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Ok here is my scenario. The party is climbing a tower and comes across three NPCs that are barricaded behind a table giving them cover. The witch (lvl 2) steps out from behind the wall giving her line of sight. They are within 30 feet of her and she casts summon monster I to summon a pony (weight 600lbs). She summons it 10 feet above one of the NPCs.
Is this a legal move? I honestly had no problem with it because:
1. She is a new player and it was a creative use of her spell (very self conscious)
2. It was funny as hell, since the turn before the cleric had summoned a tiny viper that did nothing.
I gave the NPC a reflex save which she failed dc 15, calculated 6d6 damage equal to a falling block trap, and the impact also killed the pony causing it to be useless after the fact.
I listed the spell description here below for convenience.
Is Kamikaze pony a valid attack?
"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. The spell conjures one of the creatures from the 1st Level list on Table: Summon Monster. You choose which kind of creature to summon, and you can choose a different one each time you cast the spell.
Technically yes, the rules do state
" Creatures cannot be summoned into an environment that cannot support them. "
So as long as they don't summon a whale and drop it you should be okay.
Although there is a scale for Falling damage, Enviromental Rules see Falling Objects, a Medium object (in this case a pony) would only deal 3d6 damage.
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Inadzuma is incorrect. Summon Monster is a conjuration spell. From the description of the Conjuration magic school:
A creature or object brought into being or transported to your location by a conjuration spell cannot appear inside another creature or object, nor can it appear floating in an empty space. It must arrive in an open location on a surface capable of supporting it.
Now arguably, you could get the same effect but you'd have to use two spells: Floating Disk above the group, Summon Monster onto the disk, then cancel the disk. But other than that, the school is specifically written so that you can't summon creatures and use them as falling anvils.
I would tend to rule a monster's 'environment' is an opinion of the monster. That is, the pony would not feel 'supported' by being summoned up in the air.
A nice letter from the Union of Summonable Creatures might be waiting in her mailbox the next time she dreams of home. (In other words, well played, and I'd give it to her, cautioning it won't work anymore, and suggesting in a game-mastering vein that a war dog would have also broken their cover, since as crouched, they are prone, and if they stand to fight, they are exposed to fire...)
In previous editions, popular wizard instant-win tactics including summoning a wall of iron in mid-air above enemies, or summoning water inside an enemy's lungs. The rules have been clarified to prevent wacko stuff like this.
Agreed with Thornborn, a proper environment for a creature doesn't risk instant injury or death. Dropping a pony from 10 feet up easily could break a leg, at minimum.
And as Xaratherus points out, even if you were to try to summon, say, an albatross or an eagle in mid-air (suitable environment) it still would violate the base rules of conjuration spells.
Watch out for Summons showing up in trees or on top of buildings and falling on enemies. The only time I allow falling damage from summons used in that way is in underwater campaigns (effectively ramming).
The conjurer needs to make a Handle Animal check or Diplomacy if they share a language to kamikaze the creature.
What about hitting an enemy and trapping them in an aqueous orb, then summoning a shark, crocodile, or squid inside the orb?
I've never tried a whale bomb on a GM, but it was very close during a cliff-side fight in the Ruby Pheonix Tournament module. I went with rock to mud instead, but 1d4 cliff diving sharks was plan b. I guess it makes sense that this isn't a legal move, no matter how awesome it sounds.
It's only awesome once is the problem. After that it's just silly.
It's only awesome once is the problem. After that it's just silly.
That's a good general rule of thumb for all GMs dealing with off-the-wall tactics.
You mean something like this?
floating disk is three feet off the ground so that would not work either.