Skills in Dragon's Dogma determine a character's abilities in battle and are closely tied to Vocations and Weapons. Only a certain number of skills can be equipped at a time, leading to various playstyles.
Buying and Learning New Skills
How to get Discipline Points
To purchase skills, you must use Discipline Points which are earned as a portion of the experience you earn from killing Enemies and completing Quests. Discipline Points are given generously by the game so players are encouraged to switch vocations and playstyles and experiment with skills freely in a playthrough.
How to spend Discipline Points
Much like vocations, you can buy and manage skills at Inns such as the Union Inn in Gran Soren. When figuring out a which skills to buy, players should think about what kind of playstyle they would like to play their vocation as and any playstyles they would like to try in the future as many skills can be shared through vocations.
How to Re-Spec in Dragon's Dogma
In Dragon's Dogma, any Discipline Points spent cannot be refunded to buy new/other skills. However, buying a skill for one vocation unlocks the same skill on other vocations even if you have not yet unlocked it there, allowing you to keep any previously bought skill even when switching vocations, given that the skill can be used by that vocation. Skills are gated behind levels, so you will need to level up and gain proficiency in the currently equipped vocation to unlock and use a skill.
Best Dragon's Dogma Skills
Consider using these skills and augments when experimenting and choosing which playstyles to run or which skills to buy, and even which skills to give to your pawns
- Fighter: Clout ♦ Exhilaration ♦ Vehemence ♦ Sinew ♦ Antler Toss ♦ Dragon's Maw ♦ Full Moon Slash ♦ Deflect ♦ Sheltered Spike ♦ Shield Storm
- Strider: Clout ♦ Vehemence ♦ Eminence ♦ Adhesion ♦ Double Vault ♦ Thousand Kisses ♦ Brain Splitter ♦ Instant Reset ♦ Fivefold Flurry ♦ Pentad Shot ♦ Fracture Dart
- Mage: Perpetuation ♦ Articulacy ♦ Retribution ♦ Reinforcement ♦ High Anodyne ♦ High Halidom ♦ Fire/Ice/Thunder/Holy/Dark Pact
- Warrior: Clout ♦ Vehemence ♦ Eminence ♦ Ferocity ♦ Exodus Slash ♦ Arc of Deliverance ♦ Pommel Bash
- Ranger: Clout ♦ Vehemence ♦ Impact ♦ Stability ♦ Thousand Kisses ♦ Instant Reset ♦ Tenfold Flurry ♦ Great Gamble ♦ Corkscrew Arrow
- Sorcerer: Attunement ♦ Acuity ♦ Articulacy ♦ Stability ♦ Grand Fulmination ♦ Grand Gicel ♦ High Miasma
- Mystic Knight: Attunement ♦ Acuity ♦ Clout ♦ Vehemence ♦ Great Cannon ♦ Full Moon Slash ♦ Ruinous Sigil ♦ Abyssal Anguish ♦ Riposte ♦ Flame/Frost/Lightning/Blessed/Abyssal Trance
- Assassin: Clout ♦ Vehemence ♦ Adhesion ♦ Opportunism ♦ Thousand Kisses ♦ Gale Harness ♦ Masterful Kill ♦ Fivefold Flurry ♦ Pentad Shot ♦ Eagle Sight
- Magick Archer: Attunement ♦ Acuity ♦ Articulacy ♦ Clout ♦ Thousand Kisses ♦ Immolation ♦ Magick Rebalancer ♦ Ricochet Hunter ♦ Ninefold Bolt ♦ Explosive Volley
How do Dragon's Dogma Skills Work?
Weapon Skills
These skills are tied to both weapons and vocations. Though some skills can be shared between vocations, some are unique to certain vocations. For example, Helm Splitter is a dagger skill unique to Striders. Though Assassins and Rangers can use daggers as well, they will not be able to use Helm Splitter. However, the dagger skill Scarlet Kisses is available to all three of these vocations. These skills are not automatic and have to be assigned manually, needing players to press the button assigned to their primary/secondary weapon and the corresponding face button for the assigned skill together to execute them.
Core Skills
These are skills tied to weapons and any vocation can use these skills provided they are able to use the required weapon. For example, the skill Feather Jump is a skill that vocations that have access to staves can use, and thus Mages, Sorcerers, Mystic Knights and Magick Archers are the only vocations able to use the skill. Do note that though some of these skills have the same name, for example some skills between bows and longbows, and swords and longswords, they do not count as the same skill and have to be bought separately. These skills are automatic when the corresponding weapon is equipped and do not have to be assigned, simply needing players to press buttons assigned to their heavy and light attacks in a certain order. Check the descriptions of each core skill to learn how to execute them.
Augments
These are vocation unique skills in that each augment can only be learnt when leveling up a certain vocation. Unlike weapon and core skills, these are passive skills that boost player stats and abilities and do not need to be activated after being equipped. After unlocking an augment, it can be used and equipped freely between vocations. For example, Sinew can only be learnt by leveling up your proficiency in Fighter. However, when switching vocations to Warrior, Sinew can still be equipped.
Dragon's Dogma Skills
For skills added in Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, visit Dark Arisen Skills.
Skills By Vocation
Most of your weapon skill choices will be determined first by the Vocations you select to play as. As a result, viewing the skills organized by vocation is the best method for planning a current or future build.
Weapon Skills
(Not all weapon skills are listed, please click the headers to find a full list of skills for each vocation.)
Fighter
Antler Toss ♦ Burst Strike ♦ Broad Slash ♦ Downcrack ♦ Dragon's Maw ♦ Full Moon Slash ♦ Heavenward Slash ♦ Hindsight Sweep ♦ Soul Skewer ♦ Steel Will ♦ Cymbal Onslaught ♦ Divine Defense ♦ Launchboard ♦ Sheltered Assault ♦ Shield Drum ♦ Shield Storm
Warrior
Act of Vengeance ♦ Arc of Deliverance ♦ Catapult Blade ♦ Corona Slash ♦ Exodus Slash ♦ Indomitable Lash ♦ Indomitable Lunge ♦ Pommel Bash ♦ War Cry ♦ Whirlwind Strike
Mystic Knight
Antler Toss ♦ Burst Strike ♦ Broad Slash ♦ Downcrack ♦ Full Moon Slash ♦ Great Cannon ♦ Ruinous Sigil ♦ Sky Rapture ♦ Steel Will ♦ Stone Forest ♦ Vortex Sigil ♦ High Brontide ♦ High Comestion ♦ High Frazil ♦ High Frigor ♦ High Ingle ♦ High Levin ♦ High Sopor ♦ Abyssal Anguish ♦ Abyssal Riposte ♦ Abyssal Trance ♦ Blessed Riposte ♦ Blessed Trance ♦ Demonswrath ♦ Flame Riposte ♦ Flame Trance ♦ Frost Riposte ♦ Frost Trance ♦ Holy Fortress ♦ Holy Furor ♦ Holy Grace ♦ Lightning Trance ♦ Reflect ♦ Thunder Riposte
Strider
Advanced Trigger ♦ Cutting Wind ♦ Dazzle Blast ♦ Hundred Kisses ♦ Implicate ♦ Instant Reset ♦ Leaping Stone ♦ Mad Dash ♦ Master Thief ♦ Skull Splitter ♦ Downpour Volley ♦ Fivefold Flurry ♦ Fracture Dart ♦ Mighty Bend ♦ Pentad Shot ♦ Shriek Dart
Ranger
Advanced Trigger ♦ Cutting Wind ♦ Dazzle Blast ♦ Hundred Kisses ♦ Instant Reset ♦ Body Binder ♦ Comet Shot ♦ Crippling Arrow ♦ Deathly Arrow ♦ Encedad Shot ♦ Fearful Din ♦ Great Gamble ♦ Spiral Arrow ♦ Tenfold Arrow
Assassin
Antler Toss ♦ Burst Strike ♦ Broad Slash ♦ Clairvoyance ♦ Dire Gouge ♦ Downcrack ♦ Full Moon Slash ♦ Great Windmill ♦ Intimate Gambit ♦ Powder Blast ♦ Advanced Trigger ♦ Cutting Wind ♦ Dazzle Blast ♦ Easy Kill ♦ Escape Onslaught ♦ Gale Harness ♦ Hundred Kisses ♦ Instant Reset ♦ Invisibility ♦ Snakebite ♦ Enhanced Response ♦ Launchboard ♦ Shield Drum ♦ Shield Storm ♦ Showdown ♦ Swift Castle ♦ Fivefold Flurry ♦ Lyncean Sight ♦ Mighty Bend ♦ Pentad Shot ♦ Plegic Arrow ♦ Skewer Dart
Mage
Dark Affinity ♦ Fire Affinity ♦ High Anodyne ♦ High Blearing ♦ High Brontide ♦ High Comestion ♦ High Frazil ♦ High Frigor ♦ High Grapnel ♦ High Halidom ♦ High Ingle ♦ High Levin ♦ High Silentium ♦ High Spellscreen ♦ Holy Affinity ♦ Ice Affinity ♦ Thunder Affinity
Sorcerer
Dark Affinity ♦ Fire Affinity ♦ High Blearing ♦ High Bolide ♦ High Brontide ♦ High Comestion ♦ High Exequy ♦ High Frazil ♦ High Frigor ♦ High Fulmination ♦ High Gicel ♦ High Ingle ♦ High Lassitude ♦ High Levin ♦ High Maelstrom ♦ High Miasma ♦ High Necromancy ♦ High Petrification ♦ High Seism ♦ High Silentium ♦ High Voidspell ♦ Holy Affinity ♦ Ice Affinity ♦ Thunder Affinity
Magick Archer
Advanced Trigger ♦ Cutting Wind ♦ Dazzle Blast ♦ Grand Scension ♦ Hundred Kisses ♦ Immolation ♦ Instant Reset ♦ Magick Rebalancer ♦ Shadowshackle ♦ Sunflare ♦ Explosive Rivet ♦ Great Bracer Arrow ♦ Great Sacrifice ♦ Great Ward Arrow ♦ Hunter Bolt ♦ Magickal Gleam ♦ Ricochet Hunter ♦ Sixfold Bolt ♦ Vortex Trail ♦ High Brontide ♦ High Comestion ♦ High Frazil ♦ High Frigor ♦ High Ingle ♦ High Levin ♦ High Perdition
Core Skills
Fighter
Controlled Fall ♦ Defend ♦ Deflect ♦ Dire Onslaught ♦ Empale ♦ Onslaught ♦ Takedown ♦ Vault
Warrior
Controlled Fall ♦ Devastate ♦ Eviscerate ♦ Hack ♦ Transfix ♦ Vault
Mystic Knight
Controlled Fall ♦ Dire Onslaught ♦ Empale ♦ Feather Jump ♦ Focused Bolt ♦ Levitate ♦ Magick Agent ♦ Magick Billow ♦ Magick Bolt ♦ Onslaught ♦ Reflect ♦ Repel ♦ Takedown ♦ Vault
Strider
Carve ♦ Double Vault ♦ Engrave ♦ Forward Roll ♦ Loose ♦ Quick-Loose ♦ Roundelay ♦ Two Step ♦ Vault
Ranger
Carve ♦ Double Vault ♦ Engrave ♦ Forward Roll ♦ Loose ♦ Quick-Loose ♦ Roundelay ♦ Two Step ♦ Vault
Assassin
Carve ♦ Controlled Fall ♦ Defend ♦ Deflect ♦ Dire Onslaught ♦ Double Vault ♦ Empale ♦ Engrave ♦ Forward Roll ♦ Loose ♦ Onslaught ♦ Quick-Loose ♦ Roundelay ♦ Takedown ♦ Two Step ♦ Vault
Mage
Feather Jump ♦ Focused Bolt ♦ Levitate ♦ Magick Agent ♦ Magick Billow ♦ Magick Bolt
Sorcerer
Feather Jump ♦ Focused Bolt ♦ Levitate ♦ Magick Agent ♦ Magick Billow ♦ Magick Bolt
Magick Archer
Carve ♦ Double Vault ♦ Engrave ♦ Feather Jump ♦ Focused Bolt ♦ Forward Roll ♦ Levitate ♦ Magick Agent ♦ Magick Billow ♦ Magick Bolt ♦ Roundelay ♦ Seeker ♦ True Seeker ♦ Two Step ♦ Vault
Augments
(WARNING: Some are bugged; look up the ones you're interested in the most.)
Fighter
Egression ♦ Exhilaration ♦ Fitness ♦ Prescience ♦ Sinew ♦ Vehemence ♦ Vigilance
Warrior
Audacity ♦ Bastion ♦ Clout ♦ Ferocity ♦ Impact ♦ Proficiency ♦ Temerity
Mystic Knight
Adamance ♦ Fortitude ♦ Periphery ♦ Reinforcement ♦ Restoration ♦ Retribution ♦ Sanctuary
Strider
Arm-Strength ♦ Damping ♦ Dexterity ♦ Eminence ♦ Endurance ♦ Grit ♦ Leg-Strength
Ranger
Efficacy ♦ Longevity ♦ Morbidity ♦ Precision ♦ Radiance ♦ Stability ♦ Trajectory
Assassin
Autonomy ♦ Bloodlust ♦ Entrancement ♦ Preemtion ♦ Sangunity ♦ Toxicity ♦ Watchfulness
Mage
Apotropaism ♦ Attunement ♦ Beatitude ♦ Equanimity ♦ Inflection ♦ Intervention ♦ Perpetuation
Sorcerer
Acuity ♦ Articulacy ♦ Awareness ♦ Conservation ♦ Emphasis ♦ Gravitas ♦ Suasion
Magick Archer
Allure ♦ Detection ♦ Magnitude ♦ Potential ♦ Regeneration ♦ Resilience ♦ Resistance
Skills by Weapon