Summon monster questions

[Raul Leão]

Hi guys, I started playin this week and im planning on doing a summoner sorcerer (We are playing core). So i got a few questions:

1_ I need 1 round to prepare the spell. In the next round i can summon the monster and conjure a spell? or the summoning already counts as the standard action?

2_ I can command my summoned monster to attack as a free action or it counts as an standard action? (i conjure a speel or command, or i can conjure AND command?)

3_ In the 12th round, i can have 6 summoned monsters? (summoning 1 per 2 rounds)? How i command the 6 monsters? (answer like the Q2)

4_ Im not planning on FULL summoning, because sorcerers already have few spells, so its a good idea to get like Summon monsters III, V, VII, VIII, IX, or get the whole 9?

Thanks Guys!

[Brova]

1. The spell goes off just before your next turn. You can act normally on that turn.


Casting Time: 1 round

A spell that takes 1 round to cast is a full-round action. It comes into effect just before the beginning of your turn in the round after you began casting the spell. You then act normally after the spell is completed.

2. You can command the creature by talking, which is a free action taken on your turn. Also, summons will attack enemies by default (no information given as to targeting order).


It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.

3. You can have twelve, barring any duration issues. Commanding each is a free action and you may take as many free actions as you'd like on your turn.

4. As a Sorcerer you'll probably want to grab some other spells. What those are is an open question. The first spell in the summon monster line I would grab is probably summon monster IV.

[Bronk]

Hi guys, I started playin this week and im planning on doing a summoner sorcerer (We are playing core). So i got a few questions:

1_ I need 1 round to prepare the spell. In the next round i can summon the monster and conjure a spell? or the summoning already counts as the standard action?

2_ I can command my summoned monster to attack as a free action or it counts as an standard action? (i conjure a speel or command, or i can conjure AND command?)

3_ In the 12th round, i can have 6 summoned monsters? (summoning 1 per 2 rounds)? How i command the 6 monsters? (answer like the Q2)

4_ Im not planning on FULL summoning, because sorcerers already have few spells, so its a good idea to get like Summon monsters III, V, VII, VIII, IX, or get the whole 9?

Thanks Guys!

1: The 'summon monster' spells are full round actions, so they take one full round to cast, not two. You start casting on your turn, continue casting until your turn comes around again the next time, at which point the monster appears where you designate and, by default, immediately starts attacking your enemies. You can immediately start casting 'summon monster' again if you want, which will take effect at the start of your next turn, and so on.

2: If you can communicate with it (because you know its language, etc.) you can direct it further by giving it an order, which is a free action, after which you can cast again or take other actions.

3: You can get one casting per round, but they only last one round per level, so depending on your caster level, the first ones may have already disappeared.

4: I would only point out that higher level 'summon monster' spells can call up multiples of the lower level spells.

[Firest Kathon]

3_ In the 12th round, i can have 6 summoned monsters? (summoning 1 per 2 rounds)? How i command the 6 monsters? (answer like the Q2)!
You can have even more monsters. If you use a Summon Monster spell to summon monsters from a lower-level list (e.g. use Summon Monster III to summon Fiendish Wolves from the Summon Monster II list), you summon 1d3 (if one level lower) or 1d4+1 (if 2+ levels lower) instead of one.

That said, you should limit yourself to very few monsters (I'd say 2-3 max). Otherwise your combat turns will take a very long time, and you co-players will be quite annoyed (at least I would be, speaking from experience here). Also have all stats of your summoned monsters handy (e.g. pre-print stat blocks), so that you do not need to look up anything during combat.

4_ Im not planning on FULL summoning, because sorcerers already have few spells, so its a good idea to get like Summon monsters III, V, VII, VIII, IX, or get the whole 9?!
Remember that a sorcerer can replace a lower level spell on every even level after 4. So if you pick up Summon Monster III at level 6 you can replace the Summon Monster II spell with another spell.

[Raul Leão]

Thanks guys, im going to make a splash weapon thrower summoner haha

[Extra Anchovies]

You don't actually need to learn the Summon Monster chain if you have two feats to spare, one for Arcane Preparation and one for Nexus Method, which lets you cast Summon Monster like a Cleric casts Cure X Wounds.

ETA: Missed that this was core-only.

[Raul Leão]

Guess i cant take those feats... im playing with the core books....

[Diarmuid]

Couple things I would clarify.

Yes you can give your summons commands if you speak a language they understand. Yes that counts a free action. But, the rules regarding free actions leave room for DM's to put some limits on what is/isnt doable via free actions.

For instance my group allows for short communications via free action, but if someone starts trying to give complex battle commands or give answers that would take >6 seconds to actually say, then we generally assign an action value to it.

I'm not saying the rules state this is how it works, just that there is some potential for DM's to handle it differently and taking someone else's "you can do as many free actions in a round as you want" as gospel could cause issues at your actual table.