Dragon's Dogma - Dark Arisen

[Charismatic]

How much does pawn level affect usefulness? Been using a mage pawn, she's 28 and I'm almost 34. Also using a friends 29 ranger, I don't wanna give up either of them because they're both quite useful. Well-geared, too.

Not terribly much, its not like FFXI or anything where the level seems to be factored into damage equations (with maybe one exception, I think MA's sacrifice skill might).
If their stats are good and the inclinations (etc) are good... keep them for now. Switch them later.

[Souj]

yeah, their stats are what's important, not level.
Rank determines what skills they can use but a level 30 could be Rank9 or Rank1. have a mage with a really high level but low Rank could just have Ayodyne(sp) instead of High Ayodyne etc
You can find Level 100, Rank 9 Warriors with 400Strength and Level 50, Rank 5 Warriors with 1000 Strength because of how the leveling system works in this game, which I personally don't like all that much because basically if you want your Pawn and yourself the best it can be, you have to restrict yourself to ONLY playing 2-3 vocations at all times

Each time you level, you do gain more stats, str, hp, stamina etc, but what stats increase and how much they increase depend highly on what vocation you're or your pawn is on.
For example, if you're on mage and you level, you'll gain 10hp, 15stamina, 0attack, 0def, 3mag att, 1mag def
but if you're on assassin, you'll gain-----------------------------5hp, 15stamina, 3attack, 1def, 0mag att/def

This can make for some really bad characters if you spend your first 50 levels as a mage and sorcerer but then switch to a melee vocation as you'll have very little attack. And the same is true in the reverse.

[Tyrath]

Yeah thats the one thing I've found to be pretty annoying. Both me and my pawn are still on their first vocation because they're 1 rank from max, but it feels annoying that rather than being able to mess around with a bunch of vocations if I want good stats I'm gonna have to pre-plan and limit which ones I try.

[Charismatic]

Or at least don't level up on them... ferrystones are your friend.

[Souj]

If you ferrystone every time you're about to level you will get absolutely nowhere in the game.

[Charismatic]

If you ferrystone every time you're about to level you will get absolutely nowhere in the game.

Actually, that's not even remotely close to true. I know for a fact because I've done it... and of course you'd be retarded to do it at low low levels but its definitely viable to do when grinding DCP/testing new classes once you are above Lv4x.

[Souj]

I'll give you that for the base game after a certain level it is possible, if not inconvenient, but in Dark Arisen? The entire place is a dungeon with rare shortcuts and filled with enemies that give a whole lot of exp. So if you decide to run from everything to avoid leveling, well, have fun playing that game.
I know you haven't played it Char, so for point of reference, at level 90, I was still gaining like 3 levels per section. I was level 109 by the time I beat the base game and the final Dark Arisen boss on my first runthrough. Granted I did every non-notice board quest and a good chunk of the noticeboard quests, but I did no grinding or farming.

That being said; that first playthrough, I ran Strider/Ranger/Assassin the entire time and didn't get sick of those at all. Mage/Sorcerer though, could be somewhat not as much as they're a bit more of a 1trick pony. At least there's also Magick Archer I could switch to as well. And maybe Mystic Knight? idk. never really messed with that class much.

[Tyrath]

I'll have to use ferrystones when I get higher level then. Only 23 right now. Won't be touching Dark Arisen for a long time at the pace I'm going lol.

[Nevermore]

I'm around about level 42 I think and exp has definitely slowed a bit. I think its about time I pick a class and stick with it as well. I don't want to hurt myself in the long run. If I stick to the magic hybrid classes though it shouldn't be too bad if I switch off every once in awhile.

Was anyone else thrown off by the size of the map? I assumed once I got to the Shadow Fort and the Great Wall there would be harder areas past those. I was just knighted I guess by the duke so I'm not sure how much longer I have in the game or how much I have left to see.

[Kiarax]

I swapped between all vocations constantly on my first playthrough and never felt too gimped for it. People grossly overstate how important it is to limit yourself statwise. I can't speak for the new DA content but I doubt it's required there either. Play whatever the hell you feel like playing. By the time I got through most of the post game content I was still obliterating dragons in seconds. Shit's way less fun when you can faceroll it that hard.

[Charismatic]

I swapped between all vocations constantly on my first playthrough and never felt too gimped for it. People grossly overstate how important it is to limit yourself statwise. I can't speak for the new DA content but I doubt it's required there either. Play whatever the hell you feel like playing. By the time I got through most of the post game content I was still obliterating dragons in seconds. Shit's way less fun when you can faceroll it that hard.

Sometimes a nigga just wants perfect stats.
I know how unimportant is, my first character was MA for most levels, had some fighter and assassin and everything in there, was a mess.
Then I ended up as Sorc in the end and still wrecked face... but every character I've done since has been gouging like a mofo.

[Kiarax]

For sure, just seems awfully silly to try and do that shit halfway through your first runthrough. You're already far from perfect, it's not gonna hurt to just dick around on different classes to try em all. Min/maxing is far from required.

[Tyrath]

Well I personally don't have time to be playing this game a 2nd time through anytime soon. I've been playing it slow enough the first time as it is. So anything I do, I just want to do with careful consideration because I don't know what all the effects will be. If maxing out stats isn't all that important, then I may not worry about it so much. I would worry about my pawn getting hired but that never seems to happen anyway so whatever >_>

[Charismatic]

Perfect stats are good for a pawn but not even close to necessary to get people to want to hire it if they see it.
Inclination/Gear/Augments

Those are the main things you want right.

[Tyrath]

Alright great.

I have my Fighter pawn main inclination as Scather. Does it make sense to give her secondary mitigator or is that contradictory?

[Makwa]

They'll still prioritize the big guys. Mine's Scather/Mitigator right now but I've heard giving it Utilitarian increases usage of the voke type moves, anyone got any idea on that? Figured that was only good for mages.

[Tyrath]

Yeah I just wonder if its contradictory because if theres no big guys then they'll focus a small guy anyway, I dont see hat mitigator might do in that case.

[Tyrath]

Double post but got questions.

Changed my vocations for the first time. I went from Strider to Fighter and pawn from Fighter to Warrior. My eventual goal is probably me on Assassin and my pawn as my tank on Fighter.

For me I'm planning to level Fighter and Warrior for augments for my assassin. Any other augments I should be looking at?

As for my pawn who will main Fighter I only saw Warrior for the augments, anything else for her?

[mightyg]

You may want to get ranger augments as well on Assasin. There are a few augments that enhance your bow accuracy and range, and there's Morbidity. This will make enemies you inflict with status ailments (non magical) take 30% more damage. So basically you can strap on poison/fire/oil/sleep arrows, snake bite, plegic arrow, etc. Once the monster is afflicted you get the bonus damage taken.

As far as the pawn you may want to give it strider as well. Arm strength for having it climb enemies. Leg strength for faster stamina regeneration, and maybe dexterity so they don't spend half the fight climbing on enemies without attacking.

[Souj]

yeah, if your assassin is going to be using bow/daggers, theres a few augments to grab from ranger and strider I believe. Warrior's Rank 9 augment increases strength by 20%