 A Druid charms animal and it stays his pet, levels up, but can only be summoned outdoors and in certain climates... A Ranger summons a hound to hunt a mob or to help him forage but cannot maintain its presence while fighting. Between fights, a wizard summons an owl familiar to help him mem faster, but cannot maintain it during combat (he could not cast spells due to how much focus is necessary to keep the owl in this plane with him) A Summoner sends in a fire elemental to taunt a mob, equipping it with some items (likely not very valuable ones), but it dies before it can bring the mob to where the group is waiting... A Direlord summons a skeleton by animating a dead mob which then assists him in combat... until his focus fades and the skeleton turns on him. A Crusader leads his noble war horse into the depths even though he cannot mount it in a dungeon, and it fights by his side, weaker than a player, but very talented at taunting/rescuing. A Shaman summons a spirit being during a portion of combat. That being applies AoE buffs to his allies but it cannot engage the enemy directly due to its ethereal nature. Pets require resources. They can require focus. They can be useful during combat but not actually able to engage. They can help during non-combat exploration, travel, and resource gathering. They are not something every class would necessarily have access to, but in context, many (most?) of our classes would have some sort of 'pet' in a high fantasy world. They are not mercenaries or proxies for other group members. They would not be always in a summoned state making it so that if you saw 0 players in a group, you'd *always* see 00 entities. I continue to appreciate the comments, even the skepticsm, and the assumptions that we would do this poorly, or exactly like some other game you didn't like. I don't want you to hold back :) What I would also appreciate, however, is taking a little time, thinking this through, and imagining scenarios where this could be pretty cool. Add resource management to your thoughts, various restrictions that make sense in the context of a world where the environment truly matters, how a pet could benefit a class without just being another combattant in the group, etc. You guys can do it -- come up with positive ideas and examples -- solutions to problems you've seen in the past. Yeah, it's harder than just citing extreme examples of absurdity, or pointing to another game and an aspect of it you didn't like, or applying only the logic 'if not in EQ, do not want!'.... but you can do it :) You did sign up to contribute ideas, help build upon ideas, to seek solutions and make Pantheon an amazing game, right? It wasn't just to throw stones at design docs I open up and share with you, right? Look at the title to this thread -- do you want to help us *design* or just be an alarmist? This post was edited by Aradune at June 0, 0000 0:00 PM PDT 