Monster Summoning I , Death Knell fuel?

[Soulrutep]

Just a quick question regarding Monster Summoning. Dose a summoned monster leave a corpse when it's dead? Does it return back to it's home plane upon it's destruction? My DM seems to be of the mind state that summoned monsters don't really die, when they "die". And instead they simply return back to that plane unscathed. Though I don't see any evidence for this, so with that being said I think it would make Monster Summoning spells great Death Knell fuel. A good spell but one that rarely ever gets used because of the precise nature of it's use.

Has anyone ever tried using it by knocking a summoned monster below 0 HP then casting it on them?

Thoughts?

[Cylyria]

I've always been under the assumption that when a summoned monster falls below 0 health it disappears. Don't remember any published adventure where the the corpse of a summoned monster hangs around. COuld be wrong but that's how I would rule on it in my campaign.

[VRMH]

Soulrutep wrote:

Dose a summoned monster leave a corpse when it's dead? Does it return back to it's home plane upon it's destruction?

No, yes.

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My DM seems to be of the mind state that summoned monsters don't really die, when they "die". And instead they simply return back to that plane unscathed.

Sort of, yes. Most settings don't specify this explicitly. My personal take is that a summoned creature is not an individual, but rather a Platonic archetype.

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it would make Monster Summoning spells great Death Knell fuel.

It is, if you can afford using 2 spells for those bonuses. Owning a bag full of live mice might be a simpler way to go about it.

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Has anyone ever tried using it by knocking a summoned monster below 0 HP then casting it on them?

I once had a magical item that once a day cast two spells: Summon Monster I, and Vampiric Touch. I let the players figure it out... they didn't.

[Pupsocket]

It goes away if it drops to 0 hp or less. It's in the [Summoning] tag.

[Soulrutep]

Thank you Pupsocket, yup sure is on Pg 210 of the Core Rule book spells it out. Hmm Wish there was a easy way of using this as a quick buff spell. The bag of mice is technically doable, though I feel as though my GM may find this a touch too cheesy. And besides, my char is a touch to dignified to be carrying around a bunch of smelly rodents on his person. Though I could have a servant do so. Or perhaps a dog? *sigh* Paladin Cohort probably wouldn't appreciate that much. Ahh well back to the drawing board.

[ryric]

You might be able to make it work with a bag of tricks. Those animals do not disappear until slain, not at 0 hp. You can pull a rat or weasel or whatever twice a day from it.

[Heaggles]

hey soulrutep if you dont mind being evil go attack goblns, knock them out and then chain them up and when you need to buff you hit goblin an then death kneel them :p