The planar binding spells seem to be written with an adversarial interaction in mind. But what about using it to just call “friendly” creatures. Like, if every day I use planar binding to ask an angel or agathian if it’d like to help out some poor people. Or what if I call an inevitable to benefit a society? Then you could just give it the option to head back or do things it’d want to do anyway.
What are some reasons this is a bad idea and what could be done to get around those issues?
I don't see why you couldn't bargain with the being, like you do with planar ally. Since the bargain isn't being enforced by the spell both sides will need to trust the other.
What if the bargain is just to “Do the kinds of things you normally do, until you don’t want to anymore.”?
My GM perspective: the being in question was actively engaged in it's agenda/duties before you summoned it. Those duties/projects/ dates etc are on hold as long as it is here, so you need to incentivize it.
Otherwise clerics would never have to pay planar allies.
Well, clerics aren't wizards. The cleric spell is a lot more limited in general.
But this idea was partly inspired by an AP. In the first book of War for the Crown, you come across an inevitable, who seems to be happy to just stay in one room for centuries and keep doing his tedious job. And reading the descriptions for various inevitables, this seems in line with their typical behaviors. It's like a lot of them are just standing around and waiting for a job.
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The thing to keep in mind is that a planar binding involves trapping and forcing the outsider. Most creatures resent being forced to do something so using this spell on a friendly outsider is going to be looked on negatively. Even a willing outsider is probably going to be at least irritated at any character using this on them. When you use that kind of coercion on a creature, they tend to resent your actions even if it is something they would normally be willing to do. This would be similar to suing someone to do what you want instead of asking them. How would you feel if a supposed friend to you to court and got a judgment saying you had to do something for them and sending out a cop to enforce the court order. The other thing to consider is that the outsider may be doing something they value, and you are likely interfering with their task.
About the only way I could see an outsider not being offended by the spell being used on them is if you somehow contacted them and made the bargain before using the planar binding to call them. It would probably still be looked on as being somewhat tacky.
You don’t have to “force” them though. At least not past the first round. You can immediately give them the option to leave but ask them to hear you out first.
Now I guess it could be considered tacky. This is basically a cold call that they have to pick up on. I’m not expecting a 100% success rate here. But surely not every outsider of a given type was busy with something else.
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You are still forcing them to show up. This is like sending the cops to arrest someone and then you show up in the jail saying you want to make a deal. Depending on the nature of the outsider their reaction is going to vary from distaste to outright hostility. If the outsider is good and you have a very good reason for summoning them, they may be less hostile. An evil outsider will probably want to kill you because you have shown you can trap them. A neutral outsider on the good vs evil axis is probably going to be somewhere in between. A chaotic outsider is probably going to be furious that you forced them to appear, while a lawful outsider might be more accepting.
The CHA check is basically the way to simulate your bargaining with the creature. If what you are asking is something the outsider considers reasonable, they agree with your terms and will perform the service.
If you want a willing ally, you will probably need to contact the outsider or their ruler and arrange for the terms of service before casting the spell. Contact Other Plane or something similar would work. Divine casters don’t have to worry about this because they contact their deity or agent of the deity as part of the planar ally spells. Wizards and other arcane casters are not part of a network so have to do it the hard way.
What you're talking about is basically the planar ally spell like clerics get.
I imagine why Planar Binding is written in adversarial way is because you're calling a creature against it's will.
However after it arrives you could break the circle of protection and just let the creature free, as you tell it "Hey, I'd appreciate it if you'd do this thing you'd normally be inclined to do but you're free to go if you don't want to".
Keep in mind, it may have other important things that it's want to do instead though.
There's a reason my examples were angels and inevitables. You don't have to use a circle counter to their alignment, and they are less likely to be offended by the attempt. Friendly binding something chaotic or evil would be unlikely to work and may result in something bearing a grudge.
I'm looking for free agents. Though doing a little more digging, most of the angels seem to assumed to be working for a higher power. More troublesome, most of them have plane shift so could have gotten to the material themselves if they'd wanted too. You might be able to recruit some free cassisians though.
Agathions look much more promising than angels for this process. They are less likely to be serving a higher power, and more likely to want to do things with humans. For instance, call some vulpinals and just let them wander around keeping the lands entertained and safer.
Inevitables look to be in high supply and there are plenty of jobs they'd want to do on the mortal plane.
An expected use of this is the guardian spirit feat/template.
There is a reason planar ally is a divine spell and arcane casters get planar binding. Treating them as the same spell is shortchanging the divine caster. Divine casters are servants of a greater power, and as such should be able to get help from the power they serve, easier than someone else. With Planar ally you are requesting aid from your deity or the equivalent. There is no saving throw and spell resistance does not apply. You can request a specific creature, but it is the deity’s choice of what shows up.
Different types of magic are better at somethings and worse at others. Treating spells as the same things diminishes these differences. For example, arcane magic is usually better at offensive spells especially damaging spells. Offensive divine spells are usually less potent than arcane spells except vs specific creatures. If you give arcane casters the ability to call outsiders as easily as divine, are you boosting the offensive spells of the divine caster?
As I said earlier if an arcane caster makes a deal with the outsider before using the planar binding, it should negate the ill will of using this type of spell. That would require using some other spell to make contact with the outsider. From the looks of it a contact other plane would work for this. If that spell does not work the caster can create one for this purpose. In all honesty there should be a spell that allows you to contact an outsider on their own plane for communication. This also seems to be in line with your desire to make summoning more complicated.
The divine version is easier because the caster is already a servant of the power that is sending the outsider. Planar ally spells are like an employee of a company requesting something be issued to them from the company inventory. The company has a process setup, and they can easily check if the requestor should be issued the item.