Do your summons bleed?

[Senko]

Just curious in otger peoples games how real are summoned/conjured creatures? Do they have bones and organs? If injured do they bleed or suffer broken bones? When killed foes it all slowly disolve? Are they just a thin shell of magic that vanishes in a puff of smoke?

[avr]

Blood and guts while they live. When they die the remains may catch fire or blow away in the wind.

[MrCharisma]

Since summons aren't immune to bleed damage* we can assume they bleed.

There are also abilities that would interact with bones/organs, and again summons aren't inherently immune.

I think when they die they just kind-of disapppear though (with whatever flavour you like - as avr said).

*Summons aren't automatically immune to bleed damage, although certain summoned creatures are. This isn't dependent on being a summoned creature though, so it's irrelevant.

[Melkiador]

A summoned creature is identical to a real version of that creature, except where specified otherwise.

I think this was from a sage advice back in 3.x, so not exactly official, but when a summoned creature is killed, it reforms on its plane over a 24 hour period. This is reflected in the summon guardian spirit feat, where you can summon the same creature every time instead of a random one of its type. If it dies, you have to wait 24 hours to summon it again.

[Senko]

Melkiador wrote:

A summoned creature is identical to a real version of that creature, except where specified otherwise.

I think this was from a sage advice back in 3.x, so not exactly official, but when a summoned creature is killed, it reforms on its plane over a 24 hour period. This is reflected in the summon guardian spirit feat, where you can summon the same creature every time instead of a random one of its type. If it dies, you have to wait 24 hours to summon it again.

I like the sound of that feat though I'd probably just apply it to all summoning if I were DMing.

[Melkiador]

I may have been oversimplifying when describing the feat. It's rather complicated, but I just wanted to point out its official reference to summoned monsters reforming after 24 hours. As a second example, the slain eidolon reforms after one day, but it's weird in so many ways, that I didn't feel it was a good example.

The guardian spirit feat basically adds a personalized monster to the list of monsters you can summon with the summon monster spells. The guardian can be leveled as you gain new spell levels to stay relatively relevant. It's not a "powerful" combat option, but can offer some nice utility.

It's especially good for clerics, because you can choose a base creature with the right alignment subtypes to work with sacred summons for standard action summoning. And the feat itself lets the guardian last for minutes per level instead of rounds.

[Senko]

Oh i took a look the feat has a lot more i wouldn't use e.g. the template. Always getting the same summon/s that remember everything and cant be resummoned for 24 hours if killed appeals to me.

[blahpers]

It also provides interesting interactions that wouldn't normally come up. Sending your guardian spirit down the hallway to "check for traps" may result in a mouthy (if still obedient) summon in the future.