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I would have it come back to the last area it received instruction from. It would then hang out until given additional instruction as to who to attack, not attack. If it was attacked then it would attack back ea. rd. On those opp. Till given a particular direction.
also I would say it would avoid areas, etc.. that would cause it harm.
if anyone else spoke the lang. Then that could have some bearing.
If there are any still standing, I would default back to the "[i]t attacks your opponents to the best of its ability" line. Even in the unlikely event one of the druid's allies speaks Terran, I'd be hesitant to allow anyone else to give it directions, but neither would I have it attack the druid's obvious allies. Summoned creatures, as I understand it, follow those directions of its summoner it can understand and if no such directions are forthcoming are pretty much limited to attacking opponents of the summoner.
If things get really complicated (as in this situation!) I would take the summoned being's language, alignment, Intelligence score, and Wisdom score into account and adjudicate according to what the summoned creature understood of its (now-absent in this example) summoner's desires. Which is to say, if there are still bad guys back in the room with the druid (gaseous druid!) and his allies, he attacks the bad guys. If there are no bad guys left standing, then I suppose it would just do what Joe suggested and "hang out."
If you want to be pedantic, the spell allows the earth elemental to attack the druids enemies, which by neccesity involves some way of knowing who those enemies are. While I don't allow that to be used as a traitor detector, the earth elemental still has human level intelligence and can most certainly tell the difference between an ally and an enemy.
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You can't have the summoned creature turn on the summoner. That's way outside the scope of the spell. There is also a specific spell, bite the hand that does this to summoned creatures.
The kind of summoning you can turn back on your players is when they preform a planar binding spell. In the description of that spell text, it says things like "..if you ever roll a natural 1 on the Charisma check, the creature breaks free of the spell's effect and can escape or attack you...Once the requested service is completed, the creature need only to inform you to be instantly sent back whence it came. The creature might later seek revenge."
There is also such text when attempting to control undead. "Intelligent undead creatures remember that you controlled them, and they may seek revenge after the spell's effects end."
But there is no such qualifier when casting a summon nature's ally (or summon monster) spell. So no, it won't turn on the summoner.
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I'm getting the vibe, and I may be wrong, that a player summoning creatures to fight for them is an irritating tactic for some people. So here's an aside on that.
I completely agree. Both as a GM and a player I dislike summoning. It's time consuming, rather bland, and overall fairly unimaginative. Everyone ends up summoning the same 1-3 things off each list. That said, it's a perfectly valid tactic in PFS.
I can't stop players from doing it nor can I tweak the rules of the spell to punish players that choose to cast it. Nor would I want to. That's not how PFS works. This isn't a home game, we've got to follow the rules as presented by the campaign leadership to provide a stable environment for our players as they move from table to table. It would be frustrating for players to be able to summon freely at one table then not at a second, for fear that their creatures might turn on them.
So my recommendation is to do what you should do whenever a player uses a tactic in combat that bogs down the game or makes other players feel invalidated. Try to streamline that tactic and communicate with the player (perhaps in confidence) your concerns.
"Hey Walter, if you're going to summon those monsters each fight could you jot down their important stats so you don't need to keep borrowing my bestiary? Also, can you keep track of their remaining rounds so I don't have to? Thanks!"
"Hey Walter, summoning is awesome strong and your character is great at it. However, when you summon _____ each fight it tends to overshadow the other players at this table. Perhaps you could reserve it for the most dire circumstances and let the other folks get a few swings in? I know they'd appreciate it. Thanks!"
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And then? After they have been defeated?
If there is no communications, then how can the summoned creature know they are all defeated? It should wait and see if there are more opponents.
If there is communications, then the summoner can
If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.
Edit: Added reference quote.
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And then? After they have been defeated?
They mill about? They act in character?
The summoned wolves start biting at the corpses of the downed foes.
The summoned celestial kneels in solemn remembrance of the fallen NPC.
The summoned earth elemental starts looking at the stonework with keen interest.
If the PC that summoned them can communicate some how--speak with animals, or they speak the language the creature shares--they can give the creature updated instructions.
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No sweat--it's a good question to post. Summoning is complicated enough that it has an entire page in the CRB. And there's a reason why it's commonly thought of as one of the most powerful tactics in the game.
If you know that this player is going to summon in the future, I'd ask them to print off the stat blocks they need for their creatures, and get extra sets of dice so they can do their turn quickly. Combat slows down when one player has 3+ creatures to control on their turn. Anything your player can do ahead of time to speed that up makes your life GMing a whole lot easier.
When I've summoned in the past I've handed my creature's stat blocks to another player (a fighter or barbarian) and let them run it in combat for me. Anything you can do to speed up the turns is appreciated.
In the specific question asked in the OP, I would think the earth elemental would return to where it last saw its summoner, and if its summoner is still there, wait for further instructions or if it sees an enemy, attack. If the summoner is unconscious or otherwise unable to give instructions, it will guard him. If the summoner is no longer there, it will use the remaining rounds its summoning will last looking for him.
