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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1576141" data-attributes="member: 3433">I beg to differ.  My group uses summons to good effect.  May depend partly on party make-up though.  The ability to suddenly provide flanking for the rogue or an extra set of creatures to tie up the enemy for just a round or two can easily sway the course of battle.From the sound of it, perhaps you are not handling Stun correctly.  When stunned, a creature drops all items in their hands and is much easier to hit.  Picking those items back up provokes an attack of opportunity.  A 1 round stun usually winds up acting like this: Stun foe, it drops its weapon, warriors charge it, getting in attacks effectively at +4 or higher (+2 from charge, -2 AC on stunned opponent and opponent loses dex bonus to AC).  The drawbacks from the charge are ignored since the creature is stunned this round.  On the next round, when the foe tries to pick up its weapon it suffers a bunch more attacks of opportunity, this time often with multiple creatures flanking it including the party rogue(s).  Combine all those together, and it's pretty hard for that foe to survive to even make another attack!  Hence, a 1 round stun is often fatal.  Of course the reverse situation can happen to the PCs if they are unlucky.In regards to sound burst, the stun is very useful as noted above, but as an area effect that has no save, it's pretty effective in a pinch.  Soften up some tightly bunched foes, kill off an opponent who's near death, and since its sonic damage, it overcomes damage resistance problems.  Works well against enemy spellcasters or rogues who tend to have low fortitude saves.  In fact, I've seen a few higher level casters totally owned by this spell.  In one case, the cleric had a wand of sound burst and was able to essentially stun lock the enemy caster.  Each blast dealt another 1d8 sonic damage, and after a few rounds, dead caster.  Funny thing is, the caster was massively buffed with all the defensive and protective spells, and would have otherwise been very hard to bring down.  Since then, I've been a believer in the power of sound burst.If you want to be a cruel DM, you can use the same tactic against your party spellcaster(s).  For example, pit them against a group of enemies including a sorcerer or bard with a pretty high stat bonus for a high DC and keep nailing the spellcaster(s)  and/or rogues round after round.  It's likely the PCs will get stunned multiple rounds, all the while taking damage.  It's bound to show them how powerful that spell is, as well as frustrating the bejeezus out of them during that fight.  Can be especially painful when that 1 sound burst keeps hitting multiple PCs!  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />BTW, I think it's cool that bards now get sound burst in 3.5.  That was a very good change, though it competes with a several other equally cool spells at 2nd level.</blockquote>

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