Summon Minor Allly vs Summon Nature's Ally I

[BltzKrg242]

Summon Minor Ally: Summon 1d3 Tiny animals.
Summon Nature's Ally I: Summons creature to fight.

Some of the animals in the Summon nature's ally ARE Tiny Animals (stirge and poisonous frogs, while snakes are diminutive). Why would you ever use SNAI in a side by side comparison?

...and for that matter what are the stats for Tiny bats, lizards, monkeys, rats, ravens, toads, or weasels?

[MacGurcules]

My group has always used Summon Minor Monster/Nature's Ally for decoys, diversions, and tossing into suspected trapped areas. Not really all that useful for combat.

We also cut out the specific spell and just stuck the minor creatures into the a "level-0" tier on the summon list. So a Summon Monster I could get you 1d3 and a Summon Monster II could get you 1d4+1. Not needing to dedicate a whole spell slot to just minor creatures increases the frequency that they get summoned when a fun opportunity presents itself.

[BltzKrg242]

I can think of numerous reasons to use the spells but my questions are,

Why would you use Summon Nature's Ally I instead of Summon Minor Ally?

AND where do I find stats for Tiny bats, lizards, monkeys, rats, ravens, toads, or weasels?

[MacGurcules]

I see what you're saying. Why use Summon Nature's Ally I to summon a single viper, for instance, when you could use Summon Minor Ally to just get 1d3 of them? I suppose SMA doesn't really restrict you from doing it. As for why to keep SNA1, Stirge isn't usable with SMA because it's a magic beast and Eagle is probably the best in the tier for damage. So you may want to keep it around for those.

If you gotta have stats for them, most of the Tiny animals are classified under familiars in the Bestiaries, I believe. Or here's a list of a bunch of them.

[BltzKrg242]

Thank you sir.