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

[Spiritmon]

I also have something to confess...Posei I didnt use in much battles since I was focus in the others Pokemons...could Posei at least gain some XP too @Iron?

[Iron]

Not from the battle, but I will give him and Gustav 4XP because they helped find rare items in the Well.

[Spiritmon]

@Lord Windos I was thinking something: Posei could still be used to increase the power of Gustav Water Type moves with his Muddy Water, even more if Gustav set Swors Dance. Are you interested in have either Gustav or Posei in your party? With Terra big HP he could a powerhouse capable of survive even the strongerst attack. Plus the Mega Launcher. I can send you a full PM with his stats and moves.

[Lord Windos]

@Lord Windos I was thinking something: Posei could still be used to increase the power of Gustav Water Type moves with his Muddy Water, even more if Gustav set Swors Dance. Are you interested in have either Gustav or Posei in your party? With Terra big HP he could a powerhouse capable of survive even the strongerst attack. Plus the Mega Launcher. I can send you a full PM with his stats and moves.

Uh....you mean Rain Dance, not Muddy Water? 'Cause unless Iron told you otherwise, Muddy Water doesn't synergize with other Water Moves like that, but Rain Dance does.

Posei's already Terra's Pokemon, but I could leave a slot open for Gustav since his Spread Sword Dance Bubbles would be a nasty scubbing for the clones/Non-DEOXYS foes.

Mind you, though, that is any of the clone are also capable of inflicting PD Damage, then Terra's immense bulk don't mean squat unless Iron decides to give him Plot Armor himself, which won't happen anytime soon bar a major derailment event or mad, mad whimsy. That, and between Inari, Melly, Genie, and/or Seismitoad, Terra has Pokemon capable of Spread/AoE Damage out the wazoo already, and Genie is packing OHKO to take care of everything not clad in Plot Armor. 

Speaking of which, Genie's OHKO Fissure, once a nasty but situational surprise, is now MUCH scarier. With Terra having a 14D6 Channel Dice Pool, she could spam it up to three times in a row with an Accuracy Roll of 4/3/2D6 Dice without Pain, and a quick Potion or application of Will could outright solve Inaccuray issues. Combine that with her Rock Slide, and If those clones don't have Plot Armor, she can clear them away lickity split probably by herself, so long as Terra keeps her HP topped off the best he can! Ah....so nice some of the scariest Dragon around....

[Lord Windos]

Quote @Dragonstrike : ' (BTW, speaking of returning pokemon, how much exp does Solomon currently have, @Lord Windos?)

He currently has 1 XP, after spending 58 XP for him to learn Heal Pulse , and he earned a total of 40 XP from the expedition in total from Encounters, mainly gotten from the truce made with the Scimitars (10XP) and against the Gigalith Horde (30 XP). Considering that he helped greatly by acting as one of the group's many cleric AND in identifying varies things/relics (Most recently from the Ruins), I'd say he's due some bonus XP from doing all that too (I'd say 4 or more XP would be a fair number) . Truthfully, I could've used him more in Fights in order to help him gain further XP, but then I got Sari which ended up derailing that plan in the pursuit of getting her enough XP to learn HP herself AND try to tame her attitude a bit. Sorry about not doing more, mate.....

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Fair enough argument, but I rather hold onto mine slim hopes that Foul Play can be meaningful in PD situations than it not at all, as otherwise those battles turn right back into crapshoot and guess fests beyond 'Use SE Damage!' and now 'Use Da Swordo!'

Practically speaking, The Sword true effect will most likely only be really applicable to Nathan's Pokemon, as he is the one using it, and would probably prioritize either keeping his own partners ahead of the game or his father's. But with this new info in mind.....well, I could substitute Lovely in place of one of my Mons if they got Sword buffed, as they could take a couple of hits due to their Bulk since it would make their Water Gun SE (And ergo they could maybe fire it off 2 - 3 times, if Priority/Luck don't run afoul of him), and Melly's Discharge pretty much becomes a Meltdown Spell under the Sword (Every Pokemon is screwed), though if she's only sent out at first and has Shiva Shielding her from PD Damage she could conceivably end up soloing a entire swarm of those galactic germs. Tommy also becomes a slightly better choice than Seismitoad too if Sword Powered, as a SP Fake Out is more likely to flinch regardless of Crits, and his Fury Swipes would be ludicrously powerful (Not so much as Grid's SP Fury Cutter, which if all of them hit would end up doing 10 PD Damage to Deoxys, cripes), but then again the poisonous toad also has Bubble, which would act like a Spread PD Move under the Sword's Power, and he still has Shadow Claw even if he isn't buffed.

Edmundi could also become rather potent regardless of Sword Power up, as Metal Burst would likely work against Deoxys and it's Sturdy would keep it in the game potentially regardless, and Inari (Diggersby) has Bulldoze, Double Slap, AND Super Fang that all could be boosted by Sword Power to be utterly nutterly terrifying (And Bulldoze can be more easily dodged than a PD Discharge). Finally, we have Anubi, who if powered up by the Sword gets access to Priority PD Bullet Punches or PD ROCK SMASH and FINAL GAMBIT, the former bypassing any Initiative advantages and the later Move being turbo charged into utter brokenness but most likely being blunted due to Deoxys' Legendary Psychic Typing. They also have Copycat, but I doubt it would work against Deoxys, since power copying Legends in any manner so far has been utterly ineffective except in the 'using their image for Intimidation/Bluffing' department.

However, I have to assume that none of my Pokemon will be getting a Sword Boost, since I can't guarantee I'll get it when I need it most, so I'll need to design my team around that fact. I could still bring along Spread and AoE Move Users and have Terra focus solely on keeping the clones/Non-Legendary threats at bay/draw the aggro to him, but that would mean he'd be less useful in helping out against DEOXYS - which might not be such a bad thing, if they could potentially mind whammy Terra if he engages them directly. Hmm.....

So....based on the new info I added, what Pokemon do you think should be on my team, and should Terra shape his team to be either generalist, DEOXYS Focused, or Clone/Non-DEOXYS Insurgent Focused (If he should come along to the fight in the first place, again). I know for a dang fact that Nathan is DEFINITELY going to be DEOXYS Focused and likely will be trying to burn down it ASAP will SE PD Multi-Hit Moves and/or Spread Damage, so I and the rest of the group can afford to specialize in other areas to better support you/each other.

I respectfully disagree about the Sword only being applicable to Nathan's pokemon.  All four artifacts have one thing in common: they can each only affect two targets at a time: their wielder, and one other character of the wielder's choice.  The Artifacts were made to combat the threat of Deoxys as one complete set.  Individually, they are strong.  Together, they are almost unstoppable.

It doesn't hurt to plan for the possibility that some of your pokemon might receive some of the buffs from the Artifacts.  However, as they can only affect 2 creatures each, it also wouldn't hurt to plan around not receiving the benefits of them, yes.  The point, however, is that we need to work together to determine who benefits the most from each Artifact's effects (though Cosh also said something about the Hauberk helping with coordinating the other Artifacts, and I'm not sure how much bearing that will have on things...)

If we can pinpoint some of Deoxys's weaknesses without the Sword, then that's additional firepower we can use against the Legendary alongside a pokemon buffed with the Sword that wouldn't normally be able to harm Deoxys on their own.

A team based around eliminating Deoxys clones quickly might also serve well as one that can burn down the actual Deoxys quickly, depending on how susceptible both are to SE PD damage.  Nathan has several Bug types and Calam, all of which should be capable of smashing their way through weaker Psychic types with relative ease.

For now, I'm operating under the assumption that PDing a move ignores the move's original damaging method entirely (since it turns Fissure into a non-OHKO), and thus would stymie the effectiveness of Super Fang, Final Gambit, and similar moves that have unusual damage pools purely on that principle alone.

Having access to Spread moves is probably a good idea in case we encounter a large group of Deoxys clones.

Honestly, I don't really have any concrete opinions as of right now on which exact pokemon you should bring.  I do think you should come, though.  Don't want ya missing out on the finale...and if it backfires on us, we'll deal with it appropriately.

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You're not wrong about my plans for Nathan's team being focused on dealing as much damage to Deoxys and its clones as quickly as I can.  Grid (Electroweb and Fury Cutter), Princess (Fury Cutter and Fell Stinger.  If she accumulates enough exp on the way to Deoxys, she could possibly use souped up Order moves, too), and Calam (large initiative bonus, Dark type) are gonna be monster damage dealers against Psychic types.  Gallade's going to be present as well, of course.  I'm still trying to decide on the last two, tbh.  I've got a lot of choices. 

I'm kinda leaning towards Ditto and Zippy, tbh, but Charizard/Swiftfire have their own appealing traits as well, and Porygon-Z could be useful too.  Juliet could also be REALLY useful if she evolves.

[Dragonstrike]

Sorry about not doing more, mate.....

It's fine.  You did a good job given what you had.  And there weren't any super crucial moves I wanted to teach him ASAP anyways (though Heal Pulse is certainly always good to have)

More exp on him might later go towards making it easier to understand what he's trying to communicate in some fashion, but it's not a high priority at the moment.

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

I respectfully disagree about the Sword only being applicable to Nathan's pokemon.  All four artifacts have one thing in common: they can each only affect two targets at a time: their wielder, and one other character of the wielder's choice.  The Artifacts were made to combat the threat of Deoxys as one complete set.  Individually, they are strong.  Together, they are almost unstoppable.


It doesn't hurt to plan for the possibility that some of your pokemon might receive some of the buffs from the Artifacts.  However, as they can only affect 2 creatures each, it also wouldn't hurt to plan around not receiving the benefits of them, yes.  The point, however, is that we need to work together to determine who benefits the most from each Artifact's effects (though Cosh also said something about the Hauberk helping with coordinating the other Artifacts, and I'm not sure how much bearing that will have on things...)

If we can pinpoint some of Deoxys's weaknesses without the Sword, then that's additional firepower we can use against the Legendary alongside a pokemon buffed with the Sword that wouldn't normally be able to harm Deoxys on their own.

A team based around eliminating Deoxys clones quickly might also serve well as one that can burn down the actual Deoxys quickly, depending on how susceptible both are to SE PD damage.  Nathan has several Bug types and Calam, all of which should be capable of smashing their way through weaker Psychic types with relative ease.

For now, I'm operating under the assumption that PDing a move ignores the move's original damaging method entirely (since it turns Fissure into a non-OHKO), and thus would stymie the effectiveness of Super Fang, Final Gambit, and similar moves that have unusual damage pools purely on that principle alone.


Having access to Spread moves is probably a good idea in case we encounter a large group of Deoxys clones.

Honestly, I don't really have any concrete opinions as of right now on which exact pokemon you should bring.  I do think you should come, though.  Don't want ya missing out on the finale...and if it backfires on us, we'll deal with it appropriately.

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You're not wrong about my plans for Nathan's team being focused on dealing as much damage to Deoxys and its clones as quickly as I can.  Grid (Electroweb and Fury Cutter), Princess (Fury Cutter and Fell Stinger.  If she accumulates enough exp on the way to Deoxys, she could possibly use souped up Order moves, too), and Calam (large initiative bonus, Dark type) are gonna be monster damage dealers against Psychic types.  Gallade's going to be present as well, of course.  I'm still trying to decide on the last two, tbh.  I've got a lot of choices. 

I'm kinda leaning towards Ditto and Zippy, tbh, but Charizard/Swiftfire have their own appealing traits as well, and Porygon-Z could be useful too.  Juliet could also be REALLY useful if she evolves.

When I said that, I meant it more in the sense of 'You're going to more often than not err of giving The Sword buff to Nathan's Pokemon or Marco's), rather being literal. And yes, that's something I'm amply aware of, and have come up with a few idea with how to maximize the benefit of it. I'll reveal them in a bit, so you won't have to wait for long!

Nope, it doesn't, but The Artifact Buffs are a scare resource in the sense only a select few can benefit off them per Round, so while I would be thrilled to have one of Terra's Pokemon do the nuking for a bit, I'm aware that opportunity is going to be rather low unless I can convince you otherwise or you've burned through all your options (No offense meant by me saying this, btw). Right now, the best use of the Sword I can see is either with Grid and/or Princess using SP Fury Cutter (It bears repeating: Up to 10 PD Damage per uninterruptible chain, cricky jee wiz!), or asking Iron to see if using the Sword on Ditto would allow them to power up their Transformation enough to be at least a quarter strong as DEOXYS. If somebody can Flinch DEOXYS or distract it before Grid/Princess acts, then they would be able to eviscerate that damn alien in short order (hopefully), and if they're given protection either via attack redirection or from an Artifact, they would be able to last long enough to potentially down it within a few rounds. High Estimate says that DEOXYS most likely has ~ 50 PD HP or so, which could fuluctuate depending on if it can use Recover and/or drain Earthpower from the land to repair itself - in either case, we'd need to do something to preemptively rub those options of its out - so it would take about 5 or so Rounds of frantic action, which is entirely feasible for us to do assuming it don't have bullshit AoE Damaging/Crowd Control Maneuvers.

I've already listed out some potential weakness that DEOXYS could have, so we could try our luck with them to see if any of it sticks. Thought of another potential weakness of its, but its a bit.....messy. Essentially, we use biological warfare on it. Create a bomb or get an spray airplane, and fill them with some of the most corrosive and potent enzyme and bacteria mixes that are designed to break down nearly any DNA, and then carpet bomb/spray the area DEOXYS is in. If it works even a little bit, it would be a potent way of dealing with them.....at the cost of salting and burning Tezeal Valley. Plan has a high chance of success if the group could get a sample of its DNA and have Mallorn stress test it to see what chems/enzymes can break it down, but the cost is both the high risk associated with GETTING the DNA, practicallity, and time. At best, I can see it as being a sorta last ditch effort thing, unless the Legends of Cheshire decide to finally get off their mythological arse and defend their home land, instead of watching to see what happens....

Fair enough point, though I do find that to be ultimately a reasonable trade off for turning a Move into a Infinity + 1 Sword temporarily.

Yeap, so everyone best have a few Spread Damagers in your line ups just for that!

.....Very well. Hopefully nothing terribly ill comes from his participation....or weirder stuff still.

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In regard to the swarm of Deoxys clones and brainwashed/press ganged Wildmons that are likely strew about DEOXYS home base, I do have a solution that could more or less effective: Have an Pokemon capable of AoE Damage lead the charge, then constantly keep them turbo charge with ALL or more of The Artifact Buffs while they spam their AoE to just clear away everything. Out of my Pokemon, Melly and Inari can do the job rather nicely with Discharge and Bulldoze (respectively), and with either of their Moves we have Pokemon that would be Immune to the Damage Type of them, so they (The Immune Pokemon) could be fielded alongside them to help clean up and draw aggro away. If you and the rest of the characters have Pokemon that can do AoE Moves too, though, they'd worked fine with such a strat too, though depending on the Damage Type of the AoE it would be harder to coordinate a squad around them.

 Alternatively, doesn't the League still have access to the Surf HM? Can't we pension them for it to be taught to our Water types, so that we have a HM AoE Move (Assuming it still has its Field Affect properties from gen VI) for Sword Buff Turbo charging? HM Moves are already Plot Deviced to a certain extent, but imagine how much more powerful they'd become if they we given that extra boost....

I'd say go with Zippy for that sweet SE SP Bug STABs, but I imagine Porygon Z would wreck an appropriate amount of havoc with it's own esoteric bunch of tricks. However, having either Charizard or Swiftfire means you have a form of transport to skirt around the battlefield, and if they're fed one of Terra's Salac Berries nothing but perhaps an Speed Form Deoyx could keep up with them, and PD Fire Moves sound awful nasty, don't cha think? Especially SP INFERNO. Oh gods, that might possibly create a whole new level of Burn, if it's buffed that way.....

[Lord Windos]

Sorry about not doing more, mate.....

It's fine.  You did a good job given what you had.  And there weren't any super crucial moves I wanted to teach him ASAP anyways (though Heal Pulse is certainly always good to have)

More exp on him might later go towards making it easier to understand what he's trying to communicate in some fashion, but it's not a high priority at the moment.

Still....I feel like I failed you in some manner. If you wish (And Nathan is willing to concede to it), Terra could make a trip to Stair and by some TMs for Solomon to learn, along with a couple of Max Potions/Full Restores to even the score between us, so to speak.

Yeah, that would be most excellent! Sari's kinda got lucky with her ability to already be able to spell things out fluently, thought given the very concept of her existence.....anyway, I hope that you'll eventually get your own 'talking' sloth too soon enough, after all this BS with Deoxys is cleaned up like a biohazard spill....

[Dragonstrike]

Alternatively, doesn't the League still have access to the Surf HM? Can't we pension them for it to be taught to our Water types, so that we have a HM AoE Move (Assuming it still has its Field Affect properties from gen VI) for Sword Buff Turbo charging? HM Moves are already Plot Deviced to a certain extent, but imagine how much more powerful they'd become if they we given that extra boost....

I'd say go with Zippy for that sweet SE SP Bug STABs, but I imagine Porygon Z would wreck an appropriate amount of havoc with it's own esoteric bunch of tricks. However, having either Charizard or Swiftfire means you have a form of transport to skirt around the battlefield, and if they're fed one of Terra's Salac Berries nothing but perhaps an Speed Form Deoyx could keep up with them, and PD Fire Moves sound awful nasty, don't cha think? Especially SP INFERNO. Oh gods, that might possibly create a whole new level of Burn, if it's buffed that way.....

There's no time to fetch it.  Deoxys is attacking NOW.  Key Stones, SURF...we're gonna have to do this without them.  But I'm reasonably certain we'll all definitely have more than earned access to them after all of this is over.

Not hard to imagine how powerful a PD HM is.  A PD ROCK SMASH was able to chip the minarets!  That's quite a feat, given the context!  (though it didn't change how the PD damage works, obviously).  I'm also able to reasonably say that yes, SURF does have spread/AOE capability of some kind, given that Iron has told me that it essentially turns battlefields into giant swimming pools.  Sounds useful, no?

Yeah, I was kind thinking bringing a Fire type just in case we need to burn away some Tall Grass.  (also, Swiftfire doesn't need Salac Berries. ;P  Flame Charge is awesome)

The main problem with Porygon-Z is Conversion is still random.  So while I could get a Dark or Bug type Porygon-Z, I might also get Electric, Normal, or Psychic.