Pokemon Umbral Theatre 3: Dedicated to Cosplaying Pokemon Trainers Part 1

[Astral Harmony]

Right, let's get on with it.

To balance out combat, I'm going to be overdosing enemy HP, starting now. Don't be surprised when a good number of Psyshades and Psytellites actually survive your assault.

If you want to change the strategy, feel free. I dunno how much HP they'll be gaining, but I'll make it fair and challenging...and ridiculous. Very, very ridiculous.

Next, an assload of accessories. I looked over the accessories I had and figured they were fine for now. I got rid of the accessory that causes infatuation because I thought it was retarded.

- Dire Power: Always Active type. 10% crit chance.
- Stabilizer: Activation type. Removes all stat debuffs by one level.
- Begrudger: Activation type. 100% counter on any enemy that attacks the user.
- Dust to Dust: Activation type. Defeats the unit that defeats the user. Doesn't work on certain enemies like bosses and mechanical foes.
- Dampener: Always Active type. Prevents all Pokemon from using Self Destruct and Explosion

I don't intend to make any more, at least not anytime right now. If thou ask for more, thou wilt be Dinner't.

As per Geminex's suggestion, Action Amp is no longer available.

Wilhelmina's Sniper Skill is Perfect Tracking, and it allows her to accurately fire on fast targets. Speed will help units avoid Sniper and even Destroyer attacks.

Testament Drives will be kept as is.

Now that hopefully all that nonsense is out of the way, I can stop feeling so braindead. Maybe it's just this week. Or the Anthrax vaccine. Not sure.

Anyways, time to post some pretty girls. I've got dozens of these chicks that cosplay as their favorite Pokemon. So, best to get 'em all out of the way over the next several threads. And I think five per thread isn't too ridiculous. Here we go!

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a469/PokemonUmbral/PokemonUmbral21.jpg

Honestly, I never liked Banette. But putting a pretty girl next to something would get a guy interested in just about anything, perhaps even theoretical science.

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a469/PokemonUmbral/PokemonUmbral37.jpg

Y'wanna get some of those crab legs?

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a469/PokemonUmbral/PokemonUmbral41.jpg

I love Dark types. Even if they sorta have retarded westernized names.

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a469/PokemonUmbral/PokemonUmbral50.jpg

Right down to having red markings on her neck and armpits and even the inside of her thighs. Talk about obsessed!

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a469/PokemonUmbral/PokemonUmbral107.jpg

Just like Wobbuffet, I think her facial expression is stuck that way.

[Dracorion]

To balance out combat, I'm going to be overdosing enemy HP, starting now. Don't be surprised when a good number of Psyshades and Psytellites actually survive your assault.

If you want to change the strategy, feel free. I dunno how much HP they'll be gaining, but I'll make it fair and challenging...and ridiculous. Very, very ridiculous.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Screw it. Menarker, work on the plan. I'm going to bed.


By the way, I think Photobucket is down.

EDIT: Menarker, be aware that Pierce's Trainer Attack is going at PsyPierce, no matter what.

[Geminex]

See? Told you guys we'd need to focus fire. Let's reevaluate the strategy.

Also, am I the only one who can't see those pics? Goddammit, China.

The accessories look interesting... though what's up with dire power? What does it do, exactly? Raise the crit chance by 10%?

[Menarker]

I think it's down too. I can't see it myself, and normally i can.

EDIT: Yup. Site Maintainence.

And yup, that's Dire Power is based on the name of the item Dire Hit, which boosts Critical hit.


EDIT: Pics on now.

Here is the plan that we had agreed on earlier.


Renny: Shaymin and Swampert use Air Slash on the Fog.
Rachel: Two Rage Rockets on Pierce and Impact.
Wilhelmina: STAB Dark Shot on Psytellite A.
Melanie: Uses "Un" (Dark Type Slayer attack) for STAB Super Effective damage on PsyMatthias. Base 50% chance of flinching which might be 100% flinch due to Super Effectiveness? Uses X-Attack on Irene.
Irene: Attacks PsyImpact and Psytellite D with Grimslay for STAB Super Effective Ghost damage and 50% base chance of Instant Death. (Doubled to 100% due to Super Effectiveness?) Sceptile uses X-Scissor on PsyPierce. Rhyperior uses Megahorn on PsyMatthias.
Harliette: Vespiquen and Wormadam use Attack Order and Bug Bite (both bug moves) on Psytellites B and C.
Moon: Vaporeon uses Helping Hand on Harliette. Lanturn uses Signal Beam, a bug move on PsyPierce.
Lexhur: Uses Grill Gore for strong dark type damage on PsyRenny.
Charlotte: Spends her Trainer Action to use Future Shock, centered on Psytellite E, Asura Beta E and Psytellite F. Uses Arceus (Poison typed due to Toxic Plate) and his Poison typed Judgement on one of them Asura Beta A to knock it out with Super Effective Damage. Sol-Leks uses Dark Pulse on PsyImpact.
Matthias: Porygon Z, Dark Pulse on PsyMatthias.
Pierce: Tyranitar uses Crunch (Dark) on a PsyPierce and Blaziken uses Overheat on Asura Beta D.
Impact: uses Swarm Bow for super-effective damage on PsyImpact. Pays 75 RPs to use C,C&C.
Shannon: Florescense uses X-Scissor on Psytellite B. Roserade uses Poison Jab on Asura Beta D.
Kurika: Uses Below the Belt for STAB Super-effective damage on PsyImpact.
Milsha: Uses Throat Harpoon for STAB Super-effective damage on PsyMatthias.
Cecilia: Splash Bomb on PsyPierce.
Aster: Lucario form, Divide Dark Pulse between Psytellite C and PsyPierce.
Pierce's Trainer Attack: Pierce uses Phantom Staff for super-effective damage on PsyPierce.
Harliette (2nd): does Desperado to do four powerful randomly aimed typeless attacks (Hopefully there are fewer targets since she attacks last, so there is less chance of a bad random attack).

Do we have anyone in particular who should get knocked out first? I think we can leave all the ones attacking the Betas as is. And Renny is naturally on Defog duty and Rachel on Rage Rocket Duty. We can organize all the ones attacking Shades and Psytellites though due to those all being the same type.

I have a speculation. I believe that the psytellites and the Psyshades beside them are related in a sort of supportive fashion. It might be required that we attempt to knock out the Psytellites in order to deal any significant damage to the Shades. Totally guessing though.

Anyhow, it's late for me, so I'm off to bed.

[Astral Harmony]

I know how you feel and I'm sorry about it. But the battles are too easy. The only assholes who gave you a run for your money were Pokegeddon.

Ah, Pokegeddon. They're gonna have some pretty important roles to play in both this RP and the sequel.

[Geminex]

They aren't too easy, we just come up with good strategies!

But very well. People, let's reevaluate.

I'm thinking, in addition to the betas, we can either take out three Psy-clones, or most of (or all?) the Psyshades. I'm not worried about the damage Psy-clones will do, of course, I'm worried about their sigtechs. Mind you, I'm now going to hope that they really are limited to sigtechs, so that narrows the pain they could potentially cause us down somewhat...

Let's just see what everyone can do...
PsyPierce: Damage 4 targets, burn and flinch them. Is that right? If so, it'd be bad, but not too terrible. I guess.
PsyRenny: Attack us onec for every killed opponent. We've killed quite a few opponents so far. I think this would hurt.
PsyImpact: Since there's no PsyRayleen, he shouldn't be able to use CCC. So he'd be stuck with Dark Ambition, which'll buff him quite hugely in the long run, but is less of a threat in the short run.
PsyCharlotte: Huh. Future shock might turn out to be very unpleasant as well, but I think this is one of the smaller risks.
PsyMatt: Would he just one one of his synctechs?

As it is, I think we can kill the Psyshades. They'll probably die more easily, and while we'll take full damage from all the sigtechs, I think it would be even less fun to get disrupted massively.

[Menarker]

Are you saying that we're attacking the Psytellites? Because you used Psyshades and Psy-clones as if they were different when they are the exact same thing.
Shades tends to be a shadow of the person in question. It's a poetic name of sort.

Anyhow, the battle plan is up there and all the attacks pretty much are already selected to be effective against psychic types (except the ones who are attacking Betas). So all you need to do is rearrange who is attacking which target.

[Geminex]

Yeah, meant the 'lites. I haven't redone the plan yet, cause I wanted to hear whether you guys would prefer attacking lites or shades.

[Menarker]

Well, preventing disruption from psytellites sounds good. I still got Max Revives to use with Prosperous Gifts assuming I get the rage, so we can afford to spend one turn taking a beat if the end result is that we cut their numbers down by like half.

[Dracorion]

Psytellites are bastards. Apparently they can revive corpses, cause mental status effects and drain Rage.

Bastards.

So we should take out some of them.

And we should take out some of the Psyshades too. I don't think our Psyshades actually have pokemon, so we may not have to worry about those Signature Techniques. I think PsyRenny might still be able to use Dark Blessing, though.

Oh, and Pierce's Hellfire only hits three targets.

[Menarker]

AB said that PsyRenny wouldn't have "that Shadow Blessing crap". But yeah, take out the Psytellites in my view.

[Dracorion]

Oh right.

Maybe if you hadn't reposted your Valiant Rush when I told you not to PsyRenny wouldn't be able to use that either.

Way to go Menarker, you've doomed us.

[Menarker]

I'm pretty sure you asked me to post it back too.

Just that I didn't put it in my bio, because I don't actually have the ability to use it yet. Same with a few of the other Signature Techniques and Love Techs I've been thinking of. (Aside from the fact that I haven't proposed those yet. =P)

Anyhow, I'd suggest we focus on the Psytelites and the Betas completely and save the shades for after. Yes, we'll probably take a good deal of damage, but if some shades get knocked out and the psytelites revive them, we'll look pretty damn stupid and take more of a beating.

Anyhow, I got to go for work. See ya!

[Dracorion]

No. I asked you to post it, then I asked you not to.

'Nyway, the only part I'm adamant about is directing Pierce's Trainer Attack at his Psyshade.

Sorry, non-negotiable. And it's just a Trainer Attack anyway.

[Astral Harmony]

Pierce should be able to do that. I mean, Dracorian controls Pierce (and his NPCs for that matter), and regardless of what orders one might wish Pierce to obey, Dracorian has full authority over what his character, his NPCs, and all their Pokemon do.

I think I'll give you an idea of the HP boosts I'm referring to.

It often happens a lot in console RPs where the bosses and even standard foes have tons more HP than the characters, yet do less damage than them. That's kind of what I want to do here.

Standard foes could have anywhere from three to five times more HP, depending on size and strength, and this includes Pokemon. L-sized enemies could be packing anywhere from seven to ten times more HP, and bosses? Maybe around twelve to even twenty times more HP.

In light of this, I'm going to start doing more accurate displays of the damage friends and foes deal to each other. I'll calculate damage as a percentage and then subtract it from the whole of the damaged unit's HP, which will be displayed right next to it. Like this:

- Renny: Deals 42% damage to Psytellite D (158%).

Should help in the long run when deciding strategies. Just note that bosses won't reveal these percentages until characters like Impact and Sophie get those demon upgrades.

And remember that against these psionic apparitions, status effects don't work. They don't have bodies to envenom nor do they have minds to put to sleep. So just focus on dealing the absolute amount of damage that you can. Your main goal is to weaken Moera's psychic powers by destroying her minions.

[Dracorion]

Ah, cool.

I'm totally okay with us having a better knowledge of just how much damage we're dealing.

I assume that Dampener accessory would affect both enemies and allies?

[Menarker]

I'd hope that none of the bosses with 20x hitpoints get combined with something that recovers shitloads of health or such like that...

Worst case situation:

A X-Staged Pokeweapon of Milotic with shitload more power and health. With this setup.
Ability: Marvel Scale (Increase defense when afflicted with any status condition), Early Bird (Wake up One turn earlier) and a Special Attack version of Guts (increase special attack when afflicted with a status condition)
Custom Item: (Something that allows it to choose its moves non-randomly with Sleep Talk or so.)
Attacks: Rest/SleepTalk/Surf/Ice Beam

Really... recovering full health every other turn AND making a defensive pokemon with decent special attack even stronger defensively and offensively while asleep? (Even in the actual games, this is a viable build with Marvel Scale, Leftovers, and the above moves)

Really, the only saving grace is that Worry Seed would destroy that build.

But yeah, good to know those details.




Gem, I still didn't see your response to me answering your last question/response about Crit.

I'll post the entire conversation here:


I was kinda thinking that a suitable scale might be:

0-90 Speed: Normal (Stage 1 in the Crit Chart) 6.25% chance of crit.

91-114 Speed: Fast (Stage 2 in the Crit Chart) 12.5% chance of crit.

115+ Speed: Ace (Stage 3 in the Crit Chart) 25% chance of crit.

Stage 4 and 5 reserved for those who have items or abilities or moves that improve crit rate.

I kinda doubt you'll want to implement a stage any higher than 50% crit chance anyhow.

Your thoughts? Or thoughts from anyone else for that matter? It was hard trying to decide where the cut-off from Fast to Ace should be. But 115 is where you get most of the really fast pokemons that specialize in speed while sacrificing other stats, although some of the lower ones like Infernape, Rapidash, and the Latios/Latias duo are also very fast, but just not quite that level...


And I guess Menarker's speed scale works. But... I am uncertain. It's the fact that it rises so quickly after 90 that makes me nervous. I mean come on, 25 speed makes the difference between a 6.25% crit rate and a 25% crit rate? I'm not buying that. I'm thinking it should do one of two things:
Either, it should be a more linear progression (as I, contrary to what you may believe, actually proposed ages ago, but I'm not going back to look)
or, and I actually prefer this one:
We make it digital, like the old speed was. In the games it didn't matter how much you had, it just mattered whether or not yours was higher than your opponent's. If you asked me, my proposal would be to make the base crit chance 10%, holding a crit item or using a crit-improved move gives you another 10% to the base chance, and attacking an opponent with lower speed than you, triples your base chance.

Also, with your proposed idea for Crits, some of us will be hitting for Crit 90% of the time. >_> I mean, seriously, I could just pop a crit move on Shaymin, give her a razor fang, and know that since she's one of the fastest pokemons in the game, she'll crit 90% chance most of the time and thus do double damage with her HUGE special attack!

With my idea, the slow pokemon and mid level pokemons only get base level. The "pretty darn fast but still quite balanced but not legendary" get stage 2. The speed kings and most legendaries get Stage 3. Yes, it seems like 25 is not that much of a difference, but take a look at the individual pokemons using the base stat charts! Most of those pokemons are the ones that specialize in speed and are lacking in several other stats (or are legendaries). And with my example, even if I gave Shaymin who counts as an Ace a crit move and a crit item, it only reaches 50%. Much more balanced for something that would pierce buffs and doubles the damage. With my idea, if you got a fast pokemon, you got a better chance of critting, and if you're willing to invest a slot in a move and a crit item, then you'll do it twice as reliably.

Also, there wouldn't be debates about whether my pokemon was faster than a Merc pokemon or X-Staged pokemon or a character that isn't a pokemon. Thus it's easier to deal with crits when dealing with foes that don't have listed stats.

And in regard to crits, you're forgetting speed-buff moves. Anyone with more than 60 base speed could agility themselves to 25% crit. And I'm not sure where stages 4 and 5 would be on your scale, but I'm thinking anything above 200 speed will reach 5. Which'd mean 50% crit chance, without any buffs.

Plus, yeah. Maybe my example wasn't good. But I'm sure we could twist the numbers to improve it. I think a digital system is better than a progressive one in any case.


I said that Rank 4 and 5 would not be accessible by speed alone. You'd need an item, ability or move to reach Rank 4 and 5. I figured you can only go so far with speed alone. Just like how being able to benchpress 200 lbs and being super strong is not going to enable you to drive nails into wood without a proper tool like a hammer. 25% is pretty good for moves whose effect does not include improved critting. For those who REALLY want crit without the required ability, hold item or improved crit move, there is the buff item Dire Hit, which is available to Medics for +2 stage boost.

[Dracorion]

Oh man I just thought up a horrible strategy seriously it's disgusting.

Basically, have someone use Follow Me. Pierce uses his Demon Half ability that lets him take all the hits for one ally on the person who used Follow Me. Pierce activates the Begrudger accessory so he can counterattack everything.

And Renny uses Serene Blessing to give Pierce a free Protect.

See? It's disgusting.

[Menarker]

Hehe, oddly enough, Renny is probably the person who would team up with Pierce best then, since he's the only one as far as I know who'd consider using the move Follow Me thus far in the story. That and the entire Serene Blessing thing.

Mind you, you would have to get two levels of slayers for accessories...

So, you want Breeder 2 (7 levels), Slayer 2 at least (9 levels)... that leaves at least 6 more for demon or something else.

*Has to be careful not to target Pierce with Follow Me lest he activates his Demon ability to use Follow Me on the one using it. Divide by Zero. =O *


You know what I just had? I just had a weird image of what the Electric Ruin General would be like.
Some sort of compulsive gambler who hangs out in casinos and rigs gambling machines and such. A total hedonist who probably LOVES human lifestyle, although not our heros (at least not at first). When our heros fight him, he does stuff like randomly assign the floor panels everyone is standing on with "Chain Lightning Death" every few turns. Anyone who is standing on one of those panels who gets knocked out automatically triggers all the other panels with the same feature, knocking those ones out, as he reassigns new panels randomly to have the same effect. >_> Brutal, utterly RANDOM (in his favor) and total cause to panic! Even the best fighter could be easily knocked out if someone much weaker gets knocked out.

Everyone would be worrying...
A: "Am I standing on one of those panels"?
B: "How am I going to find out?"
C: "Who else is likely to be standing on those panels?"
D: "Can they defend themselves or are they being ganged up on or such?"

And all sorts of stuff. >_< It's like a constant game of "Who's the Weakest Link?"

Or ewww, a custom status effect "Coma" which his electric attacks effect the electric nervous system and if he knocked them out, they can't be revived until a turn or two has passed.

Combine those two... Would suck serious ass...

[Dracorion]

Will you stop giving AB ideas?!

I swear to God, I will smack you upside the head.

[Menarker]

Hehe, can you possibly imagine if I was a GM? You guys would get tons of goodies, but by GODS, you guys will be growing ulcers from all the crazy shit that I'd heap on you poor souls. ^^;

[Dracorion]

That implies anyone could be crazy enough to join an RP GMed by you.

[Menarker]

Hehe, yeah.

It wouldn't happen any time soon at all, especially not when I'm having tons of fun here. ^^


Anyhow, here is the revised plan...

There are 7 Psytellites, and I set the attacks so the ones we do attack have AT LEAST 4 attacks so we don't spread out too thin. (Except for the two Irene is attacking (B and C) which I'm gambling on the weapon doing 50 or 100% OHKO chance due to her weapon Grimslay being super effective.) 4 Attacks on Psytellite A, 5 on D, 4 on E, 5 on F. G is unaffected and so is Moera and the Shades (except for a tiny hit from Pierce's trainer attack and a divided Dark Pulse from Aster)

Renny: Shaymin and Swampert use Air Slash on the Fog.
Rachel: Two Rage Rockets on Pierce and Impact.
Wilhelmina: STAB Dark Shot on Psytellite A.
Melanie: Uses "Un" (Dark Type Slayer attack) for STAB Super Effective damage on Psytellite A. Base 50% chance of flinching which might be 100% flinch due to Super Effectiveness? Uses X-Attack on Irene.
Irene: Attacks Psytellite B and Psytellite C with Grimslay for STAB Super Effective Ghost damage and 50% base chance of Instant Death. (Doubled to 100% due to Super Effectiveness?) Sceptile uses X-Scissor on Psytellite A. Rhyperior uses Megahorn on Psytellite A.
Harliette: Vespiquen and Wormadam use Attack Order and Bug Bite (both bug moves) on Psytellites D.
Moon: Vaporeon uses Helping Hand on Harliette. Lanturn uses Signal Beam, a bug move on Psytellite D.
Lexhur: Uses Grill Gore for strong dark type damage on Psytellite G.
Charlotte: Spends her Trainer Action to use Future Shock, centered on Psytellite E, Asura Beta E and Psytellite F. Uses Arceus (Poison typed due to Toxic Plate) and his Poison typed Judgement on one of them Asura Beta A to knock it out with Super Effective Damage. Sol-Leks uses Dark Pulse on Psytellite D.
Matthias: Porygon Z, Dark Pulse on Psytellite E.
Pierce: Tyranitar uses Crunch (Dark) on a Psytellite E and Blaziken uses Overheat on Asura Beta D.
Impact: uses Swarm Bow for super-effective damage on Psytellite E. Pays 75 RPs to use C,C&C.
Shannon: Florescense uses X-Scissor on Psytellite F. Roserade uses Poison Jab on Asura Beta D.
Kurika: Uses Below the Belt for STAB Super-effective damage on Psytellite F.
Milsha: Uses Throat Harpoon for STAB Super-effective damage on Psytellite F.
Cecilia: Splash Bomb on Psytellite F.
Aster: Lucario form, Divide Dark Pulse between Psytellite D and PsyPierce.
Pierce's Trainer Attack: Pierce uses Phantom Staff for super-effective damage on PsyPierce. (Drac's Request)
Harliette (2nd): does Desperado to do four powerful randomly aimed typeless attacks (Hopefully there are fewer targets since she attacks last, so there is less chance of a bad random attack).

[Astral Harmony]

The Dampener accessory does work on both sides, yes. Hmmm...yeah, that'll work. If you feel it's a good idea, you could "remove" any accessory you have equipped. It stays unequipped for the full turn and you can remove and re-equip it as a free action.

Use this strategy if you have one of those Always Active accessories that does something you really don't want it to do on certain turns.

I think the Dampener is the only accessory with this issue, but now that I'm feeling better, I do intend to create quite a few more other accessories. Perhaps tonight.

I know Menarker meant well when he sent me that link to Pokemon abilities, but I figure it's kind of a silly idea to create accessories that do the same shit that Pokemon abilities do. Though it is a good idea to create at least some accessories that function like Pokemon abilities.

If you come with broken strategies, I will come up with ways to break them. Giggity.

My idea for the Electric Ruin General (Amplaive, if I remember correctly) was that it was an aquatic monstrosity just like the actual Water General. Wouldn't attack at the same time as the Water General, but would be another aquatic battle.

But I've changed my mind. I won't take Renny's idea, but I know a certain yellow monster that was way cool to fight in a certain RPG. I just need to figure out how that kind of fight would work.

--------

Also, I like Menarker's Excel Saga avatar.

[Dracorion]

But I've changed my mind. I won't take Renny's idea, but I know a certain yellow monster that was way cool to fight in a certain RPG. I just need to figure out how that kind of fight would work.

What RPG?

And Menarker, the plan seems good I guess.

Though really, I think Lexhur counts as a one-hit kill on a Psytellite by himself. Fucking Destroyer and all.

[Menarker]

Well, Lexhur is one of the 5 attacking it, so if we move it to G, there will still be 4 attacking D. Might be worth a shot. I'll edit that in, although I'm more or less iffy that an attack that can be used at least once every turn can be considered a one hit kill, especially since AB is doing that increased hitpoint thing.

^^ and I'm glad you like my avatar AB. ^^

Also, it was probably for the best that AB changed his mind about making the electric general an aquatic electric type. Then I would be getting too much spotlight for having one of the only two pokemon that can swim underwater AND is immune to electric types. (YAY SWAMPERT!) The other being Moon with his Volt Absorb Lanturn. (But Swampert could use STAB super effective Earthquake)

[Astral Harmony]

Ah, hell with it. Video that inspired the idea behind the new Electric Ruin General. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSSjJQD6StQ)

The general and the battlefield will be quite different, but it is where I got the inspiration from.

[Dracorion]

Also, it was probably for the best that AB changed his mind about making the electric general an aquatic electric type. Then I would be getting too much spotlight for having one of the only two pokemon that can swim underwater AND is immune to electric types. (YAY SWAMPERT!) The other being Moon with his Volt Absorb Lanturn. (But Swampert could use STAB super effective Earthquake)

Quagsire. Unless you mean pokemon actually owned by someone on the team.

And I don't think Earthquake would've been available, unless we were fighting on the bottom of the ocean.

AB, you mean fighting Amplaive like, from positions in an airship?

... That could be a neat mechanic.

[Astral Harmony]

That would be like the battle idea for the Flying Ruin General. For Amplaive, I think you're going to be mounting it and doing battle on top of it. Amplaive is definitely mechanical in nature, just like Lexhur.

Except Amplaive is bigger. Much bigger.

[Dracorion]

Well, barring any objections from Geminex, we're going with the plan Menarker posted above.

[Geminex]

Dracorian has full authority over what his character, his NPCs, and all their Pokemon do.
hahahahahahahaha OH WOW

In light of this, I'm going to start doing more accurate displays of the damage friends and foes deal to each other. I'll calculate damage as a percentage and then subtract it from the whole of the damaged unit's HP, which will be displayed right next to it.

Oh fuck yeah, this is rad. Thanks.
Mind you, you're torturing me and Menarker here, because I can already tell that the temptation to do the math and find out whether our last attack shouldn't have done just a liiiittle more damage is gonna be immense. But I won't give in, because that would be a douchebag thing to do. Don't know about Menarker, though. :3:

Hehe, can you possibly imagine if I was a GM? You guys would get tons of goodies, but by GODS, you guys will be growing ulcers from all the crazy shit that I'd heap on you poor souls. ^^;

I would military-coup the RP right out from under your ass. Seriously, I would join it for that sole purpose. I'd take 5 threads, 300 PMs and a bit of luck and you would be out on your ass.
EXILED MOTHERFUCKER

In regards to crit:
Let's combine the two ideas. I prefer a digital system where you get bonuses depending on whether your speed is higher or lower than the enemy's, cause that's how speed started out, and how, I think, it works best. But you're right in that multipliers don't work very well, the stages are better. So why not like this:

5 stages (or perhaps 6, not sure, whereby the 6th stage is 66%)
Being faster than the opponent you're attacking gets you a 2-stage boost
Every other "positive" crit affect (such as using focus energy or an improved crit-chance move) gives you a one stage boost (that includes dire hit, no two-stage item boosts for you).
The upper two stages (4 and 5, or 5 and 6) can only be reached by a speed bonus.
Also, I'm considering whether to make it so that speed gives you a 3-stage boost if your speed is double or more that of the opponent's (that'd make heavily speed-focused pokemon, such as Ninjask way more viable)
Speed also gives a bonus to avoiding sniper and destroyer attacks (though I'm not sure what formula we'd use here)

Also, in this vein, we could make it that attack-first moves (like quick attack) all get modified to they give a fixed boost to your speed stat for this attack (maybe, I dunno, a random number between 15 and 30 points?). That'd be in keeping with their "original" function and make them actually useful.

And while I'm not sure if what you're doing is enough to kill beta E, the plan's fine. Let's do this.

Oh, and Drac, were you gonna post your upgrades next? Or should I?

[Dracorion]

hahahahahahahaha OH WOW

... What?

Oh, and Drac, were you gonna post your upgrades next? Or should I?

Actually, I was really only going to post my upgrades one by one as the time came to get them.

Because I know I'm going to want to change shit around as the RP progresses.

However, I may post some conditional upgrades for Pierce.

[Geminex]

Actually, I was really only going to post my upgrades one by one as the time came to get them.

Because I know I'm going to want to change shit around as the RP progresses.

That's cool, I guess. But just so we're clear, if one of your later things turns out to be imbalanced, and you get pissed because you already got the prerequisite for it three levels ago, that's your problem. You don't get to retroactively pick a new upgrade, and saying "but I already got the prerequisite" isn't a valid argument.
ZIS IS A DICTATORIAL DECREE!

Or something.
I mean, unless you want to keep your stuff super-super secret, why not post at least an outline, the strong stuff? You can still change it later, but we can work out some potential problems beforehand.

[Dracorion]

... Fair enough.

But if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it right.

I actually just noticed something: AB, are we allowed to customize our first level of Demon Half?

Also, didn't you say before that we would get Trainer Attack for free at Trainer 1, and then Trainer Actions every even level of Trainer? Does that still hold?

[Astral Harmony]

Correct and correct, Drac. Additionally, for Impact, Dracorian, and Sophie (also played by Dracorian), I'll go ahead and post what was desired by them for the Magatamas, just in case they don't remember.

Impact:

In regards to my magatama...
I'm thinking control (surprise surprise). Not a lot of "in your face" force, but the ability to
a) find out stuff about the enemy, maybe enhanced aura scanning, analysis, and even mild precognition
b) influence the enemy's morale, tactics and targetting
c) strike very precisely at certain elements of the enemy force. Not to deal much damage overall, but to hinder specialists and supporters, to modify the flow of their reinforcements, to apply overwhelming force in a single place, should it become necessary
d) support the rest of the party (not certain how)
Yeah. Pretty much manipulate the flow of battle. It's a lot, but I've got a lot of levels to fit it in. Also, since the 5th Slayer level is just the RDPA, could I take that level, and then drop it as soon as we reach demon? (Possibly justified by some event or another that makes it impossible for Impact to use the power armor anymore, or maybe he just refuses to.)

---------------------------------------------
Pierce:

Anyway, here's the Magatama abilities I want for Pierce:

- Toughness. That is to say, increased defences. Because...
- The ability to take (or negate) all damage directed at one ally, at a Rage Point cost.
- Increased Rage Point generation or decreased Rage Point cost, pick your favorite.
- Stat boosts all around the board. And when Pierce is out on the field, a small stat boost to whichever pokemon is out with him.

---------------------------------------------
Sophie's Magatama:

- A skill to use two attacks for one turn (note: attacks, not actions; use an item? no; use a Signature Technique? no; normal attack? yes) at a RP cost.
- Enhanced observational skills: first level, determine the strengths (weapon capabilties, possible attacks) and possible weak points of an opponent. Second level, read body language and determine an opponent's next move (NOT precognition, that doesn't fit with Sophie). Both for an RP cost.
- Stat boosts.
- Chemical knowledge: Sophie carries around a case full of chemicals. In the field, she can mix and match to treat status afflictions to an extent. The effect of all physical status effects (except for Freeze, for obvious reasons) is halved. Physical status effects that take two actions to cure can be healed in one action.

Actually, as for Demon Half level 1, you're required to have Aura Reading as an upgrade. But it won't detract from other upgrades you might want. Just consider it a perk that doesn't really help you in battle. But it does make shit a little more interesting.

[Dracorion]

Huh.

I totally forgot I had asked for Sophie to get her own version of Double Attack.

Anyway, upgrades for Pierce:

Already Earned:

Pokemon Trainer (Level 1)

- Four Pokemon are available.
- Leader Pokemon is available. Leader Pokemon can know six moves instead of four.
- Trainer Attack is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 2)

- Fifth Pokemon is available.
- Can now use Focus skill. Attack that hits two targets or a random target can now hit a single designated target. Costs 25 Rage.
- 1st Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 3)

- A 2nd Leader Pokemon is available.
- Trainer Attack skill is available. Allows Trainer to hit enemy as a free action. Attack is fairly weak and generates no Rage.
- Divine skill is available. Allows a single hit attack to hit multiple foes without suffering damage loss or side/stat effect loss. Costs 25 Rage.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 4)

- Sixth Pokemon is available.
- Two Custom Hold Items are available.
- 2nd Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 5)

- 1st Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available. Legendary Pokemon do not evolve, but can be Veterans.
- 1st custom move availability.

Okay, so I realize we're not actually to level 5 yet, but it's like right there anyway.



Level 6 onwards:

Slayer (Level 1)

- Has a Normal type attack.
- Normal damage is reduced by 50%.
- Can possess a loadout of three weapons and three armor.
- Can switch these equipment loadouts completely in between battles, but can request them from Daphne to switch them out one-by-one.
- Maximum Items carrying up to 6.
- Stats rearranged but keeping same base total.
- Character generates 10 rage per attack (or when getting attacked)
- Can deploy self and one pokemon, or two pokemon.

- Light Weapons
Claw of Twilight (Dark, 50% Flinching)
Dragon Slave (Dragon, 50% SpDefense -1)
Capacitor Rod (Electric, 50% Paralysis)
Strange Parasite (Grass, 50% Drain)
Toxin Bombs (Poison, 50% Poison)

- Medium Weapons:
Swarm Bow (Bug, 50% Evasion -1)
HV Penetrator Rifle (Fighting, 50% Defense -1)
Gust Blaster (Flying, High Critical)
Netherworld Sapper (Ghost, 25% Instant Death)
Titanic Fist (Ground, 50% Accuracy -1)
Synapse Disruptor (Psychic, 50% Confusion)

- Heavy Weapons
Napalm Thrower (Fire, 50% Burn)
Hydro Cannon (Water, 50% Sleep)
LH Launcher (Ice, 50% Freeze)
Siege Boomerage (Rock, 50% Attack -1)
Crescent Moon (Steel, 50% Internal Bleeding)

- Armor:
Reinforced Vest (Normal -50%, Always Equipped)
Pesticide Layer (Bug -50%, Evasion Debuff Immunity)
Shadow Suit (Dark -50%, Flinch Immunity)
Courage Emblem (Dragon -50%, SpDef Debuff Immunity)
Insulated Armor (Electric -50%, Paralyze Immunity)
Impact Gear (Fighting -50%, Def Debuff Immunity)
FR Suit (Fire -50%, Burn Immunity)
Windbreaker (Flying -50%, Crit Immunity)
Holy Talisman (Ghost -50%, Death Immunity)
Herbicide Layer (Grass -50%, Drain Immunity)
Jump Boots (Ground -50%, Acc Debuff Immunity)
Counter Injector (Poison -50%, Poison Immunity)
Brain Case (Psychic -50%, Confuse Immunity)
Thermal Underwear (Ice -50%, Freeze Immunity)
Sonic Guard (Rock -50%, Att Debuff Immunity)
Platemail (Steel -50%, Bleed Immunity)
Weather Cloak (Water -50%, Sleep Immunity)

-----
Slayer (Level 2)

- Slayer Weapons deal 130 damage.
- Pierce gains Defiance (see conditional upgrades).
- Slayers can now equip two of the Accessories listed below.

Slayer Accessories: Each use costs 30 Rage.
- Environment Guard: Always Active type. Negates damage from Sandstorms, Snowstorms, and other weather effects that deal damage. There will be some custom weather. Moera's Psystorm is not one of them. Flying cars and hotdog stands are different than weather.
- Holy Ring: Always Active type. Restores 5% of MaxHP per turn.
- Melting Beam: Activation type. Halves the DEF of the target before you strike. DEF is only halved for your strike and not those of any other unit.
- Corruption Beam: Activation type. Halves the SDEF of the target before you strike. SDEF is only halved for your strike and not those of any other unit.
- Dire Power: Always Active type. 10% crit chance.
- Begrudger: Activation type. 100% counter on any enemy that attacks the user.

AB said he might come up with some more accessories that work like pokemon abilities, but these are going to be the accessories available to Pierce. Basically, I shaved off some of them to make room for more cool shit in this upgrade.

-----
Demon Half (Level 1)

- Aura Growth increases all statistics of Slayers and Pokebrids by 15 and Pokemon by 5.
- Use Aura Reading to find out what most NPCs think of you. Impact could use this to find potential allies for his evil emergence, for example.
- Access the following Signature Techniques:
1. Aura Blade - 200 Power, 100% Accuracy, Almighty Type, Physical Attribute. Great against foes that have buffed their defenses into the upper strata. Costs 25 Rage.
2. Focus Ray - 200 Power, 100% Accuracy, Almighty Type, Special Attribute. The long range version of Aura Blade. Costs 25 Rage.

-----
Demon Half (Level 2)

- Pierce gains 10 points in all stats.
- Pierce can now use the skill Cover to redirect all the damage directed at one ally toward himself. Costs 30 Rage.
- Pierce gains the skill Inspiration. When Pierce is in the field, whichever pokemon is out with him gains 5 points in all stats.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 1)

- Base Rage generated goes from 5 to 7.
- Can create a new custom hold item.
- 2nd Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available.
- 3rd Trainer Action is available.

-----
Demon Half (Level 3)

- Pierce gains 15 points in both Defense and Special Defense.
- The skill Inspiration is improved. Whichever pokemon is with Pierce in the field gains 10 points in all stats. This stacks with the previous upgrade.
- One of Pierce's leader pokemon gains a second ability.

-----
Slayer (Level 3)

- Medium Weapon Ricewood Rifle (Ruin type Damage) is available.
- Armor Guardian Globe (Ruin type Defense) is available.
- Pierce gains 10 points in all stats.
- Pierce gains Shock Trooper Configuration (see conditional upgrades).

-----
Slayer (Level 4)

- PC Slayers can now equip two small, two medium, and two large weapons in addition to the Normal type assault rifle that is always on hand.
- All Slayers also gain Armor Affinity. What this means is that if a weapon they use deals the same type of damage as a piece of armor they have equipped protects against, they get a STAB modifier. This STAB modifier is double as opposed the 1.5 used by Trainers and Snaggers.

-----
Demon Half (Level 4)

- Pierce gains 15 points in both Defense and Special Defense.
- When using the skill Cover, the damage Pierce recieves is reduced by 20%.
- Rage Point cost for all skills is decreased by 5.

-----
Demon Half (Level 5)

- Pierce gains 15 points in all stats.
- The skill Inspiration is improved. Whichever pokemon is with Pierce in the field gains 10 points in all stats. This stacks with the previous upgrades. The bonus is split between both pokemon out in the field with Pierce.
- Pierce's other leader pokemon gains a second ability.




Conditional Upgrades:

1) At Trainer 5 and Slayer 2, Pierce and his pokemon gain Defiance, whenever one reaches 1/4 of their HP, that one's damage increases by 25%. This boost is negated when their HP rises above 1/4.

2) At Breeder 1 and Slayer 3, Pierce gains Shock Trooper Configuration, allowing him to fight alongside his pokemon. Pierce and both his pokemon can take action on the same turn with no penalty.


Pierce's stats:

HP: 100
Attack: 120
Defense: 80
Special Attack: 105
Special Defense: 75
Speed: 120

Total: 600


So. Let's get to nerfin' the crap outta these.

Too many stat boosts, right?

[Geminex]

I'm actually gonna let Menarker go first on these, see what he thinks. I've formed a few opinions, but I wanna wait. He was online before, this shouldn't take too long.

Edit: Though not to keep you waiting, it doesn't seem all that bad. The stats boosts don't seem too horrible, and you'll probably end up with less offensive power than Menarker's. But like I said, I wanna hear his views first.

Edit 2: Speaking of which...

[Menarker]

Sorry, had something very important about the crit convo to say. I think I got a good balance here though.


In regards to crit:
Let's combine the two ideas. I prefer a digital system where you get bonuses depending on whether your speed is higher or lower than the enemy's, cause that's how speed started out, and how, I think, it works best. But you're right in that multipliers don't work very well, the stages are better. So why not like this:

5 stages (or perhaps 6, not sure, whereby the 6th stage is 66%)
Being faster than the opponent you're attacking gets you a 2-stage boost
Every other "positive" crit affect (such as using focus energy or an improved crit-chance move) gives you a one stage boost (that includes dire hit, no two-stage item boosts for you).
The upper two stages (4 and 5, or 5 and 6) can only be reached by a speed bonus.
Also, I'm considering whether to make it so that speed gives you a 3-stage boost if your speed is double or more that of the opponent's (that'd make heavily speed-focused pokemon, such as Ninjask way more viable)
Speed also gives a bonus to avoiding sniper and destroyer attacks (though I'm not sure what formula we'd use here)



My only problem with this is making the last few speed boosts being only accessible by speed. You're accidently making pokemons that are not crit focused great at critting and those who were supposed to be crit focused NOT good anymore.

There are several species of pokemon whose speciality being critical hits that do not have high speed. Absol and Honchkrow to name a few are several whose ability is critical focused. MANY of those who can learn Focus Energy move are not very fast at all due to balancing. Therefore, limiting the highest tiers to only those who can achieve speed is rather limiting to those whose main purpose in the game is to achieve crit easier but whose speed stat in the real game was dropped low as a balancing feature (since the ones who have high crit tends to have high power, making them attack first would surely do immense damage if not outright KO in one hit, causing them to be a dangerous sweeper.)

Hence that is why I opted for speed benefits for crit to max out at 3 while the upper stages are reachable by things that are crit specific like abilities, moves or items. Those like Ninjask would still EASILY have 25% chance of critting naturally, but those who are crit focused but naturally slow should have a chance to equal them, if not exceed them, due to the difference in how speed operate in the games as opposed to here.

Balancing this will be tricky though...

See, equipping a pokemon with a Razor Fang is easy enough, although it does take up your item slot for things like custom items or things like Lum Berry or so. So, if you intended ahead of time for that pokemon to be crit focused, then yes, that's practically a free stage up. For super fast pokemons who already hit level 3 with ease, that would pump them to level 4 easily enough.

Crit moves or abilities however are not quite as common. They are more reserved for those who focus on crits in the first place. Having one and choosing to use one thus grants another stage. But since most crit pokemons are slow, this would only serve to bring them to level 3 at most ASSUMING a razor fang. This means, most fast pokemons who do not specialize in crit moves but are wearing a Razor Fang easily reach level 4, while a crit specialized character with low speed wearing a Razor Fang can only reach level 3.

Thus I propose the following:

Speed maxes out at Stage 3. (Everyone starts at Stage 1)
Improved Crit moves give +2 to crit bonus.


This means that Speed pokemons wearing a razor can reach level 4 fairly easily, but unless they got a crit move or an ability that helps crit rate, they'll stay there. Start at 1, get 2 crit due to speed unless they come across someone faster (3), and razor fang to hit 4. (Speed pokemon still have advantage of evading snipers and destroyers, but risk losing the speed clash or getting paralysed.)

Slow crit pokemons start at 1 and with razor fang end up with 2 stage. But a crit move brings them up to 4, thus keeping them equal with most fast pokemons with razor fang. (Their crit is reliable, not shifting much from speed, but they get hit more by destroyers and snipers)

The few times that there IS a fast attacker with crit moves or the crit specialist is facing a slow target, the benefits becoming greatest, with +2 speed bonus, +2 bonus for crit and 1 for razor fang for the elusive stage bonus of 5. If said crit user also has Dire Hit or Super Luck or something like that... Then maybe we can allow a stage 6


What do you think of this proposal?




Also, in this vein, we could make it that attack-first moves (like quick attack) all get modified to they give a fixed boost to your speed stat for this attack (maybe, I dunno, a random number between 15 and 30 points?). That'd be in keeping with their "original" function and make them actually useful.



That sounds good although the only one who would choose something like that is anyone with Extremespeed due to its higher power.

[Dracorion]

'Kay. I've got half an hour, then I need some sleep.

I'll try to get up early in the morning to address this.

By the way, I changed Defiance into a straight up damage boost and worded it better.

[Menarker]

Reposting what I thought of Drac's idea here.

Drac's proposed idea looks good at the top of my head.

In terms of stats boosts, it looks fine. Or at least comparing to my character. If you're comparing him to my character, he's stronger more consistantly, especially in defense due to his stats being stable at a higher level. But whenever Renny enters RDPA or Paradigm Shift, Renny will jump in power to be higher for a period of time, even if Pierce and both his pokemons are in Defiance mode. But even then, Pierce won't be trailing terribly far behind. (Except in Special Attack which you'll be MUCH higher than Renny)

Pierce's pokemon will be stronger than Renny's though, so with the combined assault, it does more or less balance out.

EDIT: (I forgot that Renny would also be boosted by Pierce and Impact as a side effect because of that demon aura. So the difference in power during Paradigm Shift would be a bit larger than I expected when Paradigm Shift or RDPA is active and smaller when it is not.)

One thing I noticed though is that prior to your last demon level, your pokemon fighting alongside Pierce who has the effect of Inspiration would have a bonus of 20 points, after taking in effect demon aura. But at the last level, both of Pierce's pokemon get Inspired, but smaller (to 15) due to it being divided between pokemons. I wouldn't say no to Pierce making the boost so it is 20 to both pokemon.

[Dracorion]

Heh.

Too be honest, I thought Slayer level 2 was too weak, that his pokemon shouldn't share the stat boost for Inspiration but just each get the full boost, and that his Slayer 3 stat boost should be 15.

But I figured, "naaaaaaaaaaaaah, they're already gonna wanna nerf it to all hell, just leave it as is."

I also considered giving Pierce something like a Paradigm Shift or RPDA for his Demon levels. But I decided against it because it would only come out a Super Saiyan and no one wants to see that.

EDIT: Pierce and Impact would boost Renny how? I'm fairly certain Aura Growth only affects the PC and (if they're a Trainer) their pokemon.

[Menarker]

Oh. I thought that Aura Growth was an AOE effect that helped other Slayers and Pokebrids (and pokemons including your own).

^^;

Nevermind.

Anyhow, yes Paradigm Shift/RDPA would be pushing too far in my view.

Your character will be a constant force to be reckoned with. Pierce and his Pokemons.

But I wouldn't mind Inspiration at Half Demon 5 giving both pokemons 20 stats (taking Aura Growth in consideration).

[Dracorion]

Eh, feel free to ask AB anyway.

Oh, and Inspiration's stat boost to Pierce's pokemon would actually be 30 after Aura Growth, not 20.

[Menarker]

Oh, and Inspiration's stat boost to Pierce's pokemon would actually be 30 after Aura Growth, not 20.

- The skill Inspiration is improved. Whichever pokemon is with Pierce in the field gains 10 points in all stats. This stacks with the previous upgrades. The bonus is split between both pokemon out in the field with Pierce.

"Split between both pokemons" implies dividing.

I think you should change the text to

- The skill Inspiration is improved. Whichever pokemon is with Pierce in the field gains 10 points in all stats. This stacks with the previous upgrades. The bonus is applied to both pokemon out in the field with Pierce.

You know, for better grammer and less confusion. It's fine with me though.

[Geminex]

Crit:
Well, see, my problem is this:
If we use your proposal for speed, speed really wouldn't be worth it. I mean, a few stages in crit? Sure, it can be helpful. And not getting critted back is pretty useful too.

But I think that it's already at the limit. And making speed the "less important" crit factor (cause you can feasibly reach max, or close to max, without it), really makes it just a dump stat. As does the existence of items which boost crit as much as a good speed stat would (because if you have the choice between a hold item and having to put lots of points into speed, which would you take?).

If we want crit to be dependent on a stat, we need to make it depend on that stat heavily, because otherwise that stat would just be far less important than the others.

That's why I made my proposal the way I made it, I want speed to be just as valuable as attack or sp. attack. And if we do things your way, I really don't think it is.

My way's a bit better (I think), though you're right in that it disadvantages a few pokemon. But if it really becomes necessary we can re-buff those on a case-by-case basis, when they pop up in the RP. Better than leaving the speed stat crippled.

Drac...

Well, in total you're, I think, getting 360 base stats (+ 50 to everything, with another +30 to defensive stats) for Pierce throughout your progression. Plus, your mons all get +30, as you've said. You get some accessories, some custom hold items, some trainer actions. I actually think that works really well. If anything, you're a bit below Menarker's level, since he, I think, has more offensive power still. Though only slightly...

And about Cover:
Would this be a free action?
Would Pierce get rage from it?
Would Pierce be able to counter with it?
Not saying it'd be imbalanced if it were, just want to know.

Other than that, everything seems cool with your template. Unless you drastically change that, we should be able to work out any future changes you'd like to make.

That was actually the reason I wanted Menarker to go first. I didn't see anything wrong with it. And yeah, like I said, still don't. 'Xcept for those questions about cover, everything's fine.

[Dracorion]

Yeah, Menarker, I did intend for the bonus to be divided between Pierce's pokemon originally.

Drac...

Well, in total you're, I think, getting 360 base stats (+ 50 to everything, with another +30 to defensive stats) for Pierce throughout your progression. Plus, your mons all get +30, as you've said. You get some accessories, some custom hold items, some trainer actions. I actually think that works really well. If anything, you're a bit below Menarker's level, since he, I think, has more offensive power still. Though only slightly...

Yep. The difference being Pierce is less Rage-reliant and his power level is more consistent.

And about Cover:
Would this be a free action?

I could have it use up Pierce's attacking action, though he'd still be able to use an item.

Would Pierce get rage from it?

Well, it has an RP cost, and I believe the rule for skills that cost Rage is that you don't gain Rage when you use them.

Would Pierce be able to counter with it?

Well, my gut instinct says yes. I promise not to actually enact the game-breaking strategy I posted before.


You okay with Menarker's suggestion that the Inspiration boost should apply fully to both of Pierce's pokemon instead of splitting it between them?

Also, about that decreased Rage cost Pierce gets for Demon Half 4.

I was thinking it should apply to stuff like accessory use, Sweep (if Pierce had it), Focus and Divide, and of course Cover. I dunno about having it apply to Signature Techniques and Love-techs. I'm thinkin' no.

[Geminex]

I could have it use up Pierce's attacking action, though he'd still be able to use an item.
That wouldn't be necessary. Maybe his trainer action?

Well, it has an RP cost, and I believe the rule for skills that cost Rage is that you don't gain Rage when you use them.
Though then we'd be losing out on rage, since the moves' original target wouldn't be getting rage, and neither would Pierce. Unless you meant for rage to flow to the moves' original target as normal? Cause that'd work, I think. Also, it'd stop Pierce from rage-stealing Impact cause I just know you'd do that.

Well, my gut instinct says yes. I promise not to actually enact the game-breaking strategy I posted before.
Fair enough. If it turns out to be broken, we can always add a condition later.

You okay with Menarker's suggestion that the Inspiration boost should apply fully to both of Pierce's pokemon instead of splitting it between them?
Yeah, no problem. In total, that gives both pokemon on the field with Pierce a +30 boost to everything, right? It's cool.

I was thinking it should apply to stuff like accessory use, Sweep (if Pierce had it), Focus and Divide, and of course Cover. I dunno about having it apply to Signature Techniques and Love-techs. I'm thinkin' no.
The only one I'd be iffy about is accessories (I'd have no problem if it applied to Sig and Love techs). I think that 30 rage is pretty low already, though admittedly you've limited your accessory pool...
Preliminary approval. I'll trust you not to abuse it.

Wow. That's... two down, three to go. This is going quicker than I had expected.

[Dracorion]

That wouldn't be necessary. Maybe his trainer action?

That would work.

Though then we'd be losing out on rage, since the moves' original target wouldn't be getting rage, and neither would Pierce. Unless you meant for rage to flow to the moves' original target as normal? Cause that'd work, I think. Also, it'd stop Pierce from rage-stealing Impact cause I just know you'd do that.

Oh, well, if you think I can do that, sure. Rage goes to the original target.

Preliminary approval. I'll trust you not to abuse it.

Gnehehehehe hehehehahahahahaha HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!

Wow. That's... two down, three to go. This is going quicker than I had expected.

Actually, two down six to go.

I still have three other characters to plan upgrades for.


Anyway, revised:

Already Earned:

Pokemon Trainer (Level 1)

- Four Pokemon are available.
- Leader Pokemon is available. Leader Pokemon can know six moves instead of four.
- Trainer Attack is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 2)

- Fifth Pokemon is available.
- Can now use Focus skill. Attack that hits two targets or a random target can now hit a single designated target. Costs 25 Rage.
- 1st Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 3)

- A 2nd Leader Pokemon is available.
- Divine skill is available. Allows a single hit attack to hit multiple foes without suffering damage loss or side/stat effect loss. Costs 25 Rage.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 4)

- Sixth Pokemon is available.
- Two Custom Hold Items are available.
- 2nd Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 5)

- 1st Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available. Legendary Pokemon do not evolve, but can be Veterans.
- 1st custom move availability.



Level 6 onwards:

Slayer (Level 1)

- Has a Normal type attack.
- Normal damage is reduced by 50%.
- Can possess a loadout of three weapons and three armor.
- Can switch these equipment loadouts completely in between battles, but can request them from Daphne to switch them out one-by-one.
- Maximum Items carrying up to 6.
- Stats rearranged but keeping same base total.
- Character generates 10 rage per attack (or when getting attacked)
- Can deploy self and one pokemon, or two pokemon.

- Light Weapons
Claw of Twilight (Dark, 50% Flinching)
Dragon Slave (Dragon, 50% SpDefense -1)
Capacitor Rod (Electric, 50% Paralysis)
Strange Parasite (Grass, 50% Drain)
Toxin Bombs (Poison, 50% Poison)

- Medium Weapons:
Swarm Bow (Bug, 50% Evasion -1)
HV Penetrator Rifle (Fighting, 50% Defense -1)
Gust Blaster (Flying, High Critical)
Netherworld Sapper (Ghost, 25% Instant Death)
Titanic Fist (Ground, 50% Accuracy -1)
Synapse Disruptor (Psychic, 50% Confusion)

- Heavy Weapons
Napalm Thrower (Fire, 50% Burn)
Hydro Cannon (Water, 50% Sleep)
LH Launcher (Ice, 50% Freeze)
Siege Boomerage (Rock, 50% Attack -1)
Crescent Moon (Steel, 50% Internal Bleeding)

- Armor:
Reinforced Vest (Normal -50%, Always Equipped)
Pesticide Layer (Bug -50%, Evasion Debuff Immunity)
Shadow Suit (Dark -50%, Flinch Immunity)
Courage Emblem (Dragon -50%, SpDef Debuff Immunity)
Insulated Armor (Electric -50%, Paralyze Immunity)
Impact Gear (Fighting -50%, Def Debuff Immunity)
FR Suit (Fire -50%, Burn Immunity)
Windbreaker (Flying -50%, Crit Immunity)
Holy Talisman (Ghost -50%, Death Immunity)
Herbicide Layer (Grass -50%, Drain Immunity)
Jump Boots (Ground -50%, Acc Debuff Immunity)
Counter Injector (Poison -50%, Poison Immunity)
Brain Case (Psychic -50%, Confuse Immunity)
Thermal Underwear (Ice -50%, Freeze Immunity)
Sonic Guard (Rock -50%, Att Debuff Immunity)
Platemail (Steel -50%, Bleed Immunity)
Weather Cloak (Water -50%, Sleep Immunity)

-----
Slayer (Level 2)

- Slayer Weapons deal 130 damage.
- Pierce gains Defiance (see conditional upgrades).
- Slayers can now equip two of the Accessories listed below.

Slayer Accessories: Each use costs 30 Rage.
- Environment Guard: Always Active type. Negates damage from Sandstorms, Snowstorms, and other weather effects that deal damage. There will be some custom weather. Moera's Psystorm is not one of them. Flying cars and hotdog stands are different than weather.
- Holy Ring: Always Active type. Restores 5% of MaxHP per turn.
- Melting Beam: Activation type. Halves the DEF of the target before you strike. DEF is only halved for your strike and not those of any other unit.
- Corruption Beam: Activation type. Halves the SDEF of the target before you strike. SDEF is only halved for your strike and not those of any other unit.
- Dire Power: Always Active type. 10% crit chance.
- Begrudger: Activation type. 100% counter on any enemy that attacks the user.

AB said he might come up with some more accessories that work like pokemon abilities, but these are going to be the accessories available to Pierce. Basically, I shaved off some of them to make room for more cool shit in this upgrade.

-----
Demon Half (Level 1)

- Aura Growth increases all statistics of Slayers and Pokebrids by 15 and Pokemon by 5.
- Use Aura Reading to find out what most NPCs think of you. Impact could use this to find potential allies for his evil emergence, for example.
- Access the following Signature Techniques:
1. Aura Blade - 200 Power, 100% Accuracy, Almighty Type, Physical Attribute. Great against foes that have buffed their defenses into the upper strata. Costs 25 Rage.
2. Focus Ray - 200 Power, 100% Accuracy, Almighty Type, Special Attribute. The long range version of Aura Blade. Costs 25 Rage.

-----
Demon Half (Level 2)

- Pierce gains 10 points in all stats.
- Pierce can now use the skill Cover to redirect all the damage directed at one ally toward himself. Costs 30 Rage and can only be used instead of a Trainer Action. Rage gained for damage dealt goes to the original target.
- Pierce gains the skill Inspiration. When Pierce is in the field, whichever pokemon is out with him gains 5 points in all stats.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 1)

- Base Rage generated goes from 5 to 7.
- Can create a new custom hold item.
- 2nd Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available.
- 3rd Trainer Action is available.

-----
Demon Half (Level 3)

- Pierce gains 15 points in both Defense and Special Defense.
- The skill Inspiration is improved. Whichever pokemon is with Pierce in the field gains 10 points in all stats. This stacks with the previous upgrade.
- One of Pierce's leader pokemon gains a second ability.

-----
Slayer (Level 3)

- Medium Weapon Ricewood Rifle (Ruin type Damage) is available.
- Armor Guardian Globe (Ruin type Defense) is available.
- Pierce gains 10 points in all stats.
- Pierce gains Shock Trooper Configuration (see conditional upgrades).

-----
Slayer (Level 4)

- PC Slayers can now equip two small, two medium, and two large weapons in addition to the Normal type assault rifle that is always on hand.
- All Slayers also gain Armor Affinity. What this means is that if a weapon they use deals the same type of damage as a piece of armor they have equipped protects against, they get a STAB modifier. This STAB modifier is double as opposed the 1.5 used by Trainers and Snaggers.

-----
Demon Half (Level 4)

- Pierce gains 15 points in both Defense and Special Defense.
- When using the skill Cover, the damage Pierce recieves is reduced by 20%.
- Rage Point cost for all skills is decreased by 5.

-----
Demon Half (Level 5)

- Pierce gains 15 points in all stats.
- The skill Inspiration is improved. Whichever pokemon is with Pierce in the field gains 10 points in all stats. This stacks with the previous upgrades. The bonus applies to both pokemon out in the field with Pierce.
- Pierce's other leader pokemon gains a second ability.




Conditional Upgrades:

1) At Trainer 5 and Slayer 2, Pierce and his pokemon gain Defiance, whenever one reaches 1/4 of their HP, that one's damage increases by 25%. This boost is negated when their HP rises above 1/4.

2) At Breeder 1 and Slayer 3, Pierce gains Shock Trooper Configuration, allowing him to fight alongside his pokemon. Pierce and both his pokemon can take action on the same turn with no penalty.


Pierce's stats:

HP: 100
Attack: 120
Defense: 80
Special Attack: 105
Special Defense: 75
Speed: 120

Total: 600

[Geminex]

I still have three other characters to plan upgrades for.

!

Edit: Though just so this post isn't completely inane, I'm gonna post mine tomorrow, still working on them.
If Bard or Dante wanna go next...?

[Dracorion]

Actually, I might post Sophia's or Elizabeth's next.

Not much to do today, and I figure what the hell.

[Geminex]

Fair enough. Go ahead.

...

But I swear, if each and every one of you is gonna want to customize their NPC I will...
I dunno. NERF THEM REALLY HARD?
Use the Ffffffff-! tag in every post?
Well anyway, don't. Or at least make sure they're sufficiently balanced beforehand if you do. Better too weak than too strong and all that, they'll end up balanced either way.

[Menarker]

Crit:
Well, see, my problem is this:
If we use your proposal for speed, speed really wouldn't be worth it. I mean, a few stages in crit? Sure, it can be helpful. And not getting critted back is pretty useful too.

But I think that it's already at the limit. And making speed the "less important" crit factor (cause you can feasibly reach max, or close to max, without it), really makes it just a dump stat. As does the existence of items which boost crit as much as a good speed stat would (because if you have the choice between a hold item and having to put lots of points into speed, which would you take?).

If we want crit to be dependent on a stat, we need to make it depend on that stat heavily, because otherwise that stat would just be far less important than the others.

That's why I made my proposal the way I made it, I want speed to be just as valuable as attack or sp. attack. And if we do things your way, I really don't think it is.

My way's a bit better (I think), though you're right in that it disadvantages a few pokemon. But if it really becomes necessary we can re-buff those on a case-by-case basis, when they pop up in the RP. Better than leaving the speed stat crippled.



I don't agree. Speed's main feature is about the clash between targets between their speed and your speed. Against bosses and speedfreaks, if you don't have a naturally high speed of your own, you won't be critting at all unless you're also packing crit moves. High speed is an insurance. If your speed is standard, or just a bit above standard, you can't rely on it all the time.

I agree Speed should have more relevance... but not solely as THE crit stat, but with additional things like evasion or so. I think that Crit should NOT be a stat that is easy to max. With my system, speed pokemons and crit types are balanced in how they can reach 25% or 33% chance of crit. But reaching 50% becomes more of a milestone for both of them. (Also, speed pokemons still have a slight advantage in that they are acheiving crit while using moves that do not specialize in crit and thus have more freedom in their moves)

What I'm trying to prevent is the demostrated example using your proposal where the speed types gain an incredible near constant 50% chance of critting... just for being sweepers (high power and speed, low defense) or speed freaks (high speed only). Let's take Renny's Shaymin or Charlotte's Aerodactyl. You think they should gain 50% crit on legendary moves like Seed Flare or AOE moves like Rock Slide? (I'm temporaily ignoring that Aerodactyl has access to Stone Edge and thus is a very fine example of a valid candidate for 50% crit chance.) I think 25% is the max that should be allowed on the scale for those who aren't taking measures to try to be more reliable crit users.

You say that the existance of crit items make crit more important than speed, but speed items and abilities also exist especially in temporary boosts like X Speed, available by medics, but those would also boost destroyer/sniper evasion as opposed to making only crit boosts count for later. Boosting crit is only a single purpose mechanic. To boost crit. Speed can feasibly be used for evasion as proposed with evading snipers/destroyers. A single X Speed boosts the user's speed by 50%, which is quite a leap for anything with 100+ speed.

I think that speed shouldn't get more of a boost in terms of crit because Crit is not supposed to be maximized at higher than 50% and even then not easily. However, if there was something else we could apply speed to, like evasion in general, I'd be willing to apply that. Crit is meant to be not all that frequent and is supposed to be a gamble in the first place. It's for all intent and purpose, the offense version of the non-existent "luck stat" Getting 50% crit should be difficult for those who aren't built for it. 25% JUST for being faster than your foe is 1/4 chance of succeeding. 33% chance for having a razor fang on top of that is even better. If on the off chance, you have a crit move and the razor fang and you lose out on the speed thing, you're still at that 33% level. (or 25% just for having the crit move, but if you're having a crit move, you're probably intending on trying to crit and thus holding razor fang)

So, to sum up, I say no to giving more crit bonus for Speed, but I think Speed should gain other bonuses related to other mechanics.

Proposed Crit rules to sum up:
All attackers start at stage 1.
The scale is
Stage 1: 6.25%
Stage 2: 12.5%
Stage 3: 25%
Stage 4: 33.3%
Stage 5: 50%

Having higher speed than the ones you're attacking gives you +2 stage boost.
Attacking with a Improved Critical Hit move gives you a +2 stage boost.
Items or abilities like Dire Hit, Super Luck or Focus Energy gives you +1 Stage Boost.


You guys better not complain about Mollesk now! You realize crits bypass buffs to defense and all that! (Although naturally high defense is still active). Guaranteed 25% chance of critting Mollesk (due to his shitty speed) is quite huge!

[Dracorion]

Fair enough. Go ahead.

...

But I swear, if each and every one of you is gonna want to customize their NPC I will...
I dunno. NERF THEM REALLY HARD?
Use the Ffffffff-! tag in every post?
Well anyway, don't. Or at least make sure they're sufficiently balanced beforehand if you do. Better too weak than too strong and all that, they'll end up balanced either way.

If we don't customize them, then anyone with an NPC Overblade gets Double Attack.

Elizabeth's finished!

Standard:

Pokemon Trainer (Level 1)

- Four Pokemon are available.
- Leader Pokemon is available. Leader Pokemon can know six moves instead of four.
- Trainer Attack skill is available.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 1)

- Two Pokemon are available.
- Two slots for Snagger Pokemon are available.
- Snagballs cause Paralysis.
- Snagged Pokemon are fully healed and ready for battle.
- Snagball Catch Rate: 50% on Pokemon of severe damage or worse.
- Trainer Attack skill is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 2)

- Fifth Pokemon is available.
- Can now use Focus skill. Attack that hits two targets or a random target can now hit a single designated target. Costs 25 Rage.
- 1st Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 2)

- A Third Pokemon is available.
- Snagballs are more successful at 60% now.
- 1st Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 3)

- A 2nd Leader Pokemon is available.
- Divine skill is available. Allows a single hit attack to hit multiple foes without suffering damage loss or side/stat effect loss. Costs 25 Rage.



Customized:

Pokemon Snagger (Level 3)

- Snagballs can now cause the Snagger's choice of Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Frozen, or Paralysis.
- Elizabeth gains the Persuade skill, allowing her to Snag pokemon at 1/2 of their HP.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 4)

- Sixth Pokemon is available.
- Two Custom Hold Items are available.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 4)

- Auto-Snag skill is available. Allows Snaggers to automatically Snag a Pokemon at full health. Costs 50 Rage.
- 2nd Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 5)

- 1st Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available. Legendary Pokemon do not evolve, but can be Veterans.
- 1st custom move availability.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 5)

- 2nd custom move availability.
- Elizabeth gains the Flirt skill, allowing her to inflict one target with Love at a 50% chance. Costs 40 Rage.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 1)

- Can create a new custom hold item.
- One of Elizabeth's leader pokemon gains a second ability.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 1)

- Base Rage generated goes from 5 to 7.
- 3rd Trainer Action is available.
- Persuade skill is improved. Elizabeth can now Snag pokemon at 70% chance.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 2)

- Breeders can use the Skill Defend to make a Pokemon protect itself from a certain incoming attack type. Type advantages are reduced by half (x2 damage becomes x1, x4 becomes x2, for example). Requires 15 Rage.
- 2nd Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 2)

- 7th Pokemon slot is available.
- Snagballs can inflict Plasmaburn or Deep Freeze now.
- Snagballs can be used to inflict status effects without direct damage on non-Pokemon units.
- Elizabeth gains Smoking Hotness (see conditional upgrades).

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 3)

- Elizabeth's other leader pokemon gains a second ability.
- 4th Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 3)

- Can create a new custom hold item.
- Snagballs can now inflict Instant Death and Love.
- Snagballs have an increased chance to cause status effects.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 4)

- 3rd Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available.
- Breeders can use an item as a free action instead of requiring a Pokemon to forfeit its turn.
- 3rd custom move availability.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 4)

- 8th Pokemon slot is available.
- Snagballs can now inflict Berserk and Fear.
- 4th custom move availability.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 5)

- One of Elizabeth's non-leader, non-Snagged pokemon gains a second ability.
- 5th Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 5)

- Base Rage generated goes from 7 to 10.
- Snagballs can now inflict Apathy and Exhaustion.
- Elizabeth gains Aegis Armor (see conditional upgrades).



Customized Upgrades:

1) At Breeder 2 and Tuner 2, Elizabeth gains Smoking Hotness, reducing the damage recieved by Elizabeth and her pokemon by 25%.

2) At Breeder 5 and Tuner 5, Elizabeth gains the Aegis Armor, her own RPDA, allowing her to participate in combat while it is active, taking the place of one of her pokemon. Like all RPDAs, it possesses five attack types, five defense types, and one Overdrive. It can only be used once per battle and lasts for five turns.



Trainer Actions:

Oops!: Elizabeth has an "accidental" wardrobe malfunction. 50% chance to inflict Flinch on one enemy.

Sweet Kiss: One of Elizabeth's pokemon gains 10% crit chance for the duration of the turn.

Heel Face Turn: Elizabeth's Snagged pokemon gain a 20% damage boost for the duration of the turn.

I'm Your New Master!: Adds a 10% chance to Snag a pokemon for the duration of the turn.

Group Hug: Both of Elizabeth's pokemon on the field regain 30% of their max HP.


Persuade, Flirt and her Snagging chances might need some nerfing, but I think otherwise these are fine.

Anyway, AB, I was thinking about my proposed Love status effect and I realize that it was still pretty useless. So I decided to remake it.

Love (status effect, mental)
The target afflicted with this status effect will attack their own allies. Any damage will cause them to snap out of it.

It's really a version of Domination that's available to people who aren't psychic. It should still be pretty rare, I hope. The difference is that it's easier to snap the target out of it and the enemy afflicted wouldn't be under our control. AB would decide their actions, but they'd work for our side.

I won't deny that this benefits me a lot, but there's really no reason AB or anyone else can't use it.

Also, what are the chances Snagballs have of inflicting status effects?

[Menarker]

Ok, this one needs a bit of nerfing in my mind...

First, on a personal note. I doubt it'll ever happen, but on the off-chance she fights Renny's pokemon, I'm insisting that my anti-snag ability trumps any of her snagging abilities. It's so very specific to fighting against snaggers and domination, that I feel Renny's pokemon should trump in that regards.

Secondly, the status effects of snagger balls are 100% sure to happen as far as I remember, making the later levels of snaggers powerful because of OHKO balls. (and making your upgrade to increase their chances not so useful)

Because of that, THIS ability seems more powerful than it should:

- Snagballs can be used to inflict status effects without direct damage on non-Pokemon units.

You're basically able to OHKO any target with those balls, barring death immunity. Snaggers for all intent and purpose should be pretty well pokemon specific, but you're giving it the ability to OHKO ANYTHING for the cost of one ball, something that would make slayers envious.

For that matter... how many snag balls do Snaggers have access to? Or do they take up item slots, which means they have up to 3 balls? (In which case, a better idea might be to increase your item carrying capacity or improve your balls so they inflict multiple statuses.)

The RDPA armor seems quite random given how she has no slayer experience and seems to violate the rule of specialities. Getting a level 5 slayer ability without any prior level of slayer seems a bit much. I mean, she doesn't even have listed battle stats like pokebrids or slayers do and all her prior battle skills have been about pokemons. I'd reject this.

Sweet Kiss is a name of an existing pokemon move btw. On the same topic, we're still discussing crits, and it's possible that it'll increase the crit stage of a pokemon by 1.

I'm feeling tired, but that's what I have in mind off the top of my head...

One thing I might propose, is that instead of adding SO MUCH success chance of proper snagging, you should probably have some abilities that improve their happiness and morale. Since they will attack you and join the enemy again if they get attacked too much. Stuff like being hit with super effective hits, critical hits, being ganged up, being hit by status affliction and not being treated. Being knocked out and revived and knocked out over and over would be NASTY to its mood. That sort of thing.



EDIT: Would be nice to hear from Bard and Dante again, especially if they got upgrades of their own to propose.

[Astral Harmony]

Trinity Universe is a very deep, silly, and energized game. Definitely a Nippon Ichi title.

I approve of Love's effects. But don't worry, Menarker. Snagballs have their own levels of balance.

The more vicious the status effect, the smaller the chances of successful affliction. Let's go down a general list, shall we?

- Poison: HP decreases slightly each turn. 100% chance of affliction.
- BadPois: HP decreases in ever increasing increments each turn. 50% chance of affliction.
- Paralysis: Pokemon may forfeit action. Paralysis is more successful when Pokemon has lower HP. 50% chance of affliction.
- Sleep: Pokemon cannot take action. Adjacent units may forfeit attack to awaken Pokemon. Pokemon awakens if struck. 50% chance of affliction.
- Confusion: Pokemon may attack itself or other allied units. 50% chance of affliction.
- Frozen: Pokemon cannot take action. Small damage is dealt to the Pokemon each turn. Allied units can free the Pokemon by using a Fire type attack which deals no damage. 50% chance of affliction.
- Death: Pokemon is instantly defeated. 25% chance of affliction.
- Berserk: Pokemon can only use attack moves and deals 1.5x more damage to random targets. 50% chance of affliction.
- Apathy: Pokemon will not follow orders. If Pokemon is part of a PokeCo-Op, PokeCo-Op cannot be used. 50% chance of affliction.
- Exhaustion: Pokemon does not generate Rage and can randomly forfeit action. 25% chance of affliction.
- Love: Pokemon seems to fight as though actually snagged. 25% chance of affliction.
- Burn: Pokemon takes damage each turn and has ATT reduced by 50%. 50% chance of affliction.
- Plasmaburn: Pokemon takes damage each turn, has ATT reduced by 50%, and may flinch. 25% chance of affliction.
- DeepFreeze: Pokemon cannot take action and is damaged each turn. A critical hit will shatter the Pokemon, defeating it instantly. 25% chance of affliction.

I noticed she has an upgrade that increases chances of status effects occuring. So, plus 10% on that rank.

Snagballs are unlimited. But only one could be tossed per turn and it counts as the user's item use.

In hindsight, I imagine the Love Snagball would resemble a woman's breast. If someone hit me in the forehead with a ball-shaped titty, I might be in love, too.

[Geminex]

Sounds cool, that. I mean, what I see so far, she'd be able to deploy two pokemon, snag enemy pokemon, she'd have lots of reserves, plus quite a few second abilities and hold items. Not too much attack power, but a good disruptor.

AB's clarified how snag afflictions are gonna get nerfed, so, sure, why not. Though I'll trust you not to use the "second ability" stuff that Pierce and Liz are getting to break the game and/or universe. Also, same applies to custom items. They're all fine, as long as you don't make the actual items overpowered. But we all knew that.

Her RDPA version doesn't seem very justified, but eh. If we can justify it in-character, and I'm sure we'll be able to, it's cool. Mind you, since battles won't usually take much more than 7 turns (maaaybe 10), she's gonna be fighting personally for quite a long time. But eh, it's a level 20 character. She gets to have lots of power, and being able to disrupt the enemy, stall them, and strike hard when she needs to, that works really well, I think.

And speaking of her level...
Menarker, Renny'll be a level 15 character, with 6 levels in breeder. Elizabeth will be a level 20, with 10 levels in Snagger. Whose ability do you think is gonna triumph?

One more thing, Drac: Can you just explain Persuade again? First you write that it allows her to snag pokemon and 1/2 HP, then you're talking about a 70% chance. What gives?

In fact, I know that AB said somewhere that the likelihood of a successful snag were dependent on HP. Hey, AB, could you elaborate on that? Like, what probability will we have at which level?
And Drac, you then outline the changes that persuasion should make to that. Just so we know.

And... Crit:
Once again, Menarker, what gives?
When you proposed that speed should influence crit, I thought you actually mean that it should influence crit. Rather than, y'know, having some sort of minor effect on crit (because heavens, we wouldn't want to inconvenience Absol or Honchkrow!) and a bunch of other minor effects besides. Seriously.

If you don't want to base speed on crit at all, ok. Maybe we can think of something else. But you seem to be arguing with yourself here. On the one hand, you want speed to influence crit. I agree with this side, and add that for this to work, speed would have to be the primary influence on crit.
On the other hand, you seem dead-set on not disturbing anything. This is the side that seems irrational to me, since this is a full stat, for god's sake. It's fully one 6th of the bunch of numbers that indicate the fighting power of each and every pokemon. Modifying it is gonna cause some waves.

So make up your mind: Either we use crit for speed and we go all-in and make it the major, core factor, or we find some other major offensive characteristic for speed to modify. But you can't give speed a bunch of minor influences, cause that'd
a) screw up the game even more,
b) probably still keep speed as the dump stat
and
c) be very hard to balance.

Also, you confuse me. When did I ever mention a "near 50% constant chance of critting"? I proposed that fast pokemon get +2 to crit, +3 if they're twice as fast as their opponent. That'd still only come out to 33%.
But that's just a minor point. I explained my grievance above

[Dracorion]

Because of that, THIS ability seems more powerful than it should:

- Snagballs can be used to inflict status effects without direct damage on non-Pokemon units.

You're basically able to OHKO any target with those balls, barring death immunity. Snaggers for all intent and purpose should be pretty well pokemon specific, but you're giving it the ability to OHKO ANYTHING for the cost of one ball, something that would make slayers envious.

That was actually a standard upgrade for Snaggers. Seriously, check your upgrade list. 's right there.

Sweet Kiss is a name of an existing pokemon move btw. On the same topic, we're still discussing crits, and it's possible that it'll increase the crit stage of a pokemon by 1.

Yeah, this is good.

One thing I might propose, is that instead of adding SO MUCH success chance of proper snagging, you should probably have some abilities that improve their happiness and morale. Since they will attack you and join the enemy again if they get attacked too much. Stuff like being hit with super effective hits, critical hits, being ganged up, being hit by status affliction and not being treated. Being knocked out and revived and knocked out over and over would be NASTY to its mood. That sort of thing.

Bleh. Snagged pokemon can do that?

It's been forever since we even TALKED about Snaggers, I have no idea how they work anymore.

AB's clarified how snag afflictions are gonna get nerfed, so, sure, why not. Though I'll trust you not to use the "second ability" stuff that Pierce and Liz are getting to break the game and/or universe. Also, same applies to custom items. They're all fine, as long as you don't make the actual items overpowered. But we all knew that.

Mostly I'm giving them that stuff because I don't like Ability Shift.

Her RDPA version doesn't seem very justified, but eh. If we can justify it in-character, and I'm sure we'll be able to, it's cool. Mind you, since battles won't usually take much more than 7 turns (maaaybe 10), she's gonna be fighting personally for quite a long time. But eh, it's a level 20 character. She gets to have lots of power, and being able to disrupt the enemy, stall them, and strike hard when she needs to, that works really well, I think.

You know, like in anime and other shit when someone picks up a suit of power armor or gets superpowers, they suddenly fight like kung fu masters even if they didn't know how to before?

'S kinda like that. Elizabeth doesn't know how to fight, but throw some skimpy power armor on her and she'll be kicking ass.

She's the heiress of a big weapons developer. Makes sense she'd get a specialized armor with enough offensive capabilities to offset her lack of training. Or maybe nuke a small country.

Still, we can nerf her RPDA a bit to reflect the fact that she's not a Slayer. Cut the duration to three turns too, if you want.

One more thing, Drac: Can you just explain Persuade again? First you write that it allows her to snag pokemon and 1/2 HP, then you're talking about a 70% chance. What gives?

Well, look at Snagger level 1 in the upgrade sheet:

Pokemon Snagger (Level 1)

- Two Pokemon are available.
- Two slots for Snagger Pokemon are available.
- Snagballs cause Paralysis.
- Snagged Pokemon are fully healed and ready for battle.
- Snagball Catch Rate: 50% on Pokemon of severe damage or worse.

Implies that Snagballs only work when the pokemon has taken severe damage. If we take severe to mean 1/4, then that's when they work.

First level of Persuade would affect this so that Elizabeth can Snag pokemon at half of their max HP. Second level of Persuade improves her chances from 60% to 70% when the pokemon's HP is at 1/2 or less.

In fact, I know that AB said somewhere that the likelihood of a successful snag were dependent on HP. Hey, AB, could you elaborate on that? Like, what probability will we have at which level?
And Drac, you then outline the changes that persuasion should make to that. Just so we know.

Well, like I said, been a while since we talked about Snaggers.

I forget how they work.

[Geminex]

She's the heiress of a big weapons developer.
Oh bullSHIT. That is so... You little...

Gah. I will have to consider the implications of this.

As for the rest, I see. That's fine, if you ask me, you can leave the RDPA at 5 turns (though what would her stats be?).

[Dracorion]

Oh bullSHIT. That is so... You little...

Gah. I will have to consider the implications of this.

As for the rest, I see. That's fine, if you ask me, you can leave the RDPA at 5 turns (though what would her stats be?).

Hey man, it's been that way since, like, halfway through Renny's sidequest.

As for her stats, well, ideally they'd be Slayer stats. Though if you think that's too much we can make 'em 1/2 or 3/4.

[Geminex]

Upgraded, uncustomized (meaning the full 100 across the board), without STAB should be fine.

Eh. Fine. It's not like it'll make any difference, but still. Her assets are so getting seized.

[Dracorion]

Well, it's not like she'll Armor Affinity, so sure, no STAB.

But other than that, just like a regular RPDA. Five defense types, five attack types, one Overdrive. Y'know, the works.

As per Geminex's request, here's her profile:



Name: Elizabeth "Liz" Irons
Callsign: Daisy (she hates it)
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Class: Trainer/Snagger
Specialty: Engineer
Pokemon Registry:

Grass Sceptile (Male) (Shiny)
Ability: Overgrow
Dragon Pulse/Leaf Blade
False Swipe/Synthesis
Leaf Storm/X-Scissor

Normal Lopunny (Female) (Shiny)
Ability: Cute Charm
Sweet Kiss/Heal Bell
Charm/Helping Hand
Fake Out/Thunder Punch

Fire Ninetales (Female) (Shiny)
Ability: Flash Fire
Sunny Day/Fire Blast
Confuse Ray/Attract

Water/Ice Cloyster (Female) (Shiny)
Ability: Skill Link
Blizzard/Spike Cannon
Bubblebeam/Toxic

Appearance: She looks and dresses exactly like Daisy Duke and is blonde. Plus a D-cup. Also, no accent.

Backstory/Personality: Liz was the second daughter of the rich and powerful Irons family, owners of Ironworks, a weapons developer. Her sister was the heiress who was supposed to marry the eldest son of the president of a competing company and merge the companies. At least, until she died in a tragic accident. Lizzie was left as the sole heiress, and her family wanted to force her to marry the heir, but she wouldn’t do it and ran away. She still, however, has access to her extensive bank accounts.

THE REST IS TOP SECRET.

Liz is flirtatious to the max, and openly bisexual. The are some that joke that she's actually pansexual, because she'll actually do Pokemon, Pokesapiens and Pokebrids as well as humans. Probably Ruin pokemon and Ruin Generals too if she got a chance.

Pokemon Co-Op: Bundles of Joy ~ 70/100 RP. Liz takes off her top and flashes three enemies, while Riolu surrepticiously drops explosives in front of the targets. Decent non-elemental damage to three enemies, 100% chance to flinch, Attack and Special Attack drop by two stages each.

Engineer Skill:
1. Create Dawn Evolith ~ Constructs a Dawn Evolith. They resemble slender young women wrapped in robes and shawls, floating a few inches above the ground and holding a crystal ball. Dawn Evoliths can use Hypnosis, Dream Eater, Psychic, Mist Ball, Luster Purge, and Zen Headbutt. Psychic Evoliths made with a Dawn Stone.
2. Create Iron Evolith ~ Constructs an Iron Evolith. They resemble metal-skinned triceratops. Iron Evoliths can use Iron Defense, Meteor Mash, Metal Burst, Iron Head, Iron Tail, and Mirror Shot. Created by using a Metal Coat as a power core with amplifier technology, which somehow works just as good as an Evolution Stone for creating Steel-type Evoliths.
3. Create Strength Inhibitor ~ Decreases Attack statistic of all foes by -2.
4. Create Defense Inhibitor ~ Decreases Defense statistic of all foes by -2.
5. Targeting Beacon ~ Allows Sniper to hit targets in Hailstorm, Sandstorm, and Fog.
6. Create Healing Dispenser ~ A medical platform that distributes healing items. Restores two allies by half of their maximum HP, lasts for five turns. Can only be used once per battle.
7. Construct Giant Fan ~ Exactly what it sounds like. Removes Fog.


Granted, this was her profile before I decided to make her a Trainer/Snagger.

I still need to come up with two new pokemon, custom hold items and custom moves for her. Not to mention an Xth-level.

[Menarker]

And speaking of her level...
Menarker, Renny'll be a level 15 character, with 6 levels in breeder. Elizabeth will be a level 20, with 10 levels in Snagger. Whose ability do you think is gonna triumph?


Then obviously, we're going to have to make me a different ability because it obviously doesn't have any ability. We're fighting as groups against foes who should for all intent and purpose be higher level individually than any single character. A super specific ability that's supposed to protect against Domination and Snagger should not just be "nope, doesn't work against me" just because of levels. It's not even 100% immunity. Look, her snagging is largely based on her using her sexual wiles and charisma on her targets to get them to reconsider which side they are on. Renny's pokemons are more or less developed characters and loyal to Renny. I don't think it she should be any more successful than my ability lets her. Otherwise, we're going to give Renny new abilities on that level, since it has no value if it can't do exactly what it states. AB says it'll happen so rarely, that the few times it does happen, it should be certain to work.


And... Crit:
Once again, Menarker, what gives?
When you proposed that speed should influence crit, I thought you actually mean that it should influence crit. Rather than, y'know, having some sort of minor effect on crit (because heavens, we wouldn't want to inconvenience Absol or Honchkrow!) and a bunch of other minor effects besides. Seriously.

If you don't want to base speed on crit at all, ok. Maybe we can think of something else. But you seem to be arguing with yourself here. On the one hand, you want speed to influence crit. I agree with this side, and add that for this to work, speed would have to be the primary influence on crit.
On the other hand, you seem dead-set on not disturbing anything. This is the side that seems irrational to me, since this is a full stat, for god's sake. It's fully one 6th of the bunch of numbers that indicate the fighting power of each and every pokemon. Modifying it is gonna cause some waves.

So make up your mind: Either we use crit for speed and we go all-in and make it the major, core factor, or we find some other major offensive characteristic for speed to modify. But you can't give speed a bunch of minor influences, cause that'd
a) screw up the game even more,
b) probably still keep speed as the dump stat
and
c) be very hard to balance.

Also, you confuse me. When did I ever mention a "near 50% constant chance of critting"? I proposed that fast pokemon get +2 to crit, +3 if they're twice as fast as their opponent. That'd still only come out to 33%.
But that's just a minor point. I explained my grievance above

The entire point of the conversation was to define the rules of Crit.

Also, while you're arguing against my logic, but your proposed results are looking like my proposed result.

Look, I put my proposed point by point rules about what I think the result would be. How about you do the same, (Complete with the likely end crit result) and we discuss the individual points, so we know what we agree on and what we don't? Mind end up being simpler than it looks.

Or rather, what about my proposed rules is the problem? It has that entire +2 crit rate due to speed thing.


AB: Now that Gem mentions it, can you clarify more about the RDPA? Does the armor type that the RDPA grants also grant STAB like normal armors? Or does it protect against the same status affliction as those armors? And when you said it's like a Paradigm Shift, I assume you mean just in terms of power boosts, since the immunity to types and status seems to be implied by the armor types. Does the weapon types chosen also have the same weapon effect as normal slayers weapons? Or is it just straight out elemental damage?

[Dracorion]

Oh, and AB, can you confirm these things Geminex and Menarker said?

In fact, I know that AB said somewhere that the likelihood of a successful snag were dependent on HP. Hey, AB, could you elaborate on that? Like, what probability will we have at which level?

One thing I might propose, is that instead of adding SO MUCH success chance of proper snagging, you should probably have some abilities that improve their happiness and morale. Since they will attack you and join the enemy again if they get attacked too much. Stuff like being hit with super effective hits, critical hits, being ganged up, being hit by status affliction and not being treated. Being knocked out and revived and knocked out over and over would be NASTY to its mood. That sort of thing.

In regard to that last one, do Snagged pokemon really work that way? They can leave if they take too much damage/are unhappy?

Oh, and I guess I don't have to give Elizabeth two new pokemon. She only has six pokemon at Trainer 4. That should mean six pokemon plus Snagged pokemon, but what the hell, she can get those extra two slots later. She'll stay at four pokemon for now.

[Astral Harmony]

Sure, I can clarify.

About Shagging...ergh...Snagging: Snagballs might as well be used for inflicting status effects while a Pokemon is relatively healthy. The chance of a successful Snag climbs as the Pokemon takes damage. Here's a quick little rundown...

- Pokemon has 100% to 60% health = 10% success.
- Pokemon has 70% to 25% = 20% success.
- Pokemon has less than 25% = 50% success.

The current Snagger template issues a 60% upgrade at Snagger Rank 2. Hmmm...let's actually have it grant +10% at each milestone.

*write write*

Done. Moving on...

About Rapid Deployable Powered Armors: customizing an RDPA is actually a lot like customizing an NPC. Here's how to build one...

First, the Stats: Take a Slayer's general stats, then take...oh, 150 points? That's not too much, is it? Anyways, spread them out across the Slayer's statistics as the Slayer sees fit and you'll have RDPA stats.

Secondly, the Equipment Slots: An RDPA has eight equipment slots which you can assign either weapons or armor to. You could conceivably equip seven different types of armor and make it defensive juggernaut which with you could probably protect the team using the RDPA's Overdrive, using the single weapon slot to deal whatever damage you can.

Thirdly, about Equipment: You can customize your own weapons and armor, just like the way I customize NPC Slayers. However, RDPAs allow for far more customization, such as weapons that hit multiple foes and even weapons that deploy drones that deal damage or debuff foes. I''ll provide an example of this later in the post.

Fourthly and finally, about Weight: More effective weapons and armor are generally heavier. Weight lowers Speed, which in turn lowers your Critical and Evasion. You probably could put points in Speed to balance it out, but if you're going for heavy weapons, you may as well spend it all on ATT or SATT, depending on the type of damage your weapons deal, or DEF or SDEF, depending on the effects of your armor.

So, let's do an example, shall we?

Rayleen's RDPA is actually an attachment to her mechanical right arm, called Gungnir. Gungnir is a heavyweight, high damage attachment that comes with its own tripod and everything, or else Rayleen's arm would pull itself right off. Let's start creating it!

1.) We start off with statistics. Gungnir's weapons gravitate towards Special damage, so Rayleen puts 75 points into the SATT stat. Rayleen plops the other 75 into the SDEF stat to protect her from Special attacks. That's it for stats. Simple, right?

2.) Now we decide on what Rayleen puts in her equipment slots. Rayleen's Gungnir is geared towards balance, so Rayleen keeps it at an even four weapons and four armors. That part's done.

3.) This is probably the longest and most exciting part. We're going to create Rayleen's weapons and armors here.

- Weapon One: Photon Gatling ~ Light Almighty damage, 15 hits, one target. A rapid fire energy minigun.
- Weapon Two: Blast Bomb ~ Medium Fire damage, 3 targets, 70% Burn. An explosive grenade launched from a cannon.
- Weapon Three: Demon's Maw ~ Heavy Fire damage, 50% Plasmaburn. A long range flamethrower that eats through flesh.
- Weapon Four: Dread Star ~ Extreme Almighty damage, 3 targets, lesser damage dealt on splash. Not the same laser beam that destroyed Alderaan, but only because Rayleen hasn't tried yet.

- Armor One: Riot Shield ~ 25% Reduction in Physical damage recieved. A simple but effective shield.
- Armor Two: Ruin Guard ~ 50% Reduction in Ruin type damage. Deals 10% MAXHP in damage to any Ruin Pokemon that attack her.
- Armor Three: Special Barrier ~ 25% Reduction is Special damage recieved. A powerful kinetic barrier.
- Armor Four: Smart Ballistics ~ Releases one Ballistic Shell each turn. Any unit that attacks Rayleen while a Ballistic Shell is deployed will recieve heavy Steel damage.

4.) Now comes the weight. Rayleen's weapons (particularly the Demon's Maw and Dread Star) and armor (Smart Ballistics) ensures that her Critical and Evasion are pretty damn low. And because she doesn't put any points into Speed, it remains so. She shouldn't expect to deliver criticals or dodge attacks anytime soon.

About Snagged Pokemon, yes, they do work that way. If the Snagged Pokemon is defeated, that's usually enough on its own to 'cause the Snagged Pokemon to go back. Keep it healthy, keep it killing, use boosting items on it, and it should serve you as well as the Pokemon that you caught yourself.

[Dracorion]

Looks pretty cool.

I'm not going to create a RPDA for Elizabeth yet, since that's still a ways away. Sophia's next, and I'll probably include her RPDA with her upgrades.

I don't suppose you could show us a sample Overdrive, AB?

Anyway, I'll make the appropriate changes to Liz's upgrades tonight.

For now...

HEY BARD CLEAN OUT YOUR INBOX.

[Astral Harmony]

Oh, right. Forgot to include one.

Rayleen's Overdrive: Descending Judgment ~ Heavy Almighty/Fire damage, 5 targets, 50% Plasmaburn. Rayleen gets some sweet air and rains terrible lasery punishment down on the enemy. Never has sweet justice ever smelled so damn burnt.

[Dracorion]

AB, you got a slight discrepancy here:

- Pokemon has 100% to 60% health = 10% success.
- Pokemon has 70% to 25% = 20% success.
- Pokemon has less than 25% = 50% success.

I'm going to take the second one to mean if the Pokemon has 60% to 25% health.

Right, so, Elizabeth revised!

Standard:

Pokemon Trainer (Level 1)

- Four Pokemon are available.
- Leader Pokemon is available. Leader Pokemon can know six moves instead of four.
- Trainer Attack skill is available.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 1)

- Two Pokemon are available.
- Two slots for Snagger Pokemon are available.
- Snagballs cause Paralysis.
- Snagged Pokemon are fully healed and ready for battle.
- Snagball Catch Rate: Pokemon has 100% to 60% health = 10% success. Pokemon has 60% to 25% = 20% success. Pokemon has less than 25% = 50% success.
- Trainer Attack skill is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 2)

- Fifth Pokemon is available.
- Can now use Focus skill. Attack that hits two targets or a random target can now hit a single designated target. Costs 25 Rage.
- 1st Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 2)

- A Third Pokemon is available.
- Snagballs are 10% more successful now.
- 1st Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 3)

- A 2nd Leader Pokemon is available.
- Divine skill is available. Allows a single hit attack to hit multiple foes without suffering damage loss or side/stat effect loss. Costs 25 Rage.



Customized:

Pokemon Snagger (Level 3)

- Snagballs can now cause the Snagger's choice of Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Frozen, or Paralysis.
- Elizabeth gains the Persuade skill, improving her Snagball catch rate to: Pokemon has 100% to 80% health = 20% success. Pokemon has 80% to 50% = 30% success. Pokemon has less than 50% = 60% success.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 4)

- Sixth Pokemon is available.
- Two Custom Hold Items are available.
- Elizabeth gains the skill Loyalty. Snagged pokemon will not leave upon being defeated once. However, they will leave if they are knocked out a second time. Using them often in battle and treating them well will decrease the chances of them leaving if they are knocked out a second time.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 4)

- Auto-Snag skill is available. Allows Snaggers to automatically Snag a Pokemon at full health. Costs 50 Rage.
- 2nd Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Trainer (Level 5)

- 1st Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available. Legendary Pokemon do not evolve, but can be Veterans.
- 1st custom move availability.

-----
Pokemon Snagger (Level 5)

- 2nd custom move availability.
- Elizabeth gains the Flirt skill, allowing her to inflict one target with Love at a 50% chance. Costs 40 Rage.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 1)

- Can create a new custom hold item.
- One of Elizabeth's leader pokemon gains a second ability.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 1)

- Base Rage generated goes from 5 to 7.
- 3rd Trainer Action is available.
- Persuade skill is improved. Snagball catch rate increases by 10%.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 2)

- Breeders can use the Skill Defend to make a Pokemon protect itself from a certain incoming attack type. Type advantages are reduced by half (x2 damage becomes x1, x4 becomes x2, for example). Requires 15 Rage.
- 2nd Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 2)

- 7th Pokemon slot is available.
- Snagballs can inflict Plasmaburn or Deep Freeze now.
- Snagballs can be used to inflict status effects without direct damage on non-Pokemon units.
- Elizabeth gains Smoking Hotness (see conditional upgrades).

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 3)

- Elizabeth's other leader pokemon gains a second ability.
- 4th Trainer Action is available.
- Can create a new custom hold item.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 3)

- Loyalty skill is improved. Snagged pokemon will not leave after they are knocked out three times. Treating them well and using them often in battle will decrease the chances of them leaving after being knocked out the fourth time.
- Snagballs can now inflict Instant Death and Love.
- Snagballs’ chance to cause status effects increases by 10%.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 4)

- 3rd Xth Stage/Veteran upgrade is now available.
- 3rd custom move availability.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 4)

- 8th Pokemon slot is available.
- Snagballs can now inflict Berserk and Fear.
- 4th custom move availability.

-----
Pokemon Breeder (Level 5)

- One of Elizabeth's non-leader, non-Snagged pokemon gains a second ability.
- 5th Trainer Action is available.

-----
Pokemon Tuner (Level 5)

- Base Rage generated goes from 7 to 10.
- Snagballs can now inflict Apathy and Exhaustion.
- Elizabeth gains Aegis Armor (see conditional upgrades).



Customized Upgrades:

1) At Breeder 2 and Tuner 2, Elizabeth gains Smoking Hotness, reducing the damage recieved by Elizabeth and her pokemon by 25%.

2) At Breeder 5 and Tuner 5, Elizabeth gains the Aegis Armor, her own RPDA, allowing her to participate in combat while it is active, taking the place of one of her pokemon. It can only be used once per battle and lasts for five turns.



Trainer Actions:

Oops!: Elizabeth has an "accidental" wardrobe malfunction. 50% chance to inflict Flinch on one enemy.

Sweet Kiss: One of Elizabeth's pokemon gains +1 stage to their crit chance for the duration of the turn.

Heel Face Turn: Elizabeth's Snagged pokemon gain a 20% damage boost for the duration of the turn.

I'm Your New Master!: Increases the happiness of Snagged pokemon for the remainder of the battle. Stacks.

Group Hug: Both of Elizabeth's pokemon on the field regain 30% of their max HP.


I changed Persuade a bit to fit AB's Snagball catch rates. I also gave her a new passive skill at level 4 and improved it at Tuner 3 to increase the loyalty of Snagged pokemon.

Her "I'm Your New Master!" Trainer Action now also increases the happiness of Snagged pokemon.

And I removed that upgrade at Breeder 4 that lets Breeders use an item as a free action, since NPCs can't use items anyway.

With any luck, I'll have Sophia posted tonight.

AB, just to make sure, Snagged pokemon still remain after the end of the mission they're caught in, correct?

[Geminex]

One thing, Drac: On Trainer 4 Liz gains loyalty, I suddenly realize. I didn't see that one before...

I'm thinking that might make her a bit too strong. I mean, sure, have her be a strong annoyer/tank who can last ages and make enemies' life hell, but letting her keep snagged pokemon after one KO, that removes a fairly important limitation for Snaggers. I don't think that limitation should be removed.

Menarker:
Your idea seems to be:
5 stages of crit
Faster than your opponent gives you +2
Various other effects give bonuses to crit ranging from +1 to +2

My idea is:
6 stages of crit
Faster than your opponent gives you +2, twice as fast or more gives +3
Any other single effect can give you +1 at most (this includes stuff like Super Luck)
Anything above stage 4 is only reachable with speed bonuses

My way makes speed the central factor in crit. Your way makes it relevant to crit, but not super-important.

[Dracorion]

One thing, Drac: On Trainer 4 Liz gains loyalty, I suddenly realize. I didn't see that one before...

It's the passive ability I just said I added. Gets upgraded at Tuner 3, did you see?

I'm thinking that might make her a bit too strong. I mean, sure, have her be a strong annoyer/tank who can last ages and make enemies' life hell, but letting her keep snagged pokemon after one KO, that removes a fairly important limitation for Snaggers. I don't think that limitation should be removed.

It's not like Snagged pokemon won't run away. It's that it's going to take more than one KO. A second one will do it.

Her second level of Loyalty probably does need some nerfing, though.

[Menarker]

Menarker:
Your idea seems to be:
5 stages of crit
Faster than your opponent gives you +2
Various other effects give bonuses to crit ranging from +1 to +2

My idea is:
6 stages of crit
Faster than your opponent gives you +2, twice as fast or more gives +3
Any other single effect can give you +1 at most (this includes stuff like Super Luck)
Anything above stage 4 is only reachable with speed bonuses

My way makes speed the central factor in crit. Your way makes it relevant to crit, but not super-important.

You assumed partly incorrect. Improved Crit Specific moves like Slash or Stone Edge gives +2 crit. Everything else is +1 except for greater speed with is +2.

With your idea, pokemons with low or average speed who are supposed to be crit users never catch up to fast pokemons who don't crit normally. And WHY is only Speed able to reach over level 4 as opposed to ACTUAL crit specific abilities? Really, that boggles my mind. (Although part of this is my fault, since technically, there is no order in how things add up. Only how much bonuses there are total and how easy it is to get them)

I shall list the results of your proposed rules under the likely circumstances which assumes that the trainer intended to use that pokemon for critting and thus prepared by having a held item and a crit move but without spending an action to use an item:

Crit pokemons:
Start at 1
No speed bonus most of the time. The few times they do, they don't get the +3 bonus.
+1 for held item.
+1 for crit moves.
End result: Stuck at 25% except for the luckier times they get 50%.


Speed pokemons:
Start at 1
Speed bonus of +2 at least. Maybe even +3
+1 for held item
+1 for crit move.
End result: 50% or even something like 66% if speed is twice as fast as foe.


Some results of this is:
1) Crits are too easy to reach for fast pokemons.
2) Crit pokemons who are SUPPOSED to be GOOD at critting are inferior to fast pokemons.
3) Crits are too common and too easy to get IN GENERAL. Keep in mind Crits bypasses opposing buffs and ignore negative debuffs on your character and doubles your damage. (Making quad effective moves doing 8x damage instead of 4x.)
4) Speed pokemons who don't even TRY to be crit users end up having chances of critting equal to the crit users who TRY to be crit users. (25% or 33% chance of critting without held item or crit move).
5) Speed pokemons already gain more benefit with speed helping dodge destroyers and snipers.

I don't think Speed should be THE key factor to Crit. Crit is already its own mechanic with moves, items and abilities that influence it. Yes, we're trying to find a way to incorporate Speed into this RP, but this not only disadvantages quite a lot of pokemons, this is clearly one of those "overly powerful changes to the RP's system" where we're enabling more than 50% chance of double damage to anyone who is super fast, especially if they are the type with low defense and high offense and thus doubling that high offense is sure to be near gamebreaking. Plus it heavily reduces the value of defensive buff moves and defensive tactics in general making the system that was already geared toward blistering offense pace EVEN more offensively paced.

And what if I was to tell you that my pokebrid form might very well be one of those crit users or one of those heavy speed types? If the thought of improving crit to the point where my character with high offensive power can suddenly do double damage 50% or 66% of the time makes you shudder and think my build should be scrapped, then the entire crit system obviously needs working.

Anyhow, for the balancing part of it, I proposed my example because...


I shall list the results of my proposed rules under the likely circumstances which assumes that the trainer intended to use that pokemon for critting and thus prepared by having a held item and a crit move but without spending an action to use an item:

Speed Pokemons:
Start at Stage 1
Speed Clash Victory: +2
Held Item: +1
End Result: 33% chance

Crit Pokemons:
Start at Stage 1
Improved Crit Move: +2
Held Item: +1
End Result: 33% chance.

Crit and speed pokemons have equal chance of critting at this point. If Crit manages to win the Speed Clash or if the Speed Pokemon gets a crit move, they get to 50% chance.
This still favors speed pokemons in terms of their chances of critting, although crit pokemons might better tools like STAB crit moves or something like that. (Although Stone Edge is very common due to TM status...)

Although I personally think even this is too much. Crit getting even to 50% should require a bit more effort in my view like having to use Dire Hit or so. Maybe drop winning speed clash and improved crit moves to +1...

AB: Do you have a viewpoint about the entire crit conversation or a point worth mentioning? Or an offer of how to change the system in some way?

The RDPA thing looks interesting, although I'll save creating it until a good time later on.

EDIT: And Drac, I remember reading somewhere in an early thread (way back when we had a snagger PC) that Snagged pokemons stay with you between missions if they haven't ran away and been retrieved before the mission ended.

AB: Wait, does using the RDPA require you to only attack using the weapon system of the RDPA as opposed to fighting the normal way with boosted stats? Like, can they even use Slayer weapons or accessories (or in my case, fight using Integrated Combat Training)? Or can you fight normally with additional options via the RDPA?

[Dracorion]

EDIT: And Drac, I remember reading somewhere in an early thread (way back when we had a snagger PC) that Snagged pokemons stay with you between missions if they haven't ran away and been retrieved before the mission ended.

Yeah, I remember too.

'm just making sure.

[Astral Harmony]

You can only fight using the RDPA functions.

[Dracorion]

And Snagged pokemon stay between missions?

[Astral Harmony]

Yeah, so long as you have Elizabeth around to fuck 'em.

Seriously. You're just so weird, Dracorian.

[Dracorion]

You ain't seen nothing yet.

[Astral Harmony]

No, I think we've got everything now that the Pokemon World pansexual has been introduced.

What's next? A crossdresser? Oh, wait, we introduced one of those early in Mission 2. And Pierre might make a comeback. You can't afford the kind of comedy a ballet-dancing frenchman with ballet-dancing Fighting type Pokemon can wield against you.

And you're a step away from forcing me to make him part of the team.

[Dracorion]

Are we going to turn this into a pissing contest?

Because I have an assload of ideas.

[Menarker]

AB, a thought just occurred to me.

The ability Overpower is supposed to help Slayers deal with status affliction, right?

What about status afflictions like Freeze and Sleep and such which pretty much renders you unconscious or immobile? Can the slayer still use the action to pay rage for Overpower and just roleplay about their willpower and body being strong enough to break or overpower what was possessing them? Or does certain status afflictions that prevent you from taking actions prevent you from using that ability too?

[Astral Harmony]

Overpower can be used for anything, anytime except when dead.

Dracorian, I should think your assload of ideas should be reserved for an RP you make yourself. I don't like taking your ideas. Feels like copyright infringement.

Actually, if you want, send me a PM with your ideas. If you really want some bizarre shit to happen in Pokemon Umbral...y'know, more than the stuff we've already got, then it couldn't hurt.

[Geminex]

Crit: Oh god I am weary of this.

Now, Menarker. I am not going to reply to your post. Do you know why? Because you make no new points. Each and every one of the points you make I have already addressed (except, admittedly, for the one regarding Renny's pokeshift, but that's peanuts). I want you to go back and read those responses I wrote. Do you think you can do that? You don't seem to have done it so far, but give it a great big try and maybe we'll actually be able to, y'know, progress in this discussion instead of spending 2000 words regurgitating the same points over and over again.

Drac's ideas:
Oh god this is bad.
Or maybe. I dunno, is it? It can't be worse that magnegross, that fucking stupid idea.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Hey Drac, Inbox cleaned.

[Dracorion]

Cool Bard.

Drac's ideas:
Oh god this is bad.
Or maybe. I dunno, is it? It can't be worse that magnegross, that fucking stupid idea.

It's too late! I've already PMed AB about it!

Prepare to find yourself in a world where Renny is dead, Impact is demoted to comic relief and every single girl is constantly fucking Pierce at the same time.

Nothing to respond about Liz's Loyalty ability?

I proposed something to AB about it in my PM, by the way. Here it is:

- Anyway, on Snaggers, maybe make the happiness system for Snagged pokemon something, I dunno, a little more tangible?

Like, base it on the actual pokemon happiness system. You know, goes from 0 to 255, Snagged pokemon start at 5. You could assign happiness gain/cost to things like being knocked out, taking damage or using an item. Something like:

Spend one full turn in battle: +20 Happiness.
Use a boosting item: +10 Happiness.
Recieve damage: -10 Happiness.
Inflicted with a status effect: -5 Happiness every turn while the status effect lasts.
Cure a status effect: +10 Happiness.
Get knocked out: -80 Happiness.
Spend 10 turns (counting separate battles) without use: -50 Happiness.

You know, stuff like that. And when the Snagged pokemon reaches 0 Happiness, they run away.

Maybe give bonuses at several milestones, like I dunno, every 85 Happiness so that the Snagger has incentive to actually reach 255 rather than just keep their pokemon the bare minimal amount of happy. Stuff like damage reductions, random stat boost and so on.

Granted, it's not actually balanced. It's just an idea.

Liz's Loyalty skill would be changed to simply add a bonus to happiness gains.

[Menarker]

Crit: Oh god I am weary of this.

Now, Menarker. I am not going to reply to your post. Do you know why? Because you make no new points. Each and every one of the points you make I have already addressed (except, admittedly, for the one regarding Renny's pokeshift, but that's peanuts). I want you to go back and read those responses I wrote. Do you think you can do that? You don't seem to have done it so far, but give it a great big try and maybe we'll actually be able to, y'know, progress in this discussion instead of spending 2000 words regurgitating the same points over and over again.

Gem, we're never going to proceed any further with your attitude.

I even gave you numbered reasons that you never addressed ONCE even when I listed them before.

Your main insistance has been that speed has been neglected and that it should be the prime focus of the stat.

What you failed to answer repeatably, was WHY your suggestions is not over-powering broken for the system (or mine for that matter since I maintain even my suggestions probably need tuning down). Why is 25%-50% crit acceptable with the ease that is presented? Is doubling the attack power of everyone with a speed boost acceptable? And that's among other valid questions which you shrugged off as belaboring the point!

You have been so focused on trying to win the battle on Speed that you forget the battle has not been on speed but Crit in the first place. You also keep saying that changes to the system need to be constantly evaluated for balance and explosive differences. This is one of them and you're taking the lazy way out of the conversation and making me seem like the useless one.

Would be nice if you could actually, y'know put the same effort into answering the questions as I do coming up with them and typing them and adding them up in charts instead of accusing me of spewing the same stuff over and over. I mean really, if you're supposed to be dealing with balance in AB's behalf, you can't be going half-ass on it. You're SUPPOSED to be answering the questions, so I have a basis of knowing why or why not certain points were brought up.

You say I fail to make new points? You failed to make any worthwhile contribution to the conversation aside from a proposed system that you can't even coherently explain the reasons why it would work in a balanced fashion.


Prepare to find yourself in a world where Renny is dead, Impact is demoted to comic relief and every single girl is constantly fucking Pierce at the same time.

http://www.explosm.net/db/files/Comics/Rob/saturday.png

That's the only way they might consider doing it. Seriously, your imagination about getting all the girls is not going to happen. Especially with all the warnings that AB made about Pierce going into an early unmarked grave if you tried. :3

Drac, on a side note, do you have any thoughts on the crit conversation? It would seem rather relevant to you since your Kingdra happens to be one of the pokemons that would benefit heavily from crit (since it has the sniper ability that triples instead of doubles damage when it scores a crit) and Kingdra being... you know, not that fast.

That and your Blaziken can learn Blaze Kick which is a improved crit move. And most pokemons can learn Stone Edge. And Spacial Rend which belongs to Palkia is an improved crit.

[Dracorion]

Well Kingdra's not really going to be in Pierce's team anymore.

If anything, Blaziken or Aria (or her replacement), might become the critter on his team.

And this is one pissing contest between the two of you that I don't want to get into.

EDIT: But alright, if I must, can I propose a compromise?

Go with Geminex's setup, but give crit moves a +2 boost instead of +1.

Alternatively, if there are too many high-speed pokemon with crit moves (I don't know), make it so that crit moves only get a +2 boost if the user's base speed is below a certain point.

If even that's not enough, you could apply the same effect to crit items.

[Menarker]

Well, getting crit boosts is all good and such, but I'm really trying to ask Gem if enabling attackers to reach critical hits rates of 33%-50% without spending actions on crit boosting items is really a good idea for the setting. Like whether attackers should reliably be able to crit at a 25% rate from the moment they hit the battlefield.

Because it's not just comparing crit users with high speed pokemons. It's also comparing both of them to every other character that isn't trying to crit in the first place. Whether we should be making it easy for any pokemons or characters to reliably hit for crit 25-50% of the time on bosses, mooks and foes, ignoring debuffs on your character, ignoring buffs on your foe, and hitting for double damage.

Seems like an explosive change in terms of damage that would alter the setting very drastically.

[Dracorion]

Well, I do agree with Geminex that we need to make Speed more useful.

And 25% still have a chance to miss.

Though yeah, I wonder if Geminex has considered that this might just make AB up the ante on the enemies even more.

Maybe we could make it so that crits don't ignore debuffs on the user and buffs on the enemy?

They'd still deal double damage.

[Menarker]

Well, the part of AB upping up the ante was part of my point. Or applying the system with drastic results on the foes.

Basically, the times that crit fail to hit, it's a normal successful attack that can still be powerful (unless it misses due to using a low-ish accuracy move like Stone Edge). But the times it does hit (which is seemingly to hit around 25 for those who are simply plain fast and around 33-50% for those who prepare) that's double the power. It's like a combination of the "Unaware" ability on top of a Helping Hand that has a 2x multiplier instead on at least half of your attacks.

I'm basically asking if Gem finds allowing crit to be that much easier to access in this system to be accessible. I mean, I got Shaymin who got a speed of 127 in Sky Mode. Speed boosts naturally helps me out that much. But I'm asking overall in terms of the balance of not just the crit system for those who would use crit, but the whole system of the RP.

EDIT:
Your suggestion for removing the part of ignoring debuffs and bypassing buffs... is something I'll consider for sure. Although, I'm tempted to make that still allowed, but only for crit moves. So fast pokemons can still hit for double damage, but the ones who use crit moves are the ones who get that particular advantage... that might work out a bit.

Thanks Drac. I know you said you didn't want to get involved very deep, but even that much is useful.


EDIT: On a weird side note, my family has a weird trait of sort. All the females don't lock their doors. It's so exasperating how I can step into the bathroom only to find them in the bathtub or using the toilet... heck, sometimes they don't even close the doors... Same with their bedrooms when they are changing. >_<

I'm worried that Drac's Elizabeth is intentionally going to have the same trait and drag in anyone who tries to get out for the sake of her "modesty" or common courtesy. ^^;


Anyhow, I'm off to work!

[Astral Harmony]

The ante will always be upped on the enemy, mostly to cover for all the upgrades you guys gain.

But if you're talking about the HP boost I gave them, then no, I don't think I'll be doing anything more like that. I really only gave them that shit so they could survive to do all the special things I've gave them to do. Kind of a let down when an enemy Engineer dies and they weren't even able to construct something.

Y'know what's really funny? I have this bizarre feeling that Elizabeth is going to seduce Lola and Chizuru before Renny and Pierce get around to it.

[Dracorion]

It's on her to-do list.

Of course, some GM help wouldn't hurt.

Anyway, Elizabeth's custom junk:

Custom moves:

Nature Blaster (Grass type, Special, 90 power, 90% accuracy, does not make contact)
Nature Blaster deals damage and has an improved critical hit chance.

Ice Javelin (Ice type, Special, 20 power, 100% accuracy, does not make contact)
Hits 2-5 times. Each attack made has an equal chance to land a critical hit.



Custom items:

Dominatix Whip (Held item, Leprihare)
Brings out the inner masochist in you. Chance to inflict Love or Infatuation from a move or ability increases by 10%.

Forest Armor (held item, Sceptile)
A green-and-black suit of armor for Sceptile. Reduces incoming damage by 5% and adds a 20% chance to inflict Leech Seed to all Grass-type attacks.



Leprihare:

Name: Leprihare

Ability: Hypnotic Gaze

Type: Normal

Stats

HP: 80
Attack: 95
Defense: 100
Special Attack: 65
Special Defense: 110
Speed: 130
Total: 580

Appearance: Height: 4'9"; Weight: 84.7 lbs
Leprihare looks like the Lopunny in this comic AB posted. (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showpost.php?p=1068312&postcount=1) Because she's shiny, her white tufts of fur are actually red. Being a Pokesapien, she dresses in a black leather bustier, black leather pants, wristbands and boots, and she wears a leather choker around her neck.

Personality: Leprihare takes after her mistress in her own way. She loves to take in any boys and girls and put them in touch with their naughtier sides. God help you if she and Liz should ever team up on you.

She's very protective of the people she takes in though. Basically, mess with her pets and die.

HMs: Cut, Strength, Rock Smash.

Hypnotic Gaze (Ability)
10% chance to inflict Love on the enemy when a move makes contact. Pokemon become easier to Snag, adding a 5% chance.

Seduction (Status, one target)
30% chance to inflict Love on one target.


Yes, Leprihare was inspired by that comic. Who's laughing now, AB?

[Astral Harmony]

I hereby declare the following rivalries...

Jeanette Ricewood and Elizabeth Irons.

Lopunnish and Leprihare.

That's all I got.

Oh, did I mention that Pokegeddon would be getting new members? You can't start the morning right without making someone say "goddammit".

EDIT: I don't think this post has enough material in it, so...a picture?

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a469/PokemonUmbral/PokemonUmbral90.jpg

Hitmonchan, what does the scouter say about his power level?

EDIT 2: But wait, there's even more inane nonsense!

Let me discuss Physical Attributes briefly. When the enemy is typeless, they have Physical Attributes which detail their general weaknesses and resistances to certain types. You've already fought enemies with Physical Attributes. Allow me to remind you of them and then update you as well.

- Humanoid: Enemy humans or things that retain some measure of humanity after mutation, like certain Asuras. Weak against Fire, Poison, Psychic, and Dragon. Strong against Flying, Bug, Normal, and Ghost.
- Mechanical: Composed of circuits and metal. Weak against Water and Electric. Immune to all status effects, but susceptible to the status effects Overload (like Confusion plus Berserk), Short Circuit (Paralysis plus Sleep), and Fracture (Can be hacked by Matthias or Engineers with the right skills). Mechanical foes do not have Rage.

[Dracorion]

Sssshhiiiiiittttttt.

Now you've got me thinking about what Pokeball Z would be like and OH GOD IT'S AWFUL BUT I CAN'T LOOK AWAY GODDAMN YOU TO HELL AB.

[Astral Harmony]

I imagine Pokeball Z as being just like Dragonball Z, except they'll be saying their own names at each other with dumbass subtitles.

Holy shit, you're right! It's awful!

[Dracorion]

GAAAAAAAAHHHH!

IT WON'T STOP!

[Menarker]

Well, Dragon types just became more useful again. Useful against Ruin types and now Humanoids too.

Not that I'm complaining. Just interesting to note. ^^

Also, it seems that there is a lot of love for the Emerald Generation of Pokemon. I mean, we got Blaziken and Sceptile for Drac and I got Swampert. ^^

And Drac, your Leprihare... can you change her color just a slight? Lola is also pink as well. Don't really need two pink Lopunnies (well, a Lopunny and the evolution.)

Seems very odd that all of her pokemons are shiny... ah well.

[Dracorion]

And Drac, your Leprihare... can you change her color just a slight? Lola is also pink as well. Don't really need two pink Lopunnies (well, a Lopunny and the evolution.)

Seems very odd that all of her pokemons are shiny... ah well.

Not really. Liz having Shiny pokemon is a family thing. I just forget to mention it in her bio. She also has a pet Riolu I forgot to mention.

But sure, I'll change her fur color to red.

[Menarker]

Well, you mentioned Riolu as part of one of Liz's attacks. But a little background for him doesn't hurt. ^^

It just seemed odd that all her pokemons are shiny when the chances of that is so crazy low, unless they are genetically altered. (Renny Mollesk is shiny, so I'm not complaining about her having onehaving one.)

And thanks for the color thing.

[Dracorion]

It's less genetically altered and more her dad going "Nothing but the best, most distinguished pokemon for my precious, innocent little angel!" a few years back.

[Astral Harmony]

Riolu was Elizabeth's first Pokemon beastiality experience.

Mind you, I'm guessing, but the chances that I'm absolutely right are really damn high.

[Dracorion]

Actually, not so much.

Riolu is not Shiny and he hasn't been with Liz since she was a kid.

He's probably her favorite fuck, though.

[Menarker]

Considering Riolu is technically a baby pokemon, that probably says way more about Elizabeth than I'd ever need to know.

[Dracorion]

Hey, Riolu isn't entirely innocent himself.

[Menarker]

Well, I'd imagine so. Especially after what she did to him. >_>

[Dracorion]

Fair enough.

Though, be aware that Renny could very well be going the same way.

[Menarker]

Are you trying to get Elizabeth included in every single Harem Tech made by the PCs in this RP?

And yes, you warned about her likely targeting Renny quite a few times already...

[Dracorion]

Liz is more or less a whole Harem Tech on her own, man.

[Menarker]

Yeah, but the way you hype up her sexuality, you think she'd be satisfied with just that? :3

I mean, being a harem tech of her own implies she's soloing or with her pokemons... I'm pretty sure you made it seem like she'd try all the PCs and NPCs if she got the chance. Excluding any she deemed unattractive in particular... If there is such a thing aside from the extreme far end obvious side of the "ugly as sin" scale like Burkmont and such.

[Dracorion]

Kurika and Heidi may not be getting any from her.

Kurika's far too righteous for Liz's taste. Heidi I really don't know.

[Menarker]

Funny sentiment when you consider that Renny is one of her targets and he's probably the next closest in terms of righteousness. (Although it comes out differently and he's still developing in that regards.)

[Dracorion]

Renny is impressionable.

And while the innocent shota boy routine might not work for Pierce, Liz finds it incredibly cute.

You do not want to know what she does to cute.

Hint: She introduces them to Leprihare.

[Menarker]

Man, I just know that AB is going to somehow put something like that into his next sprite comic featuring Renny and his thirst for knowledge on the subject. With peculiar results...