Allies: Minion vs. Unwilling

[mlangsdorf]

An unwilling minion ally will never leave if you treat it poorly, but will subvert your orders if given the opportunity. If you order it to defend you in combat, it might defend you while deliberately making the situation worse for you and your allies. If ordered to defend you and your allies in combat, it might make every reasonable effort to defend your least vulnerable ally, and switch which ally it defends in order to maximize the enemy's opportunity to backstab people.

You'd have to be very specific with your orders for an unwilling minion, but there's no reason for the two modifiers to be exclusive. I can easily see the classic genie as an unwilling minion - you could order it on a suicide mission, but the results are likely to be unhappy unless your order is very specific.

Unwilling minions with Slave Mentality are a bit weirder, but I think you end up with an ally that maliciously works to the rule and uses any ambiguities in your orders against you. It's actually more survivable than an unwilling minion without Slave mentality.