Variant Monster Summoning Tables

[Otterscrubber]

Does anyone have any variant tables for summoning things? The tables in the PHB seem a bit narrow and I can't figure out how they figured what goes where. Is there a formula or something for determining if a creatuer would fit into MS 1-9?

 

[Tar-Edhel]

Does anyone have any variant tables for summoning things? The tables in the PHB seem a bit narrow and I can't figure out how they figured what goes where. Is there a formula or something for determining if a creatuer would fit into MS 1-9?

Unearthed Arcana has some.

There's also a discussion on the WoTC board. Look into the Character Optimization board. Can't remeber the exact title but look for threads on summoning.

 

[Olive]

Dragon #302 says:

Level CR
1 less than 1
2 1
3 2
4 3
5 4-5
6 6-7
7 8-9
8 10-11
9 12-13

there are issues ere. Somre creatures (such as the advespa devil) have the ability to do massive daage, but not to take it, some are amazing one trick ponies etc. You need to be careful what you allow and what you don't. The way we do it is to let the player use something, and if we decide it's too powerful at that level, or not good enough or whatever, then we change it.

Also note that newer WotC monster books have tended to address this by listing in the description (Fiend Folio) or in a table at the end (BoED) which monsters can be summoned by which SM spell. They seem alright to me so far, but I haven't playtested extensively or anything.

 

[Scion]

I have always liked simply trading one template with another of a similar cost. It makes the table just plain huge, and makes for a lot of interesting choices

 

[Olive]

I have always liked simply trading one template with another of a similar cost. It makes the table just plain huge, and makes for a lot of interesting choices

I do that, more or elss. I let clerics take any aignment template that there god would give (eg. a CG god's cleric can summon celectial or anarchic creatures), as well as any elemental tempates their god is associated with.

I let wizards take more or elss any CR +0 template: any alignment or elemental anyway.

 

[Scion]

as you go up higher some templates scale, such as the celestial and fiendish ones.. once they are worth enough I allow them to be traded out for things like halfdragon

sure, it probably ups their power a bit, but at higher levels they have had a tendency of lacking power in the last game I ran, so until I see any major problems.....

 

[Olive]

sure, it probably ups their power a bit, but at higher levels they have had a tendency of lacking power in the last game I ran, so until I see any major problems.....

Interesting... most people seem to say that they only become worth while at around 5th or 6th.

 

[Scion]

everybodies game is different

at low levels they didnt last long enough to be a huge impact, at mid levels they worked out very nicely (but then this change wouldnt really effect it), at higher levels they went back to not making a lot of impact in battle except when used in very specific circumstances.

Being able to change up the templates to give a higher degree of versitility simply seems like a decent step in makeing them more overly useful to me. It doesnt really effect the out of combat uses, but in combat a couple of extra uses means that in combat they are more interesting to use than othe things