D&D 5E A Pack of Ill Omen?

[epithet]

What, if anything, prevents a Shadow Sorcerer (as described in Xanathar's Guide to Everything) from summoning a Hound of Ill Omen every round until he runs out of sorcery points? At level 10 (with 10 sorcery points,) couldn't he have three hounds up at the same time?

 

[TwoSix]

What, if anything, prevents a Shadow Sorcerer (as described in Xanathar's Guide to Everything) from summoning a Hound of Ill Omen every round until he runs out of sorcery points? At level 10 (with 10 sorcery points,) couldn't he have three hounds up at the same time?

Hmm. I don't think it's a concentration effect, so it seems valid.

Did you have a balance concern about it?

 

[epithet]

No, I just realized I had been thinking about it as if the hound were necessarily singular, but there doesn't seem to be such a limitation in the ability. I thought I'd check to see if I was missing something.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I don't see any limitation (other than the # of sorcery points). I think each Hound can attack a different creature (or all the same), but each can only attack one creature designated as a target. Good if you need cannon fodder and don't have any other caster (or one of the enemies can cast divine word, which has a good chance of taking out all summoned enemies, since monstrosities aren't subject to its banishing effect), but 3 SP's can eat into your budget in a hurry. I am interpreting the language as you can summon 1 per round (specifically "At 6th level, as a bonus action you can spend 3 Sorcery Points to magically summon a hound of ill omen" [bolding mine]) , using a bonus action, so a pack might take a bit.

In terms of per creature capability, it is competing with conjure animals, conjure minor elementals, conjure woodland beings, and summon minor demons, so if you think upcasting any of those spells is a good idea, then spamming this is a good plan.

 

[AmerginLiath]

There doesn’t seem to be any rule issue with it (short of argument legalese of grammatical articles), it’s just a matter of opportunity cost. If a shadow sorcerer wants to play the character as mainly a summoner, that simply means that the PC doesn’t have other points to spend on adjusting the effect of spells. It’s simply a matter of choosing how much of a limited resource to spend on class abilities (metamagic) vs subclass abilities (hounds) — it all balances out in terms of spending finite points over finite actions and becomes as much a matter of defining the character as anything else.

(although, per the point made prior, I would agree that only one can be summoned at a time)