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

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

There is one other problem with loaning Terra Ditto: Terra's low Insight would limit access to pokemon species that aren't in Ditto's line of sight.  Transformations from memory/into objects are based purely off of an Insight check, so lower Insight means less reliable Transformations in the heat of the moment.  A Ditto working off of Shiva's stats would be as optimal as possible for memory/object based Transformations.  Spira could do it rather well too since he has 5.  Nathan's semi reliable with 4* Insight.  3 is when ya start to gamble slightly, as a single pair of (1) results makes the end result guaranteed to fail without a Lucky Chant.  2 is a straight up 25% chance of failing, and 1 is 50-50 on whether it works at all.  Of course, it's not an issue at all if Ditto is only Transforming into pokemon it can see, but Transforming from memory is powerful in that it can give a potentially wider variety of moves (any that are worth less than or equal to 5*(#of badges) + 15.  6 badges is up to 45 exp, while 5 is up to 40.).  However, Will can also be spent to guarantee the Transformation is successful, so if Ditto absolutely needs to Transform from memory and can't afford to fail, that is an option.

I'm not sure Solosis is going to grow enough to learn stuff like Skill Swap during this trip.  It'd be a pleasant thing to happen for sure, but I'm not going to count on moves that the pokemon doesn't know yet unless they're close to learning them already.  (On that note, Solomon has 19 exp atm, and Heal Pulse costs 58 for him)

Main reasons I'm considering Charizard seriously are a) Charizard were a favorite pokemon of nobility, including Sarimanok himself, so Charizard could potentially be a very strong 'kingly' candidate (the Skull Throne is rumoured to be made of Charizard skulls, too) b) he has lots of strong move choices between Fire STAB, Air Slash, Shadow Claw, Dragon Claw, Dragon Rage, and ROCK SMASH.  He's got tons of offensive versatility, and is one of Nathan's stronger pokemon as a result (he could also potentially learn Scary Face for an effect equivalent to Paralysis, albeit more temporary!) c) I'm not particularly worried about Rock types since we have so many pokemon with moves effective against the type (mainly ROCK SMASH due to the ease of access, of course).  Rock isn't exactly a hard type to prepare for dealing with, either.

Also, on the note of Tubareel: I think I am probably going to sell/trade it.  It may be a rare and powerful pokemon that I'd like to keep, but I'm definitely not going to be taking the time to try and tame that unruly, tubby eel shark with no (visible) teeth.  If Terra could help with that trade, that'd be great.

Oomph. Forgot about that limitation of Transform. Welp, in that case, don't give Ditto to Terra then, if he's not Insightful enough to make it shift into forms reliably. It would defeat the whole point of bringing it along, if their versatility can't be utilized reliably. 

Fair enough point on Solosis. I was just considering it as an nice bonus to aim for later, so if they don't get it during the expedition (If they come along), then it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I'm more concerned with Solomon and/or Anubi getting Heal Pulse ASAP, so I'll have to make sure they hold an Lucky Egg and participate in as much battles as possible to make a quick beeline for it.

Hmm....those are some good reasons to bring Charizard along, but I already understood them. What I was mainly concerned with was stacking multiple Pokemon with quad weakness or the same weakness on a single team (Sans Ghosts, for obvious reasons), or that by bringing them along you are creating 'spacing' issues with the other Pokemon you'd like to bring along. If you are adamant about bringing the fire drake with Nathan, then that's fine by me, but it's going to make including Emolga, Princess, Grid, etc.. along with the other Pokemon you'd like to take all the harder choice (Which is why I want to help you out by taking a Pokemon of your choice [preferably Solomon, if an agreement between him can be made])

Sure! Terra would be happy to arrange that trade! Just mention you caught it when they return the Super Rod to my chara. in the morning, when they meet up in the lobby! Won't be posting until everyone's teams are fully and completely finalized, though, as I can't really do much until that is sorted out since all my Encounters are going to be dedicated to the Ruins. Unless Trading Tubareel takes an Encounter, in which case we can go ahead and do that in the meantime. Iron?