Pawns may use curatives to heal themselves, their fellow pawns or the Arisen. They also open chests, pick up items, gather, mine ore, and fill flasks; during battle pawns may use thrown weapons.
Under extreme circumstances, such as when facing dangerous foes, pawns may use more valuable, rarer, and more powerful items, including strength- and magic-boosting booster items, and special Arrows.
Curatives[]
Healing[]
Pawns, regardless of vocation, will heal themselves, their fellow pawns, and the Arisen if they have appropriate items in their possession. This ability is independent of the Mage's use of any variant of Anodyne; additionally, a Mage is not limited to the use of a spell to heal either itself or fellow party members.
In general pawns will use any item classed in its inventory as a 'curative', whose primary benefit is healing. This includes all types of Greenwarish, potions such as Desiccated Herbs, and Salubrious Brew, common foods such as a berry, twigbean, or pumpkin, as well as the three different Harspud extracts, and some rarer herbs such as Waterfell Gentian Leaf, or Devilwort.
If an ally is hurt then pawns can use Group Curatives to heal, though the ally may be able to heal themselves first. Such group healing items include Spring Water, and Balmy Incense.
Out of battle Pawns generally heal themselves or allies when their health falls below half (about 45%). Common items are given priority, with Desiccated Herbs, Twigbean, and Greenwarish used before items such as Salubrious Brew, or Kingwarish. Multiple items may be consumed until health is above the critical halfway value.
Moldy and rotten items may be used in extremis. Moldy items such as Moldy Carrot that cause stamina loss are not used until all other curatives have been exhausted; if all moldy items have been eaten, a pawn may start eating rotten items that cause illness in order to increase low health, such as Rotten Grandgrapes.
- Group health curatives are not used by a pawn to solely restore their own health; they will only be used if another party member needs help.
- Curatives that restore health together with other beneficial effects, excluding stamina regeneration, are never used solely for their healing properties. Thus, a pawn will not use Nostalgia Dust, Interventive or other curatives even if their health is critical.
- Items that can restore health but are classed as Materials in inventory are generally never used, such as Gransys Herb or Loneflower, etc. (Lunanise may be an exception, as are Nightfall Cresset and Corpse Nettle.)
Of items made by brewing pawns will use Fragrant Herb Ale as a group curative, but oddly not Herb Ale.
Stamina[]
Stamina curatives are used in much the same way as health curatives. However, pawns will not use curatives to restore the Arisen's stamina if it is depleted either through running or skill use, nor will they use group curatives to restore other pawns' stamina if depleted. Stamina curative use is triggered through the individual pawn's use of stamina-depleting skills in combat.
Generally pawns use common restorative items first, such as Large Mushroom, and will also use items that restore health and stamina, such as Harspud Sauce. They can use group stamina restoratives such as Mushroom Potage to restore their own stamina, which has the side effect of aiding the entire party.
As with healing items, pawns will use restoratives with negative side effects if no better curative is in their possession, including poisonous mushrooms such as Crimplecap, rotten items such as Rotten Ambrosial Meat which will inflict Poison and Torpor, or even the sleep-inducing Select Herb Ale; however, Secret Herb Ale is avoided.
- The behavior of pawns using a group stamina curative to restore their own stamina can be used for an entire party's benefit. If a pawn with a skill such as Great Gamble (or other high stamina use skills such as Dragon's Maw) is equipped only with a group stamina restorative such as Mushroom Potage, then every time they use the skill and restore their stamina the entire party benefits, which then permits higher skill usage.
Debilitations[]
Pawns will readily cure their own debilitations with curatives, and will cure other party members' debilitations if they have suitable group curatives.
In general, pawns will use the minimum curative required, conserving more beneficial items - so a poisoned pawn will use Mithridate in preference to Panacea to cure Poison, but will use the cure-all if they have no other options. A Drenched pawn will use any Clean Cloths in its inventory first, reserving any more valuable curatives in its inventory for another time.
Pawn can cure themselves of Petrification with Secret Softener, but not once the debilitation has fully taken hold - there is a short time window between being petrified and being frozen "in stone" in which an afflicted pawn can be supplied with such an item to successfully heal themselves.
Unlike with health curatives, pawns will readily use group curatives to cure themselves of debilitations, even if no ally needs help.
Invigorations[]
Pawns will consume items to give Invigorations, but only at high threat level.
Items consume can include periapts, Liquid Vim, and Month-Dried Harspud.
Un-used items[]
In addition to not using most Materials (eg Lava Flower, Hydra's Lifeblood, Blood Decanter, or Indurated Dragonsblood ), Pawns will also not not use some rare items including Ne'er-Do-Part, Herb Ale, and Secret Herb Ale (though some other ales may be used).
Auspicious Incense and Vivifying Incense seem never to be used by pawns.
Tool use[]
In addition to opening chests, gathering from gather spots, filling flasks, and mining, pawns will use some other special items.
The most common tool use is the use of thrown items during battle. Pawns will employ a wide variety of items as weapons or to gain advantage over a foe. These include:
- Throwing a Flask of Oil, or Poison Flask to inflict Tarring or Poison.
- Throwing a Flask of Water to inflict Drenching or to douse Pyre Saurians.
- Throwing Skulls, or Festival Pie to inflict Curse or Blindness.
- Throwing Rocks, Kindling, or a Foreign Knife to inflict damage.
- Use of Throwblast, or Dragon’s Spit to inflict explosive or burning damage.
- Certain items do not seem to be used despite being potential thrown weapons, including Bricks, Ceramic Jugs, and the Coin Purse of Charity.
Pawns may also use some environmental objects to inflict damage, such as Explosive Barrels.
Limitations[]
Pawns do not:
- Combine items.
- Discard items.
- Equip or swap weapons or armor for better items.
- Give items to other pawns, or the Arisen.
- Certain items will not be used even when their effect could cure or heal such as Sobering Wine ( though such items may be used during a high threat level battle as protectives.)
- Pawns do not seem to use items curing Possession when other pawns are affected, even if they have a group cure item.
Pawns will not:
- Gather when overencumbered
- Mine without a pickaxe (or Light Pickaxe)
- Fill Empty Flasks when they already have ten of the filled kind of flask in their possession.
Threat Level and Item Use[]
Pawns using Blast Arrows (demonstration)
When pawns sense that they are engaged in a "desperate battle", they will use the tools at their disposal to aid the party. In this demonstration, Strider pawns use Blast Arrows with Hailstorm Volley against 3 Elder Ogres and 3 Eliminators in the Rotunda of Dread (while carrying Fiend-luring Incense).
When in a dangerous battle pawns may begin to use special items, including special arrows, periapts, and other useful items.
High threat level conditions typically occur when fighting giant creatures (Drakes, etc.) with a low level party, as well as against the stronger enemies found in Dark Arisen's Bitterblack Isle.
Threat level is thought to be determined by multiple numbers of factors which include the foe's dangerousness, the number of foes, the party's level, by the loss of or incapacity of pawns, and by the Arisen's health becoming low or critical. Threat level can and will change during the course of a battle.
'Threat level' is indicated by the battle music during combat, in order of increasing threat. In Gransys, the music played is:
- Combat Special Arrows, Tools and Curatives are not used
- Combat Tension Special Arrows, Tools and Boosters are used
- Hopeless Battle Special Arrows, Tools and Boosters are used
For Bitterblack Isle, they are:
- Ordinary Battle Special Arrows, Tools and Boosters are not used
- Intense Battle Special Arrows, Tools and Boosters are used
- Desperate Battle Special Arrows, Tools and Boosters are used
Generally pawns will use special arrows singly, and double uses of periapts or other stat boosting potions. Pawns will infrequently use Special Arrows with multi-strike bow skills, but this is rare as the threat level must be dire indeed.
Notes[]
- If the pawn has complete Bestiary knowledge for the enemies it faces, it will choose appropriate Special Arrows that correspond to the debilitation/weakness of that enemy. For example, a Ranger pawn may select Silencer Arrows for a spellcaster enemy, and, if Utilitarian is present in the upper three inclinations of your pawns, coordinated arrow attacks will be made such as a volley of Oil Arrows followed by a Blast Arrow.
- Pawns may attempt to use Special Arrows that inflict status ailments against Living Armor which are immune to such, and will use Blast Arrows inappropriately against its second form.
Miscellany[]
- See also: List of Health and Stamina Curatives
- Pawns becoming Unconscious, or worse possessed during battle can increase threat level to a higher level.
- With the inclination Medicant as 1º thresholds for health curative use are increased from 45% to 60% (30% to 45% when in battle). Additionally when healing is requested with "Help" pawns will use group curatives to heal allies to a much higher level (~80% from ~60%) when Medicant is 1º. Having Medicant as 2º has no effect on curative use.
- Single-Use Magickal Items do not appear to ever be used by pawns.
Pawns are unable to cure themselves of Sleep. 
Pawns can self cure sleep.
