D&D: Five Spells Perfect for Summoners
Summoners are a fan favorite fantasy archetype, and thanks to these handy summoning spells, one you can play pretty easily!
Even the word “Summoner” evokes a strong fantasy flavor. It’s different from a wizard, in a few key ways. Usually we picture summoners as adorned in slightly more ornate robes, and if anyone is likely to be surrounded by a circle of arcane text and ancient glyphs, it’s them. And while D&D has the School of Conjuration Wizard as a subclass, truthfully, many spellcasters can live up to the dream of being a summoner.
Because D&D has some fantastic Summon Spells that are handy for calling up a friend, at least in spirit, and making your party grow. Let’s take a look.
Summon Draconic Spirit
Let’s start with one of my favorites, Summon Draconic Spirit. Out of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, this summoning spell lets you call up a Draconic Spirit. This is a large dragon-like spirit that possesses resistance to energy types like acid, cold, fire, lightning, and poison, and grants you resistance to one of them. The Draconic Spirit can make multiple attacks, dealing decent damage, but the real kicker here is having a Breath Weapon that it can unleash as part of its multiattack.
All in all, this spell feels pretty powerful in anyone’s hands.
Summon Celestial
Summon Celestial lets you summon up a Celestial Spirit, which takes the form of a Celestial Avenger or Celestial Defender. You get to decide at casting, and when you do, that determines what kinds of attacks it can do. If you pick Avenger, your Celestial has a Radiant Bow attack, if you pick Defender it has a Radiant Mace instead, which grants temporary hit points to a nearby ally when it strikes.
On top of that, your Celestial can also heal a creature, like a sort of 1st level Cure Wounds with a slightly larger than normal bonus, depending. Not AS fun as the dragon, but still pretty good.
Summon Greater Demon
This spell is from Xanathar’s Guide and works differently than the other summon spells. Instead of just calling up a spirit, you get to pick a demon of CR 5 or lower, like a Shadow Demon or Barlgura, and it just shows up to fight for you for up to an hour. The demon takes its own turn, has its own initiative, and may try and save to escape the effects of the spell.
But if you manage to keep the demon from slipping its leash, you’ll have a powerful ally unlike the “stat block” summons elsewhere on this list.
Summon Aberration
Sometimes you just want to summmon something gribbly from the depths of madness that lie between the darkness of the stars. And for that, there’s the Summon Aberration spell, which lets you conjure up a Beholderkin, Slaad, or Star Spawn type aberrant spirit.
Again, depending on your choice, your summoned ally will have different abilities. Slaad spirits regenerate and prevent targets they hit with their claws from regenerating. Beholderkin are covered in eye rays, which just deal psychic damage at range, but are still quite handy to have. And the Star Spawn spirit is surrounded by a Whispering Aura that damages creatures near it, as it slams them with psychic attacks each round.
Drawmij’s Instant Summons
Finally, the ultimate summon spell in many ways: Drawmij’s Instant Summons. This spell is the “summon that thing I need, right now” spell. It takes a bit of preparation, though. Because this spell lets you touch an object weighing 10 pounds or less, and 6 feet or under, marking it with an invisible rune that you can then use to recall the item immediately to your hand from anywhere in the multiverse.
Items called by this spell will cross any distance, physical, planar, or otherwise. There is no place too far for this spell to reach. The only thing that can stop it from summoning something to your side is if another creature is holding or carrying the item, and even then, you learn who they are, and where they are, so you can go kill them and get your stuff back.
What are your favorite D&D summon spells?
