Summon Monster IX vs. Gate

[Gideon]

Okay, so i am playing in a 17th level dungeon crawl/adventure over the summer till we restart our actual campaign in the fall.

Not used to this high level stuff. So I have been 'hitting the books pretty hard' to understand the spells. I get to the 9th level spells in my spellbook and I have gate and Summon Monster IX.

So i read through the descriptions...and i think 'hey that doesn't make any sense'...so i read it again...'still no sense' better go ask those Enworld folks they know how stuff works.

Rambling i know, sorry. So anyway, It seems to me Gate is about a BAJILLION times better compared to Summon Monster IX. It has a longer range, faster casting time, and a higher number of HD can be called.

The two things i can think of for SM9 is that the creature is summoned so it won't actually die and that you aren't opening a gateway to another plane.

Am I missing something important?

latest edit: that sentence makes sense now

 

[Bauglir]

Gate is a lot better, although it does have one comparative weakness: size. You can only gate in creatures that will fit through the gate. If you want the really big stuff (elder earth elementals spring to mind) then you still have to turn to SM9.

Secondly, creatures remember being Gate'd, and if you abuse the spell, the DM is wide open to have it bite back, by having some previously gated creatures come after you.

 

[Pax]

SuMon9 includes all the creatures of lower-level lists, and can get multiples at once (1d4+1 bebiliths, even against 20th level characters, is nothing to sneeze at).

And Summon Monster is FAR preferable for some prestige classes (Alienist, for example).

Otherwise ... Gate is better. Hands down.

 

[LordAO]

Gate is a lot better, although it does have one comparative weakness: size. You can only gate in creatures that will fit through the gate. If you want the really big stuff (elder earth elementals spring to mind) then you still have to turn to SM9.

Gate has no such size limitation. It will automatically size itself to fit the creature you summon. Only the persistent gate has a set size.

 

[Gideon]

Pax,
I had the understanding that Gate would allow calling several creatures as long as their total HD doesn't exceed your caster level. Is that incorrect?

 

[Kraedin]

You can indeed call multiple creatures.

 

[Particle_Man]

3.5 alert

I think that in 3.5 Gate costs the caster 1000 experience points, but only when the caster is calling a critter (not when simply opening a gate to travel to another plane). This would make SM 9 more attractive to me.

 

[Otterscrubber]

As far as summoning creatures go Gate seems to have some roleplaying repercussions (spelling?) for pulling powerful creatures from their home planes and forcing them to do your bidding. Not saying that you cant do it but it may cause problems if you dont either have a very good reason for doing it or at least building up some kind of relationship with the entity you are going to call upon.

MS9 seems to be fire and forget, the trade off being that you dont get nearly as powerful creatures summoned.

 

[Kraedin]

Well, there's always the option of summoning demons, and then killing them when you don't need them any longer. It's rather hard for them to come after you at that point. (Also, it's a great way to stockpile vorpal swords.)

 

[fba827]

<snip>
So anyway, It seems to me Gate is about a BAJILLION times better compared to Gate.
<snip>

:: scratches head ::



:: head explodes trying to figure out the sentence ::