D&D metaphysics

[cellio]

I've been thinking about Larissa's next spell, and it has raised a question that I'd like feedback on. Recall that I haven't really played mages before, excluding those early munchkin days where factors like role-playing and deep ethical musings and stuff were just Not Issues. Maybe there is a well-undertstood answer, or maybe there isn't.

Can a good character use summoning spells?

The answer would seem to depend on how summoning works. Is Summon Monster, as the name implies, really a summoning spell -- plucking a creature out of its natural habitat and teleporting it here to fight for you? Or is it a cojuration, a fabrication that is formed out of the ether and will dissipate a few rounds later when the spell runs out?

If it is a summoning, then does the creature have its normal level of free will that is being surpressed by the spell, or is it a mindless automiton? As the description is written, the creature will fight for you without question -- but if it's a summoned creature, is that achieved through coercion?

Other issues come up if it is a summoning and not a conjuration. Is it right to send a summoned creature into a situation that will very likely be fatal to it? Does one have an obligation to heal one's summoned servants? (I would argue that if the spell is a cojuration and not a summoning, the answers are yes and no, respectively.)

And what is one to make of the fact that the bulk of the creatures that can be summoned, at least at low levels, are of evil alignment?

(For those LJers who are in the game, I also sent this question to the mailing list.)

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Player's Handbook Pg 157, under Conjuration/Summoning.

Admittedly the text needs a little interpretation, but what I've said above seems to be not uncommon as a viewpoint. I could swear that at some point I read something that stated this more explicitly, but I can't find it now. :( Oh, and don't take that bit about creatures 'reforming' too literally. That makes absolutely no sense for creatures summoned from the material plane, so can't be true of summoned creatures in general. (It probably is something weird about wizard summonses, since they all come from other planes).

Dungeon Master's Guide Pg 96 (for the summoning variant).