Make Necromancer minions never decay while autoexploring.

[Aquillion]

...at least if you have a reasonable number of them (there could be a ceiling above which they're not protected, to prevent abuse.)

Anyway, this is a bit of a hack, yes.

But: Auto-exploring is mostly a convenience feature. It'll never be optimal anyway, but having to do without it is extremely frustrating while playing a Necromancer, and the disadvantage of losing your minions constantly is just irritating. Plus, provided you have a reasonable number of minions, it would normally not be hard to keep them from decaying when walking normally.

So I suggest making it so, unless you have above a certain threshold of minions, necromancer minions don't decay while auto-exploring even when outside your aura. (A good threshold would be the circumference of your aura - enough that you couldn't cram them into a hallway without pushing some out of your aura; minions above this threshold decay when auto-exploring if outside your aura, weakest ones first.)

This would reduce some of the frustrating micromanagement that the class currently encourages, and while it's a bit hacky I don't feel it would be particularly exploitable. It's also much easier than any alternative suggestion (which would require either reworking how the class works, or overhauling minion AI.)

[Skavies]

Once you get your aura skill to 5/5 you will generally keep 5 minions around even auto exploring. I found that the number of minions you keep alive is 1 less than the radius of your aura. More importantly, stop auto-exploring while you have mages until you get the skill that stops them from blowing you away shooting enemies through you.

Either I am one of the worst players in existence (very probable) or having all your pets die auto exploring could actually be beneficial (I have died more than a few times to mages shooting enemies with me in the way in corridor dungeons auto exploring). It's not like you have a problem with souls outside very nasty boss fights, and that's what teleport is for anyway. Get out while you have at least 3 souls left to tank whatever mess you blink into.

[The Tapir]

Either I am one of the worst players in existence (very probable) or having all your pets die auto exploring could actually be beneficial (I have died more than a few times to mages shooting enemies with me in the way in corridor dungeons auto exploring). It's not like you have a problem with souls outside very nasty boss fights, and that's what teleport is for anyway. Get out while you have at least 3 souls left to tank whatever mess you blink into.

I've found it most beneficial to have all your minions die in between fights, as it allows you to summon your next wave of minions directly on top of your enemies instead of having to let them shuffle past you and spend turns not doing anything productive. With all the new methods of regaining souls resources should not be a major problem.