Reaching lv50 really changed the way I play the game
Because of the Dragonplague...
On Steam it appears the average player reached the Unmoored World at around lv50 and either abandoned the game in it or when they started NG+ on account of how many pawns are in starter gear again. And because of that nearly every pawn I can recruit is infected with the Dragonplague.
Including mine now. As the first lv50~ pawn I recruited gave my pawn and the other support pawn I had the plague.
Now normally I'd have just tossed the poor guy into the Brine and called it a day. But this time I've decided that no, I won't remove the fledgling will my pawn has now. A will that I the saw given to him time and time again over the course of eleven years waiting for DD2. Because my pawn is the same one I traveled with in Gransys.
Learning that's what the Dragonplague was after my first and only previous run of the game when it launched changed the way I view the plague. Yes it's incredibly destructive and yet... It felt at times like I was seeing the old Aggressive personality I chose for my pawn back in DDDA. Like the real him was shining through. Doubly so when I first noticed he had the plague when we slept in a town and he said he felt like he'd just awoken from a long dream.
And so I chose from that point on to do something different. I wouldn't risk destroying a town with Dragonplague or infecting other pawns and adding to the problem because I previously would just swap out pawns every couple of levels. Now we're alone together on the road. The open sky has become our new home. Our packs heavy with curatives as we don't have a mage with us anymore.
Where before gathering items became an after thought because a Simple pawn did most of my gathering for me I'm now hunting down every ingredient I can find to make curatives. Instead of running head first into every monster I find I'm properly saving and planning my fights and using buff elixers to turn the tide of battle. Something all the more important thanks to play with Bestiary and other difficulty tweaks that causes the previously weaker monsters in the game to be tankier and more deadly.
Presently we're traveling around hunting down drakes for the Godsbane. Something we don't even have to do, as we have 120 of them in storage. But just so we can get away from civilization. That this self imposed exile to protect others can last longer. As it won't end until my pawn has become forfeit by falling in combat.
And if for some reason I forget and we rest at an inn and the plague climaxes I already have an eternal wakestone. I'm ready for such a thing.
I only fear that... as he hasn't become forfeit once so far that I may find ourselves in front of the Dragon together.