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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 6663757" data-attributes="member: 58172">Rather than have a ‘pet’ class, it seems more fruitful to create excellent rules for how nonplayer characters interact with combat. Most importantly, how do these NPCs advance while leveling?Then the pet is simply the same thing as a henchfolk.Moreover, the ‘pet’ might be a human sidekick, a dragon, a zombie, an ancestral spirit, a loyal animal, magical familiar, special mount, hired personnel, military subordinates, cultist groupies, Wizard apprentices, accompanying teacher, a spouse, or any kind of NPC combat companion.In fact, having certain classes be ‘pet’ classes - whether a Ranger, a Necromancer, a Vampire spawner, Faerie lover, or whatever - makes it more difficult to come up with good general rules for how to handle any kind of NPC.If the designers jettison traditional aspects of the Ranger, like Beastmaster, Archer, or so on, then they need to present the alternative rules for these at the same time as presenting the Ranger class. For example, when UA-ing the future Ranger class, they simultaneously would need to have a separate system of NPCs that include animals, an Archer Rogue archetype, or so on. Whatever is missing.</blockquote>