Summoning 8 Giant Bats

[Aaedimus]

...Is that way OP or is it just me? Especially with Shephard Druid. Large flying creatures with 40 HP, blindsight, advantage on strength checks, picking up medium sized NPCs and just... flying away as high and far as needed.

[Kadesh]

Being indoors and in cramped conditions could be a massive dampener on things.

[Aaedimus]

Lol a little bit, sometimes

[Erys]

...Is that way OP or is it just me? Especially with Shephard Druid. Large flying creatures with 40 HP, blindsight, advantage on strength checks, picking up medium sized NPCs and just... flying away as high and far as needed.

A Shepard Druid summoning them means they have 30 HP, and still have a terrible AC.

I guess you are assuming the would Aid Another for the advantage on str, up to the DM to allow that. Even if so, they only get +2 to their str checks, so even with advantage there is no guarantee they will succeed. Also, if successful in the grapple they can only move 30'.

Definitely a good summon (outdoors), but I wouldn't say they are OP.

[Aaedimus]

I got 40hp by taking the 30 HP plus the temp HP from the Bear Spirit (+11 at level 6) and the bear spirit gives all allies within a 60 ft radius advantage on strength checks and saves.

They're not a guaranteed win true, and have low AC, but there are also 8 of them, and they're large, and have more HP than some level 7 or 8 wizards.

Of course it isn't an auto win scenario, but I do think that it's a little much to work with.

I love the idea of conjuring animals and friends, but I feel.... idk... I wish there was a better way.

[stoutstien]

i still cant find the reason for their unusually large hp pools. might be the highest for cr rating

[Erys]

I got 40hp by taking the 30 HP plus the temp HP from the Bear Spirit (+11 at level 6) and the bear spirit gives all allies within a 60 ft radius advantage on strength checks and saves.

They're not a guaranteed win true, and have low AC, but there are also 8 of them, and they're large, and have more HP than some level 7 or 8 wizards.

Of course it isn't an auto win scenario, but I do think that it's a little much to work with.

I love the idea of conjuring animals and friends, but I feel.... idk... I wish there was a better way.

Ahh, wasn't considering Bear Spirit. Gotcha. Though, they would lose the temp HP when they left the aura with their grappled prey.

They are definitely one of the stronger options for summons. That many HP on a 1/4 CR is pretty sweet. Almost ridiculously so.

[MaxWilson]

Ahh, wasn't considering Bear Spirit. Gotcha. Though, they would lose the temp HP when they left the aura with their grappled prey.

Nope. The temp HP do not have a duration or range restriction. Once you've got them, they're just regular temp HP.

If you think the bats are impressive, check out the Giant Owls. More damage and Flyby.

[Erys]

Nope. The temp HP do not have a duration or range restriction. Once you've got them, they're just regular temp HP.

If you think the bats are impressive, check out the Giant Owls. More damage and Flyby.

Are you sure they persist? I thought the whole point of being able to move the Totem was so you could move the aura around so allies could retain the benefits.

[dejarnjc]

I love the idea of conjuring animals and friends, but I feel.... idk... I wish there was a better way.

Summoning 2 or even just 4 creatures is much more balanced and generally slows the game down less in my experience. Summoning just 1 isn't generally worth it.

[ad_hoc]

A couple things.

The player doesn't choose the beast, just the number/challenge rating.

8 large creatures take up a lot of room. In many (most) situations there won't be room for them, and if there were they would probably not have far to fly. Even in a forest there are still the trees to get through.

Conjure Animals is a 3rd level spell. It is the Druid's Fireball. It is supposed to be encounter changing. Sometimes it is very good, and sometimes it isn't.

There is no weight restriction on moving a grappled creature because they didn't want to write in a weight for all creatures just for that. It is entirely reasonable for the DM to rule that some creatures can't be picked up (like Giants).

Grappling in general is troublesome because it is a Strength Check rather than an Attack. So it's not really a problem with the spell, but a problem with grappling. The actual effect of grappling is simple and works, but getting there doesn't. There are a ton of ways to improve ability checks because they typically don't have such a high impact on combat (usually just hiding and that is intended for Rogues).