Player wants to be a Demon Summoner

[Rualirr]

Hello! New to the forums just looking for aid! I've been asked to help find a way to play a Demon Summoner in 5e.

He wants to just summon demons/devils, and be able to summon stronger demons/devils over time. We've looked into the void ourselves trying to find something close, but it's never what he's looking for. He doesn't want homebrew. Can someone help?

[Segev]

I'm pretty sure Xanathar's Guide to Everything has a spell that explicitly summons demons. Build a Fiend Patron Warlock going for Pact of the Chain with a Quasit or Imp familiar and pick up that spell?

What level are we dealing with at the lowest? Part of the trouble is managing the power level of fiends if you're going to summon them.

[darknite]

Planar Binding is your friend though it's tricky. I prefer to cast it as a Wish (1 action, no cost, 9th level equivalent).

[Man_Over_Game]

Segev is on the right path. The spell your friend wants is Summon Lesser Demons. It's not as good as the Druid's Conjure Animals, but it's fairly close, and spammable with how Warlock spell slots are designed.

It, just like any summoning build, comes online at level 5 (when 3rd level slots become available).

Eventually, you get access to Summon Greater Demon. It's pretty straightforward, in all honesty. You don't get the buffs that other casters get, but you instead get frequency. You can spam your signature spells more often than they can, and so you'll be a more consistent summoner than something like a Druid.

[Hypersmith]

Warlock, level 3 pact of the chain with imp or quasit familiar, level 5 they can get summon lesser demons, level 7 they get summon greater demon, level 9 they get infernal calling. All spells that summon demons.

Wizard also gets all those spells, if they don't want warlock. Find familiar, the familiar can technically be a fiendish spirit, but it'll appear as whatever normal animal shape. Though I think pact of the chain is nice as an "easy to summon" demon. Also, scaling warlock slots make it so they consistently get to summon stronger and stronger demons, either multiple, a single strong one, or mess with bigger name demons. Warlock also gets them access to their first demon via pact of the chain at an earlier level.

All those spells are from XGtE, Xanathars guide to everything. Pact of the chain is players handbook, as is find familiar.

Any Warlock subclass should support the build, but i suspect they'll go with fiend :smalltongue:

[moonfly7]

There was a guide to making demon summoners on here once....
Just type in demon ologist into the search bar of the site, should come up.

[Zetakya]

There was a UA on Demon Summoning, but it's quite old.

Unearthed Arcana: That Old Black Magic

[Dungeon-noob]

I think that if he wants to ONLY summon be demons and have that be his whole class and features, he will need to homebrew. There are no pure summoners in 5e, only full casters who can limit themselves fully to summoning.

The builds above all work if you want 5e to approach his concept, but he won't be a demon summoner specialist. That just doesn't fit within the 5e system, unfortunately. Be sure to properly communicate that, otherwise he might just be bummed three sessions in the build he picked doesn't do what he envisions.

Managing player expectations is as important as providing an as good as possible mechanical solution.

[Segev]

Depending on how creative you're willing to be with descriptions, he can also pick spells that can be refluffed as summoned fiends.

Cantrips
Mage hand could instead by a tiny demon that flies around grabbing things for him (and does nothing else)
Eldritch blast could be a little demonic entity that hovers around him most of the time and launches at his foes to hit them for EB damage. As he levels up, he gets more of them.
Chill touch could, instead of a skeletal hand, be a tiny bone devil or ice devil that otherwise behaves like the skeletal hand.
Poison spray could involve summoning a small demonic viper that bites the target for the damage and effect.
Even prestidigitation could involve summoning tiny fiendish servants to do the little deeds the spell enables.
Level 1 Spells
Comprehend languages could summon up a little Yugoloth with a scholarly look who will whisper translations into the Warlock's ear.
Expeditious retreat could cause him to have a chariot pulled by hell hounds that he directs according to his will for the duration. Or maybe each time he takes the bonus-action Dash he conjures a fiend in his square which rushes ahead, then performs a brief magical effect to teleport him to the fiend.
The little fiends representing his eldritch blast could also respond to his hellish rebuke, lashing out in vengeful spite with their hellfire that surrounds them as they swarm over the one who attacked their master.
An arcanoloth could reach through a hellish portal to write the illusory script for him.
His unseen servants could be invisible fiends; anybody who sees them despite their invisibility sees clearly fiendish creatures.
Charm person is trickier, but might involve a fiend clinging to the target. I don't quite like this one, but you can just avoid the spell if you can't think of a good way to portray it as "fiend summoning."
Protection From Evil and Good deserives honorable mention, too, for not needing a "summoning" as its fluff. As a demon summoner, magic circles to protect himself from such creatures would be a natural fit for his repertoir.

I think you get the idea.

[Zetakya]

I think that if he wants to ONLY summon be demons and have that be his whole class and features, he will need to homebrew. There are no pure summoners in 5e, only full casters who can limit themselves fully to summoning.

The builds above all work if you want 5e to approach his concept, but he won't be a demon summoner specialist. That just doesn't fit within the 5e system, unfortunately. Be sure to properly communicate that, otherwise he might just be bummed three sessions in the build he picked doesn't do what he envisions.

Managing player expectations is as important as providing an as good as possible mechanical solution.

While you're right in mechanical terms... there's a lot that can be done with flavour and spell list limitations.

For the classes with limited Spells known, like Sorcerer and Warlock, just limiting the spells chosen to those appropriate gives the right flavour. For Wizard, limiting what Spells the Wizard encounters and scribes into his spellbook does the same. It's quite likely that Demon Summoners are looked down on in magical society, so there may not be many other wizards willing to share their normal spells with the Demonologist.

That said, I think Warlock is the way to go - probably with Pact of the Chain for an Quasit familiar.

Don't forget OP that you can reflavour spells appropriately as you need to, and a Demonologist is also likely to leech raw power from the hells as well as just summoning full-grown Demons. A Demonologist Warlock who is casting Darkness isn't simply casting a spell. He's imbricating a portion of a Hell composed of unending darkness over a portion of the Prime Material, thereby causing the Prime to become (temporarily) tainted by the essence of that Hell.

Does Ray of Enfeeblement just reduce the targets Strength, or does it leech the strength of the victim by exposing them to a layer of the hells where maladies of fatigue and weakness run rampant?

Is Blight just a magical formula, or is it a minor gateway to a Hell composed of a cold desert of salt that draws all moisture from anything exposed to it?

Use the effects of the spells to tell the Story for your player.

[Segev]

To expand on it, your Warlock could have all those critters that correspond to the spell effects always around him, as pets and minions, to no real mechanical effect other than being creepy, if he wanted. Obviously, he can send them away or into hiding when he needs to, and call them forth when casting spells, but he can also just have them hanging around, at least until he exhausts his spell slots they can be used to represent for the dayuntil his next short rest.

[Fable Wright]

Eventually, you get access to Summon Greater Demon. It's pretty straightforward, in all honesty. You don't get the buffs that other casters get, but you instead get frequency. You can spam your signature spells more often than they can, and so you'll be a more consistent summoner than something like a Druid.

Uh

Have you seen the spells you're talking about? Summon Lesser Demons has a 33% chance of two quasits, 33% chance of 4 manes/dretches, 33% chance of 8 manes/dretches. Regardless of mode, none of them follow orders and will attack party members. It also upcasts terribly.

Summon Greater Demon, unless your party murders it after the encounter, will break loose and attack the party for 1d6 rounds guaranteed.

Neither are as consistent as Conjure Animals and its hour duration.

OP: At 7th level as a warlock, you can do this and constructively contribute to the party. Just be sure to be aware of your limitations:

- No other concentration spells
- Force the demon to tell you its true name the moment you summon it so it has disadvantage on its saving throw
- Kill the demon immediately after the encounter before it can break free
- Convince the DM to let you upcast Summon Demon in your Mystic Arcanum slots

[Zetakya]

It's worth remembering that Magic Circle is a Warlock spell, and with a bit of prior effort you can summon a few Demons and either bargain or force them into making agreements, giving you their names or otherwise being helpful.

Just don't mess up or they'll eat your soul. What's left of it, anyway.


Edit: Also, the Eldritch Invocation Chains Of Carceri was just made for controlling summoned Demons.

[Bjarkmundur]

Cantrips

Eldritch blast could be a little demonic entity that hovers around him most of the time and launches at his foes to hit them for EB damage. As he levels up, he gets more of them.


Level 1 Spells

The little fiends representing his eldritch blast could also respond to his hellish rebuke, lashing out in vengeful spite with their hellfire that surrounds them as they swarm over the one who attacked their master.


This is amazing! I'm creating this character tonight! ^^
@Tawmis :D

[Grod_The_Giant]

Unfortunately, 5e has a pretty sharply limited palate of minionmancy, and most of that doesn't kick in until at least level 5. You can use Animate Dead/Create Undead; you can summon Druid buddies like animals and fey; or you can use Planar Binding and hope your DM feels lenient.

Proooobably your best bet sticking to first-party published materials is a heavily refluffed Necromancer Wizard.

With 1st level spells, you can have a fiend familiar, so that's something. There aren't really any good long-duration spells that can be easily refluffed as summons, unfortunately. Maaaybe Witch Bolt, but I With 2nds, you start opening up more offensive Concentration-duration spells. Dragon's Breath lets your familiar be dangerous, and you get Flaming Sphere, Dust Devil, Cloud of Daggers, Maximilian's Earthen Grasp-- that sort of thing is easy to describe as minor demons running around for you. Certainly less of a stretch than instant-duration spells and mental effects; those are likely to come up with weird questions like "if Hold Person is a demon grabbing my arms, why can't my buddy pry it off?
With 3rds,, things open up a bit. You can start filling your spell slots with Animated Dead, refluffing your undead minions as Dretches and Lemures. You could probably do a 1:1 substitution, in fact, if the DM cooperates. Glyph of Warding works for a demon trap, and you get more long-duration offensive spells like Hypnotic Pattern and Melf's Minute Meteors.
Once you get 4ths, Conjure Minor Elementals is reasonably close, as it Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound. Watery Sphere can be a big grappling demon, and Summon Greater is... well, it's less bad than Summon Lesser Demon. Polymorph with some refluffing on a handy chicken works too.
5ths level spells give us Animate Objects, Bigby's Hand, Conjure Elementals, Danse Macabre, and Infernal Calling (if you feel suicidal), all of which would work with refluffing as described above.
6ths lets us upgrade our animated friends to use ghoul stats (Create Undead).
7th level spells included Modenkainen's Sword, the first "independent damaging effect" we've seen in a while. You're probably better off just animating more "ghouls."
8ths have nothing for us, beyond wights via Create Undead.
If you ever get 9th level spells, True Polymorph + a bag of rats and some imagination can result in rampaging T-rex barluga, and Gate can call demon lords... (And tbh at this point, your party can probably straight-up smack Orcus around until he agrees to a deal)


Your actual best bet, if you can convince your player that published third party doesn't count as "homebrew," is the Summoner from my Guide to Greatness. Since that's exactly "I summon an increasingly powerful demon to fight for me."

[tieren]

I had a warlock that loves summon greater demon, with a rod of the pact keeper +2 and increasing proficiency bonus my DC got to 19, some demons have a negative charisma modifier and never broke free.

If you don't get to that point, the demon HAS to obey until it breaks free, so if you want to get rid of it sooner just order it to rip it's own head off.

[MrConsideration]

You'll find his ability to actively play that archetype somewhat limited because even in X:GE the spells are quite few and far between, and most of them are categorically worse than other summoning spells.

I homebrewed a Goetic Wizard tradition to try and fix the issues here (http://thelastdaydawned.blogspot.com/2019/04/wizard-subclass-demon-summon-goetia.html).

[Bobthewizard]

A Fiend Warlock with an Imp familiar and Voice of the Chain Master is a fun summoner. You get Summon Lesser Demons at level 5, Greater Demon at 7 and Infernal Calling at 9.

The Summon Demon spells are not nearly as good as the druid's versions but you can cast yours twice every short rest.

If your patron is a devil, your DM might be more lenient on the Infernal Calling. The spell doesn't explicitly call out hostility on a save like the other two spells so you might be able to summon a devil that needs to help you to impress their boss, your patron. Take Devil's sight and Darkness and the three of you - you, the Imp, and the devil from Infernal Calling - can have fun adventures together.

[Tawmis]

This is amazing! I'm creating this character tonight! ^^
@Tawmis :D

I am ready for the details. :)

[Tawmis]

Hello! New to the forums just looking for aid! I've been asked to help find a way to play a Demon Summoner in 5e.
He wants to just summon demons/devils, and be able to summon stronger demons/devils over time. We've looked into the void ourselves trying to find something close, but it's never what he's looking for. He doesn't want homebrew. Can someone help?

Definite "homebrew."

As others suggested you could fluff some spells.

Why not make a Druid that, rather than serving a god, serves a Devil.

And so the "Conjure Animals" is a "Conjure Demons"

So...

Conjure Demons
You summon tormented spirits that take the form of demons and appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Choose one of the following options for what appears.

• One demon of Challenge rating 2 or lower
• Two demons of Challenge rating 1 or lower
• Four demons of Challenge rating 1/2 or lower
• Eight Beasts of Challenge rating 1/4 or lower

Each demon is also considered fiend, and it disappears when it drops to 0 Hit Points or when the spell ends.

The summoned demons are friendly to you, but may not be to your companions (Roll a % dice of DM choosing to be defined).

Roll Initiative for the summoned demons as a group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from Hostile creatures, but otherwise take no Actions. The DM has the creatures' Statistics.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using certain higher-level Spell Slots, you choose one of the summoning options above, and more creatures appear - twice as many with a 5th-level slot, three times as many with a 7th-level slot, and four times as many with a 9th-level slot.

Show Attribute List
Attributes
Conjure Demons
3 conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V S
Duration: Up to 1 hour
Classes: (Demonic) Druid

[Daithi]

I'd say the key spells are--

Magic Circle (wiz, war, 3rd)
Summon Lesser Demon (wiz, war, 3rd)
Banishment (wiz, war, 4th)
Summon Greater Demon (wiz, war, 4th)
Conjure Minor Elementals (wiz, 4th)
Infernal Calling (wiz, war, 5th)
Conjure Elemental (wiz, 5th)
Contact Other Plane (wiz, war, 5th)
Planar Binding (wiz, 5th)
Hold Monster (wiz, war, 5th)
Geas (wiz, 5th)
Conjure Fey (war, 6th)
Planar Ally (cleric, 6th)
Feeblemind (wiz, war, 8th)
Dominate Monster (wiz, war, 8th)


A few notes: The Wizard gets Planar Binding while the Warlock does not (this is just dumb). The Wizard can also summon Elementals while the Warlock cannot. However, the Warlock can summon Fey, but the Wizard can't, and Hags are Fey (except the Night Hag which is a fiend). One spell which is really good is the Planar Ally spell, but neither the Wizard or the Warlock get this spell. However, there is a Theurgy wizard class in unearthed arcana that would provide access to this spell. The best Wizard for summoning is usually assumed to be a Necromancer as it just fits well with a character that summons demons. On the other hand, an Enchanter gets some advantages on using mind controlling spells, and this can come in quite useful when trying to get a demon to do what you want.

The DMG and MM also indicates that if the character knows the fiend's true name or has its talisman/amulet that there are spells that can be used to summon these fiends. The exact details are not covered, so this is one where the DM would have a lot of leeway to homebrew some rules that cover these situations.