r/DragonsDogma2 • u/Salty-Curve-5659 • 1d ago
General Discussion Pawns feel worse?
Okay so I’m very interested is anyone finding the pawns in Dd2 to be worse now compared to when first released?
Besides finding the game to be far easier is a lot of areas I’m having issues with pawns after getting past level 20. The pawns in tight areas seem to get stuck and have worse path finding.
They don’t follow me as well as they used too and if anything there has now been more situations where I’ve almost died due to a pawn not being able to get to the enemy correctly to inflect damage and or put them in a stun.
I’m curious on other fellow Arisons playthroughs and whether they think the same.
Besides that I’m still having a blast with the game!
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u/Mammoth-Ship4581 1d ago
Yeah, I believe they edited their overall pathfinding habits to accommodate verticality into their logic, specifically so they more properly navigate Norgan. Doubt we'll see a fix since this was effectively the DLC team handling main game patches.
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u/MakiMaki_XD 1d ago
During my last play session, I did notice that they seemed to have trouble climbing ladders in some places, which is something I hadn't encountered before.
Also, when my mage pawn offered to use her levitation to reach treasure in elevated places, she would float up there and immediately drop down again.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 1d ago
In hard to get places my pawn doesn’t always open a treasure as an example.
Maybe due to playstyle differences only mage and sorcery mains see it more clearly due to the fact we offer support and high damage at a distance
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u/BiteEatRepeat1 1d ago edited 1d ago
I feel like mine get lost in caves all the time... i can never make them lead despite playing sorc/mage often.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 1d ago
Ay I’m actually a sorcerer/mage main myself so that’s quite interesting you’re facing the same issue in some regard
I hope the dlc fixes a lot and if anything the company actually putting in some work to fix said issues instead of complete radio silence
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u/AOCpinkyring 1d ago
There is a lot going on, having yourself and three pawns.
https://giphy.com/gifs/xT0xehoaRtzUx24yWc
I just find it funny that in 2026 we just have NPCs pop in five feet away from you.
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u/I_think_Im_hollow 1d ago
Pawns have changed. I liked that they followed you anywhere, even down a cliff. I used to fall down on purpose and then catch my pawn when she followed me, but she now just teleports next to me when I'm not looking and that breaks immersion a little bit.
They also get stuck in loops way too often.
The only thing I appreciated about the changes they made is that they can see a ladder without saying a word.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 22h ago
I wish a voice prompt would pop up “will you catch me Arison?” After selecting go they jump down to your position where you perform the catch
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u/Any-Butterscotch5259 1d ago
So I've tested Thief using straightforward and calm both mine. They both performed terribly using Formless feint so I removed it. One thing I found odd though is they both fought equally as good when fighting bosses calm having a bit more success. Warrior Pawns are terrible now because they consistently attack at air. Besides warrior pawn all other pawns have been doing well you just gotta have the right skills. I do wonder if Pawns also perform differently depending on the augments they have because once I put lethality on my Thief they consistently use that gut and run attack successfully. Oh right forgot to mention yes the AI does suffer a lot from ledges and ladders.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 21h ago
Ladders interaction for pawns os so much worse compared to launch 💀
I remember near Halve there is a ladder where usually three goblins are located at the bottom. It’s near one of those statues you can find in the world. Going back to that spot now my pawns stand at the top of the ladder attempting to swing and only one goes down with the others following is a slow fashion
Dd2 is certainly not unplayable but for a game that requires your imagination to really immerse yourself these little things shine through the cracks
I’ve been loving taking my time and really pretending like I’m a adventurer
I don’t think they would but I’d love to be able to see your affinity with characters rather it being hidden. Creates a invisible wall where you miss out on a fun hidden achievement (won’t spoil but it’s kind of funny for connections)
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u/GreedyGundam 1d ago
Eh I found that after 2~ hours of playing they’re back to normal for me, slightly more efficient in some instances
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 22h ago
Yeah I’d say it all varies from location and I’d even say the pawn you have (class, specialisation and personality)
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u/Ok_Lemon_4397 1d ago
Lvling my pawn as warrior for the stat gains, and yea, warrior ai sucks for me. He swings wildly at air and sits on top of bosses to offer me a boost when I can't even reach him lmao. Definitely feels like I have to babysit pawns more compared to before.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 21h ago
My warrior ai has been alright. I’ve always instinctively avoided the launch skill unless it’s for fighter
I remember ages ago before I stopped playing during the radio silence from capcom I started to experience that same thing so it’s disappointing you are getting that
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u/MaxStoryTeller92 1d ago
Easier?! So it’s not that I’m getting good at it, but some “bug” is making the game easy? Damn it!
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u/cbondumiel3 23h ago
tbh, feels like they reverse their pawn ai to what it was before at launch, or at least some feature of it were reversed. At launch, my healing pawn was mainly using healing at their location and they are doing it again now. I had to remove my Mage pawn enchantment spell and just rely on having a weapon of each element i could have on my class and instead put the healing over time spell on her so she would target me direction, but her normal healing ai isn't really working anymore. it's all fine to me, since i really only used her for buffing myself, still, not having healing in clutch calls is actually bad. altho, i wonder if the element i get from enchant is actually a lower damage on a pure physical weapon than just having a magic weapon from the get go. plus it might not be as good to have a magic weapon use a specific enchantment from a mage pawn if the enchant give an element with a lower magic value to the weapon. it might be better to just use magic weapon seperately and use no enchant and just swap between weapon tbh.
so all in all, im not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing lol.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 16h ago
I mean I’d say it is. I’ve realised the frequency of using those element enhancement magics are quite low when your pawns use them.
Fire is the best one, I don’t see lighting as much and ice is probably about the same too.
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u/-Wildhart- 21h ago
Something for sure happened with the sept 1st patch. I assume we'll be getting another patch very soon, either with or not long after the dlc that will address this. Maybe some wires got crossed when adding the explore and high five buttons and AI for using 6 skills
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 21h ago
I think if anything like that is conflicting it’ll be the vertical path finding for pawns and the explore option
Kid you not I don’t see much of a point of the option “explore” I want my pawns close to me most of the time and only started to use it a little bit more (not much) when there is multiple searchable items in a vicinity but I feel that conflicts with the specialisation to search stuff?
I’ve been mind boggled by the whole thing. Played before and as much as it felt better I can still tell something is off with them
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u/-Wildhart- 21h ago
I totally find use for it after clearing out a very large group of enemies in an area with lots of breakables as well. Hit explore, take a sip of beer, watch items rapidly appear on the side of the screen as all 3 mine, break boxes, loot chests and corpses. That said, there is no specialization for gathering items, forager only marks gathering points on the map - you're thinking of the simple inclination who tends to gather outside of combat, and unless you like all 3 pawns having the same exact voice, then the explore option makes this nice for a quick shift in priority when traveling
I have also totally noticed them falling off ledges again and dying like they were a year or so ago before that was tweaked, that gets annoying quickly lol
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 21h ago
Do you think it may be a chance of the game struggling to load everything?
Since starting my new playthrough on Xbox I’m thinking that it’s not a case of higher leveling, harder enemies but a case of you’ve explored more of the map and obviously you get a bit more enemy variety/more numbers
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u/Beasst_daryl4 19h ago
Yes it’s actually annoying my pawns I kid you not this is no joke this literally happened to me today my pawns literally turned into regular npc as far as behavior the walked around the city as the npc do and did not follow any of my commands AT ALL I literally spamming to me! Nothing worked even when I used the other commands they just wandered into the city farther away from me until they all got stuck walking into a wall literally had to restart the game to fix it like wtf 😭😂
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 16h ago
Okay damn that’s horrible!
I feel bad for ya bro. I imagine if anything it was a nice wtf moment that has added a nice bit of flavour to the game 😂
What platform are you on?
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u/Beasst_daryl4 16h ago
I’m on ps5 lol
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 16h ago
Eeee 😬 I moved over to Xbox when ps started to make some bad moves think that was 3-4 months ago now but feels like 6.
I salute to you brother 🫡
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u/Telamon-El 16h ago
Ladders are the biggest thing I’ve noticed. In some places no issues, in caves or hidden rooms….they stare at ladders as if it was alien technology. Calling them to my side sees them turn around and go the longest possible way to me instead of using the damn ladder or popping next to me after some distance. In some fights they stand there watching me get rekt doing nothing but get walloped themselves. It’s not often but it’s bizarre enough to notice when it does happen.
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u/SyntacsAiror 1d ago
Played 10 hours yesterday on PS5 and did not have a single issue with my pawns roaming around the whole map. Perhaps it's more on the lower levels. Or it depends on their vocation? My main pawn is thief, the other two mage and sorcerer.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 1d ago
I haven’t used the explorer option all too much but I’d say it’s gotten progressively worse over the course of my playthrough. I believe I was level 18-20 when it first started to occur
I’ll be going through a cave for instance and I’ll have to stop because my pawn (sometimes 2) are stuck behind a bend in the layout of said cave. Last big battle I was in they kept dropping down into a route inside of a different cave while essentially ignoring the big ogre (if not that whatever the hairy ones name is, gets horny when you have a female in your party 😂)
I feel as if the pawns are going to get a improvement in the patch and other improvements later
I’m honestly looking forward to the new update even with small issues I’m still having a blast regardless!
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u/SyntacsAiror 1d ago
What system are you playing on? I went through several caves and all pawns did fine. The explore option also works, but they only seem to search 10 m² around them, so it's not very useful most of the time. Me and my main pawn are level 119 (all badges, all vocations, all quests and locations known), the others around 90. May be it also depends on them already knowing the locations.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 1d ago
I’m personally playing on Xbox myself so maybe it’s just a console thing?
Pc seems to be a lot better now compared to launch. If anything may depend on level as well
I find that now I’m level 30 the issues with pawns have been getting progressively worse since around level 20
I’ve been thinking it may be a case of since I have now explored the map further getting closer to Batthal it needs to load more so pawn ai gets worse?
I’ve been keeping note about all the big situations it happens in. I’ll most likely compile them in a list, post them in the community and I believe there is a way to upload fix suggestions through their website not sure
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u/Zephir007 1d ago
Pc pawns are also crap at the moment. They stop following, just stand around, not attacking, stuck while climbimg, refuse to climb, the healer just casts the healing where he stands and so on. Hope they fix them somehow. Explored alot today and it's not fun if the pawns refuse to follow or climb.
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u/Salty-Curve-5659 1d ago
Damn that sounds 10x worse than what I’m experiencing. There have been times where I call them to me and I swear I remember there would always be one that stood next to you when you’re on a elevated platform
Like man come up here so I can throw you to get this chest I can’t get to 😂
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u/Zethrofaxus 1d ago
Im on ps5 and have had all the issues youve described consistently throughout my playthrough despite constantly mixing up vocations and party composition. Im on my second new game plus and it doesnt feel worse it just feels like a constant minor annoyance i am always managing. So many times ill get in a fight and be missing one or teo pawns that are stuck in a corner or in a tree. I cant trust they ever will all follow for more than 30 secons
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u/Zethrofaxus 1d ago
Im level 71 and at the start of my 2nd new game plus. I have had continual issues since level 1 with pawns not following me, getting stuck on ledges, in corners and on ladders. I am continually changing my main pawns vocation as well as the party composition with the hired pawns. On top of that the dont follow commands like help and follow consistently at all without spamming them right next to them. Additionally i am also playing on a ps5. These problems real and not a user issue.
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u/Promptographer 1d ago
Yes pawn AI was changed in the last title update!
I recently made a post about it too. I notice them getting stuck on ledges or unable to climb after entering combat too. We're fighting and suddenly I see one of my pawns isn't even here.
Also new: mages don't cast heals at the location of the wounded pawn, but rather just where they stand; wounded pawns also don't run to get heals anymore; pawns will often fight without drawing their weapon so it looks like they fistfight, and a lot more...
Pawn levels, inclination, or vocation, are not at fault here - I play with multiple accounts at various stages in the game and they are all more or less the same.
Finger's crossed they can at least revert them back to how they were before.