It says that the alignment of the aura has to match that of the summoned monster, so if you worship a lawful neutral deity, you would only have a lawful aura, so Sacred summons is useless then, or would it affect all lawful creatures which can be summoned?
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I had a similar question, the wording is strange, but do monsters with the * in the summing monster list, which have your alignment, count as having that alignment subtype? (thus be eligible for this spell)
Galnorag: I believe the consensus at this point is, unfortunately, that it will not work with those creatures as the feat specifically says alignment subtype, which is listed in the table itself.
If it had said "spell subtype", then it would've worked. But it does not.
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When using summon monster to summon creatures whose alignment subtype or subtypes exactly match your aura, you may cast the spell as a standard action instead of with a casting time of 1 round.
It doesn't matter what the alignment of the creature is, nor what type of spell it is. It only matters that the creature has the same subtype or subtypes that your aura has. And merely possessing an alignment doesn't mean you have that subtype.
Adding Celestial / Resolute / Fiendish / Entropic to a creature doesn't change that either, oddly enough.
RAW, and most likely RAI due to the specific wording of the feat, it does not work with creatures marked with *.
The summon monster list actually calls out what the subtypes of each creature are, and the templates, nor possessing the alignment, do not grant the subtypes.
It's great for evil clerics. Lots of evil summons.
But unfortunately, when you follow everything, it does turn out that it only works on those creatures with the listed subtypes. I'm still hoping for clarification from the rule designers.
If you are neutral evil cleric, unless there is a neutral evil summons you are SOL, because you wouldn't mathc on the chaotic/lawful subtype.
This is one of the reasons why summon monster lists should be customizable despite certain objections of developers.
Perhaps (and hopefully), but nothing says that's the case right now. So if it's a homegame, house rule it. If it's PFS, sorry about the barely useful feat.
Any creature summoned from an appropriate plane has that plane's subtype.
I'd be very happy to see where the rules say that, as I've been looking for a few months.
Text such as this:
This subtype is usually applied to outsiders native to the chaotic-aligned Outer Planes.
doesn't cut it, since it says usually. Were it not for that word, it'd work.
Also, they aren't outsiders. They're animals.
For more information (or really, just the same information in a different way :)), check out this old thread of mine, asking this very question.
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If you are neutral evil cleric, unless there is a neutral evil summons you are SOL, because you wouldn't mathc on the chaotic/lawful subtype.This is one of the reasons why summon monster lists should be customizable despite certain objections of developers.
Better yet would dump the summon monster table as anything but a basic reference, and instead insert in the Bestiary at the end of monster entries something to the effect:
"This monster may be summoned with using Summon Monster III"
or put the table as a one page in each bestiary for the monsters in that bestiary.
I had a similar question, the wording is strange, but do monsters with the * in the summing monster list, which have your alignment, count as having that alignment subtype? (thus be eligible for this spell)
This is how I thought this feat should work...marked it as a FAQ candidate.
Was pretty excited about this feat, but further review makes it totally useless as a Cleric of Calistria. No Chaotic:Neutral Options in the lists. But even for others, the best playable alignment with the earliest options is Lawful:Good and there just aren't enough to make the feat work. The feat needs to come with at least 3 Monsters that can be summoned with the option to apply templates up and down like a the Druid Shaman ability.
Is Sacred Summons still a near useless feat or has it been updated to include more then the small handful of options?
Sacred summons has never been useless. It doesn't work for the * creatures, and many alignments have few or no monsters to summon through it, but it is one of only three ways to summon faster than a 1 round action (Acadamae graduate and being a Summoner are the other two). This is absolutely not useless. Losing that first round is awful tactically. If you can summon as a standard action, you get creatures that can act immediately, placed where you want them. Once these are up, then you can take your one round casting time if you want, though it is also an iffy proposition. With the extended summons lists from the Summon Good Monster and Summon Neutral Monster (and probably Summon Evil Monster one day), there are more options, even low level ones that make the feats more useful.
The feat as written is too restrictive IMO, but I have seen nothing to say the RAI does not match the RAW. I am seeing a lot of "but I dont like that interpretation". I don't like it either, but that seems to be the correct way to do it. I think that if it allowed you to stay within one alignment of the caster's deity for outsiders that would ok, but as written the subtype has to match up with the deity's alignment exactly.
Not to mention clerics can't cast spells with alignment descriptors opposed to either their own or their deity's alignment. It is usually a VERY good idea to match your deity's alignment exactly as a cleric.