Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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I have read conjure animals
I understand that the animals roll an initiative, but do they go on this round? If they roll higher than the caster they would lose their turn. If they roll lower... they get to go?
As I DM, tonight, I ruled that they appear when conjured but cannot move or attack untill the following round. Essentially they are surprised on their first round.
Does that sound right?
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
If they have a round where they can’t act that can gimp the spell if the caster takes damage while they’re not able to act and loses concentration. Plus the spell only lasts 10 rounds, that makes it so that it’s only a 9 round spell which is a 10% drop in its usability. You’re really weakening the spell.
Professional computer geek
That ruling does weaken summoning spells, but at least it is consistent and fair. The situation remains that a ruling must be made, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. If you just roll initiative and slot the summoned creatures in, then you actually punish the player for rolling a high initiative for those creatures. Other rulings have similar drawbacks and counter-intuitive results.
My personal ruling is to roll initiative for the new creatures and; if they roll lower than the caster then slot them in as normal, if they roll higher than the caster then slot them in immediately after the caster. I feel this balances pros and cons.
Whatever the ruling, the important thing is to make it clear, open and consistent for players and enemies alike.
Just slot them in to the initiative order and continue as normal. The time limit for the spell starts with the summoner's turn. If the summon has lower initiative, it will act after the summoner this round. If the summon has higher initiative, it will act before the summoner next round. Either way, all summoned creatures will get a turn before the summoner's next turn, which will signify 6 seconds after summoning. So every summon will get to act 10 times in 1 minute, which ends on the summoner's 10th turn.
Okay,
"Slotted in" works for me.
Thanks
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
Of course having not read the spell until now, this line seems relevant: "Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group..." So all the summons have the same initiative, but still have their individual turns and will act before the summoner gets another turn.
This is what I do as well.
fwiw: if the bad-guy(s) act on the same initiative count (say because they're all the same type, there's only one, or you just roll that way):
The conjured animals have a 50% chance of going before the bad-guy's next turn.
My own house rule is to always have conjured creatures act on the same init as the caster (since it's just easier that way), but give players two options:
Incorrect.
Player init count 7, summons on round 3
Summon init count 14
Enemy init count 15
If summon gets turn on round 3 immediately when summoned, may kill Enemy before round 4
If summon has to wait til round 4, enemy targets player, forces con save, summon disappears... summon never got their 1st turn; despite existing in round 3.
Summons aren't surprised, summons go on their initiative count no matter the round, and get their initiative count immediately if it was skipped in the rpund they were summoned... treat it as the creature was holding their turn for the round until they were summoned. They do this ever round until summoned, losing that held action if not summoned in that round. The creatures always are ready to go.
This means if the summoner has lower initiative, the summon appears and fulfills that round, then goes on their turn in subsequent rounds, they are not deprived their rightful turn because of a slow summoner. Don't cheat players out of their spells.
What do you believe was incorrect in this seven year old thread?
That would've been a fair way to handle it as a house rule, and that's effectively what most of us did. However, it wasn't how 5e RAW worked: see the discussion here. Also, holding your turn (i.e. 'delaying' from 4e) is no longer a RAW option: 5e and 5.5e just have "ready an action".
Luckily, 5.5e now has summoned creatures use the same initiative count as the summoner, which solves this whole issue nicely. : )