Im playing a Saurian druid as part of the pathfinder society play and just leveled up to 5. As such I now get the saurians 5th level ability
a saurian shaman may cast summon nature’s ally as a standard action when summoning reptiles and dinosaurs, and summoned reptiles and dinosaurs gain temporary hit points equal to her druid level. She can apply the young template to any reptiles and dinosaurs to reduce the level of the summoning spell required by one. She can also increase the level of summoning required by one in order to apply either the advanced or the giant template, or increase it by two to apply both the advanced and giant templates.
Now I was wondering about a few things when applying this to the different summon natures ally spells.
Could I summon a reptile or dinosaur thats on the 4th level list (which I would not have access to yet) if I applied the young template to it using snaIII?
The next question I guess would only really apply if the above question turns out to be true.
Could I take a 3rd lvl reptile or dinosaur, apply the young template so that it becomes a 2nd level creature and then use snaIII so summon 1d3 copies of that creature?
As a little side question I was also wondering after looking through the d20pfsrd if the Venomous snake, which is listed in the 2nd lvl summons is legal in society play as its from an adventure path and thus not core material. Its just that its the lowest level reptile on the list.
No. You have to have access to the spell in question. As an example if you have access to a summon monster 6 spell that summons a dinosaur you can apply the young template and only use a level 5 slot.
As for the second question I think the template is all you get with the reduction. You don't get to reduce it, drop a spell level, and get multiple versions of them.
OP: I missed the PFS portion. You might want to check to make sure it is even legal for PFS play.
I checked with our dm when I made the character and he told me the saurian druid was legal.
As for the template im still a bit confused.
The young template reduces the level of the summoning spell required by one. So if I apply the template to a Crocodile (which is a 3rd level creature and can be summoned using snaIII and above normally) what happens?
Do I summon the crocodile using snaII instead of III or does the spell just take up a second lvl spell slot but it still counts as snaIII?
You don't apply the template based on the animal's CR in the book. You apply the template based on which summon monster spell can summon it.
As an example if you can summon the Croc with a summon monster 3 spell, you can use a 2nd level slot instead as long as you are willing to apply the young template to it.
Ok so it does just use a lower level slot and not count as a lower level spell thanks for explaining it