In Pathfinder 1e, if you have either the Leadership feat (or the Detective Agency feat if you want to do it with three minions instead of just one to be super cheesy about it), you can get a Living Veil race Cohort with a Spherecaster class specializing in the Telekinesis & Veilweaving Spheres with at least one level in the Incarnate Veil prestige class. Have it take the 1/3 Composite Living Veil feat as the Favored Class bonus, and take the Folded Veil (and Bound Living Veil) feat(s).
Presto, your cohort can now be bodiless pseudo-magical equipment in the form of an Akashic Veil that grants you the benefit of all its currently shaped veils, gets its own set of actions (using the shared veils, or using Telekinesis actions), and can swap its living veil (and other normal veils depending on Veilweaving Sphere talents) between 2-3 presets as a full round action. If you had it take the Rajah (Lordly Champion) class, it can also grant you extra actions like attacks as free actions, plus give you several other general benefits and take Combat talents as well as Magical ones.
Want the versatility that having a minion brings, but don't want to have to play two characters all the time? Have the minion be super lazy and pretend to be a piece of magic equipment. The action economy and versatility of 2 characters, with one being an unbodied concept layabout, along for the ride. Problem solved!