Is there a way to make Conjure Animals take less time?

[MechaTarrasque]

I strongly recommend bribery--offer them a CR 3 critter if they stick to one critter.

 

[Gavin O.]

I strongly recommend bribery--offer them a CR 3 critter if they stick to one critter.

I'm not the DM, I'm another player, so i don't have the ability to make house rules.

 

[Gavin O.]

I wish I could take credit for this, but a suggestion I got here recently for a similar issue was:

Spread the the summons out among the other players.

So the other players get more time rolling, and things go through in parallel so it's faster.

I really like that idea.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I'm not the DM, I'm another player, so i don't have the ability to make house rules.

Bummer. Giant owls do pretty similar damage (8 vs. 10) with one attack, and flyby means there won't be any OA's on them, which would cut down on the time spent on the turn.

 

[5ekyu]

Limit it to the minimum number of creatures. 1 at low levels but more at higher levels. They can choose lower CR but not for more creatures - just for its utility.
i would insist on average damage.

 

[iserith]

I view this as an issue of spotlight balance which is, in part, on the player. In our group, it's bad form to hog the spotlight which should be shared more or less equally among all the participants over the course of a session. Conjure animals and other summoning spells (or, for example, animate dead) must therefore be used very judiciously. It's not clear to me from your post how often the ranger's player is busting out the badgers, but if it's more than once per 4-hours session, I would most certainly have a conversation with him or her as DM or as a player to say, "Hey, this spell is like casting slow game or steal spotlight. It takes X minutes more than everyone else to resolve their turns and this really adds up. Do you think we could come up with some other strategies and use this spell less often?"

Ultimately, just because something is rules legal or optimally effective doesn't mean it is automatically good for the play experience. And since we're all presumably there for the play experience, anything that impacts that negatively demands a good hard look in my view. Hopefully the player is self-aware enough to realize this is a problem for others and is amenable to solutions.

 

[iserith]

I wish I could take credit for this, but a suggestion I got here recently for a similar issue was:

Spread the the summons out among the other players.

So the other players get more time rolling, and things go through in parallel so it's faster.

This may work for some, but I would prefer not to do this as a player. I want to control my character, not someone else's summons.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

…you can instead use average damage.

That is a great idea. Consider it stolen.

Thanks

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm playing in a campaign with a level 11 Ranger, and their favourite trick is to use Conjure Animals, summon 8 giant badgers, and attack with them round after round. It's great, the badgers deal good damage, they restrict enemy movement, and they provide a hit point buffer for the rest of us. Only problem is, they make turns take forever. When you have a ranger shooting three times per round plus sixteen badger attacks, that ranger's turn lasts about as long as the rest of our turns combined. I really don't want to ask our ranger to stop using the spell, since it makes them feel effective and like they're contributing meaningfully to the group, but I don't want to wait for them to roll 8 badger punches and 8 badger bites per round. Is there another animal that does similar damage to a giant badger but only has one attack?

My party’s Druid is starting to conjure panthers.

First off, Save Advice clarified that intent is the player just picks # and CR while DM picks specific beasts suiting the terrain/narrative. Personally, since we’re running ToA (mostly jungle) & for ease-of-remembering I’m fine with him choosing panthers. I’ve clarified that I’d only step in and make a DM choice if it reflected the story or a dramatically different terrain, or if he tried to conjure flying mounts.

My approach has been to adapt the mob rules on DMG page 250 and create a one-pager for conjured panthers which displays that table interpreted for “Target’s AC” (for speed of use in play).

Panthers are complex: (1) claw attack, (2) if moved 20’ to trigger Pounce then force DC 12 STR save vs prone, (3) if prone then bite attack (with advantage cause target is prone).

So I’ve created three more tables based on that mob attack tables. One weighted for having advantage, one weighted for having disadvantage. And lastly I interpolated a version of the table for determining how many targets get auto-success on DC 12 STR save, based on their strength save bonus.

Finally, I use average damage (4 for claw, 5 for bite).

In most cases it will probably pan out like this:

8 panthers attack opponents with average AC. Half (4) hit with claw. Of those four, half (2) involve a failed save knocking target prone, and of those one or both will include a bite attack (depending on AC).

This circumvents attack/damage rolls that are the main time sink.

 

[77IM]

Badger Swarm!