I can definitely understand wanting players to stat their own minions, as long as the GM exerts some oversight to make sure the critter makes sense and isn't min/maxed for the PC's precise needs.
As far as elementals go, there are a lot of helpful templates and lenses in DF9 - Summoners. (Although, as a player trying to summon an earth elemental, I'd probably be begging the GM to at least give mine a few points in Brawling.)
You definitely wouldn't want to let a summon-happy PC just conjure up temporary allies that can do anything ever, of course, but I figure "I want a strong and tough earth elemental to help us fight" or "I want a water elemental that can help us drown that werewolf" are reasonable levels of customization, as long as the parameters are set when the spell is cast and not when the charm is activated.
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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
Summoners who rely on Reactions usually get ridiculous modifiers, Spirit Empathy, and Diplomancy, IME. It isn't hard to get consistently good reactions from say fire elementals if you have a Talent, a Reputation, immolate something as part of the ritual, and are asking them to burn stuff anyway.
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That makes sense for a character based heavily on summoning and dealing with spirits, like a shaman or something, but I imagine a lot of RPM casters who just want the occasional summoned ally would be better served putting points into their magic abilities and just controlling whatever they conjure.