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

[Dragonstrike]

Hey, people, before choosing a ton of moves you'd like to have tutored by me(?), don't forget that tutoring a move is not that easy for Shiva! She's just learning about that field herself.

About Play Rough, I love that move in the Games, but am unsure whether I shall teach that since I'm not really into moves that use Brawl-Stat in their rolls.

I never directly said Shiva would be the one tutoring the moves.  Nathan knows of it as well since he's well read, and could probably start dabbling in it a little too eventually.  A lot of the moves I have planned out are really far off anyways, with Electroweb on Porygon being the closest.  He'll probably have to talk with Shiva about it more first, though, before I start putting points into the specialty.

And also concerning Play Rough, it happens to be Azumarill's only damaging Fairy move, period, if you happen to want fairy coverage on her.  Shame it costs X and Y's 50 exp as opposed to ORAS/SM's 25, but oh well. Though I guess it's not as big of a deal if you have 2 or 3 other fairies anyways, so...

[Lord Windos]

If I wanted to beat Kirlia (or any other of your 'mons), I would have Raphael debuff the living fluff out of him, before Metronoming it into oblivion. Yawn + Charm is a great way of minimizing damage, and that's not counting Ancient Power boost in the future, nor Sweet Kiss! Or just have Apsis Bite the heck out of them; she may suffer a type disadvantage, but 13 HP is a lot to chew through (a Max of 9 HP lopped off per attack is large, but you are only likely to get around half that damage, probability wise), and she is nothing but determined to end a fight quickly!

Seeing as I want to lose badly in this case, however, this is great news to be had! Horay for inevitable failure!

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

So, @Iron, I think I learned enough about Double Team that I could start tutoring, couldn't I? Damn, if I only had Helios with me now... However, wouldn't it possible that I teleport to the Pokemon Center via Kirlia, pick up Heliod from PC, and use his Teleport to return to camp? (Such fast teleporting would give Shiva headaches, but the benefits... Now that Ven does not sleep anymore, maybe he'd even find time to teach some basic meditation to the Abra.

[Dragonstrike]

If I wanted to beat Kirlia (or any other of your 'mons), I would have Raphael debuff the living fluff out of him, before Metronoming it into oblivion. Yawn + Charm is a great way of minimizing damage, and that's not counting Ancient Power boost in the future, nor Sweet Kiss! Or just have Apsis Bite the heck out of them; she may suffer a type disadvantage, but 13 HP is a lot to chew through (a Max of 9 HP lopped off per attack is large, but you are only likely to get around half that damage, probability wise), and she is nothing but determined to end a fight quickly!

And Yawn (and spore, and other sleep inflicting moves. And confusion inflicting moves. and attract and cute charm) is exactly why I need to buff my Insight...eventually.  Of course, Taunt would just obliterate a debuff heavy strategy...can't obliterate the damage output with Charm if you can't use it in the first place, after all.

And yeah, large pokemon are scary thanks to those HP pools.  That's why evasion and heavy debuffing are a thing: to help mitigate the damage you take while you whittle your opponent down little by little...to me, it just seems a little skewed towards the larger pokemon though.  Particularly the massive ones.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Before dear Marill learns how to cuddle people and playfully deal damage that way, Rain Dance for 31XP is the choice~

"Blue mouse is so happy that it tries out her new move on her owner!"
"Shiva takes 5 damage from Play Rough and is knocked out by the pure cuteness of Azu's cuddle session."

Sorry by the way, I lack time to post in Game Thread right now. But after answering your question concerning Ronin Spearow I'm fine to start the next in-game day if there's nothing else to discuss/happen.

[Lord Windos]

And Yawn (and spore, and other sleep inflicting moves.  And confusion inflicting moves.  and attract and cute charm) is exactly why I need to buff my Insight...eventually.  Of course, Taunt would just obliterate a debuff heavy strategy...can't obliterate the damage output with Charm if you can't use it in the first place, after all.

And yeah, large pokemon are scary thanks to those HP pools.  That's why evasion and heavy debuffing are a thing: to help mitigate the damage you take while you whittle your opponent down little by little...to me, it just seems a little skewed towards the larger pokemon though.  Particularly the massive ones.

If I moved first, I'd use Yawn on Kirlia and put it on the clock, then if it Taunted I would switch out to Ariel/Apsis to evade/soak up a blow, then finish ya off that way. If I moved second and I knew you had Taunt, Rapheal would use Metronome to hit you, then switch out to someone else that can make his life hell. If I didn't know you had Taunt, then switching out and wearing him down, before sending them out again would put them in a pickle. Either Taunt and lock down half their moves and risk getting pulped by Metronome, or use an attacking move, only to find that he's very sleepy/weak now...

One thing I love about Apsis is that all her debuff are built into her attacks sans Glare and Leer. Dealing damage AND the chance to rub salt in the wounds is always a nice thing, hehehe!  Acid Spray in particular is nasty, since it can be spammed and lowers STR by 2, so getting the first strike in would really tilt the battle in her favor at that point! Add in Coil, and things just get bad for anyone facing her. Oh, and if someone tries to evade her, she can just use Wrap to lock them down in one place and just continue on tearing them a new one. I love my giant, fearsome snake!

[Iron]

Honestly you could even do the battles against Michael without ever making a roll. Maybe play out the ones he has a chance in. Just show him empirically that only with a smart master and strong allies can he expect to win battles!

Shiva, two teleportings in a day wouldn't be so bad! Especially after a night's rest. You'll probably need Kirlia to show you Double Team quite often during your tutoring, but you can make a start.

[Lord Windos]

Maybe roll out the battle against Staryu first, then have you narrate how utterly thrashed Michael became after facing off against Nathan whole team? If he somehow wins against Staryu, then just make his next battle even more one-sided to compensate for that! I'm game for that plan! I do wonder how much XP Michael will get out of this, however. That's the elephant in the room, here. Since normally only training rolls and winning battles gains you XP, having Michael going on a losing streak seem...difficult to justify him earning anything but an attitude change (For both better and worse).

[Dragonstrike]

If I moved first, I'd use Yawn on Kirlia and put it on the clock, then if it Taunted I would switch out to Ariel/Apsis to evade/soak up a blow, then finish ya off that way. If I moved second and I knew you had Taunt, Rapheal would use Metronome to hit you, then switch out to someone else that can make his life hell. If I didn't know you had Taunt, then switching out and wearing him down, before sending him out would put them in a pickle. Either Taunt and lock down half his moves and risk getting pulped by Metronome, or use an attacking move, only to find that he's very sleepy/weak now.

One thing I love about Apsis is that all her debuff are built into her attacks sans Glare and Leer. Dealing damage AND the chance to rub salt in the wounds is always a nice thing, hehehe!  Acid Spray in particular is nasty, since it can be spammed and lowers STR by 2, so getting the first strike in would really tilt the battle in her favor at that point! Add in Coil, and things just get bad for anyone facing her. Oh, and if someone tries to evade her, she can just use Wrap to lock them down in one place and just continue on tearing them a new one. I love my giant, fearsome snake!

I'm looking forward to Porygon getting Tri Attack eventually.  How does 6 chance dice for at least one of 3 status powerful conditions sound?  On average, that's a status every single turn (assuming none of them were inflicted already).  And it could be Freeze, Paralysis, or Burn 1.  All of which are particularly nasty in their own ways.

Now combine that with Download.  And Nasty Plot/Sharpen.

I might not have a lot of ways to debuff enemies currently, but I certainly have plenty of plans for striking hard.

- Gallade will have a huge amount of type coverage pretty quickly, backed up by Calm Mind.  A few of which have higher crit chances.
- Starmie is going to have a souped up Psywave by the end of the campaign.  And fast access to Hydro Pump.  And Confuse Ray can be rather nasty.
- Galvantula has all that Dexterity Manipulation to back up the raw power of Electro Ball.  And Screech.  And Compound Eyes for Thunder, Fury Cutter, and Electroweb.  Thunder Wave, String Shot, and Sticky Web access are for good measure.
- Rapidash has some pretty decent coverage too, and also has some forms of dexterity manipulation.  And if I really wanted to lay down the hurt on the opponent, I could always use Inferno to get a guaranteed Burn 3...or Fire Blast if the accuracy is too shaky.  Or Flare Blitz if even that's too shaky.
- Porygon-Z is just going to be raw, unfettered power.  With the ability to choose a STAB type eventually (gonna need a few TMs and/or tutor moves to get the most out of that, though...).  And there's the aforementioned Tri Attack as well, which is just plain nasty.

[Dragonstrike]

Maybe roll out the battle against Staryu first, then have you narrate how utterly thrashed Michael became after facing off against Nathan whole team? If he somehow wins against Staryu, then just make his next battle even more one-sided to compensate for that! I'm game for that plan! I do wonder how much XP Michael will get out of this, however. That's the elephant in the room, here. Since normally only training rolls and winning battles gains you XP, having Michael going on a losing streak seem...difficult to justify him earning anything but an attitude change (For both better and worse).

Hmmm...that actually sounds like a good idea.  Saves a lot of work, too, since the math basically says Staryu is the only pokemon Michael might even have a chance against.

As for that exp...well, it's been established that losing still grants a small amount of exp.  You still learn something, after all.