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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Syrsuro" data-source="post: 4403770" data-attributes="member: 58162">If that is your goal, I would just not allow elites and solos before I would take an approach like that for balance. Better yet, I would balance the level of the creature compared to the level of the caster based on their experience cost rather than the level.  This would make an elite cost double and a solo cost quadruple so your choice would be (for example) between sixteen minions, 4 regulars or 1 solo monster of a given level. You didn't say at what point the summons was chosen, but for simplicities sake (making life easier for the DM) I would probably also seek to make the player choose the type of summons ahead of time.  Encouraging the players to dive through the MM looking for the 'perfect summons' on the spot will only slow down play (and is incidentally part of why they changed polymorph in 3.x). I would add a ritual to the summons, designed to attune the summoner to a creature capable of being summoned.  The ritual would define/identify the creature (and more than one creature may be possible via multiple rituals) while some other action taken during the combat actually summons the creature.  This forces the player to spend time outside of melee considering what he wants to be able to summon and avoid bogging down combat every time he summons (during which time the other players stare at the ceiling or twiddle their thumbs). There is room for a lot of color/customization in such a ritual, ranging from requiring them to find and bind the necessary being (you can't summon something you haven't defeated) to restricting their summons to residents of other planes (fey, elemental, etc).  That would all depend on how you see summons fitting into your world. Carl</blockquote>

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