So which size will you go for?

[TheQuestion]

SS S M L LL ? also which vocation and maybe even general team to provide some context if needed.

As a sorc I first played SS/S/M but for the majority I played L, as a medium between stamina regen and carrying capacity, also a bit of a taller character felt right.

I'm thinking maybe even go LL now simply for the inzane innate carrying cappacity, yum.

[Davoodinator]

im going to make two giants like id id on console

my pawn will be a massive incredible hulk female magic user with tiny girl voice

[Jemolk]

I will be a LL sorcerer, because I want the carrying capacity, and while larger size slows down stamina regen, it also lowers usage and increases your maximum. Then I'll have a LL fighter main pawn for the additional carrying capacity. Also, fighters could benefit from decreased stamina usage too, and it's not like fights will be lasting super long with an astronomically high magick sorcerer hiding in the back and then one-shotting things, so regen isn't as much of an issue, since I don't tend to sprint everywhere.

[Ryan Fenton]

LL to me. There's literally NO significant advantages I've noticed to being anything else. The game is crazy-skewed towards encouraging this.

http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Character_Weight

LL has slower stamina drain on climbing, greater stamina pool, quicker sprinting stamina drain (but the greater pool makes up for it), quicker non-sprinting movement, immunity to wind, faster pressure-plate triggering (allows you to skip some time-eating quest steps), immunity to harpy grab+drop, ability to pull down monsters, greater reach with weapons, ability to throw allies, and more.

The sprint speed is identical for all characters. The run speed is faster for longer legs, and slightly slower for increased weight - but since most all LL characters have the longest legs, they tend to have net faster movement rate.

Oh, and of course, the table of carry weight is ludicrously in favor of LL. With SS, you can only get to 40KG weight... with LL you get 100. Each rank in weight gets you more than the previous step, additively.

Under 50 KGs 40 KG
50 - 69 KGs 50 KG
70 - 89 KGs 65 KG
90 - 109 KGs 75 KG
Over 109 KGs 100 KG

That last rank up to LL gives 25 KG alone! That's more than half the entire carry weigth of SS!

All characters can end up with sinew/leg strength and special boots to give 40 extra carry weight total.

The only notable partial advantages to smaller sizes are:

Goblin holes: Which contain pretty much trash treasure, which you can STILL get with the 'Secret of Metamorphosis" ability later in the game.

Stamina Regen: Offset by a smaller stamina pool - and all stamina regen is percent based anyway, so basically you can just take some ranger class levels and make this difference less than relevant. That, and just stock up on mushrooms with all that carry weight! The stuff you carry back will more than pay for it!

Being thrown: Being small lets you be thrown at flying/big monsters. Eh.... might be fun?

Smaller target: In my experiences in this game, I've only rarely been hit by an attack that I've noticed a smaller character would avoid. When a LL character moves, they avoid non-seeking attacks just fine. Even as a slowly floating sorcerer. Perhaps there's some strategies where this helps - dodge rolling gets you rolling under cyclops just fine as LL.

I say, go BIG! Conan! Thor! Hulk! Bertha! Olga! 110 KG of POWER!

I've seen some folks playing a medium-sized and smaller characters - the choices they have to make in dropping things hurts me seeing it sometimes. Always having to pause and send items to pawns. Meanwhile I can go solo, and just grab everything! A lot more fun!

[Stonechat]

Normal

[Ryan Fenton]

It's the underlying functions that DO specify quicker (run) movement for lighter weight - but there's ANOTHER formula that gives faster run movement for longer legs. The longer legs win out. You can't really get a LL character with shorter legs - but that WOULD be slower. Sprinting speed is always equal for all characters though.

Climbing movement speed is almost completely class-defined. Striders=quickest. Really though, if you can aim a climb/jump/climb cycle, that ends up working fine in any case - and also helps avoid the "whoa, losing my grip" animation.

Overall, the stamina implications balance out. Stamina regen rarely takes long in any case, when you don't go over light encumberance, and even light characters will be using stamina restore items to avoid downtimes in boss fights. I certainly never felt hampered by stamina when I was playing LL, keeping to lower encumbrance most of the journey, only porting away when I got enough treasure, or was willing to use mushrooms if I wanted to sprint for distances - and that was back when port crystals were rare/expensive! Of course, the carrot trick also worked too. Large amounts of spring water/greewarsh also helped.

For most of the game, I'd much prefer 'Living Large', and earning double XP without pawns most of the time, or taking one pawn (also LL)to help with some early class advancement.

[Ryan Fenton]

Indeed - I'm greedy, but I counter my greed with a healthy dose of cowardice! If I'm playing a vulnerable class, or I'm doing an escort or something, I'll forgo hyper-leveling But yeah - with just enchanted weapons, those ghost enemies can be quite boring... hit giggle/dissapear/repeat/repeat/repeat. What drove me to prefer magic over the game, and finalize on Magick archer once I had sufficient power. A healing mage pawn with weapon enchant spells also helps. A sorcerer with Miasma works quicker if you've got items enough to not care about healing.

[Space Joker]

Guys... You should focus more on roleplay and less on powergaming.
But that's just my point of view.

[Ticklestache]

i only kept midgets in my party, theres just something magically about 4 midgets killing orgres and dragons, i also *felt* faster, probably because my little legs had to move more XD gonna do the same when i start out and then when i get to BBI ill change to LL since, imo, they're a lot more useful

[kuaikukia]

Do stamina drain while climbing creature determine by size of the character too?

[Ryan Fenton]

Not that I could notice, since regen doesn't really kick in while climbing, and most of the climbing logic is determined by class differences. You might be able to visibly position yourself a little better as small - but larger would have a larger 'swing' letting you hit more things when you were in position.

For the most part as double large melee class, I just jump, then grab/jump over and over, then climb a bit when jumping won't work, since climbing tends to get 'shaken' animations that eat up just as much stamina as jumping. Two or three jump/grabs will get me onto most creatures head area(s), then I swing until armor/parts break. If I get low on stamina, I use items or jump off and do regular attacks for a bit. From videos of smaller characters, it's the same dynamic. It's mostly the class, stamina pool, and getting into position quickly that matters for climbing, rather than body shape. Heavier weight CAN prevent flying though!

Since this is essentially my 3rd run through the game, I enjoy playing optimally to get to try out the things I care about. Just stating the rather large *cough* advantages I've noticed for mega-size characters.

That's the nice thing about single-player focused games, they can use unbalanced systems to allow different paths much more than multiplayer- it's all cool to explore. This time around though, I'm going to grab for all the power I can get.

[Taran Tatsuuchi]

Last time I played on console I went with what I liked the looks of most...

[Zarrastro]

I'm gonna create my good old SS Magic Archer. She was cute and badass back in PS3

[Space Joker]

Originally posted by Taran Tatsuuchi:

Last time I played on console I went with what I liked the looks of most...

I think that's the way newcomers should go.

[DarkRaven]

My character will be the S to my Pawn's M. But seriously, my Pawn will probably be L or LL, depending on apperance. I want to be a tallish skinny rogue (Assassin) with my Pawn being a largeish cleric (Mage leveled in Fighter and Sorc).

[Balkoth]

Hobbit or Dwarf size.

Pawn will be huge so he can carry my stuff.