Summon Lesser Demons: The Lesser of Two Evils

Usable By: Warlock, Wizard

Spell Level: 3

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 60 feet

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (a vial of blood from a humanoid killed within the past 24 hours)

You utter foul words, summoning demons from the chaos of the Abyss. Roll on the following table to determine what appears.

d6	Demons Summoned
1-2	Two demons of challenge rating 1 or lower
3-4	Four demons of challenge rating 1/2 or lower
5-6	Eight demons of challenge rating 1/4 or lower

The DM chooses the demons, such as manes or dretches, and you choose the unoccupied spaces you can see within range where they appear. A summoned demon disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The demons are hostile to all creatures, including you. Roll initiative for the summoned demons as a group, which has its own turns. The demons pursue and attack the nearest non-demons to the best of their ability.

As part of casting the spell, you can form a circle on the ground with the blood used as a material component. The circle is large enough to encompass your space. While the spell lasts, the summoned demons can't cross the circle or harm it, and they can't target anyone within it. Using the material component in this manner consumes it when the spell ends.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th or 7th level, you summon twice as many demons. If you cast it using a spell slot of 8th or 9th level, you summon three times as many demons.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Oh, summoning magic. What iconic tools built to be wildly overpowered. Summon Lesser Demons looks back at the sins of its predecessors (cough cough conjure anything cough cough) and tries to make clear differences that land it in a more “fair” space. It succeeds moderately, I think, but largely because the pool of demons you’re summoning from is much smaller, and have a more consistent low power for their CR.Oh, and all the demons summoned always want to kill you.

After rolling a d6, you get one of three outcomes: two CR 1 or lower demons appear, four CR ½ or lower demons appear, or eight CR ¼ or lower demons appear. The DM always picks what demons appear, meaning we’re back to the old fun conundrum of asking your DM to just have at the ready any and all demons that they’d have you summon. If your DM is just working out of the Monster Manual, we’re looking at only three options: One CR 1 option, quasits, one CR ¼ option, dretches, and one CR ⅛ option, manes. Between Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse there are a measly TWO additional options added: maw demons are another CR 1 option, and abyssal wretches are another CR ¼ option.

Because you don’t control any of the demons, most of the time what you can expect out of them is a series of attacks against things nearby. This leads it to be more of a combat tool with possible repercussions if things go too well over a tool to get access to a bunch of free combatants on your side.

Because no CR ½ demons exist, rolling a 3 or 4 on the d6 means outside of your DM coming up with their own CR ½ demons, you’re stuck with CR ¼ or lower demons anyway, making it strictly worse than rolling a 5 or 6 if you’re looking to get as many actions out of these as possible. However, some fights you’ll actually be hoping for less; four demons may be the exact right amount you’d want to hamper an opposing force. Should eight turn up instead, you risk facing off against your own demons in the end.

The major noteworthy abilities any of these demons have are dretches’ fetid cloud and the quasists’ scare and invisibility. While normally those kinds of abilities would be admirable on summonable monsters, because they hate you and your friends as much as every other non-demon around them, they can add a major hiccup to casting. Dealing with a pissed off invisibile quasit for an hour after the fight doesn’t quite kill it can be a major road bump you may want to avoid when able.

Flavorfully, I consider Summon Lesser Demons an absolute win. It's fun, exciting, and far more restrained in power than basically all of the summoning magic that came in the PHB. In practice, I doubt you’ll want this too often on your sheets if you’re aiming for a powerful tool that is both reliable and manageable. Summon Lesser Demons asks a lot out of your DM, and when overused, can lead your other party members to resent longer fights that involve cleaning up your demons' little messes. If you are really into the idea, I’d keep that in mind, and use it sparingly.

5e Spells

Summon Lesser Demons: The Lesser of Two Evils