[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Hmm....you are indeed right, especially since Serperior has such a massive amount of HP that getting to - 2 Pain to exploit Overgrown would not be too much of a raw deal for it. That, and unlike Arbok it doesn't take bloody forever for Snivy to learn Coil, so keeping its default ability might work out better for you overall afterall. It also would cost you less XP to invest in overall, which could go towards either obtaining Leaf Blade or Giga Drain for high crit move and HP drain respectively, so maybe I spoke to soon about going after Contrary......

Urk, yeah, that could be a problem. Nathan is disappointed in Ven enough as is for not living up to Cynthia's expectation in them, though to him he isn't even aware that is a thing he should be considering. She's just a good friend to him, after all, and not the League Champeon or World Famous Archeologist.

Going to hold off posting until Phantom decides on what her character wants to do, as I don't want to end up stealing any Encounter from her or the like!

Could definitely still be worth it.  Contrary and Overgrow just play VERY differently.  If Grass Pledge also affects the user with a Dex drop, then Contrary is probably best if you want to use that move to the fullest (though Coil's +1 accuracy can partially negate the effect anyways).  At that point, you'd have +2 Strength for everything, an 'immunity' to Attribute reductions, and +1 Dex compared to +1 Strength, +1 Accuracy, +1 Defense, and +1-3 additional Power for Grass moves only.  But yeah, Leaf Storm is bloody expensive.  Particularly after Snivy evolves.  And even more after Servine evolves.  Going down the contrary route isn't cheap unless you beeline for Leaf Storm before Snivy evolves (and it's still probably at least slightly more expensive than Coil Overgrow).  Funnily enough, this is kinda similar to the Blaze versus Solar Power question for the Charmander line. (And in base rules, the HAs are 'stronger', no question, since Pain also reduces damage pools there)

Just a random thought, but...would Raphael be comfortable with Ventus's current behavior?  Togekiss aren't particularly...violent, after all.  I'm not saying this to cause any issues, but maybe there's something that could be done with that.  IMO, his presence has felt rather...token instead of notable as of late as far as characterisation goes.  I don't want him to leave (that would be crushing to see/hear for Shiva and Nathan as well as Ventus, I'm sure), but...there are surely limits to what he finds tolerable from Ventus, right?  Nathan has also mentioned to Ventus how special Cynthia's Togepi eggs are in the past...it's been a looonnnnggg time since then, though.  It's just an idea, though (one of several I have concerning trying to help with mellowing Ventus a little, but this one's the most relevant right now).

I'll probably hold off on posting for a little bit as well.  Partially because of Phantom, partially because I'm waiting on figuring out something else before I decide on how Nathan's going to proceed to his next encounter.