Zceryll, Summon Alien question

[claypigeons]

With the summon alien ability, can you choose the "d3 of the next lowest spell" option? Or are you limited to summoning just a single monster on each use?

[Martimus Prime]

With the summon alien ability, can you choose the "d3 of the next lowest spell" option? Or are you limited to summoning just a single monster on each use?

RAW, it would appear that they are referring to a singular summon.

That being said, it lists no duration in the description of that particular ability, so there is a real side-question about whether that means you can just summon a new one every 5 rounds (getting more than one), if it actually has a duration like the summon monster spell used as a base (in which case the 5 round reuse limit level-caps the number you can have out at any given time), or if it functions like other vestige summons where it just lasts until you unbind or it is killed and then you have to wait 5 rounds to get a new one.

I would be curious to know the answer myself because I happen to get a lot of enjoyment out of Zceryll as a vestige and my party usually just treats it as a version of spell Summon Monster N useable every 5 rounds, where N is the highest level a sorcerer of your level could cast, but limited to single creatures only.

EDIT: I accidentally a paragraph break.

[claypigeons]

So far I've just treated my EBL as my caster level for the duration. The wording (to me) implies a single creature per activation, but if you have a high enough EBL, you can end up with more than one on the field.

I'm playing a solo game (for now, hopefully) and numbers are against me. There have been times when d3 monsters off the SM5 list would have been better than one off the SM6 list...

I guess I have ask my DM...

[Martimus Prime]

So far I've just treated my EBL as my caster level for the duration. The wording (to me) implies a single creature per activation, but if you have a high enough EBL, you can end up with more than one on the field.

I'm playing a solo game (for now, hopefully) and numbers are against me. There have been times when d3 monsters off the SM5 list would have been better than one off the SM6 list...

I guess I have ask my DM...

If you want to make your DM's head explode, remind him that you get things that have spell-like abilities and sometimes even spellcasting, like couatl, on some of those lists. Whatcha know about a binder that can summon things to effectively net himself spellcasting for free? One of my brothers basically refuses to play with my debufflomancer binder specifically because of this.

[Extra Anchovies]

Zceryll is kinda broken, yes. Without unlimited duration, it makes the Binder T2. With unlimited duration, I'd go so far as to say they hit a (very) low T1, since they can summon some fairly high-level spellcasters (there's a BoED monster, summonable via SMIX that casts as a 12th-level wizard, for example), and can have an unlimited number of minions.

[Martimus Prime]

Zceryll is kinda broken, yes. Without unlimited duration, it makes the Binder T2. With unlimited duration, I'd go so far as to say they hit a (very) low T1, since they can summon some fairly high-level spellcasters (there's a BoED monster, summonable via SMIX that casts as a 12th-level wizard, for example), and can have an unlimited number of minions.

Not only that, but with the right vestiges you can build a character that can prevent an opponent from acting most of the time. Awe of Dantalion/Scion of Dantalion's stun stuff coupled with the blinding effect from Focalor come to mind - completely obviates many threats for a solo player, especially considering that the awe isn't expressly listed as mind-affecting (so undead/constructs are also affected). It's just even worse when you can have your summon drop debuffs on top of your own to make sure that your effects with saves are all but assured to go through.