Iron Heart + Baron: Do they synergize?

You have Iron Heart equipped. Your Zombies do not have Iron Heart equipped. You get the improved Strength bonus, your Minions do not.

Your minions are not you. They do not inherit any of your stats unless explicitly stated otherwise. The only things that affect your minions are:

* Modifiers that explicitly say "minions" (or "allies"; but not "party members")
* Support gems linked to the minion summoning skill.

Kills made by your minions also use your IIQ/IIR, but the minions themselves don't technically inherit those stats from you.

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CommanderJess wrote:

Ehh. Except that The Baron does this:

"Half of your Strength is added to your Minions"

(Side note, apparently minions have no strength stat normally, which could mean either that it's zero, or they actually have no stat period, and Baron adds the very existence of one to them.)

So I guess my question is, given that I seem to be giving what I assume is a copy of my strength stat divided by two, is it also transferring the modifier? Is IH modifying the strength stat itself? Or is it modding it somewhere else down the line?

"Strength" is simply a number. You can have 20 strength, 200 strength, or 2000 strength. Minions get half of that number with the Baron.

"Strength's Damage Bonus" as mentioned on Iron Heart is a separate attribute. By default for a player character this is 2% increased melee physical damage per 10 strength. Certain things can change this bonus - in addition to Iron Heart, also for example the Iron Will support or Iron Grip (passive or gem).

Your minions have their own strength damage bonus (which happens to be the same 2% increased melee physical damage per 10 strength), they do not inherit yours if you change it.

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CommanderJess wrote:

-How is The Baron assigning strength stat? Is it essentially creating an entry for it where there was none on minions, or changing a hidden (even from Path of Building, which I've been using to get the base stats for the zombies slam attack and such) value that I assume was either at 1 or 0 previously?

There is no functional difference between a creature having 0 strength and having "undefined" strength. The game doesn't crash with null reference exceptions all the time, so you can assume that either your minions have 0 strength by default, or the case when their strength is undefined is properly handled by the code. Again, there is no observable difference between the two; and no way to tell which is actually the case without having a developer answer this.

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-Is The Baron copying and applying my strength stat as a whole, then dividing it? Is it taking the number, then dividing it, then applying it? I assume it's not just taking my base strength without modifiers from things like Brawn and Alberon's Warpath, so what determines which modifiers go along for the ride?

The Baron takes your current total Strength, including any and all modifiers affecting you, divides that number in half, rounds down, and adds it to whatever strength the minion has (usually if not always zero).

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-Is Iron Heart putting in an "ignore usual rule" clause for "5 str is 1% melee dmg", and then applying it's own alternative? Is it waiting for the usual str dmg bonus calculation to finish, then adding 50% more? Is it telling the system to x1.5 my strength before any damage calculation? Does Iron Heart's ability count as "an ability" or a modifier?

Iron Heart replaces the default modifier of 0.2% IMPD per point of strength with another modifier that gives you 0.3% IMPD per point. Compare this for example with Iron Grip or Iron Will, which do a similar thing.

I am not sure what you mean by "an ability" and "a modifier" - as far as I know "an ability" is not a mechanical terminology in PoE. The line "Strength's Damage Bonus instead grants 3% increased Melee Physical Damage per 10 Strength" describes one modifier of a unique item.