Druid Summoning Concern

[notshown]

I have a concern with the druid's ability to spontaneously cast summon nature's ally. At mid-to-high levels, it can potentially add a lot of creatures to an encounter, slowing combat and generating confusion. Additionally, the druid's player gets a disproportionate amount of the DM's attention each round (Now there's three griffons, and they attack, then my animal companion attacks, then the dire wolves from last round attack and try to trip, and now I'll cast another spell...) Who hasn't been at a table with that guy?

My solution is to roll wildshape and spontaneous casting into one ability: spontaneously cast beast shape and elemental body spells. Treat this as burning uncast spells to power a spell-like ability to assume the form of a natural beast or elemental being. This should allow druids a lot of flexibility without soaking up an undue amount of time and attention while maintining the flavor of the class. I would allow some of the character's magical equipment to remain effective in the new form, such as collars/necklaces, bracelets, anklets, etc, depending on the new form.

I've never playtested this (sorry), but I'd love to get some input.

~ notshown

[Funky trip]

*bump*

In my party I'm that druid that rolls 20 dice per turn. My party members didn't seem to mind that much but my solution was to let those party members that couldn't do much during their turns control the summoned critters or my animal companion. That way the dice were spread out around the party ;-)

[Lord Starmight]

I'm currently playtesting the druid and am now at lev. 12 (started at lev. 1).

Your point is valid in that any summoner has the ability to bring a lot of firepower into the game. Clerics, wizards, sorcerers, and druids are all able to do this. There are some distinct limitations that prevent players from doing it though. Most are common to all summoning such as the short durations at levels 1-6.

The druid's creatures are usually powerful enough to make them worth summoning, when the summon spell used is on par with the highest level the druid has available. The drawback for this is that the casting is a full round action. That means every enemy on their initiative can chose to try and attack the druid to disrupt the spell. If the druid fails any check, the druid obviously looses the spell.

As a result, when the druid begins using this ability, the druid is essentially making themselves a huge target for all enemies with more than animal intelligence. The next time one of your players uses it and realizes this consequence, they'll be more careful in what circumstances they do and don't use it.