Something that came to me while reading over the various threads about summoning, conjuring, and crafting various minions. What I noticed is that most attempts at balancing the creation of a semi-permanent or long lasting minion are tied primarily to  trying to equate the value of said minion in purely mechanical terms. However no matter how many times it gets done it is left feeling inadequate. The solution I would suggest is for the creation of long term to semi-permanent (until killed or dispelled) minions is to instead of trying to quantify its value and have them mechanically go through the motions, treat it as an attempt to change an aspect of the caster while going through the narrative of casting a spell.

Basically going on a quest to make a "friend" rather than a check list with a few dice rolls. (still have them go through the casting bit, but make it a sort of finally or a contest than a process)