I enjoy @graystone's posts. I think they are tremendously entertaining. I am pretty sure they are often meant only to get controversy going on the forum though, as I don't think an obviously intelligent person can really believe the rules are meant to be interpreted in such a way as to make them dysfunctional.
I don't go out of my way to interpret rules one way or another and have no addenda: ie I point out rules that read to me [or could be read] as dysfunctional because they read dysfunctional [or possibly dysfunctional] and would like to see some change. If no one points out problems, you'll never see errata/faqs. Also, I play online with a a variety of DM that change often, so odds are I'll eventually find one that'll take the least favorable read to an ambiguous rules so that too is a reason to point them out.
For these rules, I brought up the issues with minions in the playtest for the exact same reasons.
"If left unattended for long enough, typically 1 minute, mindless minions usually don’t act, animals follow their instincts, and sapient minions act how they please." right there in the minion rules.
Not sure who's exact post you're referring to: if me, that's correct. If you leave your minion and it's not mindless, it'll fall back to 'normal' actions after a min. Always keep it by you and never give it a command and it never even moves...
Getting extra actions out of combat is what I classify as "too good to be true", so it must be wrong. If a GM wants it to be wrong fine. But as written no, they dont get extra actions.
With this I agree.
Same applies with Slow/Quicken. If the rule prevented the creature from being slow/stunned, it would be too good and have problematic repercussions, so it must be wrong.
I don't see this in the same light though: I don't see it as particularly problematic and it impacts both losing and gaining actions so the good balances out the bad and does not really alter the overall power. What's too good about losing both Slow and Quicken? What's the problem it causes?
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So, in exploration mode, should your activity revolve into commanding your minion to follow, unless you want to leave it behind? That's an action each round, after all.
Rules are important, but they can't model everything.
If you want your animal companion do what you command, treat it like a minion: you've got precise rules that make decent sense in combat, and are balanced.
If you want to let it do whatever it would do, then the GM controls it. You have guidelines for combat anyway, so you can't abuse it.
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Here's my take...
The minion rule is a solid rule. It allows you to have a companion without dominating time during combat by taking twice as long as others. This is fantastic! My main group has 6 players and all during PF1 we just didn’t do companions because combat rounds already took forever. It wasn’t a house rule, we just all chose not to.
Now in PF2, every group I’m part of has a companion in it and it doesn’t slow combat down. It’s great.
Is it thematically awkward? Meh, I guess, sure, but the mechanical benefits WAY overcompensate for any thematic problems. So I love it, we all love it, and we are happy to move forward with it.
Zombies are the corner case here. I’m unaware of any other minion creatures having I ate Slowed... I’m sure they are out there, but they will also be corner case.
I’m perfectly happy ruling that innate slowed is ignored by the Minion trait, but that spells or other abilities that give slowed or quickened effect a minion just like they do any other character. To me that seems to have the fewest problematic impacts. It allows zombies to actually function as minions. And if it’s too good for zombies... ok well I only screwed up a very small subset of all of the minions, and I didn’t make a sweeping rule that jacks up ALL minions.
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So, minions out of combat. Here's three fairly relevant bits of text from the CRB, one that's been mentioned from the Minion trait and two more on the nature of actions in exploration mode.
Minions are creatures that directly serve another creature. A creature with this trait can use only 2 actions per turn and can’t use reactions. Your minion acts on your turn in combat, once per turn, when you spend an action to issue it commands. For an animal companion, you Command an Animal; for a minion that’s a spell or magic item effect, like a summoned minion, you Sustain a Spell or Sustain an Activation; if not otherwise specified, you issue a verbal command, a single action with the auditory and concentrate traits. If given no commands, minions use no actions except to defend themselves or to escape obvious harm. If left unattended for long enough, typically 1 minute, mindless minions usually don’t act, animals follow their instincts, and sapient minions act how they please.
Though exploration isn’t broken into rounds, exploration activities assume the PCs are spending part of their time using actions, such as Seeking or Interacting. If they have specific actions they want to use, they should ask; you can decide whether the actions apply and whether to switch to encounter mode for greater detail. PCs can use any relevant reactions that come up during exploration mode.
You might find that a player wants to do something equivalent to spending 3 actions every 6 seconds, just like they would in combat. Characters can exert themselves to this extent in combat only because combat lasts such a short time—such exertion isn’t sustainable over the longer time frame of exploration.
Alright, so there's a few things that we can gather from this. For basically all non-summoned creatures, you have to issue a verbal command for them to follow. This gives them two actions on your turn. And once they have received no commands for a minute, they do what they want.
Secondly, encounter mode isn't broken into rounds, therefore there are no turns. However, you do still have actions outside of combat.
Third, the frequency that you can use actions is different than in combat. There's no exact amount given, seeing that exploration mode is supposed to be looser than encounter mode.
So, with these rules on hand, I would absolutely rule that animal companions and familiars can do their own thing without being directly commanded out of combat. If you send your familiar to go scouting, it will continue to do what it was asked until it gets back. If you're walking, it will follow you without being told to. If it's hungry and you don't feed it, it will find food. Animal companions and familiars are loyal creatures, they won't stop doing what they were told to just because you didn't talk to them for sixty seconds. If familiars required you to verbally command them in order to do anything, then they wouldn't be able to scout due to being too far away from you, and scouting is obviously something familiars are intended to do.
While minions are bound to two actions per command in encounters, exploration just doesn't work that way. Hell, if you want to look at it completely RAW and not RAI, then technically minions won't follow your commands at all in exploration mode because you don't have a turn. But that's obviously not intended.
So, in exploration mode, should your activity revolve into commanding your minion to follow, unless you want to leave it behind? That's an action each round, after all.
Yep. 1 action/round is a non-tiring activity in exploration mode. any more any you
Improvising New Activities
If a player wants to do something not covered by other rules, here are some guidelines. If the activity is similar to an action someone could use in an encounter, such as Avoid Notice, it usually consists of a single action repeated roughly 10 times per minute (such as using the Sneak action 10 times) or an alternation of actions that works out similarly (such as Search, which alternates Stride and Seek). An activity using a quicker pace, corresponding to roughly 20 actions per minute, might have limited use or cause fatigue, as would one requiring intense concentration.
You might find that a player wants to do something equivalent to spending 3 actions every 6 seconds, just like they would in combat. Characters can exert themselves to this extent in combat only because combat lasts such a short time—such exertion isn’t sustainable over the longer time frame of exploration."
Salamileg: I read the quotes you made and read the Improvising New Activities sidebar and come to the opposite conclusion. Actions are still tracked in exploration by converting them into activities. When you to so 1 action a round activities translates into an activity you can do without limitation. 2 actions a round translates into an activity of "limited use or cause fatigue" and you just plain can't translate a 3 action per round activity.
So combined with the minion rules this means commanding your minion eats up your normal full function activity. If you want to actually move and command your minion you are forced to make it limited [like 1/2 move for both] or are fatigued.
As to no turns, if you treat it like that then by RAW, the animal companion can never use an activity: "exploration activities assume the PCs are spending part of their time using actions". Animal companions aren't able to fit this assumption as they have no actions to use.
4th printing clarifications:
Pages 301 and 634 (Clarification): Can a minion be quickened or slowed?
Yes. This can be a bit unclear because those conditions apply “at the start of your turn” and a minion can’t typically act until you use an action. Apply these conditions and any other effects that alter a minion’s number of actions when the minion gains its actions, using 2 actions and 0 reactions as the minion’s starting number. Though a minion can’t normally act when it’s not your turn, abilities that specifically grant a minion a reaction provide an exception to this (such as the Ferocious Beasts orc ancestry feat, Advanced Players Guide page 19).
So I think it means that if a minion is affected by Haste, then when their controlling character spends an action giving commands, they would get the normal two actions and an additional action with the restrictions of Haste attached to it.