Summon Nature's Ally: Bison

[Cisturn]

Hey everyone!

I rolled up my first Druid two few weeks ago, and I for fun animals to summon and turn into. One animal that really surprised me was the Bison. It has really solid hit points and a pretty good attack. I was wondering though, if you were adding Bison to the Summon Nature's Ally animal list, which spell level do you think would be most appropriate? I'm kind of torn between level 2 and 3 myself.

I also know that at level 4 I can choose a Bison as my animal companion. But I have a few feats (augmented and ashborn summoning, plus a brooch of Ehlonna)that specifically make summons stronger, so I'd prefer to cast for a Bison rather than have one for my animal companion.

Bison stats here: http://http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bison.htm.

[Bullet06320]

for a bison http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterIII.htm has a celestial bison, looking at the list for summon natures ally, probly number 3

Dragon Magazine 302 pg 24, Summoner's Circle article has rules for adding different critters to your summoning spells

[eggynack]

Three makes sense to me. It's worse than the best third level summons, the dire wolf, but it's better than a lot of the lower end third level summons, and it seems quite a bit better than the crocodile, which is one of the best creatures at that level (after the hippogriff, which is harder to compare to the bison).

[Bullet06320]

Bison gets trample, I like using them as hallway clearers, even more fun when you can summon multiples and need to clear lower level mooks out of your way

[Mjr Lee Fat]

I agree with 3rd, mostly because that's what it is for summon monster 3 as well.

Man, a celestial bison is very underrated. I used one a number of years back (right after 3rd Edition was recently released) to open a trapped chest. There was a clay golem coming down the stairs and we were all freaking the eff out because we didn't know how to deal with it. There was also the trapped chest that would go off if we opened it. Summoned the bison, it bashed open the chest, exploded into a bunch of medium-rare chunks, and we escaped on a boat with a nice bag of loot and some new rations. It was a good day.

[Tvtyrant]

I agree with 3rd, mostly because that's what it is for summon monster 3 as well.

Man, a celestial bison is very underrated. I used one a number of years back (right after 3rd Edition was recently released) to open a trapped chest. There was a clay golem coming down the stairs and we were all freaking the eff out because we didn't know how to deal with it. There was also the trapped chest that would go off if we opened it. Summoned the bison, it bashed open the chest, exploded into a bunch of medium-rare chunks, and we escaped on a boat with a nice bag of loot and some new rations. It was a good day.

Is it underrated? I thought it got marked up as the best summon of its level pretty frequently, being a giant bag of hp.

[Bullet06320]

Dragon Magazine 302 pg 24, Summoner's Circle article has rules for adding different critters to your summoning spells

I was just glancing at that article and it lists Bison for Summon Natures Ally III

[Darrin]

Bison gets trample, I like using them as hallway clearers, even more fun when you can summon multiples and need to clear lower level mooks out of your way

Not quite. It gets Stampede (Ex), which might be useful if you can summon five of them at once, and then somehow make sure they all run in the same direction or down the same tunnel (maybe a silent image spell to throw up some walls/fences).

You can summon an ice beast version of a bison with conjure ice beast III (Frostburn). It loses the Stampede, but you can give it Cold Aura, Engulf, Frigid Touch, or Ice Breath.

[Flickerdart]

Not quite. It gets Stampede (Ex), which might be useful if you can summon five of them at once, and then somehow make sure they all run in the same direction or down the same tunnel (maybe a silent image spell to throw up some walls/fences).

Even if you get five together, it's only 1d12 damage.

[Darrin]

Even if you get five together, it's only 1d12 damage.

Each ox only costs 1 GP. Set up a herd of at least 20, and 25% should randomly stampede in the direction you want. 100 GP for 5d12 damage is pretty decent DPS.

[digiman619]

http://i.imgur.com/pL0oboh.gif
I had to.

[Bullet06320]

Not quite. It gets Stampede (Ex)

your right, wrong term, but I have gotten good mileage out them running down corridors

[Tvtyrant]

Also the summoned monster versions are a good source of buffalo wings.