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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 5885135" data-attributes="member: 1465">I have to say that followers/familiars/etc are not high on my priority list, but here are my spare thoughts about them:- if they are class features or selectable feats/power, then they must have some clear benefit over their mundane counterparts which are hired henchmen or mercenaries, and bought & trained animals; e.g. in 3ed I always stressed the idea that familiars, animal companions and cohorts from Leadership feat were significantly more (possibly perfectly) loyal - therefore very reliable - than hired NPC and trained animals- IMXP it is much much better not to let the player control the actions of the cohort/familiar directly, and I wish this was suggested as default in the PHB; a DM should be still free to let the player "play" the cohort but it's best to have some guidelines on the possible consequences- if the companion is a class feature that cannot be opted-out and traded for something else, then it might be appropriate that it also come with a risk/liability (e.g. 3ed familiar's XP cost on death) so that opting-out by ignoring the class features carries the indirect benefit of not having to worry about such liability; HOWEVER a lot of players may be pissed off by having the liability when they do want to have that familiar... so either always make the class feature swappable with something else or alternatively design an option (e.g. a feat) that can be taken to remove the liability</blockquote>

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