Summoner Builds in DnD 5e

by Brandon Gregory

Summoners are an iconic role in a lot of fiction. Characters like Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail, Yuna from Final Fantasy X, or even your favorite Pokemon trainer show how powerful summoner characters can be, and it’s a prominent power fantasy that’s hard to imagine as anything else. Can it be effective in DnD? With the right build and considerations, yes!

Are Summoners Powerful and Effective in DnD 5e?

Where summoner characters shine is improving the action economy of your party. Action economy is how many actions you can take versus the enemy. This is a big reason why Sorcerers, who can use metamagic to cast an additional spell per turn as a bonus action, are considered powerful. Getting more actions per round is a big way to get an advantage over an enemy party.

An unbalanced action economy is why encounters against a single powerful foe are often easier than encounters against multiple weaker foes, even if the combined power of those weaker foes is less than that of the big foe. If your party gets way more actions per round than a powerful foe or opposing party, even a modestly powerful party can outclass the enemy.

Summoning spells give you another party member, meaning another free action to use against opponents. That’s another chance to kill a weaker foe, break an enemy mage’s concentration, or many other things. Summoning is especially powerful in smaller parties, where another ally on the field is a greater percentage gain in actions, but it can be effective in large parties.

A word of caution on summoner-type characters: adding more party members makes combat take longer. Summoning one creature isn't bad, but some spells like Conjure Animals add multiple allies, which drags combat out for everyone. Summon your creatures responsibly to make sure everyone at the table is having fun.

Full-casters and half-casters will be covered separately because they get spells at different levels, but some half-casters have class or subclass features that can make them competitive with full-caster classes.

Summoning Spell Options by Class

While class and subclass features can help define a summoner character, spells are a bigger consideration. The number of summoning spells available to a class is the best indicator of how good that class is at this role. Here’s a list of the 31 summoning spells by spell level and what classes get access to them.

While most of these are Conjuration spells, a few are Necromancy spells. These are, by the loosest definition of the word, summoning spells, but they require certain raw materials that the Conjuration spells don’t and may not fit some character concepts. Do what you want with this information.

Summoner Class Breakdown - Full-Casters

Wizard

Wizards get 21 of the 31 summoning spells and have good options at almost every spell level. They can also learn more spells than any other class and have a core class mechanic for regaining a few spell slots a day, so they sacrifice little by specializing in summoning spells. Wizards are an easy fit for the summoner role.

One of the biggest challenges with summoning spells is maintaining your concentration. No character wants to get hit, but it’s doubly important for Wizards because they have fewer hit points than most classes and get much of their power from concentration spells. That said, Wizards are surprisingly resilient with defensive spells like Mage Armor and Shield—two first-level spells.

If you’re going all in on Conjuration spells, the School of Conjuration Wizard seems like a good fit, but not as good as you think. Wizards pay money for each spell they learn, and Conjuration Wizards get a discount on Conjuration spells, making it easier to acquire these spells. Also, their level 10 feature makes it easier to keep your concentration, making summoning easier to sustain. Aside from that, though, the subclass offers few advantages to summoners.

If you’re open to a little upcycling, Necromancy spells grant a few more options and have a great synergy with the School of Necromancy subclass, which allows you to summon more undead and make them stronger. They also eventually gain a feature to out-Necromance other Necromancers, which can be thematically great.

The War Magic subclass grants some features to help you avoid hits in the first place, which helps with both concentration and survivability (because an alive summoner is much more effective than a dead one). This subclass can be a great choice if you don’t want to worry about getting pummeled by enemies.

Spell options: 5

Class features: 2

Role fit: 5

Warlock

As DnD’s occult enthusiasts, Warlocks have few spell slots but have a surprising number of spell options, coming in second place (12 out of 31). Casting a summoning spell means giving up a valuable spell slot for a Warlock, but they have things they can do without spell slots.

Warlocks have good defensive features as well. They can wear light armor, eliminating the need for the Mage Armor spell (although they have a feature to cast it for free). They have a d8 hit die rather than the Wizard’s d6, so they usually have more hit points. The Hexblade subclass gets many more defensive possibilities like medium armor and shields. They don’t get access to the Shield spell (and probably shouldn’t cast it anyway, with so few spell slots), but their defensive options are considerable.

Where Warlocks shine as summoners, though, is in their class features. Warlocks get to pick a Pact Boon at level 2 that gives them an additional feature, and Pact of the Chain gives them a little summoned sidekick that can add some significant damage early on. These summoned sidekicks can get stronger as Warlocks gain features, keeping them relevant as you get stronger. For a dedicated summoned creature, Pact of the Chain Warlocks are amazing.

The Fathomless subclass also allows you to summon a giant tentacle that acts like a pet and helps you in combat. While this ties in with the creepy nautical theme of the Fathomless Warlock, it can easily be flavored into another summon. The Fathomless subclass is often underrated and can make a great summoner.

Spell options: 4

Class features: 4

Role fit: 3

Druid

Druids are the ultimate friends of nature and appropriately have spells for summoning animals and nature spirits to aid them. They have the third-highest number of spells (11 out of 31) and their role as support characters means they can help make their summoned creatures stronger.

That said, Druids have famously low survivability, so they have a harder time maintaining their concentration than a class with better defenses (like the Wizard and Warlock, also ranking highly on this list). They can wear armor, but without metal armor, their armor class is lower than you might think.

Druids also have a lot of amazing spells that require concentration, which means you give those up to maintain the summon. While Druids don’t get any core class features that make them better summoners, some subclasses help.

The Circle of the Shepherd subclass is all about summoning and boosting the power of summoned creatures, meaning you can have a small zoo of animals fighting for you with the Conjure Animals spell. This subclass is probably a top pick for a summoner subclass, so that alone gets a lot of points. Be mindful that this subclass is notorious for making combat last longer.

The Circle of Wildfire subclass gives you a fire spirit sidekick that does many things. This doesn’t help with the summon spells, but could easily be flavored as a summon.

Spell options: 4

Class features: 3

Role fit: 3 (5 for Shepherd)

Cleric

While the top 3 options in this list make great summoners, the bottom 3 are pretty lackluster. Coming in as the best of the worst is Clerics. Clerics get the next highest number of summoning spells, but this is much lower than the other full-caster classes: only 5 out of 31. Thankfully, the options they get are powerful, including the only summoning spell option for a level 7 spell. They can make good summoners at higher levels, but the low levels have few options.

One thing Clerics do have going for them is amazing survivability. Clerics can wear armor and use shields, making them the most durable full-casters, and they have a d8 hit die, which means they typically have more hit points than Wizards and Sorcerers and have a much easier time concentrating on their summons.

Clerics make amazing support characters and can keep their summoned creatures alive, but they have few other summoner-related class features.

Spell options: 2

Class features: 1

Role fit: 1

Sorcerer

Sorcerers make great blasters and have some other useful tricks up their sleeves, but they make terrible summoners. They learn fewer spells than most full-casters and have fewer spell slots, so summoning is harder to fit into a build. Additionally, they have only two summoning spells, giving them few options.

Sorcerers have most of the same defensive options as the Wizard (the Shield and Mage Armor spells), and the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer basically gets Mage Armor for free.

The Shadow Magic Sorcerer gets a summoned creature that can be a good dedicated pet. Even with this, though, most other options on this list make better summoners.

Spell options: 1

Class features: 1

Role fit: 1

Bard

Bards get only one option for a summoning spell (Unseen Servant), and it’s more of a utility spell than an actual summoning spell, making them only slightly better than Barbarians. Bards are not summoners. They’re great support characters, though, so you can technically keep another party member’s summon alive longer.

That said, Bards can use their Magical Secrets feature (levels 10, 14, and 18) to get a summon spell from another class’s spell list, so they can have one or two staple options from another class once they hit those levels. This does mean giving up some powerful other options, so weigh this option carefully.

Bards do have decent survivability with light armor. Picking the College of Swords or College of Valor subclass will also let you wear medium armor. Despite these features, though, Bards seem like support casters with a single trick they can pull in when needed—and they often have many other great options they could be doing instead.

Spell options: 1

Class features: 1

Role fit: 1

Summoner Class Breakdown - Half-Casters

Ranger

Half-casters gain spells more slowly than full-casters, so it’s hard to compare a half-caster’s spell list to a full-caster. That said, Rangers have more summoning spell options than Clerics, Sorcerers, or Bards (6 of 31), so they’re actually more well-suited to the task than these three full casters. They also have a good selection of lower-level summoning spells, making them the most effective half-caster summoners.

Rangers can use light and medium armor and shields, so they’re better at maintaining their concentration than most full-casters.

Where Rangers shine, though, is with what is probably the most iconic pet subclass in the game: the Beast Master. The Beast Master subclass is built around a pet, which could easily be flavored as a summoned creature. The Beast Master’s companion gets stronger based on a Ranger’s Wisdom, making Beast Masters one of the best magic users among martials.

The Fey Wanderer subclass also works well with Wisdom builds and gets access to the Summon Fey spell at level 11, so they can make good summoners too.

Spell options: 3

Class features: 2 (4 for Beast Master)

Role fit: 2 (4 for Beast Master or Fey Wanderer)

Artificer

Artificers have only a single option for summoning spells: Summon Construct. It’s a fairly powerful one, as a level 4 spell, but Artificers don’t get level 4 spells until level 13, making this a hard sell as a summoning class.

Like the other half-casters, Artificers are durable and will have an easier time maintaining concentration than most full-casters. Some subclasses also get access to the Shield spell, making them very tanky when needed.

Artificers get a class feature that gives them a small summoned creature: the Homunculus Servant infusion, available at level 2. This infusion provides a small but useful ally that can help you in combat. This doesn’t really feel like a summon, as it’s not very powerful, but it allows you to cast your spells from a distance and helps in other ways besides raw damage.

One Artificer subclass does get an additional feature that helps: the Battle Smith, which gets a Steel Defender, a dedicated pet that helps much like the Beast Master Ranger’s pet. With the technology focus of the Artificer, it can be hard to think of them as summoners, but they get close to Rangers with that subclass.

Spell options: 1

Class features: 2 (4 for Battle Smith)

Role fit: 2 (3 for Battle Smith)

Paladin

While Paladins get one notable summoning spell—Summon Celestial, a 5th-level spell—they can't cast it until level 17. They technically get two other summoning spells, but don't expect them to fight for you. Unlike the other two half-caster classes, Paladins get no real class features to make them better summoners, making them a bad fit for the summoner role. Bottom line: unless you really like horses, don’t choose this as a summoner class.

Spell options: 1

Class features: 1

Role fit: 1

Best Feats for Summoners

Resilient (Constitution)

If you don’t already have proficiency in Constitution saving throws, gaining it can help you keep your concentration on summon spells.

War Caster

Similar to Resilient, having advantage on your concentration saving throws makes it much harder for enemies to make your summon go away.

Moderately Armored

This feat requires proficiency with light armor, but gaining medium armor allows you to have a good armor class with more down Dexterity. Gaining shield proficiency as well can make you much harder to hit. Moderately Armored is a great option for Warlocks in particular.

About the Author

Brandon Gregory

Brandon Gregory is a web developer and writer in the Kansas City area. He's been playing TTRPGs since 2020 and is involved in the disability-related TTRPG podcast Tales from the Crips. He's into classic movies, mental health, and, of course, DnD. Also, he's in a band. One time, they rocked so hard it killed a man.