Summon Nature's Ally + Animal Growth??

[stevelabny]

Ok, so I've always heard that higher level druids are uber-powerful.
but is this trick legal?

I've been using my "experience" to DM a group of almost-newbies from lvl 1 all the way up, so we can see first hand most of the spells/feats/etc. One of the party is currently playing an NPC Druid 11 (because his monk has been captured by the enemy). So we havent seen the Druid power up slowly over time.

While fighting a pack of Girallons in the Heart of Nightfang Spire, the druid cast Summon's Nature Ally and summoned 4 dire apes.
Then he cast Animal Growth, and the dire apes are suddenly HUGE with 30 STR. but the real problem is they now have DR 10/magic. And of course, the girallons have no magic. The huge dire apes tore through the girallons.
Now I get the idea that this trick will be used daily as long as the druid travels with the party.

So ,is this trick legal?

 

[youspoonybard]

Perfectly legal. And devestating.

 

[Gort]

Bloody hell. It's legal.

I guess you could use it with summon monster, since it's a wizzie spell too.

And OUCH.

 

[stevelabny]

i assumed that animal growth only works on things with the "animal" type and therefore wouldnt work on most monsters.

but i suppose animal growth is a good reason to keep dungeon crawls as part of the game, much harder to move around with multiple HUGE creatures involved in combat.

 

[youspoonybard]

Summoned monsters, at least the default ones, are templated, and it doesn't work with them.

And, a side note, this was WORSE in 3.0, where Animal Growth DOUBLED the target's HD!

GEEEZ.

 

[Squire James]

A dire ape is an animal, and can have Animal Growth applied to it. A fiendish dire ape (such as what a cleric or wizard might summon) is a magical beast who can't benefit from that spell. Of course, that fiendish dire ape has some DR anyway.

The druid has found a sound tactic for tearing through hordes of mooks designed to wear the party down. It will not work so well against single monsters of CR 11, especially ones that have DR themselves. It's not an "invincible tactic" good against everything.

Beware the level 13 Druid who can do this trick with Dire Bears, though!

 

[MarauderX]

How about adding the feat Augmented Summoning on top of the Animal Growth? Seems perfectly legal, right? So that a squad of Brown Bears would have:

Large Animal (Now Huge from Animal Growth)
Hit Dice: 6d8+24 (51 hp) +12 (Animal Growth) +12 (Aug Summon) = 75 HP.
Initiative: +1 -1 (-2 Dex from Anim Grow) -1 (Size from Anim Grow) = -1
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (–2 size, +0 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+16
Attack: Claw +11+2(Aug Summon)+4(Anim Grow)= +17 melee (1d8+8+6)
Full Attack: 2 claws +11 melee (1d8+8) and bite +6 melee (2d6+4)
Special Attacks: Improved grab
Special Qualities: Low-light vision, scent, DR 10/magic (Anim Grow)
Saves: Fort +9+2+2=+13, Ref +6-1=+5, Will +3
Abilities: Str 27+4(Aug Summon)+8(Anim Grow)= 39, Dex 13-2=11, Con 19+4+4=27, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6

What did I miss? And better yet, has anyone put together a spread sheet with both Augmented Summoning and Animal Growth? I have never wanted it until now.

 

[Darklone]

Our druid prefers to wildshape into a giant octopus and casts Animal Growth on himself. His one monk level helps though with the AC.

 

[Shallown]

I need that spread sheet when it gets done. I play a spirit shaman who will one day do that combo. I plan to summon as large by summoning lower level stuff in multiples then animal growth them. Makes them quite nasty. Imagine if you used it for mundane things like ripping down doors and such. I have spontaneous summoning as a feat (C.Divine) Once I get that spell combo I have to keep summoning sheets with all the info for both ready. I want augment summoning but chances are I won't get it anytime soon since I am going Mystic Thuirge. I'm gonnoa try to create a spell to simulate it though.

Later

 

[GlassJaw]

How about adding the feat Augmented Summoning on top of the Animal Growth? Seems perfectly legal, right?

Indeed it is. Particularly nasty. Just make sure you stat everything out before gametime. Aug Summoning + Animal Growth isn't something you can do on the fly.

It was fun watching my 4 huge dire wolves take down an iron golem all by themselves. Well my DM didn't like it.

Gargantuan Giant Constrictor Snakes are pretty awesome too.