Dragon’s Dogma 2 Pawn Tilts governs how your allies act in combat and often makes the difference between a successful encounter and a miserable defeat.
You can go through the first few hours of Dragon’s Dogma 2 without thinking much about the types of pawns you’re fighting with, but matching inclinations with vocations becomes much more important once you start encountering tougher challenges.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is happy to keep you guessing about how each tilt influences the pawns. We have therefore prepared this guide explaining how pawn tilts work and the best pawn inclinations for each Vocation.
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Best Pawn Inclinations for Each Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Choosing the right inclination allows you to highlight the professional strengths of your pawns and cover their weaknesses. While some vocations only work with a specific inclination, you have a bit of flexibility with others, making recruiting pawns easier and often less expensive.
We’ve outlined our top picks for every career inclination below. Keep in mind that advanced hybrid vocations – such as Magic Archer – are reserved for Surgi, so you’ll never need to think about what type of pawn would be a good fit for these roles. If you want more help planning your main pawn, take a look at our best early game pawn building guide.
Best Pawn Tilt for Fighter
Fighting pawns should almost always lead the charge in combat. Unlike other vocations, this means there isn’t much room for variation with fighter tilts, and you’ll have to stick to Simple. Simple fighters stalk enemies, attract the attention of tough enemies, and use their most powerful skills, although often without proper planning. In my experience, their probability of hitting enemy vital points is quite low.
If you’re playing with a weaker vocation, you can try a good-hearted fighter instead. Benevolent pawns stay on your side, meaning your fighter is more likely to use their defensive skills and protect you.
Best Pawn Tilt for Warrior
Compared to fighters, warriors are more focused on hitting hard and have fewer defensive skills. You want them in the middle of any battle, especially against tough monsters with multiple health bars, so stick with Straightforward for them.
Simple works in a pinch, if you can’t find a warrior pawn with Simple, as they are more likely to rush in and attract an enemy’s attention.
Best Pawn Inclinations for the Mage
Mages have one foot in both attack and support roles, giving you some flexibility when selecting tokens. Benevolent is perfect if you’re having trouble staying alive in combat or if you find that your mage tends to set enemies on fire instead of tending to your needs. Calm mages are more likely to leave you behind and deal with enemies independently. They’re not reckless, but they probably won’t heal you unless you order them to.
That said, I’ve also found that simple mages take a middle-of-the-road approach. I played with a Simple Mage for most of the early game, and he split his time between healing and casting offensive spells without neglecting either.
Best Pawn Tilt for Wizard
Wizards are basically just stronger mages, but you’ll want to emphasize their offensive skills and let support take a backseat. Benevolent works for wizards, but only if you have no other choice. Calm is a much better option, which will help your pawn stay safe and, ideally, choose spells that target enemy weaknesses more often.
You can also opt for Simple, if you need to. Simple wizards, like simple mages, use a balanced range of skills in combat and generally don’t get flattened by a well-timed ogre’s butt crush.
Best Pawn Tilt for Thief
A thief who swoops in and attracts undue attention is a thief who ends up in the morgue more often than you’d probably like. The Vocation is fragile, so you will want to avoid simplicity and even simplicity. Calm is the ideal choice for thieves. Pawns with this inclination are more likely to avoid drawing aggro and will target enemy weak points when possible – traits that fit perfectly with how Thief Vocation plays.
Best Pawn Tilt for Archer
Archers have almost no close combat skills, so the last thing you want is for your peerless marks to rush headlong into battle and die instantly.
Calm is the strongest tilt choice for an archer, especially since it gives them a slightly higher chance of aiming and landing on enemy vital points. Calm archers also keep themselves out of danger, something you’re less likely to find with simple or caring archers.
We also have a better Archer build recommendation if you plan on having your main pawn follow this class.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Pawn Inclinations Explained
The way Dragon’s Dogma 2 explains pawn inclinations makes them sound like personality traits, which is only partly true. Pawn inclinations determine how your companions speak and behave when you are in the wild, but they also determine how pawns act in combat and whether they are likely to attack, defend, or simply attack. use their own initiative.
What Benevolent Pawns Do
Benevolent pawns fulfill a support role. They prefer to travel alongside their Arisen, meaning they won’t charge forward to search for treasure or attack enemies without you asking them.
Benevolent pawns are more likely to use healing and support skills, which is a blessing and a curse depending on the situation. In most cases, you only want a mage in a benevolent role, and even then the emphasis on defensive skills limits their usefulness in combat.
What do calm pawns do
Where Straightforward Pawns rush in where others fear to tread, Calm Pawns will carefully assess the situation before acting, and their actions are always geared toward self-preservation.
Calm pawns also have a quirk outside of combat. They will independently sort through their inventory and eliminate items deemed unnecessary without consulting you. I never understood what criteria they used to determine if something was useful, so your best bet is not to give valuable items to Calm Pawns.
What simple pawns do
Simple inclination governs exploration behavior more than combat tendencies. Simple pawns will rush around and look for points of interest. They are also more likely to point out treasure chests or collect materials and items when they find them.
The official description states that Simple Pawns will hand you items they find, although I found this to rarely happen. This is not a problem, however. You can simply remove the items you want from their inventory at any time in the item menu.
In combat, Simple Pawns behave in a manner that is difficult to describe as anything other than “normal”. They make reasonable decisions, help you if you’re hurt, retreat when things get dicey, and use a range of – mostly – clever skills that exploit the enemy’s weaknesses.
What simple pawns do
Single pawns will likely see an enemy before anyone else, and they will definitely fight with him before anyone else. Simple pawns love to be in the thick of battle and never back down, even when faced with insurmountable odds. They will target the biggest or most dangerous enemies first and leave the rest to you and your other pawns. This means they aren’t likely to use support or defensive skills, so don’t waste discipline points on those.
Good luck finding the right pawns with the right tilt for you!
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