Good Greater Planar Ally to summon?

[NewJeffCT]

I think an 18 HD Solar would fit the bill. Any other choices out there?

Any books have a good list of Planar Allies, rather than me thumbing through 4 different monster manuals?

Thanks

 

[NewJeffCT]

replying to myself in hopes of finding an answer. I guess a Planetar upgraded to 18HD might be one option?

 

[Thanee]

There are 18 HD Solar?

I'm actually not even sure, that you can call an advanced version of a creature, or just the basic variant.

Planetar is a pretty good choice, though. They are quite competent.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Animal]

archon hound hero?

also calling an advanced version of a monster seems a bit cheesy. as a DM i'd only allow to call thus customized creature if it actually existed in the campaign and you knew it personally or it's name at least.

 

[NewJeffCT]

There are 18 HD Solar?

I'm actually not even sure, that you can call an advanced version of a creature, or just the basic variant.

Planetar is a pretty good choice, though. They are quite competent.

Bye
Thanee

the MM standard Solar is 22 hit dice. A Planetar is 14HD and it's pretty easy to upgrade with Monsterforge.

One of these days my players will surprise me and actually summon a planar ally to help them out... I've had a few bad guys summon them, so I keep expecting them to do it in return, but nothing yet.

 

[Runestar]

BOED has a few extra outsiders, the tulani eladrin is 18HD...

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I've had a few bad guys summon them, so I keep expecting them to do it in return, but nothing yet.

There's kind of a huge difference. Namely, it doesn't cost the bad guys anything ... except part of the PCs' (eventual) treasure.

My cleric doesn't use it because of the cost. It's always in his mind as an option, but he never prepares it.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Planetars are great--even at a mere 14 HD.

When my party was finishing the age of worms campaign, we summoned a number of planetars in the final chapter. It was a great way to get access to lots of cleric spells that we couldn't normally cast (our party's healer was a favored soul). Sheltered Vitality was really handy when the monsters were draining most of our dump stats.

It also turns out that, given proper time to prepare and some leftover gear that we hadn't got around to selling, a planetar can make a substantial contribution in the fight against a demigod. You won't mistake him for a spelled up solar, but a fully spelled up planetar is better than a just-gated solar.

 

[NewJeffCT]

There's kind of a huge difference. Namely, it doesn't cost the bad guys anything ... except part of the PCs' (eventual) treasure.

My cleric doesn't use it because of the cost. It's always in his mind as an option, but he never prepares it.

True, there is a GP and XP cost, but I think the XP is minor when you're at levels 14/15 and trying to save the world.

 

[coyote6]

Technically, the caster doesn't generally get to pick what they call w/planar ally. They can try for a specific entity (by name; still not guaranteed to work); otherwise, the caster's deity determines what comes to help.

If you're using the core deities (or deities similar in concept to the core gods), I think Complete Divine gives a list of "standard" allies (under the "Herald and Allies" heading) dispatched by the various gods. I use that as inspiration a lot.

FWIW, Heironeous's entry lists a hound archon hero (that's the Paladin 11 hound archon) at the high end; Moradin gives a planetar.