Savage Tide Specific Summon Monster List

[stonegod]

My character in the Savage Tide is a mad summoner ex-pirate obsessed with understanding things about THEM, which I mostly translate as outer-planar critters. I expect him to use summon monster a whole bunch (and plans to go Malconvoker from Complete Scoundrel), so I wanted to customize a summon monster list that seemed more appropriate for him and the campaign. Thus, if focuses on demons, acquatics, and a few odd balls (elementals are iconic arcane summons, summon swarm related monsters, for example).

Below is my list. I'd appreciate any comments on levels that have monsters that are too weak, too powerful, etc. For example, I do not really have any great demons for summon monster V (I'm not happy with the choices I have) and I'm not sure if the juvenile nabassu at VI is the right level for it. I've cribbed together sources from all the MMs and Fiendish Codex I (FCI).

Summon Monster I
Fiendish dire rat
Fiendish hawk
Fiendish monstrous spider, small
Fiendish octopus

Summon Monster II
Demon, Mane (FCI)
Fiendish monstrous spider, medium
Fiendish shark
Fiendish squid
Fiendish wolf

Summon Monster III
Demon, Dretch
Demon, Quasit
Demon, Nashrou (FCI)
Elemental, small
Fiendish crocodile
Fiendish dire bat

Summon Monster IV
Demon, rutterkin (FCI)
Fiendish shark, large
Fiendish monstrous spider, large
Howler
Storm elemental, small (MMIII)
Wrackspawn (MMIV)

Summon Monster V
Demon, jovoc (MMII)
Demon, guecubu (FCI)
Elemental, medium
Fiendish giant crocodile
Fiendish shark, huge

Summon Monster VI
Demon, armanite (FCI)
Demon, bar-lgura (FCI)
Demon, juvenile nabassu (FCI)
Elemental, large
Fiendish elasmosaurus
Fiendish monstrous spider, huge
Storm elemental, medium (MMIII)

Summon Monster VII
Demon, arrow demon
Demon, babau
Elemental, huge
Fiendish giant octopus
Fiendish girallon
Invisible Stalker
Storm elemental, large (MMIII)

Summon Monster VIII
Demon, bulezau (FCI)
Demon, vrock
Demon, yochlol (FCI)
Elemental, greater
Fiendish monstrous spider, gargantuan
Fiendish tyrannosaurus rex
Storm elemental, huge

Summon Monster IX
Demon, bebilith
Demon, chasme (FCI)
elemental, elder
Fiendish monstrous spider, colassal
storm elemental, greater

[stonegod]

I've tweaked the list a little bit: Removed nabbasu, jovoc, and the guecubu; moved bar-lgura and added in some more fiendish dinos. Here are the affected levels:

Summon Monster V
Demon, bar-lgura (FCI)
Elemental, medium
Fiendish deinonychus
Fiendish giant crocodile
Fiendish shark, huge

Summon Monster VI
Demon, armanite (FCI)
Elemental, large
Fiendish elasmosaurus
Fiendish monstrous spider, huge
Storm elemental, medium (MMIII)

Summon Monster VII
Demon, arrow demon (MMIII)
Demon, babau
Elemental, huge
Fiendish giant octopus
Fiendish girallon
Fiendish megaraptor
Invisible Stalker
Storm elemental, large (MMIII)

Comments solicited.

[ericthecleric]

Hi, Stonegod. A while back I examined the HD and CRs of creatures on the monster summoning lists. They range as follows:

Summon Monster I: CR 1/6-1; HD 1/4-2
Summon Monster II: CR 1/2-2; HD 1-3
Summon Monster III: CR 1-3; HD 2-6
Summon Monster IV: CR 2-4; HD 1-7
Summon Monster V: CR 3-6; HD 4-10
Summon Monster VI: CR 5-9; HD 6-12
Summon Monster VII: CR 5-10; HD 7-16
Summon Monster VIII: CR 7-11; HD 7-24
Summon Monster IX: CR 9-13; HD 9-32

Yours should be roughly similar. Also check out the “Alternative Summon Monster Lists?” thread in the D&D section of these boards for more advice.

[stonegod]

ericthecleric wrote:

Yours should be roughly similar. Also check out the “Alternative Summon Monster Lists?” thread in the D&D section of these boards for more advice.

Thanks, I'll have a look. I based the numbers from the Dragon 302 article and doing eyeballing comparisons of critters, so hopefully the lists are reasonable.