Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 2273350" data-attributes="member: 15999">In my experience, the Summon Nature's Ally creatures are actually more powerful in melee combat than the Summon Monster creatures.  You don't get the templates, but you do get animals one or two levels earlier (dire bear at 6th rather than celestial dire bear at 8th) which is a huge advantage.  Animal Growth is an excellent way to enhance the summons.  Spontaneous casting is a good feature that should not be ruled out.Summon Monster's advantage is in the spell-like powers of some of the outsiders you can summon.  The elementals are on both lists (non-templated) and are often very good options, and they are usually lower level for the druid.  It's really the calling spells that most favor wizards and clerics.There's a running rules debate on wild shape/animal growth and, yes, it does come down to semantics (much like the debate on lance and 1.5x Str bonus).  I doubt it's really necessary to allow them to stack in order for the druid to be an effective combatant (though if it becomes widely accepted that they don't stack, I think you'll see a higher-level spell that does stack and/or prestige class features to increase size).</blockquote>