Summon monster, or monster summoning,[3] (originally called Lucke's monster summons[1]) was a series of increasingly more powerful summoning spells commonly in use by both arcane and divine spellcasters.[2]
Effects
A summon monster spell conjured one or more creatures from another plane and made them appear within close range of the caster.[4][2] These "monsters" were usually native magical beasts, outsiders, or elemental creatures.[2]
Whatever creature was summoned was magically compelled to fight for the caster to the best of its ability.[4][2] A summoned being could not be truly destroyed; instead, an attack that would otherwise destroy it instead sent it back to the plane from which it was summoned, where it reformed over the next twenty-four hours.[4]
It was impossible to summon a creature into an environment that could not support its life. Summoned beings lost any powers to themselves summon other entities or to use any sort of planar travel.[2]
Divine casters could only summon creatures whose alignments were not in conflict with either their own or their deities alignment.[5] Most often, their deity would send them servants native to that deity's home plane.[6]
Summoned monsters would serve the caster until the duration of the spell ended, which was anywhere from mere seconds to several minutes, depending on the power level of the caster.[2]
Components
Summon monster spells required verbal and somatic components. For arcane spellcasters, they further required a tiny bag and an unlit candle as magical foci. Divine casters instead used their (un)holy symbol as a focus. The complicated spell required more than five seconds to cast.[2]
Levels
There were nine levels of these spells:[2]
- Summon monster I
- Summon monster II
- Summon monster III
- Summon monster IV
- Summon monster V
- Summon monster VI
- Summon monster VII
- Summon monster VIII
- Summon monster IX
History
The first seven levels of these spells were invented over a period of many years by the Netherese arcanist Lucke, beginning with his 1st monster summons in −1994 DR and ending with 7th monster summons in −1779 DR.[7]
Notable Users
- Tulrun, an Uthgardt archmage often used summoned monsters to fight for him.[citation needed]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “The Winds of Netheril”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), p. 23. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Template:Cite book/Player's Handbook 3.5 edition
- ↑ Skip Williams (2000). Conversion Manual. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 15.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Template:Cite book/Player's Handbook 3.5 edition
- ↑ Template:Cite book/Player's Handbook 3.5 edition
- ↑ Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 259. ISBN 0-7869-1836-5.
- ↑ slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “The Winds of Netheril”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), pp. 26–27. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.