Muskatnuss

I also can't believe this is by design, considering Xoti has so many buffs available. Also experience the issue

Same problem. Can we get any answer from devs on whether game restarts are required?

I'm having the same issue. Raedric's hold, kitchen level. Went upstairs from the sewers while sneaking, pet is now a blank circle and loading the game shows the party management screen -- with pet listed as a blank box NameError. Tried exiting/reloading - no use. Had the same issue in the endless paths lvl 1, but an exit/reload worked there. No older saves, this effectively means this issue has to be fixed before I can continue - and preferably for existing save games too.