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The Binder's Summon List and Spellbook
« on: February 28, 2013, 07:31:17 PM »
The Binder’s Summon List and Spellbook


"You want me to open a door?  That's it?  Oh.  And lift the chair too."

At level 10 (it is of course assumed that all binders have the Improved Binding feat and can thus bind level 6 vestiges at EBL 10), binders get access to Zceryll, which gives them the Summon Alien ability.  This is a supernatural ability, it defaults to a standard action, is usable once every 5 rounds, and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity or a concentration check.  It allows the binder to summon any creature from the summon monster list that a sorcerer of her level could summon.  The creatures summoned all gain the pseudonatural template.  Since they are summoned by a supernatural ability, dispel magic cannot dismiss these summons.  The two limitations on the ability are that once used, it can’t be re-used for five rounds, and the binder cannot summon anything that could not have the pseudonatural template applied to it, which basically means, only incorporeal things are ineligible.  Another major advantage that a binder has is that while a caster with these spells often has to choose between summons, a binder doesn’t.  They can summon any creature that a sorcerer of her level could summon, so a binder doesn’t have to choose between creatures like a sorcerer or wizard would.  Only occasionally is this significant, but when it is it’s pretty nice.

Note: By RAW, the summon has no duration.  It allows the binder to summon a creature from the summon monster list, but there is no wording of duplicating summon monster, and no duration listed in the text of the ability.  By RAW, the creatures thus summoned stay around until banished or killed.  Note that this is a really bad interpretation.  It also causes problems for the binder, because by this interpretation, there is also no wording that gives the binder any sort of control over the summoned monster.  They are capable of summoning the monster, but it is under no compulsion to follow the binder’s directions.  Therefore, because this interpretation would be of use to no one, it is suggested that this be ignored, and the ability treated exactly as summon monster, with the same duration as a sorcerer of your effective binder level. 
Note to DMs: By all means, however, if your player insists that the summon has no duration, agree then point out this little caveat; that it also grants no explicit control over the summoned monster.

Summoned monsters have many useful abilities at their disposal.  I’ve found the Legal 3.5 Summonable Monster List, which I have to credit since it’s been my main reference to see what additional monsters can be summoned, but it’s not tailored to the Binder’s particular list of pseudonatural creatures, and its write-ups and commentary are aimed at actual casters that have limited spells per day.  My intention here is to list the summons and include book and page references for them to make looking them up faster, as well as add commentary tailored to the binder, and list the spells the binder can gain access to by summoning these creatures and having them use their SLA’s.  The list may be somewhat useful to other casters, but it will intentionally omit any creature that cannot have the pseudonatural template applied to it, and it will judge the usefulness of these monsters based on the fact that a binder can summon them every 5 rounds indefinitely, rather than having to expend spell slots on them.  The alignment of these creatures is also ignored, since it is irrelevant to the binder.

All creatures with the pseudonatural template have a minimum intelligence of 3.  According to page 7 of the Monster Manual, "Any creature with an intelligence score of 3 or higher understands at least one language (Common, unless noted otherwise)."  That means that every single creature a binder summons can understand at least one language, even if they can't speak it, and they are therefore valid targets for Telepathy to communicate with.  A binder can always give specific commands to their summoned creatures in this manner.

It has also been brought to my attention that Rules Compendium changed the rules on spell-like ability casting times.  Any spell-like ability with a casting time greater than one standard action is, according to the entry on page 118 of the Rules Compendium, reduced to a 1 standard action casting time, unless specifically noted in the entry.  Some of my comments on high casting time spells therefore don't apply, and will be edited relatively soon.

Finally, it's also been brought to my attention that the Summoning subschool imposes restrictions on summoned monsters that I failed to take into account earlier.  There are apparently arguments as to whether the subschool's restrictions function against spell-like abilities.  The most concerning limitation is that "When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire."  Many DMs do not seem to observe this limitation, and if yours doesn't, that's all well and good.  If they do, however, you might argue the loophole that a spell-like ability is not actually a spell it the summoned monster has cast.  Or simply accept the ruling and realize that summoned monsters aren't ever going to be able to buff for more than rounds/level.  In any case, I'll be adding extra notes to all my entries over time in order to address this issue and adjust monster recommendations accordingly.  Do note, of course, that any spells with a duration of instantaneous are still perfectly useful from summoned monsters regardless of this - they have no effect that can expire.

Other useful resources:
Cagemarrow's excellent list of pseudonatural summon monster stat blocks makes it easy to come up with the stats of your newly summoned creature; he's done all the work of applying the template for you in most cases.
Pluto's guide, The Summoner's Desk Reference, has additional useful information and commentary.  It's tailored primarily toward those who cast the spells rather than to a binder, but still has a lot of good comments.

Discussion thread, for commentary, errors, and suggestions: Discussion: The Binder's Summon List and Spellbook

Acronyms:
CL: Caster Level
DC: Difficulty Class
DM: Dungeon Master
EBL: Effective Binder Level
RAW: Rules as Written
SLA: Spell-Like Ability

Summon Monster I
This list is available as soon as the binder gains EBL 10 and has access to Zceryll.

Fiendish Dire Rat|64 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Badger|268 and 31 Monster Manual
Celestial Dog|271 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Hawk|273 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Monkey|276 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Octopus|276 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Owl|277 and 31 Monster Manual
Celestial Porpoise|278 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Raven|278 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Snake, Small Viper|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Giant Fire Beetle|285 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Medium|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Scorpion, Small|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Spider, Small|288 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Crab, Small|141 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Diving Spider, Small|169 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Sea Snake, Small|170 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Elysian Thrush|118 Planar Handbook

Commentary on Summon Monster I
For a binder, nothing here is at all useful.  Really, I might as well not even have bothered putting this spell on the list; it’s here only for completeness’ sake.  None of these monsters have powerful special abilities, any spell-like abilities, or anything unique to recommend them at all.  Since a binder does not use spell slots, she has no need to use low-level slots on things of lesser importance; she can always summon her most powerful monsters and use them even for the most minor of tasks.

Summon Monster II
This list is available as soon as the binder gains EBL 10 and has access to Zceryll.

Baatezu, Lemure|57 Monster Manual
Celestial Riding Dog|272 and 31 Monster Manual
Celestial Eagle|272 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Shark, Medium|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Snake, Medium Viper|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Squid|281 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Wolf|283 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Giant Bee|284 and 31 Monster Manual
Celestial Giant Bombardier Beetle|284 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Large|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Scorpion, Medium|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Spider, Medium|288 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Diving Spider, Medium|169 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Sea Snake, Medium|170 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Clockwork Mender|30 Monster Manual IV
Ur’Epona|131 Planar Handbook
Nerra, Varoot|130 Fiend Folio
Kaorti|108 Fiend Folio

Commentary on Summon Monster II
These creatures are mostly useless to the binder because again, the binder can simply summon higher level things.  The clockwork mender has one ability worthy of note, even to the binder, in its ability to repair things.  Due to the limitation on teleportation and planar travel abilities inherent in summon spells, Ur’Epona unfortunately doesn’t provide the binder with an easy means of plane shift.  The Varoot again has a problem with the limitation on teleportation and planar abilities – if not for this, they would have some utility as scouts.  The Kaorti has useful spell-like abilities, the first ones that the binder might see much use for.

Clockwork Mender
This creature has one ability of note: its Repairing Touch ability repairs 1d8 points of damage to a construct or object, once per day.  Since a binder can use their summon ability every 5 rounds, for a warforged binder this can mean a 1d8 heal every 5 rounds without wasting any expendable resources.  For any other binder, it’s also a useful way to repair other objects or constructs when needed.

Kaorti
These creatures have several useful abilities that a binder might choose to summon one for.  They have several spell-like abilities that can be used both in and out of combat: alter self (CL2), color spray (DC15, CL2), feather fall (CL2), ray of enfeeblement (CL2), reduce (DC15, CL2), and spider climb (CL2).  The summoning subschool's limitation on spells cast by summoned creatures limits some of the usefulness further.  If a binder can summon the kaorti as a standard action mid-fall, then have it cast feather fall on her, it might save her, but this is an incredibly niche situation.  Reduce, which can presumably be assumed to become reduce person, can help a binder squeeze through a smaller space than they could normally fit, but the short duration due to summon subschool limitation must be kept in mind.  Spider climb similarly can be used to access a troublesome spot, as long as that spot can be reached before the summoning expires.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: Under this situation, spider climb and reduce person become considerably more useful; they last 20 and 2 minutes respectively, and the former can be used to access unusual locations and possibly hide in preparation for a soon-to-come ambush.

Summon Monster II Spell List
Color Spray|Kaorti (DC15, CL2)
Feather Fall|Kaorti (CL2)
Ray of Enfeeblement|Kaorti (CL2)
Reduce Person|Kaorti (DC15, CL2)
Spider Climb|Kaorti (CL2)

Summon Monster II Self-Only Spells
Alter Self|Kaorti (CL2)
Disguise Self|Varoot (DC14, CL12)
Mirror Image|Varoot (CL12)

Summon Monster III
This list is available as soon as the binder gains EBL 10 and has access to Zceryll.

Tanar’ri, Dretch|42 Monster Manual
Celestial Dire Badger|62 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Bat|62 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Weasel|65 and 107 Monster Manual
Elemental, Small|95 Monster Manual
Hell Hound|151 Monster Manual
Celestial Hippogriff|152 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Ape|268 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Black Bear|269 and 31 Monster Manual
Celestial Bison|269 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Boar|270 Monster Manual
Fiendish Crocodile|271 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Snake, Constrictor|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Snake, Large Viper|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Wolverine|283 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Huge|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Sea Snake, Large|170 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Nashrou|44 Monster Manual IV
Windblade, Windrazor|176 Monster Manual IV
Bariaur|165 Book of Exalted Deeds
Coure Eladrin|168 Book of Exalted Deeds
Guardinal, Musteval|174 Book of Exalted Deeds
Bacchae|18 Fiend Folio
Kalabon|121 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Commentary on Summon Monster III
Some of these monsters are starting to become potentially useful.  The small elementals have a few limited uses, such as earth glide on earth elementals, but the binder is unlikely to use this summon level’s elementals – small size might occasionally be useful for stealth if using them to scout, though. The coure eladrin is a tremendous little scout with a lot of usefulness – it’s not inherently incorporeal, but it can become so.  The musteval can be relied upon for a few spell-like abilities, to render the binder or an ally invisible, and to discover the presence of invisible monsters.  The bacchae is sadly barely worth mentioning – while it has good abilities, these have limited usefulness to the binder.

Elemental, Small
Some dungeon masters will argue that elementals are not corporeal; especially air elementals.  However, as far as I can determine, anything without the incorporeal subtype is by default, corporeal.  This means that elementals, lacking the incorporeal subtype, are valid targets for summon alien.  Small elementals are of limited usefulness.  Earth elementals are good for their earth glide ability, a fire elemental is useful for commiting arson, but generally speaking there are better creatures for most of these functions.  Plus, a binder will always have higher elementals available – medium elementals from Summon Monster V are available at the earliest level that Zceryll can be bound, so there’s likely no use for the small ones, unless one wants to send a small earth elemental through a wall and hope its size helps it hide from anything it’s scouting.  If the DM rules that elementals are incorporeal, though, these are off the list.

Eladrin, Coure
The coure is a highly useful summon for the binder – its natural form is corporeal, qualifying it for the pseudonatural template, but it is able to assume an incorporeal alternate form.  This makes them one of the best possible scout creatures to summon; a coure can pass through most walls and then report back to their summoner.  In addition to this highly useful ability, they have a few useful spell-like abilities: dancing lights (CL4), detect evil (CL4), detect magic (CL4), and faerie fire (CL4) are all usable at will, while magic missile (CL4) and sleep (DC13, CL4) are usable 3/day.  The latter two will rarely be of use to a binder, but the at-will abilities are all useful to one degree or another.  A binder should keep in mind that faerie fire doesn’t require an actual target.  If she suspects there’s an invisible or hidden creature lurking somewhere, a coure can light up 5-foot bursts and potentially catch the enemy in it.  Dancing lights is also highly useful as a signal.  By prearranging specific colors and patterns with allies, communication at significant distances can be achieved.

Guardinal, Musteval
The musteval, at 2HD, is still a useless summon for direct combat, but it possesses a number of potentially useful spell-like abilities: detect evil (CL3), detect magic (CL3), disguise self (CL3), magic missile (CL3), protection from evil (self only, CL3), and see invisibility (CL3) can all be cast at will, while it can cast invisibility (CL3) once per day.  Detect evil and detect magic along with see invisibility make the musteval a solid scout creature, and since they’re fully intelligent and able to speak, they can report back in detail about what they saw.  Summon duration limits this to a short distance ahead, but it can still be a tremendous boon.  Since it’s self only, their protection from evil is less useful than it otherwise might be, but could have some tactical uses.  And if nothing else, it makes them a little more survivable as a scout.  Since their invisibility spell is not self-only, a musteval can use this on the binder or a companion; the duration can be an issue, but even at the minimum level a binder will have to summon Zceryll, it will last a minute or more.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: The musteval's invisibility goes up in duration to three minutes, making it slightly more useful, but overall doesn't change much.

Bacchae
This summon has a solid list of offensive spell-like abilities, but they’re all limited use: charm person (DC12, CL7), and Tasha’s hideous laughter (DC13, CL7) can be used three times per day, while emotion (DC15, CL7) can only be used once per day.  The DC for these spells is low by the time a binder gets access to this summon.  Worse, the emotion spell has been split up into several different spells in 3.5, and it’s not clear which spell this would be replaced with.  Charm person makes the target friendly toward the caster, which in this case is the summoned bacchae, which complicates things even for the short duration the creature is around and the spell in effect…and if spell durations are ruled to expire independently of the summon, it’s just as bad, since the charmed creature is friendly toward the bacchae, not the binder.  And Tasha’s hideous laughter is an excellent spell, but with a DC of only 13, it’s unlikely to work well at the level the binder could be summoning the bacchae at.  Therefore, this summon does not come highly recommended.

Summon Monster III Spell List
Charm Person|Bacchae (DC12, CL7)
Dancing Lights|Coure (CL4)
Emotion|Bacchae (DC15, CL7)
Faerie Fire|Coure (CL4)
Invisibility|Musteval (CL3)
Magic Missile|Coure (CL4); Musteval (CL3)
Scare|Dretch (DC12, CL2)
Sleep|Coure (DC13, CL4)
Stinking Cloud|Dretch (DC12, CL2)
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter|Bacchae (DC13, CL7)

Summon Monster III Self-Only Spells
Detect Evil|Coure (CL4); Musteval (CL3)
Detect Magic|Coure (CL4); Musteval (CL3)
Disguise Self|Musteval (DC12, CL3)
Protection from Evil|Musteval (CL3)
See Invisibility|Musteval (CL3)

Summon Monster IV
This list is available as soon as the binder gains EBL 10 and has access to Zceryll.

Lantern Archon|16 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Wolf|65 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Giant Eagle|93 and 31 Monster Manual
Howler|154 Monster Manual
Mephit|180 Monster Manual; 175 Sandstorm
Celestial Giant Owl|205 and 31 Monster Manual
Yeth Hound|260 Monster Manual
Celestial Lion|274 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Shark, Large|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Snake, Huge Viper|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Giant Praying Mantis|285 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Giant Wasp|285 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Spider, Large|288 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Eel|148 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Diving Spider, Large|169 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Sea Snake, Huge|170 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Guardinal, Cervidal|42 Monster Manual II
Storm Elemental, Small|48 Monster Manual III
Wrackspawn|182 Monster Manual IV
Yugoloth, Voor|193 Monster Manual IV
Arcadian Avenger|8 Monster Manual V
Carnage Demon|22 Monster Manual V
Tanar’ri, Gadacro|26 Monster Manual V
Rhek|181 Book of Exalted Deeds
Elemental Grue|153 Complete Arcane
Baatezu, White Abishai|110 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
Baatezu, Spinagon|136 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
Aoa Droplet|15 Fiend Folio
Demon, Skulvyn|54 Fiend Folio
Bloodbag Imp|98 Fiend Folio
Euphoric Imp|99 Fiend Folio
Filth Imp|100 Fiend Folio
Nerra, Kalareem|128 Fiend Folio
Yugoloth, Skeroloth|197 Fiend Folio
Lesser Nightmare|127 Planar Handbook

Commentary on Summon Monster IV
There are certainly a lot of creatures here, and several worth mentioning.  The Lantern Archon can provide illumination when needed through either its own light (which has no specified radius, so discuss with your DM) or its continual light spells.  Mephits have a variety of spells; gust of wind and wind wall are useful utility, but the sulfur mephit with haboob and stinking cloud definitely wins between them all.  The cervidal is useful for its poison detection and curing, and with the pseudonatural true strike and its CL of 20, it can also affect one enemy with dismissal almost guaranteed, making it pretty effective, and it has an anti-illusion ability that may or may not totally defeat spells like mirror image; it should, but RAW seems unclear.  The disgusting bloodbag imp provides a very strange sort of healing, its cousin the euphoric imp gives access to powerful illusions, if the binder can keep it under control and doing precisely as directed.  The elemental grue can dispel any spell any elemental spell of its element cast by a caster of its level or lower; it just needs to keep using free actions until it rolls a 20 on its dispel check.  And the gadacro may be one of the first broadly-applicable in-combat summons, as its 5-round no-save blind effect combined with pseudonatural true strike means that if it can sneak attack, it can blind something.

Lantern Archon
These guys are decent utility summons in order to see in the dark, and for a minor buff.  Their spell-like abilities are: aid, detect evil, and continual light.  All are at-will, and cast at CL3.  The Aura of Menace is worth mentioning, but the DC is too low to be useful to a binder; whenever they’re in combat, any hostile creature within a 20 foot radius must succeed at a DC12 will save or take a -2 penalty to attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon that generated the aura.  The DC is too low, and the archon too easy to hit for this to be particularly useful at the level a binder gains access to Zceryll, but this is something to keep in mind for all higher-level 'Archon' summons - they all have this ability, at varying DCs.  It should be noted that this is not a spell, and therefore unambiguously does not fall under the summoning subschool’s restriction of spells being dismissed when the summon expires; anyone affected by this will be affected for the full 24 hours if the archon gets dismissed without the target hitting it.  They’re also worth mentioning because of their magic circle against evil which is a constant effect they have surrounding them at all times.  They also have tongues in effect on them at all time, but this is of little concern to the binder with Zceryll, since that means having constant telepathy in order to communicate directly with anything that has a language.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: Continual light at will means being able to summon one of these guys and it can make anything glow, permanently, and since it’s an at-will spell-like ability, it has no material component cost, unlike the spell version.  Sell castings of it below-cost, and a binder can corner the market, make tons of money because in most places, everyone needs light, and make things better for people in the process.  Also good for the binder’s own stuff; she can keep a whole bunch of items enchanted with continual light and pull them out whenever lighting is needed.  One of these guys can cast it on every single one of a bag of marbles, for instance.  These lights can be used to mark a path, drop down dark places, a wide variety of useful applications – they’re pretty much free.  And since a binder can summon one of these guys at-will anytime, if she runs out, that’s no problem…she can pick up the nearest rock or pebble and summon one to enchant it.

Mephit
This is actually ten different summons – air, dust, earth, fire, ice, magma, ooze, salt, steam, and water.  There are six other mephit types that are missing from the Monster Manual description, one for each unmentioned Inner Plane: smoke, mineral, lightning, radiance, vacuum, and ash, and if stats exist for those (I have not seen any), it should be possible to summon them as well.  Each mephit comes with spell-like abilities, some of which are useful, others not so much.  All of these have use-limitations that make them once per summon, unless otherwise noted.  Air has blur (CL3) and gust of wind (DC14, CL6), the latter of which can be useful if dispersing a fog effect of some kind is needed.  Dust has blur (CL3) and wind wall (DC15, CL6), and the latter is nice if in order to prevent archers from hitting the binder, her allies, or an area.  Earth has soften earth and stone (CL6) and a change size ability.  The spell could be moderately useful in certain situations, but it doesn’t function on worked stone.  Still, a foundation can be destabilized with this.  Fire has scorching ray (DC14, CL3) and heat metal (DC14, CL6).  Ice has magic missile (CL3) and chill metal (DC14, CL6).  Neither of these has much to offer a binder by the time they get access to Zceryll.  The magma mephit has the odd ability to change into a pool of lava; it gains DR 20/magic, and can use its pyrotechnics (DC14) with itself as the source, but it’s implied that it can’t melt through ordinary stone, and there isn’t even damage listed for coming into contact with it.  This is likely to be of no real use, unless the DM rules otherwise.  Ooze has Melf’s acid arrow (CL3) and stinking cloud (DC15, CL6).  Unlike the dretch’s stinking cloud, the ooze mephit’s is actually likely to be somewhat useful; the DC is still low, but it lasts six rounds.  The water mephit has identical spell-likes – their only diverging point is their breath weapon, where ooze’s imposes a penalty to AC and saving throws, while water simply has more damage.  Steam mephits just have blur (CL3) and a 2d6 area damage ability that doesn’t directly copy a spell.
In addition to the Monster Manual mephits, there are also two mephits in Sandstorm.  The glass mephit has blur (CL3) and heat metal (CL3).  Unlike the Monster Manual mephits, the glass mephit can cast heat metal twice within a single summon period; not that that makes it any more likely to be useful.  The sulfur mephit, on the other hand, has haboob (DC15, CL6) and stinking cloud (DC15, CL6).  This makes it great for controlling vision and softening up enemies on the approach; haboob is a minute per level spell that’s essentially a ‘fog’ that also does 3d4 damage automatically, with no save, to anyone passing through it.  There’s a save for half damage if haboob is cast on top of someone, but none for those that voluntarily enter the cloud.

Guardinal, Cervidal
Although they only have 4 hit die, their spell-like abilities are cast at CL9.  That’s pretty nice for some of these spells: bless (CL9), command (DC14, CL9), detect poison (CL9), and light (CL9) at will.  Hold person (DC16, CL9), magic missile (CL9), and suggestion (DC16, CL9) once per day.  Command works out to DC 14, so there are better things to do in combat, but if a cervidal happens to still be summoned when combat breaks out, it can at least force a saving throw; there’s always the chance to fail.  Detect poison is a useful ability –a binder can always have a personal food checker at her disposal; she would be well advised to never eat or drink anything without summoning a cervidal to cast detect poison first.  Hold person has a somewhat respectable but still low DC of 16, but again, if a cervidal happens to be available in a fight, one might as well have him toss out the spell and force a saving throw.  Magic missile at CL9 will do 5d4+5 damage – not exactly impressive.  But if something incorporeal is being an annoyance and there are limited other means to harm it, it might be worth a summon in order to fire off as a force effect.  Suggestion is a useful spell to have at one’s disposal, even at DC16.
In addition to their spell-like abilities, cervidals also have a few ‘Horn Powers’ as they’re called.  These are supernatural abilities that function when they touch things with their horns.  Neutralize poison (CL20) and remove disease (CL20) are extremely useful abilities to have on tap.  If a binder failed to summon a cervidal to detect the poison, she can summon one afterward to neutralize it.  And they can cure a variety of diseases.  They can also dispel illusions; this ability functions as a targeted dispel magic (CL20) vs. the illusion.  It’s a little unclear on how it works.  For instance, if an enemy has greater mirror image cast and the cervidal attacks with its horns, hitting the illusion…does the dispel illusions function trigger?  It sounds like it should, but the DM may decide that the horn attack needs to hit the actual subject of the spell.  The horns can also dismiss summoned and extraplanar creatures as if by a dismissal (DC18, CL20) spell.  It has to hit an enemy with its horns in order to manage the dismissal, but once again the pseudonatural template’s true strike ability comes in handy here, and should all but guarantee a successful hit.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: At CL9, bless is something a cervidal can be summoned to cast well before trouble is expected, since it lasts 9 minutes.

Bloodbag Imp
Bloodbag imps are one of the most disgusting things in the game.  It’s an imp that can be popped to drink its blood to regain one hit point per round, but neither the drinker nor the imp can take any other actions during the round.  The imp loses 2 hit points for each one the drinker regains, but it has regeneration so it’s only subdual damage for the imp.  It’s…not the most efficient method of healing, really.  It’s even a supernatural ability, so it can’t be used in an antimagic field or something (not that the summoned imp could enter such a field in the first place).  If there’s any other method of healing available, it’s probably better, unless one just really, really wants to gross someone out.  The only spell-likes the bloodbag has are of questionable usefulness, or they’re self only: detect good (CL6), detect magic (CL6), invisibility (self only, CL6), and vampiric touch (DC14, CL6).  The last of those is 1/day, the rest are at will.

Euphoric Imp
These guys are more useful than their bloodbag cousins.  They have a DC12 fort based sting attack that dazes the target for 2d6 rounds.  Probably not worth summoning them for, but if a binder happens to have one out for its other feature, it can at least force some saves…if it can hit (again, true strike is handy).  They also have spell-likes, almost the same list as the bloodbag, with one significant change: detect good (CL6), detect magic (CL6), invisibility (self only, CL6) and major image (DC13, CL6).  That last one is 1/day, but it’s also a pretty big deal, because being able to pull out a major image when it’s needed is significant.  But, there are potential pitfalls: the summoned imp is in control of the image, not the binder.  She’s got to keep it concentrating and make sure it does exactly what she want, and since it’s evil, the DM is likely to determine that if the binder gives it leeway in its instructions, it’ll try to screw her.  Fortunately Zceryll comes with telepathy, so if someone is summoning this guy she can telepathically instruct him rather than jabber to him while trying to fool someone.

Elemental Grue
These guys have an interesting ability.  Any spellcaster within 40 feet of them has to succeed on a DC15 caster level check in order to cast a spell of the same element as them.  So, a mage that is known to chuck fire spells, summoning up a fire grue can make those spells a little harder for him to cast.  Unfortunately, DC15 CL check is pathetically low for the level a binder gets to summon these guys at.  Also, any ongoing spell of their element near them, they can try to dispel as a free action, as if casting targeted dispel magic at CL10.  Now, this seems like an odd ability because they may as well have just said that it automatically succeeds if a CL10 dispel check can dispel it, because as a free action, the grue can just do it over and over again in the same round until it succeeds.

Tanar’ri, Gadacro
The gadacro might have enough abilities to make it useful in combat, if used effectively.  If it gets off a sneak attack or manages to crit, the enemy is blinded for 5 rounds, no save.  That’s pretty nice, and if there’s a way of making sure it can get those sneak attacks off, it’s a very solid debuff.  Since the binder’s summon alien ability makes anything it summons pseudonatural, it has a 1/day true strike ability, and it can use that to ensure that it hits on its sneak attack.  It’s also got an immediate action that can move it away from damage.  The wording is unfortunately less than clear; immediate actions are usually interrupts to the action that triggered them, but its ability is worded “If an gadacro takes damage from a melee attack, it can, as an immediate action, disappear…” which suggests that it actually needs to take damage and the immediate action can’t interrupt the attack that would have damaged it.  At the very least, this saves it from being full attacked, though.  Unless this ability falls under teleports or planar travel, and the DM decides that a summoned gadacro doesn’t get it at all.
In addition to the already strong no-save blinding debuff, the gadacro has earthbind (DC13, CL4) which grounds fliers if they fail their save.  It’s a low save, unfortunately, but if anything can be done to debuff the target’s fortitude save, it can significantly alter the balance of power in a fight involving flying enemies.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: The duration of earthbind goes up to four minutes, but if you manage to land this spell on a flying enemy, there’s rarely a reason it shouldn’t be dead in less than 10 rounds, so it doesn’t alter the spell’s effectiveness much.

Summon Monster IV Spell List
Aid|Lantern Archon (CL3)
Bless|Cervidal (CL9)
Burning Hands|Yugoloth, Skeroloth (CL4)
Charm Person|White Abishai (DC12, CL4)
Chill Metal|Ice Mephit (DC14, CL6)
Command|Cervidal (DC14, CL9); White Abishai (DC12, CL4)
Continual Light|Lantern Archon (CL3)
Daze|Yugoloth, Skeroloth (CL4)
Dismissal|Cervidal (DC18, CL20)
Dispel Magic|Aoa Droplet (CL7)
Earthbind|Tanar’ri, Gadacro (DC13, CL4)
Glitterdust|Salt Mephit (DC14, CL3)
Gust of Wind|Air Mephit (DC14, CL6)
Haboob|Sulfur Mephit (DC15, CL6)
Heat Metal|Fire Mephit (DC14, CL6); Glass Mephit (CL3)
Hold Person|Cervidal (DC16, CL9)
Jump|Yugoloth, Skeroloth (CL4)
Light|Cervidal (CL9)
Magic Missile|Cervidal (CL9), Ice Mephit (CL3)
Major Image|Euphoric Imp (CL6)
Melf’s Acid Arrow|Ooze Mephit (CL3); Water Mephit (CL3)
Neutralize Poison|Cervidal (CL20)
Produce Flame|Spinagon (CL3)
Pyrotechnics|Magma Mephit (DC14)
Remove Disease|Cervidal (CL20)
Scare|White Abishai (DC13, CL4)
Scorching Ray|Fire Mephit (DC14, CL3)
Soften Earth and Stone|Earth Mephit (CL6)
Stinking Cloud|Ooze Mephit (DC15, CL6); Water Mephit (DC15, CL6); Sulfur Mephit (DC15, CL6); Spinagon (DC14, CL3); Filth Imp (CL6)
Suggestion|Cervidal (DC16, CL9)
Vampiric Touch|Bloodbag Imp (CL6)
Wind Wall|Dust Mephit (DC14, CL6)

Summon Monster IV Self-Only Spells
Blur|Air Mephit (CL3); Dust Mephit (CL3); Steam Mephit (CL3); Glass Mephit (CL3)
Detect Chaos|Rhek (CL5)
Detect Evil|Lantern Archon (CL3)
Detect Good|Bloodbag Imp (CL6); Euphoric Imp (CL6); Filth Imp (CL6); Yugoloth, Skeroloth (CL4)
Detect Magic|Aoa Droplet (CL15); Bloodbag Imp (CL6); Euphoric Imp (CL6); Filth Imp (CL6)
Detect Poison|Cervidal (CL9)
Disguise Self|White Abishai (DC13, CL5); Baatezu, Spinagon (DC12, CL5)
Enlarge Person|Earth Mephit
Expeditious Retreat|Yugoloth, Skeroloth (CL4)
Invisibility|Bloodbag Imp (CL6); Euphoric Imp (CL6); Filth Imp (CL6)
Magic Circle against Evil|Lantern Archon (CL1)
Mirror Image|Tanar’ri, Gadacro (CL4); Nerra, Kalareem (DC13, CL12)
Tongues|Lantern Archon (CL14)

Summon Monster V
This list is available as soon as the binder gains EBL 10 and has access to Zceryll.

Achaierai|9 Monster Manual
Hound Archon|16 Monster Manual
Baatezu, Barbazu|52 Monster Manual
Fiendish Deinonychus|60 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Ape|62 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Boar|63 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Wolverine|66 and 107 Monster Manual
Elemental, Medium|95 Monster Manual
Celestial Griffon|139 and 31 Monster Manual
Celestial Sea Cat|220 and 31 Monster Manual
Shadow Mastiff|222 Monster Manual
Celestial Brown Bear|269 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Giant Crocodile|271 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Shark, Huge|279 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Tiger|281 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Giant Stag Beetle|285 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Scorpion, Large|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Crab, Large|141 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Barracuda|147 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Leskylor|177 Book of Exalted Deeds
Baatezu, Black Abishai|109 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells

Commentary on Summon Monster V
Well, this is it.  The highest level summon monster that’s available immediately upon gaining access to Zceryll.  It’s also the first level I bothered to write in commentary about combat monsters, because lower level ones are pointless to summon for combat.  The absolute star of this level is the leskylor, who has powerful combat applications along with flight and a slew of spell-like abilities, including healing with a single shot of cure moderate wounds.  Really, if this level consisted only of the leskylor, it still wouldn’t be a bad summon monster level for a binder.  The fiendish giant crocodile is the highest grappler at this level, but the monstrous crab has constrict.  Both are solid choices if something needs to be grappled.  The celestial griffon is totally outclassed by the leskylor.  The hound archon and barbazu are primarily choices for when there simply isn’t room to have a large monster on the field for combat.  The barbazu’s reach with its glaive, along with its 2hp/round bleeding damage make it the most effective summon in such places.

Hound Archon
This is a pretty decent summon for combat when a binder first gets access to Zceryll.  They carry greatswords and attack at +8 with 2d6+3 damage.  Their full attack also includes their bite.  They can cast aid at will at CL6, so they can buff themselves and others before combat.  And their magic circle against evil helps the whole party, assuming the enemies being faced are evil.  They have an Aura of Menace just like lantern archons, except the save is a more respectable DC 16 will save – a decent number of enemies are likely to fail this one.  All-around, the hound archon is a solid combatant for a binder at EBL 10-11.

Baatezu, Barbazu
The barbazu is another solid combatant for EBL 10.  It lacks any of the hound archon’s magical accompaniments, but brings with it a glaive that gives it 10 foot reach, and automatically causes 2hp/round of bleeding damage if it hits, without a saving throw.  It can also go into a battle frenzy, effectively raging like a barbarian; its +9/+4 full attack bumps up to +11/+6, does 1d10+5 damage, and gives it an extra 12 hit points to work with.  If the enemies the binder is fighting aren’t evil, this is almost definitely a better choice than the hound archon.  Even if they are evil, it’s still probably superior.  But as a Zceryll-bound binder, one doesn’t have to pick – summon the hound archon to buff, then summon the barbazu upon entering combat.  To be extra funny, make the archon buff the barbazu.

Elemental, Medium
We’re up to medium elementals, and…well, they still kind of suck.  There’s not a lot to say about these guys.  If a binder needs to summon an earth elemental for earth glide, or set things on fire, or put out fires, they’re here.  Otherwise, this is a very skippable summon at this level.

Celestial Griffon
The griffon has 20 feet slower move speed than a hippogriff.  In exchange, they’re a lot harder to knock out from under a rider, as they have more than twice the hit points.  They also have a solid attack at +11 and 2d6+4 bite damage, and two claws attacking at +8 with 1d4+2 damage, and they have pounce, rake, and a +15 grapple.  They’re a hardy summon that, if a binder finds herself fighting a flying opponent, can be sent after the target and expect to inflict some damage, and is even solid for fighting on land.  They are, however, overshadowed by the leskylor.  See below.

Fiendish Giant Crocodile
A bite at +11 attack, doing 2d8+12 damage makes these guys a credible melee threat, but for melee a binder is probably better off summoning something else.  This summon’s best feature is its +21 grapple check and improved grab.  So when it hits with that +11 attack and deals its damage, it also grapples the target.  When a binder needs somebody grappled at these levels, this is probably their best summon.

Fiendish Monstrous Crab, Large
Of course, while the giant crocodile has a better grapple check, the monstrous crab has Constrict.  If a +17 grapple check is enough for the situation, the monstrous crab will deal 2d8+5 damage every round while it’s got a target grappled.  So, the crab can pin the binder’s enemy and constrict them to death all at the same time.  This makes the monstrous crab a very solid choice for grappling when the absolute highest grapple check of the level isn’t needed.

Leskylor
The leskylor deserves a lot of special mention because it’s the only thing on the binder’s list at EBL 10 that can cast a healing spell.  It can cast cure moderate wounds once per day at CL6.  Since a binder can use summon alien once every five rounds with no limit, that means she can heal out of combat with no difficulty.  In-combat, since the spell is only once per day for the leskylor, it’s far less effective.  Not that they’re not a combat summon.  Indeed, if there’s room to summon a large creature, the leskylor is probably the premier combat summon at this level.  Everything I said about the griffon also goes for the leskylor, except it’s also got spell-likes, an intelligence of 15, the ability to communicate, a breath weapon, improved grab, flyby attack, and the touch of golden ice feat that causes any evil creature touched by them to succeed at a DC14 save or be hit with a 1d6/2d6 dex poison, on every attack.  Since the leskylor’s attack sequence is claw/claw/bite, that’s 3 saves per round if it connects with all its attacks.  There are other decent combatants at this level, but the leskylor far outstrips them all in ability.  An evil binder needs to be careful with it though, since touching it will force the poison saves on its summoner just as much as on enemies.

Summon Monster V Spell List
Aid|Hound Archon (CL6)
Cause Fear|Leskylor (DC12, CL6)
Charm Person|Black Abishai (DC12, CL5)
Command|Black Abishai (DC12, CL5)
Continual Light|Hound Archon (CL6)
Cure Moderate Wounds|Leskylor (DC13, CL6)
Eyes of the Avoral|Leskylor (CL6)
Hold Person|Leskylor (DC13, CL6)
Obscuring Mist|Leskylor (CL6)
Scare|Black Abishai (DC13, CL5)
Suggestion|Black Abishai (DC14, CL5)
Vision of Heaven|Leskylor (DC12, CL6)
Wrack|Black Abishai (DC16, CL5)

Summon Monster V Self-Only Spells
Blessed Sight|Leskylor (CL6)
Detect Evil|Hound Archon (CL6)
Disguise Self|Black Abishai (CL5)
Magic Circle against Evil|Hound Archon (CL6)
Message (CL6)|
Tongues|Hound Archon (CL6)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2013, 07:28:34 PM by Mnemnosyne »
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Offline Mnemnosyne

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Re: The Binder's Summon List and Spellbook
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2013, 07:42:46 PM »
Summon Monster VI
This list is available at EBL 12.

Chaos Beast|33 Monster Manual
Kyton|53 Monster Manual
Fiendish Elasmosaurus|60 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Dire Lion|63 and 31 Monster Manual
Eladrin, Bralani|93 Monster Manual
Elemental, Large|95 Monster Manual
Genie, Janni|116 Monster Manual
Xill|259 Monster Manual
Celestial Polar Bear|269 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Rhinoceros|278 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Snake, Giant Constrictor|280 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Orca Whale|283 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Gargantuan|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Spider, Huge|288 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Icthyosaur|145 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Diving Spider, Huge|169 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Storm Elemental, Medium|48 Monster Manual III
Inferno Spider|76 Monster Manual IV
Windscythe|177 Monster Manual IV
Yugoloth, Corruptor of Fate|190 Monster Manual IV
Baatezu, Gulthir|32 Monster Manual V
Guardinal, Equinal|173 Book of Exalted Deeds
Formian, Winged Warrior|78 Fiend Folio
Nerra, Sillit|129 Fiend Folio
Slaad, Mud|157 Fiend Folio
Baatezu, Green Abishai|109 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
Baatezu, Amnizu|112 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
Baatezu, Excruciarch|132 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
Elementite Swarm|114 Planar Handbook
Artaaglith|157 Ghostwalk

Commentary on Summon Monster VI
This is a great level for the binder.  There are a lot of interesting and useful spells available here, and the melee combatants are very solid.  The gargantuan fiendish monstrous centipede is a massive blocker and a great grappler.  The equinal has a decent amount of healing, provides the binder with dispel capacity, and provides the ability to reshape the terrain with walls of stone.  The amnizu is how a binder deals area damage at this level, and it has a useful int damage ability.  The excruciarch is a strong melee combatant with several solid abilities.  The rest of the level has a number of useful monsters for various purposes, such as bestow curse from the corruptor of fate.  The artaaglith deserves very special mention for its ability to give the binder not only a means of creating undead, but also creating very solid undead with the desecrate spell.  A binder may never make as great a master of undead armies as a dread necromancer or a cleric, but they’re not weak in that department, either.

Kyton
These guys aren’t great combatants, at least not directly.  They only have a +10 to attack, they only deal 2d4+2 damage on a successful hit.  What they do have is an ability to control chains around them, animating them into combatants that attack just as effectively as it does.  With one summon, a binder who carries some chains around can gain five independent sources of attacks and harassment to her enemies.  That might not be enough to highly recommend this summon, but it’s at least moderately useful.

Eladrin, Bralani
Not great melee combatants at this level, their attack bonus is comparable to the best attackers of the previous level of spell.  They do carry holy weapons, which can be useful under certain circumstances.  Their attacks are also always good-aligned.  Their at-will ability to cast wind wall can set up effective immunity from archers in all directions pretty easily, something the previous provider of that spell, the mephit, couldn’t do very well.  They’re also good healers at this level, with two castings of cure serious wounds.  Significant upgrade to the leskylor’s healing ability.  They can buff themselves up with mirror image and blur before going into battle, making them well-protected, but that does eat up two rounds of their summon time self-buffing.  They can also cast blur on others, which can be useful in combat.  As a final mention, their at-will gust of wind is great for dealing with enemy fogs, or dispersing fogs that the binder’s other summons have created when they’re no longer helpful.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: At CL6, blur lasts six minutes – a good pre-fight buff for the group in situations when the binder knows a battle is coming soon but not right away.

Elemental, Large
Elementals get a bit more useful at this level, because they finally get Large, but overall…they’re still not a spectacular summons.  They have slams at +12 or +10 depending on type, and they deal varying amounts of damage, but in no case are they spectacular damage dealers.  Even their grapple is weak, and if grappling is the order of the day, the next entry down is a much better choice.  The air elemental’s whirlwind ability becomes somewhat useful at this size, however, giving a DC16 reflex save to avoid being swept up and suspended within it.  Once suspended, only a flying creature can escape, but note that they can still act normally, except for a concentration check to cast spells, which includes attacking the air elemental.  However, the elemental can move them and deposit them wherever it likes (including carrying them straight up in the air) so this is a viable tactic against landbound creatures.  Other than this particular use, the elementals are still a not highly recommended summon.

Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Gargantuan
With a +27 grapple check, and occupying 20 feet of space, this guy is good if the binder needs something between her and her enemies.  Its actual attack isn’t horrible either; it has +11 to attack and deals 2d8+9 damage, along with a DC17 fort poison that does 1d8/1d8 dexterity damage.  Since they’re fiendish, they also have damage resistance, making them very hard to hurt.

Yugoloth, Corruptor of Fate
The bestow curse ability bears some commentary.  The line simply says ‘as the bestow curse spell’, but the more detailed explanation implies that only the 50% chance to take no action ability is available.  If the DM rules that’s the limit of their ability, it’s still a very solid debuff.  50% chance of doing nothing is very much worth inflicting on an enemy.  If the DM rules that it works as the bestow curse spell, this summon could theoretically inflict -6 to all ability scores, -4 penalty on attack rolls, ability checks, and saves, and the 50% chance to do nothing.  In combat this would be supreme overkill, and the enemy’s likely to be dead before all those curses can be inflicted. Outside of this ability, it has a gaze attack, acceptable but unspectacular melee for this level’s summons, and makes a great attack-sponge because enemies need to roll twice and take the worse attack roll when they attack it.  Assuming they can be gotten to attack it instead of a more useful target.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: If bestow curse can last its full permanent duration, there may be situations where cursing the crap out of something and leaving it alive might be useful.  For those situations, there’s the Corruptor of Fate. 

Baatezu, Gulthir
This thing is weird.  Its ray of enfeeblement is pretty much there to soften enemies up for its grapple and subsequent swallowing attack.  It swallows anything smaller than it (it’s Large) and immediately affects them with a no-save dominate monster.  At that point it can take a full-round action to barf them back up again, only now they’re dominated.  They get to make a will save at DC17 at the end of each round to break the spell, though, so it’s not quite as effective as a normal dominate monster.  If the enemy happens to be an evil outsider, the gulthir can attempt to digest them whole instead.  It takes a full-round action, the enemy gets a DC17 fortitude save, and if they fail, poof.  Immediately destroyed, and the gulthir gains temporary HP equal to the swallowed enemy’s full maximum hit points.  Very strange monster, but it can be occasionally useful.

Guardinal, Equinal
For this level, equinals are below-average combatants.  Their attack is only at +10, and they only deal 1d8+5 damage on it.  Their whinny ability is hazardous to the group since it affects all nonguardinals.  They also only have 6 hit dice, so even though they have 16 constitution, their average HP is a measly 31.  They are probably better healers than the bralani, though; they have lay on hands that can heal up to their HP in damage.  That’s basically 6d8+18 hit points of healing.  They also have wall of stone.  It’s once per day, which means only once every 5 rounds for the binder, but when there’s some time to prepare fortifications, infinite castings of wall of stone are very nice, since it is instantaneous and thus creates permanent walls of real stone.  Their 1/day slow is nice, if it lands, and can make them worthwhile summons in combat, though – the presence of a single save-or-suck spell can really bump up a creature’s effectiveness.  Fog cloud at will is decent to block off line of sight.  One of their strongest abilities as far as the binder is concerned may be their access to dispel magic at will; they provide the binder’s first access to an area dispel, as well as a ranged dispel.  They can also speak with animals as an always-on ability, and it functions telepathically rather than vocally.  In the event that the binder needs a translator for animals that don’t have a language (and thus aren’t valid to communicate with via telepathy), the equinal is probably a solid summon for the job.

Nerra, Sillit
The primary purpose of a sillit at this level would be if the enemy is casting, or likely to be casting, area of effect spells.  Nerra all have reflective spell resistance, and the sillit has the highest of all nerra.  Standing in the middle of the party, it will reflect area spells right back on their casters, and with its disguise self and mislead abilities, it can confuse enemies as to where it’s standing, causing them to hit it when they didn’t mean to.  Their weapons are also wounding, so if it gets the chance to enter melee, it may as well attack – it has a decent +12 attack bonus.  They also have the ability to cast false vision but since the summon will only last 12 rounds, this is very hard to make use of.  Unless the binder is aware that someone is going to be scrying on her within the next minute or so, making use of this would require summoning a sillit once every minute, instructing it on what image to craft with its spell, then having it cast the spell.  Over and over, all day long.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: The sillit’s false vision spell-like ability becomes useful in this situation.  If a binder thinks she’s going to be being scried upon, summoning a sillit to cast false vision regularly wherever she’s staying is a decent security precaution.

Baatezu, Amnizu
The amnizu is a baatezu worth summoning.  They can toss three quickened fireballs doing 10d6 damage each, they have regeneration overcome by acid or good, and their melee attack is at +10, does 2d4 damage…and forces a DC19 will save or it does 2d4 int damage on top of the physical damage.  This is pretty much guaranteed to drop the biggest, baddest animal in a single hit since most animals have terrible will saves, and since these guys will be pseudonatural, at least one hit is effectively guaranteed due to true strike.  They work just fine against more intelligent foes, too.  Summon one and send it after enemy spellcasters, who will have to put attention into dealing with it or risk losing their intelligence.  Even wis or charisma based casters need to worry, because if they’ve dumped intelligence, it could only take two hits to knock them into a coma.

Baatezu, Excruciarch
This is probably this level’s top melee combatant.  It has 10 foot reach, attacks at +15/+10, dealing 2d4+7 damage, critting on a 19-20, and each attack forces a DC15 fortitude save or the target loses its move action in the following round.  It also has a 10 foot aura that causes everything near it to make a DC15 will save at the end of every one of its turns, or take 1d6 damage.  For every 10 damage it deals in one round, it gains a +1 bonus on attacks, saving throws, and skill checks in the next round.  And against targets with damage reduction, it can use a move action to ignore damage reduction for the rest of its turn.  Its three cure moderate wounds are worth mentioning, and it also has wave of grief that gives enemies in a 30 foot cone a -3 to attacks, saves, skill checks, and ability checks.

Elementite Swarm
Swarms just deal damage when they enter their enemies’ space.  These swarms deal 2d6 damage.  The pseudonatural template stacking on top being elementals and having swarm traits gives them a lot of immunities.  All swarms except fire force a save on any creature that starts its turn in the same square, and failure means being nauseated for a round.  The air swarm can trip opponents, but the water swarm has the best special attack – it immediately begins drowning the target, which means immediately making constitution checks every round, starting at DC10.  As soon as the subject fails one, it’s lights out.  Two rounds more guarantees death.  A very good summon for taking out pretty much anything that needs to breathe, and one that might well remain a staple of the binder’s summon list all the way into much higher levels.

Artaaglith
And the best, I must confess, I have saved for the last…  Well.  ‘Best’ is arguable, but the artaaglith is a very important summon for the binder, because: animate dead.  Binders get Tenebrous, which allows them to rebuke undead, but they don’t get any way to create their own undead…until now.  These guys have animate dead as a 1/day spell-like ability cast at CL5, which is thankfully instantaneous, so even the summoning subschool’s limitation doesn’t hinder it.  But that’s not all, they can also cast desecrate once per day.  Even better, they’re specifically called out as being devoted to Orcus, so an altar or shrine to Orcus will trigger the doubled bonus hit points per hit die to undead created in the area.  Now the binder can summon an artaaglith, have it desecrate the area, animate up to 20HD of undead, then use rebuke undead on them with Tenebrous and gain permanent control over them.  Remember, there’s no duration on commanding undead – once they’re controlled, the binder has them permanently, unless they’re successfully commanded by someone else, so the binder doesn’t need to keep binding Tenebrous after establishing control of her undead minions.  In addition to being able to create undead for the binder, the artaaglith also has full casting as a 5th level cleric with the Evil and Undeath domains.  This is harder to work with, because how a summoned artaaglith’s spell list will be determined is entirely out of the player’s hands.  The DM will very likely determine a spell list, and since there’s no way to get the artaaglith to stay around for 1 hour or more, there’s no way to force it to memorize the spells the binder wants it to cast.  At best, it might come with some useful spells memorized, depending on the whims of the DM.

Summon Monster VI Spell List
Aid|Guardinal, Equinal (DC14, CL6)
Animate Dead|Artaaglith (CL5)
Bestow Curse|Yugoloth, Corruptor of Fate (DC16, CL7)
Blur|Eladrin, Bralani (CL6)
Cause Fear|Artaaglith (DC12, CL5)
Charm Person|Eladrin, Bralani (DC13, CL6); Baatezu, Green Abishai (DC13, CL6)
Command|Guardinal, Equinal (DC13, CL6); Baatezu, Green Abishai (DC13, CL6)
Create Food and Water|Genie, Janni (CL7)
Cure Moderate Wounds|Baatezu, Excruciarch (CL8)
Cure Serious Wounds|Bralani (DC15, CL6)
Desecrate|Artaaglith (CL5)
Dispel Magic|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Dominate Monster|Baatezu, Gulthir (DC17, CL17)
Enlarge Person|Genie, Janni
False Vision|Nerra, Sillit (CL16)
Fireball, Quickened|Baatezu, Amnizu (DC16, CL14)
Fog Cloud|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Gust of Wind|Eladrin, Bralani (DC14, CL6)
Light|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Lightning Bolt|Eladrin, Bralani (DC15, CL6)
Magic Missile|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Ray of Enfeeblement|Baatezu, Gulthir (CL6)
Reduce Person|Genie, Janni
Scare|Baatezu, Gulthir (DC16, CL6); Baatezu, Green Abishai (DC14, CL6)
See Invisibility|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Slow|Guardinal, Equinal (DC15, CL6)
Stinking Cloud|Artaaglith (DC14, CL5)
Suggestion|Baatezu, Green Abishai (DC15, CL6)
Vampiric Touch|Baatezu, Excruciarch (CL8)
Wall of Stone|Guardinal, Equinal (DC17, CL6)
Wind Wall|Eladrin, Bralani (CL6)
Wrack|Baatezu, Green Abishai (DC17, CL6)
Wave of Grief|Baatezu, Excruciarch (DC16, CL8)

Summon Monster VI Self-Only Spells
Death Knell|Artaaglith (CL5)
Detect Evil|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Detect Magic|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Disguise Self|Nerra, Sillit (CL16); Baatezu, Green Abishai (CL6)
Invisibility|Genie, Janni (CL12)
Magic Circle against Evil|Guardinal, Equinal (CL6)
Mirror Image|Eladrin, Bralani (CL6); Nerra, Sillit (CL16)
Mislead|Nerra, Sillit (CL16)
See Invisibility|Baatezu, Gulthir (CL6)
Speak with Animals|Genie, Janni (CL12); Guardinal, Equinal (CL8)
« Last Edit: November 29, 2013, 07:25:24 PM by Mnemnosyne »
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Re: The Binder's Summon List and Spellbook
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2013, 08:04:47 PM »
Summon Monster VII
This list is available at EBL 14.

Tanar’ri, Babau|40 Monster Manual
Baatezu, Osyluth|52 Monster Manual
Fiendish Megaraptor|60 and 107 Monster Manual
Elemental, Huge|95 Monster Manual
Genie, Djinni|114 Monster Manual
Fiendish Girallon|126 and 107 Monster Manual
Guardinal, Avoral|141 Monster Manual
Invisible Stalker|160 Monster Manual
Slaad, Red|228 Monster Manual
Celestial Elephant|272 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Giant Octopus|276 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Baleen Whale|282 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Scorpion, Huge|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Crab, Huge|142 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Tanar’ri, Arrow Demon|34 Monster Manual III
Storm Elemental, Large|48 Monster Manual III
Archon, Justice|80 Monster Manual IV
Asura|164 Book of Exalted Deeds
Leskylor, Three-Headed|178 Book of Exalted Deeds
Deva, Movanic|57 Fiend Folio
Formian, Armadon|77 Fiend Folio
Rilmani, Ferrumach|143 Fiend Folio
Yugoloth, Piscoloth|196 Fiend Folio
Baatezu, Blue Abishai|109 Fiendish Codex II
Baatezu, Bueroza|137 Fiendish Codex II
Souleater|194 Magic of Incarnum
Pack Fiend|128 Planar Handbook

Commentary on Summon Monster VII
This level is a little lacking on melee bruisers, but it makes up for it with a lot of useful summons and spell-like abilities.  The osyluth is notable for its dimensional anchor, the djinni provides the binder with a means to travel swiftly in wind walk, and a number of other useful spells appear at this level for the first time, including true seeing.  The biggest stars of the level are the three-headed leskylor, who has returned with improvements since its last appearance on the SM V list, and the movanic deva, whose most paradigm-shifting contribution is raise dead, which gives the binder the ability to bring people back to life for free, and far more often than a cleric, which is great if she needs to bring back an entire village or something of that nature.  Finally, the souleater has some unusual supernatural abilities that make it quite useful in fights involving many weaker enemies.  Overall, this is an incredible level for the binder, and massively opens up her options and versatility – there are few situations at this point that a binder cannot provide some benefit in, even if she may not have the best possible solution at hand.

Before editing to take into account the summoning subschool’s limitations, I also noted that the movanic deva provides a massive array of buffs to the binder in relatively long-lasting form – numerous minute/level spells and some 10 minute/level spells mean the movanic deva is a great out of combat buffer, so the binder and her allies don’t have to spend time in-combat getting spells up.  If you’re lucky enough to be playing under a DM that does not observe this limitation, then the movanic deva is absolutely fantastic.

Tanar’ri, Babau
At level 14, the babau, a CR 6 and 7 HD creature with only +12 to attack, and 1d6+5 damage on that attack, is not a worthwhile combat summon.  They can sneak attack for 2d6…which is also not likely to be relevant at this level.  Their only possible function is that they’re the first monster to give the binder access to the darkness spell.  Considering the limited usefulness of the spell, I can’t see a lot of reason to summon a babau.  Like the equinal before them, babau have access to dispel magic, and this might make them useful summons.  Their caster level is 1 higher than the equinal, but other than that small boost, the equinal is generally a better combat summon – it has more useful combat spells available to it.  Overall, the babau is not a recommended summon at all – these guys are near-pointless for combat at the level a binder gets them, and their spells are of somewhat questionable value.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: If a binder thinks she’s going to need darkness in the next hour, she can summon up a babau, have it cast the spell on a few stones/coins/other objects, then be able to deploy those as needed. 

Baatezu, Osyluth
The osyluth isn’t a strong combatant at this level, but it does have combat usefulness and the binder may find herself summoning it.  In melee, it’s weak for a level 14 summon, with its primary attack hitting at +14 and its secondaries hitting at +12.  It has a decent number of attacks on a full attack, but the real reason to send it into melee is its poison sting, which is a DC 20 fortitude save and does 1d6 initial strength damage, 2d6 secondary strength damage.  Its spell list, on the other hand, is quite useful.  It gives the binder access to fly, in case the binder or any allies have somehow not got flying already at this level – just watch the duration, since it’ll expire as soon as the summons does.  Not exactly great for all-day flight, but this means the binder can deal with a terrain obstacle that would be easily countered with flight, and it might occasionally see use in combat.  The osyluth also gives access to major image, but comes with the same problems as the euphoric imp’s similar ability.  The DC is higher, at least.  Wall of ice, on the other hand, makes for solid battlefield control, especially since it’s at-will.  The osyluth’s best spell-like, however, is dimensional anchor.  It will have +14 on its ranged touch attack to hit…and if combined with invisibility, will deny the target their dex bonus to AC, which means it is nearly guaranteed to hit.  To be absolutely certain, they could even use the true strike they gain from the pseudonatural template.  As a combatant, the osyluth is weak for its level, but it makes up for it with a very useful set of spell-like abilities and the power to prevent teleporting enemies from escaping.  Anytime a binder is intending to go after a creature that can teleport, she would be wise to have an osyluth to cast dimensional anchor.  In other situations, the creature’s walls of ice can be very effective as battlefield control, and its fly spell may be quite useful.  A very solid summon overall, highly recommended when the situation is appropriate.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: The osyluth’s fly spell jumps up to a 12 minute duration, which is definitely long enough to buff other members of the group before a battle that’s expected to require flying, assuming anyone doesn’t already have constant flight ability at this level.  Also more useful for giving flight to tagalong npcs; they tend to be far less likely than the party to have constant flight availability.

Elemental, Huge
Finally, elementals come into their own as a very solid summon for the level.  Their melee is at +19 or +17 depending on type, and although the damage still isn’t spectacular, it’s reasonably solid, especially if the enemy isn’t resistant to fire and the binder can make use of the fire elemental, who gets to use burn to set enemies on fire for 1d4 rounds if they fail a DC22 reflex save.  Their grappling has also become respectable.  +24 for fire and air, +27 for water, and +29 for earth mean a set of decent grapplers that have a few useful abilities on the side.  The earth elemental is strongest in melee and straight up grapple checks, but the fire elemental deals extra damage while grappling.  The air elemental’s whirlwind gets a lot better also, with a DC22 reflex save to avoid the damage and avoid being picked up.  Being huge also allows them to carry about even Large creatures, which can really help battlefield positioning.  By making use of an air elemental’s whirlwind, a binder can move her enemies wherever she wants them to be.  The elemental is finally a relatively recommended summon.  When the situation calls for them, they’re definitely useful both in combat and out of it at this level.

Genie, Djinni
A mere seven hit die, CR 5, and terrible for the level melee stats guarantee that a djinni is never going to see use as a combat summon.  That said, it has a couple spells that are incredibly useful.  Their create food and water spell, along with their major creation spell are both excellent due to the Rules Compendium’s ruling that spell-like abilities take a standard action to cast unless specifically stated.  That said, both of those spells have unfortunate limitations – create food and water has an odd duration entry; while the food and water created exists forever, thus suggesting it should have an ‘instantaneous’ duration, the duration line is 24 hours, with an explanation that the food and water goes bad at that point.  What this means for the summon subschool’s limitation may require DM clarification.  Major creation will unfortunately never last long with most materials, but the djinni has a special clause in its ability that means all vegetable matter created is permanent.  Does this get around the summon subschool’s limitation?  It’s a question of how you interpret the wording – if the created matter is permanent then yes, if the spell’s duration becomes permanent, then no.  The wording fits the former, so technically this specific wording doesn’t alter the spell’s duration, it only makes the matter permanent, and therefore gets around the limitation.  In the end it’s going to come down to arguing it with the DM.
With their create wine spell, they can create 40 gallons of wine.  No shortage of alcoholic beverage when a binder’s around.  More usefully, however…it also means a ready supply of flammable alcohol.  Any creative binder can probably think of plenty of other uses for zapping up 40 gallons per round of wine, from flooding a place with it to catering for the party of the century.  Do note that while 40 gallons a round sounds like a lot, and it is depending on the situation, flooding a large volume of space will still take some time.  For comparison, an Olympic swimming pool is 660,000 gallons of water; for a djinni to fill it with wine would take 27.5 hours of casting create wine every round.  A powerful illusion spell, persistent image from a non-fiend is useful, even though it won’t exactly be very persistent.  For a binder, however, wind walk may well be the djinni’s best ability.  Even though this demands summoning a djinni once every minute and a half or so and having it recast the spell, it’s still worthwhile – since summoned monsters’ teleportation abilities are always deactivated, this may represent the binder’s fastest mode of travel without having to rely on external aid or magical items.  The djinni is a very useful summon for the binder, giving her the ability to create a large amount of liquid very quickly, arrange battlefields with confounding illusions beforehand, and most of all, provide them with quick means of travel.  A highly recommended summon for these utility purposes, but they should rarely be summoned in combat.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: The djinni’s persistent image will last for 20 minutes, which makes it useful in setting up llusions for battlefield use beforehand.  Additionally, wind walk becomes infinitely more convenient since it can be cast once every twenty hours instead of every fourteen rounds or so.  And major creation gains its full duration.

Guardinal, Avoral
Combat-wise, the Avoral is definitely substandard for this level.  Weak attacks, low hit die, and weak damage make it a non-contender for any frontline combat role.  The avoral’s list of spells, while reasonably long, is relatively unimpressive – most of these spells have already been accessible to the binder for some time, and while the avoral provides a higher caster level for some of them, this difference is questionably important.  There is only one role in which the avoral is somewhat useful – it has access to true seeing, albeit self-only and only so long as it concentrates.  However, this ability is far exceeded by the Asura’s true seeing.  The avoral, therefore, is not a recommended summon for any particular use.  In the event that one of its spells is particularly useful, it may be a niche summon, but otherwise there are far better things for a binder to be summoning.

Tanar’ri, Arrow Demon
The arrow demon is a great combatant at this level, and that includes for melee, thanks to its close combat shot extraordinary ability.  These guys wield two Large bows simultaneously, attacking with both of them on each attack for a -2 penalty.  That means that on a full attack they get four shots rather than the two their +10 base attack would normally qualify them for.  Those attacks are made at +14 and +9.  Oh, if only they had one more hit die, they’d get 6 attacks per round…oh wait.  They have the rapid shot feat, which means they can take one extra attack per round.  Close combat shot allows them to attack with both bows at any time they would normally make a single attack.  That means they can make six attacks per round, at +12/+12/+12/+12/+7/+7.  Furthermore, close combat shot prevents them from provoking attacks of opportunity when firing their bows…and it allows them to threaten the squares adjacent to them with their bows.  The only problem is that the average AC of CR 14 monsters is 28 (at least in core) so with a +12 the arrow demon needs a 16 or higher to hit; 14 or higher if it doesn’t use its rapid shot.  Oh well.  With 4 attacks at +12 a round, and two more at +7, they’re still going to manage to hit some of them, and on those hits they do 2d6+6 damage with an x3 crit multiplier.

Archon, Justice
Low HD, low attack bonus, and few spells make the justice archon a very skippable summon at this level.  They have the typical archon abilities, all available from other archons that are almost as good combatants as they are – their only real ability of note is their justice strike.  If they hit with this, they deal the damage of the opponent’s primary melee attack, and inflict any effects that apply automatically to that attack.  In the unusual event that some enemy has a particularly powerful attack that they themselves would be weak against, a justice archon can turn that ability against them…if they can actually hit, that is.  Overall, not a highly recommended summon.

Asura
Like many monsters at this level, the Asura is unlikely to be a great melee combatant against the typical opponents a binder will be facing at this level, but its spell list is quite solid: detect good (CL8), detect evil (CL8), discern lies (DC15, CL8), true seeing (CL8) all at will.  Holy smite (DC16, CL8), magic circle against evil (self-only, CL8), and polymorph (self-only, humanoid only, CL8) all once per day.  True seeing is the real star of this creature – unlike the avoral above, the asura can actually cast it normally as an SLA, which means they get to cast it on others.  This is a highly recommended summon for buffing up whenever illusions are likely to be encountered, but less useful for other purposes.  Its other abilities will see use on occasion, but the asura will be summoned almost exclusively for the purpose of casting true seeing.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: With a minute per level duration and at CL8, true seeing will definitely cover the entire group for at least one encounter.  Caution should be used, however, if the enemy is likely to use invisible spell shenanigans with various fogs, since the only way to remove the spell after the asura has been unsummoned would be to dispel it, which is likely to remove other spells from the subjects as well.

Leskylor, Three-Headed
Our favorite summon from the Summon Monster V list is back, new and improved with two additional heads.  The leskylor’s strength in melee is retained, and its melee bonus has been bumped up to +15 on all its attacks due to its multiattack and improved multiattack feats – a full attack from this three-headed creature involves two claws at +15 for 1d8+6, and three bites also at +15, for 2d6+3, and its pounce remains, giving it an additional two rake attacks when it charges, also at +15.  Each of those attacks has the same chance as the original to inflict the 1d6/2d6 dex poison, and although the saving throw is unchanged from DC14, that’s still 2 additional chances to fail.  The leskylor’s breath weapon is also improved, being used from each head ‘on the same round’; they can fire them all in the same direction, or separately, but it’s important to note they’re not required to fire simultaneously – the three-headed leskylor can use one at a time to ensure it doesn’t waste one on an enemy that dies from its first or second blast.  Its spell-like abilities are unchanged – the same list of 1/day spell-likes remains, and not even their DC has changed, though – in this field, it’s significantly weaker in comparison than it was before.  Nevertheless, the leskylor is one of the stars of this level, although it doesn’t quite sweep the field as strongly as it did four levels ago.

Deva, Movanic
Physical combat is, again, not a strength of this summoned creature – 6 hit dice and a +11 on its highest melee attack ensure it won’t be seeing front line combat.  What it does have, however, is an impressively long spell list: aid, consecrate, continual light, create food and water, death ward, detect evil, discern lies, polymorph self, prayer, and protection from arrows are all at-will.  Three times per day it can use atonement, bless weapon, cure serious wounds, daylight, divination, hallow, holy smite, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, and remove fear.  Finally, it can use commune and raise dead once per day.
Holy cow that’s a lot of stuff it can do.  Now, let’s go over a few caveats.  Polymorph self no longer exists, but this can be assumed to become a self-only version of polymorph.  Note that due to summon subschool limitations, atonement won’t work for the benefit of a creature whose guilt was due to deliberate acts.  On the upside, divination means a 79% chance of a correct answer, but it gets better for the binder, because divination yields the same answer when cast by the same caster…but the binder can summon an unlimited number of different casters and have them each perform a divination independently, so even if the first one fails, additional ones can eventually ferret out even the most difficult of information.  Note that hallow is instantaneous, which means the movanic deva can cast it for free – quite a deal, considering it normally costs at least 1,000 gp, or 2,000+ if a spell is going to be attached to it.  Unfortunately, commune runs into the summon subschool’s xp cost limitation, where summoned creatures refuse to cast spells that would have an xp cost.  In-character, this limitation makes absolutely no sense, since the spell-like ability does not cost xp, but there you have it.  However, do take note that it specifies they refuse to cast such spell-like abilities, not that they are incapable of doing so.  This means that if you have a way to obtain absolute control over your summoned creature, such as a dominate monster spell, you can force them to cast the xp-cost spell anyway.
And then there’s raise dead.  As a spell-like ability, it uses no components, thus allowing the binder to skip the normal 5,000 gp cost of raise dead.  While it does result in level loss, the ability to actually raise dead nearly at will is tremendously useful for the binder.  Since a binder can summon a deva to raise dead for free every five rounds, a binder can revive a large number of people in a relatively short time, as long as everyone is willing to accept the level loss.  While this is suboptimal for the binder’s adventuring companions, it may still be useful when no better choice is available.  Just as importantly, it means the binder can help townsfolk and others who would never be in a position to be able to be raised at all.
Then we get to other situationally useful spells.  Consecrate can be cast either to prepare an area for a battle with the undead, or in combat, to penalize all undead in the area.  Prayer is a solid round/level combination buff/debuff to have the deva cast in combat.  Holy smite is a good use, if we already have a movanic deva out during a combat, and cure serious wounds lets them heal others during the fight.
Overall, the movanic deva is a great summon, with incredible utility outside of combat with their divination spell, and even a few buffs that might be useful in combat, although there may be better things to summon than this creature, since they have limited direct usefulness against the enemy at this level, but in all other areas, they’re a top tier summon for this level.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: This may be the biggest summon so far to benefit from the summon subschool’s limitations being ignored, so if you’re playing under these conditions you’re extremely lucky – as minute per level buffs, aid, death ward, and bless weapon should all be cast before any fight begins, if the binder is aware of the upcoming battle.  They’ll all last nine minutes.  Remove fear, with a 10 minute fixed duration, should be cast alongside these, to provide its bonus to saves vs. fear.  Protection from arrows is an hour/level buff, and once a binder gains access to this summon, she should never be without it; magical weapons are certainly common at this level, but summoning a movanic deva once every 9 hours to recast protection from arrows for DR 10/magic against ranged weapons is still a worthwhile use of a fraction of the binder’s time.  Any binder that prefers lighted situations to the dark should likely have an object with daylight cast on it at all times.  With a 10 minute/level duration, it means 90 minutes of daylight on an object the binder carries, and it can be easily concealed by sticking it inside something.  Neutralize poison, also with a 10 minute/level duration, should be cast at this time as well, unless the binder and her allies are immune to poison in some other manner.

Rilmani, Ferrumach
Cavalry is what the ferrumach rilmani specialize in.  With phantom steed three times per day, the ferrumach can summon its own mount, then make use of its +1 heavy lance to do a mounted cavalry charge at the enemy.  Its attack bonus is quite solid for the level, at +16 total with the heavy lance, +2 for charging for a total of +18 to hit, then it deals 1d8+8 damage, x3 because of the lance and the ferrumach’s spirited charge feat.  This isn’t amazing, but it’s potentially useful at times.  Unfortunately, the phantom steed is cast at only CL9; while this gives it a good 180 ft. movement speed, it lacks the ability to fly or even ride over water.  The ferrumach’s spell list in other areas is still reasonably solid: blur, command, obscuring mist, see invisibility, and silence at will, with cure moderate wounds, dispel magic, ice storm, and phantom steed all three times per day.
The most important spell to notice on the ferrumach is silence, because it’s the first time the binder gains access to this.  Even at high levels, this simple spell can seriously impede enemy spellcasters.  Furthermore, since a binder’s abilities are all supernatural and require no vocal components, they do not impede the binder at all.  The other spell of note here is ice storm, which deals no-save damage to an area.  5d6 damage with a mixture of bludgeoning and cold is low for this level, but when properly applied may still be useful.  The ferrumach’s ability to cast phantom steed may also be useful – while a binder has other ways to get around overland, a mount that moves at 180 feet per round can be useful in some situations where the binder or an ally need to stay highly mobile.
While not generally recommended as a typical summon, the ferrumach has some usefulness in the form of access to the silence spell, along with a handful of other useful abilities.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: Under this condition, a binder, especially one that goes into melee combat, might very well be wise to have a ferrumach prepare an item with silence for her to wear or carry, so they can silence enemy spellcasters beforehand, since silence will last nine minutes when cast by a ferrumach.  Phantom steed gains some usefulness in that the binder can provide swift mounts for the entire party, if for some reason they’re not using the djinni’s wind walk for travel.

Yugoloth, Piscoloth
The piscoloth has limited combat utility, except for its paralysis extraordinary ability.  Its spell list is not particularly extensive, although it does bring a single save-or-die to bear.  Its full attack includes two pincers at +13, and eight tentacles at +11.  Each tentacle that hits forces a DC16 fortitude save, or the subject is paralyzed for 2d6 minutes.  This is a straight up save-or lose…but it needs to hit, and it needs to overcome the fort save, which at this level is a rather low DC.  If the piscoloth is ordered to use its tentacles as its primary attack rather than secondary, they’re more likely to hit, bumping up to +13 on each attack, and it can do them as a standard action instead of only as a full attack.
Its spell list includes: blink, fear, detect good, detect magic, protection from good, scare, and see invisibility each at will, along with meld into stone, phantasmal killer, and stinking cloud three times per day.  The DCs of these spells are somewhat low for the level – DC16 for phantasmal killer, and it gives not one but two saves to avoid death.  Protection from good, however, is a surprising little gem here.  Not because that’s an incredibly common thing to need protection from, but because it’s the first protection from alignment spell that’s available to the binder to cast on someone other than the summons.  Previous summons have had protection from evil and magic circle against evil, but always self-only.  The important factor here is that protection from good still provides the clause that protects the subject from ongoing mental control.  It also still protects the subject against any summoned creature that isn’t evil, hedging them out – so enemies’ neutral and good summons will be unable to affect the subject.  If for no other reason than being able to cast protection from good, the piscoloth is a situationally useful summon.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: With protection from good lasting 9 minutes, it makes it a no-brainer to buff up with this spell before going into any combat where its protection from ongoing mental control may come into effect.  Obviously also any combat against good creatures, but that goes without saying.
   
Baatezu, Blue Abishai
As a 7 HD creature with low melee bonuses, the blue abishai’s only real purpose would be for its spells.  Unfortunately, these are somewhat lacking in variety and usefulness also: charm person, command, and disguise self can be used at will, while scare, suggestion, and wrack are usable three times per day.  Of those, suggestion and wrack are the most likely to be useful at all.  Wrack has a somewhat respectable DC17 fort save to overcome, and it’s a straight-up save or lose if it lands; the target winds up prone and helpless for 7 rounds.  However, other than this one use, the abishai is unlikely to be an effective summon in combat – there are probably better things to summon at this level that will be more effective, unless there’s an enemy that is heavily defended against other attacks but with a weak fort save.  Generally speaking, it’s not recommended for a binder to summon the blue abishai.

Baatezu, Bueroza
Another suboptimal melee combatant, the bueroza has little to recommend it.  It has access to greater command, but other than that its spell list is unspectacular.  Its low melee attack bonus of +11 prevents its self-only haste from being all that useful, especially since it would have to spend a round buffing itself before engaging, and even then its own haste won’t last the full duration of its summon.  It has an interesting supernatural ability that forces casters to make a DC15 + spell level check in order to cast, but at these levels, there are few casters who would be able to fail that check, even on a natural 1.  This really isn’t a summon that can be recommended for any purpose at all.

Souleater
Now, here’s an interesting monster.  Its melee is relatively weak, but it comes with a peculiar ability that is almost certainly going to require some DM adjudication on how it functions.  It has the ability to consume the souls of those that are killed within 30 feet of it, whether it does the killing or not.  Thus consumed, a soul will boost the souleater’s hp by +10 and attack rolls by +1.  The souleater can thus become a very credible melee threat if several weaker monsters are killed around it.  If a binder faces a powerful enemy with a number of weak minions, summoning a souleater and killing the minions quickly can result in a very strong summon to go into battle against the stronger enemy with.  The part that requires DM adjudication is this – if the souleater is not killed within 10 minutes per character level (presumably, this can also mean hit die, although RAW, it doesn’t apply to things without character levels, and therefore those things are instantly consumed) it will finish consuming the souls.  At this point, the dead creature can only be brought back to life with miracle, true resurrection, or wish.  However, the summon will not last for even 10 minutes, much less the several hours that a major opponent at this level would take to be consumed.  The DM will have to determine whether this ability functions normally or not – in theory it should, but since summons are odd and not considered to be the ‘real’ creature, it could be judged that the souleater ‘dies’ as soon as the summon expires, thus preventing it from ever fully consuming a soul.
The souleater’s other useful ability is its soulless aura, which deals a negative level to each living creature within 30 feet, and so long as one creature has a negative level on it due to this ability, the souleater gains a +2 insight to attack and damage.  This is an incredible debuff to everyone in an area – although care must be taken not to include one’s own allies within the area.  However, if said allies have been buffed by a movanic deva with death ward, they are immune to the souleater’s negative levels, while enemies may not be.
The souleater is an odd monster with some special abilities that make it particularly effective against large numbers of weaker foes.  In any situation dealing with multiple enemies, this may well be a worthwhile summon, for its significant debuff through its soulless aura, for its increasing power for each enemy slain near it, and…depending on the DM’s decision, for its ability to ensure that a dead enemy stays dead.

Summon Monster VII Spell List
Aid|Guardinal, Avoral (CL8); Archon, Justice (CL6); Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Atonement|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Bless Weapon|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Blur|Guardinal, Avoral (CL8); Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9)
Cause Fear|Leskylor, Three-Headed (DC12, CL10)
Charm Person|Baatezu, Blue Abishai (DC13, CL7)
Command|Guardinal, Avoral (DC14, CL8); Rilmani, Ferrumach (DC 16, CL9); Baatezu, Blue Abishai (DC13, CL7)
Command, Greater|Baatezu, Bueroza (DC17, CL6)
Commune|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Consecrate|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Continual Light|Archon, Justice (CL6); Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Create Food and Water|Genie, Djinni (CL20); Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Create Wine|Genie, Djinni (CL20)
Cure Moderate Wounds|Leskylor, Three-Headed (CL10); Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9)
Cure Serious Wounds|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Darkness|Tanar’ri, babau (CL7)
Daylight|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Death Ward|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Dimensional Anchor|Baatezu, Osyluth (CL12)
Discern Lies|Asura (DC15, CL8); Deva, Movanic (DC18, CL9)
Divination|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Dispel Magic|Tanar’ri, babau (CL7); Guardinal, Avoral (CL8); Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9)
Eyes of the Avoral|Leskylor, Three-Headed (CL10)
Fear|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (DC16, CL9)
Fly|Baatezu, Osyluth (CL12)
Gust of Wind|Guardinal, Avoral (DC15, CL8)
Hallow|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Hold Person|Guardinal, Avoral (DC16, CL8); Leskylor, Three-Headed (DC13, CL10)
Holy Smite|Asura (DC16, CL8); Deva, Movanic (DC18, CL9)
Ice Storm|Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9)
Light|Guardinal, Avoral (CL8)
Lightning Bolt|Guardinal, Avoral (DC16, CL8)
Magic Missile|Guardinal, Avoral (CL8)
Major Creation|Genie, Djinni (CL20)
Major Image|Baatezu, Osyluth (DC16, CL12)
Neutralize Poison|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Obscuring Mist|Leskylor, Three-Headed (CL10); Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9)
Persistent Image|Genie, Djinni (DC17, CL20)
Phantasmal Killer|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (DC16, CL9)
Phantom Steed|Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9)
Prayer|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Protection from Arrows|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Protection from Good|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (CL9)
Raise Dead|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Remove Curse|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Remove Fear|Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Scare|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (DC14, CL9); Baatezu, Blue Abishai (DC14, CL7); Baatezu, Bueroza (DC14, CL6)
Silence|Rilmani, Ferrumach (DC17, CL9)
Stinking Cloud|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (DC15, CL9)
Suggestion|Baatezu, Blue Abishai (DC15, CL7)
True Seeing|Asura (CL8)
Vision of Heaven|Leskylor, Three-Headed (CL10)
Wall of Ice|Baatezu, Osyluth (CL12)
Wind Walk|Genie, Djinni (CL20)
Wrack|Baatezu, Blue Abishai (DC17, CL7)

Summon Monster VII Self-Only Spells
Blessed Sight|Leskylor, Three-Headed (CL10)
Blink|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (CL9)
Detect Evil|Archon, Justice (CL6); Asura (CL8); Deva, Movanic (CL9)
Detect Good|Asura (CL8); Yugoloth, Piscoloth (CL9)
Detect Magic|Guardinal, Avoral (CL8); Yugoloth, Piscoloth (CL9)
Disguise Self|Baatezu, Blue Abishai (DC13, CL7)
Haste|Baatezu, Bueroza (CL6)
Invisibility|Baatezu, Osyluth (CL12); Genie, Djinni (CL20)
Magic Circle against Evil|Guardinal, Avoral (CL8); Asura (CL8)
Meld into Stone|Yugoloth, Piscoloth (CL9)
Polymorph|Asura (CL8); Deva, Movanic (CL9)
See Invisibility|Tanar’ri, babau (CL7); Guardinal, Avoral (CL8); Rilmani, Ferrumach (CL9); Yugoloth, Piscoloth (CL9)
True Seeing|Guardinal, Avoral (CL14)
« Last Edit: January 19, 2022, 12:06:56 PM by Mnemnosyne »
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Re: The Binder's Summon List and Spellbook
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2013, 07:24:13 AM »
Summon Monster VIII
This list is available at EBL 16.

Tanar’ri, Vrock|48 Monster Manual
Hellcat|54 Monster Manual
Celestial Triceratops|61 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Tyrannosaurus|61 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Dire Bear|63 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Tiger|65 and 107 Monster Manual
Elemental, Greater|95 Monster Manual
Lillend|168 Monster Manual
Slaad, Blue|228 Monster Manual
Fiendish Giant Squid|281 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Cachalot Whale|283 and 31 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Colossal|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Spider, Gargantuan|288 and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Archelon|144 Stormwrack and 31 Monster Manual
Guardinal, Lupinal|43 Monster Manual II
Storm Elemental, Huge|48 Monster Manual III
Tanar’ri, Solamith|28 Monster Manual V
Caller from the Deeps|140 Stormwrack
Yugoloth, Echinoloth|164 Stormwrack
Elsewhale|117 Planar Handbook
Gaspar|124 Planar Handbook
Limbo Stalker|126 Planar Handbook
Archon, Hammer|188 Races of Stone
Archon, Warden|163 Book of Exalted Deeds
Hollyphant|176 Book of Exalted Deeds
Maelephant|120 Fiend Folio
Baatezu, Orthon|128 Fiendish Codex II

Commentary on Summon Monster VIII
Particularly noticeable for its wide variety of new and interesting abilities, this level is also not lacking on solid melee support as well.  The greater elementals are a reasonable force to be reckoned with at this point, and the storm elemental at huge size is particularly effective against anything vulnerable to lightning, with a wide variety of attacks.  The colossal fiendish monstrous centipede gives the binder a star grappler along with a massive blocking creature at this level, and there are a variety of interesting spells that first become available at this point, including heroism, stone shape, heal, and possibly polymorph depending on the DM’s ruling of how abilities convert from 3.0 to 3.5.  This is a very solid level giving the binder nice upgrades and a few new abilities that were previously unavailable, thus continuing the rounding out of the binder’s ‘spellbook’ through summoning.

Tanar’ri, Vrock
The vrock isn’t a spectacular melee combatant at this level, and not the best melee combatant the binder can get, but it is respectable enough that some situations will make it appropriate to summon, especially when considering some of its additional abilities.  Its spell list is limited: mirror image and telekinesis are at will, while it can cast heroism once per day.  In addition, they have a few supernatural and extraordinary abilities that might be useful.  Their once per hour stunning screech forces a DC22 fort save or be stunned for one round, for any nondemons within 30 feet of the vrock; if the ability is used with proper positioning, it can be quite powerful.  The spores ability deals 1d8 damage to everything adjacent to it, then continues dealing 1d4 damage per round for the next 10 rounds – with no saving throw.  It requires magic or holy water to kill the spores and stop this damage.
The dance of ruin ability bears some special mention.  Three vrocks together can do 20d6 damage to all nondemons within a 100 foot radius; that’s a 200 foot diameter sphere of serious damage to nondemons, but they need to spend 3 rounds together dancing first.  At EBL 16 when a binder first gains access, she can already get three vrocks simultaneously by summoning a new one as soon as summon alien refreshes.  The entire process takes either 13 rounds or 15 rounds, depending on interpretation of the 5-round recharge on binder abilities.  This isn’t really the sort of delay a binder can afford when in-combat, but there are probably situations when this will be useful when a large amount of area damage is needed over a wide area.
Heroism, also, is worth a bit of a mention, although this is a rather late level to be getting access to it.  Nevertheless, it may come in handy for buffing from time to time.  Overall, the vrock is a very solid summon at this level.  They’re not the best melee combatant by quite a bit, but they don’t slouch in that field either, and they have some useful abilities.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: As a 10 minute per level spell cast at CL12, heroism lasts two hours, so summoning vrocks once in a while to cast it isn’t a bad idea, if the binder doesn’t have any other access to similar morale bonuses. 

Fiendish Dire Tiger
One of this level’s solid melee combatants, the fiendish dire tiger has pounce, two claws at +20 for 2d4+8, a bite at +14 for 2d6+4, and if it charges, then it gets two rake attacks at +18 for 2d4+4.  It’s also got a respectable +24 grapple modifier, and improved grab, making it capable of grappling targets and doing decent damage to them.  Consider whether to use one of these or an elemental when summoning something for melee.  The difference in size may be the determining factor in this situation.  Recommended for when an elemental is too big, or the situation is more appropriate to the tiger’s feats and abilities.

Elemental, Greater
While the fiendish dire tiger is a solid and respectable melee combatant, the elementals have really come into their own as great melee combatants.  They hit with two slams at +23, +22, or +21, depending on type.  For pure melee, the earth elemental is likely the best, although the fire elemental competes with and outdoes it on damage if it gets good rolls.  Consideration should be given to the situation, to what abilities are needed at the time, and to the particular elemental’s feat selection.  The greater air elemental’s whirlwind is now a DC25 reflex save to avoid getting swept up in.  Their huge size may prevent them from being used in certain locations, but if the battle area can accommodate an elemental, it’s probably a very solid and recommended choice.

Lillend
The lillend’s melee is completely worthless at this level, but she does bring some useful spells into play.  She can cast darkness, hallucinatory terrain (DC18, CL10), knock, and light three times per day, and charm person (DC15, CL10), speak with animals, and speak with plants once per day each.  That puts a couple new spells at a binder’s fingertips, knock and speak with plants in particular.  She can now serve as a translator to both plants and animals as needed.  Hallucinatory terrain is quite nice as well, allowing the binder to conceal all manner of natural hazards; even something as simple as changing rushing rapids into the appearance of a calmly flowing river can be a serious danger, when enemies try to cross the calm river only to be swept away by the water.
The lillend also has the distinction of being able to cast as a 6th level bard.  She has a typical bard spells known list on her entry, which means that usually these spells will be available when you summon one, although your DM may rule that particular summon has a different spell list.  The typical list as noted in her entry is: dancing lights, daze, detect magic, lullaby, mage hand, read magic, charm person, cure light wounds, identify, sleep, hold person, invisibility, sound burst.  Note that these aren’t being added to the spell list section below since it’s not guaranteed that the lillend will actually know these particular spells.  However, if your DM follows the typical spells known list, this makes the lillend decent for casting a few spells.  Do note that identify on that list is an arcane spell – having a lillend cast it will probably require the binder to produce the 100gp pearl as an arcane component, so it’s likely not worthwhile.
A lillend also has bardic music as a 6th level bard…unfortunately this is unlikely to in handy very often.  The inspire courage and inspire competence bonuses are outdone by the vrock’s heroism.  The fascinate ability may be useful, and a lillend does have a +14 perform modifier, meaning she can get some respectable DC’s on the ability even at this level.  Overall, the lillend isn’t highly recommended as a summon, unless the binder has a situation in which one of her unique talents may come in handy.

Slaad, Blue
Another creature with worthless melee at this level, the blue slaad deserves mention only because it brings the binder access to another new spell, and a particularly useful one at that.  It can cast hold person (DC13, CL8), passwall, and telekinesis (DC15, CL8) at will, and chaos hammer (DC14, CL8) once per day.  Passwall is the key spell in this list, meaning that the binder now has the means to tunnel through wood, plaster, and stone walls.  Determining just what counts as a ‘wall’ may wind up tricky in some situations.  In an underground location, does the surrounding rock count as a ‘wall’?  If so, the blue slaad can tunnel through any distance of them by casting one passwall after another.  Besides their use in casting passwall, there’s nothing else to recommend a blue slaad as a summon, so a binder is best off choosing other creatures except for that specific situation.

Fiendish Monstrous Centipede, Colossal
As the largest of the monstrous centipedes, this one brings with it the massive grapple bonus that one would expect, with a +42 grapple modifier.  Occupying 30 x 30 squares of space, or 900 square feet, it’s also a veritable wall of living chitin to put between the binder and her enemies, if desired.  Whatever it is, if it doesn’t have freedom of movement, this thing can probably grapple it.  In addition, its poison bumps up to 2d6 dexterity damage with a DC23 fort save.  While fortitude is a commonly high save, on anything with a low fort save and low dexterity, this centipede stands a solid chance of paralyzing it in a single bite.  A very solid summon for grappling and for its poison whenever there’s enough room to summon a colossal creature.

Storm Elemental, Huge
Comparable in melee to the greater elementals above, the huge storm elemental is a solid melee summon for this level, and comes with a couple damage-dealing bennies; overall, they’re probably stronger combatants than their greater elemental brethren.  They attack at +20 for 2d6+10 and an additional 2d6 of electricity damage, they have a shock supernatural ability that lets them deal an additional 8d4 electricity damage every round as a free action, with a DC24 fort save for half, and their thunder and lightning ability deals 8d6 sonic in a 60 foot radius, along with 16d6 electrical in a 120 foot line, once per minute; in a battle that actually lasts 10 rounds or longer, the elemental will be able to use this ability twice during its summon duration.  In addition, they take no damage from electrical or sonic attacks, and indeed heal from them – although it’s noted that the elemental can’t heal by attacking itself.  Of course, summoning two of them and having them overlap each other with their lightning, or just use their shock ability to heal each other if weakened is entirely feasible.
Overall, this is one of the level’s best combat summons for any situation that doesn’t involve electrical-immune enemies.  With solid melee damage as well as a huge pile of extra electrical damage, and even a massive sonic area blast, these guys will lay the hurt on some enemies.

Tanar’ri, Solamith
With 11 HD, fast healing 5, and attacks at +14, the solamith isn’t a particularly melee combatant at this level.  Would have been nicer as a SMVII, where I mistakenly had it for years, apparently, but at this point its melee is pretty outdated.  Its unusual abilities help make it a useful threat to enemies and a potentially useful summon to the binder, though; each round it can tear a chunk off of itself, dealing 5 damage to itself in the process, and throw that chunk, causing 4d6 damage (half fire, half untyped) in a 20 foot burst, with a DC23 reflex save for half damage.  Additionally, anytime they’re hit with a melee attack, they can unleash a cone of soulfire on their next turn as a swift action, dealing the same damage.  With their fast healing 5, they can stand up to a significant amount of punishment before being brought down, and deal out considerable damage in retribution each time they’re hit.  The solamith makes a pretty decent summon when fighting a large number of weaker opponents, but at this point drops down to being barely passable against smaller numbers of stronger enemies.

Elsewhale
This is an undersea transport, essentially.  Since the binder can only summon one for less than two minutes, their uses are limited, but there might be times when an elsewhale is an effective method of transportation.  The binder and any companions traveling inside the whale’s mouth should keep a close track of how many rounds since the summon, so they can hold their breath before the elsewhale disappears back from whence it came, unless they have water breathing.  On the upside, the binder can immediately summon a new elsewhale to continue the journey.  This is likely to get tedious for long journeys, but if the party needs rapid transportation for a short distance underwater, this may be a solid option.  It’s also a fine emergency shelter if the party finds themselves deep underwater without means of breathing water – summon an elsewhale, then enter its mouth to get a fresh breath of air…and presumably have it carry the group toward the surface, or some other nearby location to get more permanent means of breathing.

Archon, Hammer
The hammer archon might have been a nice melee combatant a level ago, but at this point it’s seriously overshadowed by elementals and the dire tiger.  It’s still large, so it has no size advantage over stronger summons of this level for summoning in cramped quarters.  The hammer archon does have some useful spells, however: aid (CL10) and detect evil (CL10) are at-will, while stone shape (CL10) and wall of stone (CL10) are available three times per day.  If using a summon for wall-building, this is significantly better than the previous purveyor of wall of stone, since the hammer archon provides the spell three times per summon rather than once.  Stone shape is a valuable new addition to the binder’s spellbook – the ability to reshape existing stone in large quantities at will is quite valuable for any number of purposes ranging from construction to demolition.

Archon, Warden
While this fellow is another one a binder isn’t going to be summoning for melee combat at this level, its list of spells gives the binder a couple new abilities.  At will, it can cast aid, continual light, detect scrying, detect thoughts (DC13, CL11), locate creature, scrying, see invisibility, and true strike.  Three times per day, it can cast shield of the archons and true seeing.  The scrying spell available essentially at-will is useful, but keep in mind the it’s the caster’s familiarity with the target that needs to be used, and for a summon that’s never going to get better than secondhand, so with a DC16 save and a +5 bonus on the save, it’s going to take rolling a 1 before it will stick on anyone important, unless the binder has multiple physical connection objects to provide.  On the upside, the binder can just keep trying, summoning a new archon once every five rounds – while someone who succeeds on their save can’t be targeted by the same caster for 24 hours, the binder is summoning multiple casters for this.  Locate creature is a new and useful ability, as is detect thoughts.  A warden archon is likely to be summoned when a binder is searching for a creature or type of creature, or during interrogations to confirm the subject’s thoughts; this last use may be difficult, however, with the archon lasting less than two minutes per summon, but it’s still doable.  Detect scrying is also useful, though the summon’s limited duration makes this more difficult to use.  If a binder believes she may be being scried upon, it’s an invaluable tool to have a warden archon quickly go over the area for potential scrying, however.

Hollyphant
The hollyphant has another impressive spell list, and is another weak combatant, despite being able to turn into a large elephant-like creature.  Its spell list is divided into ‘psionics’ and spell-like abilities, but since this isn’t an XPH creature, its psionics actually work just like SLA’s.  Why any distinction was made is beyond me, except for the fact that its psionics are cast at CL6, while its SLAs are cast at CL15.  Under psionics, and all at-will, it has blessed sight, detect chaos, detect law, detect poison, detect thoughts (DC15), invisibility, know direction, see invisibility, and suggestion (DC16).  Under SLA’s and thus cast at CL15, it has bless and light at will, with cure moderate wounds and protection from evil three times a day, along with banishment (DC19), flame strike (DC18), heal, and raise dead all once per day.
Its various detection abilities may prove useful in cases where such detection is needed.  At-will invisibility has been a long-time coming for the binder – this is actually the first creature that provides it at-will and castable on others, so the binder can finally make herself and her entire party invisible with only one summon.  Know direction might be useful at times, one supposes, although it’s of very limited use.  Protection from evil finally shows up as a buff that can be cast on others.  This helps to round out the binder’s protection spells, since binders obtained protection from good from the piscoloth previously.  The hollyphant’s banishment can dismiss 30 HD of creatures and has a reasonably solid DC19 will save, and heal finally being available, especially cast at CL15, gives the binder the ability to clear up a slew of negative conditions with one shot, along with some serious healing.

Maelephant
A malelephant is most notable for its breath weapon, which it can use three times per day.  A cloud of gas that forces a DC17 fortitude save, or the subject suffers complete memory loss.  They lose access to all skills, feats, and class abilities, along with knowledge of who their friends and foes were.  The condition functions as a poison, so it’s not especially difficult to cure, but it still remains an interesting and unique ability, useful for some situations, and since it’s not a spell, it’s not subject to the summoning subschool’s duration limitation.
In addition, the maelephant has a number of new spells that were previously unavailable: alarm, entangle, gust of wind, light, true seeing, and warp wood are all usable at will, while blade barrier and polymorph other are usable three times per day.  All are cast at CL8.  Entangle finally gives access to an amazing battlefield control spell to the binder.  Even at this level, an effect that prevents movement faster than half speed through an area can be highly valuable.  Warp wood at will allows a very large object to be warped if necessary, and although usefulness may be somewhat limited at this point, since wooden objects are unlikely to be able to stand up to more direct means of attack at this level, it may have its uses.  Blade barrier is a very nice new addition at this level, doing 8d6 damage with a DC18 reflex save for half.  Polymorph other, since it doesn’t strictly exist in 3.5, will require DM adjudication.  It may be logical to rule that it simply becomes polymorph.  In that case, it’s a very useful addition to the binder’s arsenal, even if it’s only cast at CL8.  At this point, it’s unlikely to be unreasonable or overpowered, while it still has a lot of utility and general usefulness to the binder.

Spell durations expire independently of summon: Alarm is decent for setting up alarms in an area.  It’s obviously necessary to use the audible version, since the mental version will alert only the maelephant who will no longer be around.  Polymorph becomes even better, since it outlasts the summon duration.

Baatezu, Orthon
While at first looking like unspectacular melee combatants, the orthon has one ability that is more than worth summoning it for.  At will, as a swift action, the orthon can produce a 20 foot radius field that affects all creatures within the area as though they had been hit with dimensional anchor.  The orthon, therefore, is a living, mobile dimensional lock.  A binder fighting a teleporting foe would be well served by summoning an orthon and ordering it to focus all of its actions on keeping the enemy within the dimensional interference field that it produces.  By taking a move action, then readying to move whenever the opponent moves, the orthon can follow an enemy around, keeping them within the dimensional interference field.  It might be suggested to augment this by having another summon cast fly on the orthon, since otherwise the creature’s 20 foot movement speed may make it difficult to keep up with enemies that might be attempting to teleport.  In addition to this, if an orthon is killed, a maggot burst does 2d6 of unresistable damage to all non-baatezu within 10 feet of the orthon.

Summon Monster VIII Spell List
Aid|Archon, Hammer (CL10); Archon, Warden (CL11)
Alarm|Maelephant (CL8)
Blade Barrier|Maelephant (CL8)
Bless|Hollyphant (CL15)
Blur|Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Chaos Hammer|Slaad, Blue (DC14, CL8)
Charm Person|Lillend (CL10)
Cone of Cold|Guardinal, Lupinal (DC17, CL8)
Continual Light|Archon, Warden (CL11)
Cure Light Wounds|Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Cure Moderate Wounds|Hollyphant (CL15)
Darkness|Lillend (CL10); Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Entangle|Maelephant (CL8)
Fly|Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Gust of Wind|Maelephant (CL8)
Hallucinatory Terrain|Lillend (DC18, CL10)
Heroism|Tanar’ri, Vrock (CL12)
Hold Person|Slaad, Blue (DC13, CL8)
Invisibility|Hollyphant (CL6)
Knock|Lillend (CL10)
Light|Lillend (CL10); Maelephant (CL8); Hollyphant (CL15)
Magic Missile|Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Passwall|Slaad, Blue (CL8)
Polymorph Other|Maelephant (CL8)
Scrying|Archon, Warden (DC16, CL11)
Stone Shape|Archon, Hammer (CL10)
Suggestion|Hollyphant (DC16, CL6)
Telekinesis|Tanar’ri, Vrock (DC18, CL12); Slaad, Blue (DC15, CL8)
True Seeing|Archon, Warden (CL11); Maelephant (CL8)
Wall of Stone|Archon, Hammer (CL10)
Warp Wood|Maelpehant (CL8)

Summon Monster VIII Self-Only Spells
Blessed Sight|Hollyphant (CL6)
Blink|Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Change Self|Guardinal, Lupinal (CL8)
Detect Chaos|Hollyphant (CL6)
Detect Evil|Archon, Hammer (CL10)
Detect Law|Hollyphant (CL6)
Detect Poison|Hollyphant (CL6)
Detect Scrying|Archon, Warden (CL11)
Detect Thoughts|Archon, Warden (DC13, CL11); Hollyphant (DC15, CL6)
Know Direction|Hollyphant (CL6)
Locate Creature|Archon, Warden (CL11)
Mirror Image|Tanar’ri, Vrock (CL12)
See Invisibility|Archon, Warden (CL11); Hollyphant (CL6)
Shield of the Archons|Archon, Warden (CL11)
Speak with Animals|Lillend (CL10)
Speak with Plants|Lillend (CL10)
True Strike|Archon, Warden (CL11)
« Last Edit: January 19, 2022, 12:06:15 PM by Mnemnosyne »
-Do you honestly think that we believe ourselves evil? My friend, we seek only good. It's just that our definitions don't quite match.-
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Re: The Binder's Summon List and Spellbook
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2013, 02:10:50 PM »
Summon Monster IX
This list is available at EBL 18.

Couatl|37 Monster Manual
Demon, Bebilith|42 Monster Manual
Tanar’ri, Hezrou|44 Monster Manual
Baatezu, Hamatula|51 Monster Manual
Fiendish Dire Shark|64 and 107 Monster Manual
Elemental, Elder|95 Monster Manual
Guardinal, Leonal|142 Monster Manual
Night Hag|193 Monster Manual
Celestial Roc|215 and 31 Monster Manual
Slaad, Green|230 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Scorpion, Gargantuan|287 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Spider, Colossal|288 and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Monstrous Crab, Gargantuan|142 Stormwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Fiendish Mosasaur|146 Stomrwrack and 107 Monster Manual
Celestial Plesiosaur|146 Stomrwrack and 31 Monster Manual
Storm Elemental, Greater|48 Monster Manual III
Tanar’ri, Adaru|20 Monster Manual V
Baatezu, Brachina|134 Fiendish Codex II
Archon, Owl|159 Book of Exalted Deeds
Archon, Sword|160 Book of Exalted Deeds
Eladrin, Firre|169 Book of Exalted Deeds
Guardinal, Ursinal|174 Book of Exalted Deeds
Moon Dog|179 Book of Exalted Deeds
Quesar|180 Book of Exalted Deeds
Demodand, Farastu|42 Fiend Folio
Demon, Wastrilith|54 Fiend Folio
Deva, Monadic|56 Fiend Folio
Formian, Observer|77 Fiend Folio
Rilmani, Cuprilach|142 Fiend Folio

Commentary on Summon Monster IX
In a number of ways, this level is somewhat underwhelming, but that’s not to say it’s useless.  For a full caster that has to compare these summons with other 9th level spells, it may well be considered sub-par, but as a binder there’s no tradeoff to make, so it’s pretty much all benefit.  The elementals at this level are going to be the binder’s go-to melee combatants, when such a role is needed and there’s enough room to summon them.  For smaller locations, it’s actually much more difficult to find a capable melee combatant.  The brachina is, surprisingly, respectable, and the sword archon may also be useful at this point.  There are several new spells available; enervation is pretty noticeable from the cuprilach, even though at this point a lot of the binder’s enemies will be immune to it.  The quesar also brings an area of effect disintegrate that might be useful both in combat and for utility purposes; the binder just has to be sure she wants everything within a 30 foot sphere disintegrated.  Wall of force finally makes an appearance, as does solid fog, finally giving the binder access to some staple battlefield control spells...sadly at a point where they're somewhat less useful than they once were, but these spells are never totally useless.  All in all a solid, if not impressive for the level, list of summons.

Couatl
As a physical combatant, a couatl is terrible at this level, with a single attack at +12.  It does have some useful abilities, however.  It has all four of the detect alignment spells; this can come in handy if you need to discern someone’s alignment as a whole – just detect on them with each of the four spells in turn.  If they don’t ping on any of them, they’re either true neutral or running an undetectable alignment spell or other ability that negates such detection.  Invisibility is no more or less handy than ever.  The couatl can also polymorph itself into something more useful, perhaps, but it’s probably still not worth summoning for physical combat even if it polymorphs.
The couatl’s one strength is that it casts spells as a 9th level sorcerer.  As with the Lillend, it has a list of typical spells known in its entry, which means that most summons should know the listed spells, although again, the DM may very well rule that a particular summon has a different list of spells available.  The typical list is as follows: cure minor wounds, daze, disrupt undead, light, obscuring mist, ray of frost, read magic, resistance, endure elements, mage armor, protection from chaos, true strike, wind wall, cure moderate wounds, eagle’s splendor, scorching ray, silence, gaseous form, magic circle against evil, summon monster III, charm monster, and freedom of movement.  It should be noted that some of these spells are listed at an unusual spell level, such as wind wall being listed as a 1st level spell.  This is likely due to the couatl’s ability to choose spells known from the Air, Good, and Law domains.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Several of the couatl’s spells become far more useful in this situation, allowing the binder to buff arbitrarily large numbers of people with long-duration buffs.

Bebilith
Weak as a combatant for this level, the bebilith has one notable ability that may be of use; its bites inflict poison with a DC 24 fortitude save, dealing 1d6 constitution initial damage, 2d6 constitution secondary damage.  It is specifically noted that the venom is highly perishable and loses effectiveness as soon as it comes into contact with air, however, meaning that harvesting this venom for use (even only a few minutes later) is effectively impossible.  If the binder is in a situation where a +19 melee bite is likely to hit, and the poison would be useful, the bebilith may be worth summoning.  Otherwise, it’s a skippable summon at this level.

Tanar’ri, Hezrou
When fighting a good or lawful enemy, the hezrou’s unholy blight and chaos hammer abilities may find some use because of the slow and sicken effects.  Blasphemy is unlikely to be useful in a serious battle due to its caster level of only 13 – by the time the binder can summon this creature, the average HD of their enemies will be too high to be affected by the spell.  In the event that a binder needs to deal with a large number of low-HD nonevil enemies, however, this is an absolutely fantastic summon for the situation, since a hezrou can cast blasphemy three times per day and it’ll have some serious negative effects upon anything of 13 HD or lower.  And since the binder and their allies are likely to be high enough HD to be completely unaffected even if they’re nonevil, careful positioning is unnecessary.  Gaseous form is useful to mention since it’s castable on others.  The hezrou can cast this three times per day, and it can be used to gain entrance to all sorts of otherwise inaccessible locations.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: The hezrou doesn’t change much in utility in this situation.  Gaseous form is able to last the full 26 minutes, but that may actually make it worse; the subject is not able to end the spell, only the caster can do so, and the spell doesn’t allow the creature to re-assume its normal form at will.  A binder using this spell from a hezrou under these rules should make sure they command the creature to dismiss it before the summon expires, so that the subjects don’t remain stuck in gaseous form for a half hour.  Keep in mind also that it takes a standard action to dismiss a spell, so if the hezrou has cast it on three people, it needs to start dismissing three rounds before the summon expires.

Baatezu, Hamatula
Another less than impressive combatant for the level, the hamatula’s Impale ability may give it some small usefulness, at least for enemies that are weak to grappling.  Against such a creature, the hamatula can initiate a grapple with its +22 grapple modifier, then do 3d8+9 points of piercing damage each round with a grapple check.  This is a limited situation since most enemies at this level are either large enough to have a higher grapple modifier, or have alternate ways of escaping grapples.  The hamatula’s spell selection is less than impressive; like the hezrou, it might come in handy versus chaotic and good enemies for its order’s wrath and unholy blight abilities, but other than that it is unlikely to make a meaningful difference in battles at this level.

Elemental, Elder
The elder earth elemental is a strong melee combatant, with two slams at +27 and dealing 2d10+11 damage each, with a 19-20 crit range.  Its +37 grapple modifier is also quite solid.  Don’t underestimate the simple usefulness of having a 60,000 pound lump of moving rock around, too.  Simply by jumping on something it can do a considerable amount of structural damage; according to the rules on falling objects, if a 60,000 pound object falls just ten feet, it will do 300d6 of damage to whatever it falls upon.  The air elemental’s whirlwind and the water elemental’s vortex also get harder to resist at this point.  Lots of combats will see some use for these powerful elementals.

Guardinal, Leonal
The leonal’s melee is unimpressive as with many monsters at this level of summons.  It has a roar that has the same effects as a holy word spell, except it’s in a 60 foot cone and deals an additional 2d6 sonic damage.  As a supernatural ability, this has a caster level of 12, so much like the hezrou, it is useful only when dealing with large numbers of low-HD enemies, except it’s limited by its shape.  It’s not clear whether the 2d6 damage applies even to creatures too high to be affected by the holy word portion of the ability, but it is negated by a DC20 fortitude saving throw in any case.
The leonal’s spell list is likely to be slightly more useful.  Hold monster makes its first appearance on the binder’s spell list here.  Unfortunately the DC is somewhat low for this level, but against enemies with poor will saves it will be useful.  Polymorph can be cast on others, and at two caster levels higher than the maelephant.  This still restricts it to 10 HD forms, but it may well come in handy from time to time.  Wall of force remains a fantastic ability even at this level and is likely the primary reason to be summoning a leonal at all.  Its remaining spell-like abilities are already available to the binder from other summons. 
Overall, the leonal is a highly situational creature to be summoning, but on the occasions when it merits summoning it may well be quite useful.  If for no other reason than access to wall of force it’s likely to become a commonly used creature in the binder’s arsenal.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Polymorph is the only spell the leonal has that will truly benefit from this condition, and its CL10 limit leaves it somewhat less useful than it would otherwise be.  Still, if the summon subschool’s limitation is not being observed, the leonal’s polymorph becomes a little more powerful, since it can be cast well in advance of its need, with a 10 minute duration.

Night Hag
Is this a joke?  If so, it’s a bad one.  An 8HD creature on the Summon Monster IX list, with absolutely worthless melee, pathetic spell-like abilities, and a supernatural ability that she’s incapable of using due to summon spell restrictions, not to mention time limit.  I can’t think of any situation in which the night hag would be a good idea to summon even for a binder with their much greater leeway for being able to ‘waste’ summons on single abilities, much less for an actual spellcaster that has to observe spells per day.

Slaad, Green
Almost another joke, the green slaad is near-worthless for most capacities I can think of.  Shatter is the only interesting spell-like ability it brings to the table, and maybe dispel law.  Everything else is better done by some other creature at this level, so skip this summon unless you’ve got a rare case where one of those two spells is particularly needed.

Storm Elemental, Greater
The storm elemental has really grown up nicely over the last few levels.  It should be noted that the tables on the storm elemental seem to be in error; they list the greater elemental’s abilities as stronger than the elder’s.  I’m uncertain if there was errata to correct this, but it seems reasonable to make the logical assumption that this was a typographical error on the tables for the shock and thunder and lightning abilities.  Its melee is comparable to the elder elementals, but in addition it also can deal 10d4 electrical damage to a single opponent within 10 feet as a free action every round, with a DC26 fort saving throw for half damage.  Once per minute, or twice during the 18-round duration of the summon at EBL 18, it can use its thunder and lightning ability to deal 10d6 sonic damage within a 60 foot radius, and 21d6 electrical damage along a 120 ft. line.  The save DC is 26 with a fort saving throw for half sonic damage, and reflex for half on the lightning.  As with the last level, the storm elemental is one of the best summons at this level and does a considerable amount of damage; highly recommended in a wide variety of situations.

Tanar’ri, Adaru
The adaru is weak, but has a couple abilities of note.  It can cast freedom of movement at will, and this is a certain ability for it, so it’s a better choice than the couatl for this particular function – while any given couatl probably has the spell available, an adaru definitely does, and can cast it once per round without limit.  The adaru also has an odd version of charm monster (DC18, CL13) that’s not listed on the spell list for this level.  This is because it functions only against tanar’ri, which makes it sufficiently specialized as to not mention on the general list.  It has one other ability of note – if the summoner and her allies are all evil, at least.  The adaru’s fetid cloud supernatural ability sickens all nonevil creatures within 30 feet, with no saving throw.  It also provides a +2 profane bonus on attack, damage, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks to evil creatures other than adarus.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Under this circumstance, the adaru’s freedom of movement becomes even more effective, since it lasts 130 minutes; the binder can use this to apply the spell to herself and or allies for long durations, possibly even doubling up on the coverage already gained by magical items (to make it more difficult to remove by stacking separate sources).

Baatezu, Brachina
The brachina is surprisingly capable as a melee combatant – not particularly great for the level, but surprisingly capable nonetheless.  She attacks with either a +1 cold iron short sword at +21/+16/+11, dealing 1d6+5 with a 19-20 crit range, or with a melee touch attack that inflicts poison, at +20/+15/+10.  The poison is DC22, 1d6/1d6 wisdom, so while it’s not likely to incapacitate someone, it may serve to lower will saves or reduce the level of spells that a wisdom-based caster has available.
The brachina’s spell list is more interesting – it gives access to a few useful abilities.  Clairaudience/clairvoyance makes a very late entry onto the binder’s list here, with the caveat that it’s the brachina seeing what’s being scried on, so the binder is relying on a fiend’s description of what she sees.  Enthrall may be useful, but can be significantly limited by the summon’s short duration.  Nevertheless, for a brief distraction, it’s a solid ability.  Suggestion sees a very reasonable DC for this level at DC22. 

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Polymorph becomes noticeably more useful, being able to last 17 minutes, and at CL17 with the subjects likely being over 15 HD, can have its maximum possible effect.  There’s a couple spells on the brachina’s list that are near-useless without this condition being in effect.  Morality undone is an interestingly unusual spell that may well be useful; it turns the subject evil for 170 minutes.  It’s hard to discern exactly when and how this would be useful, but some situations may very well find that such an ability is effective.  It seems of little value, however, if applied only for the duration of the summon, so it’s noted only under this condition.  Trap the soul, as a permanent spell, is only useful under this condition as well – otherwise the captured subject would be released the moment the summoning ends and the brachina is dismissed.  It should be noted that trap the soul requires a gem as a material component, while spell-like abilities don’t require material components.  However, the gem is an integral part of the functioning of the spell, so exactly how this is to work without a material component is difficult to discern.

Archon, Owl
The owl archon, while worthless as a melee component, has several useful abilities.  Six times per day it can use eye rays that force a DC20 fort save or the target turns to stone; this isn’t a gaze attack, it’s a ray that requires a ranged touch attack at +15 to hit.  It has the standard archon aura of menace, and a few useful spells.  Faerie fire is a simple spell that can still prove useful at this level since it negates concealment with no saving throw.  Find the path is an incredibly useful spell that not only leads the target to a destination, but enables them to avoid all traps along the way.  And then there’s reincarnate, which while it has the same level loss disadvantages as raise dead, also provides some useful advantages that may not be otherwise available.  It won’t be commonly used, but on the rare occasions when it’s useful it’ll probably come in handy.  Remember the Rules Compendium’s ruling that all spell-like abilities are reduced to 1 standard action casting time unless specifically noted otherwise in the ability’s description; this means the 10 minute casting time is not an obstacle for this spell.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Relatively limited change, really.  Stone to flesh is an instantaneous effect so wouldn’t be affected by this.  The archon’s eye rays do not directly reference a spell with a duration, and the closest spell is flesh to stone, which is instantaneous.  Find the path is the only spell that finds itself notably improved in this situation, gaining a 130 minute duration…but a binder could easily just keep summoning an owl archon every time the previous one expires, for this purpose.  It increases convenience slightly, but utility is minimally affected.

Archon, Sword
The sword archon’s special ability is a ‘discorporating dive’ that can instantly kill a target…but first it needs to hit, then the target needs to fail a DC17 fortitude save.  Hitting shouldn’t be too unlikely, fortunately, since the archon has to do this as part of a charge, giving it a +2 on it at least a +22 to hit.  Don’t forget the pseudonatural true strike ability as well, which can practically guarantee a hit.  The DC17 fort save is harder, considering that’s a pretty easy save for most enemies at this level.  The archon’s aura of menace will help, if the target fails a DC20 will save first, since that imposes a -2 penalty on saves.  Any other abilities the binder can bring to bear to reduce fort saves are likely to be useful in order to cause this attack to be successful.  If the save fails, the victim’s body is utterly annihilated and he’s instantly killed, and furthermore, his soul is sent to Mount Celestia, where it’s kept imprisoned until the archons see fit to release it.  If the creature is evil, the archons will never release it unless it’s redeemed itself somehow.  This is a very good way to keep bad guys dead, permanently.
Beyond that, divination and commune are likely to be useful, as long as the binder is seeking information for a reason that the archon’s deity is in agreement with.  The sword archon’s locate object is also potentially useful, and dispel chaos may occasionally find some rare functionality somewhere.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: In this situation, mark of justice becomes viable, with the Rules Compendium’s ruling on SLA’s allowing the casting of it within the summon’s duration.  Granted, mark of justice is a pretty questionable spell at this level, since most anyone it’s cast on should have the resources to easily deal with it when needed.

Eladrin, Firre
The firre eladrin has a 60 ft. range gaze attack that deals 2d6 fire damage without a save, and also inflicts blindness on the target, with a DC18 fortitude save to negate the blindness.  The description of the attack makes it a little unclear how it functions; it talks about the eladrin gazing at a target as though it were an active attack, in which case as a supernatural ability this would be a standard action.  On the other hand, gaze attacks normally function automatically against all targets in range that don’t avert their eyes.  If this functions as a standard gaze attack, then anything in combat with the firre is likely to eventually fail a saving throw and be blinded; if it functions as a standard action, there may be better things for the firre to be doing.
The firre’s spell-like abilities include several useful functions.  Persistent image is very nice to have since the firre can cast it then do other things for the duration.  Doubly nice to have an image spell finally provided by an explicitly good creature; if the binder is good or even neutral, the binder is less likely to have to give incredibly specific instructions, since the eladrin is more likely to be inclined to help rather than try to subvert its instructions.  At this level, wall of fire is unlikely to be useful, but some niche circumstances may call for such an ability.  The firre eladrin is also the first creature to provide greater invisibility to the binder, meaning she can finally buff herself and her allies with a spell that keeps her invisible after attacking.  Prismatic spray can only be used once per day, but like most prismatics, it’s worth the shot.
In addition, the firre has the spellcasting ability of a 12th level cleric, and it has a list of typically prepared spells indicated in its entry.  That list is as follows: detect magic, detect poison, guidance, mending, read magic, resistance, bless, detect evil, divine favor, sanctuary, ray of hope, shield of faith, align weapon, bear’s endurance, eagle’s splendor, hold person, resist energy, continual light, dispel magic, invisibility purge, prayer, searing light, dimensional anchor, dismissal, tongues, break enchantment, dispel evil, flame strike, greater dispel magic, and heal.  It’s a solid list of spells, assuming the DM allows the summoned creature to come with the standard list prepared.  Break enchantment may be particularly useful since it can remove conditions that many other spells can’t.
The ability to sing like a bard is a final note of potential use.  It doesn’t specify the eladrin’s level of bard song, but it does list its abilities: inspire courage, fascinate, inspire competence, and suggestion.  Assuming the firre sings as a bard of its hit dice, it would thus sing as an 8th level bard, gaining the +2 to inspire courage, which makes it more effective than the lillend at this.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Persistent image becomes considerably more useful since it can last a full 10 minutes.  Wall of fire can be permanencied, assuming the binder can gain access to permanency from some other source, for the various uses that require that – a permanent wall of fire makes a great source of heat for steam engines and other devices that require a consistent source of heat.  Several of the cleric spells the firre can cast also have durations long enough to be improved in utility in this situation.

Guardinal, Ursinal
The ursinal’s spell-like abilities only one of major notice: solid fog.  At this level it’s far less useful than it has been to other casters for a much longer period of time, but even at EBL 18, solid fog remains remarkably effective, since anything without freedom of movement is automatically reduced to 5 ft. of movement.  The ursinal can cast this at will, so a single ursinal can cover a massive area in solid fog, preventing anything from moving very far; this can be made use of in any number of ways, but it is absolutely a huge help to the binder even at this level.  The ursinal’s other spell-like abilities are either all already available to the binder through other summons or of little value, but hold monster has a higher DC than if cast by the leonal, at 19 vs. the leonal’s 17.  Holy word is the only other one of note, and this time it’s cast as normal, with a 40 ft. radius.  Again, the low caster level makes the usefulness limited to situations with large numbers of weak opponents, but it is a situation that comes up from time to time.
The ursinal also casts spells as a 12th level wizard, and the typical spells prepared list is given as follows: daze, detect poison, flare, light, charm person, color spray, eyes of the avoral, feather fall, hypnotism, glitterdust, invisibility, locate object, touch of idiocy, yoke of mercy, clairaudience/clairvoyance, daylight, elation, healing touch, suggestion, celestial brilliance, confusion, radiant fog, scrying, dismissal, purified wall of fire, teleport, mass suggestion, and wages of sin.  Spells of note among that list are yoke of mercy, celestial brilliance, and radiant fog, although that last one is a little odd.  It’s like solid fog, only it allows spell resistance to negate the movement penalty.  Also, it dazzles creatures within it.
Beyond that, the ursinal can lay on hands for a total amount of damage as its maximum HP – an average of 75.  It’s therefore a pretty decent healer, able to distribute smaller amounts of healing to multiple people to avoid wasting its three heal spells…assuming that’s a concern to the binder at the moment.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Solid fog becomes even more useful, since it lasts 12 minutes in this situation.

Moon Dog
The moon dog comes loaded down with a whole bunch of little supernatural abilities.  It can bark as a standard action, creating a dispel evil effect as a 12th level cleric.  It can bay as a standard action, producing a fear effect within an 80 ft. radius with a DC17 will save to resist as if cast by a 12th level sorcerer, but it only affects evil creatures.  It can howl, which combines the baying effect with a 1d4+4 damage per round added on, and in addition, all evil extraplanar creatures within 40 feet are affected as if by dismissal at CL12.  The moon dog’s whine automatically dispels any illusion effect within 50 feet.  And, when in shadowy illumination, the moon dog can create a shadow pattern which functions as a hypnotic pattern spell at CL10 with a DC17 will save to resist for evil creatures, while providing the benefits of a protection from evil and remove fear to good creatures within the effect.  In addition to those abilities, the moon dog can also cast a number of spell-like abilities.  Of particular note may be greater shadow conjuration which might be useful to replicate quite a variety of conjuration spells as needed.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: Nondetection becomes useful in this circumstance, providing a DC23 caster level check that must be overcome in order to scry the targeted creature or object.  While most characters at this level should generally have access to mind blank, the nondetection spell may be useful for an item that needs to be obscured or some other such thing which falls outside the purview of mind blank.

Quesar
The quesar is primarily useful for its consuming brilliance ability, but it has a couple other moderately useful abilities.  At will, the quesar can radiate brilliant light to 120 feet, and any creature within this radius must make a DC14 fortitude save or be blinded for 1d10 rounds.  After it’s had this ability active for at least one round, it can then use a searing burst, dealing 6d6 damage to all creatures within 30 feet, DC14 reflex save for half.   Consuming brilliance, the quesar’s most powerful ability, is effectively an area-of-effect disintegrate that affects everything within 15 feet of the quesar.  All creatures and objects within that distance take 22d6 damage and can be reduced to dust as per the disintegrate spell.  DC14 fort save reduces the damage to 5d6.  This is primarily useful for its area of effect functionality, since a quesar can do this three times per day.  It’s also more effective, at this level, to make use of it against objects and structures, which cannot make the fortitude saving throw…or against creatures with terrible fort saves, such as the undead.

Demon, Wastrilith
This one comes with an important warning.  When summoned, a wastrilith can break free by making an opposed wisdom check; if it succeeds, it goes on a rampage, attacking its summoner.  It only has a wisdom of 12, so this isn’t necessarily an easy check for it, but wisdom is also a typical dump stat for binders, making it far from certain that the binder will win this opposed check.
The wastrilith does have a few very useful spells available to it, however, making the danger possibly worthwhile sometimes, especially if the binder is prepared for the situation.  Blasphemy from a wastrilith is cast at CL15, making it much more likely to be useful against enemies the binder might be facing.  Granted, it’s still three levels below the EBL needed to summon the wastrilith, but it’s better than 5 levels below.  Unhallow, as an instantaneous spell, can be quite the useful ability to an evil binder.  Having a wastrilith cast it bypasses the material component cost, and thanks to the Rules Compendium’s ruling on spell-like abilities, the 24 hour casting time isn’t a concern either – this also enables the symbol spells to be useful when cast by a wastrilith, because it’s able to cast them as a standard action.  The fact that they will only last until the summon’s duration expires is of little consequence, when the creature can put one up mid-battle as a standard action; the binder must, of course, be careful that she and her allies are shielded from the symbol’s effects.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: The wastrilith’s symbol ability becomes even more powerful in this situation, allowing the binder to prepare an unlimited number of long-duration symbols as traps in an area she’s protecting, or in any variety of creative manners to unleash on enemies as needed.  Control water also becomes considerably more useful, since it will last 150 minutes.

Deva, Monadic
The monadic deva is another creature with a huge pile of spell-like abilities at her disposal.  She has an unusual ability in a charm monster (DC18, CL11) version that affects only elementals.  Beyond that, her spell list consists of: aid, consecrate, continual light, create food and water, death ward, detect evil, discern lies, hold monster, mirror image, polymorph self, prayer, protection from arrows, atonement, cure serious wounds, daylight, dispel magic, divination, hallow, holy aura, holy smite, neutralize poison, remove curse, remove disease, remove fear, commune, dispel evil, raise dead.
Much like the movanic deva before it, that’s an impressive and useful list of spell-like abilities.  Polymorph self can be assumed to become a self-only polymorph in 3.5.  Divination is quite useful, and an interesting trick that a binder can do is make multiple divinations about the same subject.  Note that multiple divinations by the same caster yield the same answer, but the binder is summoning different beings to cast the spell.  Therefore, each summon gets a new die roll; the caster can thus make multiple divinations to confirm the accuracy of a previous divination, or to re-divine something she knows was incorrect.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: The monadic deva’s spell list really shines in this situation.  A large number of the spells available are medium to long duration, and can therefore be used to pre-buff the binder and her allies.  Spells like consecrate allow for battlefield preparation hours in advance, and long-duration buffs should always be active on a binder, since the only cost is a few rounds to summon the deva and have her cast the spells.

Formian, Observer
With a limited spell list and no real physical combat ability, the observer isn’t a great summons for this level.  Their all-around vision doesn’t directly benefit the binder, their poison is going to be difficult to implement in battle, and their evaluation ability only affects formians.  All in all, this isn’t a creature that a binder is likely to want to summon often, if at all.  Its one saving grace is that it has clairaudience/clairvoyance on a creature which is not a fiend, and therefore far less likely to be deceptive in its description of what it sees.  Indeed, as a lawful creature, it seems likely the summoned observer will prefer to faithfully report what it observes, but that highly depends on the DM’s definition of ‘lawful’ and their behavior.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: No real change.  True seeing becomes more viable, but the binder already has other, more capable summons to provide that spell, generally speaking.

Rilmani, Cuprilach
The cuprilach is notable primarily for its enervation ability, which it can use 3/day.  With the pseudonatural true strike, this pretty much guarantees one successful hit and makes two additional hits pretty likely, making this actually a valid combat summon, at least against anything not immune to negative levels.  Its other abilities are considerably less impressive, although its poison with a DC of 20 on the fort saves to resist might also be of use, occasionally.  The cuprilach also has a hide modifier of +16, and the hide in plain sight ability; these could be useful at times to let it hide and then cast another enervation or possibly some other useful ability.  Its swift strikes ability shouldn’t be completely ignored – it can make a full attack as a standard action, and since the cuprilach has a +3d6 sneak attack, this can actually result in not entirely pointless damage, especially since its attacks are at +21/+16/+11, or one point lower if using its longbow, so it actually has a decent chance at hitting.

Unlimited Summon Spell Durations: The cuprilach’s misdirection spell becomes useful in this situation.  Being able to be under a relatively constant misdirection effect with a DC of 18 is a pretty solid use for the cuprilach, and allows the binder to get around a number of thorny detection problems.

Summon Monster IX Spell List
Aid|Archon, Sword (CL11); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Atonement|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Blasphemy|Tanar’ri, Hezrou (DC21, CL13); Demon, Wastrilith (DC21, CL15)
Calm Animals|Archon, Owl (DC13, CL12)
Chaos Hammer|Tanar’ri, Hezrou (DC18, CL13); Slaad, Green (DC15, CL9)
Charm Animal|Archon, Owl (DC13, CL12)
Charm Monster|Baatezu, Brachina (DC23, CL17); Formian, Observer (DC17, CL12)
Commune|Archon, Sword (CL11); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Consecrate|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Continual Light|Archon, Sword (CL11); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Control Water|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Create Food and Water|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Cure Critical Wounds|Guardinal, Leonal (DC16, CL10)
Cure Serious Wounds|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Daylight|Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Dancing Lights|Moon Dog (CL12)
Darkness|Moon Dog (CL12)
Death Ward|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Deeper Darkness|Slaad, Green (CL9); Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Deep Slumber|Guardinal, Ursinal (DC17, CL12)
Desecrate|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Dismissal|Archon, Owl (DC16, CL12)
Dispel Chaos|Archon, Sword (DC18, CL11)
Dispel Evil|Deva, Monadic (DC19, CL11)
Dispel Law|Slaad, Green (DC16, CL9)
Dispel Magic|Archon, Owl (CL12); Demodand, Farastu (CL11)
Dispel Magic|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Dispel Magic, Greater|Archon, Owl (CL12); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Divination|Archon, Sword (CL11); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Enervation|Rilmani, Cuprilach (CL12)
Enthrall|Baatezu, Brachina (DC21, CL17)
Faerie Fire|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Fear|Slaad, Green (DC15, CL9); Demodand, Farastu (DC17, CL11); Demon, Wastrilith (DC18, CL15)
Find the Path|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Fireball|Guardinal, Leonal (DC15, CL10); Slaad, Green (DC14, CL9); Eladrin, Firre (DC17, CL10)
Fog Cloud|Moon Dog (CL12); Demodand, Farastu (CL11)
Freedom of Movement|Tanar’ri, Adaru (CL13)
Gaseous Form|Tanar’ri, Hezrou (CL13)
Hallow|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Heal|Guardinal, Leonal (DC18, CL10); Guardinal, Ursinal (DC20, CL12)
Hold Monster|Guardinal, Leonal (DC17, CL10); Guardinal, Ursinal (DC19, CL12); Deva, Monadic (DC19, CL11)
Hold Person|Baatezu, Hamatula (DC16, CL12)
Holy Aura|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Holy Smite|Deva, Monadic (DC18, CL11)
Holy Word|Guardinal, Ursinal (DC21, CL12)
Invisibility|Couatl (CL9); Demodand, Farastu (CL11)
Invisibility, Greater|Eladrin, Firre (CL10); Moon Dog (CL12)
Knock|Rilmani, Cuprilach (CL12)
Light|Moon Dog (CL12)
Locate Creature|Archon, Sword (CL11)
Locate Object|Archon, Sword (CL11)
Magic Missile|Night Hag (CL8); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12)
Major Image|Baatezu, Hamatula (DC17, CL12)
Mark of Justice|Archon, Sword (CL11)
Melf’s Acid Arrow|Rilmani, Cuprilach (CL12)
Misdirection|Rilmani, Cuprilach (DC18, CL12)
Morality Undone|Baatezu, Brachina (DC24, CL17)
Neutralize Poison|Guardinal, Leonal (CL10); Archon, Owl (CL12); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Nondetection|Moon Dog (DC16, CL12)
Order’s Wrath|Baatezu, Hamatula (DC18, CL12)
Persistent Image|Eladrin, Firre (CL10)
Poison|Rilmani, Cuprilach (DC20, CL12)
Polymorph|Guardinal, Leonal (CL10); Baatezu, Brachina (CL17); Eladrin, Firre (CL10); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12)
Prayer|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Prismatic Spray|Eladrin, Firre (DC21, CL10)
Produce Flame|Baatezu, Brachina (CL17)
Protection from Arrows|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Protection from Law|Slaad, Green (CL9)
Raise Dead|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Ray of Enfeeblement|Night Hag (DC12, CL8); Demodand, Farastu (DC14, CL11)
Reincarnate|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Remove Curse|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Remove Disease|Guardinal, Leonal (CL10); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Remove Fear|Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Scorching Ray|Baatezu, Hamatula (CL12)
Shatter|Slaad, Green (DC13, CL9)
Shadow Conjuration, Greater|Moon Dog (CL12)
Sleep|Night Hag (DC12, CL8)
Solid Fog|Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12)
Speak with Animals|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Stone to Flesh|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Suggestion|Baatezu, Brachina (DC22, CL17); Demon, Wastrilith (DC17, CL15)
Symbol (Any)|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Telekinesis|Demon, Wastrilith (DC19, CL15)
Trap the Soul|Baatezu, Brachina (CL17)
True Seeing|Formian, Observer (CL12)
Tongues|Demodand, Farastu (CL11)
Touch of Adamantine|Archon, Sword (DC19, CL11)
Unhallow|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Unholy Aura|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Unholy Blight|Tanar’ri, Hezrou (DC18, CL13); Demon, Wastrilith (DC18, CL15); Baatezu, Hamatula (DC18, CL12)
Vampiric Touch|Baatezu, Brachina (CL17)
Wages of Sin|Archon, Sword (DC19, CL11)
Wall of Fire|Eladrin, Firre (CL10)
Wall of Force|Guardinal, Leonal (CL10)
Wall of Ice|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)

Summon Monster IX Self-Only Spells
Arcane Sight|Moon Dog (CL12)
Blessed Sight|Moon Dog (CL12)
Change Self|Moon Dog (CL12)
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance|Baatezu, Brachina (CL17); Demodand, Farastu (CL11); Formian, Observer (CL12)
Detect Chaos|Couatl (CL9); Night Hag (CL8); Formian, Observer (CL12)
Detect Evil|Couatl (CL9); Night Hag (CL8); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Detect Good|Couatl (CL9); Night Hag (CL8); Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Detect Law|Couatl (CL9); Night Hag (CL8); Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
Detect Magic|Night Hag (CL8); Slaad, Green (CL9); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Demodand, Farastu (CL11); Formian, Observer (CL12)
Detect Snares and Pits|Moon Dog (CL12)
Detect Thoughts|Couatl (DC15, CL9); Guardinal, Leonal (DC14, CL10); Slaad, Green (DC13, CL9); Eladrin, Firre (DC16, CL10); Guardinal, Ursinal (DC16, CL12);
Formian, Observer (DC15, CL12); Rilmani, Cuprilach (DC18, CL12)
Discern Lies|Deva, Monadic (DC18, CL11)
Divine Power|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Freedom of Movement|Archon, Owl (CL12)
Locate Creature|Rilmani, Cuprilach (CL12)
Magic Circle against Evil|Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12)
Mirror Image|Moon Dog (CL12); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Mislead|Rilmani, Cuprilach (CL12)
Polymorph|Couatl (CL9); Night Hag (CL8); Deva, Monadic (CL11)
Read Magic|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
See Invisibility|Slaad, Green (CL9); Eladrin, Firre (CL10); Guardinal, Ursinal (CL12); Moon Dog (CL12); Formian, Observer (CL12); Rilmani, Cuprilach (CL12)
Tongues|Demon, Wastrilith (CL15)
-Do you honestly think that we believe ourselves evil? My friend, we seek only good. It's just that our definitions don't quite match.-
Ailanreanter, Arcanaloth