The pawn and the pandemic

Received wisdom – or, at least, prevailing narrative fashion – proposes that maintaining a consistent band of fellow adventurers is the best way to create a sense of team-based camaraderie and closeness in fiction. After all, where would Frodo be without Sam and Aragorn? Or Cloud without Barrett and Tifa? Or Shadowheart without Astarion and Gale? The fellowship of any band of adventurers would, tradition suggests, be undercut if the hero had to work with a rotating cast of party members. It’s one of many conventions overturned by Dragon’s Dogma 2, in which the protagonist is supported by one loyal but dispensable pawn, who levels up alongside you, and up to two additional pawns, who are borrowed from other players across the network.

To fill out your team you must enter a kind of mystical waiting room where the game presents you with a small crowd of options from which you choose your two additional compatriots. Pick a pawn of a similar level to your character and you won’t be charged any resources to recruit them. Alternatively, you can spend Rift Crystals to substitute in a more powerful supporting candidate. Naturally, the higher their level, the greater the cost involved. Crucially, however, once you hit the road, this pawn will remain at a fixed level, also retaining the fixed abilities their creator gave them. Like buying a new car, then, a high-value pawn’s value quickly diminishes as you close the distance between your level and theirs.