D&D 5E Summoning Spells

[Gargoyle]

Indeed, it sounds like they didn't think through conjure minor elemental and we might see some errata on that. You could use swarm rules to make it manageable when there is more than one, which might be how they fix it, but I'm not sure as I haven't seen those yet, and it probably wouldn't occur to most people.

With the number of subclasses that wizards get already and with the inherent problems they've had in past editions with summoning, I'm not surprised that we're not seeing a dedicated conjurer just yet. It does seem like something that will be added later; I feel like there is demand as I always seem to have a player interested in it at least once per edition.

 

[Dausuul]

You can summon 24 creatures with an 8th-level spell slot, but you don't have to. You're a level 15+ wizard at that point; your use for a bunch of CR 1/4 mooks is probably going to be pretty limited. A lot of the time you'll be better off with three CR 2 guys.

As for taking a long time... again, it can, but it doesn't have to. As DM, I run groups that large all the time. Swarm the enemy, figure out what number on the d20 you need to hit, roll a big handful of d20s, count up the ones that beat the target number and multiply by average damage.

 

[Snapdragyn]

The fun part to me is the note in the spell 'your DM has stats on these'.

Um, not yet they don't.

 

[Joe Liker]

And btw...conjurer now... wtf? changed the name of one of the iconics spellcasting classes to one that almost noone ever used it?

This is the conjurer subclass of wizard, not the completely separate summoner class from Pathfinder, and it certainly has nothing to do with the Final Fantasy job.

The conjuration/summoning specialty wizard has been called "conjurer" ever since the concept of specialty wizards has been around.

 

[gyor]

Today's download does have the stats for an Air Elemental.

Do Clerics still have summon Celestial, because summoning a Solar is awesome, its the coolest spell in the Alpha.

 

[Grazzt]

The conjuration/summoning specialty wizard has been called "conjurer" ever since the concept of specialty wizards has been around.

Yep. And just for fun's sake, a level 3 magic user's level title in AD&D 1e was "Conjurer".

 

[Falling Icicle]

Wow, that sounds like an evil option that should be in the DMG.

Why? There's nothing in the spell that states that what you gate in has to be evil. You could gate in angels, elementals, or anything else that's from another plane.

 

[Crothian]

Why? There's nothing in the spell that states that what you gate in has to be evil. You could gate in angels, elementals, or anything else that's from another plane.

The other poster said he wanted control of the summoned creature. I consider taking away a creature's free will to be evil as it is like enslaving them only worse.

 

[Jester David]

I did find that a huge disappointment. Summoning was problematic in 3e, but 4e handled it so well.

 

[Lawngnome4hire]

And btw...conjurer now... wtf? changed the name of one of the iconics spellcasting classes to one that almost noone ever used it?

It's been conjurer since specialist wizards were first introduced in 1989 with 2nd edition.

The other poster said he wanted control of the summoned creature. I consider taking away a creature's free will to be evil as it is like enslaving them only worse.

I'm not sure about elementals, but celestials and fiends don't have free will, they're servants of their superiors. Demon princes or arch devils for fiends, and the gods for celestials. Elementals would probably be considered to be enslaved to their elements nature.

if you keep the lore in mind only mortals have free will. So summoning and controlling one of these isn't an evil act, although most good aligned people wouldn't be comfortable with someone summoning fiends and vice versa.