So I've been testing out inclination combos for my Sorcerer and I've hit a wall. I recently fought a Drake and my pawn had Challenger and Utilitarian as her primary and secondary. The fight wasn't difficult, as I've bet this Drake before, but my pawn would stand right in front of the Drake and begin to cast a spell as if she were a Scather. Although she landed quite a few good hits, standing that close to something that strong meant that I had to revive her. The fight went from being fun to incredibly tedious. My first battle with the Drake took a little longer due to my low level, but my Pawn-- who was a healer/Mage -- managed to keep her distance. Her inclination at that time was Medicant and Guardian.

What's the best Inclination for Sorcerers?

Update: I spent a few hours testing the rest of the inclination combos, and Utilitarian and Scather (in order of primary and secondary) are a good match for Sorcerer.

I'm actually thinking about changing my main pawn. Hes gotten to the point where as a warrior he is no long all that useful. Too slow for normal combat.

@oulzac: I don't like the Warrior class. I only recruit Fighters now.

Ya, I liked it at first because he was one or two hit killing most things. Now at level 41 with me as a Magic Archer and using a Mage and a Fighter as the sub pawns, hes useless. He hardly hits anyone because his swings take so long. I might change him to a Fighter or a Sorcerer I think.

Maybe not a Sorcerer as he is a big ol dumb loot hauler. He might not manage stamina so well with magic.

I roll with two Fighters and a Sorcerer (Main Pawn) and I'm an Assassin. I like the Warrior pawns because of the Shield Summon ability.

@BraveToaster: Do you find yourself switching pawns constantly due to outleveling them? Do you find yourself engaging in a lot of mixing and matching depending on the situation?

And not to hijack the thread, but what's your take on the game in general? Patrick's review is putting me off a bit- i can deal w/ janky camera and some screen tearing, but re-spawning enemies and a static world (according to Patrick) give me greater pause.

@stryker1121: I didn't read Patrick's review. There is screen-tearing on the Xbox version and hopefully it gets patched. I don't mind re-spawning enemies because I like the game's combat. I just finished fighting the same Drake a third time so I could gather materials.

As for the pawns, a lot of people have used my pawns, so I have a ton of rift crystals at my disposal (100,000+). I use those rift crystals to hire pawns that are at least 10 levels higher than me. I don't have to constantly switch out Pawns because I make sure I check each Pawn's inclination before I hire them. Some people don't know what they're doing with their main Pawns. You may hire a high-level pawn, but their inclination can make them useless. As I stated in the comment above yours, those are the classes that I roll now. I haven't had to change it up because it's pretty balanced.

@stryker1121: Your "sub-pawns" do not level up with you so you are basically forced to update your two follower pawns every few levels. Fortunately your main pawn gains levels just as you do. The game is a well made RPG. The fluffy parts (story, world exploration, general lore) of the RPG genre that other games seem to do excellently (Skirim or KoA:R) but DD falls a little short. On the other hand, the fundamentals (combat, strategy, abilities) that are generally secondary in other RPGs is the main attraction here. I kinda get the feeling that it took some of the best parts of JRPGs and mashed it together with parts from wRPGs. Unfortunately, they did not necessarily nail every aspect. If you like RPGs, then you will like this game.

@BraveToaster: Im in the same boat as you. I am a Ranger while my main pawn is a mage. I had no idea that the inclination part was actually useful. Just thought of it as a minor tweak that you could do to your pawn. My mage was mainly set to be a Medicant but I have found that he heals way to often while not applying weapon buffs or using other spells nearly enough. It's made me almost want to switch to mage just so I can control which buffs to use when. Angers me to no end when fighting goblins or undead not to get a fire buff but instead get the cold buff.

@Patman99: Yes, the inclinations are very important. If you want your Mage to use more buffs, you could change your primary to Utilitarian and secondary to Medicant. Also, make sure that your tank pawns have the proper inclination, or you'll end up with a fighter with Medicant and Acquisitor. I hired a tank that did nothing but gather items in the middle of a fight.

@BraveToaster: Yeah, I had a fighter that just ran around collecting every piece of trash he could fight. When the other 3 of us were about to die, he would swoop in and take two swipes with his sword and then run off to collect more rocks and human skulls. I made sure to send him away asap and gave all the rocks and skulls he collected to his owner as a nice "fuck you". He was great when we were just travelling because he would always get the shit I missed but when it came to fighting he was functionally useless.

I also tend to hire pawns that are at least 10 levels higher then me. And roll with them for a long time. Then switch them out for 2 more 10 levels higher.

I currently go with a game and fighter for them. But that may change once I change my main pawn. I have also yet had a "bad" pawn. As I too pay attention and pick the ones I use very carefully. I am level 41 right now and have only hired 7 pawns. Not counting the very first one it forces on you. I go rid of that one right away. One pawn I have hired twice. The owner had leveled her up and she was above me in level again so why not. She did well and was well trained.

@BraveToaster:

Do people mind if i ask some questions about pawn system, thi seems to be as good a thread as any :)

I started playing yesterday and i probably messed up my pawn on the inclanations bit. How do you change them? I tried the chair but that only gives me one choice between utilitarian/guardian and the rest are just speech modifiers. I remember setting her to gather items even in combat by mistake at the start of the game, the dialogue options are super vague in that regard.

@oulzac: @BraveToaster: Also how are you dudes getting so many rift crystals, Patrick also mantioned this, i'm only getting a few hundred each time my pawn returns :/

Is there a way to check inclanations and/or passive skills in the sort menu when summoning?

• You change the inclination by purchasing Elixirs from the pawn who sells items next to the Rift Stone at the Encampment (the first place you go to in the game). Each Elixir costs 250 Rift Crystals.
• Like I stated earlier, you get Rift Crystals from people who borrowed your pawn. When you borrow a pawn who is a high level, it costs Rift Crystals, which go to the owner. The higher the level compared to you, the more the pawn will cost.If your pawn sucks, then no one is going to borrow it. Also enemies drop Rift Crystals and you earn them from completing quests. You're not going to get a ton of crystals at the beginning; just build up your pawn and give it time.
• You check inclination when you enter the Rift Stone. Walk up to a Pawn and speak to it. Select the button prompt designated for Details, and you'll be able to read the Pawns stats and whatnot.

@BraveToaster: You're a lifesaver thanks!

One thing i don't quite get tho is how do most people know if your pawn sucks or not in the first place in order to borrow it a lot? I mean I can see the spells/skills and go also by primary weapon damage (i guess i never paid much attention to inclanation) but the disparity seems huge, some people are getting insane amounts that they don;t know what to do with, others zilch? What's your pawn type out of interest? Because one thing i did notice is that ther are a huge amount of magic oriented pawns yet very few striders for example, could the pawn type (oversaturation/scarcity) have a lot to do with this, since my pawn is a mage, it kind of fits this theory.

Also does it matter if you are offline/online? I assumed not initially, but I favourited some pawns i wanted to hire but lacked the crystals to do so, an hour later the search would not come up with any of them.

@Tennmuerti: You can tell if a pawn isn't very good by their stats, armor, and resistances. When I want a specific class, I compare each pawn, and go for the best I can find. My pawn type of interest are Fighters. My main is a Sorcerer and I'm an Assassin.

I'm not sure about the scarcity of specific classes, I only limit my search to Fighters, since I have the magic aspect covered.

I need a little more clarification with your online/offline question. If there's a pawn you really want, just remember the owner's Gamertag and search that way. I've seen some of the pawns that I've used walking around Gran Soren.

@BraveToaster:

Hmmm I guess I did not look at the pawns i'm hiring that carefully. It's just such a bother, first you have to filter, then you have to guess 5 based on their primary/secondary skills, then summon them, then look in detail at each one of them, bleh. So i just picked 5 and chose the best one from those in terms of skills/damage. Not that pawns are a problem atm, after getting past 20 my main character isn't having any issues any more with as a sword an shield class, as long as i get a weapon buff from my main pawn it's all easy now. I'm having to sell healing items just to clear out inventory periodically :P

For that other question, I put a few pawns on my favourite list. But when i came back some time later and did a search for favourite pawn none of them showed up 9except the one i marked as favourite at that time)

@Tennmuerti: I'm not sure how the favorite system works.

I have found that to make them stick to your favorite list, you have to favorite them while using them, before dismissing them. Those are the only ones that show up on my list. If I favorite one that is not in my party at the time I do it, it will never show up on my favorites list.

@BraveToaster: @oulzac: Thanks again fellas!

Here is something odd. Before I switched my Pawn from Warrior to Fighter, I noticed his inclinations were blank. Not sure how that happened. But that would explain why he became so useless.

General tip;

To set a pawn's inclination to how you want them buy them from the rift shop. To have one as your first buy two and for your second buy one. Use the second one first and then use the first one's ssecond.

General tip;

To set a pawn's inclination to how you want them buy them from the rift shop. To have one as your first buy two and for your second buy one. Use the second one first and then use the first one's ssecond.

@crazyleaves: I still need to messy around with this a bit more as it seems you can't set some inclination to your primary. I'll update when I've had some time to do this.