Community

I'm back in country and will get everyone's input incorporated! Thanks all for pitching in.

OK, I have added everything I could find - that's all the summonable critters as far as I know, anyone knowing better please speak up. I'll move ahead with reviews and do lists organized by level etc.

Thanks! Fact checking is always welcome, I keep finding small errors I've made... And if I've missed any monsters anywhere. Plus, I'm doing my review/opinion of the new monsters per level but I'd love to see other people's views as well!

mxyzplk wrote:

Whew! I have half the Summon Monster lists by level done, and it's clear there was no master plan at work! Some levels have barely any additions and some have their list more than doubled (SM IV, I'm looking at you!) And they managed to not fill in all the alignments even with that.

Nice to see my suggestion is being put into application. :D

A link to this has been placed in the Summoning Handbook. Feel free to pop in and have a look.

Whew! OK, got all the lists done. Now on with the reviews!

Fiend Folio:

Aoa Droplets have one specific use - reflecting spells. They have SR 22 that reflects spells back on the caster. Now, no one in their right mind would target one but it makes you immune to area affects. And, it Dispel Magics with its slam. So summon vs. casters.

Bacchae can lay down 3 Tasha's and 3 charms and 1 emotion. A good set of spell-likes for SMIII!

Farastu, or Tarry, Demodands are a hard compare to the Bebilith or Hezrou. They have a lot fewer hit points, they have a good Grapple but not as good as the bebilith. And their spell-likes are all low level (dispel magic, invisibility, fear, etc) as opposed to, say, blasphemy (hezrou). Seem to me if you want melee you go bebilith and want spell-likes you go hezrou, and if you can toss a 9th level spell you don't need level 1-3 spell-likes.

Skulvyns seem like you'd pick them as an aquatic replacement for the howler. Their slow aura is only Will DC12 and is unlikely to affect anything at SMIV levels.

Wastriliths. Danger! They get an opposed Wis check to break free and attack the caster. Of course, they only have a 12 WIS. In return, you get a whole mess of spell-likes, including any symbol. This is the ticket, but you run the risk of that WIS check - even if you have a 20 WIS you still have a 30% chance of failing it.

Now the Devas. The Monadic deva is a way for a Wizard to cast Raise Dead (though for a L9 spell, Wish should do the same). Lots of other clerical spell-likes. Not as much raw ass-kick as the demons in SM IX, but if you need an entire party de-poisoned, de-diseased,one person raised, etc. it's a good choice - although the movanic can do most of that too at SM VII.

Formians. The Armadon is a poisonous acidic melee machine. It's weaker than a celestial elephant but gets 4 attacks/round and if you think your targets will fail the DC 18 poison saves it could be good.
The Observer sucks on ice. SMIX!?! CR11? I want to kill some of these with my level 5 PC for the XP.
Winged warriors similarly are over-CRed. A Large air elemental would crunch it to mush.