D&D 5E What's the point of Giant Insect?

[Undrave]

So Giant Insect is a 4th Level transmutation spell that lets you turn a specific number of insect into their Giant forms. For exemple, you can turn 3 spiders into Giant Spiders. It lasts for 10 minutes.

Conjure Animal is a 3rd level spell that lets you summer a number of creature of a specific CR. For exemple, you can summon up to 2 Giant Spiders. It last for an hour.

Both are concentration spells with no material component, but Giant Insect requires the specific insects to be nearby.

Both are on the Druid Spell list.

Am I missing something here or the 'upgrade' from 3rd level to 4th level is not worth it at all?!

Is getting 10 Giant Centipede that MUCH better than 8 wolves? At first I thought their would be an advantage for a Transmutation specialist Wizard, but it's not on the Wizars spell list. A Shepperd Druid can't even let the Giant Insects benefit from his/her class feature.

Might as well keep using Conjure Animal and use some other 4th level spell instead.

 

[Leatherhead]

Conjure Animal lets you pick the max CR, but not the creatures themselves. Whatever the DM gives you is what you get. You could summon one creature and end up with a single quipper.

Giant Insect gives you total control of what you get in addition to giving you more/bigger creatures. Also you don't have to deal with fey spirits, which is an incalculable benefit.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The main difference is Counjure Animals doesn't let the druid choose what kind of animal you get. You might want giant spiders but you might get giant sheep.

Another, probably less significant difference is the "Animals" conjured are actually fey, not beasts.

Giant Insect can give you a giant scorpion, which at CR3 is more powerful than anything Conjure Animals can give you, or with 10 giant centipedes is a greater number of critters.

It's also about the worst named spell, since centipedes, spiders and scorpions are not insects.

So far as I can see, "Mighty Summoner" applies to both spells, unless you have a very pedantic DM.

 

[Coroc]

The main difference is Counjure Animals doesn't let the druid choose what kind of animal you get. You might want giant spiders but you might get giant sheep.

Another, probably less significant difference is the "Animals" conjured are actually fey, not beasts.

Giant Insect can give you a giant scorpion, which at CR3 is more powerful than anything Conjure Animals can give you, or with 10 giant centipedes is a greater number of critters.

It's also about the worst named spell, since centipedes, spiders and scorpions are not insects.

So far as I can see, "Mighty Summoner" applies to both spells, unless you have a very pedantic DM.

ROFLMAO haha you summon a horde of cute fluffy rabbits, the evil overlord is so disgusted that he perishes instantly by cuteness overload


Otoh, the giant sheep might be useful to carry away the heap of loot...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If you use Wish In Baldur's Gate 2 and wish for "a hoard" you get a hoard of rabbits.

 

[Coroc]

If you use Wish In Baldur's Gate 2 and wish for "a hoard" you get a hoard of rabbits.

Yea I know

 

[Undrave]

Conjure Animal lets you pick the max CR, but not the creatures themselves. Whatever the DM gives you is what you get. You could summon one creature and end up with a single quipper.

Giant Insect gives you total control of what you get in addition to giving you more/bigger creatures. Also you don't have to deal with fey spirits, which is an incalculable benefit.

The main difference is Counjure Animals doesn't let the druid choose what kind of animal you get. You might want giant spiders but you might get giant sheep.

I guess if the DM is being a dick and just giving you useless stuff then Conjure Animal is a useless spell. I'm not a fan of this... All other 3rd level spells have a specific outcome that can be expected to happen whenever you cast them. Why would I throw my ressources away on a spell that can backfire so spectacularly? But let's put that aside for now,

Assuming you get an equivalent CR from both spell, is the extra number of creatures you get, and the fact they are not Fey, actually worth the downgrade from 1 hour to 10 minutes when going from 3rd to 4th level? Or the fact that you need to carry bugs with you everywhere to use it, otherwise you're not getting much during winter.

And yeah, a Giant Scorpion is stronger but I feel like the advantage of summoning multiple creatures is that you get more body on the board to tank hits AND you get to do some serious crit-fishing by throwing multiple attacks. I'd argue it's always better mechanically to go for the maximum number of creatures you can get.

That said, I usually limit myself to 2 creatures for the sake of the table...

 

[dave2008]

@Undrave I think the point of the spell has been explained. So at this juncture you just need to decided if you think it is worth it or not. I'm guessing not, and there is nothing wrong with that. It has its particular place, and you are allowed to not like or agree with it. There are a lot of other spell options

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'd argue it's always better mechanically to go for the maximum number of creatures you can get.

Here speaketh someone who has never lost a whole pack of wolves to dragon breath or a fireball.

 

[Undrave]

I can see some values in Giant Insect but I just don't understand why it's not also 3rd level and basically a case of 'Cure Wound VS Healing Word' ya know? Nor why the Transmutation Wizard doesn't get it... seems like it would be a good spell for them.

Here speaketh someone who has never lost a whole pack of wolves to dragon breath or a fireball.

Ah! that's true. I've mostly used packs of wolves for crowd control. Their most valuable aspect is how they can knock people prone. I usually just send them in pairs against different targets.