what should Erylium summon?

[ohako]

Hi there.

I'm getting read to run the Erylium encounter, and I think the action economy of the PCs is going to utterly wreck her without some good backup. Here's how I'm going to run her

Round 1: Erylium cuts herself and summons a sinspawn
Round 2: Erylium goes invisible, the sinspawn's on its own
Round 3: Erylium casts summon monster II, sinspawn still doesn't have backup.
Round 4: Backup arrives, Erylium casts summon monster I
Round 5: More backup shows up, Erylium switches to slumber hex and hold person (and loses invisibility).

Here's the question: what should Erylium summon? Should she try for multiples of something from the I list with her II?

Right now I'm thinking Fiendish Fire Beetles. They're not great, but they're vermin, so no mind-affecting effects (which synergizes with the sinspawn), and they have resist fire 5, which could also be important.

The one thing I won't do is summon an elemental. They're awesome...but Erylium is a demon, and she's got a home team to consider. Maybe 1 Giant Centipede, and 1 Fire Beetle?

What have other GMs summoned?

[Landon Winkler]

I went with Fiendish Riding Dogs (1d3 for Summon Monster II and 1 for Summon Monster I). I reskinned them as three-eyed jackals, reminiscent of Lamashtu's holy symbol.

The trip bite turned out to be frighteningly handy when the party tried to turn tail and run. It's also really good (and appropriate) for swarming a particular PC that Erylium wants out of the way, like a healer or back-line caster.

And be careful with Erylium. Yes, there's only one of her, but between flight, invisibility, DR, and fast healing, she can be a nightmare for low-level parties.

Cheers!
Landon

[Ckorik]

Fiendish Giant Centipede and Fiendish Dire Rat :)

[Mazra]

I had no issues with Erylium casting an Elemental. I went with the Small Fire Elemental and a Fiendish Fire Beetle. It was for a moment impactful, but short lived.

[Useplanb]

Wouldn't the sinspawn have backup on round 3? As soon as you cast summon monster, it arrives and acts.

1d3 whatever (the fiendish jackals is great, consider THAT stolen). :)

[HangarFlying]

It has a casting time of 1 round. I went with a fiendish wolf. That seemed to work pretty good.

[WarDriveWorley]

I used a fiendish wolf as well which worked out. One of my characters was a druid with a wolf companion. The two wolves canceled each other out for a round or two which made the fight a bit tougher. The druid couldn't use the wolf to trip the spawn which made it harder for the fighter to take it down quickly.

[Derek Vande Brake]

Just rechecked, the AP doesn't list an action for cutting herself and summoning the sinspawn, it states it happens as the PCs enter. So couldn't she turn invisible and do that on round 1, thus allowing her to start summoning on round 2?