Epic Companion Feat

[Certon]

This is a feat available to Druids and Artificers with at least 12 levels of either. It just makes your pet level equal to your character level and gives it +8 to all stats and +20PRR and MRR

This would be primarily used by people who splash other classes with their main class.

[Josielynn]

This is a feat available to Druids and Artificers with at least 12 levels of either. It just makes your pet level equal to your character level and gives it +8 to all stats and +20PRR and MRR

This would be primarily used by people who splash other classes with their main class.

I like this idea! I always found it annoying that the pet wasn't the same level as me, mostly for gearing purposes, because I'd forget to grab stuff from the bank when he finally got the right level. The feat would be an extra reminder and a welcome option.

PS: I've noticed you've been posting lots of ideas for people and devs to think about. Keep it up!

[Certon]

I like this idea! I always found it annoying that the pet wasn't the same level as me, mostly for gearing purposes, because I'd forget to grab stuff from the bank when he finally got the right level. The feat would be an extra reminder and a welcome option.

PS: I've noticed you've been posting lots of ideas for people and devs to think about. Keep it up!

I'd stop suggesting things if they'd just offer me a job already. lol.

[Seph1roth5]

The problem with pets is the AI, even if you doubled all their stats they'd still blow lol. PM Skeleton is at least beefy and can take some hits. Druid/arti puppies are completely useless other than pulling levers/standing somewhere.

They attack suuuuper slow and are always getting hung up on positioning, which slows them down even more. Even if they got updated enhancement trees (which would be awesome) and could wear full gear (also awesome), the AI is what is holding them back the most.

[Certon]

The problem with pets is the AI, even if you doubled all their stats they'd still blow lol. PM Skeleton is at least beefy and can take some hits. Druid/arti puppies are completely useless other than pulling levers/standing somewhere.

They attack suuuuper slow and are always getting hung up on positioning, which slows them down even more. Even if they got updated enhancement trees (which would be awesome) and could wear full gear (also awesome), the AI is what is holding them back the most.

You are 100% correct. All pets need a rework. Personally, I don't think they shouldn't have HP at all. They die when you die. Yes, that might mean there are some exploits that need to be addressed, but its not an insurmountable problem. Personally, I favor the idea that pets don't have HP and all aggro they generate is applied to you, so you can't hide around a corner and let your dog kill everything. Sure, if you could get somewhere monsters couldn't reach you could kill them with your dog, but that's true now of spellcasting and ranged players standing far up and killing things safely.

But artificer dogs need the most work. They just freeze up after awhile and have to be resummoned. It's annoying. And the Melee Power needs to be much higher at all levels.

[Bjond]

This is a feat available to Druids and Artificers

Any pet-centric changes should apply to all pets (PM skeleton, too). I'd remove all the restrictions and outright make all pets character-level. This would simplify code changes and also make them applicable to any future pet class in game.

Besides, even with IAS, Harper, Enhancements, ED bonuses, and maybe Druid PLs, your pet still won't matter. Might as well give it a chance at a bit of glory before it gives up it's life pulling that lever for you.

Adding a FEAT for pets really is newbie-bait that won't do anything to make a pet truly useful while at the same time enticing new players to not take a feat that actually might help their build.

BTW, I *just* tried to make pets pay with AS+IAS+Harper+PM on HCL (L1->L30) and the pet was fairly worthless. I had to keep L/DA up 100% for the pet even when I didn't need it at all. Pet still died fairly quickly and never contributed much either as dps or soak. Hirelings faired far better, usually living through an entire dungeon while soaking damage, but pretty much only when not using a lower-level hire like L27 Erytheia.

I wasn't really expecting much and included pet bonuses mostly because PM+EK has a lot of extra feats with nothing much that improves it. An HCL character is the epitome of disposable, too. So, figured might as well give pets a serious try when I had the chance -- something I'd likely never bother wasting time on for live.

[Certon]

Any pet-centric changes should apply to all pets (PM skeleton, too). I'd remove all the restrictions and outright make all pets character-level. This would simplify code changes and also make them applicable to any future pet class in game.

Besides, even with IAS, Harper, Enhancements, ED bonuses, and maybe Druid PLs, your pet still won't matter. Might as well give it a chance at a bit of glory before it gives up it's life pulling that lever for you.

Adding a FEAT for pets really is newbie-bait that won't do anything to make a pet truly useful while at the same time enticing new players to not take a feat that actually might help their build.

BTW, I *just* tried to make pets pay with AS+IAS+Harper+PM on HCL (L1->L30) and the pet was fairly worthless. I had to keep L/DA up 100% for the pet even when I didn't need it at all. Pet still died fairly quickly and never contributed much either as dps or soak. Hirelings faired far better, usually living through an entire dungeon while soaking damage, but pretty much only when not using a lower-level hire like L27 Erytheia.

I wasn't really expecting much and included pet bonuses mostly because PM+EK has a lot of extra feats with nothing much that improves it. An HCL character is the epitome of disposable, too. So, figured might as well give pets a serious try when I had the chance -- something I'd likely never bother wasting time on for live.

With 3x druid PLs, Augment Summoning, Improved Augment Summoning, Harper Leadership, Fortify and Imbue Summons from Enlightened Spirit Warlock tree, Scion of Elysium Legendary Feat and Grand Summoner from Magus of the Eclipse, you might have viable hirelings and summons, but because you're part Warlock your pet will still be level gimped.

[Firepants]

I think there should be a couple class-specific enhancement trees that are more or less "summoner" lines. Wiz, Sorc, Druid and Arti would get one each tailored a bit to the class. For Arti, at least, renegade mastermaker could be reconsidered. It sounds like it should be the prestige class for an Arti specializing in constructs but somehow became a splash enhancement tree for melee Artis (who are still investing most of their points in battle engineer). Move the dog enhancements out of arcanotechnician into mastermaker, ditch the useless forcefield SLAs and anything that modifies them, ditch the admixture ****, and split mastermaker between dog/construct enhancements, the existing melee and defense options (well, clean them up and improve their synergies first), and repair/trapping. Tier 5 you can summon an iron golem or such (not as a pet like the dog but in addition to it and only inside "dungeon" instances) that benefits from all the dog boosting enhancements too.

Then add a master summoner ED that builds on any given "summoner" enhancement tree to amp up epic/legendary viability for pets/summons. Give people a reason to use summon monster spells outside of heroics. Make it theoretically possible for an experienced player with summoner spec'd end game gear (which would also have to be introduced) to fill a legendary raid group with summons. Target build/"pet" viability in EE difficulty for players with 2-3 HPLs and EPLs. With care and skill, assuming an average gearset, a first lifer won't have an easy time with EE but would enjoy a reasonable challenge in EH. Throw in some experience and a few past life bonuses, EE. Expand reaper enhancements in the caster tree with summons power increases like reaper's focus having 2 options: +1DCs (currently the only effect) or +1 summons CR/hit dice. Expand the defense tree with consideration for summons, maybe 1 point prr and mrr to summons for each completed bulwark/shroud tier or a secondary on the constitution enhancement to apply it to summons instead. Similarly expand dread adversary's tactics or melee enhancement into either the usual bonus or fractional increases to summons' damage dice (e.g. if the summoned mob does 5[1d6] normally, each point in the tactics alt increases that by .5 or 1 die so if you have all 4 all your summons do an extra 2(or 4 if it's 1 per) dice. If it's built into the reaper blade line then each point per tier is worth .25 dice with the 3rd point in every tier worth .5 making 1 extra damage die per complete tier.

With that sort of setup, DDO builds specializing in summons/constructs could carry into reapers and be useful contributors. As-is, all the pets/summons in the game currently just weren't designed with the current end game in mind and weren't considered much (if at all) when the level cap went to 30 from 25 and legendary quests were introduced. Nevermind reaper, it's very clear that summons builds were not even part of the equation when reaper was being cooked up and the game moved from EE being the apex of challenge.

To the OP, it'd be nice if the fix for end game summons were as easy as a new feat like an epic augment summons, but that's just not anywhere near enough. "AI" scripting/behavior notwithstanding.