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My last post was eaten so I will try this one more time: Can a caster summon any monster from the summon monster list regardless of his alignment? Does alignment restrict a cleric from casting certain spells? This is the one area that has been confusing in our AoW campaign, so any help would be greatly appreciated. :)
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Arcane casters may summon any monster off the list that they wish, regardless of alignment. For flavor purposes, I tend to make my good arcanists summon celestial creatures, but that is personal preference, not a rule.
Others may feel free to correct me on this (I don't have my PH in front of me) but I believe that when a cleric casts a summon monster spell, the spell adopts the alignment descriptor of the summoned creature, and thus they cannot summon creatures of an alignment in opposition to themselves or their deities. Hopefully someone with the rules in front of them can verify this.
Edit: Just checked the SRD. I had it right.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Something I was never terribly clear on: Can a wizard/sorcerer choose to summon ANY creature on the list or must he have some prior knowledge of the creature's existance? It makes sense to me that a wizard couldn't summon a creature he doesn't know about. If the player wants to summon a given creature, I would have him make an appropriate Knowledge check to see if the character even knows about that particular creature (unless, of course, the character had previously been in contact with such a being).
Another thing, I thought I read somewhere that the creature you summon is random until you have successfully summoned a creature once and then you can call upon it in the future. For example, the first time a wizard casts Summon Monster I, he gets a celestial badger at random. From then on, the wizard can choose to summon the celestial badger again or have another random creature show up to expand his repertoire of summonable creatures. It's possible that this may be some strange house rule I stumbled upon once, but I want to know if this is something that is actually done or not. I don't usually bother with summon spells much myself, but it would be good information to have just in case. Thanks!
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Both parts.
Perhaps the list of creatures is scribed into the wizard's spellbook when he learns it...
Hmm... well, I think I'll be house ruling this then for the next time someone tries to play a summoner. No summoning creatures that your character has no way of knowing about. It seems silly to me.
Player: "I summon... a Quasit!"
DM: "But... you have no Knowledge: Planes or Knowledge: Religion. How the heck do you know anything about a quasit?"
Player: "I looked it up in the Monster Manual. It's just what we need! Something immune to poison that flies!"
DM: "Hmmmm... no. You get a fiendish raven instead. It's ALMOST what you're looking for. Your character does not have a copy of the Monster Manual handy."
There are variant summon monster rules in the DMG (which deal with summoning a named individual monster - sort of your "summon buddy") and in Unearthed Arcana (which deal with customized summoning lists, e.g. summoning critters appropriate to the summoner, i.e. a cleric of deity with the Earth Domain summoning earth creatures, etc.). There are also some variant rules in UA about "learning" new creatures. I also recall something quasi-official where they talk about "substituting" creatures of similar power and "mission" for those listed, i.e. a good cleric would have a celestial badger while an evil cleric would have a fiendish dire rat, both of which are scuttling creatures or something.
There is probably a really great house rule where you can integrate all of the above and make summoning interesting (if still pretty damn useless for low level casters).
You can also extend the same ideas about summoning "what/who you know" to the planar ally spells and even to the summon undead and create undead spells as well.
I support your house rule, Fatespinner; but then, I'm a huge fan of house rules. Anything in my game that seems illogical or just clunky in its mechanics gets house ruled!
I like the idea of the random list and then only being allowed to summon a specific creature if you've either successfully summoned it before or have actually encountered said creature "in the wild". To take that a step farther, I would put alignment restrictions on summoned creatures; ie, the caster can only summon creatures that match a least one descriptor of his/her personal alignment (neutral for a neutral good caster, for example) unless again, the caster has encountered said creature "in the wild". Of course summoning a creature of an opposing alignment (good clerics summoning demons) would risk a penalty if the character routinely employs oppositely aligned creatures for their own purposes - there was another thread that discussed this topic at length.
I have a different question about summon monsters, and it's a bit silly, but it's come up in one or two of my games before, and could be very useful (though abusable, and it kills the mood of serious campaign).
The spell states that you must summon a monster in an enviroment that can support it, i.e. one that won't immediately kill the creature. No orcas on dry land, you know. My question is this: is it okay to summon, say, a rhinoceros a couple feet above an opponents head?
I have a different question about summon monsters, and it's a bit silly, but it's come up in one or two of my games before, and could be very useful (though abusable, and it kills the mood of serious campaign).
The spell states that you must summon a monster in an enviroment that can support it, i.e. one that won't immediately kill the creature. No orcas on dry land, you know. My question is this: is it okay to summon, say, a rhinoceros a couple feet above an opponents head?
Well the air wouldn't really support the rhinocerous. Nor would the head, without really thick neck.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I have a different question about summon monsters, and it's a bit silly, but it's come up in one or two of my games before, and could be very useful (though abusable, and it kills the mood of serious campaign).
It is precisely for these reasons that I would offer a resounding 'No.'
Monsters are summoned on the ground unless they are capable of flight. No dropping celestial elephants on your enemies.