I just noticed that the summon creature spell has a line in it that none of the other variable level spells seem to have. The line seems to imply, to me, that you can't learn the spell more than twice.
You can gain summon creature a second time at the highest spell level you know, selecting four additional appropriate creatures at each level you can cast this spell.
With the other variable level spells that they'd want throughout levels, like mystic cure, I was recommending to my players that they take it as a first level spell, and then replace it at each and every new spell level as they go up in character level.
But that line about taking it a second time makes it seem like they intend for you to only learn the spell twice, say at 3rd and 6th spell level.
I don't want to rule it that way, because it makes the entire idea of playing a summoner impossible. I hope I'm just reading the wording too strictly and this wasn't what they meant, but I also want to make sure I'm not missing the reasoning if it was intentional.
So here's what I'm seeing when I read the text of the spell:
You can learn this spell twice.
Learning this spell allows you to make 4 creature selections for each spell level you are capable of casting. One choice at each level may be a lower-level summons, which follows special rules as listed on the table.
You may learn the spell twice.
You may change your selections every time your character levels up.
When you learn to cast a new level of spell you make selections for that level.
So if you learn it twice you're making 8 selections per level.
Wow. That's a completely different reading than I thought.
If I understand you correctly, you're saying that something like the following happens.
Character gains the spell at character level 1 as a first level spell. They get to pick 4 creatures from the SC1 list.
Character levels to say 5, and chooses as one of his new spells known SC2, allowing him to replace SC1 automatically. He gets to add 4 creatures from the SC2 list (which can be used for SC1 slots w/benefits) and keep (or change) the 4 creatures on hist original SC1 list.
At, say, character level 7, the character decides to take SC2 using another spells known slot, now he gets 8 creatures on the SC2 list and 8 from the SC1 list.
That seems OP, but then again, you've got an extremely short spells known list, so maybe not.
If that's true, the question then becomes what happens at level, say 9, when he learns SC3? I think he replaces one of the two SC2 slots and keeps the other, meaning he has 4 creatures on his SC3 list, and 8 for SC2 and SC1?
That opens up a lot of possibilities if that's correct. I still don't read the original rule that way, but I'd be extremely happy if you're right.
That would be the way multi level spells normally work, but they don't have that line about learning them twice. That's the part I want to be sure I'm reading correctly.
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Technomancer has summon monster 4 one time, giving her access to 4 different summons for spell levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. It's also her highest level available, so she can opt to take it again to get the listed benefits.
Upon leveling up she opts to do that, and now has an extra set of 4 different summons available for each spell level, making it a total of 8 different summons she can choose from when casting the spell.
One thing to look out for is when leveling up:
She levels up so that she has access to level 5 spells. If she wants to continu with the summon monster spells she needs to buy Summon Monster 5 twice in order to keep all 8 different summons, otherwise the second set of 4 because unavailable, as the second time you pick it needs to be at the highest level you can cast it.