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

[Dragonstrike]

Hmm...what choices I should take?
Starly I should take Zubat, Spinarak or Whismur?
Vullaby I should take Hard Stone, Silk Scarf or Wide Lens?
Crustle for 6500, Iron Tail and Giga Drain TMs, Punchs TMs, Smeargle, Elekid or Heracross?

I cant decided witch one is better. Its a offer better then other.

- Zubat is a nice, strong option if you take the time to evolve it all the way.  Acrobatics is a really strong STAB, Cross Poison is great, Crobat has 6 Base HP...

- Whismur has a great niche in being able to learn many different sound based moves (STAB Boomburst included if you reeeaaallly spend a lot of time raising it). And has a lot of coverage when fully evolved, too.  

- Spider pokemon have a lot of fun niches.  In Ariados's case, it's Venom Drench combined with Toxic (which you can purchase for $3300 in the Violet Tent, or $3500 at the Department Store) or another Poison inflicting move (Toxic is the best option in this campaign if you want guaranteed Poison, but then you're not attacking).  It's hard to fight back when you have -1 Dex and Strength!  Blegh!  Also learns Sticky Web for a high amount of exp.



- Hard Stones are rather common, and purchasable at the Department Store for a mere $500.  That one's a trap, imo. 

- Silk Scark and Wide Lens are amazing, however.  Normal moves getting a buff is always nice (particularly if you go with Whismur), but who can say no to a universal +1 Accuracy on all your attacks? Can't go wrong with picking either one of those, imo.



- Smeargle seems to be designed as a utility pokemon, not a fighter.  Would be great for catching pokemon...but not much else.  And unless we get some NPC move relearner help, you're probably not going to be able to learn Sketch for cheap amounts of exp, as it's already used 7 of its 10 Sketches.  Unless I was looking for a pure utility pokemon, I probably wouldn't take it myself.

- Tyrogue and Elekid are baby pokemon, and would need a lot of growing and experience to become truly awesome.  Could be beneficial, just would need a lot of work.  (You might be able to get them elsewhere, though)

- Heracross is a really strong pokemon to have access to, and is rather rare.  Starts with Arm Thrust and Bullet Seed, can get Aerial Ace for cheap, and gets several strong STABs.  

-But having extra TMs is never, ever a bad thing.  Particularly when they're as strong as the Elemental Punches, Iron Tail, and Giga Drain.  (As a reminder, Golett can learn all three elemental punches, btw.  And has Iron Fist.  Ouch.)  Some of these might be straight up better than a fresh pokemon since you're strengthening an old one.

- Money isn't as much of an issue since you have an Amulet Coin.  You don't have to constantly do hard battles to make a decent amount of cash, which is great.  Nathan isn't too worried about money either because of Pay Day, though it's a lot slower.