Preface
The moment I found out terracotta was added to the game this idea
immediately came to mind. I got the idea from the terracotta soldiers
created for the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Let me ask you
this, have you ever been on single player and built a huge castle, only
to become sad when you realize your it's only inhabitant? Do spiders
plague your walls and zombies storm your gates?



Terracotta Minions
With Terracotta Minions you could build your own private army to defend
your property. They can stand guard, follow you or patrol paths you
create. Snowmen are weak and Golems roam too far. Minions do exactly
what you tell them to do without question. Well, how do you make them?
Out of living clay of course!



Living Clay Recipe (Shapeless)
1 Bowl (Doesn't Use)
1 Clay
1 Bone Meal
1 Soul Sand
1 Dye of Your Choice (Optional)



Steps to Make a Minion
1. Place down an Armor Stand
2. Right click each body part with living clay, 3 living clay per part (12)
3. Right click the finished statue with a totem of undying (-1 Duration)



Stats & Mechanics
Instead of 20 Heart points like players they have 20 Durability Points,
seeing as they're not living. Hits from mobs take 1 durability point
and hits from players (weapons) take 2 durability points. Explosions
including Creepers take away 3 durability points. Falling damage takes 1
durability point for each block after the third so a 23 block fall will
shatter it. The minion is impervious to fire but can be killed with
lava. Minions can't be affected by negative potion effects like harm or poison.




AI
When you first activate the minion, he breaks off of the platform and it
dissapears. When he first spawns he remains in the same spot and
attacks mobs in a 20x20 radius. This radius also applies if the minion is
moving on his path-finding or following. This radius does not apply if
the enemy is in lava or if it requires him to jump more than 3 blocks.
When the minion is done kicking butt, he can returns to where you left him,
to you or his path. Minions are also very smart when it comes to combat. For
Zombies and Spiders they may fight up close but they will use bows for creepers
and skeletons if they have one.




Path-finding
Ed__ (from reddit) deserves the credit for this idea. I thought it was so great i
decided to include it. The minion has 2 settings: guard and follow. When
your minion is colored, you can have it follow a path of the same
color. Your minion can have up to 4 different colors he can walk on
because he has 4 parts of his body he can have dyed. Note that it is
best to put the path into place and put the armor stand on top of the
end/beginning of that path before you create him. If his path is blocked
by stairs but the path continues after the stairs he will walk up the
stairs, creating an invisible path. He will do the same for jumps if
they are not over 1 block tall or drops if they are not deeper than 3
blocks. The paths can be made from any dyed block like wool, glass, clay
and even carpet. To have that minion follow the path, make him follow
you and once he touches an avaliable path he will use it.



Equipment
The minion can wear any sword, a bow and shield but not armor. The
minion is not affected by splash potions but it can be enchanted with
unbreaking by giving the awakened minion an unbreaking book.



Death
When It dies it leaves a block of terracotta in that spot as well as any
weapons you gave it. If you enchanted it, it will leave a plain book.
For every enemy it killed it drops 1 level worth of xp.



Healing
The minion can be healed in 2 ways. The first is to right click it with a
clump of clay to replenish 1 durability point each. The second way is
to have them stand on a block of clay and they will automatically
replenish one clay per second. When they are low they will look for a
block of clay to stand on if one is close.

Neutrality
While minions are naturally opposed to hostile mobs, other players can be protected from the minion's wrath. By default minions are hostile to all players that didn't create them. To add players to their don't kill list, give a minion a player's name written on a piece of paper. To remove that player from the list, give the same minion another sheet of paper with that player's name on it. As you have probably guessed, this is on a minion by minion basis. It doesn't spread to the other minions you may have. Why is this? This is so that you can have certain areas that are restricted to everyone, even allies. How about treasure rooms or secret areas? You wouldn't want them snooping around your base in places they shouldn't. You will be able to tell when minions are tranquil, neutral or hostile by the color of their eyes. When there is no threat they are tranquil and their eyes glow white. When they see a neutral player their eyes glow green. When they see an enemy player their eyes glow red.


The Minion's Appearance
The minion is made out of terracotta and has sculpted on armor. Whatever
colors you added for each piece will be present for the same pieces you
colored. It has no eyes when assembled, but once awakened it has
glowing white eyes like Herobrine, except they actually give off a
little light in front of them. When the minion is damaged and looses
durability its appearance changes. When it is down 5 durability it has
various cracks on its body. when it is down 10 durability it's features
and details are worn. When it is down 15 Durability, you start to see
pieces of it's wooden skeleton that the clay was molded onto. All the
detail is gone except for the eyes.



Sounds
When assembling the statue, each part makes a brief clay splatting noise noise.
When awakening an assembled statue, the sound of lightning is heard in the distance.
When the minion moves for the first time, it makes the sound of wood snapping (once).
This is because it has to break off the wood part of the armor stand in order to move.
When they move they make the sound of sliding clay pots on a table.



Consequences
When you activate a minion for the first time, in 3 sec (after the
thunder sound in the distance) you will be struck by lightning and
killed instantly if you are still have the totem in your inventory. If
you die the death message will say "(your name) tried to play god and
lost" When the storm that is created passes you are safe to create
more. If you want to create more minions you will discover that the once
tranquil totem has now become tainted. When you pick it up you will
have the wither effect (level 3) until you drop it, store it or use it
up. Drinking milk while holding it won't help much because the withering
will come back a sec later if your still holding it. The only remedy to
this is to keep a golden apple of any kind in your inventory. Why such a
harsh punishment you may ask? Its the consequence for messing with the
natural order of things. You just brought the dead back to life, ofcourse Notch is pissed.



Changes
The Totem of Undying becomes a Tainted Totem of Undying when used on a statue.
(The Tainted Totem has red eyes, a black mouth and its arms are up)
The Tainted Totem of Undying has 7 durability= 7 more minions


Minions now have a very small chance to spawn in and around witch's huts. These
minions are loyal only to witches and can't be tamed. When killed they
have a chance to drop 2-6 living clay, a sword and a few levels. These
minions differ in appearance to the ones players create. The spawned
minions have that iconic villager nose.

Pros and Cons

Pros
-Minions don't despawn
-Minions don't have many weaknesses
-Minions only do what you tell them to
-Minions attack differently depending on the threat.

Cons
-Minions require valuable items to create
-Anyone can create a minion.
-The process of creating minions can harm the player
-The key ingredient isn't renewable