Highlights

  • Dragon's Dogma 2 breaks RPG conventions with unique Pawn Specializations for player customization.
  • Players can obtain new Pawn Specializations - which are essentially traits - by completing side quests and raising relationships with NPCs.
  • Some Specializations, like Aphonite and Chirurgeon, provide unique benefits in battles and dialogue.

One of Dragon's Dogma 2's defining features is that it charts its own course through the open-world fantasy RPG space, subverting expectations, breaking conventions, and just generally being unafraid to do its own thing. While this has helped Dragon's Dogma 2 stand out from some hefty competition, it's also ended up putting off some players, many of whom are used to a more traditional RPG experience. While breaking tradition is one of Dragon's Dogma 2's biggest strengths, it does make it a little difficult for newcomers to hop on board, especially with the game's fairly obtuse tutorials.

In all fairness, many of Dragon's Dogma 2's core gameplay mechanics are tutorialized very clearly as soon as players stumble upon them. But for every properly tutorialized mechanic, there are another handful that go without on-screen prompts, instead requiring the player to manually search the tutorial menu for the specific entry, which can be rather difficult when players aren't sure what mechanic they've just encountered for the first time. Dragon's Dogma 2, unfortunately, has no shortage of these unexplained mechanics, and Pawn Specializations are a pretty good example of that.

Dragon's Dogma 2 player visiting an Inn
Related
The Real Threat in Dragon’s Dogma 2 Isn’t Its Monsters

Dragon's Dogma 2 certainly has plenty of challenging monsters for players to find and defeat, but an even greater foe is working behind the scenes.

Explaining Dragon's Dogma 2's Pawn Specializations

All Pawn Specializations Currently in Dragon's Dogma 2

Dragon's Dogma 2 bombards the player with a whole lot of new information right from the get-go, and with so many complex systems all at work at once, it's understandable that even a player with tens of hours in the game is still unsure how certain mechanics work. Pawn Specializations are the perfect example of this. While a Pawn's Vocation and Inclination are explained clearly to the player, Pawn Specializations aren't. Essentially, Pawn Specializations are obtainable traits that can give the player's Pawns some kind of unique ability.

As of the time of writing, there are currently a total of six Pawn Specializations in Dragon's Dogma 2:

  • Aphonite - Reduces the Pawn's talkativeness unless in dire circumstances
  • Forager - The chosen Pawn will start to mark out important enhancement materials in the environment
  • Hawker - The player gains the ability to sell items from their own inventory to the chosen Pawn
  • Chirurgeon - The Pawn can now use healing items freely in battle on both fellow Pawns and the player
  • Woodland Wordsmith - The Pawn can translate Elvish for the player
  • Logistician - The Pawn automatically crafts items using found ingredients, and can automatically swap items between inventories to help keep carry weight low

Though all Pawn Specializations grant some kind of unique benefit, the efficacy of each one is not equal. Aphonite, for instance, is a useful ability to those who are tired of hearing Dragon's Dogma 2's awkward dialogue, but it isn't nearly as helpful as some of the game's other Specializations. In fact, Aphonite can even be actively harmful to the player if they're not careful, as without constant dialogue, they'd struggle to know if their Pawn had Dragonsplague.

Chirugeon is probably one of the most useful Pawn Specializations in Dragon's Dogma 2, ensuring that the player and their party has a constant source of healing during a long battle. This Specialization becomes even more useful if the player has no Mage Pawns currently in their party. The Logistician Specialization is another incredibly useful one, negating a lot of the minor frustrations of having to manually sort inventories every time the player finds a new piece of loot.

How Players Can Acquire New Pawn Specializations

To obtain new Pawn Specializations, players simply need to complete certain side quests and raise their relationship with specific NPCs. In doing this, players will eventually be given a Specialization Tome that can be used once on any Pawn to grant them the designated Pawn Specialization. While Pawns can only have one Specialization equipped at a time, that specialization can be swapped out a later time, though this does permanently destroy the previous Specialization.