D&D: Who Needs a Party When You’ve Got These Five Summon Spells
Adventuring party? Who needs one when you’ve got access to summoning spells like these. Conjure chums and make your own friends!
Who needs an adventuring party? Well, the answer is still probably you. Even if you are a conjurer armed with the most powerful summon spells. After all, there is strength in numbers, and in D&D that’s especially so. To the point that a party of adventurers grows strongest not necessarily based on level, but rather quantity. Obviously there are some limits.
A party of ten level one adventurers is probably going to get pasted by a greater demon. But ten level three adventurers… you better start watching out. That’s the action economy in, uh, action. Which is why summoners can often help a party punch way above their weight in D&D. Cast a spell and boom, an instant force multiplier. These five summon spells are particularly great.
Find Familiar
Let’s start with hands down one of the best summon spells (or other type of spells) in the game. Find Familiar gives you so much for ten gold pieces.
Conjure up a creature companion that sticks around as long as you like, for one. But you can get so much more. For instance, within 100 feet, they can telepathically communicate with you. Additionally, you can see through their eyes and hear through their ears if you choose.
And you can dismiss them with action and call them back anywhere within 30 feet of you. This means you can conjure them inside an enemy fortress for some advanced recon.
They can even help you cast spells on distant friends or foes, as you can cast touch spells through them. Yes, you gain a lot from a Familiar.
Summon Beast
Summon Beast is proof that not every summon spell has to be high-level. Introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, this spell lets you summon a bestial spirit. It can be a spirit of air water, or land. The options you pick give your beast different combat abilities.
And the spell lasts for an hour. This means you’ll have an extra companion for multiple encounters, potentially. The only tough decision is figuring out whether to take the option with Pack Tactics or Flyby attack.
And the higher level the slot, the more effective the spell is. Truly a gift that keeps on giving.
Conjure Woodland Beings
But Conjure Woodland Beings shows how powerful high-level spells can be. This is one of the few summon spells with a cast time of 1 action. This means, with a single action, you can conjure up a small gang of fey creatures. You can summon anywhere from one to eight fey creatures.
Granted, you don’t get to choose which creatures appear, necessarily. But all fey have abilities that help them punch outside of their weight. And with eight of them, that’s a great boon in a pitched battle gone awry.
Summon Undead
A 3rd-level summon spell that’s hard to go wrong with. You can summon an undead spirit that’s ghostly, putrid, or skeletal. Ghosts are great because they can fly and phase through walls. They also cause the Frightened status effect, which can help with crowd control.
Putrid undead bring poisonous attacks, which are better than you think. They can paralyze targets, create disadvantage, ad keep the gift-giving. While skeletons help you shoot targets without having to get close in.
Summon Aberration
Finally, we have Summon Aberration. You conjure up an aberrant spirit that can take the form of a Beholderkin, Slaad, or Star Spawn. As this is a fifth-level spell, all of these options are mean.
The Beholderkin is basically a magical flying machine gun that does psychic damage and might be able to carry you if you are a small character.
Slaad spirits are powerhouses in melee, especially since they come with regeneration and the ability to prevent enemies from regaining hit points when hit.
Finally, the Star Spawn has an unsettling aura that damages any creature nearby while also slamming creatures with psychic damage attacks.
What are your favorite summon spells?
