So, I was sitting here playing this game and couldn't help but dream of someway to make this panther following me useful, I mean all he does is follow me and look menacingly cute! Then I thought, what if all the companions/pets could be of some use? What if my little House Cat or Guar could pick up a few items while they're running around with me on my adventure. Mainly as another resource for players to build off of, and to bring some true companionship into the game with maybe some new dialogue/quests(for humanoids) and feeding/grooming(for creatures) with influence results. Creating a minor secondary leveling system.

Companion/pet starts on a scale of influence at zero, through helping a humanoid companion with their personal issues and learning more about them through dialogue. Creature pets would be much of the same, though through gestures, ei: petting, grooming, and, feeding with periodic cooldowns. Some examples:

*With rate/rarity based on influence scale.*
*This would only occur while the companion/pet is active, maybe even through distance traveled/time played*

House Cat: Periodically brings you cooking ingredients he's found.
Vermilion Guar: Periodically collects herbs.
Nibenay Mudcrab: Could work as a treasure chest detector, frantically flailing his claw in the direction he wants you to go.
Imgaken Monkey: Could find small amounts of gold. Maybe scrounging up 5/10% of what the player loots in 1hr?

With some being a little more active.

Windhelm Wolfhound: Could be an active attacking companion, but only do around 5/10% of the player's weapon damage. The companion would also serve as a watcher, similar to the Magelight skill's stealth detection effect.
To the companion's player this wouldn't increase his/her detection of stealth players, but, put another detection field on top of that player with a little wider range (depending on influence). this would be the companion's own field and the player wouldn't be able to see anything in the field, instead the companion would function much like the guardsman in "disguise quests" (The ones with the red eye above their heads). Stealth players would still have that rough timer(and eye icon above the companion) just like the guardsman (Though the dog's detection timer could be reduced with influence?). I really liked this idea, because it gives players in PvP who can't/don't want to use Magelight an alternative.

For humanoid companions I thought of a few things:

"Pack-Boy/Girl": Could serve as an extra inventory storage(capacity depending on influence), possibly even taking things into town for you, selling them and returning with the gold. Plus for his/her character design there could be a quest where you send him/her to town, but he/she doesn't come back, instead was captured by bandits, or wandered off and got lost/attacked by wildlife. I personally pictured him/her something like the star-struck fan from Oblivion. lol.

I was just thinking the pets I run around with, anyone else got some cool ideas?