Combat Fundamentals: Stamina, Defense and Weaknesses

Leave room for the next action

The official stamina manual identifies sprinting, grabbing and weapon skills as consumers of stamina. Emptying the gauge causes exhaustion; standing still supports faster recovery, while activities such as climbing interfere with it. Spending the last available resource on an attack can therefore change what you can do immediately afterward.

Our recommendation is to judge a sequence by its ending position as well as its opening damage. Ask where you will stand and what you can still do when the action finishes. This is decision guidance, not a numerical stamina threshold for every build.

Defense belongs to the vocation

Fighter’s shield defense and Thief’s Swift Step are different systems. A tactic built around one should not be copied to another class without checking its available actions. Review the vocation profiles and your learned skills before assuming a button or ability is missing because the game is malfunctioning.

For practice, use an encounter you know and change one variable at a time. Test approach distance, the length of your attack sequence or the timing of a defensive response. Changing all three makes it difficult to identify what actually helped.

Element and target matter

The official manual explains that elemental weaknesses and defenses affect damage, while equipment can contribute elemental resistance. Listen to relevant Pawn observations and distinguish a target’s vulnerability from a weapon merely displaying a large attribute.

No universal weakness multiplier is supplied here. Do not infer one from promotional footage, a single hit or a weapon’s element label. The equipment table stores reference properties; it does not solve an enemy matchup for you.

Recovery and incapacitation are different jobs

Before combat, check who can help with recovery and what that character can actually use. A requested support action is not guaranteed to happen instantly. When a Pawn is incapacitated, consult the separate revival rules instead of treating every low-health situation as the same problem.

Our suggested priority is to remove the immediate obstacle to recovery: unsafe positioning, an approaching enemy or a companion who cannot reach the affected character. Reassess once the party can act again.

Diagnose a failed encounter

Use a short review rather than immediately buying new equipment. Were you exhausted? Did the target leave your range? Were you missing a ranged or support job? Were you expecting a skill that was not learned? Only then ask whether a different weapon would address the actual problem.

This page supplies a framework and source-reviewed mechanics, not a tested damage formula, boss-specific script or invulnerability guarantee.