Friendly summons?

[Iampower]

Need some dming advice.

The party recently befreinded a group of dryads through some good rolls. There is a ranger in the group that says he wants to learn summon woodland beings and have talked to the dryads about it. They have the intention of summoning the dryad friends for the spells purposes.

So now i'm wondering, the spell says that the summons become hostile when the caster looses concentration. Since the dryads are their friends would this still happen? In terms of roleplay i think it wouldn't and i'm inclined to say it won't, but i fear that would take away a great deal of the danger from using the spell and make encounters easier with all the extra bodies they can throw out. Thoughts?

[Frozenstep]

Do you mean conjure woodland beings? Because I don't see a line in that spell specifying that the summons become hostile once concentration is broken, they just vanish.

[Iampower]

Sorry, you are right on conjure woodland beings. i meant conjure fey. Though i suppose this wont be a problem for a while.

[Asmotherion]

Nowere in the spell does it specify you can single out specific creatures to summon; if you want it to go as they describe it will; otherwise you can rule that the dryads they conjure are simply random.

Personally i love the idea and would allow this to go as intended.

[EternalPrime]

These spell names are unnecessarily confusing.
Conjure Fey summons a fey creature that appears in the form of (and statistics of) a BEAST, just like Conjure Animals, but Conjure Woodland Beings summons FEY creatures like pixies and Dryads.
Conjure Fey should have been named Conjure Greater Animals or something that wouldn’t make you think you should use it to actually conjure FEY creatures.

That being said, I don’t see any reason you, as DM, shouldn’t allow the ranger to use Conjure Woodland Beings to summon his Dryad friends. It seems like a good use of role-play and setting. However, you should give some serious thought as to what happens to a summoned creature that is killed. Do summoned creatures actually die if killed during the spell’s duration, or does the conjuration magic simply end and return the creature to its original location, unharmed? Either way the ranger should be careful not to put his dryad friends in dangerous life-threatening situations. Even if you decide that the conjuration magic prevents the Dryads from dying, I can’t imagine that the experience would be pleasant for them.
Abusing one’s friends is the easiest way to lose them.

As for making encounters easier, Conjure Woodland Beings is a 4th level spell. The party’s ranger would have to be at least 13th level to cast this spell. Using a 4th level slot, it can only summon two dryads.
I don’t think that the addition of two AC16, 22HP dryads would significantly alter an encounter designed to challenge a 13th level party. They have no ranged attacks and the dryad’s fey charm ability only affects a single target and only works on humanoids and beasts. The best tactic I can think of is to have them both cast entangle for crowd control, but using a 4th level slot to get two entangles seems like a bad trade.

[Maelynn]

Looking at both spells, I'd rule that the specific Dryads cannot be summoned this way. Especially because there's a vital different between summoning and conjuring.

Conjure Woodland Beings is already on the Ranger spell list, so why does he want to learn it? Is he not yet able to cast 4th level spells? Did he choose another spell and wants to add this spell to his arsenal? If he's too low-level, then I wouldn't allow him to learn the spell - he wouldn't have the slots for it anyway. If he wants it added to his list, then I'd go ahead and have him learn it.

Regarding the specific creatures conjured/summoned, here's what I would do. The Dryads will gift the Ranger an acorn infused with their magic. This will serve as a material component for the Conjure Woodland Beings spell, to replace the holly berry. If the spell is cast with this acorn, the Dryads will appear instead of a random fey creature as some sort of override.

Edit: and if he's too low-level, then you could rule that the acorn hold powerful magic in its core which will allow the Ranger to cast the spell once only.

[JackPhoenix]

These spell names are unnecessarily confusing.
Conjure Fey summons a fey creature that appears in the form of (and statistics of) a BEAST, just like Conjure Animals, but Conjure Woodland Beings summons FEY creatures like pixies and Dryads.
Conjure Fey should have been named Conjure Greater Animals or something that wouldn’t make you think you should use it to actually conjure FEY creatures.

You can conjure fey with....uh... Conjure Fey.... just fine. The fey has the option to assume the form of the beast, but it's not the only option.

[EternalPrime]

You can conjure fey with....uh... Conjure Fey.... just fine. The fey has the option to assume the form of the beast, but it's not the only option.

You are correct!
I misread the first sentence of Conjure Fey and just assumed it was the same as Conjure Animals.

[Iampower]

Sorry for the mixup on the spells. Basically after the befriending the group talked about having the dryads be summoned using the woodland beings spell. I mistook its mechanics for the conjure fey - specifically the part where the creature becomes hostile if you loose concentration - but i thought a bit and realized since the dryads were friends of the party maybe that part of the mechanic wouldnt happen.

Anyway i like the acorn idea... or rather the concept of it. I just got worried that they might abuse the spell if they could not have the consequence (ofc that is moot since i was thinking of a different spell). But the point on the possibility of dryads dying for real seems a good tradeoff(if they are attached enough).

If it comes to it i will go ahead and bring the same dryads. It is just the kind of thing i like for roleplay.

[NaughtyTiger]

As pointed out, Conjure Woodland Beings, they disappear if you lose concentration. They don't become hostile.
That should work for your needs.

That acorn idea is gold!!