What Is This?
This guide aims to inform on what makes the basics of a good pawn in the most concise manner possible, basically a TL;DR of all the already available material mixed with my own opinions and experience on what generally works.
And to be absolutely clear, this guide is about PAWNS. If im stating something doesnt work too good or i dont like it, its because of how pawns use it - not because its bad in general.
For anyone wanting more indepth knowledge theres already other quite lengthy guides and a wiki at http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com
Pawn Inclinations
Inclinations control basic behavior of pawns. This describes some of them, why they are bad or good and how to get them or avoid them.
YAY Scather/Mitigator : Pawn will attack the strongest or weakest foe. Desirable for any non-healer/support pawn. Mitigator might be the better of them since pawns will clear trash faster and theres also a few situations in BBI where Scather pawns ignoring "weaker" enemies is really annoying - generally not a problem tho. Use "Go" command alot or just attack stuff.
Challenger : Pawn will pick out ranged/casters. Can replace the above on Ranger/Strider pawns. Melee pawns might ignore enemies to get at the backline tho. Attack ranged/casters preferably.
Medicant/Utilitarian: Pawns will prioritize support and healing, so obviously good to have on a healer/support. Use "help" alot
NAY Guardian : Pawns will stick near you and not do anything until you are hit. The ONLY time this isnt the worst ever is if you are melee yourself or if its on a healer/support pawn. Get hit alot, use "come" alot or run out of stamina often.
Acquisitor : Even if three garms are chewing your head off pawns with this will be elsewhere grabbing mushrooms. You get this by picking up junk yourself in ongoing fights constantly.
There are a few others but these generally have the biggest impact
Augments For Pawns
Augments are passive bonuses you (should) put on your pawn. Heres a short list of good ones, on which sort of pawn to place them and where to get them
Bastion : 50 armor. Good for low level melee pawns and caster pawns in general altho youd probably want to drop it for something else at higher levels. Easy to get since its first level warrior
Awareness : 50 magic defense. Good for melee pawns, casters shouldnt need it as much tho. Worth keeping at high levels on your tank aswell unless you did some class minmaxing to get the MDef elsewhere. First level sorcerer unlock.
Vehemence/Clout : Boost strength 10% and 20%. Stack on any melee pawn for maximum stronkness. Both are at the end of the fighter and warrior line.
Attunement/Acuity : Same but for mages. As far as i know this also strengthens the magic attacks of perma enchanted melee weapons. Same as the strength ones they are at the end of Mage/Sorcerer
Articulacy : Shortens cast times. Guess where that goes. For me personally a key hiring criteria in high level caster pawns. Last Sorcerer level unlock.
Proficiency : Reduces stamina use for melee weapon skills. This means your pawn can spam all these fancy attacks better. Last Warrior level.
Conservation : Same as above but for magic. Very good aswell. 7th level sorcerer.
Perpetuation : Boons and such last longer. 7th level mage.
Sinew: Pawns can carry more. Not crucial but nice to have. 5th level fighter.
Adhesion : Pawn is harder to throw off. Can be very nice on Striders/Rangers, enabling them to climb easier and do more knife work. Bitterblack Isle "drop".
Endurance : 100 extra Endurance, relatively easy to get at Strider 2. Nice to have at low levels, high level pawns should drop it for better stuff
Vigilance : 100 extra health, Fighter 2. See above.
Also :
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! INFLECTION IS BUGGED DO NOT USE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prescience is essentially a wasted slot on pawns since they already block perfectly
Pawn Skills And Abit Of General Vocation Stuff
Going with the theme of the guide this isnt a detailed list or a build advisor but a short overview of what generally works and what doesnt so well, based on my experience. If a skill isnt listed or mentioned i dont have a particulary strong opinion for or against it - its not the best nor is is the worst.
Since this is quite a big one i gave each class a separate section to hopefully make it easier to read.
Fighter Pawns
If its a good tank its a fighter. They do have strong offense aswell tho.
Blink/Burst Strike : A potential gap closer. Very hit or miss tho, id drop it for something better when available
Compass/Full Moon Slash : Dragons Maw Junior. Less damage but also less stamina use. Pawns generally use this well.
Skyward/Heavenward Lash : The only option vs. flying enemies. Pawns will also use this to hit targets on a higher elevation. Very solid.
Dragons Maw : The strongest fighter attack with high stagger power, aoe and invulnerability while used. The high stamina use this demands needs Proficiency and optimally stamina rings from BBI
Flesh/Soul Skewer : Pawns can pin and neutralize some pretty strong enemies with this. The only downside is they dont seem to be able to tell when their target is dead and keep skewering for longer than necessary unless you deliver the "killing" blow, so it loses abit of value versus weaker enemies (be prepared to see alot of goblin torture)
Stone/Steel will : Its a dice roll if pawns use this appropriately, potential stamina waster
None of the shield skills are really worth it in my opinion, id just leave those empty so the pawn uses the better sword skills, but heres abit of info on them anyway
Shield summons : Horrible on guardian inclinations if you are ranged, otherwise any decent fighter pawn should "lure" enemies by default by being in their faces and poking them with a sword alot
Sheltered assault : Potentially good but again the problem is it tends to miss alot
Perfect/Divine Defense : Same as Stone/Steel will
Warrior Pawns
While Warrior attacks hit like a truck theyre all kinda slow and require some timing, which is why in my opinion this class doesnt lend itself well to pawns. Theres good augments buried at the end of the class but thats about the best it can offer compared to fighter.
If you feel im wrong about this please use another guide in this regard, theyll probably offer better insights into warrior pawns than i could or would want to v(; ^.^)v
Strider/Ranger Pawns
On the other end of the spectrum pawns will generally perform well with this class. Most skills either deal good damage or have some crowd control/debilitating effect and almost none of them have much misuse potential. Its down to preference if you want more straight damage or crowd control/debilitation.
What mostly makes or breaks a Strider/Ranger pawn are the augments, equipment and inclination not so much the skills - unless you give the pawn none i guess.
The only exception being Gamble Draw/Great Gamble - a skill which expends all stamina for a strong attack - you might imagine why that could be bad. The lesser versions of this Full/Mighty Bend and Dire/Deathly Arrow should be ok in most cases.
A nice variant for this class is spreading debilitations with rusted equipment, in that case youd want to give the pawn lots of multihit bow attacks for example.
Mage Pawns
Id wager the amount of Healer/Support Arisen is very small so good mage pawns will always be in demand.
As a little note i wrote in my other guide why i dont think giving pawns grand level spells is always the best idea. Is the potential increase in power worth longer cast times, higher risk of interuption and a ring slot? You decide.
ENCHANTMENTS
Fire: Good early game.
Ice: See Frigor in the damage section.
Thunder: Has its uses vs a few enemies but you only have so many spell slots...
Dark: I almost forgot to put this in. Theres ONE boss this is good against and just as an example goblins are resistant to it. Not very useful, theres no other way to put it.
Holy: The go-to enchant for mid-late game and especially BBI. Theres very few enemies who are resistant to holy so its always nice to have that extra oomph. While giving pawns multiple enchantments so you would always have the right elemental enchantment for the right enemy might sound good, more often than not i found the more enchantments a pawn has the more randomly they get used to the point of overwriting proper enchants with detrimental ones. Bestiary knowledge effects this so results may vary.
Optimally you wont need more than just fire early game and holy late game.
SUPPORT
Anodyne : Heals "white" damage. The main reason anyone would hire a mage pawn id imagine.
Halidom : Heals the common debilitations like poison. The second reason anyone would hire a mage pawn. Not as crucial, i mean you could lug around curatives for debilitations but...
Spellscreen : A nice resistance buff with little misuse potential.
UTILITY
Blearing/Silentium/Frazil : "Auras" which surround the caster and blind/silence/freeze enemies. Very hit and miss. If theyre already surrounded they might be interupted trying to cast it and if theyre at the back they will cast it and then walk verrrrrrry slowly into the fray not doing anything else in the meantime. Blearing can be very effective tho and theres two endgame enemies which are made significantly easier by silencing.
Grapnel : A root spell. Very nice against single stronger enemies.
DAMAGE
Ingle/Levin : Decent Fire/Lighting damage with a fast cast.
Comestion : Slower than Ingle and ground target but stronger with a large aoe which launches enemies.
Frigor : Good damage and a launch but very slow cast and ground target. The more problematic enemies who are weak to ice are very mobile so id consider taking ice enchanment instead.
Brontide : Levin in whip form. Good damage, the question is if you want your caster pawn to rush into melee.
Sorcerer Pawns
As with the warrior section this might be another controversial one. When people talk sorcerer its always those big firework spells. Like a meteor shower or tornado - which sure look impressive and do damage and all that but take ages to cast. You prolly can see where this is going.
The few times i hired sorcerer pawns with those big hitters they either got interupted constantly or stuff was dead ten times over before they got done casting.
Theres spell synching i guess - multiple sorcerers casting a single spell to speed it up - ehhhhh.
Unlike warrior the vocation is still good if you want a straight damage caster because of the improved magic attack stat gains, among other things.
Sorcerers share alot of spells with mage, the only difference in most cases will be increased damage because of stat advantage.
SORCERER DAMAGE
Maelstrom/Gicel/Bolide/Seism: "Hold on almost done" *gets smacked into paste by elder ogre*
Fulmination: A thunder aura spell. Good damage but suffers the same drawbacks as the other aura spells
Necromancy: A dark aura spell. Meh.
Exequy: While it can kill big enemies this wont be that useful on pawns when you could just use straight damage spells instead. Also it wont work on certain enemies but pawns cant tell and will keep casting, so yeah
Petrifaction: Same as Exequy
Miasma: A poison/dark aoe with decent damage and cast time.
SORCERER SUPPORT
Lassitude: Inflicts torpor in a wide area. Pretty good, if you want abit of CC on your sorcerer this is it.
Voidspell: Cures lowered attack/defenses and petrification. While lowered attributes mostly arent that big of a deal, petrification is instant death if you cant get rid of it - rare but nasty. A nice spell to have just in case.
Still Here?
If you got this far you either scrolled through this guide thinking "wtf is this ♥♥♥♥" or you read it and maybe got some useful information.
If its the former i apologize.
If its the latter, well good. Thanks for reading :o
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=606522469
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