Dragon's Dogma

Zloth said:

Now THIS is what I call a spell!

https://youtu.be/hGC1Uol1MHs

(I can't imagine handing that kind of power to an NPC)

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That's pretty awesome.

I hope pawns eventually get powerful enough to use spells like that so I can see them while playing as a warrior.

Well, judging by how many sorcerer pawns I see show up, I'm guessing they will do a decent job.

The pawns sure got better once I started getting up into the late 30's - including my own, actually. I guess the people that are still playing at that level are willing to learn what works and what doesn't.

One weird thing about the game that is more implied than explained is that you have two save slots. One gets used every time you switch zones, complete a minor quest, or use the option to save the game. The other is the 'check point save' and gets used when you go to Pawnland and switch pawns, when you sleep at an in, or (I think) when you finish a major quest. If you find yourself in a really bad jam, you can go back to your check point save to get out of it.

Okay, don't really know what I'm doing. I want to build a Magic Archer and everyone says take a mage 1-10 and then go sorcerer the rest of the way....um, I want to take Magic Archer, so don't I have to take that class? Confused....

I don't know what people are telling you that for, all I did with my character is make a fighter till level ten then went assassin and never looked back or switched to anything else. I was in my sixties by the time I'd had my fill of Bitter Isle, and I can faceroll just about anything that jumps me in there. I've heard other people say you should switch classes but a mage character is just a person that's afraid to melee, so I'd never play that given a choice. Had a mage pawn that did the healing and whatnot for us.

crpgnut said:

Okay, don't really know what I'm doing. I want to build a Magic Archer and everyone says take a mage 1-10 and then go sorcerer the rest of the way….um, I want to take Magic Archer, so don't I have to take that class? Confused….

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They do that to min-max all the way up to level 200 which is totally pointless if you want to play a Magic Archer while playing through the game. There is no pre-requisite for the classes, you just need to reach Gran Soren Inn via the main quest and buy the class you want via the change vocation menu on the Innkeeper.

If you need more points to buy skills or classes, just kill low level enemies (goblins/wolves).

Okay, so if I change vocation to a mage-archer, can I still buy mage skills or am I stuck buying MA skills instead? Basically, I want a bow to equip in my 2nd weapon slot as they seem to do more damage than a staff and are easier to aim out of combat. I can't equip bows as a mage. Can I swap to MA, equip a bow and buy a couple skills, then immediately switch to sorcerer. Can I unlock all of the base classes and then just make sure the last one is sorcerer? That way, I'd be able to use anything in a pinch….

I ask stupid questions because I never play these types of games I'm kinda hoping somebody makes a mod that allows all 3 of your pawns to be "main" pawns. Then it becomes a 4-person party game. I'd rather build a good group than try to find one. Since I only play offline, all of the pawns suck. They have base gear and no thought has gone into their creation.

crpgnut said:

Okay, so if I change vocation to a mage-archer, can I still buy mage skills or am I stuck buying MA skills instead? Basically, I want a bow to equip in my 2nd weapon slot as they seem to do more damage than a staff and are easier to aim out of combat. I can't equip bows as a mage. Can I swap to MA, equip a bow and buy a couple skills, then immediately switch to sorcerer. Can I unlock all of the base classes and then just make sure the last one is sorcerer? That way, I'd be able to use anything in a pinch….

I ask stupid questions because I never play these types of games I'm kinda hoping somebody makes a mod that allows all 3 of your pawns to be "main" pawns. Then it becomes a 4-person party game. I'd rather build a good group that try to find one. Since I only play offline, all of the pawns suck. They have base gear and no thought has gone into their creation.

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As far as I can tell you can't continue to advance once you switch. Augments and cross class skills will carry over though.

I just started over again, now that I kind of have an idea how things work. I'm going max out ranks in fighter to get health and carry weight boost augments that will carry over then I'll either go straight to assassin or I'll grab enough ranks in strider first to get stamina boost augment then go to assassin. Still undecided.

As for pawn, I don't know what selection you get offline as I've only played online. Online pawns however have been nothing but great for me. They have a lot of knowledge and variety. I haven't seen any crazy immersion breaking ones or super over powered ones with cheats. Also many are big hulking male brutes. As you said there was a shortage of offline. Anyway you can switch between online and offline on the fly so no reason to check it out to see which you prefer IMO.

Taller characters walk faster and heavy characters can carry a lot more so many people make larger pawns to use as pack mules and tanks.

I agree 4 person party would be ideal.

crpgnut said:

Okay, so if I change vocation to a mage-archer, can I still buy mage skills or am I stuck buying MA skills instead? Basically, I want a bow to equip in my 2nd weapon slot as they seem to do more damage than a staff and are easier to aim out of combat. I can't equip bows as a mage. Can I swap to MA, equip a bow and buy a couple skills, then immediately switch to sorcerer. Can I unlock all of the base classes and then just make sure the last one is sorcerer? That way, I'd be able to use anything in a pinch…..

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You can only change vocation at Gran Soren Inn. You can't switch in the field at will. You only buy the class once and can use passives (aka augments) from any classes and skills are weapons dependent more than class depend, if a class can use a skill from another class you don't have to buy it again. You can only purchase stuff for your current vocation.

The MA bow skills are spells unique to the class, they require a magic bow to cast. On their primary slot they can use daggers or a staff. The MA staff skills overlap with the Mage's skill list (the damage oriented ones), so if you already bought them you don't need to buy them again.

People talk about leveling as sorcerer and later changing to MA due to the bonus stats on level up.
Sorcerer gets 5 Magick Attack per level from 11-100, MAs get 3 Magic Attack.

In 90 levels (11-100) that means you will have 180 less magic attack and you dmg will be reduced a lot due to the game mechanics (resistance and armor reduces damage in a 1 to 1 basis - if the enemy have 600 resistance and you magic attack plus attack modifier is 650, you do 50 dmg. If you attack is 830, you do 230 dmg.)

If isnt really required unless you want to do post-game dragons dogma content. The longer you take to kill the big bosses, the harder the fight gets, so every bonus dmg counts.

A few more dozen posts from you folks, and I'll figure out how to play this

I tried going to rescue that girl from the home village and got wiped by the bandits at level 9. The boss types weren't taking any damage from my spells and my 3 pawns died horribly. I started over, but haven't gotten that quest to rescue Quina this time. I haven't done the hydra battle, so I wonder if that triggers her quest...

The only thing that really keeps me playing this, is all of the hidden stuff. I haven't really found any armor or weapons though, just crafting stuff. Tell me that there is a lot of armor and weapons hidden out there somewhere and it's not all in the stores.

Okay, online pawns require RC to purchase, right? I have almost no RC at level 9. Maybe 200 or less. I assume that RC is mostly generated by your main pawn being used by others online. Are there free online pawns that cost no RC? What offline RC opportunities are there? As long as I don't have to talk to anyone, I don't mind being online. I have the bandwidth....

Darius Rivenguard said:

People talk about leveling as sorcerer and later changing to MA due to the bonus stats on level up.
Sorcerer gets 5 Magick Attack per level from 11-100, MAs get 3 Magic Attack.

In 90 levels (11-100) that means you will have 180 less magic attack and you dmg will be reduced a lot due to the game mechanics (resistance and armor reduces damage in a 1 to 1 basis - if the enemy have 600 resistance and you magic attack plus attack modifier is 650, you do 50 dmg. If you attack is 830, you do 230 dmg.)

If isnt really required unless you want to do post-game dragons dogma content. The longer you take to kill the big bosses, the harder the fight gets, so every bonus dmg counts.

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This was a fabulous explanation. Thanks!

So my problem with the bandits on the road towards Quina is their armor/stats are greater than my damage. At least I can work on mitigating this. So what do the %'s mean for types of damage. I know some of my armor says 3 or 4% vs fire. Let's say my magic defense is 200 and I have a 3% fire resist on the gear. Does that mean I only take fire damage if it does more than 206 points?

Dont skip Quina´s quest or it will lock some quests later (and a piece of an area).

That high level bandit is hard, you can try to run past him or throw him down the cliff

At the start of the game, night time is usually bad, the enemies are higher level.

About pawns, you only need RC if you are hiring a pawn above you level. Up to you level pawns are free. You can always have 2 extra pawn with you (they drain a little xp, but usually it is very helpful).

About armor/weapons, you can find some around besides the store bought, but they are random chance of drop from chests. You can get one or not, and that is a pain.
In the Dark Arisen area, you start getting unidentified items and have to pay RC to identify.

crpgnut said:

I haven't done the hydra battle, so I wonder if that triggers her quest…

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yes

crpgnut said:

The only thing that really keeps me playing this, is all of the hidden stuff. I haven't really found any armor or weapons though, just crafting stuff. Tell me that there is a lot of armor and weapons hidden out there somewhere and it's not all in the stores.

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Some chests drop random gear (chest refill over time might I add), some quests have gear as rewards as well.

There are two chests near the encampment. They are down the cliff (access via the beach), one or both of them have gear as loot or a very high chance of it because they always gave me some gear.

crpgnut said:

Okay, online pawns require RC to purchase, right? I have almost no RC at level 9. Maybe 200 or less. I assume that RC is mostly generated by your main pawn being used by others online. Are there free online pawns that cost no RC? What offline RC opportunities are there? As long as I don't have to talk to anyone, I don't mind being online. I have the bandwidth….

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Pawns at your level and under cost no RC. Pawns from friends (on Steam) cost no RC regardless of levels. Everything else cost RC to hire.

Oh, and rusted weapons... Rusted weapons are not useless!
After upgraded to 3 stars they can cause torpor and that is the best condition that you can put in any big enemy (and almost none is immune to it).
Enemies become easier to climb and much easier to dodge when inflicted with torpor and it stays from 20-30 secs.
A ranger pawn with a rusted longbow and tenfold flurry(or even sixfold arrow) makes some boss fights much more manageable and is one of the best cash investments in the game.

Thanks guys. Oops, I sold my rusted staff. Can staves cause torpor, with the base attack?

Should I go to BBI and run inside and see what I can find before I get killed? You get 3 free portal crystals....

BBI will eat you alive. (However, the gal there can let you change classes! It isn't just the one innkeeper now.)

This game is definitely strange when it comes to classes. I've never seen anything like it. You level up those stars on your class as you gain experience, I think it's roughly a star per level. Once you get 10 stars, all the skills of the class have opened up. You just have to have enough discipline points to buy the things.

Given that you'll probably be in your 40s by the end of the main quest line, you would have to do a lot of switching to really get yourself into trouble.

The Wikia (ugh, so many advertisements) has a list of all the skills each class can get:
Mage gets these: http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Mage#skills
Magic archer gets these: http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Magick_Archer#skills

You're going to want to concentrate on the staff skills that are on both plus whatever you need to keep yourself alive. Ingle is a great example of the former but you'll probably need the heal spell, too, even though you aren't going to be able to keep it.

Once you get to the innkeeper (DEFINITELY do that find-the-person quest first), don't change immediately. First off, you need 1500 discipline just to do the switch and you'll probably want to buy a few after the switch. Also, you'll need a magic bow. You can get one from the armorer close by but it isn't free. (I'm not sure if you get free daggers.) Once that's all set, stay the night to make a checkpoint save then do the deed. If things go badly, you can go back to your checkpoint save.

P.S. Wolves hunt in packs.

I ended up running like a little girl past a few of the bandits. I killed the rest. Found Selene and went back to Cassardis, then followed the cart to the town. That was dull beyond belief. Got into town and became a MA but I haven't bought a bow yet. I bought a couple skills for the bow and then dipped my toes in the dungeon under the Pawn guild. Now I'm looking for a shard to raise this kid from the dead.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game. I didn't see a bow at the armorers, but I'll go back and look again. I got lucky with the Hydra. One Grand Ingle and I hit him right in the mouth as he was spitting. Knocked his head off in 5 seconds

Be sure to grab the pretty purple light at the bottom of that spiral dungeon. Turns out that's what a port crystal looks like. (I didn't know and had to go all the way back down.) (Then got one of those Different Sky quests that sent me down again. Make that two.)

I'm curious there is a huge ramp that you travel to get to the bottom. I'm a mage with levitate.....

crpgnut said:

I ended up running like a little girl past a few of the bandits.

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So that's what's called a nightmare mode in games?