Conjure Chwingas! - Dnd 5e Advanced Guide to Conjure Minor Elementals

[@ryanschmidt3319]

In the Icewind Dale game that Arcane Arcade is playing when they were going into Sunblight Fortress they got a Conjure Animals blessing from a Chwinga. It was glorious to watch 8 panthers eviscerate an entire floor of Duergar...

[@skeepodoop5197]

Now imagine being able to do that 24 times/day at the minimum O_o

[@snazzyfeathers]

Truly glorious indeed.

[@BrunoMaricFromZagreb]

What's an Arcane Arcade?

[@ryanschmidt3319]

@Bruno Marić Arcane Arcade is a D&D stream where the XPtoLevel3 crew have their games. They are on both Twitch and KZbin

[@danhetherington8319]

We got 8 weasels

[@defensivekobra3873]

Notes to this as a dm: you can homebrew as many charms as you like, come up with flavourful ones that are not too powerful for the party and stuff

[@mattie3875]

You can also homebrew elementals that also get chosen instead of chwingas.

[@zacarius7417]

I have a list of now 100 charms for exclusively these guys. I love them.

[@cana0]

You can also homebrew to ban chwingas, just like many ban pixies

[@TrixterTheFemboy]

@@mattie3875 Randomly fucking over a player's intention and making them do something they weren't intending to is never fun.

[@undeniablySomeGuy]

I assume if you ban chwingas you tell the player in advance "hey i dont like playing with chwingas, so you can pick a different spell to prepare" or whatever

[@Treblaine]

"The chwinga targets a HUMANOID it can see within 5 feet of it." Changelings, Satyrs and Fairies: 😭

[@christophercrafte]

I'm not sure what you think changelings are, but they are humanoid

[@Treblaine]

@@christophercrafte in MPMM they changed Changelings to be Fey type not humanoid.

[@pinkliongaming8769]

hol up, Changelings?

[@Treblaine]

@@pinkliongaming8769 yup, changelings too now.

[@Leo-ws3bp]

But not warforged for some reason

[@0_Body]

This sounds like it coming from a card game protag I love it I use the spell Conjure Minor Elementals to summon Chwingas! I then use their special ability Magical Gifts to bestow me with charms I use these charms to Conjure Animals (since I was banned from preparing that spell after an incident with fairies, you know the one) Now with each player controlling one set of conjured animals (cause this is a team game) it's time to use the Chwingas 2nd ability spell casting. Chwingas cast Pass Without a Trace will let us bypass all your creatures who won't notice us with our +10 stealth score. "Everyone with your conjured animal attack the DM's -life points- BBEG directly!"

[@Eshiay]

Make a Warlock that gets charms and does literally this where the patron is "The Dealer".

[@coranbaker6401]

Considering the DM decides what charms you get, I doubt they'd hand you conjure animals.

[@0_Body]

​@@coranbaker6401 You just have to believe in the heart of the -cards- DM

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

I believe in the heart of the dice!

[@hopeforescape884]

I used this trick to un-petrify a bunch of NPCs, summon 8 chawingas ask for the charm of restoration and go around casting greater restoration to un-petrify all of the NPCs, no one else in the party had greater restoration since we were level 7.

[@O4C209]

As someone that DMd Icewind Dale Rime of the Frost Maiden with a group of "Pokémon Collectors", I can confirm that Chwingas are OP.

[@plixeon]

I love dropping a small group of Chwingas on a 1-3 level group. They will watch the group a bit, and if the group passes a few events in an overall good manner, the Chwingas will gift a charm or two, to reinforce the characters being heroes and acting heroically. A nice boost to early characters and a positive reinforcement to "actions have consequences".

[@Spiceodog]

The way my table rules conjure spells is I pick what I want but dm gets veto power, in practice, this means I pick what I want as long as I don’t pick pixies for conjure woodland beings

[@colddorito]

Lmfao 8 polymorphs

[@colddorito]

Who thought giving them polymorph was a good idea?

[@Spiceodog]

@@colddorito even the confusion spell is great

[@defensivekobra3873]

@@colddorito when using them as a dm it makes perfect sense, when using them as a player not so much. Sort of like how conjure celestial is only so high level becuase they needed to give a winged snake a bunch of magic and give a horned horse legendary actions

[@mattie3875]

Now add chwingas to the list your GM will veto

[@IanChunck]

If I DMed and for some reason or another wanted to rule against this, I'd make it so the charms only exist as long as the chwingas are summoned. But, that'd only be if I was running something where I didn't wanna enjoy the players messing around with what's available

[@facundoperez2766]

It still really strong, you can cast death ward for 8 creatures before a combat, or give everyone conjure animals spell for 1 hour. I think is too strong actually even by nerfing it that way

[@FarremShamist]

...hmmm...

[@clarkkent163000]

@@facundoperez2766 The whole point to DnD is to have fun. What's the point of nerfing fun? There are so many things that are "too strong" in DnD, as a DM I hate the thought of nerfing a cool idea like this, especially if it isn't abused.

[@3Balanced]

@@clarkkent163000 If it's not abused, sure. But sometimes abusable things can just make things too easy and less fun as a result. Setting a limit to the charms seems fair IMO, and I'd say that this is a pretty good way of doing that; it prevents the major issue of spending many days just STACKING charms that now the players are hoarding, heck, even dispersing the charms on a long rest (when you get the spell slot back) works at preventing this issue. Even if we go with this and randomized charms, we're pretty much getting 8 spells for the price of one. If we take both this and randomized charms as I mentioned, you're pretty much giving players a grab bag of boons for a few encounters or a dungeon crawl. This encourages them to USE the charms and improvise new strategies. THAT's fun.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

@@3Balanced I'd also probably include Wildshape rules, i.e. the character has to have encountered or be deeply familiar with a specific elemental to summon it, otherwise they just get a generic one that's approximately what they want. So they can't just get 8 charms the instant they get CME, unless they've already encountered them or have found a spell scroll for it that they made in a previous campaign or something. Either way, it's a perfect opportunity for a bit of exploring and some plot hooks. Same thing works great for conjure woodland beings: they want 8 polymorphs, they'll have to go to the feywild, and perhaps more importantly, they'll have to make it back.

[@FaisLittleWhiteRaven]

You can't imagine the sheer ammount of excitement I felt upon seeing the word Chwingas in your title here; I didn't know anything about this spell but ever since I first learned of them, Chiwingas have been one of my fav monsters and I am VERY hyped to learn there's a way they can not only be summoned but also used to powerful effect. EEEeee they're so cute and awesome~

[@hunterbrown2001]

The charm of travellers haven sounds incredible for defence, as it lets you cast leomund's tiny hut as an action. Just imagine your fighting a dragon or a war and your party gets to take a long rest mid fight because you're in a protective bubble for 8 hours.

[@jasonreed7522]

Except that you just gave the enemy 8hrs to pile rocks on your bubble to crush you when it runs out. Time is a resource, don't squander it. Edit: clarity

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

8:30 "What if the dragon never lands? Why WOULD the dragon ever land? Realistically, the dragon is punished for landing!" Funnily enough, I had this exact thought when they reworked the Ender Dragon fight in Minecraft so that it no longer stays constantly airborne. The best in-world explanation I could come up with is that actively flying is like sprinting: too exhausting to do constantly. Dragons can only fly for long periods of time if they get to find an aerial current to glide in.

[@EvelynNdenial]

noticed this one a week ago looking at the options for conjure minor elementals. it's absolutely busted, but the other options for conjure minor elementals isn't as crap as you make them out to be. some of the mephits can be devastating. flying aoe spitting, 4 casts of fog cloud, sleep, or heat metal, blinding aoes. and the aoe's can be dishing out up to 8d8 per turn with steam mephits who will all have blur cast on themselves aswell. even when one goes down they explode. and with a lot of them being immune to fire you can keep chucking fireballs without worry.

[@hopeforescape884]

And the mephits are pretty tanky, 20~30 hp and they can fly so melee attacks are not much of a problem.

[@natashasurvivallady8021]

I also love the less powerful but fun flavor of being a small race that car ride on a gargoyle's back.

[@loganw7101]

@@natashasurvivallady8021 you have a mount now.

[@emilygordbort7300]

Speaking as a DM, the usefulness of this is entirely dependent on your DM. IF your dm lets you choose, you can summon Chwingas on command. And after that, what you get from Magical Gift is chosen by the DM. If my players started trying to abuse this shit I would just repeatedly give them Darkvision. The statblock says the Magical Gift is chosen by the DM, I'm sticking to that. I am honestly a DM who not only tolerates but encourages shenanigans in most other contexts, I get excited when my players find some weird quirk in the rules or a creative use for something that isn't explicitly meant to work like that. I've had an Artificer use magical tinkering to secretly record a Cultist's confession on a rock and basically circumvent like half the conflict for an adventure in the process, I was about to give them inspiration for that shit. This, though, this is far too powerful to let your characters have on command. We're talking about a 4th level spell slot that can summon 8 creatures which can, individually, give you 9 death wards at once, give you a personal army of rampaging elk, make you inmune to fall damage for 10 days, and give you an hour's worth of Bless. This is absolutely game-breaking if the player has the option to choose the gift, and I am not prepared to try and scale fights up to the point that I can accomodate for my players giving themselves 9 death wards whenever they have a 4th level spell slot handy.

[@pandanielxd]

as explained in the video you can get them even if the DM chooses

[@emilygordbort7300]

@@pandanielxd I am aware. That doesn't change the point I was making. My point is that this use of the spell is just far too powerful if the player has too much agency over it. It's a level 4 spell slot that can replicate several other spells 8 times over, 24 if they use all of their magical gifts.

[@FallenFromGlory]

@@emilygordbort7300 Oh charm of darkvision you say? That could be worth some money.

[@3Balanced]

GMs, if your players approach you with this, I suggest setting up a "random charm" table using charms from DMG, other books, and homebrew.

[@iuravi]

The way I deal with it is by informing the players that chwingas speak no language. You might be able to relay commands to the chwingas like you would to a dog or a horse, but they won't be forced to obey, allowing me to run chwingas the way I feel like they're supposed to be run (like fascinated little beings) and having the players earn their boon.

[@arcturuslight_]

@@iuravi That sounds like a fun way to play it if players are cool with it. Can be applied to other conjure spells when the 8 creature option is being abused, or just for laughs (like arguing or bargaining with the fey from woodland beings to make them turn your party into T-rexes). Should definitely be discussed beforehand, as normally the spells specifically force the conjured creatures to obey commands.

[@FallenFromGlory]

@@iuravi they don't need to know a language to be commanded by the use of the spell

[@skeepodoop5197]

Used this in a high level game; The DM said that I was going to control them. I asked "are you sure you want me to do that?" and he let me anyways. I intentionally didn't whip out the Chawinga's maximum potential; not using Broken stuff like 'nine lives' and 'traveler's haven' due to realizing how nutty it would be. Regardless, after looking into the Charms that they could actually bestow; it was so OP that the DM nerfed the Charms I could use to only the DMG stuff with the exception of animal conjuring.

[@leonpetrich5864]

It gets a little nuts when you have downtime. Cast this spell multiple times a day, upcast it and stack those charms on yourself and your party. There is no limit on how many charms you can have at a time or how long they last. I think, this is a case where you have to slefpolice and not use this in your campaign because it somewhat break it. Your DM would need to significantly increase challenges you face. You could give those charms to your familiars aswell.

[@natashasurvivallady8021]

Agreed. If you don't exercise some self-control, both players and DMs will quickly stop having fun.

[@tyler1673]

"Given the chance, players will optimize the fun out of a game"

[@ianm1797]

My dm nerfed it to only two cwingas can be summoned

[@FallenFromGlory]

@@ianm1797 Did you abuse it?

[@DDCRExposed]

Charm of Darkvision, while a bit underrated compared to others would be super handy for my Sunday group. They are the following races: Aarakocra, Kenku, and Tortle (with a Human Paladin accompanying them). So yeah, no darkvision in that group at all 😅

[@anasexualdragonwithinterne2912]

meh darkvision isn't that good and as long as one of them can cast light or continual flame they should be fine

[@FallenFromGlory]

darkvision is *very* good@@anasexualdragonwithinterne2912

[@paulcoy9060]

8:35 Dragons usually land in my games because most of of my minis are on the ground. I only have 2 dragons on a clear display pole, which indicates flying.

[@etymon]

Technically there are other ways to defeat a Tiny Hut Castle. The hut is a semi-permeable spherical shell, so in other words, from the inside of the shell there is no roof! So a higher-level, but far more fun way to punish a THC is to cast "REVERSE GRAVITY"! As and watch the cowering archers suddenly fly out out top. If the THC is on some sort of dirt, then either Move Earth or Mold Earth can be used to excavate the area under the THC and let everyone fall through the floor-unless they can find someway to hover in place. Another alternative surprise is if you have access to both blindsight and misty-step or dimension door-the only thing preventing teleportation into the hut is its opacity, and teleportation spells target the caster NOT the destination, which means the restriction on "Spells (can't be) cast through it" doesn't apply. I'm sure there are other ways to surprise players who have become complacent in their THC-but these three are the ones I've come up with.

[@tennke205]

Chwingas have got to be one of my favorite D&D creatures

[@PackTactics]

I thought it was Kobolds...

[@tennke205]

ONE of!

[@AmpleGames]

I've loved Chwingas ever since I learnt about them in a Runesmith video (he's wonderful). I even showed my DM and he added them in when we went to a magical forest recently! But until now I hadn't even thought of the possibility of summoning them yourself! This is amazing, great video :D

[@comfortablegrey]

Anything that removes randomness from the game is always good, but the fact that chwingas can give charms to the entire party makes this broken good for the players. If you already have a clone, simulacrum, demiplane, teleport circle, and mansion then this becomes a fine use of wish (or any lesser wish) if you have nothing else to do.

[@hopeforescape884]

The funny thing about swords and dragons is that in dragon of the icespire peak the game gives you a magic sword that does extra damage against dragons which is completely useless since the dragon has 80ft fly I don't know what WotC was thinking unless they intentionally did that as a trap option.

[@luistestart135]

Honestly I love weapons like the dragon slaying sword because it really makes teamwork come to life; our drakewarden gave her fighter gf her dragon slayer sword, and then guess what happened, the drake flies and can carry people on its back! Not to mention some other cool things like dropping the dragon prone or restraining it and making it fall out of the sky (and that can be done with first level spells and battle master maneuvers) It isn't the most efficient way to kill dragons, and it surely isn't what you might do if you wanted to kill the dragon quickly BUT MAN DID MY PLAYERS FEEL AWESOME CARRYING A LEGENDARY DRAGON SLAYING SWORD INTO THE SKY TO BATTLE AN AIRBORNE DRAGON

[@Iceblade269]

Assuming you can get through the Legendary Resistances, you can Hideous Laughter that fucker to the ground. It’s a lvl one spell, effects all creatures, and knocks them prone on a fail. Even if the spell wears off, the dragon is grounded and needs to spend its movement to get up

[@omarg1471]

in that specific campaign it's a young dragon, so it doesn't have lair actions or legendary resistances so it's not too difficult to ground him with spells and class abilities

[@digifreak90]

There are actually a couple low level spells that could be used to force a dragon to land. Command (1st level) Tasha's Hideous Laughter (1st level) Earthbind (2nd levevl, found in Xanathar's guide to everything) Sleep (1st level, not as useful, I only mention it because one time I was playing and the group's wizard cast Sleep on a Young White Dragon trying to fly away and rolled just high enough to cause it to fall asleep and die from fall damage) just to name a few. And since they're low level, by the time your high enough level to really be facing enemies with legendary resistances, you'll have plenty of spell slots to burn through the resistances.

[@derboeseVlysher]

Our DM ruled it that 8 Chwingas collectively give away only 1 charm to 1 Person in each summoning. He picked 10 charms beforehand (some official, some homebrew) and we roll a d10. You also can't get a new charm if you already have one. And even with these restrictions I feel like it's a 4th level slot well spent. That's how good all of this is.

[@Adurnis]

I played with someone doing conjure minor elementals recently to summon mud mephits, and it worked great!

[@Morganwrath]

So i actually worked out this trick 4 years ago when playing a shepherd druid in ou Storm Kings Thunder Campaign. (where a giant slayer came in handy)B ut then after that game had to end due to lockdown and I hadn't played a class with Conjure minor elementals for ages do completely forgot about it! And now im playing a wizard with it in Curse of Strahd so thankyou so much Kobold for the reminder! lol However our DM rolled for them on the curse of Strahd specific gifts, so some of the outcomes have hilarious negative side affects...but I can't complain about having the mind blank spell be on me for a year haha.

[@Alabastorskyline]

I love everything that comes out of this channel. Its CRIMINALLY underrated

[@margaretmyklebust2577]

Absolutely!

[@tombirmingham7033]

i met one of these organically and wow was it fun. He ahs granted me so many gifts and i give him a bauble every time.

[@fadeleaf845]

Vlagomir's Spark boosts your Strength above the cap and pumps up your height and weight to equal that of a Frost Giant. Despite that, your size category doesn't change.

[@Lizard-Man-WB]

My day turned from bad to good when the notification popped up

[@thehikingviking2049]

This is so ridiculous that I simultaneously love it and hate it. I feel like if one of my players came to me with this idea, my gut reaction would be to disallow it. On the other hand, if they wanted to be an elemental summoner as part of their character concept, I wouldn't mind pulling in creatures from other sources (kobold press, dragonix, homebrew, etc) that would make them feel useful and powerful. It's not their fault that elementals are extremely underrepresented in the core books, just like it's not the players fault that Green Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers have so few options for spells that deal poison damage

[@Sir-Pleiades]

mostly because poison is one of the most resist damage and and you kind of need to pick Elemental affinity or else it's kind of worthless.

[@thehikingviking2049]

@@Sir-Pleiades Yeah, granted. It's definitely a poor choice in, say, Adventurer's League, but for a home game I would go out of my way to help players overcome the inherent mechanical limitations of a character concept if they were really into that concept. No idea how I'd go about doing that for the example I gave, though, as it's never come up before.

[@Unicronsupreme]

Yeah, I'm happy to let you pick your conjured creatures at my table. UNTIL you do something like this. Then that will change. Also likely to cause a change: conjuring 16 Velociraptors (which have pack tactics) and making 32 attack rolls a round OR conjuring pixies to turn the party into Tyrannosaurs. Funny once, but never again. Don't forget that the DM is also a player and should enjoy the game too. If I can't challenge my players because they have a broken combo that steamrolls the game then I'm not having fun.

[@rowanjohnson6947]

The rules are stupid so I’ll ignore them for this video. There is no reason to limit what players are able to summon... anyways here’s how to deal three times an optimized fighters’s damage or cast a 3rd level spell an infinite number of times or polymorph the entire party into Tyrannosauruses at the same time with one spell slot or... When the ruling says that when a spell offers *options like these* it has the DM pick the creatures, it is not inconsistent with the players picking the new form of Polymorph. The options for Conjure animals are the same as for Conjure Minor Elementals and Conjure Woodland Beings. They are not the same as the options for Polymorph. Polymorph’s options are “any Beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a challenge rating).” Conjure Animal’s options are “Choose one of the following options for what appears:” The options provided are the Cr and number of summoned creatures, not the form that the Fey spirits take. Sage Advice isn’t law but it makes it pretty clear that this wording wasn’t a fluke or a mistake. The Reason that these rules are important is that Conjuring spells are ludicrously more powerful if the player gets to choose what is summoned since they were balanced for the DM to choose instead. When a player casts Conjure Animals in combat a DM might grant Axebeaks (27.8 DPR) while a player would pretty exclusively choose Velociraptors(64.68 DPR). When a Player casts Conjure Woodland Beings a DM might Grant Satyrs while a player would be foolish to not choose Pixies for 8 extra castings of a number of useful spells including Polymorph, that’s 8 4th level spells for the price of 1 4th level spell slot. The game is intentionally designed so that these are not option available on command to the players and ignoring that because “it’s annoying for no reason” is going to throw off game balance in a massive way. Summoning is already very strong, it doesn’t need to be buffed by ignoring what annoying limitations there are. It’s true that having the DM spontaneously choose which creatures are summoned will slow the game down, but with communication prior to casting the spell the DM and player can work out how they want the summons to be chosen in a way where both party’s have access to the stat blocks as soon as the spell is cast.

[@alexandervesterlund8091]

First, doing my work for the algorithm!

[@adam222111333]

Engagement!

[@stewartb1019]

One thing I should point out here Kobald; there are two ways to destroy Leomund's Tiny Hut. Dispel Magic and Disintegrate. Disintegrate works because it explicitly destroys any creation of magical force, and the tiny hut is a dome of force created by a spell. Also, it lets the DM show the players what they are up against without hitting them directly.

[@guttyjip]

I'm so happy you've made this a full time gig!

[@Phox146]

Thank you for saying that about conjure animals! It's fine if you disagree with the spell, but it should be up to the GM how the spell runs. As a GM I'll totally run spells differently as intended, but you need to know how they work before you make an exception.

[@cpudraner]

I thought I was the only one who knew about this! I didn't know about the funny force summoning though. None of my DMs allowed it when I found it, but it's cool tech nevertheless :D

[@tepiltzin]

The charm of the slayer isn't *quite* so bad because magic items can be multiple magic items. Proof of this is the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords which is a Belt of Dwarvenkind, Dwarven Thrower, and a Sword of Sharpness in addition to being its own thing. Therefore it's possible for the fighter to have their Flametongue become a Dragon Slaying Flametongue. "*But Kobold! The X slayer weapon says is +1, won't that downgrade a +2 or better weapon.*" No. Similar effects do not stack and the most potent one applies (for example a character being in two paladin's auras of protection only benefits from the aura of the paladin with the higher Charisma modifier). Therefore, a +1 bonus would not override a +2 or +3 bonus. Still bad though.

[@paulcoy9060]

I read the second paragraph in their voices.

[@weaselwolf]

As a DM when it comes to summons I usually go for a compromise. If the party has encountered these creatures before (or would reasonably have done so) I let them have them. If they have not I ask them to make an appropriate roll (usually nature, religion, arcana, maybe history). If they roll well they've heard of them and can summon, if not, I pick more or less at random, but never anything useless. And of course once summoned, you know them so you can ask for them again without rolling This way the player has a good element of control but they're not always able to pull obscure stuff that there's no way they'd have heard about. As far as people spamming the same summons (pixie T-Rex spam or chwinga farming) I make it so they're always summoning the same creature(s). Literally a familiar animal spirit you know, or a demon or fairy whose truename you learned, etc. And while they'll be initially friendly to the caster and usually obey (moreso with unintelligent creatures like animals) they remember all the times you called on them and how you treated them. They also have alignments and personalities and sometimes agendas. Sure, they don't die if you get them killed, they just go back to where they came from, but they still remember, it still hurt. If they went down nobly or for a good reason they're more likely to cooperate then if you send them down hallways to trigger traps all the damned time. If you keep asking capricious creatures like fairies to turn you into dinosaurs they're GOING to get bored, or sloppy, or maybe resentful. Maybe this time they turn you into a baby T-Rex, or a miniature T-Rex, they do love pranks. Or maybe they get confused about what dinosaurs are which. Hell, they probably don't even know what a T-Rex is and you'll have to explain it to them. Likewise with these creatures if you keep summoning them and demanding they bestow blessings and gifts upon you and do nothing to earn them, maybe they stop. Maybe if they feel exploited they start dealing out curses instead. Maybe they'll do it but you owe them a favor. First rule of dealing with intelligent supernatural entities is to tread lightly and deal fairly. Lots of examples of people who thought they could exploit fairies or demons or spirits... It never turns out well for them. You should never punish a player for using a spell or ability, but if they do something with it that earns a punishment, such as abusing or mistreating these spirits, well... That's another story Plus I've found that players actually look forward to the roleplay aspect of brining back these specific characters and working with them. They often get attached and it changes how they see the creatures and the spells. It's one thing to call a pack of wolves to soak up damage and bolster the action economy... It's another to call upon the spirit of your old friend Greymane and his spectral pack to hunt the wicked orc-things once again. Had a player once use a summon during their long rest just to hang out with the troupe of pixies he likes to call upon. They love to gossip

[@iuravi]

Since Chwingas know no languages, the concept being incomprehensible to them despite their 14 INT, I run them like I'd run an animal, incapable of following commands only if they're somehow trained like a horse or a dog. This means they can't follow verbal commands, giving me a chance to say "no, but..." Having the same chwingas return when you use the spell would be really interesting. The players could build a relationship with them, prove that they are deserving of the chwingas' boon or in time even capable of training them, all at a pretty steep cost of probably at least a dozen castings.

[@Battleguild]

For a homebrew class that I've been tweaking on and off for the past couple of years, one of the subclasses that I created can summon creatures of a CR level equal to half or less of the character's levels within that class. In order to prevent summoning creatures such as the Chwinga and Pixie at level 1, I added a caveat that if a creature has the spellcasting or innate spellcasting trait, the creature's CR level is a minimum equal to the highest level spell that it can cast. With that in mind, the Chwinga has Pass Without A Trace (2nd) and so it gets treated as a CR2 creature. If we were to homebrew this limitation, that would mean that a player could only conjure 1 Chwinga with Conjure Minor Elementals unless they cast it at 6th level.

[@EvelynNdenial]

just realized this lets coffeelocks work with vitality and greater restoration without needing diamonds like the cocainelock does. it's ruined a bit if the DM starts using the expanded options for charms but you're still multiplying the spells you're casting with it. one 4th level slot becomes 8 charms, inevitably you'll get one of the good ones and recoup the lost slot and chances are good you'll get an exhaustion reducing one by the time you hit 3 and have to rest. especially if you have the bless charm on when the exhaustion save hits.

[@that_Phat_Walrus]

Appreciate the videos! Glad you’re getting to do more of these

[@larstollefsen1236]

I did discuss this exact concept with a player to argue that Conjure Minor Elementals is a competent spell. The 4rth level does it no favors since it would DOMINATE as a 3rd. (Likely why it isn't one) It being compared to Polymorph at level 7 is kind of unfair since that's the best spell in the game at that level. Basically just summon 8 1/4s and you will only get good creatures since the DM can only give you Mephits (which are quite good) or Chwingas (which are broken).

[@99sonder]

Going with the RAI for letting the DM choose for conjure animals and such comes with the really odd caveat that if you choose one of the higher CR options, like 2 CR 1's *OR LOWER* , because you don't want to bog down the pacing of the combat, the DM could then pick 2 CR 1/2's, which would just be worse in every way than giving you 4 CR 1/2's. Of course, no good DM would ever waste your 3rd level spell to summon 2 deer or such. But using a ruling that leaves the spell open to such tomfuckery doesn't make sense. Your example of Polymorph is a great point. The spell is clearly designed to make more sense that the player chooses the creatures.

[@reedsmith8975]

Yes, but RAI the DM can have an ancient red dragon attack your 1st level party. There’s no way to eliminate DM discretion. Otherwise, we’d just play Gloomhaven.

[@renatocorvaro6924]

RAI, in every previous edition of DnD, players chose their own summons, because fucking obviously. The only reason that intention changed in 5E is because Mike Mearls hates it when his players are more creative than him and come up with solutions he didn't think of (hint: most players are more creative than Mearls, because he's an idiot).

[@liamwhite3522]

Honestly, that "or lower" clause on summoning spells should just be on "Eight creatures of CR 1/4 or lower" because what's the point of summoning 1 creature lower than CR 2 when you could summon 2 or more at once?

[@kristianperez4108]

@@liamwhite3522 You might want a CR 1/2 and a 1/4 for some reason.

[@kristianperez4108]

@@renatocorvaro6924 The intention changing doesn't matter. What you should worry about is whether or not a spell is overpowered or not, and RAI this isn't. That should be seen as a good thing, you should be encouraging Mearls and the other people at WoTC to make it RAW, instead of complaining about how it isn't RAW to begin with.

[@hiei82]

I’m glad someone finally acknowledged this cheese. Edit: Charm of Vitality is my fav; mostly because it enables Coffeelocking like nobody’s business

[@FarremShamist]

Conjure Chwingas sounds like the sort of thing you'd do a singular time to screw with the GM before backpeddling and saying "I won't do it again"

[@tibot4228]

Thank you for introducing me to the wonderful creatures that are the chwingas.

[@TheGeopigMan]

YES. This has been my favourite elemental for EVER. Respect for the shout-out!

[@singularity1130]

4:55 I was confused because you can counterspell scrolls until I realized what you meant. Since there are no Verbal, Somatic or Material components required the spell is imperceptible when cast and thus does not meet the criteria for counterspell. Jeremy Crawford and optional guidance in Xanthar's explained it as much. Spell scrolls, you're reading directly from them and therefore casting in the open: Counter spelled Innate or Subtly cast spells, you're not showing off magic: No Counter Spell.

[@pandanielxd]

wrong

[@singularity1130]

@@pandanielxd 10/10 reply

[@crowofdionysia6200]

Its of the dms choice because its assuming that the statblock is being used in isolation under the control of the dm. Using the spell you can control the creatures you summon and could reasonably ask the chwinga for your own choice of charms.

[@snazzyfeathers]

I love Chwingas and had no idea they were in the game. Awesome stuff.

[@whatahoot1185]

Finally someone who spreads the great word of the chwingas

[@thedeaderer8791]

Table top builds always bringing the best info. And thanks haen

[@div8852]

THESE LIL ONES ARE AMAZING I LOVE THEM

[@tyree403]

When in doubt, discuss with your DM first. I seriously doubt the DM would pick the black key or the Tiny Hut charm. But hey, the charm that resembles potion of heroism is pretty neat. Maybe the DM could limit the list and roll to see what you get. Maybe you gotta get really, really lucky when your DM include something like Black Key, but make it completely luck-base. However, you can probably keep casting the spell over and over again before you take a long rest, eliminating any risks. There’re none. So I understand if the DM won’t go this rout.

[@swest6982]

I'm all for letting the player choose the summons for these kind of spells... but in cases like this it's pretty much naked abuse of the intent of the spell. It's even more broken than the infamous conjure woodland beings -> pixies -> polymorph exploit. Definitely not something to spring onto a DM. If someone did, I imagine they'd be disappointed when they get a bunch of dragon slaying swords instead of the 24 castings of conjure animals they were expecting.

[@Specter053]

The one time I met Chwingas they aided a lot by giving a charm in trade of food. It was fun! But I always thought they were Fey, weirdly enough... Still, getting those buffs is incredibly good. As for the conjure spells, I find the way WotC designed a lot better than what the players wish to have with choosing the creature. If the DM chooses, there is a figure of improvisation, especially with Conjure Animals where you can have a lot of good options. OK, the DM didn't chose your raptors, your spiders or your wolves to mow down the encounter, but they did gave you maybe a giant bat that can do well, or apes to grapple people and lock them on place. As long as the DM doesn't always choose the worst nor the best result, I find it to be healthier to the state of the game. Lastly, about dragons... They do land, and not because "the DM knows melee martials are flawed". It's pure roleplay. Yes, the most optimal situation for the dragon is to swoop in, breath attack and swoop out of range. But Dragons, especially chromatic ones, are arrogant little bastards. Especially White and Black Dragons, but also Green and Red, the party can taunt them into coming down and fight by provoking them, maybe by telling them they are weaklings or offending them. Is there anything on the book about it? Nope.But it's a great opportunity to roleplay with your table, using the psychology of your enemies against them.

[@tyree403]

I agree here. I like the design intent of conjure animals. My DM and I managed very quickly. Or, my DM give me a chart and I’ll just roll for it. I’ve never gotten a useless animal. Here’s the thing with Conjure Animals: If you’re able to choose whatever animal you want, then Conjure Animals becomes BROKEN as a spell, because you can solve practically any situation with this spell if you’re creative or know what animals you’ll have at your disposal.

[@nessesaryschoolthing]

Not to mention, you're not always fighting a dragon outdoors. Sometimes your fighting a dragon... in a dungeon! Imagine that. And in a dungeon or cave they won't have room to fly around. Besides, there's always a chance that your DM is playing by Skyrim rules where if the dragon loses a certain percentage of its health it becomes too exhausted to fly and crash lands. They might not even be intending to, but hundreds of hours of gameplay can imbed certain impressions in the mind. I still can't look at butterflies IRL without thinking of their alchemical uses...

[@FlutesLoot]

I got the Tiny Hut charm in RotFM and it was sooooo good!

[@JazzJackrabbit]

Conjure Minor Elementals isn't a bad spell without Chwingas! 8x Steam Mephits are very tanky with Blur, and also have AoE breath weapon. Only major thing holding it back is the 1 min cast time, so you have to prep it before combat.

[@natashasurvivallady8021]

I've talked with all my DMs, and each of them has let me shift its casting time to 1 action. Conjure Elementals still keeps its 1 minute casting time, since the bodies it can bring tend to be a bit more impactful individually, but my little steam buddies get to ride!! Of course, this is the first I notices the Chwinga deal, and that might be a different story.

[@Eclipsed_Embers]

you talking about how bad melee weapons were took my mind back to the last session I ran, the players were fighting a bird like enemy and once they'd done enough damage it flew out the window and attacked from range, it was only then that I (and the party) realised that the Paladin had no ranged weapons, the player hasn't checked out any other books but the Players Handbook doesn't even give them any ranged offensive spells, I felt really bad for the player as they just threw their only axe at the enemy (it should've missed but I'd realized at this point that a mistake had been made so I fudged the AC so that they could hit with at least one attack, one of my players had figured out the actual AC but I DMed them to stay quiet about it) and then just sat there doing nothing until the fight ended 3 rounds later

[@BlueGeckozz]

This video are so interesting, I have to try it soon in my campaign. I didn't know nothing abought this charms thanks so much!

[@digifreak90]

8:30 I mean, there are several spells that could force a dragon to land.

[@adamoore8073]

Holy shit Ive been playing DND for years and this is the first time I've EVER heard of charms! They're so cool! Little simple buffs! Pass those bad boys out like Halloween candy! And chwingas! Thanks kobold!

[@kurga9790]

Nice combo, works like a charm...

[@andrewkenny3544]

I usually run summon spells as a DC 15 roll for the relevant caster stat to choose the creatures that are summoned. If they fail they still get to choose the CR RAI.

[@Spruble]

another amazing find kobold, congrats

[@Hemuset]

Oh hey, my Half-Dragon Wildfire Druid used these guys to help distract the enemies from the party! It was fun, and so many people were confused and panicking because they were just making a mess. LOL. The enemies started trying to avoid them, including killing them, and it was just a beautiful mess that bought enough time for the party to gather themselves. The DM nerfed them with plot armor shenanigans, but it was great while it lasted.

[@Nedoiko]

I considered this option over a year ago but it feels unfair, you get 8 charms for the price of a measly 4th level spell, and many of them are strong enough to be 5th level spells, or multiple casts of 3rd, 4th or 5th level spells (like the aforementioned 9 deathwards), and you can get all those charms again by spending a 4th level spell slot, and due the duration of the charms, these may overlap. its a little how many DMs wont like that you conjure woodlang being to get pixies and get 8 castings of Polymorph, this is the same, but stays beyond the casting of the original spell. I Want to use this, I want to allow this as a dm because it is INDEED COOL, but it is potentially too powerful. I even considered that the only way to make it somewhat balanced was to tie it to Conjure elemental, where you can only get one, and that seemed a fair tradeoff

[@Chrokosaur]

You could try tying the power of the charms to a persuasion check or something. Or maybe they have to do something for the chwingas. That way there would be some nice roleplay potential and the players aren't locked out of getting powerful choices.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

This is why summoning spells say that the dm is in control of what comes out. The player should pick what they want to try summoning, but it's up to you as the dm whether they get what they want or something generic.

[@aurabearer9731]

Chwingas are adorable already, holy hell I didn't think they could also be so powerful

[@electricangel4488]

Best creatures ever made. I love them.

[@crowstreaming]

I love these little bastards. They’re so good it’s amazing, even the worst charms are still decent in the right context.

[@uervel]

The new Charm of the Moon from the Book of many Things makes this a potential infinite source of everything. It allows you to cast any one spell of 5th level or lower meaning if just one chwinga grants you this charm you can cast Conjure Minor Elementals again for 8 new Chwingas xD

[@daltondavidson7997]

As a DM, this is amazing. I want to get my players to do this cause it sounds fun lol

[@silvergreylion]

In case you are attacked by wolves (and at least lvl 7 since lvl 4 spell), use Conjure Minor Elementals to summon eight Pictsie bards and use Mousepipes: Mousepipes: Special Weapon Attack: -1 to hit, reach 60ft., target area, canines. 6 (1d4 + 4) sonic damage. One member of every Pictsie clan is a bard (known as a Gonnagle), capable of playing the Mousepipes. This musical instrument resembles the bagpipes of Scotland though much smaller. A Pictsie bard can use them to play "The Notes of Pain", which are high-pitched tones that can only be heard by creatures capable of hearing sounds above the normal human range. It takes one action to change out the standard pipes for the Pain Pipes. Any canine creature (including undead, monstrous beasts and aberrations with canid features) hearing the sound of the Mousepipes takes 1d4 points of sonic damage plus an additional point of damage for every level of bard and is Frightened for 1d6 rounds. 8 bards using Mousepipes would practically guarantee hitting them, making them frightened, which prevents them from moving closer to the Pictsie(s) which succeeded with their attack. Then just stay close to them and pick off the wolves with ranged attacks.

[@Zohnedout]

A wonderful video! Absolutely disgusting that you can get 8 effects that each last longer than a day from a single spell.

[@henriklyckholm245]

Shinannigans love it my DM is going to go crazy

[@epicazeroth]

Revivify absolutely works RAI, even if for some reason you think it doesn't RAW. It also definitely works RAW though, but I think you got the two mixed up there.

[@christophercrafte]

It doesn't work RAW on a specific line. It says that you target a dead creature, however once a creature dies they become and object and thus no longer a creature. Essentially in dnd a "dead creature" cant exist. Now obviously every dm will allow it to work because that is the biggest technicality I've ever seen.

[@brromo]

command your 8 Chuwingas to use Charm of Animal handling on each other, that's 32 Rapters, or the equivalent of 2 lv9 conjure animals

[@joshuamctiernan6063]

Well done. Very good video, and good job Haen!

[@zmishiymishi5349]

Dear Yondalla! This is huge!

[@bjarnivalur6330]

Chwingas are my favorite creature, how did I never think of this?!

[@MachineWraith]

Delightful! I'm betting that I'll only be able to do this in play one time, lol

[@AvangionQ]

Gotta say, until today, never heard of a Chwinga ... now for my next game, gonna see if my next DM will let me have one via Find Familiar. Give out random charms to the party in rotating order ... as most last 9 to 10 days, or the DM can homebrew them to last up to a standard week.

[@anotterwithaphone3077]

Wonder if this in on the warlock list.. I am playing a celestial warlock kobold whose patron is one of the 7 great (gold) wyrms

[@GuardDogEvents]

I would give missling charms from this method based on party level. Probably the restoration one, feather fall, or dark vision

[@thedootlord]

FINALLY hes covering them

[@ammonbergevin5302]

To counter 'what if the dragon never lands', just throw the fighter up there lmao, and the wizard should probably have earthbind or something similar if they're going against a dragon, Actually, it'd be really cool if the dragonslayer had an earthbind ability that grounded dragons, I may use that in my campaigns

[@jamesbiggs8397]

Valid. I do like the idea of conjuring Memphits though.

[@jakejones5895]

This might be worth a wizard dip on the sorcerer tree ghostlance build if you can stockpile enough restoration and vitality charms. I wonder what this coffeelock variant should be called.

[@felixros8439]

I know everyone is pissy about dragon slaying swords but plz keep in mind this is a co-op game! Ask your party's caster if they can make you fly, summon you a flying mount, or prevent the dragon from flying! The DM doesnt have to "make the dragon land so you can beat it", you gotta figure out how to beat the dragon using tactics and teamwork! a glod DM will make sure you have the tools to succeed. I believe in you 💕

[@felixros8439]

oo or teleport you to be riding the dragon so you can carve through the back of its neck

[@JBCoops88]

Fascinating video, Kobold.

[@rachdarastrix5251]

So? Kobolds are CR 1 creatures. But the way I would run an encounter with them each Kobold a player encounters would have a level 11 NPC character sheet. Along with backstory that explains that they are CR-11 because the dragon they served actually took the time to train them. And this encounter is a trick, there will always be that 1 player who thinks they should attack, but these kobolds are only hostile if they have to defend something.

[@davidholmes3728]

Honestly spamming mephits is great too and provides heaps of utility as scouters they can fly have hands and can cast spells

[@bluebird3281]

All the pigeons in Toril were killed off by murder hobos with crossbow expert.

[@wyliecapp]

Personally I would only allow players to get 1 active charm at a time using this. I'd look for some charms, and make a list, players would roll to see what they get as to not feel like I'm playing favorites.

[@Praegressus1]

I have played with this before. How it was dealt at table felt entirely fair and flavorful. Chwingas cannot speak, so while they may be friendly to you due to the spell you cannot order them to give you specific gifts. The only way to get a gift from a Chwinga is to impress or entertain one enough where they feel like giving you one. I gotta tell you my necromancer yuanti planar bound one and took a while to get it to like him. (To clarify, the spell states you give a VERBAL command to the creature. The chwinga cannot understand the commands)

[@mochristie5419]

If it's a verbal command and they can hear you you can still issue commands, otherwise like animals couldn't be ordered lol

[@francescoviselli6386]

the trick to choose them by summoning them in a limited space is pure genius, ignoring some point of RAW may be ok but ignoring an intent can destroy the balance of the game, summoning Chwingas in a limited space just solve the problem in a very good way

[@mattie3875]

The GM can pick different elementals that work, even homebrew ones. So the tiny space doesn't even work here.

[@agsilverradio2225]

You *can* counterspell scrolls imo because; 1) the scroll itself is a material component, and 2) not being able to counter some spells because of some technicality is dumb.