In Dragon’s Dogma, the hero will find that leveling up is easy. As the hero fights monsters and finishes quests, he will gain experience points and level up. However, leveling up does not mean the hero’s skills set will increase, or that his skills will be upgraded automatically. This will guide the hero and his main pawn in leveling up and increasing or upgrading their skills so they will be more effective as their journey in Dragon’s Dogma continues. A mage hero and a fighter pawn will be used as examples here.
Dragon’s Dogma Hero and Pawn Stats
The hero (and his pawns) can be defined by various important stats, namely health points, stamina points, vocation rank and discipline points. As the hero levels up, so will these stats increase. Health points increase means the hero will be harder to defeat. Stamina points increase means the hero will have more stamina to use skills more often. Vocation rank increase means the hero will have access to more skills and more skills upgrade. Discipline points increase means the hero can spend more discipline points on more powerful skills that require more points.
Furthermore, the hero’s offenses will be increased as he levels up. The hero’s offenses can be divided into primary and secondary offenses. These offenses include stats like strength, magick, stagger power, etc. Similarly, the hero’s defenses like magick defenses, piercing resistance, elemental resistance, etc will be increased with level up.
Dragon’s Dogma Skills Level Up Using the Mage as an Example
The most important attributes to level up and upgrade in Dragon’s Dogma, and obviously the most fun are the skills. The skills can be purchased with discipline points at the inn within Fountain Square at Gran Soren. Skills are divided into primary, secondary, core skills and augments.
Primary skills are really dependent on the hero’s weapon of choice. If the hero’s vocation is the mage, then the staff will be his weapon of choice. With the staff, the mage can purchase the following skills upon level up (just some examples) –
- High Ingle – upgrade on the fire spell Ingle (looses a ball of fire that explodes upon contact, engulfing both the target and surrounding foes).
- Levin – smites the enemy from above with forks of lightning, especially effective at driving foes out of hiding.
- Frazil – inflicts cold damage on the enemy.
- Silentium – invokes a magical aura around the user that silences foes who enter.
- Blearing – blinds foes who enter the field of magick.
- Comestion – a very important spell for the mage hero to purchase and use for large creatures like the cyclop and the ogre.
The mage’s core skills include levitate who allow him to levitate a few feet above the ground. The mage’s augment skills include (not an exclusive list) –
- Equanimity – amplify the magick when standing at death’s door.
- Beatitude – increases curative magick effects.
- Intervention – reduces cumulative damage when debilitated by 5 archmagicks.
Dragon’s Dogma Fighter Sword and Shield Skills
As the fighter pawn, the fighter can improve his sword skills or purchase the following skills on level up –
- Burst strike – cover a certain amount of distances before visiting a powerful blow upon foes.
- Broad cut – cuts a broad swipe with the blade whilst falling back to avoid attacks.
- Tusk toss – traces a grand skyward arc with the blade sending lightweight foes into the air.
- Skyward lash – looses a flurry of skyward slashes well suited to bringing flying foes to ground.
- Flesh skewer – thrusts the blade into the target’s body pinning them in place while raining further blows upon them.
- Hindsight slash – ducks backward before charging into the enemy, delivering a blow; the pawn can use it as an evasive maneuver to increase power.
The fighter can also upgrade his shield skills by choosing the following –
- Shield strike – strikes a blow with the shield that causes little damage but forces the target to drop their guard.
- Cymbal attack – unleashes a barrage of attacks using the shield.
- Shield summons – raps the shield loudly to attract the attention of nearby foes.
Dragon’s Dogma Combine Skills and Level Up to Create the Ultimate Party
Combine these primary and secondary skills with core skills and augments and create the ultimate fighter and mage. The ultimate party should consist of the leveled up hero and pawns complementing each other with their skills and expertise. Tweak the hero and main pawn and enlist the other two pawns so that they all complement one another. When attacking new monsters like the ogre, and the party finds that even with their skills they are going nowhere in terms of defeating the new monsters, then it’s time to level up and purchase or upgrade more skills.