Shepherd Druid: Conjure Animals Tokens using DMG Mob/Swarm Mechanics

Hi. I ran a quick search for Conjure Animals here and didnt see anything recent related to this topic.  Ive seen 1 or 2 posts on Reddit about having CR 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 etc tables according to their environs (Xanathar's p24-26) and then mechanically using the mob or swarm ruling in the DMG p250 to keep pace up. And Im also considering reskins of monsters as swarms.  The only post I found on Reddit that was relevant talked about creating roll-able tables using percentage die but doesnt go into specifics into how the macros are set up or written.  Ultimately Im just trying to speed up play for my group and not turn combat into a slog. Any help is appreciated. 

At the free level, You'd have two steps: Roll on appropriate table to find which creature Drag the monster out of the journal For the first step, you'd go to the collections tab and set up Rollable Tables for the various biomes and weight them as you like.  You'll want to make those accessible by your shepherd player, possibly using a chat menu. For the second, you'd need to create all the creature characters and organize them.  I'd suggest a folder for each biome.  If you make them in journals and controlled by your shepherd player (or get your GM to if you're that player) then the player can drag them out as needed.

EDIT: Dang, 2nd time today I've been ninja'd on responses. I gotta stop walking away from my PC in the middle of replying :) The wiki gives a decent overview of how to create your rollable tables. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Roll_Table" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Roll_Table</a> You could make one for each environment (only adding the CR 2, 1, 1/2, and 1/4 entries). Evenly weight them or change the weighting however you like when you make the table. Make each entry tell you how many of the corresponding type to summon, e.g. "8 Giant Owls" In general, you roll a rollable table in the chat like this, which would also be your macro text: /r 1t[Arctic-Beasts] So, you could make a bunch of macros called "Arctic-Beasts", "Desert-Beasts", etc. each corresponding to the table of the same name. You could then make a master api button macro (Called "Conjure-Animals" or whatever) that put all of these into clickable buttons, using the syntax [ButtonText](!#MacroName), like this: &amp;{template:default} {{name=Beast Generator by Environment}} {{[Arctic](! #Arctic-Beasts) [Desert](! #Desert-Beasts)}} Gives you something that looks like this: When you click the ugly pink buttons, they call your rollable table macros, and return a random result from the corresponding table. Now, I'm not familiar with the mob/swarm rules from the DMG, but here is a forum topic that has another option: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4608575/trying-to-get-a-macro-to-properly-work-one-that-rolls-for-multiple-hits-and-then-for-multiple-instances-of-damage" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4608575/trying-to-get-a-macro-to-properly-work-one-that-rolls-for-multiple-hits-and-then-for-multiple-instances-of-damage</a> Ed S. proposes a solution that queries for number of creatures, Att bonus, and target AC, then returns the number of hits and an api button for damage&nbsp; Mob-Attack Macro [[{?{Number of Attackers|10}d20 + ?{To hit modifiers +|8}}&gt;[[?{Target AC|15}]] ]] hits vs **AC**[[?{Target AC}d1]] [Damage](!&amp;#13;#Mob-Damage) Sample output for our 8 Giant Owls. Can mouse over in chat to see the rolls. When you click the pink damage button, you get a bunch of queries for num hits (from above), damage die, mod, type, etc. and it adds it all up for you. You can mouse over the result to see the breakdown Mob-Damage Macro [[ (?{Number of hits|1}?{Damage die|1d4,)d4|1d6,)d6|1d8,)d8|1d10,)d10|1d12,)d12|2d4,*2)d4|2d6,*2)d6|2d8,*2)d8|2d10,*2)d10|2d12,*2)d12|3d4,*3)d4|3d6,*3)d6|3d8,*3)d8|3d10,*3)d10|3d12,*3)d12} + (?{Damage bonus|4}*?{Number of hits}) ]] ?{damage type|bludgeoning|slashing|piercing|fire|acid|cold|lightning|thunder|force|radiant|necrotic} It doesn't factor in critical hits, so if that is important to you, you'd have to roll some extra dice. WARNING: Note that the Att/Dam macros above have special characters in them that are replaced with HTML replacement characters (like&nbsp; !&amp;#13;) See wiki entry below: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/API:Chat#Entering_API_Buttons_In_Chat" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/API:Chat#Entering_API_Buttons_In_Chat</a> Through a quirk of roll20, if you save global macros (those made in the Macro tab) with these replacement characters, everything works unless you open them up again, which then reverts them to their original non-replaced character. This can get messy. So, I would recommend either never opening them once they are working, or creating them as Character Sheet "abilities" on a macro mule (dummy) character or similar concept. Plenty of help on the forums about that. Anyway, hope that is at least enough to get you started!&nbsp; &nbsp;

Hi, thanks for your reply! I am the player. I tried the first option and went to the "Collections" tab and found "Rollable Tables" at the bottom but I dont have access so Ill have to notify my DM.&nbsp; In your opinion which solution is the most elegant in game or time efficient?

They're not mutually exclusive. What The Aaron said is probably what you'd want to do anyway. I was trying to address your questions about the macro mechanics. As a player, though, you're kind stuck without having the DM create rollable tables for you. Do they need to be randomized, or will the DM let you just pick something from an appropriate environment? If he/she sets up the folders for you so you can drag them on the map, you can still use the Att &amp; Dam macros if you want. Or, just Alt-double click the token to pull up the character sheet and spam click the appropriate attack a bunch of times. If you have Auto-roll for damage set, it won't take very long. If you find yourself using the same creatures over and over, you can make macros specific to those creatures. Easiest way is to click the attack in the sheet, then click in the chat entry window and press the up arrow key once. Copy whatever text shows up, and save it in a new macro. Name it "Giant Owl Attack" or whatever. Can be as fancy or simple as you'd like.

David M. said: EDIT: Dang, 2nd time today I've been ninja'd on responses. I gotta stop walking away from my PC in the middle of replying :) The wiki gives a decent overview of how to create your rollable tables. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Roll_Table" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Roll_Table</a> You could make one for each environment (only adding the CR 2, 1, 1/2, and 1/4 entries). Evenly weight them or change the weighting however you like when you make the table. Make each entry tell you how many of the corresponding type to summon, e.g. "8 Giant Owls" In general, you roll a rollable table in the chat like this, which would also be your macro text: /r 1t[Arctic-Beasts] So, you could make a bunch of macros called "Arctic-Beasts", "Desert-Beasts", etc. each corresponding to the table of the same name. You could then make a master api button macro (Called "Conjure-Animals" or whatever) that put all of these into clickable buttons, using the syntax [ButtonText](!#MacroName), like this: &amp;{template:default} {{name=Beast Generator by Environment}} {{[Arctic](! #Arctic-Beasts) [Desert](! #Desert-Beasts)}} Gives you something that looks like this: When you click the ugly pink buttons, they call your rollable table macros, and return a random result from the corresponding table. Now, I'm not familiar with the mob/swarm rules from the DMG, but here is a forum topic that has another option: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4608575/trying-to-get-a-macro-to-properly-work-one-that-rolls-for-multiple-hits-and-then-for-multiple-instances-of-damage" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4608575/trying-to-get-a-macro-to-properly-work-one-that-rolls-for-multiple-hits-and-then-for-multiple-instances-of-damage</a> Ed S. proposes a solution that queries for number of creatures, Att bonus, and target AC, then returns the number of hits and an api button for damage&nbsp; Mob-Attack Macro [[{?{Number of Attackers|10}d20 + ?{To hit modifiers +|8}}&gt;[[?{Target AC|15}]] ]] hits vs **AC**[[?{Target AC}d1]] [Damage](!&amp;#13;#Mob-Damage) Sample output for our 8 Giant Owls. Can mouse over in chat to see the rolls. When you click the pink damage button, you get a bunch of queries for num hits (from above), damage die, mod, type, etc. and it adds it all up for you. You can mouse over the result to see the breakdown Mob-Damage Macro [[ (?{Number of hits|1}?{Damage die|1d4,)d4|1d6,)d6|1d8,)d8|1d10,)d10|1d12,)d12|2d4,*2)d4|2d6,*2)d6|2d8,*2)d8|2d10,*2)d10|2d12,*2)d12|3d4,*3)d4|3d6,*3)d6|3d8,*3)d8|3d10,*3)d10|3d12,*3)d12} + (?{Damage bonus|4}*?{Number of hits}) ]] ?{damage type|bludgeoning|slashing|piercing|fire|acid|cold|lightning|thunder|force|radiant|necrotic} It doesn't factor in critical hits, so if that is important to you, you'd have to roll some extra dice. WARNING: Note that the Att/Dam macros above have special characters in them that are replaced with HTML replacement characters (like&nbsp; !&amp;#13;) See wiki entry below: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/API:Chat#Entering_API_Buttons_In_Chat" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/API:Chat#Entering_API_Buttons_In_Chat</a> Through a quirk of roll20, if you save global macros (those made in the Macro tab) with these replacement characters, everything works unless you open them up again, which then reverts them to their original non-replaced character. This can get messy. So, I would recommend either never opening them once they are working, or creating them as Character Sheet "abilities" on a macro mule (dummy) character or similar concept. Plenty of help on the forums about that. Anyway, hope that is at least enough to get you started!&nbsp; &nbsp; I wouldnt say ninja'd! Thanks so much for taking the time David, youre a saint. I will try to get access to these features from my DM and report back with any progress.&nbsp; Thanks so much to both of you :)

Is your GM a pro subscriber? &nbsp;Or is the game based on an official module (and this gives access to the Character Vault)