I have players that save their summon spell and end up not usuing it in a final encounter (for whatever reason). It seems very limiting if you can only cast something once per day.
Yep, sometimes the opportunity never comes up or the need just isn't strong enough to pull out the big spells. A spell's usage is an important part of balance. Spells like this are a gamble like that, but when you suddenly are able to supplement your 4-character party with a sizable force of 20 orcs, you'll be glad you used it.
If you'd prefer to give the summoners in your party more use of their spell, consider adding the following optional rule. Change the usage to "special" instead of 1/day and allow the spellcaster to summon only a number of ranks worth of creatures equal to twice his spellcaster level per day, divided up as desired. Thus, a level 5 spellcaster could summon a two rank 2 creatures (which totals 4 ranks) during an encounter, but then still have 6 ranks worth of creatures to summon that day. This is similar to how the spell functioned in the beginning before play testing evolved it to the form it was published.
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