We had this come up last night, if a caster summons a monster down at the bottom of a well shaft and then commands the celestial dog in this case to attack the "enemy", how does the celestial dog know what/who the enemy is?
In this case, there were undead below which in my mind makes it a bit easier. But what would the case be if the group of heroes were fighting a group of theives of the same basic racial makeup? How would the celestial dog know without being directly commanded by the caster? And since the caster cannot directly see who or what the enemies are....how would the caster be able to convey all that information in 6 seconds?
Any ideas or help would be very useful!
Maybe when you cast this spell you implant a partial memory of whose friend and whose a foe to your summoned creature? that could alleviate a lot of rule questioning.
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We had this come up last night, if a caster summons a monster down at the bottom of a well shaft and then commands the celestial dog in this case to attack the "enemy", how does the celestial dog know what/who the enemy is?
In this case, there were undead below which in my mind makes it a bit easier. But what would the case be if the group of heroes were fighting a group of theives of the same basic racial makeup? How would the celestial dog know without being directly commanded by the caster? And since the caster cannot directly see who or what the enemies are....how would the caster be able to convey all that information in 6 seconds?
Any ideas or help would be very useful!
Summoned creatures, without any command, attack the summoner's enemies without requiring any command. In fact, it is doing something differently than that starts to involve communication, and with it, much gnashing of teeth. If the caster knows of the enemy, all is good: chomp chomp goes the dog. If the caster doesn't know of the enemy, the dog isn't an enemy detector. How: I don't buy into the "it's magic, qed," type of justifications or explanation much of the time, but that's pretty much what you have here. While the dog isn't an enemy detector ("whoa, I didn't even know the party rogue was thinking of killing me..."), the dog knows which creatures are enemies of the summoner in the same way as the caster knows.
I think basic commands such as "sic em" *point* is perfectly acceptable. It solves a lot of issues.
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Summoned creatures, without any command, attack the summoner's enemies without requiring any command. In fact, it is doing something differently than that starts to involve communication, and with it, much gnashing of teeth. If the caster knows of the enemy, all is good: chomp chomp goes the dog. If the caster doesn't know of the enemy, the dog isn't an enemy detector. How: I don't buy into the "it's magic, qed," type of justifications or explanation much of the time, but that's pretty much what you have here. While the dog isn't an enemy detector ("whoa, I didn't even know the party rogue was thinking of killing me..."), the dog knows which creatures are enemies of the summoner in the same way as the caster knows.
This situation came up for us as well. It will likely come up again.
Can you tell me where this is in the rules so I can show my group, please.
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Summoned creatures, without any command, attack the summoner's enemies without requiring any command. In fact, it is doing something differently than that starts to involve communication, and with it, much gnashing of teeth. If the caster knows of the enemy, all is good: chomp chomp goes the dog. If the caster doesn't know of the enemy, the dog isn't an enemy detector. How: I don't buy into the "it's magic, qed," type of justifications or explanation much of the time, but that's pretty much what you have here. While the dog isn't an enemy detector ("whoa, I didn't even know the party rogue was thinking of killing me..."), the dog knows which creatures are enemies of the summoner in the same way as the caster knows.This situation came up for us as well. It will likely come up again.
Can you tell me where this is in the rules so I can show my group, please.
summon monster i: "This spell summons an extraplanar creature (typically an outsider, elemental, or magical beast native to another plane). It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions."
summon nature's ally: "This spell summons to your side a natural creature (typically an animal, fey, magical beast, outsider with the elemental subtype, or a giant). The summoned ally appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions as you command.[/url]
It attacks your opponents. There is no requirement that you designate the opponent. You have to communicate in order for it to do something else. Those are rules in the spell description.
As for it not being an enemy detector: that's my interpretation. You won't find it in the rules. It is consistent with it attacking your opponents. It is consistent with the spell not being a divination spell.