Summoning Spells in D&D 5e

Hate summoning spells? Love summoning spells? Somewhere inbetween?
I discuss summoning, the good, the bad and the ugly. How to use summoning effectively, what to look for in a summoning spell, and how DMs and Players can handle summoning in a way that isn't as disruptive to gameplay.

Quick clarifications:
1) at 5:06 I mention the "aid another" action, what I meant was the "help" action.
2) at 8:30 I discuss the possibility of 8 giant spiders attacking or using webs. I was thinking of 8 giant wolf spiders, but they don't get the ability to use webs.

Questions? Leave me a comment down below, or

[fhuber]

Glyph of warding specifically says it can be used to summon:

If the spell summons hostile or harmful things, they appear as close as possible to the creature and attack it.

[ajt]

My favorite part of Chris's videos is how they give the full context of the game - how the choices you make building a character and the choices you make playing that character while sitting at a table with your friends and DM feels - this is such a subtle but overwhelmingly important aspect of the actual game that's often forgotten

[TreantmonksTemple]

Quick clarifications:
1) at 5:06 I mention the "aid another" action, what I meant was the "help" action.
2) at 8:30 I discuss the possibility of 8 giant spiders attacking or using webs. I was thinking of 8 giant wolf spiders, but they don't get the ability to use webs.
3) Conjure Celestial is a 7th level spell

[Porphyrogenitus]

> The game should be fun for everyone
Including the summoned creature? How is this fun for them?
Imagine you're a summonable creature. You're just minding your own business, creaturing along. Frolicing in the wilderness or pulling arms off newly-arrived souls. Then *BAM* some casty drags you into *their* fight and uses you as a meatbag.
No wonder the motto of all critters everywhere is and remains, to this day, *geek the mage first*

[KINFIN]

Probably worth noting that Necromancy counts as a form of summoning.

[SquatBenchDeadlift]

As a first time DM, I didn't realize how much extra stress it would bring to my table when one of the players said "I want to play a bit of a summoner type character." That was one of my first mistakes. As a DM, I was more interested in making the world and game interesting, and keeping an active flow in my sessions. I generally succeeded there, but my second mistake was assuming my players were reading what their spells and abilities do, as well as their limitations. After a while I began to catch on that the player basically just assumed that things just worked how they thought they did without reading the limitations. Some things I caught because I knew them, like when they tried to use Dispel Magic as if it was Counterspell. Eventually I accepted that every move the players make should be something you're sure they can do. And every downside in their abilities is there for a reason. Frankly, after that experience I won't play any sort of summoner PC in a group larger than 4 players, simply because I have sympathy for other DMs.

[TheRobversion]

Man, my DM is like what you mentioned. They always pick the "or lower" option so I ended up always picking the 8 cR 1/4 options because I knew he'd pick the worst options. And his response, when I call him out on it is you're an optimizer, figure it out. Besides, its in the rules. I eventually went to giant insect. Things flowed so much smoother from there. The DM had no control.

[stevemorris]

As a fan of summoning this subject is something I have put a lot of time into. I appreciate the fact that your talking about this subject because its not something that is discussed often and I agree with pretty much everything you said.
The best advice I can give is knowing how the spells and summoned creatures work. Knowing when a summon is appropriate and summoning the appropriate number of creatures for the fight. If the party can kill the enemy before your summon can contribute then its better to save the spell and let the barbarian go ham. If you going to summon a large mob of monsters the help action can cut down on the rolls and get the rest of the party invested. More often then not a crit from a party member is going to do way more damage than the large mob of summons will. People also love it when they crit. Shove is another good option. You can use your minions to force enemies into the AoE of a friendly spell like web, cloud of daggers, sleet storm or cloud kill. If your summon has resistance or immunity to a spell having them take the grapple option to drop enemy movement so they can get hammered by a spell is good too. My favorite example of this is having undead grapple enemies inside of a cloud kill spell.


While I have not had a chance to try it myself you could use the blade ward cantrip to lower damage and make concentration checks easier. The majority of summons get either a free action or take your bonus action. This frees up your action for other spells. Since the dc for concentration checks is 10 or half damage taken, if you take 40 damage from an arrow or other weapon the dc for concentration becomes 20. If you have blade ward up and take the same 40 damage the resistance kicks in and drops it to 20 damage thus making the con save 10. While it only affects damage from weapons and not spells you should be able to improve the odds of survival and maintaining concentration when your caught in a bad position. Some of the biggest threats to mages tend to be ranged weapons anyways so unless im missing something it should work decently.

[corran]

Before watching the actual video, I want to say that your intro was very well organized but more importantly, it was very thorough. It's good going into a video knowing that the one who made it, is going to cover everything about the topic discussed. Pausing this so that I can watch it after I find my thinking cap, cause I want to fully appreciate it.

[Coid]

Another clarification: Clerics don't get access to Conjure Celestial at 9th level, they get access to it at 13th level because Conjure Celestial is a 7th level spell. Planar Ally is a 6th level spell, so Clerics get that at 11th level. That's around 30:41 to about 31:05.

[GildedTongues]

I was JUST considering a circle of the shepherd druid. Really excited to see how your build turns out!

[keeganmbg]

Another great video Chris! Just a note, 14 lvl Conjuration Wizard/ 6 lvl Shepard Druid, your animal summons each get +30 health and you don’t lose them when concentration gets broken due to damage. So your Conjure Animals Spell becomes far stronger and you still have the high level spell slots to summon a ton of creatures, 32 Creatures that have +30 HP flat. Even 32 1/4th CR creatures that each deal 1d4+1 would be 960 HP and 16d4+16 (56 Average Damage) each turn assuming half hit. Now imagine Flying Snakes, because you’re a Snake Tamer and Raise them.

[revenwolf]

An important thing to remember about clogging the battlefield with summons is that you can move through the space of an allied creature regardless of size (PHB p 191) without using any extra movement, as long as the movement doesn't force you to end your turn in the space of another creature.

[sesimie]

Summoners are my fav fantasy archetypes. I play a Shep Druid and have dabbled in it as a Lorebard. With my brand new AL wizard i'll be torn between being a Diviner (as a irst time wizard player) or a Summoner. I watch this vid with great interest!

[MrTadashiikeda]

24:35 Glyph of Warding covers the summoning part.
The Spell Glyph option says "If the spell summons hostile creatures or creates harmful objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack it.". It should work with every summoning spells.

Did i got something wrong?

[AlastarTehMaster]

Hey treantmonk! I'm Alastar from the WOTC 3.5 charOp forums! Glad to see you started posting videos on dnd5e! Subscribed and following, i'm looking forward to your keen insight on this new game version!

[KINFIN]

I really love summoning but Summon Lesser Demon has a major flaw. There are no CR1/2 demons. Any time that comes up, and it comes up 1/3 or the time because you don’t choose what you summon, you’re always missing out. I’m really hoping we get some new demons (you know, other the chicken) in the new module.

[treydudley]

Was just working out a summoning character and you drop this at the perfect time.

[smbakeresq]

A few points on summoning:

1. First of love them and there should be an improved summoning feat.
2. As DM, I roll the HP of the summons and track them without telling the player the exact HP, just the general condition; you wouldn't know that as a PC. Also, it speeds up play as the player doesn't agonize over trying to rotate the 1 HP summon out of the front line to preserve it for later.
3. Forget the books, when you cast a summon if you don't have a card or at least the page printed out or copied for the creature you are summoning you don't get it. Its one piece of paper or cardstock and in the age of the PC takes 30 seconds total. I do the same thing for polymorph also. If I am DM and prepares tens of creatures and rooms for adventure you can prepare a few monster sheets.
4. Summoned creatures are all spirits of some kind that don't actually die when killed, its magic term of service so no moral implications.
5. I generally encourage players to take less creatures of stronger types to limit clutter. I will let players summon creatures not appropriate to the terrain but will tell them they will come the round after.
6. If playing with a summoner in the group, I would encourage the use of flanking for a +1 bonus. It makes summons more valuable and encourages smart gameplay.
7. For unique creatures like elementals or say a couatl, I encourage players to communicate with the unique creature and make a deal with it for future service, maybe as a planar ally. This will encourage the player to summon the same creature (saves time and effort at table) and get an improved unique creature as they level up also.
8. While the spells generally say friendly to you and your allies that can change depending on creature. If you summon a couatl remember it is highly intelligent and can detect good and evil and read thoughts at will, so if you set about doing something against its nature that can change rapidly. I would posit a creature like that would instantly detect evil and good and read thoughts for the summoner and the group to make sure who its dealing with. If the group goals are match its goals it might help you in a unique way.
10. As DM, if you have a creature that can summon (and you should) get them out early to maximize dramatic effect and usage.

[fpanch]

I dont understand why some conjure spells take 1 minute to cast the spells; furthermore, these spells have horrible effects when you lose concentration such as hostility. I would rather cast conjure woodland beings in combat than to cast conjure elemental outside of combat.