Top 10 5E D&D Summoning Spells by a Factor of Three

Theros? But What About Your Favorite D&D Campaign Setting?!
Challenging Epic Heroes -- High Level 5E Monster Design from Monster Mastermind Ryan Servis

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted carefully conjure some conversation about summoning spells and effects in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. There’s 17 spells with the summoning tag in official 5E D&D sources according to D&D Beyond and of course untold numbers of homebrew and third party creations. Looking at homebrew summoning spells at DDB there’s currently 818 spells with the power to conjure things into existence. Unlike the analysis of illusion spells, this time we won’t limit the list to wizards. Spells that add more creatures into the mix can be challenging to manage for players and Dungeon Masters alike. But it’s also fun to play a conjurer or summoner. I played a character focused on summoning in an earlier edition and I had a great time organizing info and collecting miniatures for the various creatures they could conjure. There’s definitely a few homebrew summoning spells I discovered while writing this I would have enjoyed casting back then. So let’s look at the homebrew summoning spells at D&D Beyond and see what sorts of strange conjurations a spellcaster can call forth.

Summoning spells at D&D Beyond

It’s worth noting you can create homebrew content for private use and share your homebrew content publicly at DDB at no cost — there’s no subscription required to access these services. However if you want to add any of the homebrew magic items mentioned below or any other homebrew content you come across to your collection you must subscribe at the Hero Tier or above. There’s a lot you can do at DDB for free. Check out what you can do here.

The DDB homebrew collection uses several statistics to track entries. Views shows how many people looked at any particular homebrew creation, Adds shows how many times a creation was added to someone’s collection and Rating is an upvote/downvote system. I’m going to share the top 10 highest rated, most viewed and most added homebrew spells with the summoning tag.

Top 10 highest rating summoning spells

  1. Flash Mob. “All creatures within a 360 foot cube centered on the target will hear rhythmic uptempo music playing as the target begins an energetic choreographed dance.”
  2. Oozeundheit. “You sneeze forth a Gray Ooze at a creature or an unoccupied square that you can see within range.”
  3. Conjure Utensils. “You conjure a set of eating utensils, made up of a spoon, a fork, and a knife.”
  4. Create Clockwork Familiar. “Through diligent study and experimentation, you have discovered how to imbue life into a clockwork shell, allowing it to function as a familiar.”
  5. Army of the Dead. “As you scatter the spell component bones of this loathsome spell, undead creatures claw their way forth from the earth.”
  6. Pocket Dimension. “When you use this cantrip to store an item you create a pocket dimension that is a a miniature demiplane the size of a 5 foot cube.”
  7. A Fistful of Magic Daggers. “You summon four Magic Daggers in your free hand.”
  8. Abanellia’s Blood Needle. “A large, thin needle of corrupted blood forms in the air near the caster to be fired at a target.”
  9. Improved Find Familiar. “CR 1/8 or less @ 5th, CR 1/4 or less @10th, CR 1/2 or less @ 15th, CR 1 or less @ 20th.”
  10. Summon Spectator. “As part of casting the spell, the beholder eyestalks must be eaten.”

Top 10 most viewed summoning spells

  1. Improved Find Familiar.
  2. Summon Demon. “Casting the spell summons a demon after 1 hour, deals damage equal to half your max hp, reduces you max hp to 3/4 the original value.”
  3. Parley. “You wager your life in an attempt to establish contact with another creature.”
  4. Create Clockwork Familiar.
  5. Summon Undead. “You summon Undead that appear in unoccupied spaces that you can see within range.”
  6. Fey Spirit Companion. “You gain the companionship of a Fey Spirit that appears as a pixie made of rapidly shifting, multi-colored, prismatic light.”
  7. Conjure Aberration. “You call forth an aberration, a horror from beyond mortal understanding.”
  8. Flash Mob.
  9. Conjure Demon. “You summon a demon that appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within range.”
  10. Summon Spectator.

Top 10 most added summoning spells

  1. Flash Mob.
  2. Army of the Dead.
  3. Create Clockwork Familiar.
  4. Pocket Dimension.
  5. Improved Find Familiar.
  6. Create Campsite. “You create a squadron of tiny unseen servants that create a campsite for you and your companions.”
  7. Oozeundheit.
  8. Abanellia’s Blood Needle.
  9. A Fistful of Magic Daggers.
  10. Conjure Utensils.

Summoning spells rising to the top

Using the same highly scientific method as previous analyses, taking into account ratings, views and adds here’s all of these DDB homebrew summoning spells in order from highest scoring to lowest.

  1. Flash Mob.
  2. Create Clockwork Familiar.
  3. Improved Find Familiar.
  4. Army of the Dead.
  5. Oozeundheit.
  6. Pocket Dimension.
  7. Conjure Utensils and Summon Demon
  8. Parley
  9. A Fistful of Daggers and Abanellia’s Blood Needle and Summon Undead
  10. Fey Spirit Companion and Create Campsite

Only two spells out of all three lists didn’t make it onto the final one. Summon spectator and conjure demon didn’t captivate players the way a choreographed dance routine can. The moment I spotted oozeundheit I knew it would be a personal favorite before even reading the description and I was right. All hail the ooze. The two cantrips on the list, pocket dimension and conjure utensils I like because they give a conjurer a theatrical flair, like sleight of hand but with real magic.

If I’m honest going in I anticipated many more creature summoning effects but it seems like a nice split with utility magic. More than a few spells I came across involve familiars or other sorts of persistent creatures. I’ve got to say I’m more than curious the origin of conjure tuber. What campaign scenario resulted in this spell’s creation?

Digiprove sealCopyright protected by Digiprove © 2020 Nerdarchy LLC
Follow Doug Vehovec:

Content Director


Leave a Reply