Summon Elemental: All That Matters

Usable By: Druid, Ranger, Wizard

Spell Level: 4

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 90 feet

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (air, a pebble, ash, and water inside a gold-inlaid vial worth at least 400 gp)

You call forth an elemental spirit. It manifests in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. This corporeal form uses the Elemental Spirit stat block. When you cast the spell, choose an element: Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. The creature resembles a bipedal form wreathed in the chosen element, 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 5th level or higher, use the higher level wherever the spell’s level appears in the stat block.

Elemental Spirit

Medium elemental

Armor Class: 11 + the level of the spell (natural armor)

Hit Points: 50 + 10 for each spell level above 4th

Speed: 40 ft.; burrow 40 ft. (Earth only); fly 40 ft. (hover) (Air only); swim 40 ft. (Water only)

STR: 18 (+4) DEX: 15 (+2) CON: 17 (+3) INT: 4 (−3) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 16 (+3)

Damage Resistances: acid (Water only); lightning and thunder (Air only); piercing and slashing (Earth only)

Damage Immunities: poison; fire (Fire only)

Condition Immunities: exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, unconscious

Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages: Primordial, understands the languages you speak

Challenge: —

Proficiency Bonus: equals your bonus

Amorphous Form (Air, Fire, and Water Only). The elemental can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Actions

Multiattack. The elemental makes a number of attacks equal to half this spell’s level (rounded down).

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10 + 4 + the spell’s level bludgeoning damage (Air, Earth, and Water only) or fire damage (Fire only).

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 Elemental gives you four options (as you’d expect): Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. These all start with 50 hit points for a 4th level summon, one of the highest you can get, and get a bunch of varied resistances and immunities between them. Air, fire, and water, all have amorphous form, letting them move into tiny spaces, while earth gets a 40 ft. burrow speed to compensate. Air gets a 40 ft. hover fly speed, water gets a 40 ft. swim speed, and fire deals fire damage with its slam attack. Those are basically all of the differences between them.

I’m actually really disappointed they didn’t give them the actual elemental abilities the main four elementals get. All of these feel very similar, to the point where fire will just feel worse than the others because it doesn’t even have a special speed. Fire elementals typically have illumination, fire form, and deal a bit more damage than their counterparts to compensate. Here, you’re just getting a vanilla, heat-less fire elemental, which is lame. Water elementals don’t have whelm or freeze, and air elementals can’t even blow a Gust of Wind.

I would have loved to see earth glide instead of the burrow speed for earth elementals, but of all the changes, the burrow speed at least opens up some new doors. While it isn’t quite the tunneler trait you see on giant purple worms, some environments may give you an opportunity to dig tunnels with the burrow speed the group can use.

Summon Elemental is one instance where the simplification I think went a bit too far. This could have replaced Conjure Elemental outright in the next PHB if it just was a level higher and actually gave you a tool to conjure meaningfully different elementals. Now, the major differences are their speeds, and that isn’t enough when Summon Beast does that for two levels less. Sure, the sizes are different; you’ll sometimes want an air elemental to fly a small character around, but that’s not enough meaningful upside to justify it for me. Even with my complaints, it still is a free bunch of attacks every round with useful immunities and a good chunk of HP. It doesn’t do enough for me to take it over other summon effects, but for its slot compared to non-summoning spells, it’s still worth it.

5e Spells

Summon Elemental: All That Matters

Elemental Spirit

Actions