Summon Monster, Dispel Magic, and Dismissal

[Chronos Flame]

Hey playground. I've been playing 3.5 for many years and like to think myself pretty knowledgeable. I've no encountered a whole lot of summoners, and when I have it has been at a level where dismissal was readily available. I just realized that dispel magic can be used against a summon monster? Is that intended? (I mean, I know it is). In what way is it inferior to dismissal? If it isn't, why is dismissal a higher level spell when it only works against non summoned outsiders in any meaningfully different way?

[StreamOfTheSky]

Dismissal is a pretty weak spell, IMO. And Dispel is one of the best.

That said, you wouldn't waste a dismissal on a summon. Like you said, dispel handles it about as well and at lower level. You'd use dismissal on creatures Called to the location or who plane shifted or gated there or otherwise found their way.

[ericgrau]

Dismissal seems much more reliable against summons. A summoned creature's HD and saves tend to be low, whereas the caster level of the one who summoned them is not. Let's say with a mere 20 int you can manage a DC 20 save DC around level 10 without any optimization (though more with optimization). A hound archon from summon monster V has a +6 will save and 6 HD, so he needs to roll an 18 to make the DC 24 will save. Meanwhile the caster is the same level as you so your dispel has a 50:50 shot of working. Again, preparing dismissal randomly without even trying to optimize it. Plus with dismissal you can optimize both save DC and caster level, whereas with dispel you can only optimize caster level. With dismissal any optimization you use to increase it further is virtually unopposed while with dispel any caster level optimization may be opposed with caster level optimization.

Called creatures or extra-planar travelers might be much tougher, but dispel doesn't work on them at all.

So dismissal is much more powerful against summons than dispel, practically twice as good, but it's also more narrow in its uses.