[Meta Thread] Pokerole Mystery Dungeon: Primal Shadows

[Dragonstrike]

Dragonstrike, can Kogeki use his Quick Attack Combo to sprint from cover to cover or up the pillars themselves? Having that kind of mobility could be an opportunity to throw some bonus dice Kogeki's way, if he can find a way to utilize his ninja training and come up a plan robust or clever enough to lead Lando around if he wants to be the one to try and pull aggro.

Lastly everyone, we need to review the previous Genie Battles and comb them over for aaaallll the details we can and make notes about them to share. They were basically the prep version of THIS fight we're about to get into, so there is a strong likelihood we can applied what we learnt and succeeded with in those Boss Fights against Lando to a degree. We already know Humans have an edge against these Legends and that SE Damage/Piercing Damage like Sacred Sword has an easier go at destroying those Barriers, as well as Meta Knowledge that Gallade can't take Lando solo and therefore his capabilities alone need some backup against them, so those are some good starting points to go off there.

If he specifically states he's not using Quick Attack to attack directly, it can absolutely be used to aid him in non-attacking actions that benefit from increased movement speed.  As it's linked to Shadow Punch though, using Quick Attack also implies using Shadow Punch in some fashion.

You got it!  Tornadus and Thundurus were the easier versions of this fight.  Use what you've learned from those fights and related events and you should be able to handle Landorus as well!  I've given you the tools you need to figure out the flow of this fight's mechanics, so now you just need to put the puzzle pieces together.

[Dragonstrike]

Also just want to highlight real quickly that Phantom recently completed the boss portraits for Thundurus-T and Tornadus-T, as well as redid the one for Boldore.  They're now proudly on display on the first page of the game thread.

Eager to see Shadow Landorus-T up there as well after you win this battle

[Lord Windos]

Also just want to highlight real quickly that Phantom recently completed the boss portraits for Thundurus-T and Tornadus-T, as well as redid the one for Boldore.  They're now proudly on display on the first page of the game thread.

Eager to see Shadow Landorus-T up there as well after you win this battle

Ah....I'm so proud of them! They've worked hard to get their art to this point of quality, and I'm glad they're being represented first and foremost! Makes me wish she did Character Portraits of the other MCs in Iron's Campaign and my own, but I do remember they were hesitant about that. Oh well, life goes on.

Right, @Spiritmon , @PhantomUnderYourDesk, @no one , and @Mikaruge108 , I compiled a rough draft observation of Notable Mechanics from both the Torny and Thundy fights, so here you go:
1) The PD Barrier can normally only be damaged by 3 things - Super Effective Damage, an attack from a Legend/Mythical Pokemon, and an Move Action from a Human Turned Pokemon. In each instance of a Move having Accuracy Dice to Roll against the Barrier (Not Damage), it will take 1 Point of PD Damage (No More, No Less). This was best seen with Kogeki's Link Move against Torny - his Quick Attack hit, but not his Shadow Punch since it had no Accuracy Dice. He didn't do any Damage to the Genie, but his QA DID weaken the barrier. Karen's Life Dew also proved it can damage the Barrier, though that might be because the Watery Tears had special interactions with Thundy's Electric PDB. Gallade also proved that a regular Pokemon can't just casually damage the Barriers - they need to use SE Damage or coordinate with a PokeHuman in order to either damage or pierce them. This is why he just flat out fails if he would have faced Lando alone, since he wouldn't have any time to figure things out before being overwhelmed.
2) The Barriers have built in Flat Damage Reduction against our Moves. For the OG Forms it's - 1 Damage, while for the Therians it's - 2 (at least for Thundy). Since Lando is more powerful the Damage Reduction might even be higher in his case.
3) The Barrier prevent all Secondary Effects of Moves, as well as Support Effects like Status and Attribute Debuffs. DoT effects like Fire Spin, however, DO work and actually pierce the PD Barrier (though that may only be because Braixen, a former Human, launched said attack) . 
4) The Barrier does NOT prevent Contact OR Clashing - it'll push Pokemon away, but they can in fact land a hit on a Genie (and the Genie can hit back). In the case of a Successful Clash you'll actually do Damage that bypasses the Barrier's effects while also dealing damage to it, as Kee heroically proved.
5) Moves that have effects that Ignore Resistances/Stat Changes or Bypass regular Damage Calcs entirely can pierce the Barrier and deal damage to it. This is demonstrated by Keldeo with his Sacred Sword and the text that accompanied it. This means that Dragon Rage, and Special Fixed Damage Move, can likely do some PD Damage to the barrier and bypass it some, even though Platina was never a Human and isn't a Mythic. Speaking of Special...
6) Special Damage is generally speaking more effective at combating the barrier, at least from what I've observed. I might need to double check, but I think it's the only way for Regular Pokemon to have even a chance of Dealing Damage to the Boss and/or its Barriers. Physical Attack just end up getting entirely negated and brushed off, or so at least it seemed that way for Dax's Bunny partner.
7) Crits ENTIRELY bypass the PD Barrier for EVERYONE - You calculate regular damage against the Boss and deal zero damage to the Barrier. This means that Gallade , even with SE Coverage, can, if he's lucky, brute force his way past the barrier unless Lando has a Super Version of it, among other 'Mons.
8) The Barriers come in three Interations: The OG Barriers has weaker Damage Reduction and 5 PD HP, Therians has - 1/-2 Damage and 5 PD HP, while their desperation action restored 10 HP to both and generated a 3 PD HP weak barrier. This means we need to at least do 5 Hits to try and break that barrier so that Gallade can get some Damage in Round 2. Lando is at Full Healthy, so he likely has a Barrier that at least has 5 PD HP, though it could be higher or lower depending on their individual mechanics.
9) Once the Barrier is taken down, a Genie can be damaged by ALL Pokemon and can be crippled by debuffs, though they still maintain their original Resistances. However, if you get them below 1/2 HP they'll likely D/C the rest of the party's actions and spirit them away to either The Mirror Room (like what happened to the Parties) , or to the Real World, if already in the mirror world. This effectively resets the fight, as the Genie Heals up and renews their PDB and makes all progress lost on them.
10) It takes 2 Actions for each Genie to charge their Super Moves, but damaging them after breaking through their barrier can 'flinch' them out of it. Since Lando's Barrier is likely to be very robust from the get-go, I recommend finding cover and weathering out the intial voly, then launching attacks to take it away.
11) The Genies can be distracted by Non-Combat Rolls, with even their Failure still causing them to aggro onto the target. However, Lando has proven itself as a strong, silent sort, so this method might not work until we get into their OG Form and they regain some semblance of rationality and judgement.

That's everything for now. I'll update this or make another post if I find anything new from those battles.

With the above mind, The Humans  (+ Hoopa) pretty much have to pick up the slack until we destroy the barrier , at which point Gallade can feasibly help. The Lesser Genies had 30 HP each phase + 10 Desperation HP, so we're looking AT MINIMUM a 70 HP Behemont split across multiple phases. So come prepared for a grinder fight and be ready for surprise mechanics and The Most Dangerous Moves from The List!

[Dragonstrike]

That reminds me.  Braixen is with you too.  Let me roll her initiative real quick and add some commentary from her.  How silly of me to forget such an important character.

[Spiritmon]

With that all information in mind, then I want to ask something the idea or concept of Kogeki plans:

1 - Maybe begin the round in use Quick Attack to increase my speed, not for attack but maybe distraction to Landorus? And I sorry, what is "aggron". English is not my native english so I sorry if some terms escape my knowledge.

2 - Maybe use Quick Attack to jump from Cover to Cover, and use my Shadow Punch with the intention in punch some of the pillars to increase how distant he can go with his and kinetic energy maybe.

3 - I could try to use other moves since shadow punch doest work. Should I use Priority moves such as Feint, or maybe some other powerfull move like Bite? Maybe a Kunai strike?

I asking that things because I a little confuse about what I should do too.

[Dragonstrike]

Answering some of Spirit's questions:

1. Aggro is a term frequently used in RPGs like Xenoblade and MMOs like WoW and FF XIV.  It typically refers to a stat that determines who the boss is targeting with their attacks, and usually has an indicator of some kind attached to it.  Not all bosses in a game like this use the mechanic, but it can be a handy tool for the GM depending on the situation and what the players do.

2. I don't want to say no outright to creative ideas, so if you think it can accomplish something unconventional, I'll try and assign it a difficulty so I can roll to see if you succeed at the task, using the accuracy of the move(s) or other relevant stats for said roll.

3. Shadow Punch was able to damage Tornadus's barrier.  Windos was just using a 0 accuracy dice example from the fight to illustrate that your move needs to hit to do the plot device damage to it.  If the move misses or fails, nothing happens.

And to clarify some things Windos noted down:

1. Super Effective damage did not deal plot device damage to Thundurus and Tornadus's barriers.  It canceled out some of the damage reduction of the barriers though, so super effective moves were more effective at dealing direct damage as per usual, even if the barriers were still up.

6. Special damage wasn't necessarily more effective than Physical.  It's just that the physical hits were overall weaker than the special ones to begin with (and in Zeraora's case, their damage and accuracy rolls just sucked).  Lando has Intimidate though, which does affect that, so keep that in mind!

7. Critical hit dice bypassed the previous barriers, but regular damage dice did not.  Whether you crit also did not affect whether you dealt plot device damage to the barrier (Ex: Zeraora's Plasma Fists in Round 1 against Thundurus).  These Legendaries still have gaps in their defenses, but the average pokemon won't be able to brute force their way past the barriers if they remain intact.  You can think of crits as bonus damage if you get them.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Uhhh... Genuine apologies for not having showed up the past few days - Got busy, got distracted, got paperwork to do for a potential move next year - and having missed the epic begin of the battle against LANDO! Yay, we've finally reached that djinn legend, hype!!1 I should be able to post my actions Saturday or Sunday, and they'll be a mixture of either classic Headbutt, taking cover, or trying to gain time for the other NPCs to arrive via clashing.

Also, one question @Dragonstrike: Will we, at some point, actually visit or have some MysteryDungeon with more than one Floor? I've noticed that every one we've treepassed by now had 'only' one, and that there had been no chance for Kee's Ability - Pick-Up, for a free randomized Item each time we enter a new Floor - to come into effect. I'm actually curious what loot he'll find and what the odds are to find something unique or special. And, what you'll make of/come up with for some really big MysteryDungeons with 50+ or 99 Floors - I always happen to like these in the PMD games, for the huge exploration factor and challenge they bring. (That includes some on Zero Island that also make you start at Lv.1 and restrict any Items to bring along. They're a nightmare unless you're both very lucky and know exactly what you're doing, but incredibly rewarding to pass through.)

[Dragonstrike]

Also, one question Dragonstrike: Will we, at some point, actually visit or have some MysteryDungeon with more than one Floor? I've noticed that every one we've treepassed by now had 'only' one, and that there had been no chance for Kee's Ability - Pick-Up, for a free randomized Item each time we enter a new Floor - to come into effect. I'm actually curious what loot he'll find and what the odds are to find something unique or special. And, what you'll make of/come up with for some really big MysteryDungeons with 50+ or 99 Floors - I always happen to like these in the PMD games, for the huge exploration factor and challenge they bring. (That includes some on Zero Island that also make you start at Lv.1 and restrict any Items to bring along. They're a nightmare unless you're both very lucky and know exactly what you're doing, but incredibly rewarding to pass through.)

I am planning to have bigger dungeons starting in the next chapter.  Chapter 1 was mostly single floor, single section dungeons ending with a chapter 2 size dungeon.  Chapter 2 was a bunch of 1 floor, two part dungeons featuring mini-boss encounters and the introduction to facing Legendaries, plus the introduction of the larger PMD world to the story.  Chapter 3 I want to be a bit bigger in scope and have you guys split up a little more to get more done simultaneously, and smaller groups of players should hopefully mean we can progress through dungeons faster, which should mean I can start making them bigger.

Mega dungeons are a concept I'd like to explore closer to the end of the campaign since they're usually an optional endgame activity, and I've been brainstorming unique mechanics for them because I sure as heck am not going to run one of those like a normal dungeon, lol.  Trying to do it that way sounds like a nightmare in and of itself.

[Lord Windos]

Mates, since I'm not seeing much discussion about HOW we're going to fight the boss in terms of basic Plans, allow me to put forward my plan of Actions at least.

1. Get behind Cover: that'll take an Action all of it's, and the sooner she in relative safety the less likely she'll end up Smacked Down too early.
2. Dragon Rage them, 'cause I think this is the only Move that Platina can use that could maybe deal PD Damage to his Wind Barrier or just pierce it. She's a natural Pokemon, so she doesn't really have the same options to fight a boss like Lando.
3. Social Roll to try and aggro Lando with a Tough Roll. If it works, then he's targeting someone that otherwise wouldn't do much much to him, and if it doesn't then she didn't loss much overall in terms of Action economy.

That's pretty much it on my end. What do you think, and what are your plans, mates?

[Mikaruge108]

Mates, since I'm not seeing much discussion about HOW we're going to fight the boss in terms of basic Plans, allow me to put forward my plan of Actions at least.

1. Get behind Cover: that'll take an Action all of it's, and the sooner she in relative safety the less likely she'll end up Smacked Down too early.
2. Dragon Rage them, 'cause I think this is the only Move that Platina can use that could maybe deal PD Damage to his Wind Barrier or just pierce it. She's a natural Pokemon, so she doesn't really have the same options to fight a boss like Lando.
3. Social Roll to try and aggro Lando with a Tough Roll. If it works, then he's targeting someone that otherwise wouldn't do much much to him, and if it doesn't then she didn't loss much overall in terms of Action economy.

That's pretty much it on my end. What do you think, and what are your plans, mates?

As for attacking, spamming Disarming Voice, Psychic, and Confusion for Karen.  I'm doing the SA Life Dew due to her abysmal roll for that move, but she'll pop off the attacks she can from cover.
(I saw that she had used Confusion earlier in the story but am unsure if she permanantly learned the move or not, its in my notes as a reminder of her moves, though)