What game(s) handles pets and summons the best?

[Undrave]

Savage Worlds is a great example and can easily handle this. I have found some Fate games to handle it well, too (specifically Legends of Anglerre as a Fate3 fantasy system was great at it). I would bet that D&D 4e could do it too, though I don’t remember if they had significant summoning abilities in that edition.

Well 4e also had a Beastmaster, in Martial Power, and the Shaman, but I don't recall a class the specifically summoned Minions (the 1 HP kind) but I don't know all the summoning powers.

 

[Ashley Cartwright]

I've made it known I'm not a big fan of 'pet classes', classes with animal companions or summons. To me, they bog down the game, either make the character and their pet way too weak without the other OR break the action economy and give players too much of an advantage. I played a Shepperd Druid for a while and there was hardly any combat that couldn't be made incredibly easier by dropping 8 (buffed) wolves on it, but it was a pain to control..

But I know a lot of people enjoy them and I totally understand the appeal of the concepts! Wether one fateful companion or a cool summon, It's a cool idea that I don't think D&D has ever done properly.

I also don't have a lot of experience with other game system and I love to consult you lot about games you've experienced!

So here is my question: What games you've played do you think handles animal companions and/or summons the best? And what made it work for you?

Thanks in advance!

Prowlers and Paragons

• Summons are fun and don't break the action economy
• They don't bog down the game
• They make the player neither too weak nor too strong

 

[The Soloist]

Blue Rose AGE by Green Ronin. Animals are talking companions with a full personality.

 

[jdrakeh]

Probably Monsters & Other Childish Things, but it's laser-focused and the subject matter won't be to everybody's taste.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Prowlers and Paragons

• Summons are fun and don't break the action economy
• They don't bog down the game
• They make the player neither too weak nor too strong

I'm going to have to try a summoner for that game myself sometime. I've only seen one in action and it was someone else's PC, and it wasn't passing #2 at all, which made the other categories hard to assess. In fairness, that may have been due to general inexperience with the system rather than a flaw in the system. They seem okay on paper, anyway.