How do the "Summon ____" spells compare to each other?

[Rfkannen]

Tasha's cauldron of everything introduced a bunch of summoning spells, and a lot of those spells are at the same levels (3 and 4). So that got me thinking, how do those spells compare to each other? Are there any clear winners? Do they each serve there own niche well? Are there any that are just flat out worse?

[heavyfuel]

I haven't had a chance to test these spells in actual play, so take my opinion on them with enough salt to give you high blood pressure.

I've ranked them from strongest to weakest.

Level 3:

Undead - Really good immunities, so if you know you'll be fighting poison-based creatures, these will go a long way. Skeleton basically gives you an additional ranged cantrip's worth of damage every round, and because it's ranged, it has more survivability. Ghost can fly, and with 12 strength it can probably carry people to other places (but I assume most DMs would rule that ghosts can't carry you around).

Shadowspawn - Better immunities and slightly more HP (but worse AC) and worse damage than Fey. Sorrow can be really nice for the huge no save reduced speed, so you can toss it next to a melee enemy and it's basically forced to attack the shadowspawn. However, with 35 HP and 14 AC, I wouldn't count on it lasting too long. It can keep a target or two busy for a couple of rounds while dealing some damage as well.

Fey - I had previously put this on top because I thought they gained multiattack, but they only do so if you upcast it, and then it's not worth it. I guess Mirthful and the bonus action teleporting can be nice for making sure your fey doesn't die, but at this point you might as well just cast Flaming Sphere and not having to worry at all about it dying. Tricksy can be interesting assisting someone with Devilsight who doesn't wish to spend one of their precious slots on Darkness.

Animals - Impossible to say. Too DM dependant as you don't get to pick which creatures appear.

Lesser Demons - Completely impractical due to the material component. This is clearly meant for DMs. Unless you know you'll be fighting humanoids as your first fight of the day, or if you have fought them as the last fight of the previous day, then you can prepare it and be useful, but I honestly wouldn't bother spending a spell known on it.

Level 4:

Construct - Look at those immunities. Look at them. These have slightly lower DPR than Elemental, but they all have some ability that more than makes up for it. I'm a big fan of Stone Elemental's one.

Elemental - I'd put this above Construct IF the DM ruled that different elementals have different movements. Air can fly, Earth can burrow, and Water can swim (Fire should probably move faster just to keep things equal?) But as is, I do think Contruct takes the crown.

Aberration - Not much to say. I don't think any of the abilities are worth it over what Contructs offer (better AC, better damage, better immunities)

Minor Elementals - See "Animals"

Woodland Beings - See "Animals"

Greater Demon - See "Lesser Demons"

[ATHATH]

Tricksy can be interesting assisting someone with Devilsight who doesn't wish to spend one of their precious slots on Darkness.

Note that, because the magical darkness from a tricksy fey doesn't explicitly say that it blocks darkvision, it, well, doesn't (https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf). That might affect your rating of tricksy fey. They can still be decent if you're fighting opponents who can't see in the dark... but this is D&D, darkvision gets handed out like candy. Fortunately, if you're facing someone with darkvision, you can just choose one of the other options.

I was going to say that mirthful fey might be useful as a substitute face for your party, but then I noticed that fey spirits only speak Sylvan (but understand other languages, thankfully). Sad! You can still use them to subtly charm loads of people, though, as the charming ability doesn't have a clause that makes targets immune to it for a period of time if it fails to affect them. Just summon the spirit in a form that looks like a child, then have it fey step in place (so that it looks like it didn't teleport at all) repeatedly until your target fails their saving throw. YMMV, of course, mostly depending on whether or not your DM rules that the people your mirthful fey spirit fails to charm automatically realize that someone's attempted to meddle with their mind (and, if you fey spirit succeeds in charming them, whether or not they can automatically realize they've been charmed once the effect ends). It should be noted that the charm effect is NOT broken by many save or lose spells, nor is it broken by grapple attempts...

As for fuming fey spirit, they're okay if you're going for pure damage, but the problem is that a Flaming Sphere upcasted to third level kind of outclasses a third level Summon Fey (fuming) in that regard (and you have much better 4th level spells to spend your concentration on than Summon Fey, I believe), even though, among summons, Summon Fey has some of the best pure damage output (2d6+3+spell's level for each attack, and fuming fey can get advantage on one attack per turn by fey stepping). There's also a second problem in that if a fuming fey spirit uses their fey step to gain advantage on their next attack, they can't also use it to dip out of an enemy's reach without taking an attack of opportunity, and fey sprits have pretty low HP values.

A niche that I think Summon Fey does have over Flaming Sphere is that the fey spirits from it are remarkably good at chasing down fleeing enemies. They can move 70 ft. per round without dashing using their fey step ability, which means that they can catch up to and attack a creature with a 30 ft. movement speed that just uses its action to dash each turn (and then hit it with an opportunity attack if it tries to run). Flaming Sphere, meanwhile, can only move up to 30 ft. per round and can't dash. Summon Fey also does have the advantage of lasting for up to an hour, while Flaming Sphere can last for only up to a minute. If you have a Life Cleric with access to Goodberry in your party, it should be pretty easy to refill a fey spirit's HP to full between fights using only a single 1st level spell slot... assuming that it's not a pink smear on the ground yet.

Oh yeah, and fey spirits can teleport through key holes and door cracks and stuff and open locked doors up from the inside, which is pretty neat. It's unclear (to me, anyway) if fey spirits can bring stuff with them when they fey step, though.

Also, you forgot to mention the Tasha's summoning spells that summon fiends and celestials.

Also also, putrid undead from the Summon Undead spell look pretty snazzy when it comes to stunlocking and debuffing stuff, especially if your party can support them by applying the Poisoned status condition using other abilities... Note that Summon Undead, unlike most of the other Summon X spells, is actually a Necromancy spell, not a Conjuration spell, which means that a Necromancer's Undead Thralls ability should work on the undead summoned by it (and that a Conjurer's 10th level and 14th level abilities sadly won't work with it, I think).

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

Lesser Demons - Completely impractical due to the material component. This is clearly meant for DMs. Unless you know you'll be fighting humanoids as your first fight of the day, or if you have fought them as the last fight of the previous day, then you can prepare it and be useful, but I honestly wouldn't bother spending a spell known on it.


Can't you just use a component pouch for this, since there's no associated gold cost?

[Wraith]

I particularly like Aberrations as they're a consistent source of Psychic damage, and it's DoT on top of multiattacks if you go with the Star Spawn.

It's not a huge benefit admittedly, but it is a surprisingly useful niche if you're ever fighting an enemy with a lot of other resistances as the only things that tend to consistently resist/are immune to Psychic are Constructs (who can be affected by nearly anything else), a bunch of special characters from Ravnica, and Sphinxes for... some reason. :smalltongue:

I like it as an ace in my pocket, just in case I need to hurt something and I otherwise don't know how.

[MoiMagnus]

Can't you just use a component pouch for this, since there's no associated gold cost?

By RAW, yes.

However, I think that's clearly and exploit and against the RAI. Component pouch are not magical objects, they are just abstractions that assume that no-cost components are easy enough to obtain, and can be stored indefinitely in the pouch.

But considering "a vial of blood from a humanoid killed within the past 24 hours" as a no-cost component is like calling worthless an invaluable object. And assuming it can be stored in the pouch for long periods of time is absurd.

[J.C.]

Summon Celestial is my choice fellas. I am loving 600 ft range.

[Valmark]

Honestly, the summoning spells are all pretty balanced between them- with higher leveled one having better base stats then upscaled ones (they all scale equally aside from hp).

It's a matter of which one's features you like- a notable exception, Summon Beast (lv.2) is a bit less usable then the others because not everybody at level 3 has the means to purchase a 200 gp worth material component.

I've seen far more parties have enough money to purchase the other material components.


Can't you just use a component pouch for this, since there's no associated gold cost?


By RAW, yes.

However, I think that's clearly and exploit and against the RAI. Component pouch are not magical objects, they are just abstractions that assume that no-cost components are easy enough to obtain, and can be stored indefinitely in the pouch.

But considering "a vial of blood from a humanoid killed within the past 24 hours" as a no-cost component is like calling worthless an invaluable object. And assuming it can be stored in the pouch for long periods of time is absurd.

You could just use a focus instead- you might not be able to make the circle of blood depending on DM ruling but I honestly never saw anybody use that property.



Animals - Impossible to say. Too DM dependant as you don't get to pick which creatures appear.


Eh- unless your DM is screwing with you (of the "I summon fish in the desert kind") you'll always be well served. There is not enough variety in stats to make it too much of a problem.

I've used 16 different animals at the same time with some poisonous, proning and restraining ones (the target was immune to all three) and they all performed roughly similar.

[dreast]

Note that, because the magical darkness from a tricksy fey doesn't explicitly say that it blocks darkvision, it, well, doesn't (https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf). That might affect your rating of tricksy fey. They can still be decent if you're fighting opponents who can't see in the dark... but this is D&D, darkvision gets handed out like candy. Fortunately, if you're facing someone with darkvision, you can just choose one of the other options.


Note that Gloomstalkers get around this, and summon fey is on the ranger spell list.

Also note that summon fey is the only summon spell with a normal weapon proficiency (by the rules in the MM and their stat block). That means that if you hand one a magical shortsword when you summon it, it gets the benefits (so long as attunement isnÂ’t required) and all its piercing damage becomes magical.

Also also note that the fey could use an offhand attack with a shortsword if it wanted to as its bonus action, although it would be calculated normally.

Also also also note that a lot of summons end up with free hands, letting them utilize things like torches, wands of magic missile, big bags to carry those coins your DM insists on using weight rules with, grappling/knocking opponents prone, etc.

Finally, note that these spells all upscale fantastically, making copying them prime wish usage.

[Dr. Cliché]

Is the Slaad Regeneration on the Aberration Summon at all noteworthy?

Given that these spells last an hour, I wondered if it would potentially give you a full-hp tank that can be used in multiple, successive encounters.

[NecessaryWeevil]

I haven't had a chance to test these spells in actual play, so take my opinion on them with enough salt to give you high blood pressure.

I've ranked them from strongest to weakest.

Animals - Impossible to say. Too DM dependant as you don't get to pick which creatures appear.


As long as we're clear that you've mixed in Conjure spells from the PHB, I'm going to disagree here. Even with the DM picking the creatures, as long as the DM doesn't deliberately screw you over, this spell is extremely powerful. I took down a Frost Giant with a herd of cows.

[MaxWilson]

Is the Slaad Regeneration on the Aberration Summon at all noteworthy?

Given that these spells last an hour, I wondered if it would potentially give you a full-hp tank that can be used in multiple, successive encounters.

IMO, the Slaad option is too squishy for the Regeneration to be significant. Regeneration on a 40ish HP and 14ish AC chassis isn't comparable to regen on a PC-class chassis (AC 18ish, 80ish HP). In all probability, even after regen, the Slaad is going to wind up having fewer effective HP than the opportunity cost (e.g. 176 HP worth of smoke mephits from a 4th level Conjure Minor Elementals, or a 127 HP Earth Elemental).

One potential exception: the Slaad gets more interesting if you're using it as a stalking horse for your AoEs. If you send it out, Dodging, and then chuck Fireballs (or whatever) on top of it, it becomes fairly likely to survive both your Fireballs and any attacks from whatever enemies you're Fireballing, given that enemies have disadvantage and the Slaad has advantage on Dex saves from Dodging. In this scenario the fact that it's Dodging instead of attacking perhaps doesn't matter as much as the fact that it can swiftly heal the Fireball damage before you go on to the next dungeon room. Even in this scenario I'm not necessarily sure that the Slaad would be more efficient than just using a couple of Smoke Mephits each time, but it might not be worse.

[heavyfuel]

Can't you just use a component pouch for this, since there's no associated gold cost?

Ah, the good ol' "component pouch has everything you ever need" argument. It's been around for over 20 years now and everytime I've seen someone trying to use it as an excuse in a game it got shut down by the DM so fast that you'd think they'd broken the laws of general relativity.

Technically RAW, though


I particularly like Aberrations as they're a consistent source of Psychic damage, and it's DoT on top of multiattacks if you go with the Star Spawn.

It's not a huge benefit admittedly, but it is a surprisingly useful niche if you're ever fighting an enemy with a lot of other resistances as the only things that tend to consistently resist/are immune to Psychic are Constructs (who can be affected by nearly anything else), a bunch of special characters from Ravnica, and Sphinxes for... some reason. :smalltongue:

I like it as an ace in my pocket, just in case I need to hurt something and I otherwise don't know how.

Consistent damage is overrated. You don't see people praising Acid Splash or Witchbolt all that often.

2d6 psychic damage IF the enemies fail a save and only as long as your squishy summon lives for the price of a 4th level spell and your concentration just isn't worth it.


Eh- unless your DM is screwing with you (of the "I summon fish in the desert kind") you'll always be well served. There is not enough variety in stats to make it too much of a problem.

As long as we're clear that you've mixed in Conjure spells from the PHB, I'm going to disagree here. Even with the DM picking the creatures, as long as the DM doesn't deliberately screw you over, this spell is extremely powerful. I took down a Frost Giant with a herd of cows.

I've seen DMs who used a completely random table for the PHB Conjure spells. Fish in the desert were definitely a possibility. I wouldn't bother with these spells with such a DM.


Is the Slaad Regeneration on the Aberration Summon at all noteworthy?

Given that these spells last an hour, I wondered if it would potentially give you a full-hp tank that can be used in multiple, successive encounters.

I agree with what Max said. Too squishy to survive more than a couple of rounds, extremely unlikely to survive an entire battle.


One potential exception: the Slaad gets more interesting if you're using it as a stalking horse for your AoEs. If you send it out, Dodging, and then chuck Fireballs (or whatever) on top of it, it becomes fairly likely to survive both your Fireballs and any attacks from whatever enemies you're Fireballing, given that enemies have disadvantage and the Slaad has advantage on Dex saves from Dodging. In this scenario the fact that it's Dodging instead of attacking perhaps doesn't matter as much as the fact that it can swiftly heal the Fireball damage before you go on to the next dungeon room. Even in this scenario I'm not necessarily sure that the Slaad would be more efficient than just using a couple of Smoke Mephits each time, but it might not be worse.

I think I'm missing something. Why do you need the Slaad to throw Fireballs?

[Valmark]

Ah, the good ol' "component pouch has everything you ever need" argument. It's been around for over 20 years now and everytime I've seen someone trying to use it as an excuse in a game it got shut down by the DM so fast that you'd think they'd broken the laws of general relativity.

Technically RAW, though

I've seen DMs who used a completely random table for the PHB Conjure spells. Fish in the desert were definitely a possibility. I wouldn't bother with these spells with such a DM.


Talk about different experiences- I've never seen a DM do that (and Summon Greater Demons specifically was used repeatedly)- although we did joke about PCs secretely murdering people in the night.

And yes, with a DM like that the spell becomes really unreliable. A random table's good but it should be cathered to the location IMO.

[MaxWilson]

I think I'm missing something. Why do you need the Slaad to throw Fireballs?

Depending on monster "AI", you may need someone to block a doorway and/or encourage enemies to clump up and focus fire. In my head what I'm picturing is that you send the Slaad into a room, a dozen zombies or stirges converge from all corners of the room (and/or nearby rooms) to attack the Slaad, and then you saunter up to the doorway and Fireball them all. Without the Slaad, you'd open the door, and a bunch of stirges or zombies would fly up to you and start attacking you--even if you win initiative, you can only Fireball a few of them since they haven't converged yet.

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

By RAW, yes.

However, I think that's clearly and exploit and against the RAI. Component pouch are not magical objects, they are just abstractions that assume that no-cost components are easy enough to obtain, and can be stored indefinitely in the pouch.

But considering "a vial of blood from a humanoid killed within the past 24 hours" as a no-cost component is like calling worthless an invaluable object. And assuming it can be stored in the pouch for long periods of time is absurd.

I wouldn't call it an exploit at all? Component pouches and focuses are interchangeable, both simply replace the material component of spells, there's nothing anywhere that says your component pouch literally has every single spell component that exists at all times. If that's truly a bother just use a focus which doesn't even have that fluff, it's just an orb or a staff that you can focus on to use instead of the material component.

If it was truly RAI that you absolutely had to get this component, by now I feel like they would have issued an errata that says this is an exemption to the "focuses/component pouches can replace a material component with no cost" rule. As it stands, the only info I can find that points to a RAI interpretation is a statement from Crawford that you only need the blood to use the circle, not cast the spell (if you have a focus/pouch, of course.)

[JackPhoenix]

I wouldn't call it an exploit at all? Component pouches and focuses are interchangeable, both simply replace the material component of spells, there's nothing anywhere that says your component pouch literally has every single spell component that exists at all times. If that's truly a bother just use a focus which doesn't even have that fluff, it's just an orb or a staff that you can focus on to use instead of the material component.

Not in this case. If you can pull a vial of fresh blood (despite not coming upon any dead humanoids in the last 24 hours) from a component pouch, you can use it to create the protective circle. You can't do that with a focus. You don't get to ignore the component because you have a bag on you, the entire point of component pouch is that the components are all assumed to be in the bag instead of needing to be listed separately on your character sheet.