D&D 5E Planar Ally is it the most powerful conjuration spell in the game? How do you run it?

[Sword of Spirit]

The devil arrives wanting souls, contracts in hand ready to be bound to the devil. The demon? It wants babies, and it wants them so it can devour them right then and there in front of the character. That is what happens when good tries to work with true evil.

Yes, good idea, but it still sort of misses the point. It's about having access to the capability in the first place, while the class that should have access to the capability doesn't.

As an analogy, it would be like giving paladins a very nature-oriented spell that neither rangers nor druids get for some reason. (Let's say conjure woodland being and conjure fey were paladin, but not druid or ranger, for instance). Sure, it might fit for an Oath of the Ancients paladin, but it would fit more for ranger and druid, who don't get access, while all paladins do.

 

[gyor]

It does fit the Warlock more, its the Warlock, Cleric, Wizard, and Favoured Soul equally, but for different reasons. Only the Cleric and Favoured Soul get it however which is unfortunate.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the spell should be on everyone's lists. There's not a class that doesn't have someone somewhere that would be willing to bargain for aid.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Heck, it could even be a ritual and it would be more-or-less fine as long as the DM is harsh on bargaining.

 

[gyor]

I think any spell that takes 10 minutes or longer to cast should have been made rituals.

 

[Yaarel]

I think any spell that takes 10 minutes or longer to cast should have been made rituals.

I agree.

I think the reason they required certain long casting times to spend a slot, was as a mechanism to prevent spamming. This is often the case for summoning spells, for example.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I agree.

I think the reason they required certain long casting times to spend a slot, was as a mechanism to prevent spamming. This is often the case for summoning spells, for example.

True, although most summoning spells require concentration which makes spamming less likely (although if it was a ritual, you could summon one creature and when it dies, summon another until your enemies are all dead).

If I was going to make planar ally a ritual, I would limit it so that you could only cast it ritually in the middle of a natural disaster (only get elementals), only at a place where a horrific event recently occurred (within 7 days and you need to finish the spell on the stroke of midnight, only get fiends), or only at a site where a great evil was killed (within the last 7 days and you need to finish the spell at noon, only get celestials). That should cut down on spamming, although I could see some NPC (and maybe PC) running from disaster to disaster or maybe tragedy to tragedy, summoning a horde of allies.....

 

[Saeviomagy]

[MENTION=6801226]MechaTarrasque[/MENTION] - spamming is handled by the DM getting annoyed with you and simply having creatures refuse your bargain.

As for all long casting times being rituals? That would be problematic. There's quite a few that would have serious implications if they could be used without a resource cost.

That said, I believe the authors could have been a lot more liberal with the ritual tag. There's some obvious candidates like this spell, magic circle, hallow etc.

 

[gyor]

[MENTION=6801226]MechaTarrasque[/MENTION] - spamming is handled by the DM getting annoyed with you and simply having creatures refuse your bargain.

As for all long casting times being rituals? That would be problematic. There's quite a few that would have serious implications if they could be used without a resource cost.

That said, I believe the authors could have been a lot more liberal with the ritual tag. There's some obvious candidates like this spell, magic circle, hallow etc.

The cost alone reins that in, spamming it would cost a fortune, especially if the price kept rising for each summons after the first. Plus its dangerous, even Celestial might not have the same sense of right or wrong as a mortal.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The cost alone reins that in, spamming it would cost a fortune, especially if the price kept rising for each summons after the first. Plus its dangerous, even Celestial might not have the same sense of right or wrong as a mortal.

Yeah, but that means the DM suddenly needs to keep a tight rein on cash. I much prefer being able to hand out all the money I feel makes sense and having the PCs unable to directly spend it on completing adventures, so they have to buy into the world with it instead.