Conjuration

Round Table 100 – That Old Black Magic

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A new episode of my podcast, The Round Table, is up on The Tome Show’s website.

I sit down with Sam Dillon, Allison Rossi, and Joe Lastowski to discuss the latest Unearthed Arcana article, “That Old Black Magic,” which brings demonic tieflings and demon conjuring spells into fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons. This podcast was recorded on December 20, 2015.
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Summoning Big Fiends

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Let’s be buds.

Big time summoning rituals are part of many Dungeons and Dragons games. I’m not talking about the conjure elemental and conjure celestial spells in the Player’s Handbook. Nor am I talking about the summoning spells I created for fifth edition D&D. I’m talking about the magic we read about in novels which bring pit fiends, balors, and more into the Material Plane. This magic is costly, rare, dangerous, and time-consuming. Unfortunately complex rituals like this don’t have rules players can use in fifth edition… until now! These rituals don’t just summon powerful creatures. They could also be used to raise undead armies, grow castles from the earth, or create a frosty, horrible Winter for an entire region of a country.

Why give PCs access to such powerful magic? Well for one thing it gives them a way to spend some of the gold they seem to accidentally stock pile in fifth edition. For another it allows them to go questing for specific ritual ingredients. Most importantly this magic invites players to gain a significant amount of power but only by risking life and limb. I like bringing those kinds of high risk, high reward mechanics into my games.

PCs and NPCs alike can access these complex rituals, but they must have all the components in exactly the right place. This isn’t the kind of spell they can cast each and every day. That’s by design. The rituals are meant to be fun, but not completely break the game.

So without further adieu here’s the rules for the complex fiend summoning ritual in my game. More of these rituals will follow. Stay tuned!

Complex Rituals

Certain magic spells are too powerful to be cast in the normal way. Summoning creatures of great power, raising undead armies, and calling forth castles from the earth are examples of magic that goes beyond a simple spell. This magic is known as a complex ritual.

All complex rituals require certain components, described below.

Casting Time

Most rituals have a casting time of 1 hour or longer. The ritual leader must maintain concentration during this time. If the ritual leader’s concentration is broken, the spell fails and any spent sacrifices at the time of broken concentration are consumed.

Environmental Conditions

Each complex ritual requires specific environmental conditions. These could include time of day, weather, phases of the moon, and location. For instance a ritual to raise an army of the dead might have to take place after the sun goes down in a graveyard during a full moon.

Focuses

Focuses are material items needed to cast the ritual which are not consumed during the process of casting.

Sacrifices

Sacrifices are materials needed to cast the ritual which are consumed during the process of casting.

Recipe

This recipe outlines the specific steps taken to cast the ritual. Any ability checks related to the ritual are mentioned here. It is recommended that the DM make the character’s ability checks for them and keep the result secret.

Effect

The complex ritual’s effects are listed along with its duration. Most rituals have a variable duration.

Greater Effects

Some complex rituals can be cast to greater effect – summoning more powerful creatures, raising larger numbers of undead, etc. Achieving these greater effects often requires more cost and more risk.

Conjure Greater Fiend

Casting Time: 4 hours

Environmental Conditions: The ritual must take place after the sun has completely set and finish being cast before the sun rises.

Focuses: A fiendish mask made of animal bones and gems worn by the ritual leader (worth 4000 gp), a brazier made of a pure gold washed in the blood of fiends (worth 4000 gp), a set of unholy handbells forge from cold iron and rubies (worth 1000 gp), an unholy dagger carved from the bone of a fiend (worth 1000 gp), and the written unholy incantation for this ritual (worth 5000 gp)

Sacrifices: 13 candles made from wax mixed with fiend blood (worth 100 gp each), 13 sticks of incense made from corpse flowers (worth 200 gp each), a cask of celestial blood (worth 1000 gp), and a goat, pig or similar animal

Spell Slot Consumption Number: 10

Recipe
  1. The ritual leader begins chanting the incantation and name of the fiend being called forth. If the ritual leader does not know the fiend’s name, instead the name of a specific type of fiend (e.g. yochlol) is chanted. This fiend must have a challenge rating 10 or lower.
  2. Light and begin burning all the unholy candles in a 30-foot-radius circle. These must burn during the entire ritual or it fails.
  3. Light the incense in the unholy brazier. The incense must burn during the entire ritual or it fails.
  4. In the circle of candles, draw the unholy symbol indicated in the incantation using the celestial blood. The creature who does this must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check. If the creature fails this check the fiend summoned as normal in step 7, but can escape the circle and is not under the ritual leader’s control. The fiend is hostile toward the ritual leader and its allies.
  5. Ring the unholy handbells in the exact sequence indicated by the incantation. The creature ringing the bells must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma (Performance) check. If the creature fails this check, it can try again one more time. A second failure means the ritual fails.
  6. Inside the circle, kill the animal using the unholy dagger. Leave its body there and the ritual leader should continue to chant.
  7. After three hours of chanting, if the other steps were completed correctly, the fiend should appear in the circle. If the circle of celestial blood was made properly, the fiend cannot leave the circle of candles. The ritual leader must continue to chant the incantation for one more hour. If something disrupts the caster’s concentration, the circle of celestial blood, the candles, or the incense during this final hour, the fiend is able to leave the circle and is not under the ritual leader’s control. The fiend is hostile toward the ritual leader and its allies.
Effect

Once the ritual is complete, the fiend is friendly to the ritual leader and its companions. Roll for initiative for the fiend, is has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands the ritual leader issues to it (no action required by the lead caster) as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If the ritual leader issues no commands to the fiend, it defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no action.

As an action the ritual leader can release the fiend from its control and return the fiend to the place from which it was summoned.

Every 24 hours the fiend is under the ritual leader’s control, the ritual leader must make a Constitution check (DC 10 + the number of days since the ritual was completed). Failing this Constitution check means the ritual leader suffers one level of exhaustion, which cannot be restored in any way until the fiend is no longer under its control.

If the ritual leader dies before dismissing the fiend, the fiend does not return to the place from where it was summoned and becomes hostile toward the ritual leader’s allies (and the ritual leader if returned to life).

Greater Effects

Using this complex ritual you can summon a fiend with a challenge rating higher than 10 up to 20. For every number of the challenge rating higher than 10, add another candle, stick of incense, cask of celestial blood, and animal consumed by the ritual. The DCs for the Intelligence (Arcana) and Charisma (Performance) checks made during the casting of the ritual increase by 1 for every number of the creature’s challenge rating higher than 10.

PDF

If you’ve been following this blog, you knew this was coming. Take the rules for complex rituals and conjure greater fiend  with you wherever you go in the handy PDF below.

Complex Rituals

You can pick up that PDF whenever you like over in the Free Game Resources section of this site. If you go there feel free to also explore the backgrounds, magic items, monsters, D&D fifth edition rules modules, spells, adventures, and more I have made for fifth edition D&D.

Feedback please!

What do you think of these complex ritual rules? Do you want to see more of them? What would you change? Sound off in the comments below! I hope to show off more of these at a future date.

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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The Conjuring

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Throughout fantasy’s history summoning creatures to do one’s bidding has been a big part of the genre. Throughout Dungeons and Dragons‘ history spells like summon monster have served conjurers and conjurees alike elevating both to levels of notoriety they may not have achieved otherwise. While the Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook does present us with a variety of conjuration spells, the net cast on creature summoning is not nearly wide enough for me. So I present to you a bunch of new conjuration spells so you can summon creatures into battle!

I like my conjuring to be high risk high reward, so you’ll see some powerful creatures casters can lose control of in the descriptions below.

New Spells

Cleric Spells

4th Level

Conjure minor fiends (conjuration)

8th Level

Conjure fiend (conjuration)

Druid Spells

3rd Level

Conjure plants (conjuration)

Ranger Spells

3rd Level

Conjure plants (conjuration)

Sorcerer Spells

5th Level

Conjure slaad (conjuration)

9th Level

Conjure dragon (conjuration)

Warlock Spells

4th Level

Conjure minor fiends (conjuration)

5th Level

Conjure oozes (conjuration)

8th Level

Conjure fiend (conjuration)

Wizard Spells

1st Level

Conjure monstrosity (conjuration)

4th Level

Conjure minor fiends (conjuration)

5th Level

Conjure oozes (conjuration)

Conjure slaad (conjuration)

8th Level

Conjure fiend (conjuration)

9th Level

Conjure dragon (conjuration)

Conjure Dragon

9th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon a dragon of challenge rating 9 or lower, which appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The dragon disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The dragon is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the dragon, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you), as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If you don’t issue any commands to the dragon, it defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions.

If your concentration is broken, the dragon doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the dragon, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled dragon can’t be dismissed by you, and it disappears 1 hour after you summoned it.

The DM has the dragon’s statistics.

Conjure Fiend

8th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon a fiend of challenge rating 8 or lower, which appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The fiend disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The fiend is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the fiend, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you), as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If you don’t issue any commands to the fiend, it defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions.

If your concentration is broken, the fiend doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the fiend, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled fiend can’t be dismissed by you, and it disappears 1 hour after you summoned it.

The DM has the fiend’s statistics.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a 9th-level spell slot, you summon a fiend of challenge rating 9 or lower.

Conjure Minor Fiends

4th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon fiends that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Choose one of the following options for what appears:

  • One fiend of challenge rating 2 or lower.
  • Two fiends of challenge rating 1 or lower.
  • Four fiends of challenge rating 1/2 or lower.
  • Eight fiends of challenge rating 1/4 or lower.

A fiend summoned by this spell disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures, which have their own turns. 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 DM has the creatures’ statistics.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain higher-level spell slots, you choose one of the summoning options above, and more creatures appear: twice as many with a 6th-level slot and three times as many with an 8th-level slot.

Conjure Monstrosity

1st-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon a creature with the monstrosity type of challenge rating 1 or lower, which appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The creature disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The creature is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the creature, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you), as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If you don’t issue any commands to the creature, it defends itself from other hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions.

If your concentration is broken, the creature doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the creature, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled creature can’t be dismissed by you, and it disappears 1 hour after you summoned it.

The DM has the creature’s statistics.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the challenge rating increases by 1 for each slot level above 1st.

Conjure Oozes

5th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon oozes that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Choose one of the following options for what appears:

  • One black pudding.
  • Two ochre jellies.
  • Two gelatinous cubes.
  • Eight gray oozes.

An ooze summoned by this spell disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures, which have their own turns. 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 DM has the creatures’ statistics.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain higher-level spell slots, you choose one of the summoning options above, and more creatures appear: twice as many with a 7th-level slot and three times as many with a 9th-level slot.

Conjure Plants

3rd-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon fey spirits that take the form of plants and appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range. Choose one of the following options for what appears:

  • One plant of challenge rating 2 or lower.
  • Two plants of challenge rating 1 or lower.
  • Four plants of challenge rating 1/2 or lower.
  • Eight plants of challenge rating 1/4 or lower.

Each plant summoned by this spell 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 for the duration. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures, which have their own turns. 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 DM has the creatures’ statistics.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain higher-level spell slots, you choose one of the summoning options above, and more creatures appear: twice as many with a 5th-level slot, three times as many with a 7th-level slot, and four times as many with a 9th-level slot.

Conjure Slaad

5th-level conjuration

Casting Time: 1 minute

Range: 90 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You summon a red slaad, which appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The slaad disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The slaad is friendly to you and your companions for the duration. Roll initiative for the slaad, which has its own turns. It obeys any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you), as long as they don’t violate its alignment. If you don’t issue any commands to the slaad, it defends itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise takes no actions.

If your concentration is broken, the slaad doesn’t disappear. Instead, you lose control of the slaad, it becomes hostile toward you and your companions, and it might attack. An uncontrolled slaad can’t be dismissed by you, and it disappears 1 hour after you summoned it.

The DM has the slaad’s statistics.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain higher-level spell slots you can summon a different type of slaad. You can summon a blue slaad using a 7th-level slot, a green slaad using an 8th-level spell slot, and a gray slaad with a 9th-level slot.

Have a PDF. You Earned It!

As usual, I wouldn’t just leave you with this information in a blog post. Why not have it in a PDF you can download and keep forever and ever and ever? So you can grab these spells in the link below or head on over to the Free Game Resources of this site where you can find rules modules, magic items, monsters, and more for your game.

Conjuration Spells

If you like what you’re reading, please check out my podcasts on The Tome Show, follow me on Twitter, tell your friends and share this blog post, and/or leave me a comment and let me know you think. Thanks!

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