In the Critical Success section of Create Undead is says that you can have a maximum of 4 minions under your control. Is this solely applied to minions from Create Undead, or is this all minions from any source?
Also: why 4? It seems like 3 would make more sense, since it takes an action to command a minion and you only have 3 actions.
Since the minion trait doesn't say anything about a limit, I'm inclined to say you can usually have as many minions as you want and the 4 is the limit for minions created by the ritual.
If you have more than 3 minions, you simply can't control them all in the same turn.
Yeah, 4 is to create a practical limit I guess but you can only control 3 at a time.
I guess if you have 4 then 1 of them is always waiting around. Depending on the combat it may be useful to have an extra guy waiting in the back.
Follow-up: the minions would have a static level, correct? They wouldn’t go up in level when the creator would?
Follow-up: the minions would have a static level, correct? They wouldn’t go up in level when the creator would?That's correct, yup.
I would also interpret the line in the ritual meaning you could only have four minions period, but I'll also freely admit that I'm biased. My first ever game I tried to run, PF1E, ended up being a mionfest and keeping track of all of them became an abject nightmare. It left scars.
Even if it didn't, they'd end up in a pretty difficult situation trying to herd them. If the caster creates more than 3 undead, they have to spend all their actions making their undead move, not moving themselves, and leaving their excess undead to do nothing.
I guess each time a player tried to move from one location to another they could load them all up in a cart. But when they need them now they have to get them out of the cart, and can only do 3.
Doesn't seem very effective to me.