Pawn build

[Boboscus]

So now that I "caught" up with most of the mechanics, I would like to know what vocation is pawn best suitable for and how to build it. Will most likely make a new save with new pawn and everything.

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

First and foremost, your pawn should be of the most use to your arisen. Some things to think about is when it comes to upgrading and dragonforging gear. It is a lot easier for an Assassin to dragonforge weapons and armor for their Fighter pawn than if they have a mage or sorcerer since fighters and assassins share a lot of the same gear. On the save that I have right now, my arisen leveled up mainly as a sorcerer and my pawn was mainly a fighter/warrior. Absolute PITA to dragonforge stuff for him.

Even if you and your pawn are playing the same vocation, its easy enough to find 2 other pawns that will complement the two of you. I don't really get trapped into the idea that I need a tank, a ranged, a healer, etc. With that in mind, you should really have your pawn max out at least 4 different vocations in order to have access to as many useful augments as possible. Even if you have a mage or sorcerer, I would advise having them level up some in Warrior and Fighter to get more HP and DEF as well as unlocking augements such as Sinew.

Usually the number one thing that I look for in a pawn is how much stuff they can carry. Number 2 is how much damage can they soak up. Am I going to have to revive them every 30 seconds or can they stand out there and take a beating.

As far as inlinations, it is somewhat vocation specific. There are a lot of personal preferences. I personally like acquisitor, there are some people who will not hire a pawn with acquisitor in the primary or secondary. The only thing that I can say is to know what behaviors the inclinations promote and find something that works with your style of play.

As far as setting skills. Here is another personal preference things. I can't stand someting like Warcry and Shield Drum. Some people think they are great. Maelstrom on a sorcerer is close to a no go for me. If someone is playing as a sorcerer and wants the pawn to sync with them on Maelstrom, then it is going to be very high on their list. This is another reason to play the same vocation as your pawn, since it will give you a first hand knowledge of what skills are useful and which ones are not. Something to consider at least.

[Boboscus]

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking about that as well, I will main assassin and my pawn will be a strider, pretty similar and very useful. I can then fill the gap with magick pawns.

[phantommail]

Originally posted by Fredericks of Cursewood:

This is another reason to play the same vocation as your pawn, since it will give you a first hand knowledge of what skills are useful and which ones are not. Something to consider at least.

Yep. If you play the same vocation - pawn will actually copy some of your combat technique.
You can teach your pawn to climb on some enemies or use skullsplitter ( for example ) more often.

[Migromul]

I started my current play with a fighter-pawn. But I switched to mage and sorcerer eventually. And now I stick to a mage. The mage vocation is the most support-class in the game (at least for a pawn.) And in that very versatile. You can't have all the support-skills at once, so you must change from time to time. (for example, you should change the ice-enchantment, you used for a trip from carssardis to gran soren in post-game to holy, when you plan to enter the catacombs...)

Other vocations can stick with the skills, they have in most situations, even sorcerers, if they don't have an enchantment equipped. But the mage-skills should change from time to time, at least the enchantments.

There are some players, that say, mages aren't necessary, but I don't agree.
If you at the very end of the game, with the best equipment available, this might be the case, since there is equipment, which heals you automatically, even the "grey" part. But you can get only two such items in early game in gransys. One needs the MA as vocation Magic-bow "militant grove", available at the black cat and one needs sunshine and a "red" vocation solar armor, available as a (blackboard-escort) quest-reward.. At BBI there is a third available, but this also needs a red vocation... Quest-reward "immortal helm", wearable by ALL red vocations, available at a blackboard at BBI. Solar armor is only wearable by the "heavy" red vocations: Warrior, Fighter and Mystic-Knight
Mages are the only (pawn) class, that can heal HP. The magic-hybrid vocations can also somewhat heal. (MA debilations, and Mysic Knight HP, at least indirect.) But I don't think, the heal of the Mystic Knight is sufficient, since this is done indirect with some holy-skills. (and even must be timed correctly.)

The other items, that heal you, are high-end level 3 cursed BBI-items (with bonus-enchantments).

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

Originally posted by westy.fan:

There are some players, that say, mages aren't necessary, but I don't agree.
If you at the very end of the game, with the best equipment available, this might be the case, since there is equipment, which heals you automatically, even the "grey" part. But you can get only two such items in early game in gransys. One needs the MA as vocation Magic-bow "militant grove", available at the black cat and one needs sunshine and a "red" vocation solar armor, available as a (blackboard-escort) quest-reward.. At BBI there is a third available, but this also needs a red vocation... Quest-reward "immortal helm", wearable by ALL red vocations, available at a blackboard at BBI. Solar armor is only wearable by the "heavy" red vocations: Warrior, Fighter and Mystic-Knight
Mages are the only (pawn) class, that can heal HP. The magic-hybrid vocations can also somewhat heal. (MA debilations, and Mysic Knight HP, at least indirect.) But I don't think, the heal of the Mystic Knight is sufficient, since this is done indirect with some holy-skills. (and even must be timed correctly.)

The other items, that heal you, are high-end level 3 cursed BBI-items (with bonus-enchantments).

You probably saw this coming, I couldn't disagree with you more. Its not so much as a knock on Mages, its a knock on Anodyne which I find to be totally conterproductive to my type of play. Like I have said numerous times, the spell takes too long to cast, heals too slowly, has too small of AOE, and doesn't even heal to 100%. If I get hit its usually for over half of my 3200 HP, which means the next hit usually kills me and that can come at anytime. I can't wait for 7 seconds for the mage to cast it and I can't stand in one place for another 10 seconds for it to heal me part way to full health. I chew on enough wakestones the way it is. I have to be at 100% health 100% of the time or at least close to it. Once you get killed and have to chew on a wakestone, then you lose all of your buffs and you are back to square one.

You are much better off by having all 3 pawns being on the offensive and clearing out mobs as fast you can before you take damage. Having a mage casting Anodyne is like going in with only 2 pawns. Part of the reason is that once they do cast it, they will immediatly start casting it again and again and again.

I would love to see someone set up mage without that spell and with a decent staff that can do damage or debilitate. But that brings up the question, what does the mage do better than a sorcerer? Nothing to speak of, so you are better to make your mage into a sorcerer and pack some curratives.

[Migromul]

A mage can heal most debilations... instantly. (except the cast-time). And the anydome-casting depends on the inclination. (don't use guardian or Nexus, but Utilarian. And your pawn will cast the anydome much more seldom...) I use my mage definitiv NOT as a DD, but a supporter. AND a mage can use the legions-might-staff. Anydome isn't necessarily a combat-heal. But after a fight, it comes handy imho.

I'm an arisen, that has a height suitable for goblin-holes. I can't carry hundreds of curatives even not with sinew!.

But I also carry some healing-items for SOS-situations. I only use them, (and your pawns also only use them in that situation) if I'm injured to the red part, though, and to get to 100% again. (After the fight, when the mage casts anydome and heals the white part.) You need many group-healing-items to get your group constantly to 100% all the time. And they're heavy... too heavy!.

In the late game, when you get level 3 BB-Armor and with luck the healing-bonus-enchantments, then the Anydome-spell gets obsolete. But it is a long way until then... (Or you must stick to rented pawns with such equipment, of course... But I rather have the control of my healings myself, without staying near the healing-pawns all the time.)

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

The Legion's Might is another one of my pet peeve's. I get its appeal, but it is a pretty worthless staff when it comes to damage. It does 1000 less damage than the Dominion Claw when both are fully upgraded. Its alright sub level 50, but it is still giving up damage compared to even something like the Golden Claw. The Golden Claw can inflict silince which isn't great, but its not useless either. I don't know if I have ever seen a mage with GDF Rusted Staff. Its my go to weapon behind the Blackwing Bow as MA. When I play as a Sorcerer or Mage, I split it about 50/50 between the Rusted staff and the lvl3 bbi staff. HFB with a rusted staff punches way harder than they should given the numbers. Have never seen a pawn use it.

As far as the level 2-3 bbi armor, I don't wear it nor does my pawn(usually). Its overused and not neccessary. I pack him with a 100 potent greenwarish and 100 large mushrooms along with some other things. He has a 120kg carrying capacity and he could carry double that and still have room for more. I pack 50 of each on the other 2 pawns and 30 of each on my arisen. So that is 230 of potent greenwarish + 230 large mushrooms. If something happens to one or both of the pawns and I can go to the next rift stone and rehire them. I have enough healing on my pawn alone to give to the other pawns and continue on. Its pretty rare that we go through even 50 of the potent greenwarish on a run.

[ctcc42]

I havnt gotten on well with mage pawns. Their support abilities, and even their offensive abilities just take to long.

So I load up on pots, and take a team of rangers with me to everything. Thats been working well for me no matter what vocation i switch my arison to.

Of course I only discoverd this game a couple of months ago so maybe I am playing it wrong. But all rangers, or three ranger pawns and a mystic knight arisen has seen me through everything.

[Migromul]

@Fredericks: Yes, the LM-Staff isn't strong. BUT as I said I don't use my mage as a DD. So no need for high magic to deal damage. And, as I also have said, my arisen is a short one (short enough for goblin-holes) so, I don't have the weight limit for 200 curatives. I even don't have that much!. (ca. 40 potent greenwarish and ca. 20 large mushrooms on the store atm.)

For me a fight can be done anyway. Perhaps it takes a bit longer, but I don't need to farm hundreds of curatives. (or spend tenthousand of gold, just for that. I play normal, atm, so I don't have THAT much gold.)
Just get your mage high halidome and silence-immune, and you don't have to bother with any dangerous debilations but petrifying and lower-stats, too. (drenched isn't a dangerous debilation, and I never ever got tarred, yet...)

And with the utilarian-inclination as the second one (and neither nexus nor guardian as any) my mage casts healing only AFTER a combat. I have Aquisitor as first and utilarian as second inclnation. Any white part is easily healed, without using hundreds of healing-items...

Also: where is the fun, if a fight isn't challenging anymore? Most fights aren't that challenging anyway, ragardless of mage or not.

If YOU play a mage of course, the LM-Staff is useless. Only pawns are resurrected.

You have 120 kg limit? and then you're overcumbered or what weight status do you have with that much? My pawn can have 35 for "very light" if the sinew is equipped. I have her larger than me, but not THAT large...

I can carry 10... (without sinew) or 30 (with sinew) for the "very light"-status. I don't have any BBI-Armor with bonus-enchantments... Nor do I have the leg-strength-augment (or the slot for that).
I even don't have sinew equipped with my arisen, because I prefer other augments atm.

Also: I equip a weapon, and stick with it, normally. The only exception is, when I play one of the hybrids. But even then, I only use one weapon of each type. As I said: I don't have that much weight-limit... (and I can't stand switching weapons mid-fight, constantly...)

[Fredericks of Cursewood]

His total capacity is 120kg. Highest weight class + Sinew. (100kg + 20kg). If I load him up with the 100+100+ 5 light cures + weapons + armor = 53kg(Light)

He is considered light up to 65kg. From 65 - 90kg is Average. 90 - 105kg is Heavy. 105 - 120kg is Very Heavy.