Pokexalted/Life
You can start reading here, or you can skip down because I've got a play-by-play example by the bottom.
Contents
Instant Pokémon
Background: Pokémon. The easiest way to get a Pokémon is to start the game with one by taking points in this. 0 dots - you have no Pokémon. You suck. 1 dots - one common child, or one uncommon infant. 2 dots - one common juvenile, or one uncommon child, or one unusual infant. 3 dots - ...you get the idea.
One dot is good for a Growth 1, Rarity 1 Pokémon. You can subtract from Growth and add to Rarity, or vice versa, so long as it balances out in the end. Each additional dot in the Background adds one to the pool, but the usual rules about bonus points and backgrounds above 3 do apply. You can also take the Background multiple times for multiple Pokémon.
Growth...
0: infant (none) Rarity... 1: child 1: common 2: juvenile 2: uncommon 3: adolescent (evolutionary stage) 3: unusual 4: adult 4: rare 5: dominant 5: legendary
Rarity: matches up with entries in the Pokédex, it's one of the first things you see. Remember: common Pokémon are just that, common. Uncommon Pokémon, maybe there aren't that many around, but it's not something to write home about. Unusual Pokémon will be memorable and people may ask you what you did to obtain one. Rare Pokémon will be recognized by experts as being exceptional, and may not be recognized by hobbyists or everymans - there should be a good IC reason for having one. Legendary Pokémon, in the games, require doing stuff like solving puzzles, retracing steps, travelling to ungodly parts of the world, capturing 100 Pokémon first, that sort of thing. Players should have an extremely good reason for even thinking about having one!
Growth: Once you've chosen a Pokémon and its Growth level (according to the Background), scribble down its base stats and apply Growth. Growth emulates levels and the like. It's easily comparable to Essence, and is added to many attacks and defenses; it just doesn't hold the same metaphysical elements as Essence would. Each level of Growth adds new Techniques (remember, you have a maximum of four - you can choose which ones to keep and which to discard), and two points to be distributed between Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Willpower, and HLs. At each level, you can only add one point to one category - no bulking two points on Dexterity!
So far, there's no resource for figuring which Techniques are available at which level, other than hauling up your local Pokédex. I like http://veekun.com/dex?entry=Pokémon for this. Maybe someday I'll get productive enough to figure them all out for you...
Defaults: Some stuff are pretty generic. Virtues - Compassion 2. Attributes - Wits 2, Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2, Perception 3. Intelligence is equal to Rarity. Write down your Pokémon type as well, it figures significantly in battle.
Motes: The mote pool of any given Pokémon is 10*Growth + Willpower + sum of Virtues. Motes are recovered at 2/hr while active, or 4/hr while inactive; while kept in a Pokéball, they recover at 8/hr.
Capturing Pokémon
The other way to get your hands on a Pokémon is to capture one in the wild. Wild Pokémon are usually pretty aggressive, and will attack if approached. A prospective trainer trying to lay hands on a Pokémon should make a Perception+Survival roll to track them down; the terrain you're in will help to determine just what sort of Pokémon you run across. Difficulty of twice the rarity is not unreasonable. If you're trying to find a Pokémon that doesn't want to be found, for whatever reason, they get to oppose with a Wits+Survival check.
Pokéballs: Tagging a wild Pokémon with a Pokéball is a fairly simple matter - just make a Thrown weapon attack. Problem is, if they have a spare dodge or parry handy, they can get it out of the way. If they fail at this, they still get to roll Willpower to resist - one success is enough to prevent capture. The good news is, HL penalties apply to this check, so it's a good idea to soften 'em up a bit... and, if possible, use up their defenses or get them in a clinch first. More expensive Pokéballs can increase the difficulty of this check, but the Pokéball is lost once it's successfully used.
In trainer battles, the opposing trainer also has a chance to parry for the Pokémon. Regardless of this, using a Pokéball on someone else's Pokémon is considered extremely bad form and is generally Not Done. Regardless of success, in civilized areas it can get you arrested for attempted larceny; in uncivilized areas, it can get you stabbed in the throat.
Once a Pokémon has been captured, the process of integration into the artifact also makes it susceptible to accepting orders from others. It doesn't have to, mind you. But it's a lot more likely to. Pokéballs safely store Pokémon as a simple action, and reproduce them as a reflexive action, meaning you can switch out a Pokémon in a single turn. A Pokéball in use is roughly the size of an apple, while a Pokéball in its dormant state shrinks to roughly the size of a golf ball for ease of storage.
Note: A Pokéball cannot be reverse-engineered to capture fae, ghosts, spirits, demons, elementals, dragonblooded, lunars, sidereals or solars. Or can it? Enough levels of Artifact, and... well, I'll let STs handle that sort of question. For the purposes of this conversion, it can't. Pokéballs are designed solely for the capture and storage of the lifeforce that is Pokémon, and will not work on other creatures for the same reason that you can't play a DVD in a toaster.
Raising Pokémon
Training: Any attribute or ability pre-defined by the base stats cannot be enhanced by training. I'll be specific. HLs, Willpower, Strength, Stamina, Dexterity, Brawl, Dodge, and Presence cannot be enhanced by training.
What does this leave? Virtues: Compassion, Conviction, Valor, Temperance. (Raising a Virtue does not impact Willpower.) You can raise Growth, which potentially improves Strength, Stamina, Willpower, health, and Dexterity. While you can't raise Brawl, Dodge, or Presence, you can take Specialties (max of three per ability, as always), and you can raise any other ability the ST lets you get away with. Defaults are not considered to be pre-defined by the base stats, and as such can also be raised: Wits, Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance, Perception, and Intelligence.
You can also train on new Techniques so long as a trainer is available. Artifacts called Training Machines are available - that website earlier also breaks down which TMs and HMs can be learned by any given Pokémon (there are usually a few dozen).
XP costs and training times are identical to those of player characters, with the substitution of Growth for Essence and Techniques for Charms. As a suggested rule of thumb, a trainer character should get one or two extra XP each session solely for the training of their Pokémon - if they choose to burn their own XP on their Pokémon's behalf, this is also acceptable, and in a Pokémon-oriented game might end up being the norm. XP are spent in traditional fashion (Rat*3 on Virtues, 3/specialty, max 3 on specialties).
Evolution: is unlocked after reaching Growth 3, the adolescent stage. At any time thereafter, rather than raising to the next Growth stage, you can choose to evolve to a higher form for the same cost - assuming there is a higher form available. At Growth 5, evolution is the only way to continue building physical stats. Doing so provides the Pokémon with several benefits. They add the difference between the base stats of their new form and their old one, they unlock new features and abilities, and they get the benefits of a level of Growth while remaining at their same stage (i.e. a Growth 4 Charmeleon would evolve to a Growth 4 Charizard).
There are benefits to holding off on evolution, though. If you raise your Pokémon to its full adult status, you're getting an extra two stages of benefits that someone who immediately evolves their Pokémon will miss; there are always new Techniques at each stage, and you may never have the opportunity to attain them again. Choose your timing wisely.
Techniques: can be learned in several ways. With Growth or Evolution, a Pokemon will naturally pick up on new moves. They can also learn moves from tutors who already know it, or from TMs\HMs. TMs, Training Machines, are widgets that plug into a Pokeball and train the Pokemon inside to use the move; not every Pokemon can learn every Technique, and the TMs are a good barometer of whether or not they should be able to learn from a tutor.
Battling Pokémon
Pokémon combat is resolved in traditional Exalted fashion, including initiative, parry/dodge/soak, etc. I'll cover the new stuff.
STAB: In Pokétérms, STAB refers to the mechanic that checks both Pokétype and movetype and adjusts Technique damage accordingly. In a desperate effort to simplify matters, I'm using TCG rules which halves the spectrum of types. For Pokéxalted, STAB works on defense; when your Pokétype is strong against a Movetype, double your soak against the Technique. When weak against a Movetype, halve your soak. Non-Technique attacks have no affinity.
STAB... Psychic (weak: metal, strong: fighting) Fighting (weak: psychic, strong: normal) Normal (weak: fighting, strong: Electric) Electric (weak: normal, strong: darkness) Darkness (weak: Electric, strong: grass) Grass (weak: darkness, strong: water) Water (weak: grass, strong: fire) Fire (weak: water, strong: metal) Metal (weak: fire, strong: psychic)
Psychic > Fighting > Normal > Electric > Darkness > Grass > Water > Fire > Metal >
The cost of using a Technique increases by one mote if the Movetype does not match your Pokétype. It's easier for a Water-type Pokémon to use Ice Beam than it is for a Grass-type. Now, for two motes, you can activate a Normal-type Technique and treat it as your Pokétype... in other words, that Water-type Pokémon could use Scratch (Normal, 2m) as (Water, 4m). This only works with Normal-type Techniques! You simply can't change Ice Beam away from Water-type.
Presence attacks: Pokémon have physical attacks, which are resolved in normal dodge/parry/soak fashion. They also have Presence attacks, which are resolved slightly differently. Where physical pools are generally Str+Brawl or Dex+Brawl to attack, and Dex+Brawl, Str+Brawl, or Dex+Dodge on defense, Presence pools are Will+Pre for both attack and defense, reflecting a Pokémon's indomitable mental strength.
Presence attacks are otherwise resolved in a similar fashion to physical attacks. Flavor text on the defense can be any form appropriate to the nature of the attack, but the pool remains the same. Damage done on Presence attacks stacks with that of physical attacks, and HL penalties apply to Presence and physical pools alike.
Techniques: The various attack moves are treated as Charms for all intents and purposes. The Movedex has every single Technique broken down into mote cost, accuracy, move power, and type\duration. Mote cost is self-explanatory, and does not cause anima banners; when you're out, you're out. Accuracy is added to the attack pool used. Move Power is added to the damage pool, before soak - it's just like a one-use weapon that way. Type\Duration slots it into Exalted combat in traditional fashion.
Specials: Pokémon also have certain special abilities that are always on so long as the Pokémon wills it. These have no mote cost and are simply inherent to the Pokémon's nature. Some have more than one special, so make sure you keep these in mind.
Status conditions: Pokémon can be afflicted by various conditions upon failing a stat check. Note that many Techniques can be replicated by items! Asleep: Unable to act; roll Willpower to wake up. Attracted: Roll Presence to attack source of condition; failure causes attack to automatically fail. Must be recovered by Technique or end of battle. Burned: Lose one HL/turn; roll Resistance to shake off effects. Confused: Roll Presence when attacking; success shakes off effects, failure inflicts attack on self. Cursed: Lose one HL/turn; must be recovered by Technique or end of battle. Fainted: Unconscious. Flinched: Loses any actions for remainder of turn; automatically shakes off next turn. Frozen: Unable to act; must be unfrozen by Technique. Cannot be thawed during Rain Dance, but is automatically thawed by Sunny Day. Paralyzed: Automatically moves last in initiative. Roll Resistance when attacking; success shakes off effects, failure causes attack to automatically fail. Poisoned: Lose one HL/turn; must be recovered by Technique. Lasts beyond battle. Trapped: Unable to leave the battle or be switched out.
Criticals: Many Techniques will include something along the lines of "all successes count as critical successes". Some strategies and combinations will stack these effects. A critical success counts as two successes; stacking these effects adds more successes on, so a success would count three times or four times. A Technique that reverses this effect backs it down the rungs again.
Boosts: When Techniques benefit you, they can do so to a maximum of your Growth. Agility boosts your Dex by +1, but will only do so up to +3 for an adolescent Pokémon.
Splits: On a Technique that can affect multiple targets, a single attack roll is made and seperate defense checks are made for each target. On a Technique that strikes multiple times, just like any other extra attack Charm attack/defense checks are made for each attack with no penalty for recursion. Unless otherwise specified, a Technique affects a single target and makes a single attack. Dice pools can be split for multiple attacks, but multiple iterations of a Technique must then be used. Techniques providing extra actions generally have accuracy and move power - this is intentional, and should be added to each extra action undertaken.
Commitment: When an instant Technique has a scenelong effect, the motes are not committed; the effect is considered to be incidental to the actual Technique. Only scenelong Techniques remain committed. Despite this, any effects such as stat boosters/drains should be considered scenelong. Status Conditions have durations of their own - check the Status Conditions above for more information.
Combos: Combos can be coined, and follow standard combo procedures. Physical and Presence Techniques may not be joined. If "normal counts as critical" stacks, as above, a normal will count as three successes, then four, et al. If checks for Status Conditions stack, roll each check seperately. If Status Conditions themselves stack, the user needs to specify what order the Techniques are used in - the final Status Condition is the one that counts. This also counts when attacking an opponent already under a Status Condition.
Healing: Some Techniques have the ability to absorb damage or recover entirely from it. An effect of "recovers any HL penalties at -2 or below" means that all -4s, -3s, and -2s would be negated, pushing the health back up to -1 penalties.
Pokémon vs. Exalted: Pokémon are highly natural creatures. In comparison, mortals and Exalts alike are fairly unnatural; they get bounced back and forth between Creation and Wyld, are always wearing clothes and wielding tools, creating new diseases to infect eachother with, so on and so forth. In game terms, non-Pokémon are not affected by status conditions or perfect knockouts; also, all damage done by Pokémon is bashing (save for the potential of being pushed off a cliff, etc). Feel free to come up with a good justification of your own.
The soak of Non-Pokémon is not affected by STAB. However, they do have their own types which can be applied against Pokémon as appropriate, namely - Mortals (Normal), Solars (Electric), Lunars (Grass), Dragon-Blooded (Fighting), Abyssal (Darkness), Sidereal (Psychic). Any given Solar using a Charm against a Darkness-type Pokémon halves their soak, while using one against a Normal-type Pokémon doubles it. Mortals do not have Charms, of course, but they can use magic...
Example
Randy wakes up late, because it's traditional to wake up late on your first day of not going to school. He's just moved into this new rural town. Downstairs, he can hear his mother cooking breakfast; he hasn't seen his father for years, but he doesn't really mind. He's only ten years old. He has the attention span of bacon. Since he went to sleep fully dressed, he's out of bed and up in a flash; One Piece t-shirt, khaki shorts, requisite rollerblades his pointless goggles, all present and accounted for. He just takes a moment before the mirror to make sure his hair is spiky enough.
So Randy rolls up his character. He's tagging in a heroic mortal from core pg. 103 to start. In a party game, he'd assign some Background: Pokémon to make life easier, working with the ST to make sure everyone starts on a level playing field; this time, Randy's going solo and he skips that step. The ST has promised he'll get a Pokémon soon.
Name: Randy Concept: Spunky kid Nature: Explorer
Str: * Cha: *** Per: ***
Dex: *** Man: ** Int: ***
Sta: ** App: *** Wit: ***
Archery: Endurance: Craft:
Brawl: * Performance: ** Investigation: *
Martial Arts: Presence: ** Lore: *
Melee: Resistance: * Medicine:
Thrown: ** Survival: Occult:
Athletics: * Bureaucracy: Specialization: ** (Lore: Pokémon)
Awareness: ** Linguistics: * (Ride: Rollerblades)
Dodge: * Ride: *
Larceny: * Sail:
Stealth: * Socialize: ***
Backgrounds Willpower: 6 Compassion: ***
Mentor *** Health: 7 Conviction: ****
Resources ** Essence: 1 Temperance: **
Allies * Motes: n/a Valor: ***
We can see that Randy is a heroic mortal, above and beyond... hell, he's a ten-year-old kid, he's got no business being this good. But whatever, this is anime. People retire at the ripe old age of twenty-five. He's strong-willed but has good intentions, and is in the Pokémon fan club - even if he doesn't have one of his own. Everyone's into Pokémon.
Randy heads downstairs, where the movers are directing Primeapes to get the furniture in place. His mother lets him know that school is in session, but more importantly, some guy named Professor Birch who was a friend of his absent father back in college wants to talk to him. So he skates outside and down the street to the local research facility. Inside, he meets his Ally, Professor Birch's son. His name is Jack; he cheerfully informs Randy that he sucks, because he has no Pokémon.
Rolling 5d10 (10,2,5,4,9) on Man+Soc, he gets three sux, which is enough to overcome the fact that Jack is a prick and get some meaningful information.
Randy finds out Professor Birch went out to the woods. It's apparently much more important to dick around in the field than hang around an expensive state-of-the-art research facility.
Following the yellow brick road, Randy makes it into the forest and discovers Professor Birch, his Mentor... being attacked by a wild Pidgey! He stares at this, either awed by his sighting of a real wild Pokémon or dumbfounded at a grown man being backed down by a four-pound chicken. The Professor yells for Randy to snag a Pokéball from his pack and do battle. There are three Pokéballs there, but he can only choose one, because it's not important enough to let the others out.
Not including the electric rat from Pokémon Yellow, the three sets of starting Pokémon are...
Bulbasaur (grass/uncommon) Chikorita (grass/common) Treecko (grass/common)
Charmander (fire/common) Cyndaquil (fire/common) Torchic (fire/common)
Squirtle (water/common) Totodile (water/uncommon) Mudkip (water/uncommon)
We can see that commons and uncommons are standard, and that players don't generally get rare Pokémon to begin with. It's also encouraged that players pick up something at the beginning of an evolutionary chain - gives you more to work with.
Randy finds he can choose between a Paras (grass/common), Poliwag (water/common), or Numel (fire/common). He chooses Paras, because he can. "Paras, I choose you!"
We pull Paras and Pidgey from the Pokédex. Filling in generic defaults (Comp 2, Wits 2, Per 3, Int Rarity, Cha 2, Man 2, App 2), we add a Growth level (+1 HL and +1 Str for Paras, +1 Dex and +1 Sta for Pidgey) and find motes (10*Growth+WP+sum of virtues).
The next part is a bit tougher, mostly because I haven't worked them all out yet. Head to your favorite online Pokédex, I used http://veekun.com/dex/Pokémon/46 , and pull the move list. You need to break down their moves into five equal tiers, and by preference, have each tier encompass ten levels. For Paras, it ends up being 1: Scratch, Stun Spore; 2: Poisonpowder, Leech Life; 3: Spore; 4: Slash, Growth; 5: Giga Drain, Aromatherapy. For Pidgey, 1: Tackle, Sand Attack; 2: Gust, Quick Attack; 3: Whirlwind, Wing Attack; 4: Featherdance, Agility; 5: Mirror Move. Since they're both at Growth 1, they come with the Techniques on the first tier.
Paras (grass/common) Pidgey (normal/common) Special: Effect Spore Special: Keen Eye Growth: 1 Motes: 18 Growth: 1 Motes: 18 HL: 0/-1/-3/I WP: 4 HL: 0/-3/I WP: 3 Str 5, Dex 1, Sta 4 Str 2, Dex 3, Sta 3 Per 3, Int 1, Wit 2 Per 3, Int 1, Wit 2 Cha 2, Man 2, App 2 Cha 2, Man 2, App 2 Brawl 2, Dodge 0, Presence 1, Survival 2 Brawl 1, Dodge 1, Presence 1, Survival 2 Temp 1, Conv 1, Valor 1, Comp 2 Temp 1, Conv 1, Valor 1, Comp 2 Scratch (normal), Stun Spore (grass) Tackle (normal), Sand Attack (fighting)
They roll initiative. 1d10 (4)+3 for Paras, 1d10 (4)+5 for Pidgey. The wild Pokémon goes first.
It leads with its Dex+Brawl of 4 dice, and scores (10,3,7,9). A vicious blow, with four successes. Paras parries with its Str+Brawl of 7 dice, and (8,3,2,6,2,8,4) manages two sux. Two successes for Pidgey, and a strength of two; four damage dice. It's brawling damage, and Paras's Sta of 4 can soak it all. Pidgey still gets to roll ping; 1d10 (2), no good. Paras simply soaks.
Paras's special ability, Effect Spore, comes into play! Every time an opponent touches Paras, they have to roll Resistance or suffer Paralysis. Pidgey rolls Stamina (since it has no Resistance) of 3 dice, and (5,1,9) gets one sux. Just one is enough to fight off the effects, and Pidgey remains unparalyzed.
Paras returns fire with its Str+Brawl of 7 dice, and (3,8,6,3,8,1,5) gets two sux again, which seems par for the course. Pidgey dodges at Dex+Dodge of 4, and achieves a clean miss with (6,3,10,4) two sux of its own.
"Use Techniques!" Professor Birch says, relaxing with a Budweiser in hand. "They'll get the job done!"
"Techniques?" Randy scratches his head. "What are Techniques?"
"They're like switchblades, which you should never use! Now get in there and do some damage!"
Init: 1d10 (1)+3 for Paras, 1d10 (2)+5 for Pidgey.
Pidgey caught this advice too, and goes the extra mile with a Sand Attack, blowing 7 motes - 6 for using the Technique, and 1 more because Pidgey is a Normal-type using a Fighting-type attack. The normal Dex+Brawl of 4 dice is increased by the +5 Accuracy to 9 dice; I'll spare you the numbers, but it gets 7 sux. Paras tries to parry with 6 dice, gets 2 sux. Since you can't soak this sort of thing, Paras is blinded with sand in its face and suffers a -1 penalty to its Brawl for the remainder of the battle.
Paras has a trick up its sleeve too. Throwing out three pitiful motes, it uses Scratch. Its Str+Brawl (effectively six) goes up to a full eleven: rolled, five sux. Pidgey dodges with four dice, two sux. Three remaining, plus Str 5, plus another 4B from the Technique, a pleasant 12B damage dice; Pidgey soaks this down to 9B, but Paras scores five successes. 5B damage knocks Pidgey the hell out.
"Thank you for saving me from certain pinching!" Professor Birch carols. "In return, I insist you keep this Paras. As a graduate of Kanto University, a valued member of a scientific community dedicated to the study of these wonderful dynamic creatures called Pokémon, I'm confident that a ten-year-old child is the ideal caretaker for a young and developing sentient creature."
"Cool," Randy agrees.
"Good, now put that Paras back in the Pokéball and keep it there until you want to battle it again!"
Randy's adventure begins there. His Paras puts on another level of Growth, acquiring another HL and another Str, as well as Poisonpowder and Leech Life. Soon enough he winds up in a nearby town, where the local gym boasts an impressive trainer of Water-type Pokémon. Her name is Cloudy. Naturally, Randy challenges her to battle, because it's better to get her cooties on his Pokémon than on himself.
Paras (grass/common) Psyduck (water/uncommon)
Special: Effect Spore Special: Cloud Nine, Damp
Growth: 2 Motes: 28 Growth: 2 Motes: 28
HL: 0/-1/-2/-3/I WP: 4 HL: 0/-2/-4/I WP: 4
Str 6, Dex 1, Sta 4 Str 2, Dex 2, Sta 4
Per 3, Int 1, Wit 2 Per 3, Int 2, Wit 2
Cha 2, Man 2, App 2 Cha 2, Man 2, App 2
Brawl 2, Dodge 0, Presence 1, Survival 2 Brawl 1, Dodge 1, Presence 2, Survival 2
Temp 1, Conv 1, Valor 1, Comp 2 Temp 1, Conv 2, Valor 1, Comp 2
Scratch (normal), Stun Spore (grass), Scratch (normal), Water Sport (water),
Poisonpowder (grass), Leech Life (grass) Tail Whip (normal), Disable (normal)
Init: Paras 10, Psyduck 8. Paras opens with Leech Life - a strong attack, but unfortunately a Presence attack. Paras only manages three sux on ten dice (Willpower + Presence + 5 Acc), and Psyduck scores four sux on six dice (again, Will+Pre). No good.
Psyduck comes back with Disable. Only two dice (Dex+Brawl, -1 Acc), and only one sux. But- horrors! Paras gets no sux on six dice! Psyduck successfully disables the use of Leech Life for the next two turns!
Init: Paras 10, Psyduck 11. Psyduck Screeches, at six dice. Paras fails to defend, and is having some real issues with its Brawl at -1 for the remainder of the battle.
Paras resorts to Scratch, and blows two motes to make it a Grass-type maneuver. Ten dice at Acc +5 result in five successes. Psyduck manages a full three sux on dodge, but sadly not enough; that's two sux, Str 5, move power 4B. But... what's this? Psyduck is a Water-type, and Paras's Scratch attack is a Grass-type - thanks to the extra 2m it spent. Grass-types are strong against Water-types, and Psyduck's soak is halved as a result down to 2B off the 11B. 9B damage dice are rolled, and four sux taken - it's Super Effective! Psyduck is down!
"Oh! You big meanie!" Cloudy whimpers.
"Serves you right for being a girl! And stupid!" Randy taunts.
"You son of a bitch!" she shouts, throwing up her arms. "GLORIOUS SOLAR SABER!" The relentless force of a desert sun drives shadows away as she pulls a glowing golden falchion from the air.
"MUTHA PISS BUCKET!" he yells and dives for cover.
Init: Paras 6, Cloudy 12. Cloudy slices at Paras with her 5L blade and her skill pool of six. Being a non-Pokémon, Cloudy is immune to status conditions, STAB, and one-hit knockouts. This means Paras's special ability has no effect. Paras has a chance of increasing his soak from STAB, but since Solar Charms are nominally considered Electric-type, it doesn't matter. Paras only has 2L soak, and ends up hurting at HL -2 from the blow.
This is basically considered the second turn, so Leech Life is still disabled. Not much point in Stun Spore or Poisonpowder. Doing what it does best, Paras Scratches at Cloudy and manages to get in a piddly level of 1B ping.
Cloudy returns fire and manages to miss quite well - Paras does have a fairly strong parry so long as she doesn't pull out the Charms. This turn, it can wield Leech Life. Randy throws a hefty-sized rock at Cloudy's head, which she parries easily - but Paras splits its dice pool, manages to get her held defense out of the way and barely tags her with Leech Life. He gets ping and absorbs an HL, but she's about to pull out the Hungry Tiger Technique...
As we can see, Pokébattles can be over fairly quickly. Stunts will draw things out more, and so will properly trained Pokémon - I just threw this together as an example, and to show how quickly Pokémon generation could be done. Imagine if Psyduck had the benefits of real training, a higher Perception, channelling Conviction... now imagine if you throw out that guff from earlier about starting players out small and let PCs take whatever they wanted. }:D
More importantly, Pokémon and Exalted are fully compatible. These are just young and fairly common Pokémon; stronger ones are out there, but should not overshadow exalts even at their peak.
Comments
Rather than just compare the Pokétype to the enemy's when figuring out damage and soak.. I'd let the movetype be used instead... it just adds more variety to the game far as I'm concerned.. if you wanted to add some function to show why fire types can use fire type moves better.. maybe make it like the DB elemental thing.. Pokémon can use normal moves or ones the same as their Pokétype fine.. but if a fire type wants to use a rock attack or something... it costs an extra mote or 2 surcharge. FluffySquirrel
- Meh... more work for me. But fine, done. It does make more sense this way, and it's easy enough to ignore if someone doesn't want to deal with it. - Veav
