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

[Lord Windos]

Can you survive Genesect's final assault?

M....my Pokemon failed to do anything, not even a single point of damage!
 

https://giphy.com/gifs/teamcoco-bill-had...8zcjUb9Rp8

(I a non-condescending way!)

All jokes aside, yeah....that was a real pisser for you. Damn damn damn it, why did DMG have to bully Shiva so? Drat....

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Damn damn damn it, why did DMG have to bully Shiva so? Drat....

Because she's being so brave to not flinch away from that bug? Or they just don't like her. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On a different topic @Iron, since the gauntlets of Gendry and Elya exploded - is Shiva able to repair them with her skill and experience in crafting if she's putting her mind and time into it? I hope so, as otherwise we'll have two Scimitar Allies that are practically useless unless they can be reasoned to fight with their Pokemon like 'normal' Trainers.

[Mikaruge108]

Gonna be helping a family friend w/ yardwork and such tomorrow, around 12pm est dunno how long it'll take to do, I'll try to swing by as much as possible that day, though.

[Dragonstrike]

So, I've got a bit of a dilemma here with deciding what to do.

The situation:

- I've got 3 ROCK SMASH users on Nathan's team atm: Gallade, Calam, and Charizard.  2 of which are now fainted, and the unfainted one is super duper weak to Rock Slide (Charizard would be outright killed by it if he was hit by a PD Rock Move and Lucky Chant wasn't up).

- With the Tailwind up, as long as Nathan doesn't roll a (1) on Initiative, all of his pokemon are faster than Genesect.

- We just need to land one ROCK SMASH on that final natural weapon of Genesect's to cripple its ability to fight with physical attacks.  It's giving the weapon cover, though, so we need to make that cover ineffective somehow to get to it

- If we smash the last drone, that's one less enemy we have to worry about dealing additional damage to us as well. (if Edmundi can tank that X-Scissor with Sturdy and get off one more Head Smash to annihilate that last drone before being KOed, that removes this one from the list entirely)

- If we can manage to smash both the last weapon and drone, Genesect might flee.


The Ideas?

- I could Revive Gallade and have him set up Lucky Chant instead of Nubi since he's faster than Genesect.  Or he could continue ROCK SMASHING away.

- Calam could also go with more ROCK SMASHING if he's Revived.  But he and Gallade are stuck at half HP unless I use a Potion on them.

- If I'm going to use Charizard, Gallade almost HAS to set up Lucky Chant, or the dragon is going to be completely screwed because Genesect goes before Nubi does.  He could stand to potentially take more hits than Calam and Gallade as long as we deal with the potential Rock Slide spam, though, given that he's at full health, immune to EQ, and quad resistant to Bug

- If I use anyone except those three, none of them have ROCK SMASH or moves Super Effective against Bug/Rock, and thus can't really do much lasting harm to Genesect or its drone.

- Cover typically isn't very effective against contact moves, so a well placed ROCK SMASH could just outright destroy the last weapon.

- If I revive both Calam and Gallade and don't use Lucky Chant, they might simply be reduced to 1 HP by the PD damage, but so will whoever else is hit by the incoming Rock Slide/EQ (if they aren't outright KOed).  2 or even 3 ROCK SMASHES from Gallade/Calam/Charizard/Toya might be able to give us a distinct edge, though...

- If I revive Calam and Gallade and do use Lucky Chant, there's a chance that they could just be outright KOed by the incoming spread move/AOE, but it'll make it a lot harder for Genesect to reliably mass KO everyone during that Round.


...so, anyone have any thoughts on this?

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Gonna be helping a family friend w/ yardwork and such tomorrow, around 12pm est dunno how long it'll take to do, I'll try to swing by as much as possible that day, though.

Awww, yardwork. I hope the weather won't mess with this plan.

--------------------------------------------------------------


Dragon, don't use Charizard unless you absolutely must: One Rock Type move from the foe and the dragon's down, and

Potential spoiling of my plan

I was about to set up rainy weather thanks to the Wishing Well being nearby to empower Azu, Feraligatr and any other Water Type Users.

[Lord Windos]

Spoiler

So, I've got a bit of a dilemma here with deciding what to do.

The situation:

- I've got 3 ROCK SMASH users on Nathan's team atm: Gallade, Calam, and Charizard.  2 of which are now fainted, and the unfainted one is super duper weak to Rock Slide (Charizard would be outright killed by it if he was hit by a PD Rock Move and Lucky Chant wasn't up).

- With the Tailwind up, as long as Nathan doesn't roll a (1) on Initiative, all of his pokemon are faster than Genesect.

- We just need to land one ROCK SMASH on that final natural weapon of Genesect's to cripple its ability to fight with physical attacks.  It's giving the weapon cover, though, so we need to make that cover ineffective somehow to get to it

- If we smash the last drone, that's one less enemy we have to worry about dealing additional damage to us as well. (if Edmundi can tank that X-Scissor with Sturdy and get off one more Head Smash to annihilate that last drone before being KOed, that removes this one from the list entirely)

- If we can manage to smash both the last weapon and drone, Genesect might flee.


The Ideas?

- I could Revive Gallade and have him set up Lucky Chant instead of Nubi since he's faster than Genesect.  Or he could continue ROCK SMASHING away.

- Calam could also go with more ROCK SMASHING if he's Revived.  But he and Gallade are stuck at half HP unless I use a Potion on them.

- If I'm going to use Charizard, Gallade almost HAS to set up Lucky Chant, or the dragon is going to be completely screwed because Genesect goes before Nubi does.  He could stand to potentially take more hits than Calam and Gallade as long as we deal with the potential Rock Slide spam, though, given that he's at full health, immune to EQ, and quad resistant to Bug

- If I use anyone except those three, none of them have ROCK SMASH or moves Super Effective against Bug/Rock, and thus can't really do much lasting harm to Genesect or its drone.

- Cover typically isn't very effective against contact moves, so a well placed ROCK SMASH could just outright destroy the last weapon.

- If I revive both Calam and Gallade and don't use Lucky Chant, they might simply be reduced to 1 HP by the PD damage, but so will whoever else is hit by the incoming Rock Slide/EQ (if they aren't outright KOed).  2 or even 3 ROCK SMASHES from Gallade/Calam/Charizard/Toya might be able to give us a distinct edge, though...

- If I revive Calam and Gallade and do use Lucky Chant, there's a chance that they could just be outright KOed by the incoming spread move/AOE, but it'll make it a lot harder for Genesect to reliably mass KO everyone during that Round.


...so, anyone have any thoughts on this?

Situation On My End:

- Every single one of Terra's Pokemon except Shedinja and Oinari can ROCK SMASH, so we have no shortage of that Move. Michael and Solomon would be outright Killed by a SE Plotted X-Scissor, though, and Angie would get badly maimed by a SE Plotted Rock Slide if its not disabled, leaving only Pixie and Edmundi as 'safe' Rock Smashers.

- Terra needs a (5) or (6) on his INI Rolls in for any of his Pokemon to outspeed DMG, unless someone has a Scary Face user that can slow the damn thing down. 

- If Edmundi survives for whatever reason, then he should have 2 Head Smashes left, since Terra decided to go 5 Actions with them. That could me that he could potentially brute force his way past DMG's Cover and get at their last Weapon, or leave them wide open for others to exploit the created opening.

- We also could possibly commit to taking down DMG, if Nathan/Terra can get a read on how badly they're Damaged and can determine if they can be brought to the brink. Taking them down now would prevent them from haunting us later down the line, but it be....well, risky.

Ideas On My End:

- We could always continue with the Original Plan, since while Genesect isn't Confused it is heavily Damaged, so an Intimidation Contest Display could still work.

- Ditto could be usable, as even if they can't Transform into a Genesect, they can turn into Edmundi or Scarmmory instead and hammer away at them that way while also still having good Resistances. They could also turn into Gustav and fire off Bubbles or Water Pulse, which could handily bypass its cover too. If they CAN Transform into DMG.....that would changed things drastically.

- Pixie could always come out instead of Oinari, and Snatch steal that Fell Stinger Buff from DMG, and their Intimidation would nerf their STR in the mean team. They also have Fake Tears, Taunt, and Growl for additional Emotional Debuffs (With FT being the best if we want to get some more Damage in, Growl if we want to take even less in conjuction with Snatch, and Taunt if you want her to become a distraction/aggro target). Only thing she would fear from it would be its Earthquake, which could outright decimate it if Lucky Chat isn't up.

- Solomon is also a possible choice for his HP ROCK and Disable, but they would get wreck-a-roni by X-Scissor unless he could Disable it first (Which would require a 5/6 on his INI Roll)

- Edmundi could be just revived and continue HEAD SMASHING or start ROCK SMASHING himself, or could Swagger Confuse them, which wouldn't do much harm since they're already buffed from Fell Stinger. Heck, Pixie could be sent out alongside them to Snatch away the buffs, depending on where they fall in the INI, or just debuff them with Growl instead to totally neutralize its Buff.

Thoughts On Your Ideas:

- I would be for Reviving Gallade to renew Lucky Chant (Preferably with a Will Point added to it, just to be sure), as we've learned that it essentially removes the worst part about fighting a Plot Deviced Pokemon (Or at least this one) . We need to survive long enough to take it down, so anything that would help better ensure that must be done. Sure, Rock Slide/Earthquake would hit everyone hard, but that's better that PD Damage imo.

- Any Pokemon that has PD Damage will still have it, even after being revived/healed UNLESS a Max Potion is used to remove it, which means that if any Pokemon that already has PD gets revived, they'll just be Fainted or Killed the next time Genescts attacks them with a Plotted Move.

- Instead of focusing so much on Calam/Charizard, why not Ditto? If Ditto can't Imposter Transform into DMG, then let them Imposter Transform into another useful Pokemon like Edmundi or Scarmory! They're essentially a force multiplier and Free Pokemon, so use them to their maximum potential!

- Is their a rule in place that would prevent you from reviving Calam after DMG uses its Move, and then have them immediately attack them? 

- Has Iron confirmed/denied Hypnosis being an Emotion Effecting Move? If they haven't, then that could be a right easy way to disable DMG long enough to actually disarm it, and given how dumb it is its not likely to wake up until the end of the Round (Due to its Plot Armor instanta curing Status by that time...)

Honestly, I would be okay just continuing the slug fest without sticking to the plan, but I sorta still want to do it too since I would HATE all that debating/planning over the original Operation to just be demolished due to Iron immediately Rock Sliding Raphael and ruining that part of it. I don't want that to stop me, but at the same time I can understand if its impratical to proceed as plan......grrraagh....

[Dragonstrike]

- Ack, forgot about the 'PD damage lingering' thing...yeah, need to get a Lucky Chant up ASAP if we're going to be reviving anyone who was hit with PD damage...

- Good news about Michael and Solomon: Neither of them would be outright killed by a PD X-Scissor.  Solomon would just be immediately KOed (and take 1 Lethal damage.  Definitely not safe), while Micahel would be reduced to 1 HP (he isn't even weak to Bug thanks to his Fighting type.  Yes, Fighting resists Bug).  You have to take 3 PD damage to be killed by it.

- I probably wouldn't use HP Rock in this situation, given Power Gem and ROCK SMASH are superior damaging options.

- Charizard knows Scary Face, but, well...you know.

- There is actually one potential rule preventing using the Revive mid-Round if the pokemon wasn't just KOed: the whole 'situational awareness' penalty thing the book lists.  They might need a few seconds to figure out what the hell happened.  That, and Iron's also pretty strict on the 'Initiative order is turn order' thing, so there's no acting out of the turn order without Priority.  Reviving a pokemon after their turn would have already passed is a bit of a waste in terms of the number of actions that could be taken.

- Ditto is currently in Spira's team, not Nathan's.  Definitely worth discussing, but it's outside the scope of Nathan's current party

- Iron hasn't said anything about Hypnosis yet.  Feeling sleepy could be considered different from being emotionally exploited, though.

[Iron]

Good job so far guys! A few critical decisions really saved your asses.

I like how this hybrid Plot Device creature turned out. It gave everyone a chance to do the kinds of things their characters like.

Can you survive Genesect's final assault?

Its going better than I expect it, tbh. Thought DMG would wreck us all, but looks like things are sorta holding steady for the collective.....for now.

My thoughts....well, I think this is the best Plot Deviced Fight the group has had, I'll say that much. I don't like how everything hinged on a few decisions that we really couldn't have figured out would work like that (Like Lucky Chant being buffed in this fight - in no way was that hinted at, imo) , and seeing my plan just go *Poof* after wracking my brain really makes it seem like a huge waste of time now, but hey, at least nobody is dead yet and Genesect has mostly been disabled in the first round! That counts for something!

Two concerns for you, about Edmundi:
- Edmundi had 6 HP after Earthquake + Recoil, and Steel resists Bug, so unless you say that DMG's X-Scissor ignores IE reduction, they would still be alive at 1 HP, and would have gotten a Super Potion immediately afterwards.
- Even if XS does full Damage, Edmundi's Sturdy would have kicked in, keeping him at 1 HP and therefore allowing a Super Potion to be used ASAP and him to get off another few attacks (Unless, again, DMG can bypass that for some reason, but since he wasn't doing PD Damage at that point....)

I thought Edmundi was Diggersby this whole time - he would not have activated Sturdy and you can use a Super Potion on him too. Mea culpa.

[Lord Windos]

I thought Edmundi was Diggersby this whole time - he would not have activated Sturdy and you can use a Super Potion on him too. Mea culpa.

Pfft, now I'm imagining a big burly bunny (His name is Inari, btw) breaking heads with his BIG STRONK EAR FISTS now! Thanks for the image, mate! Oh, and no worries! I've made plenty of mistakes myself, so I ain't going to start hating on your for making some yourself!

[Iron]

I was like "why the heck does Diggersby know Head Smash" but it never occurred to me to check.