That’s a pretty cool feat. Seems strong under correct circumstances but not game breaking
Definitely the feat is outright stronger than elemental adept. But honestly homebrew is fun cuz it's strong typically. And honestly, DND 5e isn't exactly balanced anyway, so who even cares
I will absolutely be back for the next summoner video. I’ve seen summon undead used to great effect at my table.
I'd love this video so much, I agree with everything about conjure animals and it's the main reason why I've never played a Conjurer before, thanks for the insight on the other "Summon" spells and for reinforcing the idea that we should never trust our gut instincts.
27:00 you missed College of Spirits Bard, with the Spirit Session, an amazing and underrated subclass.
summon shadowspawn as a noob saibot shadowclone is the coolest concept I could think of.
Ive seen a picture of a guy in leather armor running with 2 spectral wolves (I think you have used it a few times), and it made me want to combine druid with 6 levels of bladesinger. Couldnt really figure it out tho
Honestly, since rangers have and should use summon beast, you could just have described a beast master ranger.
This video was so needed. I have a lot of issues with conjure animals and you described the catch 22 elegantly.
I’m glad you’re giving the summon spell line hype because they are amazing. Way more flavor and they can do amazing things like AOE fear or poison which lets us pick the “right” summon for the job.
Bravo!
Fantastic content over the last few weeks Chris! The mutliclass guides will be really helpful for reference material and this summoning deep-dive is really needed. I'm excited to see what builds you come up with. Summon Fey has been very effective on my war mage wizard and I didn't even optimize it at all.
I want to ask you a question. How your DM treat the case when we give the Fey a magical shortsword? Is the Fey proficient with this magical weapon? The d6 force damage could be applied with another weapon, that is not from the statblock (in other words, is the force damage property of the sword or of the Fey?)
@Wizard Volovik I did not have a magical shortsword to use, but my DM said he would allow it to be used, and the force damage would be coming from the fey, not it's sword.
@@androlgenhald476 thank you for the answer!
Conjure Animals, more like Conjure DMing headache lmao
I love the idea of Conjure Animals, and acknowledge the numerical strength of it.
But, out of consideration for the party and the DM, I never ever use it.
I really really hate that spell. Especially when it's used to summon 8 anklebiters who all have their own attack rolls and hp totals. Super annoying.
Shameless self plug:
I wrote the Conjurer, on DMsGuild to provide a class that would basically work as a pokemon trainer in combat (the spell list is mostly support/utility). Three archetypes (undead, wilderness, and elemental) and over 70 unique disciplines, that grant a spell and a feature derived from said spell when you summon your Minion... as if you were channeling that spell through it.
For example, a discipline might grant you the Web spell, and the option of summoning a "webby" minion - when it is hit, it exudes a mini web centered on it.
Chris, you know even if you did talk about the Feats and Stuff that could boost a Summoner, I would still be watching the next video when it comes out 😂 Good stuff, dude! I’ve always wanted to learn summoning in D&D…
-Ian
I played a Hexblade pact of the blade warlock in tomb of annihilation and at level 8 I picked up summon shadow spawn. not only did it fit super well since my characters magic always involved shadows, and thus the summon was their own shadow standing up off the ground and viciously attacking their enemies, but to me it made my warlock spell slots seem to last so much longer. For the whole campaign until then my slots seemed to go poof, but the summon lasts an hour! Overall it's my favorite spell in the game now. I am biased of course, in that summoning is very cool to me, and conjuration is by far my favorite school of magic.
I DMed Tomb for a friend, she played a Dow Genie Warlock with Chain Pact (invested chain master invocation).
It took her some pre battle or a couple of turns, but if I left her unchecked on combat she would become a turret of DPS.
I don't quite remember the order, but it would be something like this
(without any before combat prep)
Turn 1 - Action summon undead, bonus action magic stone and give it to the familiar. Summon attacks.
Turn 2 - Action eldritch blast (+cha dmg). Bonus action imp attack with magic stone. Summon attacks.
If she could prep (summon ready and/or stone ready) it was even faster.
And it wasnt even her optimal choice, since her favorite move was spike growth + pushing stuff with blast + genie stuff
edit: on this table i banned multiple creature summon spells from the start
I loved it when my bard player picked summoning spells for his magic secrets. There's nothing I enjoy more than watching as his character drops over 30 snakes on the battlefield and chaos ensues. It's honestly not that hard to keep track if you do what most DMs do when handling mobs, which is to group them into 4-8 initiative groups, do attacks as an unit, and take average results. The fantasy is really worth it. For the single summon spells, we had the spirits taking form become characters of their own players had to win over, bargain with, and even mourn when they fell. It was like letting them build and customize their favorite npc to aid them in combat, and it added a ton of RP and lore drop opportunities.
My main way of dealing with conjure animals is to:
A) disallow any more than 4 summoned creatures at a time, six if casting at level 9, but we've never played there
B) give the player a pool of 6 or so options they will pick from so they know what to do but the animals arent broken
Haven't had problems so far, the only thing close to an issue was grappling with summons but that wasn't any more OP than what hypnotic pattern does at third level anyways
I don't know how much you'll talk tactics in these upcoming videos, but I've been having a blast with my Summon Undead phasing through walls and floors to avoid opportunity attacks after causing the frightened condition. Safe (potentially multi target at higher levels) long lasting control and damage from your spell slots. [Move forward 5 ft, Attack, move down 5 feet, move back 5 feet, move up 5 feet]
Really excited for the next series of videos about your concepts for summoners! I've been wanting to play a summoner for a while now but never really found the best way to do it.
I ran a 5th level christmas one shot with my family using pre-genned characters. I had my mother play a hill dwarf shepherd druid, and one of the ways I streamlined druid for a complete novice player was by specifying the forms that her wildshape and similar features could create. I prepared a list, a slimmed down profile for each, and a mini for each!
Part of that process was also pre-assigning what animals she could summon with conjure animals.
The main one, and I circled it in bold, was 8 elk with 50ft fly speed. I also wrote a note that she could only use the spell this way if she recited "Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer, now Vixen, on Comet, on Cupid, on Doner, on Blitzer".
The moment when she pulled this out, everybody cheered.
It still slowed down combat, but after one round it was clear that they would win and the monsters surrendered. They rode the reindeer to their next fight.
One of the reasons this was possible was because my players had nothing to compare it to, so they trusted me to make it fun, and weren't all up in my grill about doing it "properly". A welcome change from my usual gaming group! (jk I love all my players)
I’m currently playing a bard 12/warlock 2, and I went with lore bard. The idea was for someone who flunked out of a wizard academy so they went to a college of lore. For the magical secrets at 6 & 10, I took counterspell, find steed, summon shadowspawn, and wall of force. Upcasting shadowspawn can give up to 3 attacks (3d12+27) in addition to eldritch blast. You can lower their movement while you can move up to 120, and there’s a built-in fear. It still allows you to do damage while casting other spells, and makes a nice distraction for enemies to attack instead of you
I think there's another reason I prefer conjure animals to the new summons. There's something really cool in the fantasy of summoning a horde of creatures rather than just one. You could reflavour your summoned beast as a swarm of small beasts I guess but that really doesn't fulfil the feeling
I have also played a Shepherd Druid from 1st - 17th level. In my experience, with my DM. We worked out that the theme of my druid, is all about wolves. I could always choose wolves, but if I wanted anything else, he'd random roll 'within reason' for the area we were in. To keep my 'turns' from absolutely wrecking combat pacing, we made it so I would give control to the other players and the wolves would take their turns after each player. There were 4 players, who then had control of two pet wolves each. To me it was fun being the party pet supplier, and the party had fun because each got their own pets to command around, so I wasn't monopolizing the combat turns. It made it so my 'thematic' spell would always get me what I want, but if I wanted something else, it would be down to the natural creatures in that area.
Here is my Summoner concept. It comes from "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by Ursula Vernon. In the book, wizards have magic specialties; they can only manifest their powers with specific materials. The main character, Mona, can "inject" her magic into dough, so she is a wizard baker. My goal with my D&D character was to recreate Mona by re-flavoring spells. After examining options, it seemed like artificer was the closest match in tone. She has a sourdough starter familiar that dissolves things with acid, so I would use Acid Splash and Tasha's Caustic Brew. She has a gingerbread man that can perform tasks (unseen servant) and stand watch (alarm). And at the end of the book (spoiler alert), she can create giant bread golems (summon construct, clay).
X-D
Played a level 9 one-shot. I played a Pact of the Chain Fiendish Warlock. Took the Imp with the Investment of the Chain Master & Summon Shadow Spawn. With this character I could us my bonus action to command the Imp to make an attack on it's turn. And, I could use my attack action (giving up my attack) to have the Imp attack as it's reaction. Then I could use my free action to tell the Shadow Spawn to attack on it's turn. My Warlock never had to lift his own finger to attack a couple of monsters each round. Was fun.
I actually liked how 4e did summons, it needed maybe a bit more oomph but it was close. The tasha ones are pretty close as well but I feel those are still on maybe the too good side, and conjure animals can get even better with the right build. I think the Tasha ones need to have more health but do less damage and have more non damage options. I know this is a optimization channel so maybe its not the right audience, but i play with non optimizers and frequently the summon in its own is matching the damage of the fighter type in the party. Yeah they are a lot tankier, than the summon but it just feels bad. The spell caster isn't really building for it, they just cast the spell and poof mini fighter. Depending on how you look at it I guess your numbers kind of reflect that.
Though I will say I have not seen a universal ruling on whether the damage is magical or not. Some DMs see these as more magical creations and the slashing etc damage is more like blade barriers or cloud of daggers slashing damage and therefore magical, others see them more as just conjured creatures and therefore its not. Depending on campaign and build this is a huge thing and could swing them to being a somewhat weak spell outside a couple of them. But at the levels most people play I don't think its a huge impact.
As a DM, I "fixed" summoning in my campaign by modeling it after Final Fantasy X. There were pre-made character sheets for every possible summon, but in order to add something to your list of summons, you needed to go find a temple and complete a trial there.
Surprisingly, after years, the players have never exploited this. They are content with just having a handful of summon options, because they really don't need more than two HD 4 summons to help handle most of their opponents.
They haven't yet encountered the NPC evil summoner that can call an Avatar of Apophis the sun eater. But I have that planned to be the introduction of enemies that benefit from the homebrew summoning mechanics
My ideal summoner is the Eloquence Bard with Infernal Calling as one of their Magical Secret. With Silver Tongue, your persuasion or deception check cannot go lower than 10+charisma_modifier. Add in expertise in persuasion and deception and advantage from knowing the devil's name, there are a whole bunch of devils who cannot break free and must obey your all verbal commands.
I think that upcasting the "Summon X" spells could be a way the designers could add damage types to keep these spells relevant vs resistances.
Adding something more to the summons other than a little bit of extra damage and a little bit of health would be great
There's two routes to fix summoning in 5e so that it works for the entire playgroup.
1. Strong singular summons that go down in 1 hit and can be resummoned at no cost. Look up the Echo Knight. It's a fantastic summoner class.
2. Hand out puppeteering duties. If you're going to allow multiple summons do not let one player bog down combat with 15 attack rolls each time their turn comes up. Pick the highest CR solo critter the spell can summon or pick the CR that summons a number of critters equal to the players at the table. Maybe double the players at the table. When you summon a group of creatures have them go together at the end of initiative. Have them only attack or move towards the nearest enemy they will attack. When the summoned critter turn comes up everyone rolls their attacks together.
Acquisitions Incorporated did it fantastically in one of their PAX stage shows. Morgan Webb brought a pre Tasha's ranger with Conjure Animals and prepared stat block flash cards to the game. She cast Conjure Animals twice. Once when the 4 players needed to cross a river/lake and everyone got a personal alligator to ride on. The second time she summoned 4 panthers during the final boss fight. The 4 players focused fire on the minions and when the Panthers' turn came up each player rolled for the attacks one of the panthers made against the boss. Literally all you need to know is the Attack bonus of the main attack the summoned critter is going to make over and over.
If you want to do something fancy summon one caster or bruiser type critter at the highest CR you have access to. For all other purposes summon one skirmisher/attacker type critter per party member, have the stat block prepped beforehand, and tell the table the number they'll add to the one type of attack they are going to make each time initiative comes around to the "dogpile on the big bad turn."
Fantastic video. One of the best I have heard in the community in a long time.
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Your mention in the very end about the palette for these summon spells being proven and twekable set off a light bulb on my brain. Guess I HAVE to subscribe to see the next video.
I made an oathbreaker hexblade that would spawn a 3 skellies, 1 greater demon and 1 (greater)steed and it was probably the most fun summoner build i've played, while also still doing badass paladin stuff. It wasnt very intrusive since the couple of skeletons would die very quickly but the greater demon and (greater)steed were still rocking with the +5 to damage from aura of hate.
I've played in a game ranging from 5-7th level using these spells with a Wizard, and Warlock (basically Summon Fey).
At that level, the damage resistance didn't come into play, and they seemed like Very Effective Concentration spells. When you're a Warlock putting out one of these, it's not just 20% over Baseline, it's *120%* over baseline, because you're still there casting Eldritch Blast (I didn't do the math, you'd lose some damage from not having Hex running). The duration and movement of it really puts it over other concentration spells like Web, or Hypnotic Pattern, where it's only going to be around for one encounter as well.
As for survivability, generally any attack that's aimed at the summon won't be aimed at a PC, so that's a win as well.
I've had the concept of a summoner build that uses a stars druid to maintain concentration. Then using the easier summon spells and flavour it as you calling upon their constellation.
the real standout in the summon spells is summon fey for being an hour long unlimited use charm person that doesn't turn the target against you once it wears off.
I aways have lots of house rules around conjure animals too, to solve thease problems:
1 - The player picks the summon, but they can only choose from the ones presented at the end of the players handbook (appendix D), unless that the creature was seen by the character during gameplay;
2 - The monsters go right after the player;
3 - The monsters do average damage, and I use the Handling mobs table from the DMG to see if they hit.
I was able to use Summon Beast quite effectively in our Dragon Heist campaign’s last fight, not for damage but for utility. Since the beast has a Strength of 18, it’s carrying capacity is 270 as there’s no penalty for Small sized creatures. So my DM allowed me to have it my action to pick characters up and have them fly away without opportunity attacks on account of Flyby. Even with the halved speed, that’s still really nice for low levels
I like the idea of having the summons go right BEFORE you so the turn isn't split but enemies can still mess with them beforehand.
I know you're focusing on this one type of summons. But I think there are other builds that need considered too. The Beastmaster, Battle Smith, Artillerist, Wildfire type summons are a thing too. Then the "lesser" familiar and homonculous exist. Finally, the least traditional, but maybe easiest to use well summons, the Echo.
With this many versions of summons in play, there's no excuse for not being creative.
Also, the Shadow Sorcerer's hound.
Are we forgetting the stupid material component requirement?
I'm playing a tomb of anihilation campaign and you can bet I cannot find any of the components for those summoning options and in many games where gold isn't dealt out so freely it might be way too late when you finally get to a city or similar to change your gold into that specific component
I think that's a "your DM is being a jerk" problem rather than a problem with the summoning spells.
And if your DM remains adamant on being a jerk and not letting you play the game you want, use a spellcasting focus instead of a component pouch. That'll solve your issues.
@@jacobjensen7704 Spellcasting Focus can't replace costly components. But yes, with a cooperative DM getting the material shouldn't be an issue.
Love this video Chris! I have a Concept of a war forged clockwork soul sorcerer. He was sent by a cult of Primus on Mechanus to the material plane to find a particular pentadrone that was lost in the last Modron march. He has a pet monodrone that evolves as he levels up and when he casts summon construct it magically comes to life. It would be awesome if the construct can be viable for mid to high tier play.
One thing I would point out is there are going to be sometimes when you have to spend your whole first turn just summoning and commanding it and you don't get to attack with it. If your game uses a lot of dungeons or clearly dangerous areas and you can pre-summon, that's not an issue. I've had an experience where my DM like to attack us on the road or in places you would never expect to be attacked, and since I was playing a ranger and was trying to have my beast summon and beast master pet and me get to a point we could all attack, because I couldn't pre-summon so often it would take a 3 rounds to really enjoy that combo
3 rounds was also because I was going wisdom build to take advantage of shillelagh
i dont get it. the conjure animal spell and i thought the other spells say they can attack immediately, and conjure beast or summon beast WHATEVER, says that it requires no action to direct. So where's the lost turn?
@@youtubeseagull probably didn't make it clear that I talking about summon beast, but even then, if you are a beast master ranger doing the shillelagh/SB combo at the start of combat, it goes:
Round 1: summon beast, bonus action command your own beast
Round 2: cast shillelagh, use one of your attacks to command your beast, attack with other part of attack, and SB attacks
Round 3: you attack, beast attacks as BA, and summon attacks on its own
There was something I was waiting for, so excited to hear there will be one or more videos to review. Great job, Chris!
I think Summon Undead can be so flavourful for so many concepts. Be it your ancestor spirits watching over you, the warrior spirit of your family's bodyguard sworn to protect, the spirits of the drowned in service to your fathomless patron or your deceased mentor fighting besides you. The limit is your imagination.
Without doing much in the way of optimization, it became quickly apparent that Summon Fey and later Summon Aberration was the best spell my Genie Warlock could cast. He can blast away with Eldritch Blast, then add two more eye rays from his Beholderkin. They just float in the sky and make my DM's life hell. It's amazing.
Unique Summoner ---
1) Take arcana feat and start building magic missile wands.
2) Conjure Minor Elementals and take mephits (assuming DMs allows you to choose) and give them each a wand.
Good job as always. Beyond just damage these summons help the party by being there for the enemy to attack. It adds survivability for the whole party.
Thank you for doing this. I've used these spells as a wizard and a warlock, and had good luck w them. It wasn't a heavily optimized table, but it wasn't a table of people taking Dungeon Delver and the Find Traps spell either. Looking forward to the next vid!
Great video! Playing as a cleric for two years, summon celestial was my go to spell against single targets instead of spirit guardians. I am also playing a wizard with summon fey(this campaign is at 6 level and we haven't encountered creatures with resistances yet) and so far, it's working fine.
I've tried making a summoner class that had different summons based on ur subclass. I eventually gave up bc in trying to balance it was either too strong or too weak. I did make sure they summon(s) shared initiative with the pc.
Dude, I haven’t been this excited for your build videos since…. Your last one lol. No but seriously this trminds me of your wizard builds where you made one of each, I went from being totally lost in paralysis by analysis to absolutely LOVING the wizard class and feeling very confident with spells
I've been running an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer for a while and Summon Aberration has done crazy damage numbers on top of my regular spellcasting. I like how each summon spell has multiple modes within it - gives you so many options!
I play a hexblade chain pact warlock. Having the familiar and undead ( invocation) means starting of with 2 Summons, while Still keeping the option open to either summon undead, attack with the hex weapon, or drop a Nuke spell. Furthermore when droppin a humanoid to 0 hp you can transform it into a spectre. This build is pretty fun as you can create your army duiring combat
I’m making a plasmoid sorlock that’s main move set is based on summoning. Draconic ancestry with pact of the chain for a BA poisoning attack. Focusing more on warlock levels (I like 7 or 8 for ASI), you can summon undead (or other options situationally), allowing you to potentially poison, incapacitate, or paralyze opponents, all while still allowing you to benefit from eldritch blast nova rounds. Worth a look!
When I think of the gold standard for summoners as a concept, I give credit to the Final Fantasy games. Specifically FFX - FFXII, where the game designers continued to give you more & more control over the creatures that you summon. These summons also have their own lore baked into the world, which gives them a connection to the world; there is (or could be...) a reason why Bahamut has appeared, for example. This gives them character, and also aids world building.
I was working on a wisdom based Ranger druid mix, beast master ranger that focused on the summon beast and summon fey spells. I also made a vampire build undead warlock that used the shadow spawn and undead summons a bit.
The very fact that you are summoning in principle is a giant utility and defensive bonus. When enemies drop your summon and turn to you, they still potentially have to close the distance to attack you, maybe even coming short losing a round of damage. You can put your summons forward in harms way, while not coming anywhere near danger. You can attack with your summon, while you yourself are hiding or donging or doing something like that. Of course the summon should have less health and DPR than a martial of equivalent level.
When I use conjure animals, I go for the CR 1 beasts, there are a lot of fun options. You only get two so it doesn't bog down combat as much.
My favorites:
Giant Spider. Get enemies stuck in webs
Giant Toad. Grapple and swallow medium sized or smaller creatures
Giant Hyena. Shreds through groups of squishy enemies
I have a Bladesinger with Summon Shadowspawn. I've found it effective spell to use my concentration on with an upcast slot through levels 8-12 Wizard while spending my own actions in melee or casting non-concentration spells. As long as not all enemies are flying or resistant/immune to cold. The Dreadful Scream offers a strong fear effect, and Weight of Sorrow movement control.
It of course starts being strong from the 7th level, when you can upcast it first time. For the 5th lvl spell slots my favorite was Transmute Rock to Mud, but on occasion I preferred to use my concentration on Wall of Force or Animate Objects (although both are good only for one encounter, and the Shadow Spirit usually lasts more than one). But your Warlock build really made even better usage of Shadowspawn!
Obligatory WoW reference, demon summoning Warlock would be very cool. I think there's possibly a variety of casters that could find ways to give bonuses to their summons somehow, but thematically, it would be cool to use the Warlock. One problem I could see this running into is concentration, so you might mention ioun stones or the like as a potential power up, but if you could find a way to get concentration on the summon and something else, or some buff spells that don't require concentration, a superpowered fiendish battleservant would be super cool.
Also keeping in WoW theme would be a beastmaster hunter, with a very strong resummonable "pet."
School of Necromancy Wizard using Summon Undead (Skeletal), is an absolute machine with level 6 when you get Undead Thralls being a highlight. the only downside to the Tasha’s summoning spells is the high barrier to entry that they have with the material component cost being a huge once off gold cost
I was playing a necromancer type character in RotFM, and had loads of fun with shadowspawn and undead. As I leveled higher I spent more time focusing on my ability to raise the dead (and burry them in the snow whenever I needed to go into town, just close enough I could come back every morning and make sure that I didn't lose control) but I spent a lot of time running around with a shadowspawn and a band of both zombies and skeletons. The shadowspawn and a couple zombies would rush into the fray with the barbarian and the ranger, while I sat in the back with the skeletons sniping where I saw fit. Ironically enough I was usually sending in the undead, summoning the shadowspawn, then casting forebolt from the back row.
To keep things from getting bogged down all the undead acted on the same initiative count and I rolled the attacks in groups as long as they were all the same damage, much like playing Warhammer.
It's not optimal I know, but I've always enjoyed the idea of a hexblade warlock summoner based on certain Necromancer builds from Diablo II. It's far from an exact one-for-one, but I think you can get a very similar aesthetic and feel.
11 mins in and I want to share my Character on my Westmarch server:
-Artificer 1/Enchanter Wizard 12. Theme is that I get other people to do things for me, including animated objects.
At 3rd level, I was using Unseen Servant in combat. Not for much value, but having it hold a shield has been slightly useful, giving cover sometimes or eating an attack is valuable enough. Otherwise, using a bonus action to grab stuff isn’t bad on a Wizard. Side note: works well at tying people up while using Hypnotic Gaze in them.
Ever since I got 3rd level spells, I have been using Tiny Servant to make a bipedal Skullboi to throw my Magic Stones. I like using Dragon’s Breath on it when I only have one. However, when I got 4th level spells, making 3 Tiny Servants to throw all three of my Magic Stones in one turn.
Now with 6th level spells, Create Homunculus, Animated Objects, Summon Construct, all doing the good work and doing plenty of damage and eating lots of attacks. Additionally, I have managed to get some Wands of Magic Missile and a Circlet of Blasting. Having the little Skullbois play Hot Potato with the Wand and rapid firing missiles at people. At peak, I am firing 9 magic missiles as a bonus action for 6 rounds in a row while using Sunbeam and reaction spells to control the Battlefield….
BTW, Sunbeam has been a crazy clutch spell to concentrate on when Animated Objects won’t pass the BBEGs resistances.
So happy to see Tasha's summons get the credit they deserve. They're so underrated and so good for the game. Its been a joy to see my girlfriend's conjuration wizard kick ass with her tasha's summons in game
Warlock summoner is fun. You get the most summon spells, and being high level spells doesn't matter because all your slots are max level and short rest recovery.
Wizard summoner is fun, you get temphp and concentration protection to keep them alive, free items, and you have planar bonding to keep them around.
My guess is there will be an undead warlock taking summon shadow spawn.
If you pick the fury variant you get advantage on the shadowspawn’s attacks when the target of those attacks is frightened. This is easy enough to go do when you trigger fear saves every turn. In that scenario I’m seeing ~25 dpr from the shadowspan when cast at 5th level.
For fear immune engines, weight of dispair combos wel with forced movement from eldritch blast.
I love exploring new angles and concepts. Why this is my #1 must watch channel. And while I agree with how problematic Conjure Animals can be, decrying the delightful class of a Shepherd druid with conjure animals as boring is rich. And this is from someone that has never played one or cast conjure animals as a player, as I mostly DM. Sorry that some have played several hundred hours of D&D and find it yawn, no need to shout down players yet to play one, or cast conjure animals because sorry, it's been done.
I think you missed a spell, Dance Macabre from Xanathar's. While it isn't literally a summoning spell it functionally is one that just has a material component of corpses.
Danse ..... but nice suggestion
@@youtubeseagull oh you're right lol, my brain auto corrected to c rofl
It's a very interesting spell, it scales very unusually, 2 more skeletons or zombies per spell slot. They aren't very durable but they can be pretty bursty. If you throw out some extra short swords to your skeletons before they attack you can make 10 attacks that add your casting mod, could be 50+20+10d6 damage as a bonus action effectively with an extra 12+2d6 per level of spell slot.
Haven't looked into a summoning build, can't wait to see what you've come up with. Great video
I've been rolling with a Summoner as my main, a now-15th Level Earth Genasi Genielock that leverages Pact of the Chain to get an Imp that absolutely dominated in T1 (getting extra attack at LEVEL 3!!! through Investment of the Chain Master and doing crazy poison damage with each one) and has been scaled up with magic items as I levelled (he crushed with a Tentacle Rod in T2, and now in T3 he slings my Instant Fortress for me). My main jam is actually Infernal Calling for White Abishai, which recently got a MMoM boost (Skill Expert for Expertise in Intimidation, then Cloak of Flies for advantage in Intimidation, vs. Insight +1), but I sometimes use Tasha's Summons and they're very solid, especially when you pair them with Agonizing Blasts instead of d8 Cantrips, plus throw in the damage from my Imp (and I have a Boros Keyrune for a Veteran too, lol... and Awakened Shrubs to handle my Elemental Gems). Looking forward to Level 17 when I can use Wish to add a Simulacrum (plus his own Imp and Summon) and a couple of Find Greater Steeds to the team, and I spend most of my adventures chilling in my Sanctuary Vessel with wine, while pumping out White Abishais to support the Imp/Simulacrum/Sim-Imp/Sim-Summon/FGSs/Veteran.
This video's content was a pleasant surprise. I appreciate this a wasn't homebrew fix.
Thank you for the video on this topic, these spells look really fun to play with! I can't wait to see your build!
I played a Circle of the Shepard Druid Old Grandpa Gnome for a game of Decent into Avernus. It was really fun... and broken... But I found it to be really adaptable! I learned to roll damage and hits for all summoned creatures before my turn and note them on a piece of paper. Once I figured out the AC I'd just say how many hit and the overall damage. Worked out well for my table.
I have been working on a warlock summoning and control build. Its based on the threefold synergy between the undead patron, the pact of the chain and the summon undead/summon shadospawn spells.
The basic idea is to use the form of dread to inflict the frightened condition, the investment of the chain master invocation to attack with a sprite/quasit familiar to inflict the poisoned condition, and the summon undead (putrid) form to paralyze poisoned foes. All while using your action to push enemies into place with EB+AB+RB. The summon shadowspawn spell is used as a control backup when fighting constructs or undead (tend to be immune to both frightened and poisoned), to reduce their movement by 20ft and then push them away. (Alternatively also to get advantage on attacking frightened enemies).
The build doesnt benefit much from going Warlock beyond Lvl 7, so I have started to play around with multiclasses after. Sorcerer is an option, but not much is gained from this, since our concentration is already spoken for and the summon spells are very economical. Quicken spell would allow 1 extra EB when fighting poison immune enemies, which imo is not worth it. Instead I think going paladin for additional support options works great here.
If your familiar gets killed, Druid 2 could use wildshape to recast find familiar as an action, twice per short rest.
When you talked about reliability and damage typesit is good to keep in mind that while yes there are enemies a plenty with resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning piercing slashing damage and secondly fire , at lower levels there are fewer enemies with it. I don't know how you would add that into the formula but it should be considered.
Chainlock 5, Investment of Chain Master Invocation, Summon Wretched Undead, Pseudodragon familiar. Still one of the most awesome combos I've put together. Wretched undead has a chance to poison/paralyze, the familiar has chance to KO. Even if the Familiar's poison doesn't KO the target, it is poisoned for an hour making every wretched undead attack a chance to paralyze.
As a way to avoid the headache of nonmagical damage from the summons is to make a house rule that all effects created by spells deal magical damage. This makes the summons able to be viable at every level of play without being overtuned
I've been playing a PAM blade-daolock summoner and it's been effective & fun.
Have used summon undead (for backstory reasons, any of the 3rd level summon spells would work fine), summon greater demon, and conjure elemental to good effect. The hour duration on the summon spells pair nicely with the low number of spell slots for the warlock.
I've also played a fathomless bladelock with a whip and the slasher feat who used Summon Shadowspawn (despair) to control the battlefield by reducing enemies speed to zero/near zero
I also think you put too much emphasis on the reliable damage issue. Yes, against some enemies it is a big deal but against many enemies it's not and this is also why I take 2 or 3 different options on my spell list if I want to lean into summoning. Maybe I want to summon fey most of the time but if I also have summon shadowspawn then I can pick what fits best for the expected situation.
Also, if you know that the reliability of damage will be a problem in the specific combat, cast something else. For example, if you're playing a bladelock then take spirit shroud and you can reliably increase your damage for that combat and get some useful secondary effects.
Note for the necromancer wizard that summon undead is not a conjuration but a necromancy spell so your abilities should apply!
Can't wait for the treant monk summoner builds arc by far my fav archetype in fiction
I played a goblin conjurer focused on summon X spells and stealth. Aside from summon undead (necromancy spell) they all benefit from focused conjuration (and durable summons). Using benign transposition to switch places with the summoned creatures (as long as they were small or medium) was quite handy in and out of combat. I got a lot of mileage out of summon aberration (beholderkin). It was good source of damage and a nice mount. My only complain was (and still is) that Wall of Stone is not a conjuration spell.
Liked the video. We replaced Conjure Animals with Summon Beast, but made it upcast better. Works great!
Honestly, the things that hamper summoning most is that there's really no support for summoned creatures outside shepherd druid.
In previous editions, concentration worked differently, so you could make up for the fact that summons were fixed and honestly kinda squishy by being able to buff them. Additionally you could still do other things once your summons were thrown out. 5e's a bit overzealous with concentration if I'm honest, and very hesitant to actually let certain playstyles exist instead of actually providing support for those playstyles so they aren't agony to run for inexperienced tables.
Recently I had a blast playing a Chronurgy Wizard casting Summon Draconic Spirit, so I look forward to see some builds around these summoning spells
Not very long ago I had a hexblade character in my game who considered all her summons to be her familiar. It was a small reflavoring where any of the summons she used took the form of a displacer beast she befriended as a 'kitten' and later died, with various flares depending on type: It might be mossy and very fey in appearance or raw and savage or come in with an angelic aura.
I see the numbers in the video showing the damage works out but in actual play, she never felt overly powerful. Competently viable, sure, but a lot of that did come from the scenarios she found herself in. That said, she was still a hexblade. She summoned very often but she was, in fact, still a 7th level hexblade who was viable in combat without her pet active.
The point is that if, say, a wizard summoner finds themselves in a situation where none of their summons really work very well, he needs to remember he's not 'a 10th level summoners,' he's a '10th level WIZARD.' If his pet can't shoot up, he can still chuck a fireball into those harpies.
I love summoners in any rpg wether it be table top or not so I’m pretty exited about this video
I'm looking forward to your future videos on this. I'm running my funnily thru strixhaven. My kids are druids. They're new to DnD and don't like doing the study in order to fully build their own characters. So, I narrow down the options for them. I'm only going to allow them to choose the Tasha's summoning spells.
There are a few other things you're missing
1. What other utility does the creature provide?
Maybe the summons can get us places our characters can't - over a wall
Maybe the summons can move faster that we can on a normal, non-magical mount
Maybe the summons can detect things we can't - traps, spells, etc..
Maybe the summons can get places because they're small and can report back to us.
2. Even if something doesn't get pack tactics, if using the optional rules regarding facing and flanking, they may be able to get advantage regardless
3. Is there a way to change out the damage type of these creatures? I mean if sorcerers can switch out damage types, why can't they change the damage type of their summons?
4. Can you toss up the creatures stuck in melee to be able to reach the flying monsters, or place them where they're more effective - maybe atop a summoned wall? Or, depending on the size, ride on another flying creature?
Just a couple of things to consider
I have a fix for Conjure Animals that, in my opinion, makes it more table friendly and balanced.
In addition to letting the player choose the animals and have them take their turn immediately after their own, they cannot choose the “8 Beasts of CR 1/4 or lower”. I know, sounds outlandish, but I’ll explain why I think it works.
Getting rid of the 8 creatures option means that the maximum number of creatures you can have at once is halved, which means less creatures for the player to manage and less space being taken up on the battlefield. It’s also worth noting that 4 tiny creatures can occupy the same 5ft square (if I’m not mistaken) which makes tiny creatures like Velociraptors even easier to manage.
This also means that the best summoning option for damage is the “4 creatures of CR 1/2 or lower” and still choosing Velociraptors (I’ve checked, no CR 1/2 creature out-damages them).
Now even though Conjure Animals has taken an arguably huge nerf from my change, the spell STILL does more damage than Animate Objects when both spells are cast at the same level. Only now it does slightly more damage rather than more than double (when using Velociraptors). So the spell is still very viable in terms of damage, but it’s not so overpowered that it’s game breaking.
Im planning on building an Aasimar wildfire druid focusing on these spells for an upcoming campaign, damage isn't massive but it has infinite controll and utility. Really like these new spells more they are more flavourfull and easier to play with not needing 100+ pages of monsters at your table.