D&D 5E Drawmij's Instant Summons: Am I Missing Something?

[Dausuul]

So, was looking at Drawmij's instant summons yesterday, and I found myself wondering the same thing I've wondered in every edition where this spell showed up:

Why on earth would you cast this spell?

I mean, I can see a number of uses for being able to prepare and summon an item to hand, and it's a ritual, so it doesn't cost spell slots... but it costs 1,000 gp per casting! I can't imagine any use that would justify such expenditures. What am I missing? Why is this spell worth the price tag?

 

[steeldragons]

Leave your Staff/Sword/Shield/Cloak of Ultimate Power at home, or secured somewhere, and summon it up when/if you're really in a bind/need it?

Food/drink that you've prepared-with the spell- but left somewhere so you don't have to carry it? Summon it up when you get hungry...and have a magnificent wealth of disposable 1,000gp sapphires?

The 10 lb. limit does seem to limit it...a lot.

I don't, honestly,really know.

 

[Dausuul]

Maybe it's for liches. You secure your phylactery in a heavily guarded fortress on a distant plane. Then you set up alarms so that you're warned if the innermost vault is about to be penetrated. When the alarms go off, you trigger Drawmij's instant summons and yank the phylactery out of danger. Secure it in your backup vault, then head for the fortress to deal with the intruders.

That's about all I got.

 

[steeldragons]

That's actually pretty awesome, for "all you got." Hahaha. I'm definitely going to be borrowing that.

But, to the original question, "No. You're not really missing anything." I've just gone over the entry. There's really very specific and/or limited reasons I can imagine any pc would ever need or want to waste a 6th level slot to cast this.

Use as a ritual...*shrug* I guess. But you have to prepare something for it to work in the first place...so the whole thing is kinda always a ritual. Casting it as a ritual would just prepare the item for "instant summoning" [you know, as opposed to all of those spells that involve delayed summonings] anyway.

So, I guess as a ritual, if you're dungeon delving and you ritual-cast this on some [10lb or less] treasure...you could just "bring it to you" when you got home?

Surreptitious theft? Touch a holy relic or king's sceptre or something of that nature while you happen to be at the temple/palace/court...and get the casting off without being busted...then bring it to you when you get back to your own kingdom/temple/tower.

 

[thalmin]

Cast it on your primary Spellbook. Carry a traveling Spellbook. If your traveling spellbook is destroyed or stolen, you can summon your real one from your security vault.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I think the real question is, why would a high-level wizard in possession of a powerful artifact NOT use this spell to keep it from getting stolen?

 

[Shayuri]

But in that case, why doesn't the wizard just carry the artifact around with them? I guess you could put it on the artifact or whatever, and also carry it around with you...and when it gets stolen by shadows in the night you can just whisk it back to yourself.

So it's 1000gp for what amounts to a really good theft insurance policy?

 

[raleel]

You could have your familiar do the touching. "I was never even close to it!"

note, it does not say the sapphire is destroyed as most spell components are. So.. could you reuse a sapphire after you Mended it?

edit: also, might be handy with Leomund's secret chest. A chest of 1000gp gems is going to be a lot 10# items Just pull it back every now and then, recast, and pop the chest back out. emergency backup!

 

[Joe Liker]

This spell is nearly a carbon copy of its 1e version. Even back then, the uses were extremely situational and limited. In the cases mentioned upthread, however, it's indispensable. My feeling is that it's way better for NPCs than PCs.

note, it does not say the sapphire is destroyed as most spell components are. So.. could you reuse a sapphire after you Mended it?

Away from book, but I don't think mending works on items above a certain gp value.

 

[raleel]

This spell is nearly a carbon copy of its 1e version. Even back then, the uses were extremely situational and limited. In the cases mentioned upthread, however, it's indispensable. My feeling is that it's way better for NPCs than PCs.


Away from book, but I don't think mending works on items above a certain gp value.

No GP limit on mending anymore. there is precedent for casting multiple mends to fix items now. might take you a while, but I think you can get it back!