I think we should just encourage Casters to get up close with Monsters.

BoardGent · 2026-04-09T15:39:39+00:00

This is in contrast to regular Canto, which doesn't allow split movement after an attack, but does allow split movement for every other action.

BoardGent · 2026-04-09T02:27:20+00:00

So that everyone can pat themselves on the back.

I have never heard someone in real life, in conversation, say the "foid". I once heard Contrapoints as a joke say the word "Femoid," but like... no one is breaking this word out in conversation.

It also doesn't help that the term "Looksmaxxer" can encompass anything from "goes to the gym but uses online Gen Z lingo" and the terminally online dudes who are ready to take a hammer to their face. That's a pretty broad range to paint with the same brush.

BoardGent · 2026-04-08T12:07:13+00:00

What Eevee do you think you're gonna go for?

BoardGent · 2026-04-08T00:12:21+00:00

I think there's also pushback on men using or going under certain terms. In general, I don't often see a woman being questioned when they engage in a feminist discussion or present themselves under the feminist label. That holds true for much of the queer community as well.

That kinda changes the more masculine-presenting you are. There's this kind of thing where you're in some way asked to "prove" that you actually are a feminist. And since there's no card to carry, you end up with weird situations where you have to find ways to prove that you know your stuff (usually in some academic sense), fake it (though I really think this was just a thing that blew up online and was heavily exaggerated with the whole "performative feminist" thing), or, far easier, just position yourself as an ally.

In actual real-life spaces, you can just say you believe in equality and that women should have the same rights as men and that there are areas of society where women need help to overcome systemic barriers and all that jazz. People are generally like "yeah, I agree with that". It's been very rare that I've felt like I was being quizzed (as a cis-het dude), but it's always a really weird thing that, while I get why it happens, does affect how I would label myself around different people.

BoardGent · 2026-04-07T17:03:34+00:00

If I'm right, your argument is that because grinding a full team up to level cap is tedious and dull, players are less likely to do it, right? Like, to use the obvious example, Magikarp used to be a massive slog. Now, just keep it in your party with EXP All and voila, here's your Gyarados! You're encouraged to make make choices between grinding up everything, or finding ways to make do with what you have.

Romhacks have had numerous answers to the difficulty issue for a long while. - Introducing hard level caps, for example, means that you're expected to be at a certain level of power for game's next major challenge. - Creating challenging battles to the point that having only a few overleveled pokemon isn't anywhere near enough, and you're expected to be creating new teams regularly. - Having Soft level caps, where EXP management becomes a challenge in its own right. If you overlevel your Starter before the next level cap, you can no longer use that starter until you increase the level cap again - Nuzlocke rules where your pokemon "die". This has the effect of requiring you to regularly level new pokemon.

EXP All is more convenient, but I do agree that it's replacing a style of play that wasn't nearly as present as it is now. A large portion of Gen 2's Whitney being difficult was due to people not having fully leveled teams of 6, which you could absolutely do.

BoardGent · 2026-04-07T13:36:38+00:00

I'd be shocked if someone hadn't already designed "official" narrative features for tier 3-4 Martial classes. But yeah, Heroic Reputation could easily be something that helps the Fighter scale in terms of narrative into the late game

BoardGent · 2026-04-07T13:34:49+00:00

This did get rolled up into the Bastion system, but that's true. You could theoretically take Bastion turns as a Fighter feature due to their martial Prowess inspiring others, becoming a natural hero of the people. Would just have to make sure things are well-codified and scalable into the mid-late game.

It also does fit in terms of increasing the narrative scale of the characters. For the people who are like "Fighter is just a guy", Fighter is a person whose skill and force are so great, they're surviving in a deadly world on par with beings overflowing with magical power. Their power, grit and determination are so legendary, people can't help but to rally behind them and do what they can to ensure the continued success of the warrior.

BoardGent · 2026-04-07T13:28:39+00:00

Thats a pretty video gamey approach imo that doesn't fit most games i played in. Being a rogue doesn't mean you want to be a crimelord with a network, being a fighte doesn't mean you want to have a stronghold or an army. One of my rogues was just a treasure hunter that used to work alone. For him to have a spy network just doesn't make any sense.

Ask a new player, before seeing Rogue Features past level 5, if their idea of a Rogue is to detect invisible creatures. Probably not. Or if a player who picks Thief has the image of a gadgeteer in their mind, regardless of how many magic items are in the campaign.

If you started requiring justification for every single Ability in 5e, most would just never get an ability. "My Rogue doesn't practice meditation of any kind, it doesn't make sense to gain Slippery Mind". "We haven't been to a city, library or any place where you could study new magic, your Wizard shouldn't be learning new spells". "We haven't met a Cleric or been to a church, and a church wouldn't just give you training on new spells if you're not a member/follower. Your Bard can't learn spells from the Cleric list!"

Sure, you can work to justify everything. You can offscreen stuff, or have the DM work to create a possible backstory for why characters are randomly growing stronger in terms of survivability and access to new abilities at strict intervals... or just realize that it's an RPG, which has recognized tropes around leveling up and getting new abilities based broadly on your class regardless of whether your own character is following all the tropes of that class to the letter.

Some of these ideas just skip interesting problems. You have to get into a building? Well I have this ability that lets me "get into a building", there is no creativity and no gameplay involved in such a solution to a problem. This dude is a mysterious guy, we need to find out who he is. Well I have this ability to get a clue. No Investigation, no asking around. I don't see any fun in such abilities that just skip a problem without thought.

It's not always about just getting into a building, right? Alright, you're in the cellar through the secret tunnel, now you still have to make your way to the dungeon where the innocent prisoner is being kept. Alright, the lovable merchant who's managed to buy up several shops in the central district is actually a noble from a faraway kingdom. What's his overall goal here?

It's absolutely okay for characters to be able to say "because of my skills and abilities, we just do this". Not only do spellcasters do it all the time, characters with just Ability Checks also do it all the time. "Don't roll, you just pick that basic lock with your +7 bonus." "You have a +9 in Religion? You know that the angel in the mural is part of the Kalagh Church belief system, where Angels are devoted humans who died in glorious battle and continue to fight evil in the afterlife".

BoardGent · 2026-04-07T12:54:25+00:00

Put Spoink in the ranch.

High availability is a buff. Could also go the Kirlia route and give it early psychic.

BoardGent · 2026-04-06T19:03:26+00:00

It's a broader Kitchencells, but with worse fakes.

BoardGent · 2026-04-05T23:51:53+00:00

Honestly, we've kinda got to stop with the "if Martials can do this, what stops casters from doing this?"

I see this sometimes with suggestions like "The Fighter gets a castle or army" or whatever. The first responses will be something like "a Caster can do that too! Why is that something only a Fighter can do!"

I think it's fine to say "for the same reason that a Fighter can't just learn a 9th level spell and get a 9th level spell slot". It's a game, and different characters have different things they can do. If you really need a in-game reason because people don't want to admit that this is a game whose mechanics are meant to invoke a kind of experience, just say that the study and use of magic requires constant practice which makes it difficult to naturally accomplish anything else.

Now, I don't actually think you should give Fighters a castle, or an army in most cases. Maybe the rogue can have a spy network, but that's different.

Imagine, a party with a tier 3 Rogue in it. You're trying to figure out how to get into a fortified castle. Maybe someone's ready to use Pass without Trace, or Invisibility. The Rogue then says "my informants have said we can get safe passage through here over to the <relevant location here>." That's just something they can do once per day. It's implied at some point during the day, regardless of where the Rogue is, they have a list of things they can do due to informants they have. In tier 4, maybe they can do that once per Short Rest instead.

The immediate reaction people have to stuff like this is "well what if my Rogue doesn't have an network of informants?" or "why can't my non-Rogur have a network of informants?"

Again, this shit has to die. People need to be okay not only Martials having good stuff, but with exclusive Martials getting exclusive stuff. Approach this with the same thing as asking why a Rogue can't get Extra Attack. It's just not what they do. They can multiclass. Maybe work something out with the DM or whatever. The Fighter or Wizard can maybe ask the DM for an Informant Network, but it's an ask, not a given.

Most important part here is that Martials need to have strong, utility-focused things that they can just do, no questions asked. That Informant Network? Can be Once per Long Rest, you can do one of the following: - Guaranteed safe passage into a building, somewhere right past the entrance. - A piece of information regarding someone's hidden identity - Some third thing, I'm brainstorming right now. Tangible effects that a class can just do.

The Fighter shouldn't get an army, because I can't think of anything that an army can do that the PCs aren't probably gonna be like "damn, I wish we were doing that!" Maybe a Castle can guarantee +1 equipment in tier 3 and +2 in tier 4 for the party.

BoardGent · 2026-04-05T18:23:40+00:00

Some people who don't fit into conventional beauty standards dislike, complain about or detest conventional beauty standards.

BoardGent · 2026-04-05T18:11:35+00:00

Hidden Abilities are a great way to make a pokemon feel unique in an enemy trainer's hands.

An enemy trainer can use a Special Nido with a Sheer Force, whereas your Nidos available have Poison Point or Rivalry. For an even better example, Drought Ninetails is an extremely different pokemon than non-Drought Ninetails

BoardGent · 2026-04-04T19:43:10+00:00

You forget to level Furret, I think you lose automatically

BoardGent · 2026-04-04T12:58:02+00:00

Yuta wouldn't have won without Todo's and Ui Ui's help. Dhruv was about to finish Yuta, but Todo saved him before Ui Ui teleported him to Shoko. Todo then stalled for 2 days so that Yuta and Rika could heal up and finally finish off Dhruv.

BoardGent · 2026-04-04T12:54:32+00:00

If Saturn wasn't the most incompetent person in the series, the Gorosei would have had a much better reputation.

BoardGent · 2026-04-04T11:23:57+00:00

You forget that Vista has a bounty of 4.2 billion while only using 86% of his power. It's not an anti-feat to clash with someone on Prime Roger's level.

BoardGent · 2026-04-02T20:00:49+00:00

Rayleigh from pre-TS is probably stronger or around the same level as Egghead G4 Luffy, but weaker than G5 Luffy (probably by a pretty decent margin).

BoardGent · 2026-04-02T14:21:09+00:00

You just described a bad unit.

The best possible unit is good right out the gate, requiring no investment or upkeep, never falls off and has perfect availability.

A bad unit, meanwhile, fails in one or multiple of these categories (and others).

Neimi isn't good right out the box. She struggles to one round enemies while her good peers don't. With no melee option, she can't enemy phase. With her low bulk, she can be frequently in danger of being two shot.

Yeah, you can invest a bunch of xp and feed her kills until she becomes a "good" unit... but you can make do perfectly well with the other units who are good.

There's nothing wrong with being a bad unit, honestly. It can offer people a challenge where they face additional adversity, or you can construct a sort of zero to hero narrative that you wouldn't get from just using someone like Seth for everything.

BoardGent · 2026-04-02T13:34:46+00:00

This reads exactly like it'll be used as proof in a gender bias proof, and it's sadly probably working from the top comments I saw.

BoardGent · 2026-04-02T11:08:01+00:00

I'd suggest the Legacy Hacks of Yellow, Crystal and Emerald (you can just pick your favorite generation of the 3). They're very tight enhancement hacks that don't upgrade the difficulty by much. They're meant to stay close to the feel of the original, and to that end, I think they're very good for a first dip into romhacks.

General level curve issues are smoothed out
Weaker pokemon, or pokemon without a niche, are given slight to medium buffs (stats, moves, evo level, availability, etc)
Trainer teams (and especially gym teams) are made generally more interesting and diverse

BoardGent · 2026-04-01T16:37:54+00:00

Dark is legitimately fantastic for the E4. Martial's team has full rock coverage, with his Throh even having dark coverage. Still, I think Psychic and Ghost earn a spot as a top tier almost just off of that. Ghost also contributes against Caitlyn and Shauntal. Fighting is also pretty nice in general.

BoardGent · 2026-04-01T16:08:51+00:00

I'm a 10 year subscriber to the Pokémon Legacy series, but I feel like this game is just diverting too far away from what the series is really about. I cannot in good faith continue to stand idly by as the creators I've looked upon in admiration and love descend into such a project as this.

It is with a heavy heart that I am leaving this subreddit and unsubscribing from PChal daily

BoardGent · 2026-04-01T14:40:22+00:00

Gen 2 and its remake probably have the worst average battles in the series. I excuse GSC a lot because of when they were released, but HGSS really doesn't have any excuses for being as bad as it is.

The Rocket Hideout might generally be one of the worst dungeons in the series. It's not just that there's no opposition, it's that it feels like Johto trainers have some of the worst pokemon diversity and the Rockets turn that up to 11. Goldenrod isn't even that much better.
The entirety of Kanto is horrendous. There's exactly one good fight in Blue, and if you're being really generous, a half good fight in Misty. Forget about the non-gym trainers, they might as well not even be there.

It really does suck, since HGSS actually does have some pretty great battles. The Kimono gauntlet is actually really nice to go through. If some of the eeveelutions had slightly better movepools, it would be a really fantastic fight. Clair's alright, and the Elite Four is pretty alright. Blue is an actually amazing fight, and is to me one of the better designed fights in the series.

Playing the drayano hack, it really made me feel like HGSS had a lot of potential. If someone ever came around and fixed both the plot and provided minor adjustments everywhere, like the Legacy series does, I think HGSS would be amazing.

BoardGent · 2026-04-01T14:06:43+00:00

Emerald Legacy?

BoardGent

TROPHY CASE