pawns Main Pawn: Battle behaviour when with other Arisen.

There's a potion at the rift seller in the encampment that makes your pawn more agressive. Basically you want the potion that makes the pawn wander ahead to explore new areas.. this makes it so he likes to stay ahead of the group a bit. Also, tell your friend to push up on the d-pad to tell your pawn to go.

As a fellow ranger, I know that the pawns don't always get a chance to attack.. if you hire a melee as a ranger, it's usually a fighter with shield summons. That way if a fight isn't done before the mob gets to you, the fighter can peel it off you and allow you to back up.

Pawn behavior changes when your main pawn visits other Arisen. Basically the influence of the other Arisen has an effect on your pawn's behavior while in their game. It's not permanent (from what I can tell), but they won't act exactly like your pawn plan dictates unless the host Arisen has a similar setup.

Also seems if you over-use the rift crystal potions it'll actually cause the secondary behavior to wipe itself out. That can actually be a good thing if you want to super specialize, but otherwise you have to use the knowledge chairs to force a generic secondary behavior into play again. =\

At this point I have switched my main pawn away from spells and have them set up as a fighter with an AI plan based entirely on close range defense of allies (mostly the Arisen). They'll hover real close to you and block. If an ally starts to get smacked around she runs off and fends off enemies, the blocks attacks aimed for that ally for a time. If my character lets lose tons of stamina she does the same (most of her abilities are pure offense). It's not the typical fighter setup where they run into a crowd of mobs and rap on the shield for aggro, this one plays like a bodyguard. That way I can hire a random fighter that does the aggro bit, and a strider or ranger for ranged damage, and my character can pretty much moonlight any role, typically non magic. Cast times are BS, especially heals.

Seriously, going from fighter to mage sucked, but going from mage to fighter was smooth.

The traits will read the same, but they won't act the same sometimes (if the Arisen's pawn is their polar opposite of their nature). I hire my alts to my alts and see them react funny, seeing them run off and explore, do odd things and jump off cliffs more often (Lemming-itis), and have seen timid pawns go mouth-foamy. (The oddball level 100 fighters I use to level some alts seem to really break their behavior as they're both pioneer explorer item hogs - probably have more influence at higher levels)

When I play with all 4 of my alts the group sticks together. When I start mixing up pawns I end up having to use the 'come' and 'help' buttons far more frequently. Think the guide breifly mentions their behavior will change when they come into contact with other Arisenseseses.

The biggest culprit of the "Sit back and watch" Pawns that I've seen is those with Guardian and/or Medicant as Inclinations, and the Arisen happens to be a ranged vocation (Mage, Sorc, Ranger, etc.). Even if your Pawn is a Fighter, they'll hover around you unless a monster gets within licking distance, screaming "NONE SHALL TOUCH THE ARISEN!"

In fact, that's the surest sign that your Main Pawn has spontaneously changed inclinations based on your actions or those of your other Pawns. The dialogue changes a bit. I had two rental Mages with Guardian and they were infecting my Fighter with it every hour or so. I'd know it, too. She'd be saying "I'll battle the strongest!" like a champ one fight and then come flying out of nowhere while the Mages--the MAGES MIND YOU-- were climbing the Cyclops: "NONE SHALL TOUCH THE ARISEN!!" and watch while they got tossed around the room. I had to buy like 10 Scather potions just to keep her non-attached to my hip.