Question on how Unhallow affects Summoned Good creatures


Rules Questions


Hello, I am currently running a mythic campaign, and my party is about to descend into a dungeon full of demons (guess the campaign!).In the dungeon, the book mentions that an Unhallow affect suffuses the dungeon, which grants the benefits of Magic Circle Against Evil. One of the party members is a good cleric of Sarenrae, who has decided to focus on summoning lots of good creatures to do his bidding. He has taken multiple feats to allow himself access to an extended summon list. My question is (since I can't seem to find an answer) how will the Unhallow spell affect his ability to summon good aligned creatures in the area? Does he need to make a check? Does it outright prevent it? Do the creatures get a save?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!


Assuming you mean that the Unhallow creates a Magic Circle against Good (not evil), which would include a Protection from Good effect, then yes all his good summons would be adversely affected and unable to hit the enemy. I am unsure if all his summons count as good, or only ones that specifically state that are good. Like any granted by celestial summons.

Now, he can still summon them if that is your question, but they can't hit the enemy (unless they have spell resistance which gives them a chance to overcome it).

Unless I am forgetting something.


The spells' descriptions specifically say:

SRD, Magic Circle Against Evil wrote:
All creatures within the area gain the effects of a protection from evil spell, and evil summoned creatures cannot enter the area either.

Since Magic Circle Against Good is the same thing, reversed, it seems that summoning good creatures into the circle that they cannot enter is prohibited. Since Unhallow works like a larger area circle, it's prohibited there too.

He's just going to have to summon non-good creatures while he's in the unhallowed area. This will restrict his summons options immensely. Every creature marked with an * on those lists is automatically summoned as Celestial with an alignment that matches the summuner (who is good). Therefore, ALL of them cannot enter the Unhallow area.

That only leaves summoning demons/devils which makes the spell evil and Saranrae will disapprove (per the Cleric class, he should be prohibited from casting spells of an alignment opposed to his deity), or summoning elementals. That last bit should be this cleric's only hope since they're true neutral and unaffected by the Unhallow.

So, at least he has some recourse.


Claxon wrote:

Assuming you mean that the Unhallow creates a Magic Circle against Good (not evil), which would include a Protection from Good effect, then yes all his good summons would be adversely affected and unable to hit the enemy. I am unsure if all his summons count as good, or only ones that specifically state that are good. Like any granted by celestial summons.

Now, he can still summon them if that is your question, but they can't hit the enemy (unless they have spell resistance which gives them a chance to overcome it).

Unless I am forgetting something.

Actually, his good summoned creatures cannot even enter the area.

I take that to mean they cannot be summoned into it either, as that is definitely entering the area.

Maybe a lenient GM would say that summoning is not entering, so it's possible to summon a good creature inside a Magic Circle Against Good or an Unhallow and then just give protected creatures the benefit of Protection from Good, but that feels like a workaround, a fairly flagrant one, and I am not lenient enough to assume magic mas such workarounds.


I missed the line from Magic Circle Against Evil that said evil summons can't enter the area. Knowing that now, I agree that good aligned summons couldn't be summoned into the area. The spell would fizzle out if you tried.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Easy to miss when a spell references a spell that references a different spell.

If one of those is a Magic Circle, does that make it a circular reference?


Thank you all so much. This definitely clears things up. It is Summon Good Monster that he took, and he also has Sacred Summons to pull off his summoning quicker. This will really limit what he is capable of, but should prove to be a challenge.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / Question on how Unhallow affects Summoned Good creatures All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.