Study Up on 5E D&D Magic — Conjuration Spells

August 25, 2021

Salutations, nerds! Conjuration magic for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is on the docket for today as per the unassailable law of alphabetical order. In 5E D&D conjuration spells mean summoning creatures and objects, materializing things out of thin air and one of my favorite kinds of spells — teleportation. If abjuration magic sends things away and back to whence they came then conjuration magic is about pulling them over to where you are now. A conjurer must understand the planes they’re working with, both for traveling between them and for calling what they require through them. They also have to understand the structure of magic in order to fabricate the things they need out of it.

Arcane tradition — conjuration

In 5E D&D School of Conjuration wizards get the ability to simply create an inanimate object no longer than 3 feet on any given side and weighing no more than 10 pounds. The limitations for this conjuration are such that you can only have one at a time because the object disappears if you conjure another. The feature is stupid proofed by making sure the item visibly glows like it’s magic so we don’t end up with anyone being like, “Sure I’ll sell you a horseshoe,” only to sell an item that disappears after one hour.

The School of Conjuration is actually pretty good for those adventurers who have forgotten something or don’t want to spend over 100 gold pieces on a spyglass out of the gate. At 6th level you can use your action to teleport a short distance or swap places with another willing creature. This one’s on a cooldown but you can get it back by casting a conjuration spell. Given the cooldown I would let a character use it as a bonus action but that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.

The capstone feature for the School of Conjuration wizard gives a big chunk of temporary hit points to any creature you summon or create with a conjuration spell, which is pretty good for a minion master. There’s also no limit to how many you can do this so Rules as Written you can absolutely conjure animals as a 14th level School of Conjuration wizard and summon eight panthers with 43 hit points a piece.

As a postscript though, if you’re going to do this to your poor Dungeon Master make sure you pre-roll for all your minion creatures so you don’t hold up combat or use an online dice roller so you don’t have to sit there rolling for every single panther. Taking 8 million years on your turn with a bunch of different creatures like this is a surefire way to make the whole rest of the table hate you.

“Conjuration spells involve the transportation of objects and creatures from one location to another. Some spells summon creatures or objects to the caster’s side, whereas others allow the caster to teleport to another location. Some conjurations create objects or effects out of nothing.” — from the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook

10 notable conjuration spells

Before I get into specific spells I want to note that acid splash and create bonfire are both conjuration spells and not evocation, which seems a little weird to me, but there you are.

Conjure Animals. You summon animals, up to eight of them. Theoretically those eight creatures are weaker than if you just summoned one, but if you have the chance to control the action economy why wouldn’t you?
Create Food and Water. This spell doesn’t get a lot of attention because it’s not useful in direct combat but you create 45 pounds of food and 30 gallons of water. Armies run on their stomachs. In a large scale combat situation you want a couple of conjurers on your side for sure. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: In the Secrets of Castle Greyhawk live game this spell came in quite handy in dealing with a giant demonic ape!]
Dimension Door. Want to suddenly be up to 500 feet away from where you are? This one is a classic.
Find Familiar. You gain the service of a familiar taking an animal form of your choosing. Who doesn’t like to have a pet with a mindlink to them?
Flaming Sphere. This is also for some reason not an evocation spell. Anyway, you summon a great ball of fire you can move as a bonus action and anything adjacent to it takes damage. It’s also a light source.
Mage Hand. The King Spell of not having to touch things you don’t want to touch with your actual hands. Or opening doors from 30 feet away.
Maze. Banish a creature to a labyrinth. It has to find its way out before it can come back to this plane. High level spell but absolute power move.
Plane Shift. This one lets you go to a plane that isn’t the one you’re on.
Teleportation Circle. Draw a circle, use some sigils and go anywhere on the plane you’re on as long as there’s a destination to be had. If you cast the spell in a single location every day for a year you can create a permanent circle.
Wish. Basically it’s a whatever you want spell. Unless you’re being a little shit with it in which case the DM can twist your words. There are costs to casting this spell — damage taken, strength decrease and a chance you might not ever be able to cast it again.

5 character concepts for conjuration magic

The Courier. When you have access to teleportation spells or the ability to send things through holes in reality, using it to send the mail is a natural extension. It gives your DM an extra opening to send you on side quests, too.
The Legerdemain. A mage whose purpose is standing on stage and wowing the audience with summoned creatures and by making objects disappear. You might even be wearing a nice stylish top hat to do so. Who knows?
The Provisioner. Not everyone with an army is a soldier. You were there to conjure food for the soldiers and make sure they didn’t end up with no supplies.
The Summoner. Whether you’re doing it as part of an act or are taking it very seriously and doing things like calling down demons, you summon beings from other planes. Maybe you want to know what they know.
The Traveler. A teleporter. You might be a merchant or an aspiring merchant with the idea of going to far distant places and taking goods from one place to another to sell things you can’t get in the are you’re in at a huge mark up. Or maybe you just want to see everything, even visit other planes!

If you’ve played or are playing a conjuration magic specialist in 5E D&D please tell me all about them in the comments, connecting with us on Facebook or tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Feel free to comment or tweet me @Pyrosynthesis too. And of course, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — A yuan-ti spellcaster knows all about using conjuration magic to put snakes on your brain and makes a perfect candidate for the Crushing Coils spell or any number of other snake magic spells slithering around this ol’ website. This image was created in just a few minutes with full color thanks to the amazing resources at Hero Forge. There’s so much you can do with Hero Forge! Check it out for yourself here.