POPULAR: Simple Questions, Simple Answers

[Greninjaman]

It also depends on the character's goals. If the goal does not require a full team of six, why give them a full team? Contests in the anime never required having more than two Pokemon, so Dawn and May could have gotten away with having three Pokemon.

 

[Ihsan997]

The number of Pokemon I have a character have depends on the character. Usually its one to three although with most of them I intend to have them catch more.

Also, I always have Pokemon know only four moves.

You’ve caught my interest if you don’t mind a follow up. Is the reason for limiting to four moves for the purposes of avoiding OP behavior, or for holding more closely to the source material?

It also depends on the character's goals. If the goal does not require a full team of six, why give them a full team? Contests in the anime never required having more than two Pokemon, so Dawn and May could have gotten away with having three Pokemon.

I’m glad to see that my idea on a low number isn’t too far off. So do you also tend to use a lower number yourself, or do your goals vary in this sense?

 

[Greninjaman]

I’m glad to see that my idea on a low number isn’t too far off. So do you also tend to use a lower number yourself, or do your goals vary in this sense?

Well, one benefit to having a small group of Pokemon is better character development. The more you have, the harder it is to give them all equal time to shine and develop as characters.

 

[BackSet]

You’ve caught my interest if you don’t mind a follow up. Is the reason for limiting to four moves for the purposes of avoiding OP behavior, or for holding more closely to the source material?

Mainly for holding closer to the source material but also to avoid OPness and also because it makes it easier to track what moves the mon knows.

 

[System Error]

Movewise myself: Four is a game mechanics thing, full stop. Limiting too much can result in just spamming the same moves over and over, making battles bleh. So instead, Pokemon generally have a varied amount of moves depending on experience and training. It's a strategic thing when it comes to training. Do you want your Pokemon to know a big variety of moves? Or do you want them to focus on using a select few very well? A few bullet points:

- Ignoring focused training, this is the baseline:

• 1-2: Newborns
• 3-5: Average wild Pokemon
• 6-8: A Pokemon with little to no trainer experience, or stronger wild Pokemon
• 8-10: Average trainer Pokemon, or special wild Pokemon and certain weaker legendaries
• 10-12: Stronger trainer Pokemon, or average legendary Pokemon
• 12-14: The general peak for both trained Pokemon and the strongest legendaries.
• 15+: Any more than this requires specialized training that's ill-advised unless you're close to or at Champion level.

- In most cases, 1-2 of these will be "super" moves. Global effect moves are always these, as well as certain ones like Sludge Wave or Fire Blast - but something like Flamethrower on a rookie Charmander might be one. Repeated spamming of these can exhaust the Pokemon.
- It's easiest to learn a level-up move. Most can have them by default, although the higher end ones require actual leveling. Other moves often require other sources.
- TMs exist and can put the knowledge of the move into the Pokemon's brain, although they'll still need to perfect it.
- Move tutors are just teaching by example. They're a less artificial way of teaching the move - and in fact they can learn from seeing other Pokemon too.
- Besides those, the difficulty of learning a move corelates to how similar it is to existing moves. Moves of the same type as the Pokemon are the easiest. Similarly executed moves are right in behind (i.e. Slash and Shadow Claw). Thematically similar moves are tougher (i.e. nature manipulation). Moves with no existing analogue are the hardest, and could take months to get right, let alone perfect.
- The other factor in the difficulty of learning a move is ease of use. It's much easier for a Pokemon that knows neither to learn how to kick something Normally than it is to unleash latent Psychic potential.
- Egg Moves are like natural, special talent. They're fairly common. However, they're more easily learnable than TM/tutor exclusive moves, although some of THOSE can be by default, too.
- I am willing to play hard and fast with moves a Pokemon should be able to learn with a TM, but can't due to generation lack of presence (e.g. Hidden Power on a Gen 8).
- Lastly, moves do need to stay in-practice. You could otherwise end up with a Flamethrower about as effective as an Ember, for example. It's the biggest deterrent behind having more moves than an experience level allows.

Design philosophy wise, I focus on what would make sense, rather than giving the Pokemon as varied a typed moveset as possible. This can be either sensible for the Pokemon or what the trainer would do (and yes some would try to give a varied moveset). For keeping track, I have a reference sheet. So here's some examples.

- Nori's Nidorina "The Demon": Cut, Crunch, Double Kick, Poison Jab, Shadow Claw, Body Slam, SKULL BASH
This is an excellent example in my fics of a Pokemon with a limited moveset, who uses all of those moves exceptionally well. She's an example of a special wild Pokemon who focuses her potential. It's also an example of that last point: she had Poison Sting, but it fell into disuse. Skull Bash is her typical finisher, when not just mauling something anyway.

- Nori's Pachirisu: Quick Attack, Thunder Wave, Sweet Kiss, Grass Knot, Discharge, SUPER FANG
An example of a Pokemon with little experience with a trainer that did have some in the wild. Grass Knot is an example of a naturally-known TM move. Discharge and Super Fang may be higher level moves, but it still has them - Last Resort would take more experience, however.

- Kallisto's Ludicolo: Energy Ball, Leech Seed, Bubblebeam, Body Slam, Icy Wind, Weather Ball, Zen Headbutt, Nature Power, HYDRO PUMP, RAIN DANCE
A more experienced Pokemon, possibly with focused moves. Energy Ball/Weather Ball is a good example of similar move-learning. Body Slam wasn't too difficult due to being a simple physical action. Icy Wind took more training, but due to being a nature-based effect, it wasn't as hard as say, the laser-based Ice Beam (Bubblebeam is not a laser). But it COULD pivot to Ice Beam from there with less difficulty than learning it directly, due to the shared type between the moves.

- Volkner's Raichu: Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Mega Punch, Brick Break, Flail, Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Iron Tail, Wild Charge, Seismic Toss, DOUBLE-EDGE, VOLT TACKLE
- Tono's Raichu: Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Quick Attack, Disarming Voice, Grass Knot, Swift, Double Team, Flash, FOCUS BLAST, THUNDER
Finally, a previewific example that shows how two Pokemon of the same species can be developed completely differently, while showing a bit of how an experienced trainer might try to develop their Pokemon in a specialized way. Tono's fights primarily at a range: Focus Blast is the same "focus energy and let it out" as Electric moves are, so it wasn't too difficult to pick up. That along with Thunder is his "super". Disarming Voice had an analogue in Growl that made it easier to learn. Same for Flash and electric moves. However, Swift and especially Grass Knot certainly took TMs, training, and/or practice. He lightly favor dazzling opponents with speed and Double Team/Flash.

Volkner's fights in melee. You can see how he went Thunder Punch->Mega Punch->Brick Break, as well as a bit of brains in recoil moves and Flail, and even Thunder Wave to slow things down. A synergistic moveset, in other words, rather than trying to fill it out for every situation. He's much more experienced than his Gym Trainer, so his Pokemon can comfortably know more moves.

So yeah. Definitely not a simple answer, but, was hardly a simple question so..

 

[BackSet]

Just for the record, the Anime also adheres to the four move thing.

 

[System Error]

Just for the record, the Anime also adheres to the four move thing.

Earlier episodes didn't care for that. It's likely something mandated for consistency with the games.

Really, what gets me is that the move limit isn't explained at all, or if it is somewhere, it's flimsy. I personally don't see why a creator deity or 9001 IQ Alakazam should have such a limited memory capacity that they can only use four moves total. That's another reason why I torpedo it, personally. Of course, if you want to come up with a reason yourself, that's the fun of writing fanfics! Just don't insist it has to be a certain way because canon said so. Especially if you at the same time insist other things are dumb even if canon says so.

Also, as for your OPness point, it's pretty irrelevant if all Pokemon have a lot of moves. If everyone has more than four, then nobody's special for it. In fact, you can use extreme examples (going beyond whatever usual soft limits you have) to your advantage to create an OP challenge to overcome beyond "higher level Pokemon": the anime in fact did that with Drake's Dragonite back when it didn't always adhere to that limit.

 

[BackSet]

Earlier episodes didn't care for that.

Earlier episodes also had a talking ghastly and several more things that were almost definitely written on acid.

as for your OPness point

Never made that point. Well, I did, but its more of a side concern.

 

[BackSet]

Probably a dumb question but could a Popplio be considered to move by "walking" and/or "running." Honestly, it would make it much easier if I just went with that but I want to be sure.

 

[zoroarctic]

Probably a dumb question but could a Popplio be considered to move by "walking" and/or "running." Honestly, it would make it much easier if I just went with that but I want to be sure.

"Walking" is appropriate, according to NOAA.

 

[BackSet]

Good cause finding alternatives is hard.

 

[zoroarctic]

Good cause finding alternatives is hard.

Luckily Popplio's a sea lion. If it were a seal, you'd have to go with "galumphing."

 

[KrspaceT]

With how often the father of a protagonist is basically absent and entering 'we don't see him and he doesn't seem to be around, so no cheating shipping is ago' territory I'm curious as to who would actually be good candidates for ships with the moms outside of Gen 3.

...The most obvious candidates would be Professor Oak (Delia and G1 mom), Sycamore (G6 Mom), and Kukui (G7 mom and Delia via the 'Papa Kukui meme'). With some hiccups you'd have to solve but if you don't want to solve the hiccups (like age and the Burnett situation by either removal or OT3) what is there to do?

 

[BackSet]

(G8 mom

You mean G7, right?

 

[KrspaceT]

You mean G7, right?

Fixed.

Just honestly wondering about this problem. I mean you nearly never see anything about the moms dating or marrying anyone. Usually the dad is just a jerkass or dead, and that isn't just Ash.

I've seen fics where G8 dad was so violent and horrible he helped spawn Scottish Pokemon Trainer and it led to Gloria killing herself over fearing being like him. Yes. Someone wrote that. I think it even has some TV trope entries.

 

[BackSet]

I've seen fics where G8 dad was so violent and horrible he helped spawn Scottish Pokemon Trainer and it led to Gloria killing herself over fearing being like him. Yes. Someone wrote that. I think it even has some TV trope entries.

Sounds like somebody had some issues they needed to work out. Which isn't bad, fanfiction is a perfectly fine outlet to deal with your emotions but still... wow.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

That reminds me of a livestream of Sword where the commentators joked that humans reproduce asexually in the Pokémon world.

 

[BackSet]

That reminds me of a livestream of Sword where the commentators joked that humans reproduce asexually in the Pokémon world.

My immediate thought was how that's biologically impossible. My second immediate thought was how that's a joke and it doesn't matter.

On the subject of the romance of moms in Pokemon, I did end up going the abusive husband route with the gen 3 mom but not with Norman, who was instead who she remarried after divorcing the abusive asshole.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Need some quick advice about the upcoming arc in Chaos Rising. The next arc is the Karma Beast arc, as it'll play a role in limiting Infinator's abilities, especially with the recent reveal that he can keep reviving, or rather clone, his Demon Generals over and over again every time they're killed (or in this case, if they're killed, as they're a lot stronger now than before). As a result, the Heroes need to hunt down the five Karma Beasts, which are, in essence, intelligent monster demi-gods that need to be slain to recover the five Karma Diamonds that they guard. However... this is where my problem comes in: I can't think of any good beasts to use for the Karma Beasts. I've only come up with one as of now: the Karma Boar, which is the one Celtic and his party will fight (it'll also allow for the debut of the Metal Boar family of monsters), but I can't think of any others. Do any of you have suggestions? The only real condition is that a Karma Beast cannot be a dragon, as they're "sacred", so to speak, and we already have the Dragon Emperors, so that would be rather redundant. They can be any other regular animal, I'm just coming up blank with some good animals to use. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

 

[Welkamo]

Need some quick advice about the upcoming arc in Chaos Rising. The next arc is the Karma Beast arc, as it'll play a role in limiting Infinator's abilities, especially with the recent reveal that he can keep reviving, or rather clone, his Demon Generals over and over again every time they're killed (or in this case, if they're killed, as they're a lot stronger now than before). As a result, the Heroes need to hunt down the five Karma Beasts, which are, in essence, intelligent monster demi-gods that need to be slain to recover the five Karma Diamonds that they guard. However... this is where my problem comes in: I can't think of any good beasts to use for the Karma Beasts. I've only come up with one as of now: the Karma Boar, which is the one Celtic and his party will fight (it'll also allow for the debut of the Metal Boar family of monsters), but I can't think of any others. Do any of you have suggestions? The only real condition is that a Karma Beast cannot be a dragon, as they're "sacred", so to speak, and we already have the Dragon Emperors, so that would be rather redundant. They can be any other regular animal, I'm just coming up blank with some good animals to use. Thanks in advance to anyone who replies

Can it be any animal seen as strong/big? Maybe eagles or hawks? Tigers and lions are also seen as powerful.