When a character casts conjure animals, the summoned creature or creatures roll initiative and get their own turn, and all creatures summoned by that casting of the spell act on the same initiative-essentially giving the caster another turn in combat! However, this second turn has the power to be even longer and more complicated than the caster’s own turn, since as stated above, the most powerful way of using creature-summoning spells is usually to summon as many creatures as possible. Let’s take a quick look at each of these in turn. A fifth issue is that the ease with which this spell is dispelled can render this investment of time a waste.
It also creates a headache when fighting in cramped quarters, because beasts crowd the battle map.
Many of the solutions to these former two problems create more work for the DM, disrupting their fun and further slowing down the game. This in turn causes a social dilemma in which one player hogs the spotlight.
First, creating lots of monsters creates a long player turn. The problem-that conjure animals and similar spells dramatically slow down play-manifest in many ways. Even though the saving throw to resist being knocked prone is only DC 11, even high-level creatures are bound to roll a 1 eventually, and eight chances of knocking your enemy prone per round can really wring the low rolls out of a die. Summoning 8 wolfs is one of the most optimal uses of the spell, since even though these creatures are individually weak, their Pack Tactics trait grants them advantage on just about every attack, and they can knock enemies prone. Even against overwhelming odds, fights in D&D are usually determined by one side outnumbering the other. Action economy is so important in encounter design that often simply being able to perform lots of attacks or other actions is more powerful than making one or two powerful attacks. Summoning spells are typically at their most powerful when they summon as many creatures as possible. Conjure animals allows its caster to summon one of the following: Its problems lie elsewhere.Ĭertain creature-conjuring spells give the caster a limited choice of what creatures to summon. 3rd-level spells like fireball are supposed to mark a huge increase in power for their casters. Conjure animals is a very powerful spell, but that’s by design. In order to solve the problems with conjure animals and its ilk, we need to understand why this spell creates problems at the table. And when that happens, both players and DMs alike will need to understand the impact of these spells so they don’t negatively impact their entire group’s play experience. Sooner or later, people are going to pick up conjure animals, conjure minor elementals (which I talked about previously in Spell Spotlight: Conjure Minor Elementals), conjure woodland beings (which is rife for abuse in its own way), or any of the other spells that summon multiple creatures to aid you. They’re also extremely newbie-unfriendly, and I didn’t feel comfortable recommending it to new players in a 101-level guide.īut that’s just avoiding the issue. It’s true, spells that summon other creatures are incredibly powerful. I opted against including conjure animals in my list of recommended spells, which garnered some confusion from optimization-focused readers. There was a great discussion last week about the role of creature-conjuring spells and the druid class last week in the comments of Druid 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Channeling Nature’s Might. This all-too-common situation sucks, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Maybe you’ve summoned eight wolves and now you’re controlling nine different characters in combat, and all of your friends are twiddling their thumbs and waiting for you to stop hogging the spotlight and to let them play some D&D. So you cast conjure animals, or one of your players did, and now everyone’s stopped in the middle of combat to check the rulebooks. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom, is that cool?” The fighter’s player looked at her DM and grimaced apologetically. I just need to, uh, roll initiative, I think.” “No, I uh,” the druid’s player glanced up from his Player’s Handbook as he frantically flipped through the appendices. She looked up from her notes at her players, and she suddenly seemed very tired. Magic flashed in his eyes, and eight snarling wolves appeared around him, their fur shimmering with fey magic. “I cast conjure animals!” declared the druid.