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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pauper" data-source="post: 7411266" data-attributes="member: 17607">I disagree, at least within a Fifth Edition context, and think this explanation misses a key point in the original question.If you are summoning creatures to "fight against unwinnable odds", the key determinant as to whether the act is evil or not is whether or not the summoner is part of the fight -- summoning creatures and pitting them against other creatures where the summoner is not part of the fight (a.k.a.: a Pokemon battle) is very likely evil, or at best the actions of a Chaotic Neutral ("...holding their personal freedom above all else." 5E Basic Rules 3.4, p.34) This puts the summoner in the same light as if he were summoning creatures to trigger traps -- he doesn't have the skill to disarm the traps or the cleverness to evade the trap any other way, so he's creating 'minions' to suffer the effects of the trap in his stead. While this might still count as 'clever' in some circles, it's also pretty clearly Neutral Evil ("...the alignment of those who do whatever they can get away with, without compassion or qualms." Ibid.).Note as well that the particular spell used can also have an impact, as in 5E, some spells summon forth "spirits that take the form" of the creatures you've conjured, while others conjure an actual creature ("You summon a celestial of challenge rating...", Conjure Celestial; "You call forth an elemental servant." Conjure Elemental; "You summon a fey creature of challenge rating...", Conjure Fey; "You summon fey creatures..." Conjure Woodland Beings, all from 5E SRD v1.1). The Basic Rules are silent on the topic of whether the same creature can be re-summoned after it 'dies' in a previous summoning, but the description of the Conjuration school does state that Conjuration "involve<s> the transportation of objects and creatures from one location to another." (Basic Rules, p.80), which leaves open the possibility that actually summoned creatures (rather than spirits taking the form of creatures) actually die if they die while summoned.</s><s></s><s>Lastly, as Celebrim points out, a DM can modify the underlying workings of specific spells or magic or the world in general to fit the parameters of her campaign -- so a world in which all summoned creatures are actually shells of trickster spirits that are trying to tempt their summoners to serve their own ends, the alignment consequences may well be different to that of a campaign where lesser angels are being summoned to step into the grinning devil face on the wall.</s><s></s><s>The example provided in the original source, though, is pretty clearly evil -- that's why the comic is funny, after all.</s><s></s><s>--</s><s>Pauper</s></blockquote>

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