At level 1, our Wild Magic sorceress accidentally summoned a unicorn by rolling a 1 when casting a first-level spell. This was obviously a memorable experience for the players, and prevented a total party kill, so I was pretty happy too...
She is now a Level 5 Sorcerer/Level 2 Druid and she is doing some good work for the goddess of the forest. Because of the multiclass she can only have 3rd level spells, but has 4th level spell slots. Hoping someone would check my work out and let me know if they think it's too overpowered. I limited it to once a day to prevent unicorn spam.
and that's a level 7 spell.. and only allows you to conjure a celestial up to CR 4 AND you can upcast it using a 9th spell slot (completely skipping over 8) to allow you to summon a CR 5 celestial.
SO.. You're giving your level 7 MC'd player a level 13 spell but a level 17th unlocked upcast Cleric only spell... with or without the spam (because you only have 1x level 7th and 9th spell slot any way). and that's without multiclassing.
Which is a 5th level spell similar to animate dead (3rd level) where the target (elemental, fiend, celestial or fey) makes a CHA saving throw and then is bound to you for an hour (upcasting increases the duration).
Another 5th level spell, where you summon a barbed (cr 5) or bearded devil (cr 3) BUT they get to contest your control with a CHA check against their Insight check or they can ignore you (or straight out attack you if your concentration fails). You can increase the CR by 1 for each level that you upcast.
So, it seems that summoning a CR 5 creature can still be done but there are always more 'catches' then an outright obedient summon. Another option would be a magical item would also be in tune to worshiping a deity. I know that the Sunless Citadel (first adventure in Tales of the Yawning Portal), level 1 characters can find a whistle that can cast Animate Dead (a 3rd level spell -- character level 5) but once cast, you can recast it daily to control the zombie BUT new casts are limited to once every 7 days.
I would definitely classify this as something Rare, if not Very Rare. 'Gating' the PCs from getting this until level 7 (which they are) but maybe even closer to lv 10-12 or higher.
It can be a whistle or pendant of Mielikki (if you're looking for an actual name - she's a good one.. and her symbol is even the unicorn). To prevent it from being overpowered you can have it percentage based, you or the player rolls a dice to see whether they actually summon the unicorn or if a weaker 'emissary' of Mielikki is summoned instead. Or you can have the cooldown be longer -- 3 to 7 full days. You can have him roll contests to assert control (though if it was a gift of a goddess whom they're actually on good terms with that wouldn't make sense).
And also to note, depending on WHEN you grant this spell/magic item, I would be cautious of allowing the Unicorn their Legendary actions. I don't even know how good of an idea that would be on ANY level (it was literally invented because 1 CR 10 guy against 10 pcs would die immediately only because the boss wouldn't get a turn).
I was considering making the unicorn get its abilities based on the spell level to effectively lower the CR. Only martial abilities at low level, spells and/or healing at the mid levels, Legendary actons at the god tiers.
Mielikki/Ehlonna came to her in a dream after that encounter so that's part of why it's fitting for the narrative.
I was loosely basing this off Find Greater steed and Conjure Celestial both of which are for 13th level characters. one lasts indefinitely, the other an hour both not requiring concentration, and both capable of summoning flying mounts which would be quite devastating in my campaign. Would just pushing the hour summon to 7th level be enough? Or having the hour be based off concentration as well?
Alternatively it can take an action or bonus action to direct the unicorn with a persuasion check but I feel like that will take a lot of the fun away.
I wonder, are they interested in having a Unicorn ally because the specific abilities of the Wild Magic Unicorn they summoned were extremely useful, or just because for flavor and design they like the idea of having a Unicorn Ally? If it's the latter, I'd say change this to "Find Lesser Unicorn", treat it under the restrictions of Find Greater Steed, and Homebrew a less powerful variant of the Unicorn for them to summon... Mostly I think this would involve scaling back the Unicorn's abilities, and then gradually unlocking them through higher level casting.
At level 1, our Wild Magic sorceress accidentally summoned a unicorn by rolling a 1 when casting a first-level spell. This was obviously a memorable experience for the players, and prevented a total party kill, so I was pretty happy too...
She is now a Level 5 Sorcerer/Level 2 Druid and she is doing some good work for the goddess of the forest. Because of the multiclass she can only have 3rd level spells, but has 4th level spell slots. Hoping someone would check my work out and let me know if they think it's too overpowered. I limited it to once a day to prevent unicorn spam.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/340020-conjure-unicorn
Well...... There already is a RAW spell that does this. It's https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/conjure-celestial
and that's a level 7 spell.. and only allows you to conjure a celestial up to CR 4 AND you can upcast it using a 9th spell slot (completely skipping over 8) to allow you to summon a CR 5 celestial.
SO.. You're giving your level 7 MC'd player a level 13 spell but a level 17th unlocked upcast Cleric only spell... with or without the spam (because you only have 1x level 7th and 9th spell slot any way). and that's without multiclassing.
But let's compare it to other spells;
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/planar-binding
Which is a 5th level spell similar to animate dead (3rd level) where the target (elemental, fiend, celestial or fey) makes a CHA saving throw and then is bound to you for an hour (upcasting increases the duration).
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/infernal-calling
Another 5th level spell, where you summon a barbed (cr 5) or bearded devil (cr 3) BUT they get to contest your control with a CHA check against their Insight check or they can ignore you (or straight out attack you if your concentration fails). You can increase the CR by 1 for each level that you upcast.
So, it seems that summoning a CR 5 creature can still be done but there are always more 'catches' then an outright obedient summon. Another option would be a magical item would also be in tune to worshiping a deity. I know that the Sunless Citadel (first adventure in Tales of the Yawning Portal), level 1 characters can find a whistle that can cast Animate Dead (a 3rd level spell -- character level 5) but once cast, you can recast it daily to control the zombie BUT new casts are limited to once every 7 days.
I would definitely classify this as something Rare, if not Very Rare. 'Gating' the PCs from getting this until level 7 (which they are) but maybe even closer to lv 10-12 or higher.
It can be a whistle or pendant of Mielikki (if you're looking for an actual name - she's a good one.. and her symbol is even the unicorn). To prevent it from being overpowered you can have it percentage based, you or the player rolls a dice to see whether they actually summon the unicorn or if a weaker 'emissary' of Mielikki is summoned instead. Or you can have the cooldown be longer -- 3 to 7 full days. You can have him roll contests to assert control (though if it was a gift of a goddess whom they're actually on good terms with that wouldn't make sense).
And also to note, depending on WHEN you grant this spell/magic item, I would be cautious of allowing the Unicorn their Legendary actions. I don't even know how good of an idea that would be on ANY level (it was literally invented because 1 CR 10 guy against 10 pcs would die immediately only because the boss wouldn't get a turn).
I was considering making the unicorn get its abilities based on the spell level to effectively lower the CR. Only martial abilities at low level, spells and/or healing at the mid levels, Legendary actons at the god tiers.
Mielikki/Ehlonna came to her in a dream after that encounter so that's part of why it's fitting for the narrative.
I was loosely basing this off Find Greater steed and Conjure Celestial both of which are for 13th level characters. one lasts indefinitely, the other an hour both not requiring concentration, and both capable of summoning flying mounts which would be quite devastating in my campaign. Would just pushing the hour summon to 7th level be enough? Or having the hour be based off concentration as well?
Alternatively it can take an action or bonus action to direct the unicorn with a persuasion check but I feel like that will take a lot of the fun away.
I wonder, are they interested in having a Unicorn ally because the specific abilities of the Wild Magic Unicorn they summoned were extremely useful, or just because for flavor and design they like the idea of having a Unicorn Ally? If it's the latter, I'd say change this to "Find Lesser Unicorn", treat it under the restrictions of Find Greater Steed, and Homebrew a less powerful variant of the Unicorn for them to summon... Mostly I think this would involve scaling back the Unicorn's abilities, and then gradually unlocking them through higher level casting.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium