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<blockquote data-quote="Baldurs_Underdark" data-source="post: 8815274" data-attributes="member: 6880355">Pets RAW are too squishy and die too soon. Low AC and then also low HP means they are a liability in combat from the moment you roll initiative. There are then two solutions, and both work well:1. The wizard familiar (RAW): Lives in a pocket dimension, cannot fight, and can be recreated/summoned again using components that are relatively easy to find. No problem in combat, and no crying players who just lost their beloved pet. 2. The pet that levels up. Ranger pets level up a little bit, so that's a step in the right direction. But they are still too puny and squishy. At our table, pets are roleplayed by the DM (so they are pretty useless in solving puzzles and a liability in social encounters), but controlled by the players (emphasis on plural) in combat. So the character sheet of the pet rotates. Now, since it rotates, nobody cares if that pet is as strong as the other PCs because everybody gets to play with it. So, it gets armor, increased HP and even some other tricks. And now it can survive a fireball. Problem solved. Option 2 only works if the players want to work together with the pet. If one player claims the pet (&quot;but it's part of my class&quot;) then we need to balance it and you are stuck with a squishy pet that will die in an AoE attack soon.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Baldurs_Underdark, post: 8815274, member: 6880355"] Pets RAW are too squishy and die too soon. Low AC and then also low HP means they are a liability in combat from the moment you roll initiative. There are then two solutions, and both work well: 1. The wizard familiar (RAW): Lives in a pocket dimension, cannot fight, and can be recreated/summoned again using components that are relatively easy to find. No problem in combat, and no crying players who just lost their beloved pet. 2. The pet that levels up. Ranger pets level up a little bit, so that's a step in the right direction. But they are still too puny and squishy. At our table, pets are roleplayed by the DM (so they are pretty useless in solving puzzles and a liability in social encounters), but controlled by the player[B]s[/B] (emphasis on plural) in combat. So the character sheet of the pet rotates. Now, since it rotates, nobody cares if that pet is as strong as the other PCs because everybody gets to play with it. So, it gets armor, increased HP and even some other tricks. And now it can survive a fireball. Problem solved. Option 2 only works if the players want to work together with the pet. If one player claims the pet ("[I]but it's part of my class[/I]") then we need to balance it and you are stuck with a squishy pet that will die in an AoE attack soon. [/QUOTE]

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