CR of a monster with additional spell like abilities

[heavyfuel]

If i were to give a monster the summon undead iii, levitate and wind wall spells as at will spell like abilities, how much which would say the base cr would have to be if the modified creature's cr was 5?

[Slipperychicken]

What monster is it?

[awa]

Thats some pretty decent synergy right there levitate up protect yourself from ranged attacks with wind wall and then spam undead.

Id say its worth maybe +2 cr assuming the base creature has good synergy. But keep in mind this thing will become underpowered faster then most monster of its cr becuase the zombies and skeleton will stop being a threat pretty quickly.

Though keep in mind giving this abilities to something like a red dragon which is just powerful for it's cr
or say a barghast or djin who can sit invisible spamming zombies might be able to manage cr +3.

Of course cr is a flawed system to find out how tough a fight is if the party is primarily mundane then a creature that flies up to avoid melee and blocks arrows might be deadly for a long time if it has a touch attack like say an arrow hawk.

On the other hand if that arrow hawk runs into a party with a wizard who knows fly those 38 hp wont last long once the flying barbarian arrives.

[heavyfuel]

Yeah, there's synergy alright haha

I haven't decided the creature yet, but probably an undead of sorts

[Urpriest]

I agree that it would be around CR+2 if used reasonably well.

That said, it's a bit unnecessary. If you want something that's primarily a summoner, just use an actual monster that's primarily a summoner. Adding a bunch of unthematic SLAs to an existing monster just to make a particular style of encounter is rather inelegant.

[heavyfuel]

That said, it's a bit unnecessary. If you want something that's primarily a summoner, just use an actual monster that's primarily a summoner. Adding a bunch of unthematic SLAs to an existing monster just to make a particular style of encounter is rather inelegant.

Only problem is I haven't found an undead monster of the appropriate CR that can summon other undeads at will, andbe hard to focus on at the same time. Not to mention, while I agree it's not particularly elegant, it does fit nicely within the story.

If a monster that fits my description exists, I'd be glad to use him. I just don't think there is one.