If you haven’t seen it already, the new Unearthed Arcana came out this Monday. This month’s UA is about “Sidekicks,” creatures who end up tagging along with the player characters during their adventures. “Sidekicks” offers a system for leveling up these creatures in a streamlined way.

Who the Sidekick system is for:

Any creature of CR 1 or lower who is friends with the PCs and accompanies them on their adventures at least some of the time. From a dog to a satyr to a friendly almiraj.

Who the Sidekick system is not for:

Any creature of CR higher than 1, a creature who isn’t friends with the PCs, etc. It’s pretty simple.

The Dungeon Master’sGuide has rules on customizing monsters, part of which covers adding class levels. These rules were made for any circumstance when a DM would need to tweak a stat block. They’re a little complicated, especially when it comes to determining the new CR of that creature. It’s messy, but that’s alright when it’s all behind a DM screen.

These rules are made for a specific situation. They don’t ask you to fiddle with CR calculations, and they give guidance on how to work with most any stat block that fits the requirements. Overall, it feels less complicated and neater, which is perfect when the players take the reins.

“Sidekicks” gives three “class” options for a sidekick character: the warrior, expert, and spellcaster.

The Warrior

The warrior class can be applied to any creature of CR 1 or lower. They don’t have to speak a language, so this is the class option for animals that the party adopts. It can also be used for any particularly martial creature who tags along with the party—a paladin’s squire, for example.

Actually, now that I think about it, this would also work for players who want to play a gag character, the “I want to play a literal bear” type.

This class mostly takes from the fighter class—improved critical, weapon and armor proficiencies, extra attack, etc. As a note, a creature’s multiattack doesn’t combine with extra attack, you have to pick one or the other when choosing what action to take.

The Expert

This class (and the spellcaster class) requires a creature to speak at least one language to take, so literal bears are out. Anyways, this class is intended for non-martial but non-magic characters. It offers mostly skill-based features, much like the rogue or a bard without magic.

I like this one a lot because of the Help action features—the character gets the Help action as a bonus action, and their Help becomes more effective. Inspiring Help both gives the recipient the normal advantage but also a bardic inspiration-like bonus that can be added to either the to-hit roll or the damage roll, if the sidekick is helping you attack. That’s pretty neat!

The Spellcaster

This class is how you get a sidekick with magical capabilities. You can pick one list from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell lists. The features are much like the wizard’s, but without any sort of spellbook frickery—the character permanently learns the spells like bards or sorcerers do.

This class is probably a bit more complicated to run, but hey, you get magic. That’s a normal trade-off, and it is less complex than the DMG’s methods or just rolling up a PC-like character.

Overall, I’m excited to try these rules out! I like the idea a lot, and I’ve definitely seen the need for them in my own games.