Mage pawn almost never finish a cast

[Kehldael]

Is there an issue somewhere ? When I recruit a mage or a sorcerer pawn, they often start casting spells, when they are not busy climbing on the boss, and then, they just randomly stop casting to move a bit and start casting again.

Will the AI be improved for the 2nd game ?

[AfLIcTeD]

Pawns inclinations and bestiary knowledge will determine their effectiveness in combat.

A mage with no knowledge and set to something like scather will most likely not know what to do and climb.

[AvG]

The never finish casting thing is due to having multiple targeting inclinations. They will struggle to decide what to target. Beware having more than one listed. After that it's just experience and knowledge. Mage and Sorcerer pawns that don't have bad inclinations set will settle down and stop climbing on enemies after some practice.

Some people will also purposefully use lower ranks of spells which cast faster for pawns. I think you need to be careful then when upgrading spells since selecting a lower rank means being careful to not upgrade it all the way.

[AvG]

hehe, the only way to stop an eliminator stomp is to have your pawn wear barbed nails and pray for a stagger.

[RED-Life]

My biggest recommendation if you're going to use mage pawns is to not upgrade their spells, as they will always try to invoke the full length of an upgraded spell, even if they can cast the 1st variation and they are about to be interrupted. Only time I recommend upgrading spells is for enchantments as the casting time for those don't take too long.

Do not under any circumstances upgrade the heal spell for your pawns.

[FruitBowl]

God reading this has given me a little hope, the moment I made my party majority sorc they all decided now its the time to start ONLY climbing chimeras.

[Grr. [SG CMD] Majah Lazah]

mitigator + 3 star monster knowledge will curtail this behavior

[Kehldael]

Originally posted by RED-Life:

My biggest recommendation if you're going to use mage pawns is to not upgrade their spells, as they will always try to invoke the full length of an upgraded spell, even if they can cast the 1st variation and they are about to be interrupted. Only time I recommend upgrading spells is for enchantments as the casting time for those don't take too long.

Do not under any circumstances upgrade the heal spell for your pawns.

Unfortunately, I have no control on their spell upgrades, since I recruit them from other players :/

But thanks, I'll keep all that in mind ! I'll just stop using mages or sorcerer all together and use source water and incent as healing instead

[Tobi89]

A big problem for the pawn when being a mage or a sorc is that they will always try to cast a spell to it's limit. Which means if you use the upgraded versions they will have problems with getting them off since they take so long to cast and they won't fire of the lesser version like you might do and instead they will either stop their casts outright or have their casts interrupted.

Also the AI does mostly what it's learnt so far so if the pawn has been mostly a strider climbing on bosses an you switch it to a mage it will keep doing that, which is why most people recommend picking a vocation for your pawn and then have them stick to that vocation for the majority of the time. They will however eventually settle down and be more like their role as a mage eventually. The easiest way to speed things up or make them good at a certain vocation is to switch to the same vocation and then have the same skills and start using them in the way you want the pawn to act since the AI will try to copy what you do. So for instance if the pawns don't normally use their skills in combination if you spam certain combinations then the AI will start to mimic and use those combinations as well. Sadly the AI is pretty much incapable of using combinations on their own though two different pawns might use a combination together but a single pawn won't chain skills together unless you've showed it how to do it enough times.

[RED-Life]

Originally posted by Kehldael:

Originally posted by RED-Life:

My biggest recommendation if you're going to use mage pawns is to not upgrade their spells, as they will always try to invoke the full length of an upgraded spell, even if they can cast the 1st variation and they are about to be interrupted. Only time I recommend upgrading spells is for enchantments as the casting time for those don't take too long.

Do not under any circumstances upgrade the heal spell for your pawns.

Unfortunately, I have no control on their spell upgrades, since I recruit them from other players :/

But thanks, I'll keep all that in mind ! I'll just stop using mages or sorcerer all together and use source water and incent as healing instead

Wdym? Of course you do, just dont hire anyone with upgraded spells. Usually the top rated ones dont have that

[Nero]

Nice mages finish last.

Nah but it usually happens when an enemy comes too close to them so they cancle the spell ...doesnt keep them from being nice mages tho.

[Migromul]

First: Inclinations matter!. Mages are foremost supporters. Get them the medicant augment, and they will buff you BEFOR a combat even starts.
Second: I don't agrre for MAGES to not upbgrade their spells. See, that they have articulacy instead. (this will shorten the cast time., it's a sorcerer-augment) That's even more important than acuity (the sorcerer-magick-buff-augment) and/or attunement (the MAGE-Magic-buff augment. somewhat weaker than acuitiy, but cumulative as far as I now.) Because all debuff and buff-spell have a fixed effect, that won't be affected by magic-attack.
Gravitas helps that they will not get knocked down by goblins... Inflection significantly reduces ALL Damage, when casting. Bastion reduces PHYSICAL damage all the time. Awareness ruduces MAGICAL damage all the time, and intervention reduces debilation-length.
This all helps to not ge interrupted. As for interrupting their spells themselves, it's true: Beast-knowledge and inclinations have a significant influence to that.

It's said, that the guardian-inclination is a bad one. I only partly can agree to that, tbh. I don't know, how mages and sorcerers will behave, but if you play a ranged vocation and have a ranger with guardian as second inclination with you, they will try to be near you and use the bow, instead of getting close, using daggers. Maybe this is also true for mages and sorcerers.
However, if you play a melee-vocation, guardian on a ranged one is a bad idea, because guardian will make the pawn staying close to you. And you pobably won't that, for a ranged class, if you are melee.

Pioneer for a ranged class is also a bad Idea imho. Pioneers tend to head on as first. Not realy a good idea, if the strongest skills are ranged attacks.

if you don't knwo what inclinations are, here you go:
https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Pawn_Inclination

[Kehldael]

Originally posted by Migromul:

First: Inclinations matter!. Mages are foremost supporters. Get them the medicant augment, and they will buff you BEFOR a combat even starts.
Second: I don't agrre for MAGES to not upbgrade their spells. See, that they have articulacy instead. (this will shorten the cast time., it's a sorcerer-augment) That's even more important than acuity (the sorcerer-magick-buff-augment) and/or attunement (the MAGE-Magic-buff augment. somewhat weaker than acuitiy, but cumulative as far as I now.) Because all debuff and buff-spell have a fixed effect, that won't be affected by magic-attack.
Gravitas helps that they will not get knocked down by goblins... Inflection significantly reduces ALL Damage, when casting. Bastion reduces PHYSICAL damage all the time. Awareness ruduces MAGICAL damage all the time, and intervention reduces debilation-length.
This all helps to not ge interrupted. As for interrupting their spells themselves, it's true: Beast-knowledge and inclinations have a significant influence to that.

It's said, that the guardian-inclination is a bad one. I only partly can agree to that, tbh. I don't know, how mages and sorcerers will behave, but if you play a ranged vocation and have a ranger with guardian as second inclination with you, they will try to be near you and use the bow, instead of getting close, using daggers. Maybe this is also true for mages and sorcerers.
However, if you play a melee-vocation, guardian on a ranged one is a bad idea, because guardian will make the pawn staying close to you. And you pobably won't that, for a ranged class, if you are melee.

Pioneer for a ranged class is also a bad Idea imho. Pioneers tend to head on as first. Not realy a good idea, if the strongest skills are ranged attacks.

if you don't knwo what inclinations are, here you go:
https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Pawn_Inclination

Thanks a lot for this thorough answer ! I'll check all that :)

Thanks guys !