oddly, my homunculus I created in ToEF was not harmed by the fire there.

Summons are not harmed by the ToEF fire except (possibly) on the top level.

Absolutely agree with everything Grey has proposed. Being stuck with homunculi for such a long time and having Mana drained for them just doesn't feel right.

I agree with the spirit of the suggestion, however, for the implementation, I would suggest a cost of 1 Ma for the homunculus and 2 Ma for the clay statue. The first point of Ma is recovered reasonably quickly, especially at low levels.

I have to say I agree to this issue as well. On trying the newest release out, I was eager to get to grips with the new Mist Elf Necromantic powers, but considering that the power costs clay and uses it up with a reasonable failure rate anyway, having to also spend points of Mana in order to create reasonably weak creatures seems entirely unbalanced towards the weak side.

In comparison, Necromancy allows for the raising of a ghul with 1 point of Mana, a faster creature than the homonculous that also causes paralysis with melee attack and regenerates itself.

I wouild say that the costs for White Necromancy should be at maximum equal to those of normal Necromancy, starting from 1Ma with the Clay Statue to match the Ghul and with the first four levels (Clay Clay Stone Stone) costing 1, 2, 4, 8 respectively. Perhaps keeping homonculi as a skeleton/zombie equivalent (always costs 1Ma to raise, available to non-Necromancer classes, and possibly also to non-Mist Elves?) and adding a couple of more powerful levels to finish out the necromantic power.

I think all of that should be exclusive to non-chaotic necromancers.
For those that just dabble in necromancy, existing cost is just fine; furthermore, even limiting the selection a bit might be a good idea - AFAIK, normal non-necromancers can only raise random weakest undead, so making the Golems extremely expensive or even impossible to create for them should be pretty fair.
And homunculi are quite strong, easily comparable to ghuls with their Sleep attack. And I would probably reverse cost for Stone/Clay golems, as special ability to Slow is better than simple raw stats and no special ability.