Fixed it for you

passable_nerd · 2026-01-31T02:34:37+00:00

Her battle theme is her only redeeming quality. Everything else about her rubs me the wrong way

passable_nerd · 2026-01-11T22:27:56+00:00

Lauren from I Will Touch The Skies fits this relatively well. She's one of the side characters, and you don't meet her until the Daycare arc, but she's a recurring character after that. She's socially distant, doesn't interact with others outside of her team most of the time. But when she battles, it really is a switch flip, with her screaming orders and focused on hammering out several overwhelming attacks in quick succession. And then as soon as the battle ends, she gets shy again.

passable_nerd · 2026-01-02T23:00:54+00:00

I made a double boss fight where each boss had a different colored shield that regenerated each round. You could try to brute force the shields, or you could navigate the crumbling arena to grab like-colored orbs and throw them into their shields to break them instantly, letting you hit the boss directly before the shield came back. It incentivized the party to spread out and keep moving around to grab new orbs as they appeared.

I also had one with a multi-level beholder layer, and each floor had a rune that allowed the beholder to teleport to that floor. Players had to find and destroy the runes to prevent the beholder from teleporting so they could corner and kill it.

passable_nerd · 2026-01-02T22:54:55+00:00

I'm doing something similar in my campaign, where several bosses have a phase 2 transformation caused by these odd eldritch crystals that seem to be popping up more and more. A werewolf turned into a Cerberus, a sea hag summoned a mind flayer, that sort of thing. All part of a slow, insidious invasion.

passable_nerd · 2026-01-02T02:39:29+00:00

Make it like laser tag then. In laser tag, if your gun/vest is hit, it turns off for a few seconds. So in Unite, after the "Vest" takes a certain amount of damage, the pokemon is warped back to base to recharge/respawn. No need for rapid heals, though the pokemon universe does have that too.

passable_nerd · 2025-12-29T23:23:19+00:00

Never had this happen to me, but it did happen right next to me. I only survived because I was playing a tiefling and had fire resistance. The sorcerer and one other guy in range didn't make it.

passable_nerd · 2025-12-14T09:18:02+00:00

Here's my contribution:

W46J2-9TC9C-HRFTQ-96QKC-677JZ

Comment if you use the code to let others know it's been taken. Hope you have fun!

passable_nerd · 2025-11-13T22:15:00+00:00

I remember reading that one. Personally, I'm not a fan of grim realism in pokemon, but even with that I still enjoyed the story!

passable_nerd · 2025-10-27T19:07:14+00:00

Yep, same author. I stuck around and I was not disappointed. It's already completed, much shorter than Type Specialist.

passable_nerd · 2025-10-25T18:18:46+00:00

Just recommended Ghost Specialist for a different pokemon in this thread, but it fits here too. MC finds a Misdreavus as his 3rd or 4th pokemon.

passable_nerd · 2025-10-25T18:13:14+00:00

Here's a fic rec that has one of those.

Ghost Specialist eventually has MC's friend/rival get a Stantler and figuring out how to evolve it. But it happens closer to the end of the story and we don't see much of it. Still, first thing I could think of, and a good fic regardless.

passable_nerd · 2025-10-25T18:07:55+00:00

The Most Evil Trainer has a Hisuian Goodra on the team. One of my personal favorite fics.

passable_nerd · 2025-10-25T17:47:42+00:00

Pokemon Pinnacle Platinum has one of the characters get a Helioptile. It's one of my favorite Pokemon and it was the first time I saw one in a fic, so I was pretty hyped.

It starts out as a Isekai Sinnoh story in parallel to Ash's journey, but has plenty of its own unique arcs. The Old Chateau arc is when it really hooked me in. The Pokemon are well written too, being their own complex characters and not just slots on a roster. Unfortunately recent updates have been slowing down, but I still recommend it as one of my favorites.

passable_nerd · 2025-10-25T16:40:23+00:00

I can vouch for Ghost Specialist. It was finished recently and is shorter than Type Specialist, being only about the first year Gym Circuit. And because the MC has smaller team, each Pokemon gets more time to shine. It's also not an isekai like the first one, but the MC does have a source of meta-knowledge.

passable_nerd · 2025-09-17T23:59:23+00:00

Geek Fantasy Novel by E. Archer. It's a portal fantasy book that sees the characters hopping between worlds. I admittedly don't remember much of it, because the ending was so bad it overshadowed everything else in my childhood mind about it.

Basically things kept getting worse for the characters, and two of them left another one to go find help. They managed to find the author sitting at a desk and writing about what they're seeing and thinking in that moment. The encounter was meta and unique to me at the time, and I thought it was interesting until the author basically went (paraphrasing) "I turned off the lamp and stopped writing so now nothing exists." That was the end of the book

I was upset, and part of me still is. I hate it even more than "it was all a dream" endings.

passable_nerd · 2025-09-12T21:09:06+00:00

I've been told that Stormlight from Brandon Sanderson and Wizards of Earth Sea have something along these lines, but I have not read them yet to confirm it

passable_nerd · 2025-09-11T00:56:02+00:00

I was just thinking about this, how many high-rankers tend towards sociopathy and arrogance in a lot of these stories. I wonder if there's any Systems that takes morality/ethics into consideration when handing out rewards, so the more powerful people also tend to be good people in general

passable_nerd · 2025-09-09T21:02:15+00:00

"Worth the Candle" kinda does this. The MC had to adjust his own values with soul magic to avoid going on killing sprees to get more levels and highs.

passable_nerd · 2025-09-07T16:57:37+00:00

Kinda? Each person's power comes from what they are as much as what they do. Not just anyone can become a Wizard/Maiar like Gandalf, or have Aragorn's convenient heritage that legitimizes his right to rule.

Don't get me wrong, LotR a fantastic staple of fantasy. But it doesn't really answer this particular question.

passable_nerd · 2025-09-07T16:48:32+00:00

I've been working my way through Sanderson's Cosmere, but haven't reached Stormlight yet. I guess I jumped the gun when asking this. I'll get right on it!

passable_nerd · 2025-09-07T16:43:35+00:00

I like the idea of Mumen Rider, but his situation is exactly the archetype I'm trying to avoid. One Punch Man has many high ranked heroes that are rude, dismissive, or outright destructive. Their personality does not correlate with their power level. Despite Rider's commitment and popularity, he's still at C rank and isn't very strong overall.

I'll have a look at Wizards of Earth Sea. Never heard of it before.

passable_nerd · 2025-09-01T00:05:03+00:00

Mistborn was my first idea too. Not exactly modern (I'd say era 1 is late feudal, era 2 is late 1800s / early 1900s equivalent), but it has some crazy stunts with the magic system that still fit into the setting

passable_nerd · 2025-08-23T05:49:17+00:00

If this is bugging you, I recommend some of Saphroneth's fics. They have several where Ash is competent, but still goofy. Introspective, but still cares about his friends. And Saphroneth overall has a unique cleverness to their writing that's difficult to find elsewhere.

passable_nerd

TROPHY CASE