Pokemon Races

[Prak]

This guy on the wizards boards statted up races for the Kanto starters, not bad in my opinion, though the feats would be better as RoW style feats.

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1011751

[Crissa]

I'm going to say that the stats are too much.
I'd give them one ability at will at first, then give them a domain that represents their powers... And some resistances for their types.

Also, when they get big, they seem to get worse... I'm not sure why.

...And why does Ember make so much light?

-Crissa

[Username17]

The thing that leaps out at me is that the feats are underpowered. But then, most Feats are underpowered. But having a bottomless supply of shuriken is not something that a 6th level Fighter is going to care about.

-Username17

[Maxus]

The thing that leaps out at me is that the feats are underpowered. But then, most Feats are underpowered. But having a bottomless supply of shuriken is not something that a 6th level Fighter is going to care about.

-Username17

I agree there. I'd make them do 1d4 at a minimum (1d6, preferably) and a big crit range (hey, Razor Leaf's gimmick is supposed to be a high critical hit ratio). And then, if I could make it a scaling feat, it'd be making it an option to fire a large flurry of leaves that does a pile of damage. And probaly gaining bigger crit, and more range.

[JonSetanta]

The thing that leaps out at me is that the feats are underpowered. But then, most Feats are underpowered. But having a bottomless supply of shuriken is not something that a 6th level Fighter is going to care about.

-Username17

They care if they are a shuriken specialist in a low-shuriken setting....

[Username17]

It brings up the question of resource management. On the one hand, you don't want Bulbasaurs to just use razorleaf every single round in every single encounter. But on the other hand, I would want a razorleaf attack to be something that anyone gives a damn about while Rogues are throwing +3d6 Sneak attacks.

-Username17

[Prak]

I suggested the use of the Spinagon's quills or spikes, or whatever, mechanic for Razor Leaf.

[Koumei]

I'm actually running a d20+Pokemon game at the moment (many of the Pokemaster abilities are just attached to all characters, following a cool idea someone on TGD once put forward - knights riding into battle atop rhydons, sorcerers linking minds with kadabras etc.)

I've been writing various Pokemon up, attempting a "level = HD = CR" mechanic, for ease of "this works well as a foe. Also, you can capture it and the game won't break as a result." They tend to get a lot of abilities (thus destroying the whole "Pokemon only have room for four moves" thing), but not so many as to make things out of control. It's working well so far.

I have written up Magikarp (CR 1/2, 1 HD, useless), Gyarados (in CR 10, 15, 20 and 25 flavours - the last being the mythical Red Gyarados), Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam, Ghastly, Haunter, Gengar, Buneary, Slutbunny, Torkoal, Tentacool, Tentacruel, Dratini, Dragonair, Dragonite...

It ended up being pretty easy to do, really.

Incidentally, Azelf and Mesprit are a pair of little shits. I ended up masterballing Azelf this morning after giving up on any other technique, and I guess I'll just let Mesprit roam about in the wild, then buy Pearl and trade across a pokemon holding the Masterball. Then I might Ditto-clone it. But seriously. Way too annoying. At least with Mew I can just say "I am in Australia, therefore Mew is completely unavailable."

[Maxus]

I'm actually running a d20+Pokemon game at the moment (many of the Pokemaster abilities are just attached to all characters, following a cool idea someone on TGD once put forward - knights riding into battle atop rhydons, sorcerers linking minds with kadabras etc.)

I've been writing various Pokemon up, attempting a "level = HD = CR" mechanic, for ease of "this works well as a foe. Also, you can capture it and the game won't break as a result." They tend to get a lot of abilities (thus destroying the whole "Pokemon only have room for four moves" thing), but not so many as to make things out of control. It's working well so far.

I have written up Magikarp (CR 1/2, 1 HD, useless), Gyarados (in CR 10, 15, 20 and 25 flavours - the last being the mythical Red Gyarados), Abra, Kadabra, Alakazam, Ghastly, Haunter, Gengar, Buneary, Slutbunny, Torkoal, Tentacool, Tentacruel, Dratini, Dragonair, Dragonite...

It ended up being pretty easy to do, really.

Incidentally, Azelf and Mesprit are a pair of little shits. I ended up masterballing Azelf this morning after giving up on any other technique, and I guess I'll just let Mesprit roam about in the wild, then buy Pearl and trade across a pokemon holding the Masterball. Then I might Ditto-clone it. But seriously. Way too annoying. At least with Mew I can just say "I am in Australia, therefore Mew is completely unavailable."

Legendaries are always bastards to catch. I used to evolve a Drowzee into a Hypno, get it up to level 35 or so, and then Hypnosis the pokemon in question, then start spamming Ultra Balls. And, of course, I saved before I started the battle.

Although I do remember catching Suicune the first time I saw it one playthrough on my Silver version, with an Ultra Ball. There's always some room for flukes on the Pokemon games...

[Prak]

I usually just use some form of "All balls" code.

[Surgo]

Use dusk balls in the evening, they have the highest capture rate of any ball (aside from the master ball, obviously).

[Prak]

Hey frank, have you thought of re-doing some of the pokemon stuff after the tomes? the ToN fixes the problem of undead pokemon.

[Username17]

Hey frank, have you thought of re-doing some of the pokemon stuff after the tomes? the ToN fixes the problem of undead pokemon.

This is one of the many things which I honestly wish I had time to do. I've put a fair amount of thought into it. One of the problems is that the people I worked with on previous collaborative projects aren't really up for it, so it would basically be all me for writing, playtesting, and formatting.

-Username17

[Prak]

We've got a thread here that turned into people discussing the merits of various pokeballs... I'm sure if you did a playtesting thread on MW and a development thread here it wouldn't just be you, I'd be up for it, I've attempted this kind of thing several times.

[Orion]

Tome Pokemon material? I would be all over that, and more than willing to help out.

[Koumei]

Same here.

Oh, and Maxus, there are two Legendaries that are a piece of piss to capture: Dialga and Palkia. Seriously, Dialga for me went "Quick Ball (failed). Slap down to 1/2 of its HP. Dusk Ball (success)."

But I never did catch Mewtwo back in the old Blue edition. I had, embarrassingly, wasted the Masterball on a Pikachu. On Fire Red I'll make sure to save the Masterball for special occasions.

[Username17]

The goals of a Pokemon Tome Variant would be as follows:

• New Pokemon should be constructible from type-related classes.
• Advancing a "multiclass" Pokemon should give them level appropriate abilities and attributes.
• Level should equal hit dice should equal CR, with the Caveat that juvenile forms (Magikarp, Igglybuff, Togepi, etc.) should be treated like the Warrior or Adept where their hit dice are worth half (allowing for a smooth transition to crap tonnes more power on the evolution).
• Evolution related templates should be handled as a multiclass that creatures take.

So immediate thoughts include the possibility that the move cap (which should be raised from 4 rather easily) could be used to keep pokemon at a level appropriate position while multiclassed. Simply put, so long as abilties are being replaced as pokemon go up in level, putting a character level cap on the abilities they pick up could smoothly ensure that a pokemon with just one class was fighting on the same level as a pokemon with multiple classes.

So some things (like Feats) would simply scale to their character level. Other things (like Giga Drain) would come in and replace lower level "spells" (like Mega Drain, or some other lower level special) and stay level appropriate in that fashion.

Possibly higher level pokemon would have more "spell slots" (move slots?), it's not super important because it would apply to everyone.

-Username17

[Bigode]

How compatible would that be with finishing the formerly-intended monster Tome rules?

[Prak]

I imagine Frank would let us all in on the concept(at least) for the third "Monsters as characters" method, and I imagine that it's "HD=Lvl=CR".

Frank: Well, you've got three of us (Boolean, Koumei and myself) willing to help, so if you want to work on it, just let us in on what's going on in your skull and we can organize this.

One thing we'd have to do is separate pokemon types from existing subtypes, because fire pokemon and fire monsters from dnd are completely different, as are ice pokemon and cold monsters.

What exactly do you mean by "Evolution related templates?" Do you mean making a handful of templates which represent the common evolutions, like "minor monster to slightly more powerful thing that looks a bit different"(Charmander-charmeleon, pikachu-raichu, etc.) or some new things like "gain the fire type"?

The problem with level caps on the moves is that some pokemon get giga-drain at level 5, and other pokemon get it at level 50.

[JonSetanta]

Folks, Frank's back in his element

[Orion]

What will the incentive be for single-classing? STAB? And does your defensive type depend on your class levels, or just a basic template?

[Surgo]

Maybe it's an obvious point, but non-pokemon (as in, humans) should also be constructable from the pokemon type classes.

[Prak]

Maybe it's an obvious point, but non-pokemon (as in, humans) should also be constructable from the pokemon type classes.

why?

[Surgo]

"Why not"?

I don't know anyone else, but I always imagined RPing a game in a world with pokemon to have the masters be something like the sort in Pokemon MASTER or guys with Avatar: the Last Airbender style powers.

[Prak]

If you want to play a bender, why not just use an existing class? Actually... I do kinda like the idea of being able to make "normal" characters with "pokemon" powers... ok, I endorse this idea.