Rapid Summoning and duration

[Bad Paper]

Does Rapid Summoning effectively shorten the duration of the summon monster spells?

e.g. A first-level conjurer casts summon monster i. The beastie appears and takes a swipe at someone. Next round the beastie disappears...before or after its full attack? Does it get an action? Does it just get a move action, to offset the standard action it took in its first round?

 

[Pyrex]

Either way the creature should be getting exactly one full-round of actions, which occur on the Cleric's initiative.

Rapid Summoning just means that round of actions happens *this* round instead of *next* round.

Also, in either case, the creature sticks around until just before the cleric's initative the round after it acts.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Either way the creature should be getting exactly one full-round of actions, which occur on the Cleric's initiative.

Rapid Summoning just means that round of actions happens *this* round instead of *next* round.

Except that Rapid Summoning limits the summoned creature to a standard or move action, not a full round allotment, in the round it first appears.

-Hyp.

 

[Pyrex]

Ah, I missed that part.

So in the case of a 1st level conjurer with Rapid Summoning, the creature appears, takes a standard action then dissappears just before your next turn.

Effectively, (regardless of caster level) Rapid Summoning saves the caster a move-action by stealing the first move-action from the summoned creature. (well, that and it makes your summon vastly less likely to be disrupted as you're no longer casting for the whole round)

 

[Rackhir]

Any first level casters casting "Summon Monster" should be roundly beat about the head and neck for doing something stupid. There's a lot better spells they could be casting than Summon Monster. The only use for the first level summon monster spell is if you have a trap you need tripped or are using a higher level spell to summon a larger number of them.

 

[Bad Paper]

Any first level casters casting "Summon Monster" should be roundly beat about the head and neck for doing something stupid.

My cleric saved the rogue's neck with a first-level smi. Twenty feet away, across a spiked pit, and facing two hobgoblins, she was rather grateful for the flank. Gosh, you're right, I should have cast cure light wounds or something. Thank you for your insight.

 

[frankthedm]

Next round the beastie disappears before its turn can ever begin. Thats the way any standard action spell duration works.

As your example shows, it is quite fair. The flanking potential alone more than makes up for the loss of the move action on the creatures part.

 

[Felix]

My cleric saved the rogue's neck with a first-level smi. Twenty feet away, across a spiked pit, and facing two hobgoblins, she was rather grateful for the flank. Gosh, you're right, I should have cast cure light wounds or something. Thank you for your insight.

Easy mate; yours was a particularly well tailored set of circumstances to Summon Monster I. I suspect a corresponding set of circumstances may be contrived to make any generally useless spell seem valuable, but simply because you may so contrive does not make that generally useless spell any less generally useless.

Rackhir's post, while perhaps overly hyperbolic, has an element of truth: Summon Monster I cast by a first level caster is not a versatile spell to prepare, though a good use for it is in trap-springing.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, summon spells aren't exactly great at 1st-level.

They might be useful every now and then, but that's a rare thing, indeed.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Pyrex]

CasterLevel 1 may not be the generally ideal time to cast Summon Monster, but it's the ideal illustrative use to get clear concise answers on how Rapid Summoning works, which appears to be Bad Paper's intent.