How to use conjure animals fast! - D&D 5E Basic guide to Conjure animals
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- I wrote the script for this video right after Swift Quiver video actually. I know its super late but I was super busy. Sorry.
Treantmonk's Macros: docs.google.co...
The game with Dungeon Dudes I talked about: • One shot with Dungeon ...
Link to patreon, merch shop, discord and twitter:
www.patreon.co....
/ discord
/ pack_tacticss
my-store-c2bae...
Thumbnail art by TamLin123: / taborlin123
Gator art by Drakeven: / drakeven1
White Kobold token by MrakoBulka: / mrako_bulka
![Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 | เพื่อจักรพรรดิ ! [ตอนเดียวจบ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4M0ckYMA4-U/mqdefault.jpg)
I write this before this video come out, I'm fully aware what the Sage Advice Compendium says (RAI) and I left it out for this video. I will bring it up in my Advanced guide to Conjure animals if that ever comes out. media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SA_Compendium_1.02.pdf Here it is, to find what I'm talking about then just Ctrl f and look for "Conjure".
It reads:
"The design intent for options like these is that the spell caster chooses one of them, and then the DM decides what creatures appear that fit the chosen option."
This is an annoying design intent. Straight up horrible. If we apply this to other spells, like polymorph, it would be dumb. No one plays like that. Also, it's just quicker to let players pick, instead of having the DM pick.
Keep in mind: If we go by straight rules as intended, Revivify and many other spells just wouldn't work at all. th-cam.com/video/jKglAJCKF9k/w-d-xo.html
So I choose to ignore this RAI because its stupid and annoying for both the player and the DM.
I saw the description mention being sorry for the video being late, no need! These are your videos, not ours
I think the original idea behind this is so the DM would be able to pull out the most readily available/easiest to manage creature for them, with the assumption that people are doing exactly what your video told them not to do. For example, if I did get a player saying "I want 8 creatures," it'd be nice to narrow it to whatever minis I have on hand or whatever statblock is easiest for me to pull up. Following your advice negates the need for that. If the player knows they're gonna be using Conjure Animals to get 8 velociraptors, they can print out the statblock and buy/make tokens on their own time (or at least give me a heads up so I can dig close-enough minis/counters out beforehand).
So yeah, I think the rules as intended are assuming the normal behavior you've observed. Hopefully players take your video to heart, and their DMs respect and allow it. It's just one less thing for the DM to worry about, and isn't that what every DM wants?
To add to your point about having the DM choose making things take longer, it definitely does because say that my DM decides to give me eight badgers. I don't know
what the stats of the badgers are, I wanted cows! So now I have to take the time to look at the stats for badgers. Excellent video btw mate
My homebrew method is to have the player roll a die for the cr/number and then they pick from the appropriate list. it still gives them choice but it isnt always the exact same thing.
I actually like it this way, where the DM have more control. I preferred Conjure Animals to be random due to the fact you could solve almost any situation if you’re able to choose what animal to get. It’s a lot more balanced and you help others get the spotlight.
The DM trust me and gave me a list between Conjure Animals and Conjure Woodlands. I just pick the CR and roll the dice to determine what it is. That takes less than 10 seconds. Then I set the tokens down myself. The DM doesn’t have to lift a finger.
Paladin: "I can cast a spell called Horse once every 5 years."
Conjure Animals: "....."
Conjure animals require concentration and does not let you share spells with the summoned stuff.
They're different.
Not quite; "I can summon a warhorse that obeys my psychic commands from a distance of over a mile, stays with me all day, and accepts the buff spells I cast on myself as if we were the same. Someday, it will be a Griffin instead."
Monks: Finally after this grueling adventure I’m finally strong enough to have proficiency to all my saves :D
Paladins way back at level 6:…
I'm here from the future, and casting Horse is now the only thing that Paladins can do well.
All the animals share initiative is actually raw
The spell reads “Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns.”
As a group means they share an initiative.
Yeah, though I'd probably break them up into two groups.
@@Tiyev why they are identical?
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar So they don't all go at once. 6 animals all attacking at once is like one creature making 6 attacks on it's turn, as far as general power goes. I'd almost go so far as to replace initiative with a pattern of alternating between PCs and NPCs/creatures for combat. But at least with smaller groups, their attacks are more spread out throughout the round.
@@Tiyev i think i can agree on that, in particular if conjuring 8 animals, like with the 'Unstoppable Raptor Swarm' strat, which, by the way, is incredibly broken but oh so much fun...two groups of three critters is a lot more manageable for a turn...
Ah yes, Summon DPR...[and sometimes control]
Also summon HP, AKA the Wall of Flesh spell
In my group we had a Druid who summoned 8 elks when we were fighting in a back alley, not sure if your aware of this but elks are considered large creatures so 8 of them became chaos. Eventually we had elks spawning on rooftops and suicide diving to hit their targets
... Am I the only one who saw that last part and envisioned an elk doing an elbow-drop from the top of a building?
Elks make amazing mounts for the spell you ride in jump off and let loose.
giant elk is also my favorite option for cr 2.
Hahahahahaha
@@tanall5959🤣🤣🤣 Ohhhhhh yeah, brother 💪🫎
Ah, yes. I have to use a google spreadsheet to keep track of my summons. I am so prepared, I could complete the animal's turn faster than martials. My allies can deal SO much damage per a round, so I fully dedicated Conjure Animals to utility and control.
About the flesh wall, do keep in mind constrictor snake is a great choice for control. Huge creatures can move through medium creatures and the triggered AOP can restrain them on hit. AOE counters Conjure Animals CR 1/4 if the fireball manages to hit the animals and your allies before they act. Be sure to separate them. Also, you need to consider using higher CR creatures if you plan on body blocking while the enemy has powerful AOE. CR 1-2 should be able to take a fireball if you're a lvl 6 Shep Druid.
Shepherd Druids are so strong. I am target number one in the majority of enemy encounters because it becomes very difficult to kill my allies. Summons or conjure animals in this case is capable of soaking soooo much damage, which greatly increases my party's survivability. One time I used a giant eagle to swoop down to snatch a downed party member and flew them to safety.
I love shepherd druid just for watching the animals get fireballed and live anyway
I'm actually a Shepard Druid so I'm prepping for when I hit level 6
Oh, wow - That grapple to force-move an ally is a life-saving move!
Man, Conjure Animals+Grapple can add a lot of extra movement to the battlefield. Super useful, thank you for this hidden gem!
That art by Tamlin is SUPER awesome and adorable, btw!
Bonus tip: Combine Conjure Animal Grapple movements with a Fighter Arcane Archer's Grasping Arrow for a *ton* of extra possible damage. 2d6 extra damage on **each turn** (not each round, each turn(!)) the Grasped target moves more than 1 foot.
As a DM I have a house rule that animal companions and conjured animals share the same initiative as the player that summoned them, and the player gets to choose who goes first. It helped speed up the ranger's decision making b/c he had one large turn per turn rather than multiple small turns per turn
Shouldn't they all have the same initiative according to the spell? Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns.
Yeah, weird that he presented as if it was a houserule
I forgot what I read, my bad. Yeah rules as written creatures roll init in a group. I normally roll individually, thats what I'm use to.
@@PackTactics you should probably include this correction in the pinned comment
@@PackTactics rolling individually would be a pain in the ass, especially if you have a player who wants to run the dedicated minion-mancer build with a lot of summoning spells.
7:11 My friends, trust me on this one. If you play a summoner assign some of your summons to other players to control. Sure it's not optimal, but instead of the other players having to wait for all of your rounds, they get hyped. It makes the spell so much more fun for the whole table!
The problem with grappling with conjured animals is that RAW it doesn't work for the vast majority of animals. A grapple is made "using at least one free hand", and everything other than hands that can grapple is stated specifically in the rules that it can like the loxodon's trunk or the giant octopus's tentacles. It depends heavily on your dm's discretion, they may let something like cows grapple by biting, they may let bears bear hug to grapple, and they may not even let apes who do have hands grapple at all. It's very clear that the designers only thought of the grapple attack as a player only action, and any other creature they intended to be able to grapple have it stated explicitly in their stat blocks.
Bears not being able to hug would be a travesty. XD
"Constrict. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage. The target is grappled (escape dc 14) Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the snake can't constrict another target"
Constrictor Snakes works too. And they are 1/4 CR.
@@Rellyks my point still stands, the grapple is a part of their Stat block and raw they can't take the attack action and replace it with the special grapple check attack
@@evansmith2832 no, I didn't disagree with you, I just wanted to show that the desired effect can still be made with conjure animals. You were right, man.
So you are saying NPC orcs and goblins can't grapple? Bad news for you, I am the DM and does whatever the hell I want. Better be smart
I'm surprised you don't use my favorite summoned move: The Help action.
Run each cow up to a different enemy.
Do the Help action.
Next ranged attack on each enemy the cow is sitting on is at advantage!
Extras on DnDB has been a lifesaver for animal summons. With any character that I take this spell on I pose the idea of using them as "battle buddies" every player gets one to control on their turn.
Back in my necromancer days this what I did:
-same type of undead, same turn
-roll with a dice app, ask what hits from lowest to highest (ignore obvious misses)
-they all have the same stats, hp and location is the only variable
One note that might be important for some groups:
That list of example beasts at 3:12 is NOT part of the spell description!
That list was generously added by D&DBeyond because without it the spell becomes an absolute nightmare to run.
Especially if you follow Sage Advice.
I've never had a problem with the balance of Conjure Animals. It's always been the difficulty of running it at the table.
That's the whole reason the Tasha Summon spells were created.
Yes, if you play online it becomes significantly easier, but not everyone does that and the game is not designed around it.
I have similar complaints about Wild Shape, but I think I've rambled enough already.
I like how conjure animals has a ton of uses. Preparing it is like preparing over a dozen other spells, and all of those spells would still be considered good on their own. Love it not only on Druids and Rangers, but Lore Bards too.
The spell conjure animals actually says "Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a group, which has its own turns."
Idk how I have never thought of using sticky notes / index cards for keeping track of health
Gonna start doing this to keep track of all kinds of resources so I don't have to write and erase all over my character sheet all the time
"Welcome to pack tactics"
That catch phrase works for reasons I can't explain
So fun combo idea thingy, Conjure 4 Apes with your Action and use Magic Stone with your Bonus Action
Now hand 3 of the Apes Magic Stones and make them throw em as a ranged spell attack (that uses your wisdom for both accuracy and dmg)
The 4th Ape uses his turn to scout and collect 3 move pebbles for next turn
Congrats now you have more or less the same dpr as someone with an extra attack, a hand crossbow and the crossbow expert feat, except after the first turn of setup you get an additional action to do anything you want while they use every resource every round
The animals are intended to, and explicitly told to, share an initiative. It’s literally in the text for the spell.
i love it when a famous D&D TH-camr talks about things i have been saying since the release of 5e, i have been chanting the toa of squeeze rules for a long time now haha, also love the idea of giving other players control of the animals, really sparks player team work and thank you for reinforcement of telling everyone what you plan to do, hate when players want to keep secrets then expect me the DM and the other players to act like we don't need to improve
On the topic of using apps and technology to help speed things up, remember Google has a dice roller. You don't even need to go to any website, just type Roll 8d6 on your Adress Bar and Google will present you with your cow's damage! You just have to add +4 to each dice for each cow.
i ambushed my dm with conjure animals, but just in the sheer power sense - i controlled them myself. he was actually kinda mad his encounter poofed out of existance, but it was fine in the end. use constrictor snakes! they're godly!
1) Love the idea of letting other players take on the roll of Animals X, Y, Z to help get everyone a little extra rolling not on their turn.
2) I don't think I'd ever have a player say "no" to playing another creature, especially when they can go mega chaotic and do whatever with it without fear of KO
3) That viewer art *chef's kiss* on that one. That looked fantastic.
4) Conjure animals turns the encounter difficulty down a notch in most cases (Hard ► Medium). Want to understand more and why, look up Sly Flourish's deadly encounter thresholds.
Love the video. Playing Circle of the Shepherd and I always pick the animals but my DM and I had conversations in advance about which animals were and weren’t appropriate. We selected the ones we wanted to use and I have sheets with the stats and HP trackers for each type of animal I can use in my binder. We play at a table with minis. Mini bases are painted in solid colors. I have dice in each of those colors. We keep all the animals on a single initiative and I roll attacks for all animal at once using the color coded dice to make sure we know which roll is for which animal. And then all damage is rolled at once using the color coded dice to speed resolution. If we’re trying to save even more time I’ll group the animals into pairs and roll once per pair to cut down on the number of rolls to resolve. We use the same system for Conjure Woodland Beings and it works well to keep things moving.
This is super good advice! Especially if you want to micro-manage the animals in any way, so that you can refer to them as 'red cow,' 'blue cow,' 'yellow cow' and you only have to keep track of the individual HP of each colored animal and not the entire stat blocks 8 times over.
Fantastic! I was hoping you go into more depth with this amazing spell. It def seemed like the "capstone" spell for the Ranger despite the animals not having magic attacks against higher level enemies. Many thanks for this!
I gotcher grapple build right ‘ere!
Loved the vid
I find all the cow images so hilarious
I was gunna use this spell next game, thank you for letting me know I needed to consult the DM first.
So, when I can expect summoning, I sit down with the full list of summon options and make out cards for them (usually, this happens when PCs are leveling up). That way, all possible future prep is done. Player casts spell, DM hands them stat card - easy peasy. Also, it hasn't happened, but ambushing me with improved options will just be a hard "no" until we sit down and make cards (unless it's a scroll or something that we just got). I will not stop the game to prep around one player's action.
i just changed the spell to this:
You summon fey spirits that take the form of beasts and appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Choose one of the following options for what appears:
One beast of challenge rating 2 or lower, Damage die = D12
Two beasts of challenge rating 1 or lower, Damage die = D8
Four beasts of challenge rating 1/2 or lower, Damage die = D6
Eight beasts of challenge rating 1/4 or lower, Damage die = D4
Each beast is also considered fey, and it disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.
The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions. They obey any verbal commands that you issue to them (no action required by you). If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend themselves from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions. The summoned creature shares your turn and works differently in combat. while in combat with this spell active: At the end of your turn you designate one or more creatures that are within 5 feet on one or more of your summoned creatures. That creature must succeed on a dexterity saving throw or take 1 die piercing damage per summoned creature within 5 feet of it, taking half damage on a successful save. Each summoned creature can only contribute with die per round. The die is determined from challenge rating.
Can some math guy tell me if its better or worse damage statistically? and what do you guys think of this idea?
thanks for sharing the practical advice! indeed, most DMs will be happy to discuss in advance about the use of "conjure animals' , especially for anticipating the types and numbers of animals
My favorite use of conjure animals that i've seen. I've never played a druid. Is the summon a bunch of relatively tanky 1/4 animals. Use them as meat sheilds. It's a pretty solid strategy for an oops all castors party.
The spell itself says to run the conjures as a group! You should always do that anywho.
A few things:
1) As noted, group initiative is raw
2) Also RAW is not "you control them" but rather "they obey any verbal commands you give them, no action required" this distinction actually makes a strong case for the idea that you can give orders, but you do not actually have fine tune control over what they do. While the orders may not take an action to do, they MAY require that order to be given on your turn, and then the creatures will follow that order on their turn. This also strongly implies that the enemy can overhear and react to the orders you give, possibly before your summons can.
3) While some might argue that there is some default manner in which the spell works, and that the lack of specific ruling actually explicitly implies that "default" ruling, my personal thought on this is that it was deliberately left vague with the idea that the player and DM would have to hash out what works best for their table/party. Some may want to give fine tune control as it can speed things up when the player knows what they are doing, but at the same time, conjure animals is actually incredibly OP for a 3rd level spell, so those caveats act as limitations on the power. So essentially, I 100% agree with your assertion that ambushing DM is a nono.
4) Given the fact that the summons are only issued verbal commands, I absolutely ADORE the suggestion you made that control of summons can be shared to other players. A party of 4 could easily be given control of 2 summons each which could drastically speed up the process of creating that separation between orders given and a creature with animal level intelligence attempting to execute that order. It would still have to be understood by the players that they do have to follow the order given.
5) Alternatively, we could claim that verbal orders can be given on someone else's turn and that the actions the other players take while controlling the summons actually represents different orders retroactively being called out on the summons' turn.
Yeah. Treantmonk really did a great job with this spell.
Just the image in my head of a bunch of cows running up to the giant snakes, surrounding them and "dodging", whatever that means for a cow XD
Question: Being the are of casting 60 feets, could i cast it on the air so that the animals crash under the enemy doing damage?
3:48 This is a blessed image, even it personally wouldn't be at my table. Conjure Animals is such a strange spell. the CR system is notoriously poor when it comes to determining power, and the DM counters to it are more or less things a newer, less prepared, or polite Gm doesn't have prepared (Traps, harsh terrain, ambushes before main fights, ect). The Sage Advice addendum is there to balance this spell's mechanical power (Huge action economy/damage advantage without the high spellcasting mod Web, Fireball, and Hypnotic Patterns need) with chaos. Weather the prep and consequences of this chaos are worth the obvious domination aspects of his spell is up to each GM.
Frankly if you wanted to counter this spell (And most other "Crazy" D&D combos) Magic missile on the caster of Conjure Animals is an easy free way to do damage and make a caster do 3(+) DC10 Con saves. you can give quite literally anything a wand of magic missile and they can also break so no need to worry if the party gets their hands on them for a while.
Web DM long ago talked about this spell and posited that if you wanted a specific animal, it'd be interesting if you had to go recruit them. they deemed being able to pick out what animals you summoned to be "Tresure" and that you'd need to treat your animals well, similar to a familiar. This allows the GM to make an adventure hook or plot point out of the spell and also Streamline the Conjure Animal possess for those who use the spell habitually. This is how I use the spell in my games.
I hope this helps. Thank you for reading my comment.
I love Magic Missile as a control tool!
Someone cast Mirror Image on themselves? Magic Missile to bypass and/or debuff. Someone have a Cloak of Displacement? Hold action and Magic Missile at the start of their turn. Annoying controller in the back? Magic Missile and force Concentration checks.
For characters level 1-5 (which is where the majority of games are played), I consider a Wand of Magic Missiles to be one of the most OP magic items in game; you get 6 of these a day more or less for free more or less indefinitely!
Thank you for this video and everything in it.
THAT GUY will take for ever maneuvering their shitty herd of pets around all evening no matter how helpful your video is. THAT GUY doesn't give a shit what everyone wants.
That guy wont watch this video. Im aware. Im expecting good people to watch this video.
THAT GUY needs to watch Kobold's video on optimizing oneself
THAT GUY also isn't invited to many games until they realize they're THAT GUY.
Stop playing with THAT GUY. ez fix
8 cows surrounding two snakes, then dodging. I can't 😂
Underrated aspect of the animals: they allow sneak attacks so your rogue doesn't have to use Steady Aim and can use their mobility.
Definitely a fan as a rogue player.
I usually just tell my players "please don't conjure 64 rats in the middle of combat" and then they don't, because we're adults who have mutual respect for one another. Like I promise I won't design an encounter where having 16 giant lizards is necessary. I'm glad you brought up communication, because if it's a bad time for the GM, then you're playing the game wrong.
Apes make great grapplers at CR 1/2, I bullied a boss so hard the dm made me use a random animal* table from then on. *with multiple non beast options for some reason
I think the true genius of Apes (Apart from being strong together) is that they're the only kind of animal that naturally has hands. You could get away with them having a ranged attack, unless your DM is going to say they can't throw rocks, (Which you could probably supply with the Mold Earth cantrip if there are none available) and I'm pretty sure that you could instruct them to do simple tasks like open doors, turn cranks, pull levers and use items.
@@kevingriffith6011 the true genius is flying monkeys, the CR 0 with hands a pack tactics, and just have them throw magic stones
Apes are very good! I will talk about them if advanced guide to conjure animals ever comes out.
@@PackTactics As it turns out, most monsters are slouches. Almost no athletic skill among them
@@mogalixir By my read on the rules, the "Escape a grapple" action pits your athletics/acrobatics check against the athletics checks of every single creature grappling you, and once no creature is grappling you you're freed from the grappled condition. Even so, being grappled and prone is a nightmare situation, as the mob of creatures all have advantage for beating you up, and you can't stand up while grappled... and even if you *do* escape the grapple you'll be out of an action to move away without attacks of opportunity... which can be used to grapple you and knock you prone all over again.
I have a fondness for flying snakes, with 60 feet and flyby they can move up and attack and them move back into "formation" so you can use them to wall enemies or provide you with half cover (in every game I've ever played half and 3 quarters cover is extremely underused or forgotten, use it!)
they only have 4 hp but either the enemy attacks them or you get half cover and a wall that moves and attacks with poison.
If you suspect the enemy is immune or resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non magical attacks, giant poisonous snake does poison damage. They get an easy con save to take half, but half is better than nothing. And since the snake has +6 to hit, they'll make enough con saves that some of them will fail.
A lot of enemies are also immune or resistant to poison, so this is definitely niche, but good to have in pocket. Werewolves do not resist poison. If my math is right, summoning 8 giant poisonous snakes has 44.1 dpr vs werewolves (42 if you always take average poison damage).
Ahhhhhhhhhh Tamlin's Kobold art is fantastic! \o/ And Gator's even there! Great video. Conjure Animals seems to have become very contentious and it's clear why, but it's such a cool spell.
One of the other players at my table uses Conjure Animals a decent amount of times. He uses D4/D6/D8’s depending on how many animals he plans on summoning to keep track of them. Honestly his turns don’t take any longer than other players turns
If you use roll20 and have the pro subscription you can use group initiative, group check and damage, to handle group rolls in seconds and even apply accurate damage to each token.
You don’t need a die roller, roll multiple D20 (1 per creature) and then let the dm tell you the target number or you go from top to bottom. After the AC is known you pick up all the die that are not hitting and tell them how many hit and the average damage. Same system as has been done for decades using D6 and Warhammer. No excuse to let pets and conjures to slow down combat!
Finally, a use for all my precious clacky math rocks! I knew hoarding them would come in handy one day!
I could’ve swore that Conjure Animals used to specify that the DM chooses the creatures in the spell description
I have a druid who often Wildshapes into a Dire Wolf, after summoning more Dire Wolves and ordering them to assist other characters.
my favorite summon is the velociraptor it has pack tactics and multiattack so eight velociraptors making three attacks each with advantage dealing a total of 8d6+16+16d4+16 if you're a circle of the shepherd druid add bear spirit plus mighty summoner and now the raptors have extra hitpoints and deal magical damage
But raptors only have two attacks?
@@jonathanorduno5843 they changed it a while back, they realized it was a bit op.
@@anasexualdragonwithinterne2912 ohhhhh. Yeahhh two is already really strong haha.
A significant amount of animals (such as the cows) are large so they can be ridden. A number of melee martials have the problem they can't get into the fray as easily due to a lack of movement options, which Conjure Animals provides - and on the long term, it's cheaper than buying a mount and doesn't provide logistical problems bringing them to certain places. Some feats like Mounted Combatant and Polearm Master supplement this idea, too (the latter being a feat most melee martials should take).
This isn't me telling you to play those martials with a Conjure Animals user, but chances are high you'll have one at your table.
With regard to giving animals to players, extend this also to rolling initiative and tracking HP.
1 hour is plenty to cover overland travel (and chances are you can afford to give your party CR 1/2 mounts) and if you get the spell on a Sorcerer, you can extend the duration to 2 hours, even.
"That's like 2 minutes 30 seconds that's like a normal players turn."
BUT kOBOld
Honestly the way my table does it is the player has the animal stats. That way it's up to the player to have the animal ready. If you don't, don't use the spell
WALL OF FLESH!
WALL OF FLESH!
WALL OF FLESH!
I love this janky spell.
Our table loves Conjure Animals
We look up animal stat blocks on our laptops or phones.
Our new Druid has a little folder of animal stats for all of his forms too
Ambush your enemies, the DM is not one of your enemies
The only reason I say DMs choose the creature is because of the in world lore implications. Why would the druid who lived in the frozen wastelands their whole life summon a giant constrictor snake? Doesn't really make sense, so they can't summon creatures they haven't seen (a list of which the DM should provide as they are the world manager)
Hehehehe... My Half-Dragon Druid used this a lot, she just had them stampede and I was just told to roll the total after finding out who landed their hits. Fly-bys and stampedes ahoy! \o/
For the longest time I've hated ALL the conjure spells, and only limited it to 1 or 2 creatures as a house rule for time. Turns out I hate my players. Thank you Kobold!
Now is time for the new Grapple Cow meta
This video was amazing! Thanks for helping us both from the player and DM sides of the table. You rock, Kobold! 🤘🐺🐄🫎
I realized the strength of grapple when my underleveled party beat a level 6 wizard by chain grappling him and smacking his face when he failed to get out. Should've learned misty step or smth
Question on Beast Selections: Our Druid used it for the first time recently, and decided he wanted 1 Dire Wolf and 1 Brown Bear. My DM ruled that was fine and he didn't need to summon all the same type. That's not how most tables do it I guess, but RAW is there a reason you can't do 8 different beasts of 1/4 or lower? Obviously it would make running combat a nightmare, but other than that is there a reason you can't?
Yeah I would allow it at my table
There is no rule against it, although there is one small obstacle, the summoned creatures roll initiative as a group, per the spell. And beasts don't always have the same initiative modifier
My DM has at times handled a necromancer PC's horde attacks even without dice, just "okay what's their hit chance? That many of them hit for average damage." Macros are also super easy though if you set them up in advance.
It should only take a few seconds to move the tokens to their new location. Then you roll all attacks at once, then roll all damage together (possibly rolling separately for each target). It honestly shouldn't take any longer than another player's turn, and the animals don't have nearly as many options to choose from, so it should be much faster.
Conjure Animals is such a good spell, I think it runs some serious competition against Fireball for best 3rd level spell. It would be a shame not to use it because it bogs the game down too much, because it doesn't need to.
2:20 I Xeroxed the animals from the Monster Manual and other books and put them in my NPC Druid's notebook (for Shapechange), so if one of my players needs this spell I can just hand them the whole thing. Be prepared.
9:45 Nice to hear such a genuine laugh.
In one of my games I kept making long term undead mooks, my character just couldnt stop, but I started to group them up into squads and gave some of those squads off to other party members to make use of.
I absolutely love this spell its great because once i actually used it in a cave and summoned abunch of giant wolf spiders that attacked my enemy coincidentally they were kobolds that got eaten.
i like to make a bunch of giant crabs, and then they can attack and have a chance to auto grapple.
Your videos are worth the wait!
i always tell my DM im picking Conjure Animal and always picking wolves. i have the stat block and use the average damage (7) instead of rolling damage. boom time saved. i don't even use them all to attack in combat. i summoned 8 wolves attaked with 4. used 2 to stand guard over fallen NPC's to keep them safe and the last 2 wolves to block the exit to keep the enemy from escaping the room. boom tactics
"I don't like alternative rules" but also, forget how the spell is ruled and play alternatively. Look, I get what you're saying here, and yes, it can be fine. But you should acknowledge that this optimizer use of conjure animals is basically homebrew. Now, that said I'm all for a character working to obtain the ability to choose what animals they summon, Web DM had a great talk about that as treasure.
Sometimes you just have to go with brew because the game sometimes doesn't work rules as written or rules as intended. I've showed this many times on my channel.
@@PackTactics that's fine and good but from an optimizing standpoint your answer to changing this rule can't amount to, DM who doesn't rule this way is stupid. You have mentioned before how conjure animals breaks the balance of other options. In that it is strictly better than most of them. Many DMs do not want the imbalance of spell options that an on demand set of 8 or 16 additional actions every turn gives, and that's a completely reasonable ruling especially since it's book based. Asking to essentially take 9 turns as a player is really a big ask, I'm not talking time wise here. You should acknowledge more moderate options where the DM isn't just granting you exactly what you want, and that sometimes when you summon 8 animals they will be very small and not very useful ones. It's totally acceptable as a DM to base the animals given on the location and have times where it might be incredible and times where it might not be so great. Demanding the perfect option every time shouldn't be free.
@@Jah_Coby counterpoint: basically homebrew doesn't fly here, there's nothing in the spell that says dms pick the beasts or player picks the beast, and sage advice in an unreliable source of rule adjustments with how much it gets wrong. The most efficient way to use the spell is to allow certain beasts every time. As a dm i would not allow velociraptors but the other beasts are fine. Druids are allowed to have this powerhouse of a spell. They're one of the strongest casters and that's okay
@@indigovappy2529 no actually, the spell is quite clear. And you seem like you are loosely trying to defend a position you've already settled on regardless of the actual information involved in the discussion. Pack tactics and their efforts I will give the benefit of the doubt for some minor things, but what you presented is a very weak argument.
shout out to the most over looked expensive and dm dependant (though RAW it works) summon 8 cr 0 baboons and give them a bunch of vials of acid or alchemists fire to toss around.
them having pack tactics gets you some accurate little fire bombers.
Thanks, this was really good!
Funny enough that's my favorite thing about D&D. It gives me an excuse to seek people who are good at communicating with me instead of behaving like a normal person.
I wanna play a Shepherd Druid who summons Giant Constrictors.
I’m assigning this vid to summoners at my tables henceforth
I love the idea of area denial by wall of cows.
I think a lot of the hate for Conjure X is a result of things like the Conjure Fey/Polymorph combo, where a player summons 8 sprites and has them polymorph the whole party into T-rexes, which I personally think shouldn't work like that, but that's a rant for another time.
That said, in my experience, a lot of players also struggle to micromanage even a single other creature in combat, nevermind eight of them. Typically, familiars might as well disappear into the pocket dimension as soon as initiative is rolled, and this whole video is about the groans Conjure X spells draw because they're likely at least doubling the size of the combat. Even pact of the chain warlocks and BM rangers commonly think of their companions as just a beatstick instead of any of the other million things being able to use certain actions remotely and often at improved economy can do for you.
I did make an observation when I was playing a necromancer a while back. The way animate dead is written, it seems to me like you can use your bonus action to command either all of your creatures, or a portion of your creatures, but not two portions of your creatures. To illustrate what I mean, Let's say you've got four zombies. You can command them to swarm an enemy, or you can command some of them to attack an enemy, but you can't command two of them to attack one enemy and two of them to attack a different enemy.
Now, Conjure X isn't worded like this; in fact, its wording seems to be the exact opposite, where since it doesn't take an action, you could theoretically give all 24 of your creatures an individual order, but I feel like that's starting to push "Talking is a free action" a little too far. I feel like it would be much faster to run a Conjure X spell in the same way, where you can either have them all scrag one target, or command a portion of them to break off and do something specific while the rest act as if they hadn't received an order, instead of trying to micro each of them.
Also, against creatures that are immune to non-magical damage, besides grappling, the animals can still give the help action.
Starting to understand that an animal conjurer could really roll on a necro if they wanted to. Also wiping out an annoying party with a packs of cows.
Lets not forget how Sheperd Druid's Mighty summoner allows them cows to wreck werewolves along with more hp
I remember using that to make 8 gaint snakes just so we can use them as a rope.... (the dm was totally cool with it)
I remember when I used Conjure Animals I had color coded dice so I could roll all the animals attacks with advantage, so I had two red dice two green dice two black dice etc
4:30 Also the lowest level spells that really wipe out all your conjured animals in one hit are level 3. So you should break at the very least even in terms of spellslots and if you cast it before combat in action economy too.
I wonder if you can call your YT channel a control build 'cause when you said "this is my grapple build...I just summon some animals to do it for me." then heard you laugh that laugh I had to subscribe.
If you want control, wild beyond the witchlight added giant snails, cr 1/4 22 hp and 11 ac, but they can enter their shell for an additional 4 AC for 15, at level 5 this is an excellent meme control creature since you can barricade a single enemy with decent AC high ho creatures blocking them in a single space
Note: the monster lists is a ddbeyond thing, not in the books proper
I just am happy for any 3rd level spell that isn't Fireball getting attention as a potential staple
PARA DE FORÇAR ESSA MAGIA CARA JÁ DEU
Conjure animal and conjure woodland beings are super op....
I love druids and have played them for 2 years... I cut the numbers of creatures in half just to bring it in balance of the rest of the group.... and still I normaly do the most damage. I'm competing with fireball spammers but I'm single target. ( and still at half the creatures)
Another thing i do when dealing with summoning creatures. A simple command you can give them is 'help x' x being my teamates. This means you only need to worry about moving the creatures. Cause now all your friendly pc's are attacking with advantage if they stay close to the summons which puts the choice in your hands. And your fellow players will love you for it.
You can also bait out reaction attacks with your summons allowing your teamates to move in and out of combat without consequence.
Additionally they could instead try to grapple something. Even if they suck at it, cause sure the enemy will probably succeed. But will they succeed 8 times in a row by being dogpiled by zombies? (Or other summons)
I conjured a bunch of specifically sparrows and feed them all rice so when they flew over the mayors house they’d explode leaving bird guts everywhere. We really hated that mayor.
The last time I saw conjure animals in person, the player conjured 24 raptors. To roll their attacks we put 24 d20s into a frisbee to roll them all at once and then just took average damage.
"I don't like alternate rules"
Uses feats