D&D: Summon Your Courage (and Some Allies) With These Great Conjuration Spells
Friendship is magic, certainly. But with conjuration spells, that magic results in an angel or devil who will help fight your foes.
Friendship being the real treasure is all well and good. But when friendship results in a creature from another plane of existence manifesting beside you to fight your foes? That’s when you know you’ve got it made.
Yes, some of the best spells in D&D are all about making friends. Or at least summoning them from across the planes. Here are some of our favorite Conjuration spells fornl the next time you need a hand, hoof, claw, or radiant talon.
Conjure Animals
There are, broadly speaking, two different kinds of summoning spells. There are the summons, which call up a specific guy. And then there are the conjure spells. These summon up… different things. Typically a “spirit” of some kind.
In the case of Conjure Animals you summon a pack of animal spirits that can take the shape of various creatures. Your Large pack of falcons or deer or wolves or whatever you decide runs around the battlefield, moving 30 feet when you move. Whenever you are within 5 feet of your pack, you have advantage on strength saves. And whenever an enemy moves within 10 feet of the pack or starts their turn there, they take 3d10 damage if they fail a save.
Summon Dragon
The Summon branch of Conjuration spells, on the other hand, is about calling up a combat ally, although again, it’s a spirit of some kind. Complete with very specific stat blocks.
Summon Dragon, specifically, calls up a Draconic Spirit. A single action gets you up to an hour of a magic dragon spirit friend. They give you a benefit, just for playing – resistance to one of the main five energy types. On top of that, it takes its own turn, doesn’t need an action from you to do anything specifically, and can even breathe a blast of elemental energy every round in addition to making several rend attacks (at least 3!). Potent stuff.
Summon Fiend
This spell should probably be called Summon Devil, because that’s what you’re going to pick most often. Although technically, you can summon a a fiendish spirit that takes the form of a Demon, Devil, or Yugoloth. The Devil Spirit can both fly and has a melee and/or ranged attack that hits like a greatsword out to 150 ft. And it can see through magical darkness. So, a fun time, had by all.
It’s also the highest level individual summoning spell, for whatever that matters.
Summon Celestial
Of course, fiends aren’t the only ones waiting to join the party. Summon Celestial might only be a 5th level spell, but it packs a wallop. When you cast this spell you summon aleither a Celestial Avenger or Defender. The Celestial Avenger makes multiple attacks out to 600 feet (no penalty), and each attack hits for a minimum of 2d6 + 7.
Or you can get a Celestial Defender to help fight in melee, both tanking enemy hits and also helping to heal your party. Whenever it hits a target, it deals a pile of Radiant damage and gives temporary hit points to itself or a nearby ally, upping your resilience game along side dishing out more damage.
Conjure Minor Elementals
Of course, it’s hard to argue with how potent the friends of Conjure Minor Elementals are. With this spell, you conjure an aura of elemental spirits that enhance your damage, making each attack deal an extra 2d8 damage on a hit, plus an extra 2d8 per spell level over 4th, meaning you can really heap on the damage with multiple attacks.
Friendship really is the strongest magic!
