Summon Spells to Power Non-Summon [Descriptor] based Reserve Feats

[Yogibear41]

In the PHB it says that Summon spells take on the descriptor of whatever type of creature you are trying to summon, and gives the example of a fiendish dire rat gaining the lawful and evil descriptors.

Now say I have the feat Fiery Burst which works off of prepared [fire] spells (or know [fire] spells and available spell slots in the case of a spontaneous caster) but all I have left prepared is a Summon Monster III spell, which I Could use to Summon a Hell Hound with the Fire, Evil, and Lawful subtypes, thus giving me a [Fire], [Evil], and [lawful] spell for the purpose of reserve feats, but considering the spell does not gain the descriptor until it is cast would it still be able to power the reserve feat?

In this case would it default back to something like a spontaneous caster with 1 remaining spell slot that he or she Could use for a [Fire] spell and therefore could power the reserve feat for a time, before said character eventually uses the spell for a non-fire spell he also knows?

[Daefos]

I'd be inclined to say no. Like you said, the spell has no descriptor until you cast it; even though the Sorcerer in your example could power a [Fire]-based reserve feat with a spell slot that may not end up being used to cast a [Fire] spell, they are still powering it with a spell that has the [Fire] descriptor innately attached to it, which Summon Monster does not. Another way to think of it is that even though a Sorcerer may only have a single spell slot left, the nature of their casting means that they still have all of their spells of that level available to cast, which is why they can power reserve feats with a single "wildcard" spell slot like in your example. Prepared casters have no such luxury.

And on another note, it would probably make the Summon Monster spells a little too efficient with reserve feats if they could power them via any descriptor that they could even potentially have. Not that this would be game-breaking in any real way, Reserve feats being what they are, it just would make Summon Monster clearly the best option.

[Nifft]

Yeah, RAW the Summon Monster spells don't have any descriptor until cast.

However, there are canonical version of these spells which do restrict your summons to only those bearing a specific descriptor -- for example, the Chaos domain offers:

Summon Monster IX*: Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.
*Cast as a chaos spell only.

I would rule that this Domain-specific version of the Summon Monster spell does have the [Chaos] descriptor, and it has that descriptor the whole time it's prepared.


I would also allow any character to learn and/or prepare restricted versions of Summon Monster spells. For example, if you wanted to learn a [Fire] version of Summon Monster IV, you could do that. That spell would fuel Dimensional Reach, Fiery Burst, and Summon Elemental.

It would also summon monsters with the [Fire] descriptor, of course.

[Yogibear41]

That's unfortunate, I was trying to find some kind of magical ability, however sub-par it maybe, on a blackguard character I am working on/playing for the times where "hit it with the big sword" just doesn't work. Like against swarms or similar creatures. I know I can just prepare inflict spells, but I rather have something spammable even if it caps out at a measly 4d6.

[Vaern]

The blackguard's spell list is problematic. They have a 3rd-level spell in the Spell Compendium called Spiritual Chariot that has the [Force] descriptor which would give you access to Invisible Needle, which will give you an at-will attack with 15-foot range for 3d4 damage that ignores miss chance against incorporeal creatures.
It also gives access to Blade of Force, which isn't impressive compared to other reserve feats damage-wise, though it allows you to strike incorporeal creatures with your preferred weapon once per round. (And technically it doesn't need to be your weapon; you can touch someone else's weapon and give them a force effect).