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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron_Chef" data-source="post: 764934" data-attributes="member: 4530">Hi,In the Living Greyhawk Journal in Dragon #295, Sean K Reynolds wrote about a race of Ethereal Planar creatures called gingwatzim that could be summoned and bound into items or material form as guardians or servants via sumon monster spells (II, III, IV and V depending on the gingwatzim's power, there being five different types). My question is, how long does this binding last? The normal duration of the appropriate summon monster spell used to bring them to the material plane, or until the gingwatzim is hit by a dispel magic (and thus possibly permanent)? When a gingwatzim asumes the form of a creature, is this a form of the caster's choosing, the creature's choosing or is the gingwatzim bound into the body of a preexisting creature determined by the summoner? My main confusion springs from the fact that Sean seems to use "summoning" and "calling" interchangeably in his article and these are two very different things, according to the PHB. Example: Under "Alternate Forms" he writes: "Conjured gingwatzims are assigned two additional forms by the magic of the spell that CALLS them." [emphasis mine]If they are brought forth by a summon monster spell, rather than one of the planar ally spells, shouldn't they be limited to duration of the summoning spell? But if they were brought forth by a calling spell, such as the planar ally ones, then the binding could be permanent. However, Sean's article seems to imply that the summon monster spell is sufficient to bind the gingwatzim permanently to the material plane in object or creature form, at least until it is hit with dispel magic. If this is the case, then couldn't other outsiders such as demons or devils or elementals be subject to similar bindings, all using the summon monster spells? This greatly increases the effectiveness, desirability and utility of the summon monster spells (a good thing, IMO).Anybody familiar with this article (especially Sean) have any thoughts on this? I have conjurer PC who wants to summon these things up and the article seems to support a possible unlimited duration for them to stay on the Prime...</blockquote>

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