Why don't allies attack when you cast an offensive spell?

[XuaXua]

If I physically attack something, ranged or melee, my allies attack it.
If I 't'ell them to attack something, my allies attack it.
If I shoot something with a blatantly offensive spell (pain, conjuration) my allies sit next to me.

Is there a rationale behind that?

[Patashu]

Probably deliberate. If they attack whatever you attack with a conjuration, then they'll rush ahead of you, get in your way and now you can't target it with conjurations anymore.

[XuaXua]

Probably deliberate. If they attack whatever you attack with a conjuration, then they'll rush ahead of you, get in your way and now you can't target it with conjurations anymore.

Yet, they do it with ranged weapons.

[Siegurt]

Although, knowing they do that, I'm usually able to position myself in order to get several shots, and have my allies whack things at the same time before they get close.

[Patashu]

Probably deliberate. If they attack whatever you attack with a conjuration, then they'll rush ahead of you, get in your way and now you can't target it with conjurations anymore.

Yet, they do it with ranged weapons.

Well, you can use portal projectile with ranged weapons. No such luxury with conjurations.

[Siegurt]

Unless you're using airstrike

[SchwaWarrior]

My beef with the "t" "a" methods of having allies attack a target is that even if all you've got are your Called Imps as a Wizard for example, you have to "shout" and potentially wake up a bunch of guys just to kill one Adder for instance.

What about this: Using any of the "ally command" actions, except for "shout for attention" of course, would only make noise in proportion to how many allies you have visible. So, a Hill Orc of Beogh commanding his entire, massive army of warriors, would rally them all to battle with loud, rousing battle-cries as before, whereas an aspiring Wizard on D:2 could just off-handedly mention to his Imp "hey, go kill that rat for me would'ja" and while it might get the rat's attention and have him come running, the war-packs of Gnolls and Jackals in the two neighboring rooms would stay asleep and you wouldn't be suddenly screwed.

That or it could be based on the ally's HD instead/in addition to. I could definitely see that commanding your summoned Sphinx and Harpy via Monsterous Menagerie would take more of an intense-sounding order than commanding your Imp or Canine Familiar.

Anyway this way it could allow magic-users to feasibly command allies/summons while still slinging magic and it not being too unnecessarily dangerous compared to melee or missile fighters.