In Dragon's Dogma 2, Pawns serve as valuable allies, assisting players in combat and exploration and enriching the gameplay. You can tailor your party for a well-rounded gaming experience by leveraging the six diverse Vocations available to pawns, with each Vocation offering unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

Following the tutorial, you can choose from four Starter Vocations for your main Pawn. As the game advances, you can unlock two Advanced Vocations via a Vocation Maister or by completing quests. Selecting or changing your Pawn's Vocation demands a strategic approach to complement your playstyle, focusing on skills, weapon types, and combat roles. Below is a ranking of Pawn Vocations based on effective and overall combat efficiency.

6 Thief

Starter Vocation

The Thief Vocation stands out as a dynamic melee starter class that focuses on dexterity, speed, and agility. Thieves excel in dodging attacks and executing quick, successive dagger strikes and thrive in fast-paced, close-range combat. Their ability to capitalize on staggered or incapacitated enemies underscores their opportunistic fighting style, making them highly effective.

Thieves are less suited as pawns than other Vocations due to the AI's struggle with their intricate and rapid maneuvers. Their ability to climb onto larger creatures for critical hits, which demands tremendous stamina, often exceeds the AI's tactical planning, leading to imprudent stamina use and increased vulnerability. However, in a player's hands, the Thief's skill set offers significant potential and utility, showcasing its true effectiveness when directly controlled.

In Dragon's Dogma 2, the Thief Vocation uniquely provides the ability to dodge attacks. This is best suited for player-controlled characters who can fully leverage this defensive maneuver.

5 Archer

Starter Vocation

Archers excel in long-range combat, wielding their bows to strike enemies from afar. Capable of firing on the move, they deliver quick arrows and pinpoint enemy weak spots with accuracy. Additionally, Archers can debilitate adversaries, making them more vulnerable to subsequent attacks. Their repertoire of special arrows and skills significantly boosts their tactical edge in combat.

While Archers boast agility and excel in ranged combat in DD2, their limited defense requires strategic from allies and continuous movement to stay out of harm's way. Given that pawns are meant to the player rather than require protection, the vulnerabilities inherent to the Archer Vocation render them less effective than pawns. Players who prefer a ranged approach to combat may find this Vocation more rewarding when directly controlled.

For your pawns, range-based Vocations like the Sorcerer, which delivers substantial damage and exhibits less vulnerability in your party, are preferable to Archers. Opting for a Sorcerer pawn allows enhanced without the constant concern for their protection in combat.

4 Fighter

Starter Vocation

The Fighter Vocation is a cornerstone melee class in Dragon's Dogma 2. It focuses on close-quarters combat and strong defense. Armed with one-handed weapons and shields, Fighters are adept at confronting enemies directly, absorbing and parrying attacks, and delivering potent counterstrikes. Their effectiveness is highlighted when they capitalize on staggered enemies or exploit the weaknesses of disabled monsters, demonstrating their combat mastery.

Fighter pawns excel as tanks, ing playable characters by absorbing enemy attacks and protecting allies. Their strategic positioning and advanced shield techniques, developed as the game progresses, enhance the party's defense. With skills like enemy taunting, Fighter pawns effectively draw aggression away, enabling players to concentrate on offensive strategies. This makes them invaluable for maintaining party balance and focusing on damage delivery.

3 Sorcerer

Advanced Vocation

Unlocking the Sorcerer Vocation requires traversing Dragon's Dogma 2's map to Vernworth and completing the 'Vocation Frustration' quest. When chosen for your central pawn, it enables using offensive magick. As advanced spellcasters, Sorcerers wield architraves to cast potent area-effect spells from afar, demanding precise timing and significant stamina.

Despite their formidable offensive power, sorcerers face challenges like low defense and susceptibility to spell interruption by enemy strikes. Much like Archers, they rely on a ive team and careful positioning to mitigate these risks, allowing them to safely cast their stamina-intensive, long-charge spells. These vulnerabilities are a minor trade-off for their ability to significantly boost damage output in combat, making a Sorcerer pawn a valuable asset to your party.

Choosing a Sorcerer as your main Pawn is ideal for long-range , offering complete customization of their skills, loadout, and equipment. Unlike extra pawns hired from the Rift, whose augments you can't select, your main Pawn can be tailored precisely to your strategy. This control ensures your main Sorcerer Pawn aligns perfectly with your needs, avoiding the uncertainty of relying on a randomly found Sorcerer whose optimization by their creator might not meet your requirements.

Optimize your Sorcerer Pawn by selecting Salamander as a critical Weapon Skill. This spell casts a snake-like flame trail that burns everything in its path, lingering to inflict ongoing damage. It's a powerful choice for consistent damage, and upgrading to its advanced form, High Salamander, enhances its effectiveness.

When paired with the Catalysis Augment, it boosts damage against enemies with elemental vulnerabilities, akin to the Mage's ability to exploit similar weaknesses. This combination is particularly effective against fire-susceptible foes like ogres, amplifying the damage they receive.

2 Mage

Starter Vocation

The Mage Vocation is a versatile option for Pawns in Dragon's Dogma 2, excelling in and offense from a distance. Wielding staves, Mages master magick to heal allies and unleash substantial elemental damage over broad areas. Their ability to levitate and bestow elemental enhancements on allies' weapons highlights their critical role in enhancing a party's overall effectiveness and adaptability.

Having a Pawn as a Mage is essential for any party due to its invaluable utility. Their healing abilities allow players to concentrate on attacking while their protective shields can absorb significant damage. Additionally, Mages can enchant weapons with elemental properties, exploiting enemy vulnerabilities to enhance your team's damage output. Without a Mage, surviving challenging encounters becomes a greater struggle, making the game's challenges more daunting.

Mages possess a resourceful skill set that includes levitating to otherwise inaccessible chests and ladders, retrieving them, or knocking them down to enable your ascent.

Opting for a Mage as an extra Pawn rather than a main one is recommended, given their primary role in protective over damage output. Mages demand less customization, making allocating a main Pawn slot for a Mage less efficient. A tank-based character benefits more select customization and is a superior main Pawn choice.

Additionally, Mages equipped with essential skills are readily available at the Rift, making it easy to integrate their ive capabilities into your party without dedicating your main Pawn to this role.

1 Warrior

Advanced Vocation

In Dragon's Dogma 2, completing the 'Vocation Frustration' quest unlocks the Warrior Vocation for your Pawns, offering an advanced melee option beyond the Fighter class. Warriors handle massive two-handed greatswords and hammers, trading speed for powerful, sweeping attacks that excel in crowd control by plowing through enemy ranks with formidable force.

Warriors set aside the Fighter's shield in favor of heavy armor and resilience, offering a more offensive stance with the ability to taunt and confront multiple adversaries. This Vocation enhances the Fighter, blending tank-like durability with significant offensive prowess, allowing players to concentrate on dealing damage.

With a skill set that combines powerful attacks with tactical advantages, Warriors stand out as an ideal choice for a main Pawn, providing customizable control akin to a Sorcerer's.

Customizing your Warrior Pawn to include Skyward/Heavensward Slash is crucial for its high damage output and strong stagger capabilities. Due to its quick charge and efficient parrying tactics, Skyward Slash is more stamina-efficient, faster, and generally more effective than Knoll Breaker.

The Skyward/Heavensward Slash skill, when used in conjunction with the Repulse Core Skill, can significantly disrupt enemies' attacks against your Pawn.

For Warriors, the Impact Augment is invaluable, as it increases their ability to successfully push and pull targets upon grabbing hold of them. This enhances their ability to manipulate enemies by improving overall knockdown capabilities while preserving health and endurance in battle. Additionally, equipping your Warrior with the Provocation Augment makes them a more effective tank, drawing enemy attention away from the party and boosting overall team defense.

The Best Party Composition In Dragon's Dogma 2

RageGamingVideos provides an in-depth guide for optimizing party composition and pawn utility in Dragon's Dogma 2. The recommended party setup includes at least one Mage for and healing, alongside one Warrior for tanking and crowd control, with the remaining slots filled based on personal playstyle preferences.

Incorporating a Mage and a Warrior, whether as main or secondary pawns, ensures a well-rounded gameplay experience. The channel also recommends various party compositions that encom all fundamental combat styles for a balanced approach.

The optimal setup in Dragon's Dogma 2 depends on the Arisen's chosen Vocation. With access to Hybrid Vocations, you can be more selective regarding your fighting style. You can then choose pawns to complement your skillset and strategically provide in areas where you lack proficiency, enhancing overall team collaboration.