We all know the standard "give them a full stat block as

>>55421965
Dungeon world Ranger has you choose an array then based on which array tells you how many things of each you give it; traits like are on gear or weapons (camouflage, ferocious, etc) but innate to the animal, things It's trained to do, and then flaws.

Since it has no stats of its own, it instead boosts your actions when It's doing something It's trained in. It helps you attack, listen, defend, etc.

>>55421965
our DM wanted us to keep track of a full on character for every NPC we hire or acculumate and now nobody uses them

>>55422460
no, see, that's the exact opposite of what I'm looking for.

>>55421965
Never give Henchmen any stats. Henchmen never fight or roll skill checks, but they automatically do whatever menial thing they were hired to do such as carry shit/watch the horses/open this lock.
If real shit goes sown they run and hide or get instagibbed.

>>55422615
Sure. don't stat anything you don't have to. That's a given.

But what about things meant to help directly? Either hired for that purpose specifically or are a summoned creatures/animal companion?

>>55422615
>but they automatically do whatever menial thing they were hired to do such as carry shit/watch the horses/open this lock
That's a hireling. Henchmen fight.

The reason I ask this is because I have a rule-light system I'm messing around with and giving an aiding NPC (summon/hired henchman/pet, origin doesn't matter) full stats and traits would either make them as strong as additional players, or if I just gave them lower stats and fewer traits, make them just clumsy, fragile malfortune magnets, which of course, no one wants around.

Obviously, I need something between "another member of the party" and "jar-jar binks."

So I'm looking for examples of what other systems do.

>>55422099
This is great

>>55423413
http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/ranger/#Animal_Companion

It does something similar for summons, undead, and hirelings, only it also gives them normal stat.
http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/playing-the-game/#Making_a_Hireling
http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/wizard/#Summon_Monster
http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/cleric/#Animate_Dead

>>55422890
Same shit

>>55421965
>We all know the standard "give them a full stat block as if they were another player" technique
I don't. Why would you do that?

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>>55423158
Maybe give them PC level wounds/HP, and then knock everything down a level. Remember PCs are supposed to be supernatural to their setting, this is just a guy.

As far as creating a stat block, write it down when it matters with a standardized GREAT, good, bad, terrible bonus with a with a specific resource pool for GREAT skills, Good skills, and Terrible skills. Everything not covered by that just falls into the bad category.

I like FATE because it encourages this kind of creation for PCs and NPCs.

>>55424533
Traits in my system are just sort of on or off. Normal rolls are 2d6+Stat. 9 and below is fail. 10 is success with caveat. 13 is success. 15 is success with benefit.

A trait lets you:
>do relevant things you normally couldn't
>let you do relevant normal things better (3d6 drop lowest + Stat)
>make you have things on-hand that would be reasonable (no inventory)
>let you make up facts relevant to the trait, subject to DM approval. If you spend a hero point, you can force it to be true.

Companion as a Trait is easy.
"I have a hawk. As long as my hawk is helping, I can do XYZ (better)"

The problem is, reasonable, dare is say quintessential, abilities of this hawk include NOT doing the same thing you are. You could distract the guard, while it sneaks past and grabs the key. Delivering a message while you're exploring a dungeon. Protecting children while you fight the aliens pouring from the sky hole over new york.

So, like, if it doesn't get its own stats, how do you resolve its actions?

but if I do give it its own stats, then it's effectively another member of the party, because I can't give it significantly lower stats and it not be a bigger burden than a help.
And whether I codify them or not, it's got two of the abilities of traits, doing otherwise impossible things and having reasonable equipment, just as a matter of following fiction.

By which point a player has sacrificed a trait to control a second character, with.. I guess I could give it 1 hp instead of 3, an effective single trait that says "is a ____, does ____ things" and a shared hero point pool.

Which is tolerable, I guess, but it does give them a better action economy, an effective 4th hp compared to other players, and two sets of stats to roll with.

>>55423693
Incorrect. A drover is a hireling. A mercenary is a henchman. Not all hirelings are henchmen, and not all henchmen are hirelings.

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>>55421965
I liked how 4e handled them, either making them a part of class mechanics if the class had a baked in minion (in the case of Shaman) or with monster statblocks.... though that's assuming the system has fundamentally different and simpler statblocks for monsters, which isn't true for all systems

>>55421965
When I was GMing Rogue Trader and the players brought a contingent of armsmen with them, I either reduced the amount of enemies they would be fighting to represent some enemies enganging the redshirts "offscreen", or against big enemies inflict some extra damage to them every turn from lasgun fire, and sometimes make the enemy use its attacks to kill the armsmen, reducing the damage it'd take from them but not hitting any PC that turn. After each battle I'd roll to see how many redshirts died this time.

Another fairly novel way I've seen one game handle minion-type NPCs (in this case a summoner class that fights using summoned minions) was that instead of having all of them attack on their own (and thus break the action economy), the PCs would gain bonus damage to their attacks for every minion near the target, representing the minions attacking at the same time to add to the total damage or them distracting the target so it's easier for the PC to land a fatal blow.

>>55423158
my homebrew doesn't let NPCs roll for anything, they're treated as "taking 10" in everything, AC, Attacks, Skills, whatever.

If an NPC needs to roll vs. trap or similarly powerful foe, has a chance to fail something and get fucked, roll 1d6, 1-3 he's fucked, 4-6 he isn't. Apply +1 or +2 if he's less likely to get fucked, apply -1 or -2 if he's more likely to get fucked, such as activating a trap, taking a hit from an identical NPC (two guards brawl, their rolls are forever same, the guard whose 1d6 rolls worse takes the wound).

>>55426327
same shit