I am imagining a Druid using a 9th level spell slot and summoning 32 wolves. as its 4 times as many, and 8x4=32.

Ok, I gotta be real. If it was me and the Charmin ultra strong bears in a battle dome, just a straight bare knuckles brawl... I think they would beat the shit out of me. However, if I had something like a bolt-action hunting rifle (single fire chamber), it would be a lot closer of a fight

If my players try to cheese this and summon 32 wolves or something crazy like that I have a homebrewed negative. They have to mentally command and control 32 separate minds which takes a toll on them. So I make them make wisdom saving throws against their own spell save DC or take psychic damage. Still balancing how much psychic damage to take but I like it as a way to keep it from getting insane.

The list of suggested beasts is not part of the spell description in the PHB and is a DNDBEYOND suggested list. That being said they should definitely remove the “swarms” from this list which are “ tiny swarms of beasts” and not beasts. 

I feel like the intent here, was that the player could choose what to summon, but that the DM could impose a limitation based on the logic of their world, the environment, etc. And if the player chose a CR for which no appropriate creature existed, the DM could use the "or lower" rule to choose a lower CR beast that is thematically appropriate.

As an example, the DM may deny the summoning of Wolves underwater. Or say no dinosaurs. Perhaps a Giant Toad in a dessert would not be allowed, but might be the only CR 1 option for a swamp.

As a DM, it would be awful to abuse the wording to ruin the players day. Just use it to keep things thematically appropriate. No Polar Bears in the jungle, no crocodiles in the mountains, no apes in the Under Dark. 

I want to use this spell so that I and seven friends can ride stench kows into battle.

Would you say that this spell could be used to help with Wild Shape druid learn new animals?

Druid " I summon a black bear"

Studies the Bear for an hour

Druid " I can now be a Black Bear.

Quote from Utsu_Yami >>

Would you say that this spell could be used to help with Wild Shape druid learn new animals?

 

Druid " I summon a black bear"

Studies the Bear for an hour

Druid " I can now be a Black Bear.

 My DM said no, because these animals are technically fey creatures and not actually the natural animals... And I had to agree with'em on that.

If your game uses the optional flanking rules, a pile of constrictor snakes is hard to beat. Even just eight snakes, constricting with advantage, will stop many non-magical boss monsters in their tracks, giving the party time to plan, heal, and/or attack from a distance. Snake pile! 

I ended up here because I was thinking of utility, though.

Has anyone had success, for example, retreating while blocking a tunnel with eight camels? Camels aren't going to move for anything! Well, maybe death. 

If you were chasing someone in a dungeon and you suddenly found your path blocked by eight elk, would that not affect your plans? 

How about casting a pile of scorpions to freak somebody out? Who cares if scorpions aren't killing machines, so long as they keep someone away from an object of interest, right?

It seems like this spell could be even more useful when not thinking of combat. Having eight riding horses appear out of nowhere for one hour could be insanely useful, if bland. 

I am interested in others' experiences! 

Quote from Shadowwolf0 >>

I am new to playing a druid a I was wondering if it would be possible to also get wild shape animals out of this. Like If I cast this spell and a saber tooth tiger show up. Could I then wild shape into a saber tooth tiger

 Yes, you can do that.

I had a party cast that for the horses.. they were chasing down a vishtani wagon in ravenloft. The horses came out skeletal .. so the ride was a bit hard.

Thanks for clarifying! 

do you get XP if you kill em ?

Quote from SabreRunner >>

As a DM, how do you handle this spell? Do you choose the animals or let the player choose?

 I have a druid in my campaign. I have chosen the animals every time. I let them know long in advance that that will be the case (at level 3 I think when they first mentioned the spell) and pointed out that's how the spell is worded.

I think because of this they have always taken the CR 2 or CR 1 options because they've decided it's the best value when you can't choose 8 wolves.

Casting word is:

Adjurium Beasticus

This spell has good travel potential. For a third level spell, you and 7 companions now have riding horses. Keep up your concentration, and in under an hour, you've all traveled 5-10 miles. (math works out to full dashing gives a little over 13 miles traveled in the hour) Or with the same spell, you all have giant owls to ride. Cover the same distance, but in the air. Compared to Fly, which only gives one person the ability to travel that far in the air, but runs out in 1/6 the time.

I see all this talk of wolves, and not a single mention of giant frogs. They have a chance to grapple with every attack, and can swallow a grappled target making them blinded and restrained and taking acid damage each turn until the frog is dead. And you can get 8 of them. You could potentially swallow 8 enemies. And personally I found the thought of 8 giant frogs får more intimidating than 8 wolves

@PymofRoadsend cant tell if you are joking, but if not: there are no skeletal horses of type beast, so if there was any negative to your players using them, that was a bad DM move. 

@Astrocrab you are misreading the spell. It explicitly says "You summon" (so talking about the person casting), then says Choose and lists options. There is NO mention of DM choice in the spell, only that they have the statistics. (which means players cannot surprise the DM with creatures they just make up)

"You summon" doesn't mean "You choose" There is no mention of you getting to choose which beasts are summoned either.