So.... about Summon Lesser Demons... my wizard got some great use out of this spell when it was UA and before Xanathar's kinda nerfed it. While I get all the reasons you give a low rating, I feel like it was a very good battlefield control spell.
Back then you could pick what demons you summoned, so taking 8 dretches and placing them so that they surround a BBG was pretty effective. They all do a little damage, restrict movement, get some opportunity attacks... then once the BBG is dead or moves away, then there's a chance that they go a little crazy and start attacking allies, but they're at least predictable (always attack the closest target) AND you can just stop concentrating and they disappear so there shouldn't ever be any danger to you - you can just drop concentration and *poof* - no more danger.
Obviously, it's not as good as some Wall spells and might not last too long, but for that level it's not bad. Plus it does some damage.
So anyways, this spell totally flipped a few encounters for us.
Now that XGTE has nerfed it a bit, I'm not sure if it's still worthwhile, but if you get 8 somethings (33% chance) they still have some battlefield control application since you get to place them. Plus XGTE has gotten rid of their 1st round summoning sickness... I guess one problem would be if you rolled to summon two "CR 1 or lower" demons and your DM decided to be a jerk and give you two CR 1/8 manes.
Downsides: My fellow players hated this spell. Even though it was effective and helped our side, the addition of 8 more creatures to the combat slowed things down too much (even once we put in a macro for it on Roll20). I stopped using it before XGTE's came out and then I promised to never prepare it again in exchange for adding Thunderstep to my spells known.
Back then you could pick what demons you summoned, so taking 8 dretches and placing them so that they surround a BBG was pretty effective. They all do a little damage, restrict movement, get some opportunity attacks... then once the BBG is dead or moves away, then there's a chance that they go a little crazy and start attacking allies, but they're at least predictable (always attack the closest target) AND you can just stop concentrating and they disappear so there shouldn't ever be any danger to you - you can just drop concentration and *poof* - no more danger.
Obviously, it's not as good as some Wall spells and might not last too long, but for that level it's not bad. Plus it does some damage.
So anyways, this spell totally flipped a few encounters for us.
Now that XGTE has nerfed it a bit, I'm not sure if it's still worthwhile, but if you get 8 somethings (33% chance) they still have some battlefield control application since you get to place them. Plus XGTE has gotten rid of their 1st round summoning sickness... I guess one problem would be if you rolled to summon two "CR 1 or lower" demons and your DM decided to be a jerk and give you two CR 1/8 manes.
Downsides: My fellow players hated this spell. Even though it was effective and helped our side, the addition of 8 more creatures to the combat slowed things down too much (even once we put in a macro for it on Roll20). I stopped using it before XGTE's came out and then I promised to never prepare it again in exchange for adding Thunderstep to my spells known.