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Summon Lesser Demons and Conjure Animals both summon creatures of equal CR (with CA potentially summoning a single CR 2 creature where SLD cannot), however:

  • Conjure Animals summons creatures that are friendly, where Summon Lesser Demons does not.
  • Conjure Animals' summons will obey your commands, where Summon Lesser Demons' summons will not.
  • Conjure Animals can be upgraded by spending spell slots of level 5, 7 and 9, where Summon Lesser Demons is upgraded by spending spell slots of levels 6 and 8, and has no equivalent to CA's final spell slot upgrade.

When given the option to cast either spell, why would someone cast Summon Lesser Demons?

V2Blast
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Man_Over_Game
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    What are you using as your metric to compare? What are you trying to do with the summoned creatures? Or are you just asking what the purpose of Summon Lesser Demons is and not trying to do a comparison? – NotArch Feb 07 '19 at 17:20
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    @NautArch Any available method. If there is value in demons as a creature type, or demons have a particular trend in their statblocks that may prove useful that beasts don't, or any variant thereof. In terms of CR, spell slot spent, or the RAW of the spell, SLD is equal or worse, so in what scenario would I prefer SLD? – Man_Over_Game Feb 07 '19 at 17:52
  • How would you be "given the option to cast either spell"? They're for different classes. – Mark Wells Feb 07 '19 at 22:16
  • @MarkWells Multiclassing, scrolls, staves, or perhaps creating an NPC statblock. A level 10 character with 5 Druid and 5 Wizard might not be the most optimized but it's definitely plausible. – Man_Over_Game Feb 07 '19 at 22:56

2 Answers2

18

Summoning demons might be more useful than conjuring animals depending on the circumstances and desired results. For instance...

Demons are immune to poison

One trait that all demons have in common is that they are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition. If you are fighting against enemies which rely on poison damage and status effects, they will have a harder time against a bunch of demons than against a bunch of mundane beasts.

Demons are inherently scarier and do weird things

For the common person, hostile wild animals are certainly scary, but hostile demons are undoubtedly more so; and where animals will simply physically attack their foes, demons tend to have extra magical or unusual abilities which make them more versatile. If your goal is to create as much fear and chaos as possible, a squad of demons will do that job more effectively than a gaggle of beasts, even if, according to game statistics, they're actually equivalently dangerous. Where town guards might be confident enough to take on a boar or bear, they might flee in terror at the sight of a demon... even lesser ones.

It also provides the DM a convenient character option for villains to use, since summoning literal demons is a good way to paint an antagonist as obviously evil.

Carcer
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    Might also be worth considering the non-PC benefits eg villains summoning demons. – Rubiksmoose Feb 07 '19 at 18:02
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    Demons often also have speech, intelligence, and thumbs, a big help in actually doing things. I can summon a demon to work on my taxes, try that with a squirrel. – John Feb 07 '19 at 20:31
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    @John the demons summoned by the spell, though, are explicitly hostile to all creatures, including the caster; they only won't attack you if you stay within a circle of blood you create at the time of casting. – Carcer Feb 07 '19 at 20:37
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    @John have you ever seen a squirrel try to do taxes? It's nuts. – Rubiksmoose Feb 07 '19 at 20:37
  • @Carcer there are trade offs sure, but a summoned animal can't do much and making them follow command is not helpfuls since they won't understand your commands. – John Feb 07 '19 at 20:47
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    @John ... and the animals summoned by Conjure Animals are actually fey spirits in the form of animals, and follow your verbal instructions... – Carcer Feb 07 '19 at 20:50
  • @Carcer if they understand it, nothing in spell says they understand your language. Other spells life Find Steed implicitly grant the creatures language. https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/55110/communicating-with-conjured-creatures?rq=1 – John Feb 07 '19 at 20:51
  • @John On the contrary, 5e follows the rule of Specific Beats General when it comes to rules. Generally, fey do not understand you, but since Conjure Animals explicitly says they obey your commands, they must obey your commands, and any in-world narrative must follow suit. Whether this is some sort of compulsion or a special telepathy that allows them to understand you is up to the DM and his world, but the creatures obey your commands regardless of any language barrier. – Man_Over_Game Feb 07 '19 at 21:42
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    @DanielZastoupil Obeying your VERBAL commands only works if they actually hear and understand your commands. If the creature is separated from you for instance it does not magically follow commands yelled into the void. Find Familiar uses the same wording but explicitly state the creature has language and/or a telepathic communication. I did link the relevant question. This is also why things like animate object specify Mental commands. – John Feb 07 '19 at 22:03
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    @John you realise the answers in your linked question argue that the creatures will indeed follow instructions properly regardless of whether or not they can technically understand your language? If you believe that's not the case, maybe you should answer the question to that effect. – Carcer Feb 08 '19 at 08:59
  • Hmmm hostile to everybody why isn't summon lesser demon an XP mine then? – Joshua Jul 15 '21 at 17:54
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Yes it is worse

and it has a material component that is hard to come by, even for an evil caster.
Also you have virtually no control over what actually arrives with SLD.

Conjure Animals is a decent spell, but Summon Lesser Demons is usually not the best solution for any problem a wizard might face.

András
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