D&D 5E Summoning in 5E

[TheSleepyKing]

So I’m really digging summoning spells in 5E, and how bounded accuracy makes them less an all-or-nothing prospect; you can summon a CR 5 monster into a CR10 fight and still have it be a solid contributor.

But I have questions. First, with the Conjure Elemental spell, can you summon any monster of the elemental subtype (let’s say Azer, or genies) or only actual elementals (eg. fire elemental)? With the druid and cleric summoning spells, it’s generally the case that you can summon any creature with the celestial, fey or beast subtype under a certain CR, but the Conjure Elemental spell doesn’t seem clear to me.

Secondly, and more importantly, how do you guys deal with players halting play to trawl through monster manuals with open spell descriptions like this (this also applies to a certain extent to polymorph as well)?

 

[Li Shenron]

Secondly, and more importantly, how do you guys deal with players halting play to trawl through monster manuals with open spell descriptions like this (this also applies to a certain extent to polymorph as well)?

House ruling a limited list of creatures that the caster knows how to summon, one creature per caster level.

Player must have monster's stats handy, my MM is always in some unreachable pocket dimension during game.

 

[jadrax]

Secondly, and more importantly, how do you guys deal with players halting play to trawl through monster manuals with open spell descriptions like this (this also applies to a certain extent to polymorph as well)?

I don't halt play. So time that the player spends making a decision is time that the character spends doing nothing but making a decision.

 

[Connorsrpg]

We used to have deity-specific lists for divine spells.

I would go with each summoning spell as a different spell myself. So, in your wizard spell book it is actually summon fire elemental or summon fiendish hogs or whatever.

 

[Jer]

Secondly, and more importantly, how do you guys deal with players halting play to trawl through monster manuals with open spell descriptions like this (this also applies to a certain extent to polymorph as well)?

In 3e I required that the player be prepared with stats. Summoners had to have stats for whatever they summoned handy when it came time to cast the spell. The druid had to have stats for his wildshape handy. They either had to own their own MM or, more frequently, printed out monster pages from the SRD that they kept with their character sheet. (The high level druid that focused on wildshape had a 3-ring binder full of stats because of this). If they didn't have the stats then they couldn't cast the spell.

For 4e it isn't an issue because of how those kinds of powers in that game work.

For 5e, I'd probably revert back to the 3e way of doing things. Honestly it's one of the reasons my regular group probably won't go to 5e because the players at my table who care about such things really prefer the 4e method of handling it to the 3e method, and at least with the way its presented 5e looks like a step backwards to them. (Only one of the reasons - each of my players has expressed a strong preference with just sticking with our house ruled version of 4th at this point, but they all have different reasons for doing so.)