(Note: This is a long article. Feel free to skim.)
Fireball.
Lightning bolt.
Counterspell.
These third-level staples are such obvious choices for one's spellbooks that it's rare to see someone even consider going a different route with their Blaster Caster. Nothing in Dungeons & Dragons is more iconic than immolating a huge group of mooks with one deliberately-placed Fireball, and no spell is as useful in a bind like the ability to counter the one your opponent is casting on you. Every fifth-level Sorcerer or Wizard knows these are the obvious picks of the litter, and there's little need to go looking anywhere else. Heck, most Lore Bards barely look beyond these two choices because their usefulness outweighs everything else.
But what if I told you there's one spell which never gets talked about when it comes to your level 3 arsenal? One that gets overlooked even by the classes which can most benefit from picking it up, and rarely gets a second glance from Bards plundering the spell sheets. I'm talking about Conjure Animals, which is one of the most ridiculously powerful and diverse spells available to low-level casters, and as a 3rd level spell available to Druids and Rangers, is up for grabs to a 6th level Lore Bard thanks to their Additional Magical Secrets ability.
What's So Great About Conjure Animals?
What isn't great about Conjure Animals? You get to call a horde of smaller creatures, or one good-sized one, to bolster the party ranks, engage enemies, or perform other tasks to which they might be suited. They're friendly to you and your allies, you command them using your voice (thus leaving your action, bonus action, and reaction free for other uses), and they all share the same initiative number which means you can control them one at a time and direct them to different targets or goals as you see fit, and they aren't bound to your turn. What's more, even if you are silenced or otherwise unable to order them around, they'll still defend themselves if attacked, so they won't just stand around while enemies hack them up.
As a down-side, the spell uses your concentration meaning that as long as you have it running you can't use anything else requiring your concentration, and it could be disrupted by lucky shot from a foe. But as against that, the spell lasts for up to an hour, giving it a wide range of applications outside of just summoning a bunch of extra targets for your enemies to shoot at.
Alright, What Does It Do?
As the name implies, Conjure Animals allows the caster to summon forth a group of fey spirits which take the form of beasts. At its base level, Conjure Animals allows you to summon any of the following:
- Eight creatures of Challenge Rating 1/4 or lower
- Four creatures of CR 1/2 or lower
- Two creatures of CR 1 or lower
- One creature of CR 2 or lower
If you expend higher-level spell slots, you can pull in more creatures--double the number with a 5th level slot, triple with a 7th level slot, or quadruple with a 9th level slot, but for the sake of this article, let's assume you've just hit 6th level with your Lore Bard, and stick to the basics.
What exactly can you summon with this spell? Well, the Player's Handbook lists off a variety of options for creatures broken down by CR, but these are only options--you aren't restricted to this list. In fact, upon picking this spell, one of the first things you'll want to do is grab your Monster Manual and turn to page 317: "Appendix A: Miscellaneous Creatures". This section of the book lists a staggering array of basic creature types, along with their stats and CR levels, in alphabetical order from Ape to Worg. What we're interested in is anything with the 'beast' designator, so we'll be ignoring things like the Awakened Tree (which is a plant type) or the Blink Dog (which is a fey type). We'll also need to exclude anything with a CR greater than 2, so that means things like the Elephant and Giant Ape are also off the table.
Regardless, this still leaves us with a ton of options to sort through, and while some of those (such as the ordinary, garden-variety Frog) are barely worth considering due to their poor or non-existent fighting abilities, there are a number of creatures which are surprisingly effective despite their low Challenge Ratings. Lets talk about some of my favorites (note that some of these are from Volo's Guide to Monsters, which expands your options even further). We're going to start with dinosaurs.
Wait, Dinosaurs?!
Hell yeah, dinosaurs. Specifically, we want Velociraptors, which can be found on page 140 of Volo's Guide to Monsters. Velociraptors are CR 1/4 creatures, meaning we can summon up to 8 of them with a single casting, and that's great, because while one Velociraptor isn't all that menacing by itself, a whole horde of them are an absolute nightmare. They come standard with 3d4+3 hit points, giving them an average of about 10, so they're a bit delicate, but they make up for that with Jurassic savagery.
Velociraptors using the Attack action get to hit twice each round, once with a bite for 1d6+2 piercing damage, and once with their claw for 1d4+2 slashing damage--an average of 9 total damage per round in which they hit, or fifty-four total per round if they all manage to hit. Starting to see how brutal this is yet? Because it gets better. Velociraptors also have the 'Pack Tactics' feat, meaning they attack with Advantage against a target which is within five feet of an ally of that Velociraptor. Eight Velociraptors working in tandem with one another can savage the bejeezus out of four separate targets per turn, making a total of sixteen attacks with Advantage per round, plus you and your party members all count as their allies when this spell is in effect. You could also have the Velociraptors work in teams of 4, surrounding two enemies to prevent them from moving while mauling them from all directions. Good luck maintaining your concentration under those conditions--you'll barely have enough time to mutter, "Clever girl..." before your internal organs become external.
That's Horrifying! What Could Be Worse Than Velociraptors?
Glad you asked. Allow me to introduce you to the Velociraptor's big cousin, the Deinonychus (also from Volo's Guide to Monsters, page 139).
Deinonychus is a CR 1 creature, meaning you can only summon up two of them at one time, but considering how nightmarish these things are, that's probably enough. They have 4d8+8 HP (26 average). They have a land speed of 40', meaning they can tear around a battlefield with abandon, and once they find a target, they get three attacks per round: one bite for 1d8+2 piercing damage, and two claws for 1d8+2 slashing damage apiece, but it gets better. Any Deinonychus who moves 20' or more in a straight line towards a target before attacking and hits with a claw strike has unleashed a Pounce attack. Their target has to succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw, or be knocked prone...and against prone targets, the Deinonychus can make another bite attack against it as a bonus action.
Theoretically, assuming all four attacks hit, that's an average of 24 damage on that first round. Their 40' movement speed gives the Deinonychus an extra 2 squares of movement on the battle mat to set up that pounce attack. Two of these things zipping around can make short work of those back-of-the-field sorts, and it's not crazy to spend their turns just bouncing back and forth, knocking down a different target every round. Since downed creatures can be attacked at Advantage, you can also use the Deinonychus pair in tandem, with one knocking down the target so the other can savage it with a further four attacks, all of which get Advantage. While a DC 12 Strength saving throw isn't too difficult to manage, finesse fighters, archers, and spellcasters are all likely to use Strength as a dump stat, making them easier to knock over.
That 40' move speed also means an 80' Dash action, so you can use the Deinonychus to catch fleeing opponents as well, which forces a terrible quandary on the enemy. First, they can turn and fight, something they probably would rather not given they were running away in the first place. Second, they can take the Disengage action to move at normal speed, which means they likely cannot Dash, and thus will be run down by the Deinonychus next turn. Third, they can forego the Disengage action entirely in the hopes of putting more distance between themselves and the dinosaur using Dash, but at the cost of a triple-hit attack of opportunity reaction from the Deinonychus using its claw/claw/bite. Ouch!
Assume I Don't Want Dinosaurs Destroying Everything In Sight Because I Want Prisoners.
Allow me to introduce you to the Giant Centipede, found on page 323 of the Monster Manual.
This CR 1/4 creature can be summoned up eight at a time. With only 1d6+1 HP, they're squishy, and they only get one attack which hits for 1d4+2 piercing damage, but there are still some great reasons to call out these guys. First, they have a climbing speed of 30', meaning if you need to get at enemies who are harassing you from up in the trees or an overhanging ledge, they're a fine choice. They also have Blindsight out to 30', meaning they can operate in the dark with no difficulty. What makes Giant Centipedes so interesting though is that if their attack hits, the target needs to make a DC 11 Constitution save or take an additional 3d6 poison damage from the bite. Any creature reduced to 0 HP from this poison damage isn't killed, but instead remains stable while gaining the 'Poisoned' condition for one hour, and is paralyzed while poisoned in this way.
Giant Centipedes aren't the only beast you can summon with this particular poisoning power, but if you're looking for a way to subdue a large number of weak targets very quickly, they can help you do just that. Giant Wolf Spiders (CR 1/4), Giant Wasps (CR 1/2), Giant Spiders (CR 1), and swarms of both Centipedes or Poisonous Snakes (each CR 1/2) also possess this trait.
I'm Being Attacked By Airborne Foes. Help!
Don't worry--Conjure Animals has you covered there too. Let me introduce you to the Flying Snake, from page 322 of the Monster Manual.
This CR 1/8 creature can move or swim at 30', or fly at 60', and has 10' worth of blindsight making it ideal for just about any battlefield. Their bite only hits for 1 piercing damage, but it delivers a nasty payload of 3d4 points of poison damage automatically with every successful fanging, no saving throw. Eight of these boys delivering an average of 8 damage per round adds up to "a lot of dead enemies" in short order. That's probably why they only have 2d4 HP each, but the Flying Snake also possesses the 'Flyby' trait, which means it doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Summoning these things gives you instant access to your own army of dive-bombing attackers who swoop in to deliver their poisonous payload then zip out of range as soon as they've done so, allowing them to harass foes from all over the battlefield in three dimensions. If you've ever seen old war footage of fighter planes attacking an aircraft carrier, then you know what this looks like.
There are lots of other beasts that can attack from the air, including the CR 1 Giant Eagle, the CR 1/4 Pteranodon (back to dinos again!) and the CR 1/4 Giant Owl, all of which physically hit a little harder, and the Swarm of Bats (CR 1/4) and Swarm of Insects (CR 1/2) which have their own advantages and disadvantages, but for my money, eight Flying Snakes is a great fallback for times when aerial attackers have got you down.
That said, if you want to strike terror into the hearts of your aerial enemies (or anybody else, really), you have another choice: the CR 1/8 Stirge (Monster Manual, page 284). These disgusting mosquito/bird cross-breeds don't hit very hard, and don't do that much damage, but a successful hit by one causes it to latch on to the target and automatically drain blood from it each round.
The Stirge only comes off if the target dies, or if it drains 10 HP worth of blood, at which point it will detach itself and fly off to digest its meal. The target of the Stirge, or an ally within 5 feet, can detach a Stirge, but only at the cost of their own action. Stirges are a great way of blowing through your enemy's action economy in a win/win fashion: they either ignore the thing and let it bleed them dry until they're satiated, or they blow an action pulling the Stirge off, knowing it's likely to try and latch back on again next round, when they'll have to spend their action to detach the damn thing again if it succeeds.
A flock of Stirges has the potential to suck 80 hit points out of their targets. That they can do this while potentially stealing the actions of their target and maybe their target's allies too is abusive. And if the Stirges all eat their fill before the hour is up, you can end the spell and aim your concentration elsewhere.
Never Mind the Weenies. How About the Big Game?
Since Conjure Animals allows you to grab a single CR 2 beast, we should talk about those options too. They aren't as varied as the smaller critters, but sometimes you just need one extra tank on the field, and these can fill that void nicely (including acting as a mount, if you need one).
Aurochs (Volo's Guide to Monsters, page 207) are a great example of this, being a CR 2 creature with 4d10+16 HP and a single 2d8+5 gore attack, to which the Auroch gets a +7 on its to-hit roll, and can be buffed up with a Charge similar to that of the Deinonychus which increases the attack's damage to 4d8+5 and forces a DC 15 Strength saving throw which, if failed, knocks the target prone. The Rhinoceros shares an identical attack, charge, and Strength saving throw while having more HP (6d10+12) for the same CR, but the Auroch has a 50' movement speed to the Rhino's 40', giving it plenty of extra squares with which to set up that charge and knock-down.
The Saber-Toothed Tiger is another CR 2 beast with a pounce attack, but while it has a 40' movement speed, it attacks twice per round with one bite (1d10+5 piercing) and one claw (2d6+5 slashing). Its Strength DC to knock a target prone is 14, but if it succeeds, it gets a free bite attack using its bonus action. If you want to keep a ranged attacker on his toes, or harass the crap out of a front-line fighter type, any of these creatures is suitable to the task.
If you're looking for the best thing to go toe-to-toe with an enemy tank or just want your own personal bodyguard/mount, it's time to fall back on dinosaurs and summon up an Allosaurus (Monster Manual, page 79). At 6d10+18, it has the largest potential HP supply of the CR 2 beasts, has a land speed of sixty goddamn feet (that's good for a 120' Dash action, so unless you can grow wings, teleport, or plane shift, you absolutely won't outrun it), and can pounce on enemies if it moves 30' at them in a straight line, hits with a claw attack (for 1d8+4 slash damage), and forces a DC 13 Strength check to stay upright. Enemies that fall suffer a bonus action bite for 2d10+4 piercing damage, which will put a crimp in anyone's style.
Finally, for air superiority, we have the impossible-to-pronounce Quetzalcoatlus (Volo's Guide to Monsters, page 140), a CR 2 dinosaur with a flying speed of 80', a bite attack with a 10' reach that does 3d6+2 piercing damage on a successful hit, and the ability to divebomb a target by moving 30' or more prior to its attack, which adds another 3d6 damage to its bite. It also shares the 'Flyby' ability of the Flying Snake, allowing it to move out of combat range without provoking an attack of opportunity, though with that 10' reach it's unnecessary in most circumstances.
My Foes Are Attacking By Sea! What Do I Do?!
Never fear--Conjure Animals to the rescue again!
We'll start with dinosaurs, since you can summon a CR 2 Plesiosaur (Monster Manual, page 80) with 40' worth of swim speed (20' on land), that comes with a standard 8d10+24 HP and a bite attack with a 10' range which inflicts 3d6+4 piercing damage on anything unlucky enough to get near its stupidly-long neck. Or, if you don't like dinosaurs, the CR 2 Hunter Shark (Monster Manual, page 330) comes with fewer HP and a shorter 5' range, but has Advantage on melee attacks against anything not at full HP thanks to its blood frenzy ability. It also has 30' of blindsight, meaning not even total darkness can slow it down. The Reef Shark (Monster Manual, page 336) is a sawn-off CR 1/2 version, missing the blood frenzy ability, but it makes up for that with Pack Hunter, allowing it to double-team water-born enemies with advantage on each attack.
If you need both numbers and brute strength, then try the CR 1/2 Crocodle (*Monster Manual, page 320). 30' swim speed, 20' land speed, 3d10+3 HP, and a bite attack which does 1d10+2 piercing may not sound like much, but a successful hit also automatically grapples the target, restraining it and allowing the Crocodile to automatically chomp away at it every round until it succeeds on a DC 12 escape check.
Need to restrain a lot of targets? Call up some CR 1/8 Giant Crabs, which auto-grapple a target they hit (DC 11 escape), but have two pincers and can thus restrain two separate creatures at the same time. They're amphibious, so this can work for land-based encounters as well as aquatic ones. The CR 1/4 Giant Frog can grapple a target with its bite attack, and can also swallow one Small-sized creature whole that it's currently grappling, subjecting it to 2d4 acid damage per round, as well as the 'Blinded' and 'Restrained' conditions until either it or the frog itself dies.
Need more power with your restraint? How about the CR 1 Giant Octopus, which zips through the water at 60' per round, and attacks with its tentacles at a 15' range. Successful hits grapple and immobilize an opponent with a DC 16 escape check. While you're swimming away from whatever the Giant Octopus is wrestling with, you can also benefit from its Ink Cloud ability, which coats a 20' radius, 40' diameter sphere of water in a heavily-obscuring murk for one minute!
Finally, when you just need to skeletonize water-borne adversaries as quickly as possible, may I suggest the CR 1 Swarm of Quippers (Monster Manual, page 338). This nightmare comes complete with a 40' swimming speed, a flurry of bites that chew off 4d6 points of piercing damage worth of skin per hit (2d6 if the swarm is reduced below half HP), and the Blood Frenzy attribute, which (like the Hunter Shark) allows them to attack with Advantage against any enemy who isn't at full HP. The Quippers also come as CR 0 options, which means you could summon up 8 of them at a time, all of whom get the Blood Frenzy ability, but only do a single point of damage per attack. Still, if you're facing an underwater spellcaster, there's nothing like a school of piranhas going nuts on their nuts to spoil that concentration check, right?
I Like Doing Silly Things. Can Conjure Animals Help?
Absolutely! Think of Conjure Animals like your own personal Egyptian plague, allowing you to unleash a horde of frogs, locusts, bats, rats, snakes, scorpions, fire beetles, or other vermin in a localized area for an hour. If you want a slapstick combat against some weaker foes, summon up a herd of CR 0 Goats (Monster Manual, page 330) to zoom around headbutting everything in sight, or some CR 1/2 Giant Goats (Monster Manual, page 326) to headbutt things a little harder.
For a more classic take on animals, look to the wisdom of The Far Side creator Gary Larson, who instinctively understood the humor inherent in the Cow (Volo's Guide to Monsters, page 207). With a CR of 1/4, you can just imagine all the hilarity that could result from summoning 8 of them into someone's home. Axe Beaks (CR 1/4) are equally dumb-looking birds that will liven up any throne room, tavern, or brothel.
You can also be an absolute dick with this spell, and use just about anything it summons as a mount, assuming its big enough. Imagine riding into the city on the back of your Rhino, charging the enemy on the shoulders of your Allosaurus, or what the forest elves will think when they see you lumbering into the village astride a domesticated Polar Bear.
I Have No Sense of Humor. I Demand Solid, Role-Playing Uses For This Spell.
Whatever you say, mate.
Probably the most obvious use of Conjure Animals is to put together a group of mounts for your team at the drop of a hat, since with very little trouble you can conjure up a group of Mastiffs (CR 1/8), Ponies (CR 1/8), Warhorses (CR 1/2), Worgs (CR 1/2), or Riding Horses (CR 1/4) that can give you a full hour's worth of overland travel. While you wouldn't want to rely on this method exclusively for getting around, if something happens to the party's mounts and they need to move with all due haste through the wilderness, Conjure Animals could mean the difference between mission success and failure.
Beyond that, the animals all understand the caster and obey verbal commands, which means you can use them as phantasmal mine sweepers by driving them down corridors or across terrain you suspect may be trapped. Flying creatures like Eagles and Owls can be used to retrieve objects that are otherwise out of reach, deliver written messages or small trinkets to allies without breaking formation, or even as spies in conjunction with the Speak With Animals spell (which can be cast as a Ritual before using Conjure Animals to save spell slots, and lasts for 10 minutes without needing concentration). Having a Hawk fly around then come back and tell you what it saw can reveal an enemy ambush, locate a creature you're trying to track, or report how far you are from a landmark.
Finally, if there's any one animal with incredible role-playing potential this spell can summon, it's the CR 0 Raven, which is the only Beast with the 'Mimicry' ability. This allows the Raven to imitate simple sounds it has heard, like the call of another animal, someone whispering, a crying baby, and so forth. If you can't come up with a thousand different ways to use this to your advantage and harass your foes, you don't deserve to call yourself a role-player.
I Hate My DM and Want to Make Him Cry.
Sigh...there's always one.
Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. Open up your Volo's Guide to Monsters to page 208, and on the bottom right side of the second column, you will see the entry for the CR 1/2 Swarm of Rot Grubs. These nasty little maggot-looking assholes are one of the worst monsters ever invented for the Dungeons & Dragons game, and you're about to learn why.
Rot Grubs attack by burrowing into the skin of a nearby target. Their attack is made a +0 to hit, and delivers no damage to begin with, but a successful hit infests the target with 1d4 grubs. At the beginning of the target's next turns, and every subsequent turn after that, the target takes 1d6 damage per grub infesting it. The target now has until the end of their next turn to either apply fire to the bite zone, or have someone else apply fire. After that, it's too late and the grubs go to work, chewing their way through their foe's body, causing that automatic 1d6 damage per grub per turn. This continues until the target either receives the benefit of some effect which cures disease (which kills all the grubs infesting it), or it reaches zero hit points, which results in the grubs destroying the heart and killing it outright.
A single Swarm of Rot Grubs can infest a target multiple times. It has 5d8 hit points, resists piercing and slashing damage, and is outright immune to being charmed, grappled, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, restrained, or falling prone. They possess blindsight out to 10', have a 5' climbing speed, can fit though any space small enough for a Tiny-sized creature to pass, and can occupy the same space as a target, meaning you can summon them directly into squares containing your enemies.
Rot Grubs only have a 5' move speed, and they have to be in the same square as their target in order to attack, but in confined spaces or against immobilized foes, where multiple Swarms can repeatedly infect a single target, a Swarm of Rot Grubs is a death sentence to an unprepared enemy. And since the ones summoned by Conjure Animals are friendly to you, nothing says you can't scoop them up in a bowl, have them climb on your limbs, or put them in a battle, then dump them on another target, throw them like a grenade, or just have them jump onto an opponent five feet away from you.
Rot Grubs can obliterate the Big Boss your DM had planned for an encounter with just a couple of lucky strikes, while time (potentially up to 600 rounds) slowly does the rest. But be warned and make sure you want to open this (literal) can of worms, because once you do, the after-effects will wriggle around in your campaign for all eternity. Remember that anything the PCs do to an enemy, the DM can decide to have enemies do to players...and if this is something your DM hadn't considered, that won't be the case after you spring it on her.
Maybe just stick with the Velociraptors, eh?