
Even using a 5th to get SIXTEEN extra creatures can wildly debilitate higher CR encounters. A 3rd level slot for eight extra allies is crazy. What sets this apart from other conjuration effects is how cheap it is, and how early it affects the game.

Having a pack of animals around you while navigating a dungeon can offer a suite of basic tools you’d hire hirelings to do in older editions like checking for traps, carrying loot, and clogging up battlemap space. Giant Owls offer flight to everyone as mounts. If your DM doesn’t want to manage the giant list of beasts at all times, and lets you pick what beasts you summon, the power spikes radicallay. Out of combat, without having the ability to pick specifically what beasts you want, its utility is somewhat hampered. The extra HP and modifiers on the higher CR options is usually worse, but you may want to consider them when going against monsters with area of effect damage from time to time that would drop all the summoned creatures in a single action.
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You don’t even need to spend a bonus action commanding them just yell at them for free and reap the rewards. Getting eight extra allies that can attack, grab, shove, and help is on its own ludicrous. Nearly always CR 1/4th creatures are your best bet. Conjure Animals is near the top of the list of spells that are a bear to manage, has a wild power ceiling, and even in tame use cases, can break low tier games in half.

It can’t summon swarms of critters within the beast tag, but otherwise doesn’t care about the creature's size, HP, abilities, or any other attribute.

The player picks the CR, the DM picks the summoned creatures. I’ve learned that conjuration spells like this are, rules as written, a lot more work for the DM. Today, I’m well versed at managing summonable monsters.
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I then had to figure out how to deal with all my players riding around on these large winged beasts with flyby, and the ability to just grapple creatures, fly them off cliffs, and drop them. With it being my first time, I just assumed the player picked whatever monsters they wanted from the list my player chose CR ¼. Review by Sam West, Twitter: first time I was DMing when I realized how absurd conjuration magic can be was the first time I had a player cast Conjure Animals. The GM has the creatures’ statistics.Īt Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain higher-level spell slots, you choose one of the summoning options above, and more creatures appear: twice as many with a 5th-level slot, three times as many with a 7th-level slot, and four times as many with a 9th-level slot If you don’t issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns. The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. Two beasts of challenge rating 1 or lowerįour beasts of challenge rating 1/2 or lowerĮight beasts of challenge rating 1/4 or lowerĮach beast is also considered fey, and it disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

Choose one of the following options for what appears: You summon fey spirits that take the form of beasts and appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Conjure Animals: More than Emotional Support
