My current method is to just ask the DM for the AC of the nearest creatures as well as their HP and first roll out the attacks to see what hits, then roll out the damage for the appropriate types of attacks on a per summon/foe basis.
One of my other problems in addition to slowing down combat is that as a malconvoker I have tons of bonuses to my summons from every which way, and I often forget at least a few.
TL;DR: How to practically utilize/track 9+ summons and their myriad of bonuses without slowing combat?
Your only real option to not eat up so much time is to not spam so many summons at the same time.
I am a Malconvoker, AKA summon ****, and my best friends are "Huey, Dewy, and Louie" as well as "Alvin and the gang" and "Larry, Curly, and Moe". That's nine summons on the board, and I feel like I really slow down combat when my turn comes around.
My current method is to just ask the DM for the AC of the nearest creatures as well as their HP and first roll out the attacks to see what hits, then roll out the damage for the appropriate types of attacks on a per summon/foe basis.
One of my other problems in addition to slowing down combat is that as a malconvoker I have tons of bonuses to my summons from every which way, and I often forget at least a few.
TL;DR: How to practically utilize/track 9+ summons and their myriad of bonuses without slowing combat?
Explain how you manage to get 9+ summoned creatures out on the battlemat before combat is over.
I've set up an excel sheet using the randbetween() command, and after a wee bit of statistical analysis have found it biases results a little on the high side. I like Mock's card idea, as that uses my DM's 'persistent summons' houserule and my dice.
Since you asked so darn politely; summon lower levels of hearty monsters using higher SMs over a few rounds + Fiendish Legion.
I've set up an excel sheet using the randbetween() command, and after a wee bit of statistical analysis have found it biases results a little on the high side. I like Mock's card idea, as that uses my DM's 'persistent summons' houserule and my dice.
I don't see how throngs of lower level things help anyway. My idea to help you is to limit your summons to higher level creatures only and fewer of them.
You mention having tons of bonuses to your summons every which way. You ought to consider having the stats prepared for anything you plan to summon regularly. Before the next game go through and pull up the stats with all permanent buffs on them and write that down. Then at the bottom make notes like "If in rage Rage, gains +30HP, +2 to hit, +5 damage, -2 AC" for all the potential buffs you commonly use.
I do recommend reigning it in a bit too. Summoners are really really good. Its great to be able to summon 9 dudes on the field but it bogs combat down a ton as you have seen. Try summoning 3 or 4 guys, and then buffing them or switching over to save or dies/blasting for a bit.
My last summoner would summon 3 giant elemental monsters, and then hide somewhere just so I could cut down on actions taken. (AKA I would basically take him out of combat, probably with greater invis or something, and not do anything and the DM would not attack me)
multiple creatures are great by the way. Throw in the free flanking from rolling a 2 or 3 (on 1d3), and the to hit bonus is basically the same.
My group, when we are in a combat that's going on for a few rounds, we get down to each person in turn rattling off what we hit ("I swing twice, and hit an AC 1 and -4" *), and our GM will tell us if it's good enough (he rarely told us what the actual AC of the mob was) and then we told him our damage. From that point, roll again and be ready for the next round.
Since all our players are honest ("I swing, miss, trip over my own feet and my weapon goes scittering across the floor"), nobody was worried aobut pre-rolling. If your group is honest enough to do this, it saves a huge amount of time.
* We play using 2nd Edition rules.
Eric the GreyOur bard gives 4d6 sonic damage to every attack that hits. One large monster with one attack is not the same as 1d3 monsters with 3 attacks in that case, especially when their to-hit differs by no more than a few points.
Generally speaking, if you have the choice between a highly effective option that causes issues at the table, and a less-but-still effective option that does not, the proper thing to do is select the latter.
TL;DR: How to practically utilize/track 9+ summons and their myriad of bonuses without slowing combat?
Uh, haha, sounds like you need some computer aid? That's a lot of stats when you consider how much work just one character is for most people. Maybe keep a big Excel sheet open with columns of stats for each summon?