Conjure Woodland Beings

If your dm lets you choose the creatures summoned, then witchlight gives a unique option.

Brigganocks can use an action to do 1 hours worth of work. Hence 8 of these suckers could do all kinds of unique shenanigans.

Alright, I see a lot of people talking about DM choosing their summons.  Where does it say they choose?  Cause I can't find it.

Quote from BlaiseLaramee >>

Here's an interesting possible non-combat way to use Conjure Woodland Beings.

The only CR 1 fey are Dryads and Quicklings, so if you choose CR 1 you've got a 1 in 2 chance to get Dryads, unless the DM really doesn't want you to have Dryads, or else just lets you choose Dryads. (Personally if I run I'd have the caster make a straight spellcasting ability check to try and get some degree of control over the creature type, since they are expending a valuable spell slot hoping for a certain outcome. The DC to get what they want could be say 15, variable at the DMs discretion. So there's a chance of failure, but a chance of success).

So provided you have the time, summon 2 Dryads. They each cast Goodberry 3 times, that's 60 points of healing divided among whoever you choose for a 4th level spell. That's much better than an out-of-combat 4th level Cure Wounds. And it doesn't put the pressure on the DM with a ton of creatures to keep track of in combat that most of the druid's conjuration spells are guilty of.

Downsides are, your DM might not choose Dryads / not let you choose Dryads / will choose Quicklings just to spite you trying to work the system. And it can't be cast as an action, so it can't be used in the middle of combat like Mass Cure Wounds. Definitely a preparatory or post-combat strategy. Ask your DM beforehand if they like to choose the creatures for conjuration spells or if you can, and that can help you decide if you go for it. Personally I think the DM should give any player who's not trying to throw 8 sprites into a combat encounter a little love when picking the creature.

 

But if all else fails you still get two new buddies for an hour!

Unfortunately, since the wording is CR 1 or lower, you could wind up with less powerful creatures depending on how your DM rules it. Definitely useful to check in beforehand! It also seems like mixing and matching is possible, so you could end up with one Dryad and one Quickling or some other combination. That said, this is an amazing strategy that (imo) most good DMs would love to make work!

Quote from Tate >>

Alright, I see a lot of people talking about DM choosing their summons.  Where does it say they choose?  Cause I can't find it.

 It's not mentioned in the text of the spell itself, but it was clarified by Jeremy Crawford in WOTC's Sage Advice column and compendium:

When you cast a spell like conjure woodland beings, does the spellcaster or the DM choose the creatures that are conjured?

A number of spells in the game let you summon creatures. Conjure animals, conjure celestial, conjure minor elementals, and conjure woodland beings are just a few examples. Some spells of this sort specify that the spellcaster chooses the creature conjured. For example, find familiar gives the caster a list of animals to choose from. Other spells of this sort let the spellcaster choose from among several broad options. For example, conjure minor elementals offers four options. Here are the first two:

• One elemental of challenge rating 2 or lower
• Two elementals of challenge rating 1 or lower

The design intent for options like these is that the spellcaster chooses one of them, and then the DM decides what creatures appear that fit the chosen option. For example, if you pick the second option, the DM chooses the two elementals that have a challenge rating of 1 or lower. A spellcaster can certainly express a preference for what creatures shows up, but it’s up to the DM to determine if they do. The DM will often choose creatures that are appropriate for the campaign and that will be fun to introduce in a scene.

For me, I love this spell as a player, however because of the broken combo of Pixie casting Fly and Polymorph into T-Rex's for the entire party, as a DM I actually limit the Pixie's Spells to simply not include Polymorph on this plane.  I explain it to my players that it is sort of summoning sickness coming from the Fey to the Material Plane and they lose the 4th level spell slot (i.e. Polymorph).  8 Pixies are still plenty annoying enough without that spell, and I see Greater Invisibility as a Innate Race Feature, so they can keep that.  

As for selection of the creatures; I allow my players to tell me what they hope for, and then roll a percentile to see if they get what they wanted.  Depending on the CR of the creature, the Percentage gets tougher as the CR gets higher. If not, I use a random table so it's a surprise for us all, LOL!

https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SA_Compendium.pdf

however i whole heartedly disagree. you mean to tell me if im in a fire fight and cast summon elemental the DM can summon some fire elemental that deal 0 dmg to these fire immune creatures. as a DM i read that the choice is given to the player the spell is written to allow other fey to exist beyond the writers knowledge or monsters available at printing. 

as a DM you rule that the creatures summoned must exist within the setting, to summon something specifically the player should have some type of knowledge lore or other interaction, cant summon something your not aware of the existence of, however the player could also saw IDC im just casting this spell calling for aid from whatever answers and the DM could place whatever they wanted in,

by the arguments presented by Crawford and sage advice you would get completely random creatures not all of the summoned creatures of the chosen category would be the same, this would further complicate the DM's job not only are their 4 players but now 8 different cr 1/4 beings on top of the monsters etc... just no. LET the PLAYER decide. additionally pixies are not broken its a dc 12 and only 1 use/day. it's not permanent. they start at a new initiative so they may not even act before they're blown away. if you want to fix pixies raise their CR.

Concerning the 8 pixies = 4 flying T. Rexes. Personally I love the idea of it. But. For Polymorph, the limitation is that the polymorphed creature can be equal to or lower than the caster's CR. And T. Rex is much more. How does this get worked around for this busted, but awesome, battlefield event?

Thanks. 

P. S. Even though I felt guilty trying this, the DM pointed the CR issue out, and I wouldn't have argued either way. But it did look epic!

Hahaha, same

It's the target's CR, not the caster's.  So the pixies can polymorph the party as long as the party is over lvl 8 (which they will be soon if they're casting 4th level spells).

Imagine 24 blink dogs all attacking a monster, that sounds a bit overpowered  

this is the reason that i hate that everyone says "tHE pLAyER DoEsnT GeT To ChooSE wHat AniMaLS tHEy SumMon"

https://www.reddit.com/r/powergamermunchkin/comments/10zvrb0/entirely_raw_if_you_rule_that_the_player_cannot/

also, just because jeremy crawford says that a ruling is one way or the other, if it is not in an official sage advice column or erratta, it does not matter what he says. his rulings are not official unless in a sage advice column.

Quote from Roscoe_Svirfenblin >>

this is the reason that i hate that everyone says "tHE pLAyER DoEsnT GeT To ChooSE wHat AniMaLS tHEy SumMon"

https://www.reddit.com/r/powergamermunchkin/comments/10zvrb0/entirely_raw_if_you_rule_that_the_player_cannot/

also, just because jeremy crawford says that a ruling is one way or the other, if it is not in an official sage advice column or erratta, it does not matter what he says. his rulings are not official unless in a sage advice column.

It is quite literally in the 2021 Sage Advice Compendium that the player chooses the CR and the DM chooses the actual creatures summoned.