Buy me a coffeePlanar Ally Spell: Calling Outsiders, Divine Bargains, and Supernatural Service
A priest does not command the planes. A priest petitions them, bargains with them, and pays the price when they answer.
Planar Ally is a divine calling spell that brings an outsider or elemental into the caster’s presence to perform a negotiated service. Unlike ordinary summoning magic, it does not create a temporary servant or battlefield apparition. It calls a real being across planar boundaries and places that being before the caster under the authority of faith, oath, temple, patron, or sacred office.
That makes the spell one of the most consequential forms of divine magic. The caster asks for aid. The called creature weighs the task. Payment must be agreed before service begins. A temple can call a celestial guardian to defend a city gate, a plague-priest can bargain with a deathly messenger to find a stolen soul, a sea-cult can ask an elemental to break a blockade, and a desperate ruler can invite powers into mortal law that should never have been given a seat at the table.
Planar Ally is powerful because it is not just magic. It is diplomacy with the unseen world.
Quick Rules Reference
- Spell type: Divine calling magic.
- Core effect: Calls one outsider or elemental, or two creatures of the same kind, within the spell’s Hit Dice or Challenge Rating limit.
- Creature limit: One creature of up to 12 Hit Dice in Pathfinder 1e / 3.5e, or one appropriate creature of CR 6 or lower in the 5.5e version.
- Two creatures: The spell can call two creatures of the same kind whose combined limit does not exceed the spell’s cap.
- Arrival: If two creatures appear, they must appear no more than 30 feet apart.
- Service: The creature helps only after the caster and creature settle the task and payment.
- Risk: This is not mind control. A called ally is a real planar being with memory, motives, allegiance, and consequences.
Effect
Planar Ally calls an outsider or elemental to aid the caster. The creature is not a conjured image, temporary battlefield token, or disposable servant. It is actually present, drawn across planar boundaries, and able to remember what happens.
The caster may call a single creature within the spell’s limit, or two creatures of the same kind whose combined power does not exceed that limit. If two creatures arrive, they request payment together and should be treated as one shared bargain rather than two separate contracts.
The spell works best when the requested service matches the caster’s faith, temple, deity, alignment, oath, or cosmic authority. A war-priest asking a lawful battle-spirit to defend a siege wall is making a natural request. A corrupt court-priest asking a celestial judge to assassinate a witness is inviting refusal, rebuke, or worse. The spell opens the door; it does not guarantee that the being likes what it sees.
Planar Ally is sacred petition. It is not the same as Planar Binding. Binding magic imprisons and coerces. Ally magic requests aid through divine or planar authority, then tests whether the bargain is acceptable.
Mechanics Tabs
The rules below are mechanics compatible for different game editions.
Planar Ally 5.5e / 2024
Planar Ally, Pathfinder 1e / 3.5e
Planar Ally 3.0e
Planar Ally 5.5e / 2024-Compatible Version
6th-Level Conjuration
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M; a sacred offering, contract token, tithe, relic-fragment, rare incense, gemstone, or other rite-opening payment worth at least 1,000 gp. This component opens the petition; the called creature may still require additional payment before service begins.
Duration: Instantaneous; the negotiated service may last longer
Spell Lists: Cleric
Alternative Spell Name: Compact of the Divine Messenger
You petition a divine, elemental, infernal, celestial, ancestral, or other planar authority for aid. The spell calls one appropriate planar creature to appear in an unoccupied space you can see within range. The creature is usually a Celestial, Elemental, Fiend, or other outsider-like being appropriate to your faith, patron, oath, temple, domain, or campaign cosmology. Fey, death-spirits, psychopomps, aeons, inevitables, or similar beings may answer if they occupy that role in the campaign’s planar order.
The creature must have a Challenge Rating of 6 or lower. Alternatively, the spell may call two creatures of the same kind whose combined Challenge Ratings do not exceed 6. If two creatures appear, they must appear within 30 feet of each other and negotiate payment together.
You may request a type of ally, such as a celestial warrior, fire elemental, psychopomp messenger, infernal advocate, sea-spirit, or lawful planar judge, but the GM decides what actually answers. A well-established temple compact, true name, relic, sacred oath, or previous relationship may allow a specific named ally to answer, but this should be a campaign achievement rather than the default use of the spell.
The called creature is not a temporary construct and is not trapped by the spell. It has allegiance, judgement, and standing in the planes. It understands that it has been called under sacred or planar authority, but it must still agree to the requested service.
You must state the service you want and offer payment. Payment may be treasure, sacrifice, temple service, release of a bound spirit, destruction of a sacred enemy, recovery of a relic, protection of a shrine, a sworn future obligation, or another meaningful bargain. A task that strongly serves the creature’s nature or patron may require little or no material payment. A dangerous, humiliating, morally compromised, politically sensitive, or long-lasting task may require far greater payment or be refused entirely.
If the creature accepts, it performs the agreed service to the best of its ability. It does not obey unrelated commands, suicidal orders, hidden clauses, or instructions that twist the bargain into a different task. If you lie about the task, conceal essential danger, break the agreement, or refuse payment, the creature may end the service and the breach may have temple, social, divine, infernal, elemental, or cosmic consequences.
Payment Guidance
- Minor service: A message, short guard duty, interpretation of a planar sign, help with a ritual, or brief local guidance. Suggested payment: symbolic service, temple offering, or 500–1,000 gp in value.
- Standard service: Combat aid, dangerous travel, escort duty, recovery of a sacred object, or defence of a site for several hours. Suggested payment: 1,000–5,000 gp in value, a serious oath, or a task that serves the creature’s power.
- Major service: Planar travel assistance, intervention in politics, battle against a powerful enemy, long-term protection, or action that risks the creature’s reputation or standing. Suggested payment: 5,000–10,000 gp in value, a relic, a binding vow, or a future quest.
- Forbidden service: A request that directly violates the creature’s nature, alignment, patron, cosmic office, or sacred law. The creature refuses unless extraordinary campaign circumstances justify an exception.
Difference from Planar Binding
Planar Ally is a petition and bargain. Planar Binding is containment and compulsion. A creature called by Planar Ally is approached through sacred, divine, elemental, or planar channels and must be treated as a negotiating participant. It is not automatically imprisoned, charmed, dominated, or forced to serve.
At Higher Levels
When you cast this spell using a 7th-level or higher spell slot, the maximum Challenge Rating of a single called creature increases by 1 for each slot level above 6. If two creatures are called, their combined Challenge Rating limit increases by the same amount.
Notes
- The GM chooses the answering creature unless a specific named ally has been established through campaign play.
- The spell should call a creature appropriate to the caster’s faith, patron, domain, oath, alignment, temple, or supernatural authority.
- A called creature can remember insults, bargains, broken promises, battlefield treatment, and mortal witnesses.
- Calling fiends, devils, demons, daemons, or hostile outsiders should create consequences beyond the immediate scene.
- Good, lawful, or celestial beings are not consequence-free servants. They may demand justice, confession, restitution, mercy, public witness, or a sacred vow instead of coin.
Planar Ally, Pathfinder 1e / 3.5e-Compatible Version
School: Conjuration (Calling)
Level: Cleric 6
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Close
Effect: One or two called elementals or outsiders, totaling no more than 12 HD, which cannot be more than 30 feet apart when they appear
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
This spell functions like Lesser Planar Ally, except the caster may call a single creature of 12 Hit Dice or less, or two creatures of the same kind whose total Hit Dice do not exceed 12. If two creatures are called, they arrive together and request payment together.
The called creature is not compelled to serve for free. It agrees to help only after the caster explains the requested service and offers payment. The more dangerous, lengthy, morally difficult, or politically consequential the task, the greater the requested payment should be.
Service and Bargain
- Immediate service: A short task that takes minutes or a single encounter may require a modest payment, especially if the task supports the creature’s alignment or divine role.
- Extended service: A task lasting hours or days should require greater treasure, sacrifice, oath-service, temple work, or another significant payment.
- Dangerous service: A task involving combat, planar politics, rival outsiders, sacred law, or risk of death should require major compensation.
- Opposed service: A task that violates the creature’s nature, alignment, patron, oath, or cosmic duty may be refused outright.
Notes
- Because this is a calling effect, the creature is actually present. It can be harmed, killed, trapped, insulted, bribed, questioned, or remembered by witnesses.
- The creature should act according to its nature. A lawful outsider cares about terms, witness, hierarchy, and breach. A chaotic ally may care more about cause, freedom, glory, insult, or opportunity. An elemental may care about substance, place, balance, or offense against its element.
- Calling a fiend is not the same as summoning a monster. A fiendish bargain can create infernal debt, abyssal attention, cultic scandal, or future claims.
- Calling a celestial, psychopomp, inevitable, elemental lord’s servant, or divine messenger can also create obligations. Good or lawful powers are not vending machines for miracles.
Planar Ally 3.0e
This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
Conjuration (Calling) [see text for lesser planar ally]
Level Cleric 6
Effect One or two called elementals or outsiders, totaling no more than 12 HD, which cannot be more than 30 ft. apart when they appear
This spell functions like lesser planar ally, except you may call a single creature of 12 HD or less, or two creatures of the same kind whose Hit Dice total no more than 12. The creatures agree to help you and request your return payment together.
XP Cost 250 XP.
Why This Spell Is Dangerous in the World
Planar Ally is dangerous because it makes the politics of the planes visible in mortal life. A baron who sees a priest call a winged judge to testify in court may never again believe law belongs only to kings. A cult that hires a fiend to murder a rival has not merely committed a crime; it has opened a line of debt. A city that repeatedly calls elemental servants to repair walls, flood mines, or burn plague districts may discover that the elements remember service and insult.
The spell also exposes the caster’s religion to scrutiny. When a divine ally answers, witnesses learn something about the caster’s patron. When nothing answers, they learn something else. If the wrong creature arrives, the problem may be theological, political, or cosmic.
In a late medieval campaign, this spell belongs in temples, royal courts, crusading orders, plague hospitals, forbidden chapels, siege camps, and high-stakes diplomacy. It is not common village magic. It is the kind of spell that changes who has authority in a room.
Rules Clarifications and Edge Cases
- Who chooses the creature? The caster may request a kind of ally, but the GM decides what answers unless a specific compact, true name, relic, temple rite, or named ally has already been established.
- Is this the same as summoning? No. The spell calls a real creature. It is present, aware, and consequential.
- Is this the same as Planar Binding? No. This spell does not imprison or force the creature. It opens a bargain.
- Can the creature refuse? Yes. It may refuse an insulting, immoral, dangerous, underpaid, deceptive, or unsuitable task.
- Can the caster call a fiend? Yes, if the campaign and caster’s magic allow it, but the bargain may create infernal debt, abyssal attention, cult scandal, or divine suspicion.
- Can payment be symbolic? Yes. If the task strongly serves the creature’s nature or patron, a vow, public act, temple service, or sacred restitution may matter more than gold.
- Can the creature be killed? Yes. Because this is a calling effect, the creature is actually present. Its death may have planar consequences.
- What happens if the caster breaks the bargain? The creature may leave, seek compensation, report the breach, curse the caster, involve its patron, or become a future adversary.
Good Combinations
- Divination: Use before casting Planar Ally to identify whether the request is wise, dangerous, or likely to offend the intended power.
- Commune: Use to ask a patron deity or divine authority what kind of ally should be called.
- Magic Circle: Useful when the caster expects a risky negotiation, though it may insult a genuine ally if used without cause.
- Zone of Truth: Helps formalise a bargain, especially in courts, temples, and lawful planar negotiations.
- Sending: Useful after the bargain if the called ally must coordinate with a distant temple, ruler, army, or adventuring party.
Adventure Hooks
The Unpaid Messenger
A priest called a lawful outsider to defend a town during a siege, promising a relic as payment. The town survived, but the relic has vanished. Now the outsider returns, not as an enemy, but as a claimant seeking lawful settlement before a higher court takes notice.
The Two Who Answered
A cleric expected one celestial warrior. Instead, two lesser beings of the same order appeared together and now insist that the task requires both of them. Their shared payment is not gold, but the release of a prisoner the temple insists is too dangerous to free.
The Ally from the Wrong Court
A desperate noble secretly asks a temple to call a planar ally for protection. The creature that answers is technically suitable, but its allegiance reveals that the noble’s bloodline, estate, or marriage pact is already entangled with a hidden planar power.
Historical and Mythic Context
The idea behind Planar Ally belongs to an old family of stories about mortals petitioning powers beyond ordinary human reach. Ancient oracles, household spirits, daimones, genii, jinn, angels, demons, and divine messengers all preserve variations of the same dramatic pattern: a mortal asks, a greater or stranger power answers, and the answer comes with obligation.
In Greek religion, a daimon could be understood as a supernatural power or spirit associated with divine action, fate, or intervention. The later idea of a benevolent guiding spirit also appears in the Agathos Daimon, a protective good spirit. Roman religion preserved related ideas in the genius, including guardian powers of people, places, households, and institutions.
The spell also echoes the logic of oracles, where divine communication is requested through recognised ritual channels. The petitioner does not own the god’s answer. The petitioner approaches a sacred system and must live with what comes back.
Jinn traditions offer another useful parallel for campaign play. A jinni is not simply a monster, but a powerful unseen being with will, form, and moral agency. That distinction matters for this spell: the called creature is not a spell effect pretending to be alive. It is an actual participant in the world.
For fantasy gaming, Planar Ally works best when treated as sacred diplomacy rather than divine shopping. The caster is not buying a stat block. The caster is inviting a supernatural person, servant, officer, witness, or power into mortal affairs.