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If I summon an animal does it have the summoned trait? Also, does it have minion trait? Does it mean I have to burn an action for it to take two actions on top of the sustain? Or does it act on its own? The rules are unclear here or at least seem to have some overlap between summoned and minion.
A summoned creature has both the summoned and minion traits. As part of sustaining the spell, you get to command the creature, and it will normally attack your enemies even if you don't know how to communicate with it. If you do have a way of communicating with it, you can have it perform more unusual actions, and that is also part of sustaining the spell. The rules seem pretty clear to me. See the Minion entry under 'Other Spell Traits', page 301 on the PDF of the core rulebook.
"Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands. For an animal companion, you Command an Animal; for a minion that’s a spell or magic item effect like a summoned minion you Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation; and if not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command, which is a single action with the auditory and concentrate traits. If given no commands, by default minions use no actions except to defend themselves or to escape obvious harm."
"Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands. For an animal companion, you Command an Animal; for a minion that’s a spell or magic item effect like a summoned minion you Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation; and if not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command, which is a single action with the auditory and concentrate traits. If given no commands, by default minions use no actions except to defend themselves or to escape obvious harm."
I've brought it up before, but the wording here is awkward. I restructured it to be easier to read (for summons):
"Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands; for a minion that’s a spell or magic item effect like a summoned minion that action is the Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation."
Or thereabouts.
What the second sentence is trying to say is that the [action mentioned in the first sentence] is: [for X, Y; for W, V]. Along with some other details (it has the verbal, auditory, and concentrate traits, unless otherwise specified; if given no direct commands (i.e. you only sustain the spell and decide not to issue any orders) the minion just defends itself; etc).
If I were to completely rewrite the entire paragraph...hmm
"Your minion acts on your turn in combat when you spend the action to issue it commands (once per turn). For animal companions, this action is Command an Animal; for spells and magic items (or similar), this action is the Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation as appropriate. If not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command, which has the auditory and concentrate traits. If given no commands, minions by default will use no actions except to defend themselves or to escape obvious harm."
In summary:
- Conjured creatures can't summon other creatures, create things of value, or use abilities or spells with a cost.
- Conjured creatures can't use spells or abilities of an equal or higher level than the spell that conjured them (e.g. no summoning an efreeti to get a wish unless you can cast the wish yourself).
- Most of the time, a conjured creature will attack your opponents without further commands.
- If you can communicate with the conjured creature, you can spend an action to order it to do something else than attack your enemies.
It is listed on AoN under rules>rules>chapter 7:spells>magical schools, and in the corresponding section of the core rulebook.
It is an important part to read for any spellcaster, as it specifies some elements of conjuration, illusion and enchantment spells that aren't obvious from reading the spells themselves (in this case, that all creatures summoned by spells with the conjuration trait have the summoned trait (which when you read the summoned trait, it mentions that creatures with the summoned trait all have the minion trait).
In summary:
- Conjured creatures can't summon other creatures, create things of value, or use abilities or spells with a cost.
- Conjured creatures can't use spells or abilities of an equal or higher level than the spell that conjured them (e.g. no summoning an efreeti to get a wish unless you can cast the wish yourself).
- Most of the time, a conjured creature will attack your opponents without further commands.
- If you can communicate with the conjured creature, you can spend an action to order it to do something else than attack your enemies.
Do they definitely get actions if not commanded? I thought the opposite was true.
Minions only have actions if you use one yourself. 3->4, rather than 3->5
In summary:
- Conjured creatures can't summon other creatures, create things of value, or use abilities or spells with a cost.
- Conjured creatures can't use spells or abilities of an equal or higher level than the spell that conjured them (e.g. no summoning an efreeti to get a wish unless you can cast the wish yourself).
- Most of the time, a conjured creature will attack your opponents without further commands.
- If you can communicate with the conjured creature, you can spend an action to order it to do something else than attack your enemies.Do they definitely get actions if not commanded? I thought the opposite was true.
Minions only have actions if you use one yourself. 3->4, rather than 3->5
They still "defend themselves", but I don't think they attack the enemies unless attacked first.
Or just run away
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In summary:
- Conjured creatures can't summon other creatures, create things of value, or use abilities or spells with a cost.
- Conjured creatures can't use spells or abilities of an equal or higher level than the spell that conjured them (e.g. no summoning an efreeti to get a wish unless you can cast the wish yourself).
- Most of the time, a conjured creature will attack your opponents without further commands.
- If you can communicate with the conjured creature, you can spend an action to order it to do something else than attack your enemies.
As part of the action you take to sustain the spell, you can have it attack an enemy, even if you can't communicate with it. If you can communicate with it, then as part of the action you take to sustain the spell, you can have the summoned creature do something other than attack an enemy.
Having a summoned creature use its 2 actions to attack an enemy still requires an action to sustain the spell.
If you don't sustain a summoning spell, it ends, so summoned creatures will never be in a state where they are not commanded.
However, other sorts of minions who are not commanded only defend themselves. If not attacked they enjoy creature comforts or the like.
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Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands. For an animal companion, you Command an Animal; for a minion that's a spell or magic item effect, like a summoned minion, you Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation; if not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command....
It generally attacks your enemies to the best of its abilities. If you can communicate with it, you can attempt to command it, but the GM determines the degree to which it follows your commands.
Immediately when you finish Casting the Spell, the summoned creature uses its 2 actions for that turn.
So you summon it, it uses its two actions immediately and "generally attacks your enemies to the best of its abilities." Each turn thereafter, when you Sustain the Spell, the same thing happens. When you fail to Sustain the Spell some turn, the creature vanishes.
The question of "what if I don't command it" doesn't come up with a summoned creature, because the summons and the Sustains count as generically commanding it, and if you skip those it vanishes (or never shows up).