Where have all the cantrips gone?

[Nightfall]

Darn I knew when I created this wizard/sorcerer/ soon to be Ultimate Magus character I should have looked at Eldritch Sorcery too.

 

[Echohawk]

"I summon a Fine Fiendish Monstrous Spider so that it grants the Rogue flanking against the Ogre!"

That won't work. Tiny and smaller creatures don't threaten neighboring squares, so they can't provide a flanking benefit .

 

[Nightfall]

Right which is why summoning swarms are much more effective!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Right which is why summoning swarms are much more effective!

But a spell that summons swarms would have to be higher than 0th level.

 

[Tonguez]

Personally I blame Presdigitation (sp?) with it being the multi-purpose do-everything trick who really needs anything else (well besides mage hand that is)

 

[Nightfall]

But a spell that summons swarms would have to be higher than 0th level.

True but the point is when you try summon spells and want small creatures, insects wouldn't be my choice. Summon Animal type deal (Specific one anyway) would be.

Tonguez,

Dunno. Still need Read Magic and Detect magic.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But a spell that summons swarms would have to be higher than 0th level.

Not really...consider Swarm of:

1) Gnats

2) Mayflies

3) Butterflies

4) Cows

Ok...maybe not the last one.

 

[jmucchiello]

Tonguez,

Dunno. Still need Read Magic and Detect magic.

Tonguez is merely commenting as I said in my earlier post, that prestidigitation covers a lot of ground and it last 1 hour. There is no need for a bunch of little spells like "chill drink" or "make blue" because prestidigitation already does it and does it better. Thus summon monster zero (and the unmentioned summon nature's ally zero) is one of the few missing effects to replicate old 1st ed cantrips like bee.

Danny, there's a stampede of gorgons in my PDF about swarms. Is that similar to a swarm of cows? And swarms generally do no threaten spaces they do not occupy so a swarm still is not useful for flanking.

 

[blargney the second]

Not really...consider Swarm of:
4) Cows

Swarms have to be made of really small creatures. For something as big as a cow, you need the Moob template in DMG 2. It would do lots of damage - PCs would be really herding after an encounter with that! They could end up with very low hit points afterwards.

-blarg

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I wasn't really thinking about them in the sense of flanking, but swarms have other purposes...like distraction, or changing the footing of the battlefield- swarm of slugs, anyone?

To a Titan, a herd of cows IS a swarm of small creatures.

What do you think about a Swarm of Miniature Giant Space Hamsters?