As with many spells, targeting seems inherent in the spell. For example, if you cast Haste, it only affects your allies and not your enemies, and Prayer affects enemies differently than allies. No chance of an error - the spell seems to automatically know which is which.
There really isn't much in the core rulebook about how this happens.
Summon spells get the benefit of this. Whatever you summon is magically linked to you, more or less, and the magic of the spell lets you and only you dismiss it (others can dispel but not dismiss) - so there is some kind of link, even though the book doesn't talk about it. It's just assumed in the mechanic. Likewise, so is targeting.
Even if something happens after you summon the monsters, like an ally betrays you and reveals that he is now an enemy, or your friend casts Dominate on an enemy and now that enemy is his, and your, ally - even in weird corner cases, your Summons spell is "updated" with the latest info on who is an is not an enemy.
This is only untrue of spells that explicitly tell you what you must do to target them. No such wording in Summon Monster.
As for summoning a dead monster within 24 hours, there is no specific rule that says you summon the same monster every time. That is more or less background information. If you summon a monster and it dies, you can immediately (with a new Summon Monster spell) summon another creature of the same type - it won't be the one that died, but it will be otherwise identical.
Now, if you have a different spell that says you must always summon the same specific creature, and that one dies, then yes, you would have to wait 24 hours for it to reform.
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"A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can't be summoned again."
I'm not remembering if this was in 3.5 or Pathfinder, but there was the ability (somehow/somewhere/sometime) where you could summon a named creature using Summon Monster. It could be a Celestial Hawk, a Fiendish Badger, whatever, and it either had max hit points or something else special about it. I think that if you gave it equipment, then it always appeared wearing those items. You still needed the ability to communicate with it.
Although I'm drawing a complete blank as to whether it was a feat, a spell, or just a house rule that I read here in the forums =/
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"A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can't be summoned again."I'm not remembering if this was in 3.5 or Pathfinder, but there was the ability (somehow/somewhere/sometime) where you could summon a named creature using Summon Monster. It could be a Celestial Hawk, a Fiendish Badger, whatever, and it either had max hit points or something else special about it. I think that if you gave it equipment, then it always appeared wearing those items. You still needed the ability to communicate with it.
Although I'm drawing a complete blank as to whether it was a feat, a spell, or just a house rule that I read here in the forums =/
It's an optional approach given in the 3.5 D&D DMG. I've always thought it would be an interesting way to handle summoning and could lead to some role play fun; or at least it would provide grist for banter around the table.
(next day)
"Wizbang! Buddy! Hey, this is Jimmy. Remember we talked about him? Heh, just look at his tail wag, he's right excited, isn't he. Get him, Jimmy! No, I don't know what it is. Just bite it, bro, you're compelled. Exhilarating, isn't it. And you know the best part? You can't die. It's like going to Westworld before Yul Brenner's program crashed."
"Hey Jimmy, you attack high and I'll go low. (off-key singing) 'Well, you take the high road, and I'll take the low road...' Heh, Jimmy, looks like you're getting home before me. LOL. Did I just say that? Man, I gotta take a break from chat progs..."
(In game)
Barry Bard looks at Wizbang and sighs. "Friend, for the 20th time, can't you at least summon someone who can carry a tune? Or at least someone who doesn't feel the need to narrate?"
Wizbang raises an eyebrow, "Barry, it is what it is."
SM can be tweeked a number of ways, so our guidelines are:
The SM attacks 1) the nearest enemy 2) the enemy currently attacking the Summoner.
Slain Monsters are deducted from the number summoned the next day. Now that you've brought this up, I'm going to rethink the for RP/flavor.
In the Drizzt Do'Urden books, he has a figurine that summons a panther from the Astral Plane. A specific panther. Whenever she "dropped below 0 hit points," she would return to Astral Plane and recover. I believe in one of the books, it's mentioned that if a summoned creature "goes below 0 HP," it returns to its plane to lick its wounds; but if its killed ON its plane, it actually dies. This was 3.5ish era.
Don't know if that helps.