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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mr_Spicoli" data-source="post: 3008410" data-attributes="member: 42038">Excellent replies from everyone.  Yes the spell is very useful with all of the options that are possible.  Of course to use the more interesting capabilities of the called ally, it will take more time then several minutes and so the cost jumps up quite rapidly.Any task taking one hour up to one day will cost 3000 GP.  A task taking a day or longer will cost 6000GP.  I can only see using a one hour task in a very rare extreme circumstance, and even moreso with a task requiring a day.But then a task that is non hazardous can cost half, or a task that is very hazardous cost one and a half as much.  Also, if the task is strongly aligned with the creature's ethos, the payment may be halved or even waived.  So the best use of this spell may be the lesser planar ally with the lesser XP cost.  Use of planar ally and greater planar ally would be very limited most likely.Also, with lesser planar ally, the max HD of the creature is 6, you have to cast a Planar ally 6th level spell to get a creature of 12 HD which costs 250XP, as was implied in the first reply. Now the XP hit is a little more, even if you want to use it for nothing more then a messenger or short duration spy etc."So there is a lot of room for movement within these parameters.  Yet, depending on you're gaming style the XP loss can still be a hit against the spell.  You must give out XP for mission objectives, creativity and ideas, role-playing, solving mysteries, AND tactical-strategic combat in proportion.The Leadership feat which can be taken at 6th level, seems a vastly better choice then casting the various planar ally spells more then a couple of times.  A character at 6th level with a +2 charisma bonus can attract a cohort of 5th level.  Lets say the character is a druid or cleric or warlock so he can attract a 5th level cohort (which would be a spellcaster from those examples)that stays with him indefinitely, with no XP nor gold cost, without having to cast anything per day.  Of course the GM can choose not use this feat, but you can choose whether to use all other feats and spells as well.One of the concerns with this spell is that for people who are using the core books only, they're are few spell options in the first place, and this really limits the usefulness of the those spells in the Players Handbook.  If the group is not using supplements like the Spell Compendium, spellcasters have very limited spell options.</blockquote>

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