I felt that many of the summons in this playtest were a bit bland. Don't get me wrong, mechanically all of them (except Conjure Animals) are better than the 2014 PHB variants which were usually not worth it, but I also felt some were redundant. Conjure Woodland Being is just Spirit Guardians with Force damage and a free disengage. So, here are some suggestions I had to make them a little more flavorful. Feel free to critique or add some: - Conjure Fey - a frighten effect isn't going to be that useful at level 11. I'd suggest that the frighten effect is one option you can choose from a short list. For the other options, I'd look at the Bestow Curse spell. - Conjure Celestial - in addition to healing hitpoints, add an effect where the Celestial can do a restoration like effect. More potent than Lesser Restoration, perhaps not quite as much as Greater Restoration. Although, maybe as potent, since you are at a higher tier of play. - Conjure Elemental - I feel this is pretty solid.
The reworked spells don't really bother me. I actually like most of them. For conjure animals (which I only used a few times on my druid because of how it slowed play) I said maybe instead of a swarm of spectral animals they could actually, like the original spell, be spirits that take an actual animal form, but still keep the rules as they stand in the UA. I could imagine it better as a pack of wolves that attack anything that gets within 10 feet than some ghostly wolf forms lashing out.
But I never really used that spell or any conjure spells for various reasons and preferred using the Tasha's summons if the party needed some help.
I have playtested all of the new Conjure spells and believe that only Conjure Celestial and Elemental needs work. The others are completely fine. Celestial could use a slight damage increase at base. Elemental should allow for either forced movement or for the "elemental" to be able to move and attack.
Clearly they are trying to get more people to play druid and one issue with druid is how all the summons can slow down gameplay, personally from when I played, I favoured higher CR choices mostly because lower CRs created too many things on the battlefield which slows the game down.
As for the reworked conjure spells, the following ones feel kinda lazy:
Conjure Animals = Guardian of Faith except stronger but with shorter duration, also strength save advantage...
Conjure Celestial = higher level moonbeam with a small amount of healing
Conjure Minor Elementals = Spirit Shroud with more damage types and difficult terrain, up cast damage is borked (too strong).
Clearly they are trying to get more people to play druid and one issue with druid is how all the summons can slow down gameplay, personally from when I played, I favoured higher CR choices mostly because lower CRs created too many things on the battlefield which slows the game down.
As for the reworked conjure spells, the following ones feel kinda lazy:
Conjure Animals = Guardian of Faith except stronger but with shorter duration, also strength save advantage...
Conjure Celestial = higher level moonbeam with a small amount of healing
Conjure Minor Elementals = Spirit Shroud with more damage types and difficult terrain, up cast damage is borked (too strong).
Conjure Woodland Beings = Spirit Guardians
And also how some of the higher level ones turned hostile if you lost concentration was another issue and a reason I never used those spells but I have used Summon Elemental from Tasha’s.
When I reached the level for Conjure Animals I discussed with my DM about only doing two dire wolves. That worked out better for gameplay than 8 whatever. And I used the spell a few times and haven’t since. But I think I would have used Summon beast, which I didn’t have at the time, instead. And if they kept Conjure Animals too similar to the summon spell wouldn’t work either
The revisions do need some tweaks, that’s for sure. But I like the different direction so the Tasha’s summons can stand out (and hopefully tweaked as well).
Clearly they are trying to get more people to play druid and one issue with druid is how all the summons can slow down gameplay, personally from when I played, I favoured higher CR choices mostly because lower CRs created too many things on the battlefield which slows the game down.
As for the reworked conjure spells, the following ones feel kinda lazy:
Conjure Animals = Guardian of Faith except stronger but with shorter duration, also strength save advantage...
Conjure Celestial = higher level moonbeam with a small amount of healing
Conjure Minor Elementals = Spirit Shroud with more damage types and difficult terrain, up cast damage is borked (too strong).
Conjure Woodland Beings = Spirit Guardians
Agreed. The other problem with many of these spells is that they just don't work for druids anymore. Conjure Minor Elementals is only viable on a Moon Druid, and Conjure Woodland Beings will likely only work for Starry and Moon druids - because with only Light armour proficiency, a d8 hit die, and no boosts to concentration saves means any spell relying on Druid to be in melee range is non-viable 'cause that druid is dead before the spell has much effect. Essentially only Conjure Animals is actually viable for a majority of Druids. - TBH it reminds me of Shillelagh: great spell for a lot of character builds but none of them are druids.
Your observations do not prove true for the playtest I have conducted at all. My player used Wardin to upgrade his armor and uses Shillelagh with Conjure Woodland Beings a few times now and to his character's great success. Maybe it depends on the table but I have found that only Conjure Elemental needs more love due to the lack of forced movement to cause damage or the ability to move around.
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I felt that many of the summons in this playtest were a bit bland. Don't get me wrong, mechanically all of them (except Conjure Animals) are better than the 2014 PHB variants which were usually not worth it, but I also felt some were redundant. Conjure Woodland Being is just Spirit Guardians with Force damage and a free disengage. So, here are some suggestions I had to make them a little more flavorful. Feel free to critique or add some:
- Conjure Fey - a frighten effect isn't going to be that useful at level 11. I'd suggest that the frighten effect is one option you can choose from a short list. For the other options, I'd look at the Bestow Curse spell.
- Conjure Celestial - in addition to healing hitpoints, add an effect where the Celestial can do a restoration like effect. More potent than Lesser Restoration, perhaps not quite as much as Greater Restoration. Although, maybe as potent, since you are at a higher tier of play.
- Conjure Elemental - I feel this is pretty solid.
The reworked spells don't really bother me. I actually like most of them. For conjure animals (which I only used a few times on my druid because of how it slowed play) I said maybe instead of a swarm of spectral animals they could actually, like the original spell, be spirits that take an actual animal form, but still keep the rules as they stand in the UA. I could imagine it better as a pack of wolves that attack anything that gets within 10 feet than some ghostly wolf forms lashing out.
But I never really used that spell or any conjure spells for various reasons and preferred using the Tasha's summons if the party needed some help.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
I have playtested all of the new Conjure spells and believe that only Conjure Celestial and Elemental needs work. The others are completely fine. Celestial could use a slight damage increase at base. Elemental should allow for either forced movement or for the "elemental" to be able to move and attack.
Clearly they are trying to get more people to play druid and one issue with druid is how all the summons can slow down gameplay, personally from when I played, I favoured higher CR choices mostly because lower CRs created too many things on the battlefield which slows the game down.
As for the reworked conjure spells, the following ones feel kinda lazy:
Conjure Animals = Guardian of Faith except stronger but with shorter duration, also strength save advantage...
Conjure Celestial = higher level moonbeam with a small amount of healing
Conjure Minor Elementals = Spirit Shroud with more damage types and difficult terrain, up cast damage is borked (too strong).
Conjure Woodland Beings = Spirit Guardians
And also how some of the higher level ones turned hostile if you lost concentration was another issue and a reason I never used those spells but I have used Summon Elemental from Tasha’s.
When I reached the level for Conjure Animals I discussed with my DM about only doing two dire wolves. That worked out better for gameplay than 8 whatever. And I used the spell a few times and haven’t since. But I think I would have used Summon beast, which I didn’t have at the time, instead. And if they kept Conjure Animals too similar to the summon spell wouldn’t work either
The revisions do need some tweaks, that’s for sure. But I like the different direction so the Tasha’s summons can stand out (and hopefully tweaked as well).
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Agreed. The other problem with many of these spells is that they just don't work for druids anymore. Conjure Minor Elementals is only viable on a Moon Druid, and Conjure Woodland Beings will likely only work for Starry and Moon druids - because with only Light armour proficiency, a d8 hit die, and no boosts to concentration saves means any spell relying on Druid to be in melee range is non-viable 'cause that druid is dead before the spell has much effect. Essentially only Conjure Animals is actually viable for a majority of Druids. - TBH it reminds me of Shillelagh: great spell for a lot of character builds but none of them are druids.
Agilemind,
Your observations do not prove true for the playtest I have conducted at all. My player used Wardin to upgrade his armor and uses Shillelagh with Conjure Woodland Beings a few times now and to his character's great success. Maybe it depends on the table but I have found that only Conjure Elemental needs more love due to the lack of forced movement to cause damage or the ability to move around.