Favourite Minions?

[Abd al-Azrad]

Howdy,

I was going to ask, "which is the best type of minion in which to specialize," but it occurs to me that this is an impossible question to answer objectively. There are too many variables (cost, availability, your own class and build, realities of your campaign world).

That said, I love minion-mancy. Summons, undead, constructs, clones, familiars, cohorts, trained attack bears, bound genies, what have you. Anything to improve my action economy and keep people from sticking sharp metal into my delicate flesh.

What form of minion-mancy is your favourite? Why?

[Psyren]

Eidolon is the most powerful - strength, skills, mount, difficult to get rid of, and can be commanded mentally.

My personal favorite is Planar Ally because you get something that is either looking out for your best interests or at the very least reports to the same boss as you. Gate is more powerful but (a) you have to wait until end-game and (b) overuse can get the DM on your bad side quickly.

[unbutu]

That is an excellent question. I see we are like-minded on the use of minions. I'll be looking for what others have to say here.

My answers should be taken lightly - I'm just starting to try the minion classes -, but so far I've noticed:

-Skeletons can be summoned very early by a cleric, and the stat blocks they have can be greatly improved by providing them non-broken equipment. If you have a way to carry a bloody skeleton's body and equipment while he is down, you have a friend for life.

[Abd al-Azrad]

I've been mostly building my characters of late to have access to at least two or three types of minions, any more than that really starts to conflict with the game pacing. For instance:

Paladin archer - Bonded Mount + Leadership (illusionist cohort + rogue followers) to cover his bases
Witch - "Imp"proved familiar + Summons + Animated Objects
Alchemist - Tumor improved familiar + simulacrum clones of his hated enemies

Been itching to try out some more varieties. The Summoner is obviously the master of this sort of thing, with eidolons, summons and planar bindings / gates. I've heard of a pretty neat Shaman build which uses Animate Dead for bloody skeletons, and Summon Nature's Ally spontaneous casting to fill out its ranks. And as a previous post of mine covered, there are just (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/classes/alternate-classes/antipaladin/archetypes/paizo---antipaladin-archetypes/seal-breaker-antipaladin-archetype) so (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/juju) many (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-fetchling/shadow-caller-summoner-fetchling) ways (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo---bard-archetypes/dirge-bard) to get interesting undead on your side.