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Summoners can cast Summon Monster (X) as a standard action spell-like ability.
If my summoner readies an action to use the SLA, would the summoned creature be able to attack immediately?
Example:
Summoner readies action to use SLA if monster begins casting spell.
Monster begins to cast spell.
Summoner's readied action triggers.
Summoner conjures a celestial eagle.
>>Does eagle act now on Summoner's adjusted initiative and get a full attack?
I believe that, yes, the summon would get a full attack...but I want to make sure that I am not wrong in that assumption.
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If you used the Standard Action SLA Summons in a surprise round, would the summoned creature get a full attack?
I would say yes. The summoner's initiative is adjusted by the readied action and summoned monsters act on the initiative of the person who summoned them in the round they are summoned.
I would say no, for the same reasons.
Summon Monster: "It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn."
Ready: "The ready action lets you prepare to take an action later, after your turn is over but before your next one has begun."
If the readied action triggers after your turn is over, then it's not your turn when the monster appears, and since it acts on your turn, it doesn't yet act.
Initiative Consequences of Readying: "Your initiative result becomes the count on which you took the readied action.... If you take your readied action in the next round, before your regular turn comes up, your initiative count rises to that new point in the order of battle, and you do not get your regular action that round."
You're not actually taking your turn for the round at the point your readied action is triggered, you're just taking the readied action out of turn, and as a result, your initiative count changes. If it's triggered during another creature's turn, your init changes to that same count, but before the creature that was interrupted.
This interpretation hinges on reading "on your turn" to be a specific modification to "immediately" rather than referring to future turns. If you read that text as "...acts immediately, and from then forward, on your turn." then it would be as Artanthos says.
If you used the Standard Action SLA Summons in a surprise round, would the summoned creature get a full attack?
Good question. It acts immediately, on your turn, which is now, and I don't think there's really any way it can be considered surprised (or unaware of combat) since it's being summoned. So I would assume it can act in the surprise round in which it's summoned, but like everyone else without special abilities saying otherwise, it can only take a standard or move action.
I guess you could argue that the monster started the battle unaware of their opponents, and thus it's surprised, and thus can never act in the turn in which it's summoned, but that's pretty much debunked by the rule for the summon monster spell which says it acts immediately.
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It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn.
The conflict in interpretation is due to the fact usage as a standard action was not considered when the spell was written.
The relevant sentence states the summoned creature acts immediately.
It also states that the action occurs during the acting players turn.
In this circumstance, those two statements are in conflict due to the presumption that the summon monster spell could only be resolved on the round following the one in which the spell was cast. Something that is no longer always true.
In this case, my interpretation is based on the fact that the spell was originally intended to complete on following round, at the start of the casting players next turn. The exact wording stated when in the round the creatures would manifest and that they could act immediately upon manifesting instead of waiting a full round.
Your interpretation would force the summoned monsters to forgo an entire round of action, something that was never intended. It is also counter to the first half of the relevant sentence granting summoned creatures the ability to act immediately upon manifesting.
I would probably rule that the summoned creature works under the same limitations of the caster, so the creature only gets a standard action when the summoner is in the surprise round, staggered, or working from a readied action.
Avoids the messiness of allowing full attacks where they normally don't belong.
I would dearly like to see a ruling that summoned monsters have to obey the action restrictions of surprise, etc. A simple "if you use a standard action to summon it, it gets a standard action that turn" would be plenty.
*Far* too much can happen to both PCs and NPCs/monsters otherwise. I've seen a mid-level PC gutted by creatures summoned into a flank on him in the surprise round, with two full-attack actions by each before his initiative.
It's wrong. Any creature *actually there* and actively attempting to ambush the group would still need to move up to their opponents (perhaps with a partial charge). That a summoned creature appearing out of no where is instantly ready to unleash far more is ridiculous.
Majuba has mentioned the "partial charge" action, which I think would allow summoned monsters with the pounce ability to still make a full attack even if their turn was restricted to a standard action. I suppose that this would just encourage Summoners to call in cats during surprise rounds, reducing the variety of summons but not really the power since cats are already some of the best monsters to summon in a lot of cases ("Surprise! There's a dire tiger leaping on your face for 100+ damage. Have a nice afterlife!")
I had an NPC Summoner bring in 1d4+2 fiendish dire tigers as a standard action once, and it was kind of a disaster. One 15th level PC died before he even got a turn, and it was almost a TPK even though the CR of the encounter matched the party's APL. I'm not sure whether to be proud or ashamed, but I won't do it again. Sometimes stuff that's over the top coming from the DM side of the screen would be OK for PCs though (they're supposed to win, you see)