Planar Ally is a great model for conjuration spells, why aren’t there more like it?
I like Planar Ally. It escapes the weirdness that comes with, say, fey spirits appearing as beasts within range in a single combat round. It’s a much more traditional version of conjuration, where you call upon creatures to come to you and have to persuade them to help you. Here are a couple of strong points about planar ally and why other conjuration spells are harder to run:
The creature summoned is not obligated to help you. You have to persuade it or find use in its nature (if it is, say, a mindless rampaging death beast).
If it does help you and it joins your party, it takes a share of experience. I love this. One of the biggest issues with necromancers and conjurers is that big groups of minions take forever to run in combat and give one player a lot of ‘screen time.’ This discourages the party from having too active summons.
The player can’t summon the creature in the middle of combat. 10 minutes is not a long time, but it’s enough that players have to plan ahead if they want a summoned creature, rather than throw a wrench into the boss battle (if you’ve never had your players create summon multitudes of creatures in the middle of a big combat, you are lucky).
The GM has the final say. The player doesn’t have absolute control over which creatures they summon, what kind of help they’ll get, or what the cost will be. This is very important for the purposes of planning a campaign and managing player capabilities and resources.
I have to ask why in the world aren’t all the conjuration spells like this? It makes so much more sense both in terms of realism and simulation, and in terms of balance and game mechanics.
In any case, I created an example conjuration spell modelled on Planar Ally:
CONJURE WOLVES
3rd level conjuration
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 60 ft
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You beseech the spirits of the area for aid. They send to you creatures of wolven spirit of any creature type, making the creature arrive during the casting time of the spell. If you know a specific creature’s name, you can speak that name when you cast the spell to request their presence, if they are nearby, though you might get a different creature anyway (referee’s choice). Example creature or packs might include:
A pack of 2d12 stray dogs (mastiffs)
A pack of 2d10 coyotes or jackals (jackals)
A pack of 2d8 wolves
A pack of 1d4 dire wolves and 2d4 wolves
A werewolf or wolfwere
A handful of jackalweres
A winter wolf or two
A death dog, blink dog, or hellhound
When the creature(s) appears, it is under no compulsion to behave in any particular way. You can ask the creature to perform a service, but it isn’t obliged to do so. Creatures wont accept tasks that are suicidal, but offers of payment (abstract or material) might cause them to acquiesce to your request.
After the creature(s) complete the task, or when the agreed upon duration of service expires, it returns to its home or home plane. A creature or group that joins your party receives a single share of experience.