Restrictions on Summon Monster Spells?

[shadowthorn]

When a wizard casts a Summon Monster spell, are they restricted in what they can summon by the alignment of the creature and their own alignment, or can they summon any dang thing they want? I'm sure this is not a new question, but I don't know the answer. If there is an official book ruling on this topic, I'm afraid I overlooked it.

Thanks!

 

[Nail]

A wizard's SM spells are not limited by the wizard's alignment.

 

[Nail]

To elaborate:

Clerics have a special restiction on their spell casting:

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A cleric can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s (if he has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

A wizard or sorcerer has no such restriction. Q.E.D.

 

[shadowthorn]

Thanks, Nail!

 

[Nail]

Heh.

AS a player, I have convinced my DM that:

• The fiendish monsters are better than the celestial ones,
• That such an unbalance is unfair, and therefore
• The caster should be able to switch clestial or fiendish templates, as appropriate.

This is quite cool, as now my Good cleric can use one of the best SM III monsters: a Celestial Huge Monstrous Centiede!

Heh.

My next project is to allow Axiomatic and Anarchic templates.

Double Heh.

 

[Silveras]

To elaborate:

Clerics have a special restiction on their spell casting:

A wizard or sorcerer has no such restriction. Q.E.D.

However, for any class, summoning a creature with an inherent alignment causes the spell to be considered a spell with that descriptor. Summoning a Fiendish creature makes the Summon Monster spell an [Evil] spell, for example.

When you use a summoning spell to summon an air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, or water creature, it is a spell of that type.

If the DM is using the Book of Vile Darkness and/or the Book of Exalted Deeds, casting a spell with an alignment descriptor is an "act" of that alignment (Good/Evil in these books).

Depending on how your DM feels about alignment, doing this repeatedly could cause your alignment to shift toward Evil (or Good, if you keep summoning Celestial creatures).

 

[travathian]

I disagree. If you are summoning an evil creature and sacrificing it to help kill other evil creatures, aint that a Good Thing?

 

[James McMurray]

Nope, because good/evil (when using the BoED) is all about means, not ends. Just because it is handy to use evil creatures to fight for you doesn't make it good. Consorting with demons is still consorting with demons.

 

[travathian]

Consorting? Not quite. Maybe if it was a demon, and I put him on a quest of some sort. But if I just summon a fiendish badger and order it to attack orcs, I hardly consider that consorting.

Heck, aint it evil to summon a celestial creature and send it off to die?

 

[James McMurray]

1) Summoned creatures don't die.

2) By the rules, summoning an evil creature is an evil act.

3) If this rule doesn't work for you, feel free to change it. Alignment has been the center of debates ever since the days when everyone was just Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic.