Pathfinder (Spheres of Power) - Need help building a Conjuration companion

[Van Silke]

You don't necessarily need to know the Spheres of Power system to help me, so I'd appreciate opinions of everyone who's got experience with building regular animal/outsider companions and other similar things.

I've decided to pick up a Conjuration sphere at level 7 and I need your help with choosing what to do with the companion! You don't need to know SoP system to help me necessarily, but if you feel like you've got extra time, you can examine the system to help me out some more.

My companion has Greater Summoning&Lingering Form, which means, that I can dismiss and re-summon them at will (albeit re-summoning takes 1 minute)

Basics
HD equal to 3/4 caster level (6HD currently);
Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11; d10 Hit Dice;
1 skill point per HD;
'Class' skills: Climb (Str), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (Planes), Stealth (Dex), Swim (Str);
Evasion (Reflex negates AoE damage);
Devotion (+4 to Will against charm and enchantment);
Ability Score increases (the one I got I put into Con) apply so far.

Form
I need help with choosing whether he's to be a
biped (Str 16, Dex 12, Speed 30 ft, +2 nat armor, good Fort&Will saves, 2 1d4 slams),
quadruped (Str 14, Dex 14, Speed 40 ft, +2 nat armor, good Fort&Ref saves, 1d6 bite), or
serpentine (Str 12, Dex 16, Speed 20 ft, +4 nat armor, good Ref&Will saves, 1d6 bite&1d6 tail slap)

Feats
I need to choose 3 feats for him, but I wouldn't mind getting advice on choosing feats in levels to come.

I have no idea how to build companions like that, so any help is greatly appreciated. I want him to be useful in combat, but with some out-of-combat utilities as well.

[zlefin]

how many other talents are you spending on him?
While I haven't played them yet, I've read through them a bunch;

while conjuration companions can be strong in combat, they tend to need extra talents spent on them to do that, and to keep up being useful as they level. without extra talents spent on them, their combat ability is lackluster and quickly becomes too weak to be much of a help. At that level, I suspect that without extra talents he'll simply be too weak to be relevant in combat.

An out of combat utility one on the other hand can be just fine iwth barely any talents spent.

[Van Silke]

I doubt I'll spend any more talents on the companion, so I might need him to have uses out of combat. I'm open to anything really, I just don't want him to be useless.

[zlefin]

I'm really not an expert on it at all. but conjuration is not a good sphere for a light dip.
In combat, he'd mostly just be a flanking buddy/screen; and as you level he'll get worse and worse at it.
For out of combat I'd say look for some skill/area the party doesn't have a lot of and focus there. maybe put all his skill points into perception, and take all the perception boosting feats you can?

[Van Silke]

I suppose I can go with perception, thanks. If you've got any other ideas, feel free to drop them by!

[Zsaber0]

I'm playing an incanter right now with a heavy focus on conjuration. I have 2 companions at the moment, but focus on one. It has Battle Creature x2, powerful companion, Altered Size(large), Shielded & Armored companion, Additional limbs(2 arms), and Lingering+Greater Summoning so he stays all day long. With this, plus tower shield Proficiency, he is a large sized, 4 armed, fully armored and shielded, behemoth that shows up with a tower shield in 2 of his hands, and a 2handed large sized Earth Breaker (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment/weapons/weapon-descriptions/earth-breaker/) in his other 2 hands. I use him as my main source of damage and as a door opener. Because doors don't work when they are in itty bitty pieces.

The rest of the party like to use Butterfly Sting to give my companion their criticals.

[Ualaa]

For minimal investment, I like going with a "Small Serpentine" companion.
That's the base to work from.

The companion gets a free talent, to define it's form.
I generally pick something like Animal, Avian, Dragon, Elemental, or the like, rather than something like Armored, Fortified or Quick since the former is a type while the latter is a modification to the type.
There's nothing saying you cannot go with a relatively undefined type (aside from Bipedal, Serpentine etc) and take a modification to it's stats as the free talent it gets.

A small serpentine creature has the most DEX benefits.
It needs to take Weapon Finesse as one of it's early feats.

The Quick Companion will get it a DEX bonus, that scales with it's hit dice.

Companions generally function better with Greater Summoning and Lingering Companion, for a 24 hour duration for 3 spell points.
That is fairly close to an Animal Companion or Eidolon type addition.

For enhanced survival, you could add Armored Companion, to simulate natural armor (still an armor bonus).
Fortified companion would add a scaling CON bonus, for hit points and Fort saves.