Tower upgrades, armor stacking, and AoEs. End of minion swarm.

not really

they still have control on minions so they can move them back and dont use them if they like so

Except that in direct combat that's nearly impossible. If you're fighting a TB(just an example) the minions are spawning and dieing a lot quicker then you can control.

that could work... another idea would be rewards for minion death to effect those minions that leave their general.  so say a bunch of strageling monks lag behind and get eaten... gold for that.  of maybe an erebus build sends a mob of minions to squish a tower on the other end of the map and u tp in to kill them... gold for that.

this way minions builds would focus on general support rather than being their own little army.  not sure on actual area of effect, could even make the reward scale depending on distance or something?

"If" anything needs to happen here (and I don't think we've actually established that that's the case), then the above solution would be just fine.  10 gimped, level 1, bonus-free nightstalkers and spirits aren't going to be taking anything down in a hurry and without the bonus HP from skills and whatnot, they're going to get fried almost immediately by any towers they run across.

If there's a balance issue with the stats of lone minion mobs, then I'd say it makes a lot more sense to simply tweak those stats instead of adding a monetary penalty for generals doing what they're supposed to be doing. 

The Idol powers just need more cool down to resummon, that way it would reward players to kill the minions, as if you kill them then you would know they can not be resummoned less than 30 secs later.

It would also make generals have to micro more, and we all know micro > spam in the skill stakes.

Maybe they should add a toggle for EB that drains HP/Mana.  When active, he has the chance to create minions, at the cost of his own life (I like HP better, goes with the whole vamp thing...).  When not active, he doesnt lose anything, but he doesnt create any minions either.  Lets say every minion costs 50hp at low levels, and scales up.  EB can stack health with the best of them as it is, and its not like ooze is considered crap because it does the same thing (Constantly, rather then in short bursts).

As for Oak, have his "Flag" cost mana, either in a steady drain, a 1 time sum, or per ghost cost, like EB (Above).

Sedna gives up heal for Yeti (In the cost of mana).  Same with Queen, she gives up skills for minions.  All other DGs have to decide, do I want to spit on you, or save the mana for grasp.  If minions are going to be the "skills" of the Generals, then it should cost the same as the skills of the assassins.  Sedna and Queen already follow this model, why do Oak and EB not?

HP/mana drain toggle wouldn't work simply because of the control setup in this game, regardless of its balance implications.

 This whole discusion is a bit above my head. That is to say, I find it hard to understand why having minions granting xp would be a disadvantage for generals.

Minions are optional, right? You can buy them, or not. They do grant asignificant advantage since they increase the tanking ability of the generals. Now, as with any game, I think the choice should be 'should I get minions despite the fact that they grant xp when they die?' Or better: does the advantage of having minions outweigh the disadvantages, therefore making minions worthwhile?

Right now every general will want minions where I think it would be more appropriate to have a good alternative of not having minions. Maybe this advantage should not be expressed as a function of being able to stand up to an assasin build to destroy you, but maybe in another option for something to do with the idol-slots. Maybe having voodoo-figurines that grant an additional aura would be nice.

Whatever may be of that, I think that making minions so that they are a no-brainer choice is bad. Therefore I think they should grant at least a bit of xp when killed. I think the difficulties of controlling the minions is not a factor, since moving your minions out of battle can be as simple as pressing n (selecting the DG + minions ) and right-clicking. This became a second nature to me in half a game as Erebus. It is not hard to control minions in a fight. Controlling an individual minion in the midst of battle is another thing, but then you get an advantage in return. The general's minion dies, yet the general can direct all minions to hit the DG killing the minion without taking any damage himself. This is a very big advantage, and I would say it is worth at least a little bit of xp for the trouble to the assasin.

I think I can summerize the general feelings of this thread.

Killing a Minion (not an idol) should grant a player a minimal reward of either gold, experience or both.

Idols should grant a little xp imo as well. In the end everything that is at least a bit of an accomplishment grants xp. The DG using idols can always micro his minions towards his own towers. Then the DG that does the chasing will see if keeping the chase on is worth the trouble or that he needs to do something else.

All in all I think this makes the game more interesting. Maybe the generals should get another option in order to compensate for the granting xp. In the end though I think minions not granting xp is bad because it does not reward me directing my resources towards killing something.

my counter argument for this would be that its only fair for minions to NOT give exp when assassins can have stats equal to a general plus his/her minions.  from my rough calculations i think erebus can get up 5000hp (250 dps) with minions at 12000hp (300dps).  so when rook or regulus can have 17000hp with 550dps without artifacts then i'll agree that no exp is needed.

on another note.  someone mentioned other RPG's and RTS's and how they handle exp and minions.  if you look at DotA (which is a MOBA like Demigod) then u see that pet characters do reward experiance and gold which makes those builds have both pro and cons like Shurdus mentions.

Actually the real difference between DotA and DG in regards to pets is the last hit mechanics.  While you have to deliver the last hit to a pet in DotA in order to receive gold, you would only need to tag the pets with 25% damage (a single AoE spell) in Demigod and receive all the gold for their kill.  Aditionally, the pets in DotA come in much lower quantities and are a lot more powerful, so you don't have to micro 15+ units, but rather concentrate on few and thus can avoid feeding the enemy xp/gold.

The minions in DG were simply designed to be expendable, so it's a bad idea to make killing them rewarding.  But this leads to their abuse, so a vicous circle.