Few questions about summoning/calling spells.

[Yogibear41]

Got a few questions about summoning and calling spells that bring in outsiders to give you a hand.

1. Is there an official rule on the SLA's that are only available say 1/week, 1/month, or 1/year, to determine if said critter has used it yet or not.
For example I use a Lesser Planar Ally to call up an Imp to use its commune ability, but after I pay my 100xp cost, it shows up and can't use its ability, because it has already been used this week, avoiding these types of situations would be great.

2. When you summon a creature that has an innate spellcasting ability, how do you determine what spells it has prepared/known. Alot of the time the stat block of the monster will give sample spells known/prepared so those could be used in that case, but what about in cases where the spells are not listed. How would you handle "fishing" for a particular spell by repeatedly summoning creatures that fall into this category.

[Elder_Basilisk]

Got a few questions about summoning and calling spells that bring in outsiders to give you a hand.

1. Is there an official rule on the SLA's that are only available say 1/week, 1/month, or 1/year, to determine if said critter has used it yet or not.
For example I use a Lesser Planar Ally to call up an Imp to use its commune ability, but after I pay my 100xp cost, it shows up and can't use its ability, because it has already been used this week, avoiding these types of situations would be great.

2. When you summon a creature that has an innate spellcasting ability, how do you determine what spells it has prepared/known. Alot of the time the stat block of the monster will give sample spells known/prepared so those could be used in that case, but what about in cases where the spells are not listed. How would you handle "fishing" for a particular spell by repeatedly summoning creatures that fall into this category.

1. Not as far as I know. In general, I would assume that such abilities are available unless otherwise specified.
1.a. If you are using the planar binding line of spells and you have a particular imp or glabrezu in mind and call it using its true name, then whether or not its special abilities are available is a matter of storyline. After all, you didn't just pull that truename from a hat or invoke a series of demonic sounding syllables in hope that it was someone's true name. You acquired it in some kind of adventure and the DM clearly contemplated the outsider showing up in response to a summons (otherwise, why give you the truename?), so he should have decided that ahead of time. (Abarax: Pit fiend, wish used six months ago by BBEG).

2. Arbitrarily. In the case of a planetar, for example, if I needed the spell list and it's not in the monster manual or bestiary statblock, I'd just pick the nearest appropriately aligned NPC cleric and give it that cleric's list of spells prepared. On the other hand, if the player is calling it to see if it has a particular spell rather than calling for a general purpose and then seeing what spells it has prepared, I'd probably assign it a percentage based on how common/useful I see the spell as being and roll that. No need to know if it has mass lesser vigor prepped if you're just interested in knowing if it has life pact.
2.a. This is another area where I would see a difference between planar binding and planar ally spells. If there is a particular non-abusive spell that a player was using planar ally to get access to, I would probably put it on the list. After all with planar ally, the choice is not random and you don't have the option for specifying a particular being and getting it every time; instead, the god assigns the ally and I would presume that the god knows his business (or her business if it's a goddess). Much better to send the trumpet archon with the right spell than to send a half dozen trumpet archons until you finally get the right one.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For summoning, I just presume that the magic that selects one of the infinite samples of the creature selects one that's in peak condition. Otherwise, how could I even be certain of getting one that's at full HP or isn't poisoned or half-starved or something?

For calling, it's entirely DM discretion. If you need some exact spell from an outsider you'll need to find one that knows/is capable of preparing the spell. Fortunately, many a spell-slinging outsider casts as a cleric. That covers most needs since you just have to ask it to prepare the spell the next day as part of the process of bargaining with it. For more essoteric spells that don't appear on the cleric list, it's just a matter of finding a particular outsider, a thing that can be done by gathering information from other outsiders and tomes of outsider lore in larger, metropolitan libraries and libraries dedicated to gods of knowledge and the like.

If you're looking for a once per week/month/year ability, just run it by the DM first before trying to call the creature. If he doesn't want you to have it, there are an infinite number of outsiders that have already expended the ability for random calling and holding a given outsider/elemental for the entire time it takes to recharge is a good way to irritate a potential foe and the DM.