There's nothing more heartwarming in a Soulsborne game than good old-fashioned jolly cooperation. Thankfully, Elden Ring continues this tradition by allowing NPC summons which is handy for offline players. These are the NPCs that players meet in their journey. While it's good to know that some of them have the player's back, they're not all helpful.
Some of these NPC summons immediately turn themselves into cleaning rags upon entering the arena so that the boss can wipe the floor with them. So not only do they die, but they also worsened the situation since having a player or NPC summon will scale up the boss' HP. Players might then want to reconsider summoning these guys before a boss fight.
8 Sorcerer Rogier vs. Margit
Sorcerer Rogier is true bro who never insults the players nor has any ulterior motive. However, it's best to leave him on the bench during boss fights because the damage he does to Margit is rather low. It doesn't help that he also doesn't have much in the way of defense or HP so Margit will easily kill him if he draws his attention.
At best, Rogier is a great assistance to the players when trying to stagger or poise break Margit. But even with successful critical attacks, the low damage still doesn't make up for it. Rogier simply has too high a chance of dying around half or a third of Margit's HP. In his defense, it's probably because Rogier's suffering from Deathblight.
7 Melina vs. Morgott
Again with Margit but this time he's Morgott, Melina is surprisingly an available NPC summon just standing by the arena door. Turns out she can fight and actually has a sword that supposedly deals holy projectile damage. Too bad that's not enough to fell Morgott, the Last of Kings.
In fact, Melina is fragile during this fight and easily gets whopped by Morgott. Her holy damage doesn't do much against Morgot and once he brings out his hammer, Melina gets struck too easily in the wide swings even if the boss is aiming for the players. She should have left the combat matters to the player but probably got too excited being near the Erdtree.
6 Polyanna vs. Commander O'Neil
Polyanna is one of Millicent's sisters and players can summon her just outside the Commander O'Neil boss arena, the one in the rot-filled swamp in Caelid. Commander O'Neil is also a moderately tough boss fight because he himself has spirit summons that fire projectiles at the players and can stagger.
Sadly, Polyanna isn't as good as her mother (supposedly Malenia) as her damage is low and Commander O'Neil can easily stagger her with his sweeping attacks and follow them up for even more damage. Still, Polyanna can be a good distraction that allows players to kill O'Neil's minions while they all attack her. Just don't expect her to last long in that fight.
5 Millicent vs. Her Sisters
Millicent is more competent compared to her sisters but against several of them all at once, she's a sitting duck. She does have the Waterfowl Dance move like her mother, Malenia but she also has pathetic poise like her. So, four enemies attacking her simultaneously doesn't have a good ending.
The thing is, she's the one who actually summons the players to aid her against her sisters so half the blame goes to the players. But even if the players succeed in keeping Millicent alive in the lopsided fight, she'll still eventually die from her injuries. Apart from that, Millicent can also be summoned in boss fights like Black Blade Kindred where she has a questionable performance that sometimes results in premature deaths.
4 Blackguard Big Boggart vs. Magma Wyrm Makar
Blackguard Big Boggart a.k.a. Shrimp Bro talks the talk, but can he walk the walk? No, he can't. He's all smack talk. Because when players summon him in the Magma Wyrm Makar boss fight in the Ruin-Strewn Precipice, Boggart gives off an embarrassing performance. He wields iron boxing gloves, automatically making him a liability in this boss fight.
Magma Wyrms have several attacks that leave out a puddle of magma and they also charge a lot. Boggart, wielding a melee weapon with the worst range puts him too much in harm's way. He'll either spend a big chunk of the fight recovering from the Magma Wyrm's area attacks or punching with futility. He should've stuck to cooking shrimp and crabs.
3 D, Beholder of Death vs. Twin Valiant Gargoyles
That sad sap waiting outside of the Twin Valiant Gargoyles boss arena in Nokron? Turns out he's D's brother. And players can give D's armor to him, making him available as an NPC summon in the nearby boss fight. But alas, D, Beholder of Death seems more content in beholding his death than that of his enemies.
The twin Valiant Gargoyles are too much for him. While he does dodge the initial poison mist volley, he'll often linger in the lingering poison pocket. And once the other Valiant Gargoyle comes out to join the fight, D easily gets stunlocked and thrashed around while being poisoned.
2 Everyone Else vs. Starscourge Radahn
This one's a no-brainer. General Radahn— what's left of him, anyway, is such a force to be reckoned with, that it takes several revives for Tarnished NPC heroes to bring him down. They can all gang up on Radahn and attack simultaneously but he'll still kill everyone in two to three hits. These NPC summons also barely dodge so they die almost immediately and have to be re-summoned.
There are some competent ones such as Blaidd and his medium-range Royal Greatsword attacks and Okina with his Bleed, but even those aren't enough. Poor sods like Alexander, Warrior Jar get hit too easily because of his large hitbox. At best, players can hope that the repeated mini-attacks cause enough poise damage to stagger Radahn.
1 Patches vs. Starscourge Radahn
A special mention for Patches is needed because he's one of the most notable NPC summons in the Starscourge Radahn boss fight. Players can see Patches charging up to Radahn hesitantly but as soon as he gets hit once, Patches will run away from the combat area and disappear.
There are even instances where he just cowers away even without getting hit—he just hurriedly goes back to his world while approaching. In any case, this awfully noble display of courage from Patches shouldn't go unnoticed. Maybe put this into consideration the next time he begs for his fight after losing the fight against the players.
Elden Ring is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.