Do hired pawns use arrows?

[Jamation]

Do archer pawns use the random arrows you put in their inventory or do they need to be equipped with a certain skill to use them or do they just no use them?

I have one with me that I keep shoving all the random arrows I collect into his inventory, but he doesn't use any of them.

[neogeno]

They will only use those arrows if they have the corresponding skill set on one of their 4 skill slots.

[samadhitathagata]

Originally posted by neogeno:

They will only use those arrows if they have the corresponding skill set on one of their 4 skill slots.

I think this was already implied by the OP, so this answer isn't really helpful. I am trying to find out the same thing. I've heard some reviewers of the game say that Archer pawns do NOT need to be equipped with special arrows to use the equipped skill, whilst others are saying the opposite (this is a common problem with this game, since the devs didn't bother to explain pretty much anything about their game).

Anyone know the actual answer?

[Xeriath]

They need the special arrow to use the skills. As example Exploding/Erupting Shot need a fire arrow. Pawns don’t get unlimited special arrows. You need to give them this arrows and they will use them. I recommend it to take them away if you don’t fight boss monster. They will use these arrows for trash monster.

Barrage/Manifold Shot doesn’t need arrows because in this game only special arrows exists. As example in Skyrim you need to have iron arrows to use a bow. In Dragons Dogma you and the pawns have unlimited “iron arrows”.

[H-Foundry PIXIV]

side-topic since it's been answered - Unless I'm playing archer, I almost always look for debilitation archer pawns as I don't have to worry about that myself. These pawns have tar/drench and explosive shot, plus whatever skill for the last slot. Having those 3 are rare but searching with "advanced search" by skill and you'll eventually find one.

for Griffin/Ogre/Cyclops/Chimera etc I give the archer pawn tar+explosives, drakes I give them drench arrow. I've never used poison arrows for some reason and I don't even want to tbh lol even if they're probably good.

I know exactly what I'm looking for in pawns so I narrow down things with advanced search. I don't use rifstones in the wild because only city riftstones have the advanced search feature and never hire wandering pawns (as I've disabled them with a mod).

[Migromul]

Originally posted by samadhitathagata:

Originally posted by neogeno:

They will only use those arrows if they have the corresponding skill set on one of their 4 skill slots.

I think this was already implied by the OP, so this answer isn't really helpful. I am trying to find out the same thing. I've heard some reviewers of the game say that Archer pawns do NOT need to be equipped with special arrows to use the equipped skill, whilst others are saying the opposite (this is a common problem with this game, since the devs didn't bother to explain pretty much anything about their game).

Anyone know the actual answer?

They DEFINITLY will use the according arrow, if they have the skill. I don't believe, they use the skill, if they don't have the arrows. Special arrows - in comparison to the first game - are also ONLY used with the according skill. you can't use them with other skills or with the core-attack. (No tempest-shot with explosive or toxin arrows, sadly... ^^)

In the first game, you could prepare special arrows and they got used with every shot, be it core or special. This means, even the flurries used them. But then, every arrow used one. E. g. the flurry shots used up to 11 arrows at once. This also did function with exposive arrows, which didn't have a fuse, but exploded instantly. The downside was, that ONE arrow weighted 0.27 and they were quite rare (like the toxins in DD 2)
Pawns, however, used them only in emergency-situations.

I must admit, I like the DD2-system much more. You have much more control over your special arrows with this. Including the use by pawns.

[Rubinstein]

Originally posted by Migromul:

...
I must admit, I like the DD2-system much more. You have much more control over your special arrows with this. Including the use by pawns.

In DD2, unlike in DD1, you don't have to equip these arrows. I wonder how wisely (or how wastefully) archers use these arrows. Or in short: What stops them from shooting at rabbits with an explosive arrow?

[PeaceMaker]

I gave an archer Pawn the one special arrow that's sup[posed to one-shot kill an enemy. Went up against a huge monster and nothing happened.

What a pain cos I never play the archer.

[Jamation]

Originally posted by samadhitathagata:

Originally posted by neogeno:

They will only use those arrows if they have the corresponding skill set on one of their 4 skill slots.

I think this was already implied by the OP, so this answer isn't really helpful. I am trying to find out the same thing. I've heard some reviewers of the game say that Archer pawns do NOT need to be equipped with special arrows to use the equipped skill, whilst others are saying the opposite (this is a common problem with this game, since the devs didn't bother to explain pretty much anything about their game).

Anyone know the actual answer?

Nah, I marked their answer as the answer, because it said exactly what I needed. I hadn't played Archer at this point so wasn't aware that they needed the skill to use the arrows. I had just been putting special arrows into their inventory expecting them to use them with their normal auto-attacks.

But I've since played a good amount since posting this back in April xD