Summon Aberration: Does it only use the stats from the spell?

[Nikushimi]

Question is pretty simple.

The spell allows you to summon an Aberration. This Aberration is either a Beholderkin, Slaad, or Star Spawn.

It then stats that "This corporeal form uses the Aberrant Spirit stat block".

Cool, so far so good. Then, however, it goes on to say "The creature resembles an aberration of that kind, which determines certain traits in its stat block."

So, based on the second line does that mean that in addition to the Aberrant Spirit stat block that it also gains stuff from its kinds actual statblock, or no?

Mainly wondering for things such as resistances and its attacks counting as magical or not?

I am thinking this question is pretty straight forward, but wanted to ask anyways even if it seems dumb.

TL;DR: Does the Aberration also have the resistances from their monster manual entry or no? Also, do their attacks (in the case of slaad) count as magical for overcoming resistances? Thank you.

[Lunatism]

In short, No and No.

You pick a subtype for your Aberrant Spirit and gain whatever the subtype has in the Aberrant Spirit stat block.

So no damage resistance (except psychic immunity), and no magic weapon.

[Unoriginal]

Question is pretty simple.

The spell allows you to summon an Aberration. This Aberration is either a Beholderkin, Slaad, or Star Spawn.

It then stats that "This corporeal form uses the Aberrant Spirit stat block".

Cool, so far so good. Then, however, it goes on to say "The creature resembles an aberration of that kind, which determines certain traits in its stat block."

So, based on the second line does that mean that in addition to the Aberrant Spirit stat block that it also gains stuff from its kinds actual statblock, or no?

Mainly wondering for things such as resistances and its attacks counting as magical or not?

I am thinking this question is pretty straight forward, but wanted to ask anyways even if it seems dumb.

TL;DR: Does the Aberration also have the resistances from their monster manual entry or no? Also, do their attacks (in the case of slaad) count as magical for overcoming resistances? Thank you.

No, it uses the Aberrant Spirit stat block, and the shape you selected is one of the options of the Aberrant Spirit statblock.

Selecting the Slaad, for example, gives the Aberrant Spirit Regeneration and Claws as an attack.

There is no relationship with other statblocks. The description of the spell states that the shape affects the Aberrant Spirit statblock in certain ways, and which ways are told in the statblock.

[RogueJK]

There is no relationship with other statblocks.

Exactly. This is a spirit that has taken a shape similar to a Slaadi/Starspawn/Beholderkin, and has a few abilities similar to a Slaadi/Starspawn/Beholderkin as listed in the Aberrant Spirit statblock. But it is not an actual Slaadi/Starspawn/Beholderkin, so doesn't use anything from their specific statblocks over in the Monster Manual.

Just like Summon Fiend summons a spirit that has taken a shape similar to a Demon/Devil/Yugoloth, but is not an actual Demon/Devil/Yugoloth.

Compared to something like the older spells of Summon Lesser Demon or Summon Greater Demon, which summon an actual specific type of Demon, with the matching statblock of the specific type of Demon.


These newer "summon X spirit" type spells from Tasha's are an attempt to simplify and streamline the summoning process, preventing you and the DM from having to stop play to look up various separate statblocks in a whole other book for those specific creatures. Instead, they use a more generalized statblock that's printed alongside the spell. It also allows these more generalized statblocks from the various summoning options to be more easily balanced against each other, and allow them to more easily and smoothly scale when cast with higher spell slots.