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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6206396" data-attributes="member: 1165">I see little point. DMs already have lots of characters in a setting.I don't think the "classic" DMPC is ever acceptable, but if your group is small and/or is missing a critical hole, and fast, a "companion", henchman or cohort is appropriate. Generally said characters should fade into the background. They can provide hooks but not direct the adventuring party. It's a good idea to just hand over control of a henchman to the PCs during combat anyway.In 4e, companions are explicitly weaker than PCs, so there's no real risk of them overshadowing the PCs. (I suppose it could happen, if the companion is a striker, and no PCs are strikers, but strikers are really popular PC choices.)When running d20 Modern some years ago, the PCs wanted to recruit a military doctor to travel with them, on a day when only two players could show up. I made him an "Ordinary" (basically using an NPC class) and a level or two lower than the PCs. I also let the player design him. They made him an archer and went to great lengths to keep him alive. Despite that, they accidentally had him trigger a trap once. (They were controlling him, so there was no real possibility of me using my GM knowledge to keep him alive.)</blockquote>