You beseech an otherworldly entity for aid. The being must be known to you: a god, a demon prince, or some other being of cosmic power. That entity sends a Celestial, an Elemental, or a Fiend loyal to it to aid you, making the creature appear in an unoccupied space within range. If you know a specific creature’s name, you can speak that name when you cast this spell to request that creature, though you might get a different creature anyway (DM’s choice).
When the creature appears, it is under no compulsion to behave a particular way. You can ask it to perform a service in exchange for payment, but it isn’t obliged to do so. The requested task could range from simple (fly us across the chasm, or help us fight a battle) to complex (spy on our enemies, or protect us during our foray into the dungeon). You must be able to communicate with the creature to bargain for its services.
Payment can take a variety of forms. A Celestial might require a sizable donation of gold or magic items to an allied temple, while a Fiend might demand a living sacrifice or a gift of treasure. Some creatures might exchange their service for a quest undertaken by you.
A task that can be measured in minutes requires a payment worth 100 GP per minute. A task measured in hours requires 1,000 GP per hour. And a task measured in days (up to 10 days) requires 10,000 GP per day. The DM can adjust these payments based on the circumstances under which you cast the spell. If the task is aligned with the creature’s ethos, the payment might be halved or even waived. Nonhazardous tasks typically require only half the suggested payment, while especially dangerous tasks might require a greater gift. Creatures rarely accept tasks that seem suicidal.
After the creature completes the task, or when the agreed-upon duration of service expires, the creature returns to its home plane after reporting back to you if possible. If you are unable to agree on a price for the creature’s service, the creature immediately returns to its home plane.
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Posted Sep 26, 2024This spell is still needlessly expensive and weak for such a high level spell. Genuinely when would you ever want to summon an ally from another plane that you want to pay a completely ridiculous amount of gold. Just make sure you summon a friendly angel, or if you want murder done summon an evil being who is happy to murder stuff without payment like, for example, a demon. Never summon a devil unless you want to give up more gold than you will ever have in a game of DND ever. On the other hand, having a use for the ridiculous amounts of money that players often have by the level you can cast this kind of spell is nice at least.
Does feel weird that this is such a high level spell though, considering all the strange restrictions, like the creature behaving in accordance with its usual ethos and you having zero control over it. Why do I have to cast a 6th level spell to call over a servant of a deity so they can charge me 10,000 to help me for a day, couldn't I just find an npc and hire them for cheaper at that point?
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Posted Oct 11, 2024I still think this spell should have been available to warlocks, since it's not only deities that can send an ally, and this spell is just very thematically fitting for the class.
As for the payment, personally I'd houserule that the fee is waived if you made an arrangement beforehand with the entity who's sending the ally to you. Like maybe contacting them with Commune or some other means, and confirm if it's ok to use Planar Ally free of charge for a certain period of time.
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Posted Apr 21, 2025it's weird how expensive it is for a level 6 spell, if it is that expensive it isn't worth the level 6 spell slot, but characters with access to the spell slots of the level it should be don't just have 10,000 gp laying around. it shouldn't be that expensive, but whatever.
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Posted Jun 3, 2025I don't know why people are getting stuck up on the 10K per day cost. Most summoning spells last an hour, you do have to cast it before combat starts because of the 10 minutes casting time but you can get a summon for 2K gold that doesn't require concentration. The real issue with the spell is the DM has to decide what kind of creature you get with this spell which can be difficult to make sure the player isn't getting an OP summon or a useless summon. The spell should tell DMs the recommended CR rating of the summon (obviously the DM might want to change that but a guideline would be nice so DMs don't break the game by summoning an OP creature and players know what they're getting).
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Posted Jul 11, 2025After looking at the spell again it's definitely more useful than I initially believed, and for narrative and roleplaying purposes I appreciate that they left in a spell that still leaves in a lot of room for the DM to decide on things. Unfortunately letting the DM decide means this spell basically requires working out things with your DM beforehand to ensure it will do what you want it to do.
Basically, It would entirely depend on each DM who has a cleric use this spell to determine if the spell is actually worth it. You might get an angelic planetar or deva who is willing to help clear out a ruined dungeon for free, or you might get a super weak celestial that can barely help you and charges you several thousand to help you clear out that same ruined dungeon.
The only upside to all of this is that the wording was changed to remove the bit about the ally counting as a party member who gets part of the exp and takes away from the benefits to the party, which was silly considering all the other restrictions and the fact that the ally is already taking up a massive amount of GP and a 6th level spell slot just to get it to do anything useful.