Stone Lord Stone Servant Ability

[Worldbuilder]

I am considering building a Stone Lord and have questions about the Stone Servant Special Ability.

After scouring the site there seems to be conflicting opinions on this, but I couldn't find anything official, so maybe I can get something here now.

The Ability in question is Stone Servant: At 5th level, a stonelord may call a Small earth elemental to her side, as a paladin calls her mount. This earth elemental is Lawful Good in alignment and possesses the celestial template, and it increases in size as the stonelord gains levels, becoming Medium at 8th level, Large at 11th level, Huge at 14th level, Greater at 17th level, and Elder at 20th level.

This ability replaces divine bond.

Ok, so my interpretation is that the only part of the Paladins Divine Bond that applies to the Stone Servant is the following:

Once per day, as a full-round action, a paladin may magically call her mount to her side. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the paladin's level. The mount immediately appears adjacent to the paladin. A paladin can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every 4 levels thereafter, for a total of four times per day at 17th level.

There for, when it dies it doesn't give you all the terrible minuses, which makes sense as its so weak. What do other people think?

My next question is, if this is the case, if it dies, when do you get a new one? Can you summon one for each use of call you have? Seems very ambiguous.

Thats really it. Really interested in trying this archetype, but it really rests on this ability right now, and I want to find out more, something official would be even better. Thank you.

[That Porter Kid]

Well looking at the d20pfsrd (I know it isn't a legal source but they stay a lot more updated than the paizo version unfortunately and they are usually pretty close) it says "replaces" the ability so I would assume that you can spam it as written. The only part related to the horsey is that you can only have one out at a time and it pops up besides you.

For the stonelord if your looking for a DPS pally this isn't the route for you. But if you want to be a sturdy little bugger it is a solid pick. Plus riding a Large size EE into combat is pretty legit on its own (though expect it to die... very quickly in the high levels) :D

[Worldbuilder]

That is my interpretation as well. I saw people arguing against that on the site, which is why I ask. Its the difference in a worthless class ability and a decent class ability. Having 2 medium earth elemental per day at level 9 is alright. Having one medium earth elemental that ruins your life if he dies is a terrible ability, especially since he will die, hard.

[mplindustries]

I agree that there's no penalty for it dying, but it's a singular thing--you can summon that one thing multiple times per day, but not at the same time.