How about 1 handed weapons? I always get the impression the crusader HAS to have a shield, but I don't really want to use if it can be helped.. I'd also like to try for 3 permanent ghost summons to tear through elites with.
Crusader can either go 1h and shield, 2h and shield, or 2h. Not using a shield really limits you though since you lose out on a lot of stats (most importantly cooldown reduction which is the #1 stat for crusader) and more importantly lose out on special effects (for example there is a shield that straight up increases your damage by 10% when using a 2h weapon).
Honestly if you don't want to use a shield as a melee class AND you want summoned dudes following you around you should just roll a barbarian.
If I want to play this way in D3, is my only option a Wizard? Can any of the other classes be played magic-only?
The witch doctor is a magic only class as well. Also it kind of depends on what your definition of "magic" is, because crusader has quite a few spells that I would consider magical, such as summoning a giant pillar of light out of the sky that chases enemies around or a similar attack that summons a column of light/fire/lightning out that is spammable.
For what it's worth though, 2 handed weapons (such as staves) are pretty much garbage for everyone except crusaders until 2.1 comes around and even then it's going to be a hard sell for wizard/witch doctor because their exclusive weapons (wands/sources and ceremonial knives/Mojos) all have really good legendary effects. Dunno if that matters much to you, but you specifically said "staves."