The main issue with it is not the number of minions, but that in the very early game you essentially get multiple sets of priests to heal you. I think it's perfectly fine, in theory, to allow generals to buy/summon/resell idols to make more minions. They lose money on a resale so these aren't "free" minions, and I'm okay with that.

But when you are low level in early game (not much incoming damage, not much AoE in play), and you can get 3 sets of priests to heal you, you practically have to try to die. The way priests work is that each rank of priests can heal you once every 10 seconds.

A simple change to put all idol-summoned priests on the same 10 second timer rather than splitting by rank will fix this right up, and then the whole buy/resell thing will just be a general paying money for a little more firepower, which isn't all that different from saving money for that +attack speed/weapon damage item, only the damage comes from the minions and not the demigod.

read my post on page 2

I play like an assassin until around level 8 or 10, and then buy the level 4 idols. Until then, they really don't carry their weight, and you're better off just concentrating on making your general capable of surviving long enough to level to a point where they can be most effective.

Whether or not a demigod should focus on their minions is somewhat dependant on the map. A map like 'brothers' where each general nets xp from two lanes (usually double than normal) makes for a good choice to specialize in minions as it is unlikely each character will gain gold in time to purchase more than a single 2k item making them quite formidable even against demigods. Maps like cataract, with towers very close together are often bad for minions as they will repeatedly charge into them, forcing you to recreate these troops.

Looking at some of the demigod generals:

OAK

Oak's spirits are extremely fast, fly(no pathing issues), cost very little mana to summon and only take one skill set to max (4 points). He also recieves cumulative personal benefits from 'soul power' and I have yet to play a game without maxxing his spirits. Using natures reckoning (item) along with at least one point in divine justice will go a long way in keeping those minions alive. The hauberk of life is another cheap item that will aid in making them troublesome for other players. Oak is one of the few generals I pick up morale with as he can have up to 10 spirits active and up to 6 other minions: 16x4 = 64 damage per point in this skill. Don't expect to play oak as a back line character though, as he needs to be up in the front to put many of his skills to use and his minions require that units die to be summoned.

EREBUS

Erebus much like oak has some very fast minions and may have 10 of them at the time. They cost no mana to summon and also require units to die to summon. Unfortunately erebus's minions do not provide him with any special benefits for having around and are somewhat weak without specializing in them (7 total points). Further adding insult to injury, unless you specialize in mist and a heavy mana build, his minions will die about as fast as you can summon them, as he has no means of healing them. Providing erebus with the forest band would help in keeping his minions alive, but I have not had a great deal of success with using minions on this character.

SEDNA

Sedna is a wonderful support character as she has both a passive area heal, and a powerful single target heal, and I always purchase at least Healers and Archers with her. Whether or not her Yeti are worth summoning is up for debate, as they cost enough mana that you could have used pounce roughly twice instead. They are also very innefective in killing enemy demigods since they are melee and slower than everyone but rook. The most troublesome part about them (all melee minions really) is that they are the first to be targeted by towers, costing you a great deal of mana in the process. Despite both this, and that sedna has no ranged attack, I've still had some success using a complete support build with this character.

QUEEN OF THORNS

The best choice in my opinion for a purely support character. Note that her minions are very skill intensive. It will take a total of 10 skill points (Shamblers, Entourage, Compost) just to get all her shamblers up to full strength, but since both they, and the Queen of thorns have ranged attacks you will often never need to engage a demigod to a fight to the death. Her sheild is also a wonderful skill to keep yourself and other team members alive. Mulch right now is up for debate on usefullness. Mathematically this is probably the most powerful skill in the game, but in practice it is next to impossible to properly utilize since you have to find one of your shamblers and target it specifically, and make sure it is near the enemy at the same time. A reworking of this skill to make it more user friendly is in order, but feel free to put some points into it if you think you can micromanage your troops well enough to use it.

And uhh.. it's not 'cheating' to play generals like assassins I just wish some of them didn't do a better job of it >.>

Rook can build towers. Other then that, Assassins can't summon minions.

We have a word for people who place arbitrary restrictions and rules upon themselves and others for the sake of making the game play how they envisioned it should be, trying to think that's how the game was 'meant' to be played, and how it's not fun any other way:

Scrubs.

are you not gimping your oak damage by not using minions? he has some damage buff depending on how many minions you have and can increase damage taken for his target(which works for your minions)

I couldn't agree more. I've used this from time to time and I don't think this was as intended. However, that being said I don't think it really affects the balance of the game too much with the only exception being Sedna. You pack 8 healers around with her and your teammates will never die.

The only change that should occur is to limit amount of minions of the same type to 2, which is what I think was intended. Generals could still then buy one of each type summon and sell for a total of six minons of three different types, but I think that is quite fair. Some would argue that the gold refund from selling an idol is too much, I would disagree. Just limit the amount of each type to two and we are good.