Summon Animal Spirit

(Necromancy)

Sphere: Summoning
Range: 10 yds./level	Components: V, S, M
Duration: 1 round/level	Casting Time: 6
Area of Effect: Special	Saving Throw: None
Subtlety: +4	Knockdown: d8
Sensory: Moderate visual	Critical: Medium (1 hit)
	slashing

This spell summons a minor spirit or entity to the caster’s aid. Clerics usually summon minor elementals of some kind, while shamans typically conjure an animal spirit or spirit of nature. Regardless of the spirit’s origin, it appears as a ghostly beast of some kind—wolves, bears, tigers, or lions are most common. The animal spirit obeys the mental commands of the priest, attacking his enemies or performing any other task that it could reasonably accomplish. The creature is incorporeal and cannot handle or manipulate objects of any kind, but it can see and hear as a normal animal of its archetype and could be used to scout a dangerous area or act as a distraction of some kind.

In combat, the animal spirit has the following statistics: MV 24; AC 4; THAC0 15; Dmg 2d4. It can only be injured by magical weapons and can strike monsters hit only by +1 or better weapons. The spirit has a number of hit points equal to 10 plus the caster’s level, so a 6th-level priest conjures a animal spirit with 16 hit points. The creature is not affected by charm, sleep, hold, or other mind-affecting spells and suffers no damage from cold-based attacks. However, it is vulnerable to dispel magic or turning as an undead monster of the caster’s Hit Dice. If the animal spirit is turned, destroyed, or dispelled, the priest who summoned it must make a saving throw vs. spell or be stunned for 1d4 rounds.

Because the spirit is intelligent and free-willed under the caster’s direction, the priest need not concentrate in order to direct its attacks—an animal spirit could be ordered to attack a spellcaster in the back of an enemy party, while the cleric waded into hand-to-hand combat. The animal spirit makes use of flank or rear attacks when it can and gains any normal combat bonuses that a living creature in its position would be entitled to. The priest enjoys instantaneous, silent communication with the animal spirit and can order it to stop attacking, to change its target, or to undertake almost any conceivable action desired. However, the spirit must remain within the spell’s range; if it is ever more than 10 yards per caster level away from the priest, it dissipates harmlessly.

The material component is a small whistle carved from a bone taken from the appropriate type of animal.

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