Preliminary information | Pawns Dragon's Dogma Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Pawns is a title-specific name for companions. In the game, they are defined as human creatures from other dimension, whose only goal in life is serving you. You get your first pawn while you are still in Cassardis, and the next one in the next village, during main quests and you can create him on your own.
Pawns die. Each one, after losing their health, can be revived without any items, but only by your character. After the pawn is revived, they are back into the world of the living with a half of their health. What is important that if you abandon the dead pawn and do not carry them into another location, their items are moved into the innkeeper's deposit and you can encounter the pawn again in the "rift". Sometimes, however, it is not that easy, so it is better not to abandon them. Also, remember that if you ignore the pawn, because you want another one, all of the items that you gave to that pawn (weapons, armor) are lost and they cannot be in any way retrieved.
Pawns will help you with collecting resources, which they keep and use to satisfy their needs (e.g. food). Also, you can have them carry your gear for you, in order to decrease your own load.
The important thing for beginners to do is listen what pawns have to say. Their knowledge is vast and they are happy to share it with you. You will often receive small suggestions, where you go and what interesting things can be collected in a given area, warnings of approaching enemies and hints on how to fight with them. Also, you can activate subtitles only for the information that pawns provide you with.
How to recruit pawns
You can travel with up to four pawns. You can recruit more as randomly-generated characters (at the level comparable to yours) from the rift between dimensions, which you can access using special stones that you find in the game world in key locations (e.g. Gran Soren). They join you after you pay them a certain amount of money. Often, their character level is higher than yours, though.
While playing and connected to the internet, you can trade pawns with the other players. The way in which you do this is the same as in the case of recruiting new pawns - in the rift. If you think that you have created a good pawn, you can share it with the rest of the players. Obtaining a pawn created by an experienced player can help you at the beginning of the game.