D&D 5E CONJURE CELESTIAL questions

[Elderbrain]

I don't know if I agree with Elderbrain's assumption you can just slap a Celestial moniker in front of any creature. And, even if you could, it'd frankly be disappointing, given my thoughts below.

- Mephista, I was referring to the text of the spell Call Woodland Beasts, where it states that the animals you summon count as Celestial, Fey or Fiendish (your choice). Oddly enough, it seems you can't get a regular old animal with this spell... but I digress! My point is that this spell either summons Celestial, Fey and Fiendish versions of animals (presumably from the appropriate planes), or else it turns normal animals into such types. Either way, such variants exist per RAW. Likewise, the planar section of the DMG states that Celestial elves exist on Arborea, and Celestial dwarves on (I think) Mount Celestia. So RAW I think I am correct, and such variant creatures are summonable. YMMV...

 

[Elderbrain]

Correction: The spell in question is Find Familiar, not the one I said. Sorry for the confusion! My memory is shot...

 

[gyor]

Summon Steed also lets you chose between a Fiend, Celestial, or Fey, but in practice Celestial is the best choice because you or an allies powers could negatively effect it if its a Fiend or Fey. I know of now magic that harms celestials sepifically if you haven't actually targeted it.

 

[gyor]

I'll point out that the Couatl can change shape into any animal or humaniod of CR 4 or lower, so you basically get to summon something that can be most animals and humaniods.

Need the Couatl to be a mount, have it turn into a giant eagle or bat and fly on its back, need to inflitrate a group of drow, have it turn into a drow.

The Unicorn can heal itself at will, so you can use it was a meat shield.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'll point out that the Couatl can change shape into any animal or humaniod of CR 4 or lower, so you basically get to summon something that can be most animals and humaniods.

Need the Couatl to be a mount, have it turn into a giant eagle or bat and fly on its back, need to inflitrate a group of drow, have it turn into a drow.

The Unicorn can heal itself at will, so you can use it was a meat shield.

And the Couatl keeps its statistics in beast form, including its invulnerability to non-magical weapons, so you could be riding around a great stomp elephant who is invulnerable to most damage and gives Mounted Combatants advantage to attack any creature up to Large size...

Couatls are awesome, seriously, even before you get to their high AC/truesight/shield spells/sleep poison/constriction. Don't trust the CR on this one, they're really underrated in the same way that the Balor is overrated. It's a consequence of the fact that CR is based almost entirely on raw HP and damage output whereas the Couatl is mostly strong along other dimensions like spells, special attacks, and mobility.

Unicorns are pretty lame in comparison even though they are higher CR. (Unicorns get better if you Mage Armor them but they're still pretty fragile even then, although unlimited self-healing isn't bad.)