D&D 5E Conjure Woodland Beings - Where is the "DM chooses the monster" clause?

[Stalker0]

I have often heard it said about these types of spells, that the player chooses the CR, and the DM chooses the monster. However, in reading over the spell recently I'm not really seeing that in the text. What leads to that interpretation?

 

[Ancalagon]

Perhaps because the GM may have a better idea of what the local wildlife is like?

 

[Charlaquin]

It doesn’t say that in the text. “The DM chooses what monsters respond” is RAI from Jeremy Crawford.

 

[the Jester]

The spell specifies that the player chooses the number and CR, but not the specific type. The interpretation comes from a post/Sage Advice/tweet/something from one of the designers, probably Crawford. Also, letting the player choose... is it sprites? Pixies? Whichever fey type has access to high level spells... leads to abuse, since you can effectively turn a CWB into a bunch of higher level spells by doing so.

I've found that having a random selection for the various conjure animals etc spells works well to prevent abuse, yet keeps them about as powerful as seems appropriate for their level. Conjure animals is the one I've seen used a bunch in my game, and sometimes it's the perfect creature for the occasion, while sometimes it's pretty far from perfect; but it's nearly always about as good as a third level spell should be. (Note that I don't, for instance, allow giant fish to be summoned out of water, nor do I allow non-water-dwellers to be summoned in the water.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Even without the sage advice,

The spell specifies that the player chooses the number and CR, but not the specific type.

This tells you - if the player doesn't choose then who does? Call out for the DM's Mom?

 

[Iry]

To be fair, it doesn't say "but not the specific type." What it says is "The GM has the creatures' statistics."
Which still means there's no step where the player chooses the type. Just that the DM produces some statistics.
Which I'm inclined to believe means the DM chooses the type.

 

[jasper]

You summon fey creatures that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Choose one of the following options for what appears:

• One fey creature of challenge rating 2 or lower
• Two fey creatures of challenge rating 1 or lower
• Four fey creatures of challenge rating 1/2 or lower
• Eight fey creatures of challenge rating 1/4 or lower

A summoned creature disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which have their 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 6th-level slot and three times as many with an 8th-level slot.

 

[jasper]

The spell has to be a little LOOSE due to having cover all types of terrain. Jungle, pine woods, urban fey, underground fey. Fey created by that evil nasty dm.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Remember, when the spell was first published the Monster Manual was not out. So the choice of creature is limited to what the DM has stat blocks for.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

What exactly is the problem with a player preparing some lists beforehand? Is it just the Pixie cheese?