I was on a quest awhile back and I was about to use an item to summon a low level creature to set off a trap that we had found but nobody could disarm.

Someone in the group said the DM frowns upon this use of summoned creatures and I am just wondering if this is true, as it seems an intelligent use for a low level item or spell?

Thank you

We in fact have a summoning item designed for this very purpose.

If you're a Druid, Ranger or Animal Domain Cleric though, animal cruelty can lead to spell failure.

It's an intellligent use of a spell, sure, but some deities -JUST MIGHT- frown on throwing a badger on to a deadly spike trap, GFWD.

Any good aligned party members should think twice about letting you do it, too.

I find it pretty stupid when PCs shoot a door, and then the animal decides to attack the door. It's fine for summoning them onto traps on the floor though!

This is where I guess I get confused as I believe it is the 3rd edition handbook that explains that the creature is summoned to the caster, and if/when it dies it returns with no recollection of what happened to it, so there are no real moral questions about this act.

Oooor, that is a house rule I have always played with in my Pnp games, it all becomes muddy after so many years what is in the rules and what is house rules.

If, on EFU, the animal remembers or actually dies, then I fully understand. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't cheating.

No, that's what happens -- but it doesn't free you of moral obligations. Lurue is not going to like it if you send her pretty unicorns trap-springing. Especially if your character doesn't know what precisely happens to the creatures you'd need to be willing to send an innocent animal maybe straight to its death.

What we are getting at is Gods that love little furry animals won't like you sending in little furry animals to trap spring, even though said animal doesn't die and yes, does go back to it's plane of existance or wherever it came from.

These Gods dislike this because:

*Poof*

*the pretty little celestial squirrel chitters at you, it's big bushy tail bobbing up and down as it looks at you with big brown eyes*

OK little cute thing, um...You want a nut? *you toss the nut onto a trap you have found, a Deadly Spike Trap in the middle of the forest path. The little creature licks it's lips and sniffs after the nut, and then pounces on it. It looks so happy and in love with the nut that you really feel for it as sharp jagged spikes of death and destruction rip into it's flesh, impaling it, causing it to squeel in pain and anguish as blood sprays into the air and portions of it's bowel strike you in the face.*

*It's mangled form though is not dead, and in the instant before death comes for it like a welcome release from it's suffering you caused it a tear rolls down it's furry cheek and it disappears back to it's home. Safe and whole perhaps, but emotionally scarred.*

*No longer will this furry forest friend ever, ever reach for another nut. The emotional scars run too deep. Never again will it trust a -insert PC race here, or any humanoid for that matter. Unfortunately, celestial nuts are all it can eat...so it dies a slow agonizing death from starvation.*

And Eldath cries for the next 1000 years because that particular one you happened to summon was His favorite. He used to hand feed it nuts daily, and now it's emaciated little form lies forever on his celestial window stoop.

Do you really want to make Eldath cry?

//and yes, I know it should have no recollection, but I used it to over-emphasize the fact that even though the animal is whole that you still -did- cause an animal creature to suffer. In fact, you tricked it into suffering, because it has a crappy Int score and really just responds. It's that aspect that rubs those Gods the wrong way.

Alright, that was highly amusing Beggar, and I get the point.

So, although I am not playing a nature lover, I may in the future, so here is the next question for nature lover summoners.

A druid summons an animal or summons his animal companion to fight the troll or umberhulk or other uber-creature. The result is going to be just as ugly as the trap, so can a nature lover use summons for this situation?

Deities grant spells and summons to their divine casting followers to aid them in their quests, but the casters still need to act appropriately.

For example, a druid who calls his animal companion in (or summons a nature type creature) and sends it in to fight a mob of X while hanging back with no danger to himself. That shows no compassion or caring for the blessings/powers you have been given from the deity as well as shows you don't care too much about the life of the animals given to you so long as they do what you say and you stay alive. In this case, a summons is cool, so long as you are fighting it up with it (like a team would).

There can be exceptions, but this would be the majority rule IMO.