Summon Fiend: The Devil You Know
Spell Level: 6
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 90 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
Components: V, S, M (humanoid blood inside a ruby vial worth at least 600 gp)
You call forth a fiendish spirit. It manifests in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. This corporeal form uses the Fiendish Spirit stat block. When you cast the spell, choose Demon, Devil, or Yugoloth. The creature resembles a fiend of the chosen type, which determines certain traits in its stat block. The creature disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.
The creature is an ally to you and your companions. In combat, the creature shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It obeys your verbal commands (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any, it takes the Dodge action and uses its move to avoid danger.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, use the higher level wherever the spell’s level appears in the stat block.
Fiendish Spirit
Large fiend
Armor Class: 12 + the level of the spell (natural armor)
Hit Points: 50 (Demon only) or 40 (Devil only) or 60 (Yugoloth only) + 15 for each spell level above 6th
Speed: 40 ft., climb 40 ft. (Demon only), fly 60 ft. (Devil only)
STR: 13 (+1) DEX: 16 (+3) CON: 15 (+2) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 16 (+3)
Damage Resistances: fireDamage
Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages: Abyssal, Infernal, telepathy 60 ft.
Challenge: —
Proficiency Bonus: equals your bonus
Death Throes (Demon Only). When the fiend drops to 0 hit points or the spell ends, the fiend explodes, and each creature within 10 feet of it must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC. A creature takes 2d10 + the spell’s level fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Devil’s Sight (Devil Only). Magical darkness doesn’t impede the fiend’s darkvision.
Magic Resistance. The fiend has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. The fiend makes a number of attacks equal to half this spell’s level (rounded down).
Bite (Demon Only). Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d12 + 3 + the spell’s level necrotic damage.
Claws (Yugoloth Only). Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 + 3 + the spell’s level slashing damage. Immediately after the attack hits or misses, the fiend can magically teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.
Hurl Flame (Devil Only). Ranged Spell Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, range 150 ft., one target. Hit: 2d6 + 3 + the spell’s level fire damage. If the target is a flammable object that isn’t being worn or carried, it also catches fire.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything introduced a new way to handle summoning magic that looks like it’ll be the new way D&D handles summoned monsters. This is one of, if not THE best quality of life update it opened up. Each varies in spell level from 2nd to 6th level, but all of them share a common mechanic that makes them feel streamlined and easy to use while maintaining a bit of the flexibility the original conjure spells like Conjure Minor Elementals had. Because you’re getting just one, and it requires your concentration, immediately a lot of the problems bulk low CR summoning magic created vanishes. Instead, each offers you a unique set of tools you can somewhat tailor by situation that reflects the strength of the summoned creature type. If you love casting and using your spirit friend, the up-casting benefits scale pretty well, and can be major threats even in the upper tiers. If you’re just curious as to if they’re powerful or useful, the answer, regardless of summon, is absolutely. Some more than others based on their spell level, but you will consistently find they open up new ways to navigate encounters in a big way.
Summon Fiend is a 6th level option out the gate, a comparatively steep cost, and is limited to just warlocks and wizards. You get to pick between demon, devil, and yugoloth for your fiendish companion, giving you the full range of evil’s to play with. They each have varied speeds, hit points, and attacks that set them apart while sharing telepathy out to 60 feet and advantage on saves made against magic, which is pretty nifty.
Demons have the middle amount of HP (50), the death throes ability, a 40 ft. climb speed, and a 1d12 + 9 Bite attack. Death throes causes an explosion on death for 2d10+6 fire damage (scaling with spell level) which isn’t particularly exciting, and with the worst attack option, I think this won’t be one you pick often.
Yugoloths have a claw attack that teleports them around and the most hit points at 60. That’s more or less it; they’ll be attacking at least three times a turn, and each time they hit or miss, they can teleport a free 30 ft. That’s nifty, sure, and will alow them to excel at killing lots of small creatures scattered about, but with no other tools to work with, remains fairly weak compared to other summon options.
This leaves us with devils who come with Devil’s Sight to see through magical darkness, a 60 ft. fly speed, and a 150 ft. ranged 2d6 +9 hurl flame attack. These things hurt, and play incredibly well with the darkness warlock builds leveraging devil’s sight themselves. It won’t be particularly exciting, but devils can put out three 2d6+9 fire damage attacks for a 6th level slot, and do so with advantage when firing from magical darkness against anything without devil’s sight. The fly speed mitigates their lower HP, as it is pretty easy to have them hover out of range and away from foes while peppering them with three hurl flames a turn. If you’re going to summon a fiend, while not particularly exciting, devil’s are very good.
Summon Fiend doesn’t stand out to me from the other summon spells, but still gives you the “fiend summoner” fantasy. The unique abilities this summon stat block gets just isn’t that unique. It doesn’t offer a lot of tools other stat blocks don’t already have in an impactful way. Still, if you want summoning and like fiends, getting three 2d6+9 hurl flames a round (with advantage in magical darkness) is a lot of bonus damage a round for a 6th level spell slot.
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