Generally speaking, most of the things that came with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything that got put in the new Player's Handbook remained largely unchanged.
That book introduced a number of "Summon" spells, which were designed pretty clearly to function as a replacement for the old "Conjure" spells, which had a tendency to gum up the board and leave players flipping through the Monster Manual for far too long in the middle of combat.
The PHB2024 made this all pretty official by redesigning most Conjuration spells to not even use a stat block anymore (though, notably, Necromancy spells like Animate Dead and Create Undead are basically the same, other than that they use the updated stat blocks... in theory. I guess technically in this brief window you could use 2014 Ghouls with 2024's Create Undead).
I've been a big fan of these summon spells and the way they function - each using a scaling stat block (and usually three variants for what kind of thing you want to summon).
However, while the way these spells work (and their costly material component) haven't changed in general, there are some subtle tweaks that I think are worth noting:
First, a note on damage types:
Generally speaking, I think the power of these summoned creatures varies primarily in the kind of damage type they do. A Summon Beast spell at level 6 is doing pretty comparable damage with a Summon Aberration, but the fact that it deals Piercing damage rather than Psychic (in the case of two of the Aberrant Spirit options) is potentially a big downside. We don't have the new Monster Manual and won't until next year, and so we don't know if most supernatural creatures will have resistance to "physical" damage (i.e., Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing).
What we have seen is that all references to attacks "counting as magical" in class features like a Monk's 6th level "Empowered Strikes" now instead let you change the damage to Force (or Radiant in the Circle of the Moon Druid's case, which is nearly as rarely resisted).
To me, this change suggests that we're probably going to see more creatures with a blanket "resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage," but whether that then means that a +1 Longsword will be doing Force damage now remains to be seen (that we'll at least find out sooner when the DMG comes out).
The point is: I suspect that Summoned creatures that do physical/kinetic damage will continue to be a little less powerful than those that can do other damage types - and that's why it's actually quite notable that some of them have gotten new damage types to deal.
So, let's go into what has changed.
Summon Aberration has had a tweak to the flavor of it.. The "Star Spawn" option for your Aberrant spirit has been replaced with "Mind Flayer," though they are functionally the same. Still, not that Star Spawn aren't formidable, but there's something pretty crazy about summoning an Ilithid to fight for you. My guess is that the Beholderkin will probably be your safest bet here, as it can fly and shoot ranged attacks, making it much more likely to survive combat. The Slaad option will be very resilient if it survives a fight, as its regeneration should continue outside of combat and effectively top itself off. (Though this is less appealing if casting the 1-minute duration version as a 14+ level Great Old One Warlock).
I can't recall for certain, but I believe the Clay Construct Spirit's Berserk Lashing reaction didn't use to allow them to move without provoking opportunity attacks upon getting hit with damage (it still lets them instead hit back, but you have a more survival-focused option as well). This spell is listed as Wizard-only, but I think we can easily carry it over for Artificers (I haven't checked if this will work on D&D Beyond).
Summon Draconic Spirit is now Summon Dragon, and joins the Tasha's spells after having been introduced in Fizban's. It is, however, Wizard-only now (I think the old version was also available to Druids and Sorcerers) but Draconic Sorcerers will get this as one of their subclass spells. As before, its breath attack will never do a ton of damage, but is a freebie on top of its primary attacks. This is one of the few Large sized summons, so you can ride it, but note that if you want to make use of its attacks, you'll need to have it as an "uncontrolled mount," meaning you'll have to do your full turn before taking advantage of its movement (though it will still be right after you in initiative).
Summon Elemental will, I think, be a much more attractive option. While the old version let Fire Elementals do fire damage on their hits, the other three types only did bludgeoning - the new version lets Air Elementals do Lightning, Water Elementals do Cold, and just Earth Elementals will do bludgeoning - so as long as you're not facing a powerful demon with resistance to all four of those, you should have some good options.
Summon Fey's Fey Spirit has a subtle change - the old version did 1d6 Force damage plus 1d6+3+the spell's level in Piercing damage. This meant that, against a piercing-resistant foe, the damage that even got boosted with upcasting was resisted. Now, the damage is pure Force damage, which is very unlikely to be resisted. On top of this, the Fey now has a Fly speed, though both its normal and fly speed are at 30, rather than its old 40-foot walking speed. Finally, the cube of darkness it creates with its Tricksy Fey Step option is now 10-feet on a side up from 5. Honestly, the change to all force damage is probably the thing that makes this version best - in all of 5E so far, only a handful of gem dragons and the Helmed Horror style of monster are immune to Force.
Summon Fiend's only change that I've noticed is that the Devil form's Hurl Flame is now Fiery Strike, which can be either a melee or ranged attack. I'd generally say that unless you're fighting something immune or resistant to Fire, the Devil version is probably your best bet, but the Demon's necrotic damage is also pretty good (and the Yugoloth is very mobile).
Finally, Summon Undead's Putrid option no longer requires multiple saving throw failures on the part of its targets to become paralyzed - its Rotting Claw attack will just paralyze a poisoned target that it hit, no save. Likewise, the Ghostly form's Deathly Touch automatically gives the Frightened Condition, no longer allowing for a save. I typically use the Skeletal form because of its ranged attacks, but cutting down on the target's ability to save out of things, I think that the melee versions are now really, really good (a 6th level Ghostly spirit pretty reliably frightening three creatures a round? Not too bad. The paralyzation from the Ghastly form is obviously amazing if it does go off).
No comments:
Post a Comment