Summons! (Suggestion for Variety)

[Wytchee]

Hello. While this might look like a wall of text, I think I've come up with a simple solution to the lack of variety in high-level summoning. Credit also goes to Peppermint for seeding this idea.

Disclaimer: I am posting this suggestion with no expectation that any dev will take up this (admittedly large) project. But I had an idea and thought I'd flesh it out and share it, anyway.

Because planar summons are so woefully underpowered in later levels, I originally set out to try to come up with a way of bettering the Planar Binding line of spells, but two things became quite clear: one, buffing a spell like Greater Planar Binding would be a bit much, as it already has functionality outside of summons (as anti-outsider crowd control); and two, clerics do not have access to an equivalent of Greater Planar Binding, and buffing Planar Ally (a 6th Circle spell) to summon, for instance, a Vrock, would be decidedly overpowered. So! Instead, I am proposing linking outsider streams to the Summon Creature line of spells!

Instead of relying on the very 'meh' Planar Ally/Binding spells, the summons of which have a worryingly short duration, all streams related to outsiders would now be linked to the Summon Creature line of spells in addition to the aforementioned. Players will simply choose the stream as they would choosing an elemental, and that creature will then appear the next time Summon Creature is cast, with appropriate tiers based on Summon Creature level and Conjuration foci.

Lastly, all Tier 5 summons should scale with epic caster levels (in the same manner Gate and Ancient Elementals do now) to ensure they maintain their effectiveness well into epics.

(Because I can't seem to get image embedding to work here)
The scaling can be seen in detail here: https://imgur.com/a/Xppq3

Pros

1. Variety! When's the last time you saw an epic caster with a summon out other than the water (or slightly less popular fire) elemental? Exactly. While I love Peppermint's work on summons earlier this year, planar creatures remain woefully underpowered and are not only undesirable but down right detrimental to use past the mid-teens or so. In other words, they suck.

2. Clerics! This puts clerics and mages on a level playing field when it comes to summons. Presently, clerics have no access to Greater Planar Binding and thus no means of summoning tier 4 outsiders; with this change, they can now roleplay as able to call forth a planar servant fitting of their power rather than relying on elementals for whatever dumb reason.

3. Assets! The creature assets already exist. With the exception of the Celestial and Slaad streams, which are missing their Tier 5 summons, everything is already tweaked and balanced.

Balance concerns

I believe this is quite balanced for what is presented. I'll give a few examples:

A level 11 caster with GSF: Conjuration would cast Summon Creature VI and receive a Quasit (Tier 2 demon stream) well after the appropriate level range for that summon (warlocks receive Tier 2 at level 8). At level 13 they would receive a Succubus (Tier 3) at the same level they gain access to Planar Binding, also Tier 3; concerns about redundancy can be assuaged by the fact that Planar Binding has additional functionality. In regards to scaling, a normal caster would have weaker planar summons (comparable to their level) at first, but these would scale quickly to outpace those of a warlock at level 15 and beyond (with GSF: Conjuration).

Beyond that, at level 17 that same caster would gain access to a Glabrezu, a summon the warlock receives three levels later at 20. While access to such a powerful summon earlier than a warlock (a class that is built around summons) might seem somewhat overpowered, consider that a typical caster's summon won't benefit from the bonuses to AB, Damage and AC (via conj foci) that a warlock's will. Warlocks can also summon an unlimited number of them before resting, and can contribute significant damage on their own in the form of an eldritch blast.

Conclusion

Too lazy to write a coherent conclusion. Ta. Send me a PM if I overlooked some glaring offense to game balance, or if you just like the idea. ^^