Talk:Oil Arrow/@comment-611674-20160202074614/@comment-23878607-20160203212226

It's dependent on two things, threat level and the pawn's Bestiary knowledge of an enemy's weaknesses. There seems to be a moment when the game decides just how much of a threat you're facing, which can change if something happens like you lose a pawn to possession or knockout, or if the Arisen is near death.

I had an experimental account, where I was going through the final story quests at level 42, and hired a L26 Strider and a L22 Sorcerer. The Strider loaded Blast Arrows and kept them loaded from Deny Salvation all the way to killing the Evil Eye in the Chamber of Confusion. A pair or trio of knowledgeable pawns with Utilitarian in their inclinations is capable of Tarring an enemy with Oil Arrows, then following up with a single Blast Arrow to set it on fire to both debilitate and panic that enemy; I've seen bow-class pawns petrify Garm and Silence Frostwyrms.

With a party of L200s, pawns will load special arrows only in certain areas. All that said, when I was playing vanilla DD, I never saw any pawn use special arrows-- not once.