Summon Monster - What counts as Expensive Material?


Rules Questions


"Creatures summoned using this spell cannot use spells or spell-like abilities that duplicate spells with expensive material components (such as wish)."

Wish Costs 25,000 gp, which I would say is definitely expensive. But how about something like Continual Flame, which costs 50 gp?

What is the line between expensive and not expensive?


Anything that has a material component cost with a defined gp value is considered an "expensive material component". Basically anything that wouldn't be covered by a spell component pouch.


Quote:
Unless a cost is given for a material component, the cost is negligible. Don't bother to keep track of material components with negligible cost. Assume you have all you need as long as you have your spell component pouch.

I had always assumed that in this case non-negligible and expensive were the same thing.


From what I understand, any spell with a material component that costs money is prohibited. There is no category for cheap material components. There is just those that cost money and those that don't.

Lets take Fireball as an example. It requires "a ball of bat guano and sulfur". This does not list a price for it, so a summoned monster would be able cast it (assuming the creature knew it). Continual Flame on the other hand does cost money (50 gp).

Its really a restriction to prevent cleaver players from trying to summon a monster to cast a spell that would normally cost money. In this game, spells are not supposed to make money. In fact, many spells with permanent effects cost money, such as permanency or various trap spells.


As others have said, those expensive components are those of which cost is indicated in the spell.

Alternately, it is those spells for which the feat Eschew Materials wouldn't apply.


What they said.


The bestiary entry has slightly different text and is a slightly different ability. But I think it shows likely intent.

Quote:
Summon (Sp) A creature with the summon ability can summon other specific creatures of its kind much as though casting a summon monster spell, but it usually has only a limited chance of success (as specified in the creature's entry). Roll d%: On a failure, no creature answers the summons. Summoned creatures automatically return whence they came after 1 hour. A creature summoned in this way cannot use any spells or spell-like abilities that require material components costing more than 1 gp unless those components are supplied, nor can it use its own summon ability for 1 hour. An appropriate spell level is given for each summoning ability for purposes of Will saves, caster level checks, and concentration checks. No experience points are awarded for defeating summoned monsters.

I hadn't noticed that these rules had been changed from 3.x. The summoning limitation used to be for spells that cost xp, which is why wish is the example, and not for spells with expensive components. So, if I hadn't have found the 1gp limit in the bestiary, I would have thought this was worth FAQing, for a much higher cost limit. But 1 gp is 1 gp. And whoever wrote that must have known what they meant.


That lines up with what gets bypassed by the Eschew Materials feat. In general, I'd have no problem assuming that a spell component pouch has anything 1 gold piece or less as well just to keep it all in sync, but of course that would be too easy for RAW. : )

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