Combat

Types and Contexts of Combat

There are two major contexts in which combat occurs in PTU, and believe it or not, this is actually very important to how you treat combat mechanics and the way certain parts of combat work.

The first major context is, of course, in Leaguesanctioned Pokémon battles or casual battles that follow League rules and regulations. In such battles, it is usually not kosher for Trainers to directly interfere, such as by attacking their opponent’s Pokémon or using supernatural powers to influence the tide of battle. See League Legality.

The other major context comprises all other “full contact” fights where League rules and regulations don’t apply, including encounters with wild Pokémon, fights against unscrupulous criminals, and other battles in which Trainers would directly participate and even be targets of attack.

Both Initiative and Switching Pokémon work slightly differently depending on the type of combat in order to reflect the Trainer’s differing role in the conflict. Switching Pokémon is slightly more difficult in League Battles to prevent Trainers from simply switching all the time in an official match to gain advantage, for example.

Both types of combat are likely to show up in most campaign types, and GMs should be careful to warn players if one type of combat will be much more prevalent than the other.

For example, in an average Pokémon campaign, the Ace Trainers and Commanders will have their chance to shine in Gym Challenges and tournaments, but Martial Artists will be better able to stand their ground when a criminal Team attacks or when wild Pokémon are rampaging. However, in a region in which there’s very little criminal activity and even the wild Pokémon are relatively tame, Trainers specializing in full contact fights won’t feel as useful.

In each round of combat, players get to take '''two turns:'''

one for their Trainer, and one for a Pokémon. Even if their Trainer is knocked out or incapacitated, they still get their Pokémon’s turn and vice versa. Initiative Combat in Pokémon Tabletop United takes place in a sequence of 10 second rounds where combatants take turns acting in order of their Initiative values. In most situations, a Pokémon or Trainer’s Initiative is simply their Speed Stat, though Items, Features, Moves, and other effects may modify this.

During Tournament matches and other League Battles where the Trainer doesn’t participate directly in the fighting, all Trainers should take their turns, first, before any Pokémon act. In League Battles only, Trainers declare their actions in order from lowest to highest speed, and then the actions take place and resolve from highest to lowest speed. This allows quicker Trainers to react to their opponent’s switches and tactics. Following that, all Pokémon then act in order from highest to lowest speed.

In “full contact” matches, wild encounters, and other situations where Trainers are directly involved in the fight, all participants simply go in order from highest to lowest speed.

Ties in Initiative should be settled with a d20 roll off. Combatants can choose to hold their action until a specified lower Initiative value once per round. Some effects in PTU last for “one full round.” This simply means that they last until the same Initiative Count next round.

Action Types

During each round of combat, each participant may take one Standard Action, one Shift Action, and one Swift Action on their turn in any order. In addition, they may take any number of Free Actions, though actions with a Trigger can only be activated once per Trigger.

As an important note, no matter what Action Type is listed in this section, generally Trainers do not have to spend actions at the very beginning of Combat to draw a weapon or send out their first Pokémon for the fight.

It’s just tedious and doesn’t add anything to the game, and in fights against other Trainers it just becomes an action tax that both sides have to pay. The exception, of course, is ambushes and otherwise getting caught off guard.

Standard Actions: Moves and many Features require a Standard Action during your turn to activate and use. Examples of what you can do with a Standard Action:

»» Using a Move

»» Using a Struggle Attack

»» Retrieving and using an Item from a backpack or similar on a target

»» Throwing a Poké Ball to Capture a wild Pokémon

»» Drawing a Weapon, or switching from one Weapon to another.

»» Using the Pokédex to identify a Pokémon

»» You may give up a Standard Action to take another Swift Action

»» You may give up a Standard Action to take another Shift Action, but this cannot be used for Movement if you have already used your regular Shift Action for Movement. However, it may be used to activate Features or effects that require a Shift Action.

»» Use Combat Maneuvers.

Shift Actions: The Shift Action is the most straightforward action during a Pokémon or Trainer’s turn; it’s simply used for movement most of the time. Trainers may hand other Trainers a small item they have on hand as part of a Shift Action, as long as the ally is adjacent at either the beginning or end of the shift. A Trainer can also sacrifice their Shift Action to perform certain other actions:

»» Returning a Pokémon, or sending out a Pokémon

»» Returning a Fainted Pokémon and sending out a replacement Pokémon

Free Actions: Many features can be activated as Free Actions. Features with Triggers are often Free Actions. You can activate as many Free Actions as you like, or when they are triggered.

Swift Action: Trainers have exactly one Swift Action a round, and it can only be used on their turn. Many Features are Swift Actions.

Extended Action: Extended Actions take at least a few minutes to complete, depending on the task. If unspecified, assume at least a few minutes with concentration adequate to the task. Simply, these actions cannot be performed in the middle of combat.

Full Action: Some Features are Full Actions. Full Actions take both your Standard Action and Shift Action for a turn. The Take a Breather (page 245), Coup de Grâce  (251), and Intercept (242) Actions are all Full Actions.

Priority Actions: If the user has not already acted this turn, an action with the Priority keyword may be declared to act immediately; the user takes their full turn, ignoring initiative. This counts as their turn for the round. A priority action may not be declared during someone else’s turn; it must be declared between turns. Priority also comes in Priority (Limited) and Priority (Advanced) varieties. The Priority (Limited) keyword is like Priority except the user may not take their full turn; they may only take the action that itself has Priority and take the rest of their turn on their own Initiative Count.

For example, Orders are Priority (Limited), meaning the user only uses their Standard Action and does not take a full turn. Priority (Advanced) actions don’t require that the user hasn’t acted that turn; if they have, they simply give up their turn on the following round.

Interrupt Actions: Interrupt Moves may be declared in the middle of another combatant’s turn to allow the user to take an action. They work similarly to Priority (Advanced, Limited) effects in that they only allow you to take the action that has Interrupt and not a full turn.

Commanding Pokémon

Basically, when a Pokémon’s initiative in combat comes up, simply let the player decide what the Pokémon does. You do not need to announce your Pokémon’s action during your Trainer Turn.

Pokémon can do the following with a Standard Action:

»» Use a Move or Struggle Attack

»» Use Combat Maneuvers

»» Activate an effect that requires a Shift Action. This cannot be used for Movement.

»» Use Abilities, Capabilities, or make Skill Checks requiring Standard Actions

»» Recall themselves into a Poké Ball for a Switch

»» Pick up Held Items Additionally, Pokémon may drop most Held Items using a Shift Action, though this varies.

Note: The topic of “uncommanded” Pokémon in general is a bit tricky. As a GM, you shouldn’t be too strict about only “commanding” one Pokémon at a time; it’d be ridiculous that a trainer couldn’t go on a walk with all of his Pokémon because “only one can shift at a time.”

The point is to not let Trainers have an unfair advantage in battle. Feel free to control “uncommanded” Pokémon in any way you choose to achieve this goal and to just make sense.

You may also create special Double or Triple Battle League events where can Trainers command two or three Pokémon at a time within those events without the need for Features such as Focused Command.

Another place where you may wish to bend the rules when it comes to number of Pokémon turns a round is how many Pokémon a villain or other NPC can command at a time. Remember that the limit is there for the sake of balance on the PC side. If your encounter balance requires a villain to have multiple Pokémon on the field at once, then go for it!

Pokémon Switching

Trainers can, of course, Switch their Pokémon in battle, which returns their current active Pokémon into its Poké Ball and sends out another Pokémon to take its place. This is often done as one action but can also be broken up into separate Recall and Release actions.

A full Pokémon Switch requires a Standard Action and can be initiated by either the Trainer or their Pokémon on their respective Initiative Counts. A Trainer cannot Switch or Recall their Pokémon if their active Pokémon is out of range of their Poké Ball’s recall beam – 8 meters. During a League Battle, Trainers are generally considered to always be in Switching range. Trainers may Switch out Fainted Pokémon as a Shift Action.

Whenever a Trainer Switches Pokémon during a League Battle they cannot command the Pokémon that was Released as part of the Switch for the remainder of the Round unless the Switch was forced by a Move such as Roar or if they were Recalling and replacing a Fainted Pokémon. Interrupts may still be used but consume the next Round’s Pokémon turn as usual.

Recall and Release actions can also be taken individually by a Trainer as Shift Actions. Recalling and then Releasing by using two Shift Actions in one Round still counts as a Switch, even if they are declared as separate actions, and you may not do this to Recall and then Release the same Pokémon in one round. A Trainer may also spend a Standard Action to Recall two Pokémon or Release two Pokémon at once.

If a player has a Pokémon turn available, a Pokémon may act during the round it was released. If the Pokémon’s Initiative Count has already passed, then this means they may act immediately.

For a visual representation, see the flowchart below.

Ready to Switch Pokémon!

'''Are you Switching Pokémon, Recalling Pokémon, or Releasing Pokémon?'''

Switching Standard Action; either Trainer’s or Pokémon’s

Is it a League Battle?

You may Command your Released Pokémon this round.

You may Command your Released Pokémon this round.

No Yes

Releasing Trainer’s Shift Action for one or Standard Action for two

Recalling Trainer’s Shift Action for one or Standard Action for two

Are you Switching out a Fainted Pokémon or due to a forced effect such as Roar?

You may NOT Command your Released Pokémon this round.

No Yes

You may Command Any Remaining Active Pokémon this round.

You may Command your Released Pokémon this round.

League Battle Example: Trainer A sends out a Hoppip, and Trainer B sends out a Charmander. Hoppip has higher initiative and goes first. Trainer A doesn’t like his Hoppip’s chances though, so he tells his Hoppip to return, using Hoppip’s Standard Action to Switch it out for his Sandshrew. This would forfeit the Sandshrew’s turn this round, but this doesn’t come into play in this case because the Trainer already Commanded his Hoppip to Switch. Then it’s Charmander’s turn – Charmander gets a free hit on the newcomer, hitting him with scratch. Next turn, Trainer A still has all his actions since Hoppip was the one who used his actions to make the switch. Trainer A does nothing with his turn though – Trainer B decides to Switch Charmander before he’s hurt using his own Standard Action, and sends out a Slowpoke. Sandshrew then goes; he hits Slowpoke with his own scratch. Since Trainer B switched out the Pokémon himself and Charmander was not fainted, he forfeits his next Command and thus Slowpoke does nothing this round. Next round, Sandshrew goes again, and hits the Slowpoke once more. Slowpoke then uses Water Gun, and KO’s Sandshrew. Trainer A recalls the Fainted Sandshrew as a Shift Action, and sends out Hoppip again as a Free Action. Since Sandshrew was fainted, no turn is lost. Hoppip goes first, and uses Seed Bomb. Slowpoke is KO’d. Trainer B technically has a Pokémon turn this round, but he can’t use it because Slowpoke was KO’d. He simply must wait until the next round, and then sends out Charmander. Initiative passes to the Trainers again, and back to the Pokémon. Hoppip goes first, and uses Worry Seed. Charmander goes next, KOing Hoppip for the win. Full Contact Battle Example: Trainer A runs into a wild Raticate and sends out his Wartortle to battle it. The Initiative order goes the Raticate, the Trainer, and then the Wartortle. The Raticate strikes first with a Hyper Fang – scoring a Critical Hit that badly damages the Wartortle. Trainer A, concerned, uses his Standard Action to Switch Pokémon to his Kadabra. Because this is not a League Battle, Trainer A retains a Pokémon turn to use to on his Kadabra. Normally, Kadabra would be faster in the Initiative order than the Raticate. Since its Initiative Tick has already passed this round, it can act immediately and hits the Raticate with a Psybeam. The next round begins, and the Kadabra acts first, at its proper Initiative Tick this time. It uses a Confusion attack on the Raticate, further weakening it. The Raticate responds with a Crunch, OHKOing the Kadabra with the powerful super-effective attack. On Trainer A’s Initiative Tick, he Switches out his defeated Kadabra for a Graveler. Because Kadabra was Fainted, this is only a Shift Action, and Trainer A still has his Standard Action, which he spends throwing a Poké Ball at the Raticate. Unfortunately, he misses. Raticate goes first and attacks Graveler with a Super Fang. Trainer A is next in Initiative this time, but he holds his action until after his Graveler acts. Graveler uses Rock Throw against the Raticate, nearly knocking it out. Finally, Trainer A takes his held action and throws a second Poké Ball, this time hitting the mark and successfully capturing the Raticate. Combat 231 Pokémon Tabletop United uses a square combat grid. However, it is a simple matter to treat distances and movement abstractly if you don’t wish to use a map. A combatant’s footprint on a grid is determined by their Size. Small and Medium combatants take up a 1x1 meter square. Large is 2x2, Huge is 3x3, and Gigantic is 4x4, but you may choose to use other shapes for Pokémon that have different body shapes such as serpents. As a rough guideline, create the new shape to be roughly the same number of total squares as the default shape. For example, a Steelix (Gigantic) might be 8x2 meters, twisting into different shapes as it moves on the map. An Aerodactyl (Huge) is probably 2x4 due to its wide wingspan. Movement is done with Shift Actions in combat. You can move a number of squares with a single Shift Action equal to the value of your relevant Movement Capability. When using multiple different Movement Capabilities in one turn, such as using Overland on a beach and then Swim in the water, average the Capabilities and use that value. For example, if a Pokémon has Overland 7 and Swim 5, they can shift a maximum of 6 meters on a turn that they use both Capabilities. You may not split up a Shift Action. That is, you cannot move a few squares, take a Standard Action, and then continue moving. Using Jump Capabilities consumes distance from the main Capability used to Shift, such as Overland., or can be used as a whole Shift Action by itself. Diagonal movement is simple. The first square you move diagonally in a turn counts as 1 meter. The second counts as 2 meters. The third counts as 1 meter again. And so on and so forth. Two combatants are Adjacent to one another if any squares they occupy touch each other, even if only the corners touch, as with diagonal squares. Cardinally Adjacent, however, does not count diagonal squares. There are two Conditions that affect movement. Stuck means you cannot Shift at all, though you may still use your Shift Action for other effects such as activating Features. Slowed means your movement speed is halved. Terrain Not all terrain is created equal. The type of terrain you’re moving over will determine which Movement Capability you use to Shift as well as having additional affects on your Movement. Basic Terrain Type affects which Movement Capability you use to Shift. »» Regular Terrain: Regular Terrain is dirt, short grass, cement, smooth rock, indoor building etc. Basically anything that’s easy to walk on. Shift as normal on regular terrain! »» Earth Terrain: Earth Terrain is underground terrain that has no existing tunnel that you are trying to Shift through. You may only Shift through Earth Terrain if you have a Burrow Capability. »» Underwater: Underwater Terrain is any water that a Pokémon or Trainer can be submerged in. You may not move through Underwater Terrain during battle if you do not have a Swim Capability. In addition to the various types of Basic Terrain, there are special types of terrain that further modify your movement. All of the following types of terrain also have a Basic Terrain Type. »» Slow Terrain: Slow Terrain is anywhere with enough debris or brush around so that Trainers and Pokémon are significantly slowed down. Some examples of Slow Terrain are uneven earth, mud, or deep snow or water (that’s not deep enough to count as ‘underwater’). Even ice may count as Slow Terrain due to the need to move carefully and slowly. When Shifting through Slow Terrain, Trainers and their Pokémon treat every square meter as two square meters instead. »» Rough Terrain: Most Rough Terrain is also Slow Terrain, but not always. When targeting through Rough Terrain, you take a -2 penalty to Accuracy Rolls. Spaces occupied by other Trainers or Pokémon are considered Rough Terrain. Certain types of Rough Terrain may be ignored by certain Pokémon, based on their capabilities. Rough terrain includes tall grass, shrubs, rocks, or anything else that might obscure attacks. Squares occupied by enemies always count as Rough Terrain. »» Blocking Terrain: Straightforwardly, this is Terrain that cannot be Shifted or Targeted through, such as walls and other large obstructions. Movement and Positioning Combat 232 Flanking It is difficult to fight when beset upon from all sides by enemies. When a combatant is Flanked by foes, they take a -2 penalty to their Evasion. A Small or Medium sized Trainer or Pokémon is considered Flanked when at least two foes are adjacent to them but not adjacent to each other. For Large Trainers and Pokémon, the requirement is three foes meeting those conditions. The requirement increases to four for Huge and five for Gigantic sized combatants. Foes larger than Medium may occupy multiple squares – in this case, they count as a number of foes for the purposes of Flanking equal to the number of squares adjacent to the Flanked target that they’re occupying. However, a single combatant cannot Flank by itself, no matter how many adjacent squares they’re occupying; a minimum of two combatants is required to Flank someone. Here are some visual aids to help demonstrate this concept.

The Hitmonchan has two non-adjacent Zangoose in adjacent squares to him.

He is Flanked.

The Hitmonchan has two Zangoose adjacent to him, but they themselves are adjacent, so this doesn’t count as Flanking.

It takes three foes to Flank this Aggron because it is Large.

However, a Flygon occupying two adjacent squares to the Aggron counts as two foes, so it can be Flanked by just this Flygon and the Zangoose.

A Lugia can by itself occupy three adjacent squares to the Aggron. However, it takes at least two different foes to Flank someone, so this does not count as Flanking.

Abstracted Combat Distances

If you’d rather not use a map for battles, don’t fret. Abstracting distances is easy if you follow a few guidelines and use proper descriptions of the battlefield.

1. Separate the battlefield into rough zones to help determine movement ranges. For instance, an indoor battle separated into a foyer area, a grand staircase at the far end of the foyer, and a hallway on the side. An average Overland value might take someone from the staircase to the center of the foyer, but it may take a Sprint Action to get from the staircase to the hallway.

2. Describe and use landmarks in the environment to help determine area of effect (or AOE) for attacks. A Discharge might hit “everyone near the fountain in the foyer”, for example, where the fountain was also previously used as a reference for where a foe moved towards. Targets that tried to engage the same foe in melee or move as a unit are usually fair game to be hit by Bursts, Cones, Blasts, etc.

3. Make sure everyone agrees to roll with the GM’s rulings. Abstracted distances in combat can quickly become a headache if players and GMs begin to argue about whether someone is really in range or if an AOE could hit multiple targets. Everyone should make an effort to be clear on how they’re moving on the battlefield so there’s no miscommunication, but when a disagreement happens, the GM’s word is final.

Example:

An intrepid Trainer and his Galvantula are infiltrating a Team Aqua hideout in a small cove. The GM describes the scene. There is a small dock just on the inside of the cove opening where a submarine is being kept. A Team Aqua grunt and his Kingler are resting against it. Further into the cove and beyond the submarine, there’s a door leading into the hideout facility itself with a Quagsire standing guard next to it. There are two basic zones to this encounter now: the area near the submarine and the area near the door, and both have clear landmarks.

Wanting to rush into the facility, the Trainer asks his GM whether he and his Galvantula can reach the door. The GM thinks for a moment and says that it would take a Sprint Action for either the Trainer or his Galvantula to get near the door.

Thinking this isn’t worth the trouble of being faced up with a Ground Type immediately, the Trainer instead opts to stand back and remain hidden while he orders his Galvantula to shift closer to the submarine and use Electroweb on the grunt and the Kingler. The GM decides this is fair since they were both described as next to the submarine and Electroweb is a Ranged Blast 2. Though it’s a strong hit, and Super-Effective on the Kingler to boot, this doesn’t knock them out, and the grunt and Kingler both attack the Galvantula in retaliation on their turns.

The Quagsire, meanwhile, is too far away, the GM decides, and only manages to Sprint into the zone with the submarine on its turn. On the Galvantula’s next turn, a Discharge attack takes out the Kingler and Paralyzes the grunt, who ends up failing his Save Check to act despite Paralysis.

Without thinking, the Trainer decides he’s going to head up to his Pokémon and start administering a Potion. With Medic Training, this doesn’t cost his Galvantula a turn. Unfortunately, the Quagsire is now in range and nails both Pokémon and Trainer alike with a Mud Bomb attack. Even with the Potion, this ends up knocking out the weakened Galvantula, and the Trainer sends out his Ivysaur instead. On its turn, the Ivysaur easily defeats the Quagsire in one blow with a Seed Bomb. With the remaining grunt slowed by Paralysis, the GM decides the Trainer and his Pokémon can easily proceed to the door and enter the hideout after this point, leaving the grunt jerkily stumbling after them.

Combat Stats
These were covered in the chapter on character creation, but let’s do a recap for the sake of combat!

Trainers and Pokémon have the same six Basic Stats:

HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. When the word Stats is used alone in the system, it usually refers to these.

Four Derived Combat Stats are derived from these six:

Hit Points, Physical Evasion, Special Evasion, and Speed Evasion.

Basic Stats
HP: The HP Stat directly affects the amount of Hit Points a Pokémon or Trainer has.

Attack: The Attack stat is added to the damage roll of any Physical Damage dealt.

Defense: The Defense Stat is used to avoid and resist Physical attacks. Whenever a Pokémon or Trainer takes Physical Damage, they first subtract their Defense before subtracting from their Hit Points.

Additionally, for every 5 points a Pokémon or Trainer has in Defense, they gain +1 Physical Evasion, up to a

maximum of +6 at 30 Defense.

Special Attack: The Special Attack stat is added to the damage roll of any Special Damage dealt.

Special Defense: The Special Defense Stat is used to avoid and resist Special attacks. Whenever a Pokémon or Trainer takes Special Damage, they first subtract their Special Defense before subtracting from their Hit Points.

Additionally, for every 5 points a Pokémon or Trainer has in Special Defense, they gain +1 Special Evasion, up to a maximum of +6 at 30 Special Defense.

Speed: The Speed Stat is used to determine turn order during combat.

Additionally for every 5 points a Pokémon or Trainer has in Speed, they gain +1 Speed Evasion, up to a maximum of +6 at 30 Speed.

Derived Stats
Hit Points: While your HP Stat influences your Hit Points, they are separate numbers. If a Pokémon or Trainer has 0 Hit Points or less, they are unable to carry out any actions and are unconscious. Hit Points are calculated differently for Pokémon and Trainers.

'''Pokémon Hit Points = Pokémon’s Level + (HP stat x3) + 10'''

Trainer Hit Points = Trainer’s Level x2 + (HP stat x3) + 10

Accuracy: A Pokémon’s or Trainer’s Accuracy is normally 0. However, like Stats, Accuracy can be affected by Combat Stages. Instead of a multiplier, Accuracy’s Combat Stages apply directly; Accuracy at -2 simply modifies all Accuracy Rolls by -2, for example. Like Combat Stages, Accuracy also has limits at -6 and +6.

Any time Combat Stages would be cleared, Accuracy Stages are cleared as well.

Evasion: Trainers and Pokémon have three different sets of Evasion. Physical Evasion, Special Evasion, and Speed Evasion. Evasion helps Pokémon avoid being hit by moves. When being targeted by a move that has an Accuracy Check, a Pokémon adds their Evasion score to the Move’s Accuracy Check, if they are conscious.

Physical Evasion can only modify the accuracy rolls of Moves that target the Defense Stat; similarly, Special Evasion can modify the rolls of attacks that target the Special Defense Stat. Speed Evasion may be applied to any Move with an accuracy check, but you may only add one of your three evasions to any one check.

Raising your Defense, Special Defense, and Speed Combat Stages can give you additional evasion from the artificially increased defense score. However, you can never gain more than +6 Evasion from Stats.

Besides these base values for evasion, Moves and effects can raise or lower Evasion. These extra Changes in Evasion apply to all types of Evasion, and stack on top. Any time Combat Stages would be cleared, these '''bonuses to Evasion are cleared as well. '''Much like Combat Stages; it has a minimum of -6 and a max of +6.

Negative Evasion can erase Evasion from other sources, but does not increase the Accuracy of an enemy’s Moves. No matter from which sources you receive Evasion, you may only raise a Move’s Accuracy Check by a max of +9.

Combat Stages
Many Moves alter Stats by raising or lowering “Combat Stages”, making them more formidable or less threatening respectively. Only Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed may have Combat Stages. HP and Hit Points never have Combat Stages.

Moves and effects may change Combat Stages any number of times, but they may never be raised higher than +6 or lower than -6. For every Combat Stage above 0, a Stat is raised by 20%, rounded down. For every Combat Stage below 0, a Stat is lowered by 10%, rounded down.

This means that if a Stat has raised 6 Combat Stages; its affected stat should be 220% of its original value. If a stat has been lowered 6 Combat Stages, its affected stat should be 40% of its original value. Consult the chart on the right to see the multiplier for any given Combat Stage. To derive the correct value for a given Stat, simply multiply the Stat by the multiplier next to the corresponding combat stage.

One easy way to apply Combat Stages for Defense, Special Defense, and Speed is to simply remember that Stat Evasion is also equal to 20% of a Stat. This means each positive Combat Stage is equal to the Evasion you gain from that Stat, at least until you reach the point here you would have more Evasion than the cap.

Combat Stages remain until the Pokémon or Trainer is switched out, or until the end of the encounter.

Speed Combat Stages and Movement

Combat Stages in the Speed Stat are special; they affect the movement capabilities of the Trainer or Pokémon. Quite simply, you gain a bonus or penalty to all Movement Speeds equal to half your current Speed Combat Stage value rounded down; if you are at Speed CS +6, you gain +3 to all Movement Speeds, for example. Being at a negative Combat Stage reduces your movement equally, but may never reduce it below 2.

Combat Stage Multiplier Whenever you attempt to make an attack, you must make an Accuracy Roll, and to hit, this roll must meet or exceed the Accuracy Check.

An Accuracy Roll is always simply 1d20, but is modified by the user’s Accuracy and by certain Moves and other effects. Note that modifiers to Accuracy Rolls do not affect effects from Moves that occur upon specific dice results, or that increase Critical Hit range. For example, if you use Flamethrower with an Accuracy Bonus of +4 and roll a 16 on d20 before adding 4, this would neither be a Critical Hit, nor inflict a Burn.

Note that a roll of 1 is always a miss, even if Accuracy modifiers would cause the total roll to hit. Similarly, a roll of 20 is always a hit.

An Accuracy Check is the number an Accuracy Roll needs to meet or exceed to hit. It’s determined first taking the Move’s base AC and adding the target’s Evasion.

For example, if using Earthquake, which has an Accuracy Check of 2, against an opponent with a Physical Evasion of +4, you would need to roll a 6 or higher on your Accuracy Roll to hit the target.

A target can willingly choose to be hit by a Move that would hit when their Evasion is not applied – the user of the Move must still meet the Move’s base AC.

Dealing Damage
When an attack hits, you apply any effects of the attack to the target, including damage.

When rolling Damage, check the attack’s Damage Base'''. '''This number serves as a guide for an attack’s strength, which translates to a specific amount of damage. Many effects, such as Same Type Attack Bonus or STAB for short may alter the Damage Base of Moves.

After applying all modifiers that alter Damage Base, see the corresponding Actual Damage in the Damage Charts on the following page. This is the roll (or number) to which you add your Attack or Special Attack Stat. After you have added your appropriate Attack Stat to the Actual Damage of the attack, add any additional modifiers that may apply.

The target then subtracts the appropriate Defense Stat. Physical Attacks have Defense subtracted from them; Special Attacks have Special Defense subtracted from them. If the target has Damage Reduction, that is subtracted as well. An attack will always do a minimum of 1 damage, even if Defense Stats would reduce it to 0.

After defenses and damage reduction have been applied, apply Type Weaknesses or Resistances. A Super-Effective hit will deal x1.5 damage. A Doubly Super-Effective hit will deal x2 damage. Rare Triply-Effective Hits will deal x3 damage.

A Resisted Hit deals 1/2 damage; a doubly Resisted hit deals 1/4th damage. A rare triply-Resisted hit deals 1/8th damage. See the Type Effectiveness Chart on page 238 to see how Pokémon Types match up against each other.

Same Type Attack Bonus

If a Pokémon uses a damaging Move with which it shares a Type, the Damage Base of the Move is increased by +2. This is referred to as ‘STAB’ for short.

Hit Point Loss

Effects that say “loses Hit Points” or that set Hit Points to a certain value instead of “deals damage” do not have Defensive Stats applied to these Hit Point changes nor cause Injuries from Massive Damage.

Critical Hits

On an Accuracy Roll of 20, a damaging attack is a Critical Hit. A Critical Hit adds the Damage Dice Roll a second time to the total damage dealt, but does not add Stats a second time; for example, a DB6 Move Crit would be 4d6+16+Stat, or 30+Stat going by set damage.

Some Moves or effects may cause increased critical ranges, making Critical Hits possible on Accuracy Rolls lower than 20. Some effects may also increase Critical Hit range; if an effect increases Critical Hit Range by 4 for example, on most moves this would indicate a Critical Hit on accuracy rolls of 16-20.

Note that increased Critical Hit ranges are not counted as an effect, and do not trigger Serene Grace or Sheer Force.

Injuries

If an attack deals enough damage, it might cause an Injury! Generally, this happens when an attack deals Massive Damage, or damage equal to or greater than 50% of a target’s maximum Hit Points, or when a target is reduced to a certain Hit Point Marker: 50% of their maximum Hit Points, 0%, -50%, -100%, and every -50% thereafter.

Tick of Hit Points: Some effects use this term. A Tick of Hit Points is equal to 1/10th of someone’s maximum Hit Points. A Tick Value is what that amount is.

Damage Formula
Putting this all together, the process for calculating damage is as follows:

1. Find initial Damage Base

2. Apply Five/Double-Strike

3. Add Damage Base modifiers (ex: STAB) for final Damage Base

4. Modify damage roll for Critical Hit if applicable

5. Roll damage or use set damage

6. Add relevant attack stat and other bonuses

7. Subtract relevant defense stat and damage reduction

8. Apply weakness and resistance multipliers.

9. Subtract final damage from target’s Hit Points and check for Injuries or KO.

Damage Charts
Below we have provided two different Damage Charts. The first Damage Chart shows actual damage as a traditional roll. Simply roll the dice shown, adding the modifier next to it, and then add your Attack Stat to determine the total damage dealt. The “Set” Damage Chart displays three values. The value on the left is the minimum roll, the value on the right is the maximum, and the middle value in bold and red is the average roll, which you should use if you’re going to be using Set Damage. The other values are listed simply for reference. Which Chart you use is up to your GM; if combat is taking too long, consider using the Set Damage chart to speed up your game. Print this chart out and use it as a reference to make combat quicker in your game!

Rolled Damage

Damage Base Actual Damage

Damage Base Actual Damage

1 1d6+1 15 4d10+20

2 1d6+3 16 5d10+20

3 1d6+5 17 5d12+25

4 1d8+6 18 6d12+25

5 1d8+8 19 6d12+30

6 2d6+8 20 6d12+35

7 2d6+10 21 6d12+40

8 2d8+10 22 6d12+45

9 2d10+10 23 6d12+50

10 3d8+10 24 6d12+55

11 3d10+10 25 6d12+60

12 3d12+10 26 7d12+65

13 4d10+10 27 8d12+70

14 4d10+15 28 8d12+80

Set Damage

Damage

Base

Actual

Damage

Damage

Base

Actual

Damage

1 2 / 5 / 7 15 24 / 45 / 60

2 4 / 7 / 9 16 25 / 50 / 70

3 6 / 9 / 11 17 30 / 60 / 85

4 7 / 11 / 14 18 31 / 65 / 97

5 9 / 13 / 16 19 36 / 70 / 102

6 10 / 15 / 20 20 41 / 75 / 107

7 12 / 17 / 22 21 46 / 80 / 112

8 12 / 19 / 26 22 51 / 85 / 117

9 12 / 21 / 30 23 56 / 90 / 122

10 13 / 24 / 34 24 61 / 95 / 127

11 13 / 27 / 40 25 66 / 100 / 132

12 13 / 30 / 46 26 72 / 110 / 149

13 14 / 35 / 50 27 78 / 120 / 166

14 19 / 40 / 55 28 88 / 130 / 176

This is the Type Effectiveness chart! Whenever a Move of one of the Types on the left targets a Pokémon, find its Type on the right to check for Type Effectiveness.

Multiply the damage dealt, after defenses are applied, by the number shown above.

Note that Type Effectiveness does not generally affect Status Moves; only Physical and Special Moves are

affected. Confuse Ray, for example, despite being Ghost type, is perfectly able to hit Normal Types.

Moves like Sonic Boom or Counter, on the other hand, despite having non-standard Damage, are affected by Immunity, though not by resistance.

Unlike Pokémon, Trainers do not have a Type, and thus all attacks by default do Neutral damage to them.

Type-Effectiveness is a bit more complicated if the defender has two types:

»» If both Types are neutral, the attack of course is simply neutral

»» If both Types are resistant, the attack is doubly resisted and does 1/4th damage

»» If both Types are weak, the attack is doubly supereffective and does x2 damage.

»» If one Type is weak and one is resistant, the attack is neutral.

»» If either Type is Immune, the attack does 0 damage.

»» In cases where Pokémon gain more than two

Types, attacks may be triply resisted or triply supereffective. Triply resisted attacks do 1/8th damage, and triply super-effective attacks do x3 damage.

Be sure to note that allied effects from Moves can ignore Immunity and effects that tell you to ignore all effects from a Type of Move. For example, Aromatherapy can affect allies even if those allies have Sap Sipper, and Aromatherapy does not trigger the Attack Combat Stage Boost on those allies.

In addition to the Type Effectiveness for damaging attacks, several Types have their own quirks that are important in battle as well!

»» Electric Types are immune to Paralysis

»» Fire Types are immune to Burn

»» Ghost Types cannot be Stuck or Trapped

»» Grass Types are immune to the effects of all Moves with the Powder Keyword

»» Ice Types are immune to being Frozen

»» Poison and Steel Types are immune to Poison

Struggle Attacks
Struggle Attacks are weak and usually untrained attacks made in desperation by Trainers or Pokémon. Struggle Attacks may be used by Pokémon and Trainers alike as a Standard Action.

Trainers without any Combat features often make these attacks if they try to hit something; Pokémon do so more rarely, but may do so if they wish to attack without seriously hurting the target, or are unable to use any Moves due to Suppression, Disable, or similar effects.

Struggle Attacks have an AC of 4 and a Damage Base of 4, are Melee-Ranged, Physical, and Normal Type. They may be further modified by Capabilities. When Trainers use Struggle Attacks, these may be modified by Weapons the trainers are wielding. Never apply STAB to Struggle Attacks. Struggle Attacks do not count as Moves, and effects that alter Moves do not apply to them.

Additionally, if a Trainer or Pokémon has a Combat Skill Rank of Expert or higher, Struggle Attacks instead have an AC of 3 and a Damage Base of 5.

Struggle Attack Modifying Capabilities

Firestarter: The user’s struggle Attacks may be Fire-Typed if they wish. They may also add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. Multiple Fire-Type Moves grant Firestarter.

Fountain: The user’s struggle Attacks may be Water-Typed if they wish. They may also add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. Multiple Water-Type Moves grant Fountain.

Freezer: The user’s struggle Attacks may be Ice-Typed if they wish. They may also add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. Multiple Ice-Type Moves grant Freezer.

Guster: The user’s struggle Attacks may be Flying-Typed if they wish. They may also add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. Multiple Flying-Type Moves grant Guster.

Materializer: The user’s struggle Attacks may be Rock-Typed if they wish. They may also add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. Multiple Rock-Type Moves grant Materializer.

Telekinetic: Telekinetic Pokémon and Trainers can move objects with their mind. They can lift things with Telekinesis as if they were using a Power Capability equal to their Focus Rank. When lifting Staggering Weights with Telekinesis, they roll Focus instead of Athletics, and the DC is 10 instead of 4. They can target objects up to 8 meters away. Count the combined weight of all objects when determining whether they can lift all of them.

Using this Capability to lift the user’s Drag Weight or greater leaves discoverable psychic residue. Additionally, the user may use Struggle Attacks at a range of X, where X is the user’s Focus Rank. These Struggle Attacks deal Normal-Type Damage as usual, but the user may add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. The user may perform the Disarm, Trip, and Push Maneuvers at the range of your Telekinetic Capability and using the Focus Skill for all opposed rolls. When the Push Maneuver is used this way, the user does not repeat the Push but instead Pushes the target a number of meters equal to half their Focus Rank.

If a Pokémon learns the Move Psychic or Telekinesis and does not have the Telekinetic Capability, they gain Telekinetic.

Zapper: The user’s struggle Attacks may be Electric-Typed if they wish. They may also add their Special Attack instead of their Attack and have the attack deal Special Damage, if they wish. Multiple Electric-Type Moves grant Zapper.

Combat Maneuvers

Sometimes, the best option in a fight isn’t just to hit the other side as hard as you can. You can gain a tactical advantage on the field of battle by relieving an opponent of their weapon, momentarily tripping them, or even simply pushing them in a direction.

Pokémon and Trainers can use all Combat Maneuvers, unless otherwise noted. The Combat Maneuvers are below:

Maneuver: Attack of Opportunity

Action: Free

Trigger: See Below

Effect: You may make a Struggle Attack against the triggering foe as an Interrupt. You may use Attack of Opportunity only once per round. Attacks of Opportunity cannot be made by Sleeping, Flinched, or Paralyzed targets. Attacks of Opportunity can be triggered in multiple ways:

»» An adjacent foe uses a Push, Grapple, Disarm, Trip, or Dirty Trick Maneuver that does not target you.

»» An adjacent foe stands up.

»» An adjacent foe uses a Ranged Attack that does not target someone adjacent to it.

»» An adjacent foe uses a Standard Action to pick up or retrieve an item.

»» An adjacent foe Shifts out of a Square adjacent to you.

Maneuver: Disengage

Action: Shift

Effect: You may Shift 1 Meter. Shifting this way does not provoke an Attack of Opportunity.

Maneuver: Disarm

Action: Standard

AC: 6

Class: Status

Range: Melee, 1 Target

Effect: You and the target each make opposed Combat or Stealth Checks. If you win, the target’s Held Item (Main Hand or Off-Hand for humans) falls to the ground.

Maneuver: Dirty Trick

Action: Standard

AC: 2

Class: Status

Range: Melee, 1 Target

Effect: You may perform any of the Dirty Tricks listed below. You may use each trick only once each Scene per target.

Hinder You and the target make Opposed Athletics Checks. If you win, the target is Slowed and takes a -2 penalty to all Skill Checks for one full round.

Blind You and the target make Opposed Stealth Checks. If you win, the target is Blinded for one full round.

Low Blow You and the target make Opposed Acrobatics Checks. If you win, the target is Vulnerable and has their Initiative set to 0 until the end of your next turn.

Maneuver: Manipulate

Action: Standard

AC: 2

Class: Status

Range: 6, 1 Target

Effect: You may perform any of the Manipulations listed below. You may use each Manipulation only once each Scene per target. Manipulate can only be performed by Trainers.

Bon Mot Make a Guile Check, opposed by the target’s Guile or Focus. If you win, the target is Enraged and cannot spend AP for one full round. The target does not gain a Save Check against this effect.

Flirt Make a Charm Check, opposed by the target’s Charm or Focus. If you win, the target is Infatuated with you for one full round. The target automatically fails their Save Check.

Terrorize Make an Intimidate Check, opposed by the target’s Intimidate or Focus. If you win, the target loses all Temporary Hit Points and can only use At-Will Frequency Moves for one full round.

Maneuver: Push

Action: Standard

AC: 4

Class: Status

Range: Melee, 1 Target

Effect: You and the target each make opposed Combat or Athletics Checks. If you win, the target is Pushed back 1 Meter directly away from you. If you have Movement remaining this round, you may then Move into the newly occupied Space, and Push the target again. This continues until you choose to stop, or have no Movement remaining for the round. Push may only be used against a target whose weight is no heavier than your Heavy Lifting rating.

Maneuver: Sprint

Action: Standard

Class: Status

Range: Self

Effect: Increase your Movement Speeds by 50% for the rest of your turn.

Maneuver: Trip

Action: Standard

AC: 6

Class: Status

Range: Melee, 1 Target

Effect: You and the target each make opposed Combat or Acrobatics Checks. If you win, the target is knocked over and Tripped.

Maneuver: Intercept Melee

Action: Full Action, Interrupt

Class: Status

Trigger: An ally within Movement range is hit by an

adjacent foe.

Effect: You must make an Acrobatics or Athletics

Check, with a DC equal to three times the number of

meters they have to move to reach the triggering Ally; If

you succeed, you Push the triggering Ally 1 Meter away

from you, and Shift to occupy their space, and are hit by

the triggering attack. On Failure to make the Check, the

user still Shifts a number of meters equal a third of their

check result.

Note: If the target that was Intercepted was hit by an

Area of Effect Move, and the 1 meter push does not

remove them from the Area of Effect, the Intercept has

no effect since they are still in the area of the attack –

it would cause the Interceptor to be hit by the Move

however.

Maneuver: Intercept Ranged

Action: Full Action, Interrupt

Class: Status

Trigger: A Ranged X-Target attack passes within your

Movement Range.

Effect: Select a Square within your Movement Range

that lies directly between the source of the attack and

the target of the attack. Make an Acrobatics or Athletics

Check; you may Shift a number of Meters equal to half

the result towards the chosen square. If you succeed,

you take the attack instead of its intended target. If you

fail, you still Shift a number of Meters equal to half the

result.

Special: Pokemon must have a Loyalty of 3 or greater to

make Intercept Melee and Intercept Range Maneuvers,

and may only Intercept attacks against their Trainer. At

Loyalty 6, Pokemon may Intercept for any Ally.

Additional Rules

»» Pokémon and Trainers may only Intercept against

Priority and Interrupt Moves if they are faster than

the user of those Moves.

»» Moves that cannot miss (such as Aura Sphere or

Swift) cannot be Intercepted.

»» Pokémon and Trainers cannot attempt Intercepts if

they are Asleep, Confused, Enraged, Frozen, Stuck,

Paralyzed, or otherwise unable to move.

»» Intercepts may not be used to move the Intercepting

Pokémon or Trainer OUT of the way of an attack.

They will always be hit, regardless.

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243

Maneuver: Grapple

Action: Standard

AC: 4

Class: Status

Range: Melee, 1 Target

Effect: You and the target each make opposed Combat

or Athletics Checks. If you win, you and the target

each become Grappled, and you gain Dominance in the

Grapple.

Pokémon and Trainers that are Grappled

»» Are Vulnerable

»» Cannot take Shift Actions, or any actions that would

cause them to Shift.

»» Gain a -6 penalty to Accuracy Rolls if targeting anyone

outside of the Grapple.

»» Additionally, Grapple has other effects on whether

the target has or doesn’t have Dominance.

If a target begins their turn as a part of a Grapple but

with no Dominance, they may choose to contest the

Grapple as a Full Action. If they do, all participants

make opposed Combat or Athletics Check. Whoever

wins then may choose to either continue the Grapple

and gain Dominance, or to end the Grapple.

If a target has the Phasing or Teleporter Capability, they

may also use those to escape from a Grapple on their

turn with no check required.

If a target begins their turn as part of a Grapple and has

Dominance, they may take one of the following actions

as a Full Action.

»» End the Grapple.

»» Secure: They gain a +3 Bonus to the next opposed

check they make in the Grapple.

»» Attack: They may automatically hit with an Unarmed

Struggle Attack.

»» Move: They Shift, dragging the other person in the

grapple with them. The user’s Movement Capability

is lowered by the other grappler’s Weight Class.

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244

Improvised Attacks

You aren’t limited to Moves and simple Struggle Attacks

in a battle. Oftentimes, you will attempt a maneuver

that isn’t strictly outlined by the rules, such as using a

rock as an improvised throwing weapon or attempting

to push a nearly-felled tree onto an opponent.

The general rule here is that if the maneuver isn’t very

limited by resources or the environment and is easily

replicable, then it should have a lesser effect than any

well-defined counterparts in Moves or Weapons. A

penalty to AC and Damage Base is often appropriate,

and for non-damaging attacks, a reduction in the

attack’s effect.

For example, it’s easy for any Trainer to grab a handful

of dirt or sand while in the outdoors or even from a

prepared bag to throw in an opponent’s face without

knowing the Move Sand Attack. Rather than Sand

Attack’s effect, your GM might treat this as an AC 5

attack that reduces a foe’s Accuracy by -2 until the end

of their next turn.

In the case of improvised attacks with common

implements that have a Type association such as

throwing a rock or snowball, you would nonetheless

treat them as Normal Type attacks in most cases because

it otherwise becomes far too easy to gain Type coverage.

A thrown rock does Normal Type damage for the same

reason that Geodude can do Normal Damage with a

Tackle Move. It takes a certain oomph behind an attack

to give it a Type.

On the other hand, if you’re trying to hit someone with

a torch to deal Fire Type damage with your Struggle

Attack, your GM could rule you can do so – but only

once before the torch breaks from the impact.

More elaborate improvised attacks may warrant a Typing

or even emulating an effect similar to many Moves. For

example, if you push a boulder on a mountain in a way

that it unleashes a landslide on your foes, your GM

might rule that as a Rock Slide attack and let you roll

as if using the Move. A GM might require Skill Checks

to be made to pull off some of these trickier maneuvers.

and base the attacking stat’s value off of these Skills. For

example, a Survival Check to trigger the landslide and

then Survival Rank times three for Attack Stat. Given

that this kind of situation is likely rare, hard to repeat in

the same battle, and difficult to deliberately set up, it’s a

good idea to reward players for taking advantage of the

environment in this manner.

Environmental Attack Effects

Attacks and Moves aren’t just techniques to injure

living targets. They’ll often have effects on the target’s

possessions or may be useful for manipulating the

environment.

For example, a powerful Water or Electric Type attack

could soak a Trainer’s electronics or short-circuit them

if they aren’t properly protected. For most common

devices like cell phones, they might be rendered

inoperable until repaired or at least until the end of

the Scene, but when it comes to specialty items such

as Capture Stylers, Snag Machines, and Class-related

items, special shielding or waterproofing may allow

them to be used again in as quickly as three rounds.

A Blizzard Move that freezes a Trainer may ice their

Potions and render them useless until thawed, or a

Flamethrower might burn up Herbs and Apricorns a

Trainer carelessly left in their pockets before wandering

into battle.

GMs should take note not to overuse this idea to punish

Trainers. Generally, Trainers should be assumed to have

a holster or small pack that can hold a small handful of

consumables like Potions which is protected from most

external harm. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea for Trainers

to set down their backpacks full of valuables before they

get into a fight to avoid having anything destroyed as

collateral damage.

Attacks and Moves don’t have to target Pokémon or

Trainers either. A Trainer might order their Charizard

to use a Flamethrower attack in the woods to start a

forest fire, a Conkeldurr might bash down a door with a

Superpower, or a Pikachu may zap a server cluster with

a Thunder Shock to destroy it.

These effects don’t have to be intentional either. A GM

should take into account the logical effects of Moves on

the environment, even if a player has forgotten when

they order Torkoal to use Overheat in a paper factory.

Combat

245

Other Actions in Combat

Take a Breather

Trainers and Pokémon can Take a Breather and

temporarily remove themselves from the heat of

combat to recover from Confusion and other Volatile

Status Afflictions, though they still must pass any Save

Checks to be able to take this action and do so. Taking

a Breather is a Full Action and requires a Pokémon or

Trainer to use their Shift Action to move as far away

from enemies as possible, using their highest available

Movement Capability. They then become Tripped and

are Vulnerable until the end of their next turn.

When a Trainer or Pokémon Takes a Breather, they

set their Combat Stages back to their default level, lose

all Temporary Hit Points, and are cured of all Volatile

Status effects and the Slow and Stuck conditions. To be

cured of Cursed in this way, the source of the Curse must

either be Knocked Out or no longer within 12 meters at

the end of the Shift triggered by Take a Breather.

When a Trainer or Pokémon is unable to choose to Take

a Breather themselves, such as when they are inflicted

with the Rage Status Affliction or when someone doesn’t

want to take a chance on passing a Confusion Save

Check, they may be calmed and assisted by a Trainer to

attempt to Take a Breather.

This is a Full Action by both the assisting Trainer and their

target (as an Interrupt for the target), and the assisting

Trainer must be able to Shift to the target they intend to

help. They then make a Command Check with a DC of

12. Upon success, both the assisting Trainer and their

target must Shift as far away from enemies as possible,

using the lower of the two’s maximum movement for

a single Shift. They then both become Tripped and are

treated as having 0 Evasion until the end of their next

turn. The Trainer that has been assisted then gains all

the effects of Taking a Breather. Upon a failure, nothing

happens, and the assisted Trainer is not cured of their

Status Afflictions.

Precision Skill Checks

Skills can be used during combat just like any other

time, but it is significantly more difficult to perform

precise and careful actions while under attack.

When a Trainer or Pokémon performs such a Skill

Check after having been attacked, successfully or not, in

either the current or the previous round of combat, they

must make a Focus Check in addition to their normal

Skill Check. This Focus Check has a DC of 16. Failure

imposes a -1 penalty to their normal Skill Check, and for

each increment of 4 by which the Trainer or Pokémon

fails, they take an additional -1 penalty.

If the Trainer or Pokémon was successfully hit by a

damaging attack in the current or previous round, they

automatically take a -2 penalty to their normal Skill

Check on top of the penalties imposed by the Focus

Check. And if they were Injured in the current or

previous rounds, they take an additional -2 penalty to

their check per Injury gained in that time.

It is important to note that this doesn’t apply to most

Skill Checks to activate Features, Moves, Abilities,

Capabilities, or to perform Combat Maneuvers. Apply

these rules only when a Trainer or Pokémon performs

very delicate tasks in the middle of battle such as a

Stealth Check to pick a lock, a Technology Education

Check to precisely mix a batch of volatile chemicals, or

a Survival Check to carefully harvest the fragile parts of

a rare flower.

Combat

246

Status Afflictions

Many Moves and effects inflict Status Afflictions on their

victims. There are two main kinds of Status Afflictions;

Persistent and Volatile. There are also other conditions

which are technically not Status Afflictions and cannot

be cured as such. Many Status Afflictions allow Save

Checks which allow the user to end or mitigate the effect.

Save Checks are always 1d20. Unlike the video games,

there is no limit to the number of Status Afflictions that

a single target can have.

Persistent Afflictions

Persistent Afflictions are retained even if the Pokémon

is recalled into its Poké Ball. Sleeping Pokémon will

naturally awaken given time, and Frozen Pokémon can

be thawed as an Extended Action after combat. Burned,

Paralyzed, and Poisoned Pokémon must be treated with

items or at a Pokémon Center to be cured, however. All

Persistent Status conditions are cured if the target is

Fainted.

Burned: The target’s Defense Stat is lowered by 2 Combat

Stages for the duration of the Burn. Fire-Type Pokémon

are immune to becoming Burned. If a Burned Target

takes a Standard Action or is prevented from taking a

Standard Action by an effect such as Sleep, Flinch, or

Paralysis, they lose a Tick of Hit Points at the end of

that turn.

Frozen: The target may not act on their turn and receives

no bonuses from Evasion. At the end of each turn, the

target may make a DC 16 Save Check to become cured.

This DC is lowered to 11 for Fire-Type Pokémon, and

Ice-Type Pokémon are immune to becoming Frozen.

If a Frozen Target is hit by a Damaging Fire, Fighting,

Rock, or Steel Attack, they are cured of the Frozen

Condition. Save Checks to cure this condition receive

a +4 Bonus in Sunny Weather, and a -2 Penalty in Hail.

Paralysis: The Target’s Speed Stat is lowered by 4

Combat Stages. At the beginning of each turn the

target is paralyzed, they must roll a DC 5 Save Check.

If they succeed, they may act normally; if they do not,

they cannot take any Standard, Shift, or Swift Actions.

Electric Type Pokémon are immune to Paralysis.

Poisoned: The target’s Special Defense Value is

lowered by 2 Combat Stages for the duration of the

poison. Poison and Steel-Type Pokémon are immune

to becoming Poisoned. If a Poisoned Target takes a

Standard Action or is prevented from taking a Standard

Action by an effect such as Sleep, Flinch, or Paralysis,

they lose a Tick of Hit Points at the end of that turn.

When Badly Poisoned, the afflicted instead loses 5 Hit

Points; this amount is doubled each consecutive round

(10, 20, 40, etc).

Note: A reminder! A Tick of Hit Points is equal to

1/10th of a Pokémon or Trainer’s Maximum Hit Points.

Volatile Afflictions

Volatile Afflictions are cured completely at the end of

the encounter, and from Pokémon by recalling them

into their Poké Balls. When Pokémon are Fainted, they

are automatically cured of all Volatile Status Afflictions.

Bad Sleep: Whenever the user makes a Save Check to

save against Sleep, they lose two ticks of Hit Points. Bad

Sleep may only afflict Sleeping targets; if the target is

cured of Sleep, they are also cured of Bad Sleep.

Confused: At the beginning of their turn, a confused

target must roll a Save Check.

»» On a roll of 1-8, the confused target hits itself using

a Typeless Physical Struggle Attack as a Standard

Action and may take no other actions this turn. This

attack automatically hits, and deals damage as if it’s

resisted 1 Step.

»» On a roll of 9-15, the target may act normally.

»» On a roll of 16 or higher, the target is cured of

confusion.

Cursed: If a Cursed Target takes a Standard Action,

they lose two ticks of Hit Points at the end of that turn.

Disabled: When the user gains the Disabled Affliction,

a specific Move is specified. The user cannot use that

Move as long as they remain Disabled. Pokémon or

Trainers may have multiple instances of the Disabled

Condition, each specifying a different Move.

Rage: While enraged, the target must use a Damaging

Physical or Special Move or Struggle Attack. At the end

of each turn, roll a DC15 Save Check; if they succeed,

they are cured of Rage.

Flinch: You may not take actions during your next turn

that round. The Flinched Status does not carry over

onto the next round.

Infatuation: At the beginning of each turn you are

infatuated, roll a Save Check.

»» On a result of 1-10, you may not target the Pokémon

or Trainer that you are Infatuated towards with a

Move or Attack, but may otherwise Shift and use

actions normally.

»» On 11-18 you may use a Move and Shift without

restriction.

»» On a roll of 19 or higher, you are cured of the

Infatuation.

Sleep: Sleeping Trainers and Pokémon receive no

bonuses from Evasion, and cannot take actions except

for Free and Swift Actions that would cure Sleep (ex:

activating the Shed Skin Ability). At the end of the

sleeper’s turns, they may make a DC 16 Save Check to

wake up. Whenever a Sleeping Pokémon takes Damage

or loses life from an Attack, they wake up. This does

not include loss of life from passive sources such as

Poison or Burns, but active attacks and effects that cause

Hit Point loss (such as being hit by the Press Feature,

or Super Fang) would wake up their target. Sleeping

targets cannot make Save Checks to be cured of Rage,

Infatuation, or Confusion, but they also cannot hurt

themselves in Confusion. Pokémon and Trainers may

wake an adjacent ally as a Standard Action.

Suppressed: While Suppressed, Pokémon and Trainers

cannot benefit from PP Ups, and have the frequency of

their Moves lowered; At-Will Moves become EOT, and

EOT and Scene x2 Moves become Scene.

Temporary Hit Points: Some effects grant Temporary

Hit Points. Temporary Hit Points are not “healed” away

by effects that cure Status Conditions, but it is lost if the

user is recalled in a Poké Ball, and disappears on its own

after 5 minutes while outside of combat.

Temporary Hit Points are “bonus” health that stacks on

top of “real” Hit Points - so you can benefit from gaining

it even if you are already at full health.

However, Temporary Hit Points are always lost first

from damage or any other effects. Damage carries over

directly to real Hit Points once the Temporary Hit

Points are lost. Furthermore, Temporary Hit Points do

not stack with other Temporary Hit Points – only the

highest value applies.

For example, if you have 10 Temporary Hit Points, and

then gain 8 Temporary Hit Points - nothing happens. If

the next turn you were then to gain 15 Temporary Hit

Points, your Temporary Hit Points would go up to 15

since that is the highest value.

Temporary Hit Points also do not stack with “Real” Hit

Points for the purposes of determining percentages of

Hit Points. If a Pokémon has exactly 1 real Hit Point and

has 50 Temporary Hit Points, they would use the Moves

and effects as if they have 1 Hit Point, not 51.

Combat

248

Other Afflictions

These effects are listed here for reference, but they do

not count as true “Status Afflictions”. Moves, items,

features, and other effects that heal Status Afflictions

cannot fix these effects.

Fainted: A Pokémon or Trainer that is at 0 Hit Points or

lower is Fainted, or Knocked Out. A Fainted Pokémon

or Trainer is unconscious due to injuries or other effects,

and cannot use any Actions, Abilities, or Features unless

the Feature or Ability specifically says otherwise.

The “Fainted” Condition is removed only by specific

items such as Revive, or by being brought up to a

positive Hit Point count by healing Features or Moves

such as Wish or Heal Pulse. Potions and other healing

items may still bring a Pokémon above 0 Hit Points,

but it remains Fainted for another 10 minutes. When

a Pokémon becomes Fainted, they are automatically

cured of all Persistent and Volatile Status Conditions.

Blindness: Blindness represents the target’s vision

becoming obscured. A Blinded Pokémon or Trainer

receives a -6 penalty to Accuracy Rolls, and must make

an Acrobatics Check with a DC of 10 when traveling over

Rough or Slow Terrain or become Tripped. Blindness

is caused by several effects. This is in perpetual effect

in deep darkness, unless the target has Blindsense or

Darkvision. Pokémon or Trainers with Blindsense

cannot be Blinded.

Total Blindness: Total Blindness is more than just

obscured vision; it’s total and complete sightlessness,

such as experienced in a completely dark cave or

building interior. Total Blindness has the same

disadvantages as Blindness, and more. Totally Blinded

Pokémon or Trainers have no awareness of the map,

and must declare any shifts as distance relative to them.

Totally Blinded targets receive a -10 total Penalty to

Accuracy Rolls, and cannot use Moves with Priority or

as Interrupts. When making a Shift action, they must

declare if they are moving Slowly or Quickly; moving

Slowly restricts Movement as if Slowed. Moving Quickly

has no Movement Penalty, but if the user attempts to

Shift into Blocking Terrain, Rough Terrain, or Slow

Terrain, they become Tripped. Pokémon or Trainers

with Blindesense cannot be Totally Blinded.

Slowed: A Pokémon that is Slowed has its Movement

halved (minimum 1). This condition may be removed

by switching, or at the end of a Scene as an Extended

Action.

Stuck: A Pokémon or Trainer that is Stuck cannot make

a Shift Action to move and cannot apply their Speed

Evasion to attacks. This condition may be removed by

switching, or at the end of an Scene as an Extended

Action. Ghost Type Pokémon are immune to the Stuck

Condition.

Trapped: A Pokémon or Trainer that is Trapped cannot

be recalled. Ghost Type Pokémon are immune to the

Trapped Condition.

Tripped: A Pokémon or Trainer has been Tripped needs

to spend a Shift Action getting up before they can take

further actions.

Vulnerable: A Vulnerable Pokémon or Trainer cannot

apply Evasion of any sort against attacks.

Combat

249

Miscellaneous Rules

These rules may come into play out of combat as well,

but they’re most likely to show up in battles, depending

on the environment. Suffocation and drowning are real

threats when a fight takes place on the high seas, and

pushing an opponent off a cliff or tall building is an easy

way to end a fight early.

Suffocating

After 1 minute (or 6 rounds), every round a Pokémon

or Trainer goes without air, they start to suffocate. Take

1 Injury per round suffocating. These injuries can’t be

healed by anything except breathing; once the target

can breathe again, they are healed of these injuries.

Pokémon or Trainers with the Gilled capability do not

suffocate from being in water.

Falling Damage

Taking a fall can be nasty for trainers and Pokémon.

Damage is taken as if it was a Typeless Physical Attack,

with a Damage Base dependent on the distance of the

fall and the weight class of the poor victim.

Weight Class 1 & 2: +1 DB per meter fallen,

maximum DB 20.

Weight Class 3 to 6: +2 DB per meter fallen,

maximum DB 28.

Also consider the following rules:

»» In addition to the damage, trainers and Pokémon

that fall 4 or more meters take 1 injury for every

2 meters fallen. Pokémon with natural Sky Speeds

take 1 Injury for every 3 meters instead, as their

bodies have evolved to take potential crashes better.

»» Falling on a yielding surface may let you ignore

anywhere from 1 to 6 meters of falling, to your GM’s

discretion; 1 would be soft grass, 3 might be a stack

of mattresses, 6 would be deep water. Other surfaces

may increase the falling damage; falling onto rocky

terrain may increase the falling distance by +1.

Some surfaces may even be volatile; falling onto a

tree from above may increase the falling damage by

+1d6, depending on whether you get cut up by a tree

branch or not. Deciding on an appropriate modifier

depending on the surface will be up to your GM.

»» If a Pokémon or Trainer intentionally jumps rather

than falling, they may ignore a number of meters

equal to their High Jump value. This includes any

bonuses from Acrobatics Checks or running starts;

this means Pokémon or trainers can’t be hurt by their

own jumps (well, unless a surface says differently of

course…)

»» When falling, Trainers and Pokémon may make an

Acrobatics Check with a DC of 12; if the fall was

unintentional, the DC is instead 20. Upon success,

they may ignore one additional Meter when

calculating Fall damage.

For example, 2 trainers fall from a high rooftop. The

building is 5 stories tall, or about 15 meters high. Both

are Weight Class 3, both have 40/40 Hit Points, and a

defense of 5. They both fail their acrobatics checks.

One is lucky and lands on an awning 5 meters down;

their GM decides the bouncy awning lets this trainer

ignore the first 2 meters of falling. They take damage

for falling 3 meters, thus the damage is Damage Base

6, or 2d6+8. They roll, getting a fairly average roll of

14, and thus taking 9 damage. But the poor trainer isn’t

done falling; he falls off the awning, the rest of the 10

meters onto a pile of garbage. The GM decides that,

again, the pile of garbage lets him ignore 2 meters. So

he takes damage for falling 8 meters – or 26 feet. That’s

a Damage Base of 16, or 5d10+20. He rolls, getting

an above-average roll of 56. He takes the 51 damage,

leaving him at -20. He gains 1 Injury from Massive

Damage, and 3 Injuries from Hit Point Markers (50%,

0, -50%). Since he fell more than 4 meters during that

last stretch, he gains 4 more injuries. He’s left at -20 Hit

Points and with 8 Injuries – he’s definitely going to need

medical attention.

The other trainer is less lucky and falls the entire 15

meters straight down onto the parking lot below. He

thus takes a whopping Damage Base 28 attack; he rolls

the 8d12+80, and comes out to 140 damage. Even with

his defense, the 135 damage puts the trainer at -95 Hit

Points, which is under -200% of his Hit Points. And

with 14 injuries, this unlucky trainer is very dead either

way.

Combat

250

Gaining Injuries

Even the toughest Pokémon or Trainer will become

injured if they take heavy hits. In the course of battle,

your Pokémon are likely to gain Injuries.

There are two ways of gaining injuries; Massive Damage

and passing certain Hit Point Markers.

Massive Damage is any single attack or damage source

that does damage equal to 50% or more of their Max Hit

Points. Whenever a Pokémon or trainer suffers Massive

Damage, they gain 1 Injury. Massive Damage Injuries

are never gained from Moves that cause you to “Set” or

“lose” Hit Points, such as a Pain Split or Endeavor.

The Hit Point Markers are 50% of maximum Hit Points,

0%, -50%, -100%, and every -50% lower thereafter.

Whenever a Pokémon or Trainer reaches one of these

Hit Point values, they take 1 Injury.

For example, a Pokémon or Trainer that goes from Max

Hit Points to -150% Hit Points after receiving a single

attack would gain 6 Injuries (1 for Massive Damage, and

5 for Hit Point Markers).

Doxy: When GMing, if a Pokémon or Trainer gains an

Injury, it’s better to describe the injury than

to just say “you are injured’” You could say

for example, “You have a gash on your arm,

scratches on your cheek, and a large bruise on your

side” instead of “you have 3 injuries”. For the most part,

Injuries in PTU are along the lines of these quickly

healed wounds rather than broken bones and more

lasting effects that would take weeks to heal.

Dealing with Injuries

For each Injury a Pokémon or Trainer has, their

Maximum Hit Points are reduced by 1/10th. For

example, a Pokémon with 3 injuries and 50 Max Hit

Points could only heal up to 35 Hit Points, or 7/10ths of

their maximum. The artificial Max Hit Point number is

not considered when potentially acquiring new injuries,

or when dealing with any other effects such as Poison

that consider fractional damage, or when dealing with

Hit Point Markers. All Effects that normally go off the

Pokémon’s Max Hit Points still use the real maximum.

See the ‘Resting’ section (page 252) for details on

removing injuries.

Normal healing does not remove injuries; if a Pokémon

is brought down to 50% Hit Points and is healed by,

for example, a Heal Pulse, the injury is not removed.

If they’re then brought down to 50% again, they gain

another Injury for passing the 50% Hit Points Marker

again. Using Healing to push Pokémon or Trainers past

their limits can thus be potentially dangerous, as it gives

multiple opportunities to gain Injuries.

Optional Rule: If you really want to invoke a feeling

of desperation, you may want to give more penalties

for having Injuries. A good way to do this is to lower

a random Combat Stage whenever you gain an Injury,

and let that dictate the location of the Injury. A blow

to the leg could be a reduction in Speed for example,

or a blow to the arm could be a reduction in Attack.

These Combat Stage losses would be permanent until

the Injury is removed. Be careful using this rule with

Lashers! You may wish to rule that Injuries triggered by

their Features don’t trigger this rule.

Heavily Injured

Whenever a Trainer or Pokémon has 5 or more injuries,

they are considered Heavily Injured. Whenever a

Heavily Injured Trainer or Pokémon takes a Standard

Action during combat, or takes Damage from an attack,

they lose Hit Points equal to the number of Injuries they

currently have. Only the foolish and desperate fight

when Heavily Injured.

Dev Note: Why do we have an Injury system? Our many

campaigns of experience with PTA have taught us that

it’s really boring when a single Pokémon or Trainer can

be knocked down to nearly fainting and then brought

up to full health by items or healing Moves upwards of

a half dozen times per battle. It makes battles drag on

forever, and it hurts a GM’s ability to create tense and

interesting challenges.

Injuries limit how far healing can carry any single

combatant in one fight and thus also force you to use

more of your team instead of relying on one Pokémon

in every fight. They’re not meant to be huge hassles, but

they help create a sense of tension and risk.

Injuries

Combat

251

Death

Pushing Pokémon or Trainers to their limits can result

in even worse than Injuries – death. If a Pokémon or

Trainer has 10 injuries, or goes down to either -50 Hit

Points or -200% Hit Points, whichever is lower (in that

-80 Hit Points is lower than -50 Hit Points), during a

non-friendly match, they die.

Generally Pokémon can hold back when instructed to, or

when competing in “friendly” or at least sportsmanlike

matches such as during League events or Gym Matches

– in situations like this, simply pay no heed to the -50/-

200% damage rule.

Injuries are a different issue – the 10 Injuries Rule

always applies. However, it is difficult for a Pokémon

that is perfectly healthy to reach 10 Injuries in a single

match, so by taking proper care of your Pokémon, this

can be avoided.

Coup de Grâce

Any Pokémon or Trainer can attempt a Coup de Grâce

against a Fainted or otherwise completely helpless

target as a Full Action. Simply, the Pokémon or Trainer

makes any Attack or Move they could normally make as

a Standard Action, but this attack must target only the

target of the Coup de Grâce.

If the Coup de Grâce hits, the attack is automatically a

Critical Hit that deals +5 bonus damage (multiply this

damage as part of the critical hit; this will normally make

it +10, but Pokémon or Trainers with Sniper would add

+15), ignoring any immunities to Critical Hits.

Please note: Coup de Grâce rules do not work against

Trainers or Pokémon simply due to Status Conditions

such as Sleep or Paralysis; they must be either KO’d, or

properly bound and made helpless.

Furthermore, these Coup de Grâce rules are included

for the sake of completeness when attempting to finish

off a wounded opponent in the heat of battle; there’s no

reason to force this mechanic outside of battle where a

chance of failure does not make sense. All in all, use this

rule at your GM’s discretion.

Doxy: Injury and Death mechanics are easily removed

if you feel they do not fit the tone of your

campaign. You can remove just one or both

as you like, and of course you are free to alter

them as well. To make things slightly easier

for example, you could rule that Pokémon Centers can

heal all Injuries each day.

That said, these rules have been included because we feel

they help keep the tension high during your adventures,

and give Trainers incentives to use a varied team to help

their Pokémon avoid being overtaxed. If you choose to

remove Injuries, be conscious that this may affect the

balance of other Features and effects that depend on

Injuries as a limiting factor.

Combat

252

Resting

Sleep and extended rests can help restore the Hit Points

of wounded Pokémon and Trainers. “Rest” is described

as any period of time during which a trainer or Pokémon

does not engage in rigorous physical or mental activity.

What activities precisely are and aren’t “rest” is up to

your GM’s discretion; usually rest means sleep, or at

least sitting down for a while. Meals can often count

as “rest” time. Traveling for extended periods of time

almost never counts as “Rest”.

For the first 8 hours of rest each day, Pokémon and

Trainers that spend a continuous half hour resting heal

1/16th of their Maximum Hit Points. You may continue

to rest further after this time, but Hit Points will not

be regained. Also, a Trainer or Pokémon is unable to

restore Hit Points through rest if the individual has 5

or more injuries. Once the individual has 4 or fewer

injuries (usually by seeking medical attention), he or

she may once again restore Hit Points by resting.

If a Pokémon or Trainer has an Injury, they can naturally

heal from a single Injury if they go 24 hours without

gaining any new injuries. Trainers can also remove

Injuries as an Extended Action by Draining 2 AP. This

is subject to the limitations on healing Injuries each day.

Extended Rests are rests that are at least 4 continuous

hours long. Extended rests completely remove Persistent

Status Conditions, and restore a Trainer’s Drained AP.

Daily-Frequency Moves are also regained during an

Extended Rest, if the Move hasn’t been used since the

previous day.

Pokémon Centers

Pokémon Centers use expensive and advanced machinery

to heal Pokémon. In a mere hour, Pokémon Centers

can heal a Trainers and Pokémon back to full health,

heal all Status Conditions, and restore the Frequency of

Daily-Frequency Moves.

Injuries however, may delay the time spent healing

a Pokémon Center. For each Injury on the Trainer or

Pokémon, Healing takes an additional 30 minutes. If

the Trainer or Pokémon has five or more Injuries, it

takes one additional hour per Injury instead.

Pokémon Centers can remove a maximum of 3 Injuries

per day; Injuries cured through natural healing,

Bandages, or Features count toward this total.

We recommend Pokémon Centers be FREE to use, but this of course varies by setting. Even if you don’t include

explicit Pokémon Centers in the style of the anime and video games in your campaign, it’s a good idea to create

equivalent medical institutions, such as hospitals, town doctors, or even medicine men who serve the same

mechanical purpose as a Pokémon Center in providing access to healing and a way for Pokémon to recuperate

from Injuries more easily.

Combat

253

Combat Demo

The Scenario

Sylvana, from the Character Creation chapter, is an aspiring Trainer who’s been traveling with her Cyndaquil,

Archie, for a week or so. She’s decided that she wants to catch another Pokémon to add to her team, so she’s set out

for a local lakefront to see what the wildlife is like there. In her impatience, she’s left her friend, Maya, behind and

stumbles upon '''three wild Oddish '''going about their daily business. What will happen?

The Stats

For easy reference, here are the crucial numbers for this encounter. In the case of trainers, only the stats absolutely

needed to demonstrate the encounter are listed, while the Pokémon are fully statted.

Sylvana is an Ace Trainer and an Athlete, and she’s Leveled Up a bit since her debut in the Character Creation

chapter. Lisa, her player, has her Athletics to Adept (Rank 4) which means her Poké Ball Throwing Range is 8

meters (4 meters by default + another 4 meters for her Athletics rank) and her Overland Speed is 6 meters (4

meters from her Adept Athletics and 2 meters from her Untrained Acrobatics).

Her relevant combat stats are: 57 Hit Points, 7 Attack, 5 Sp. Defense, 10 Speed. With Athlete’s Trained Stats, she

instead has 8 Attack and 12 Speed.

Maya is a Martial Artist and a Tumbler. Her relevant combat stats are: 12 Attack, 8 Speed

Archie is Sylvana’s Cyndaquil. He is Level 14 and has a Hardy Nature.

His combat stats are: 60 Hit Points, 12 HP stat, 3 Attack, 4 Defense, 14 Special Attack, 5 Special Defense, and 16

Speed. With Sylvana’s Agility Training applied, his '''Overland Speed is 6 meters, and his Initiative is 20. '''With Ace

Trainer applied, his Special Attack is 16.

The wild Oddishes are Level 13 and all have neutral Natures.

They all share these combat stats: 53 Hit Points, 10 HP stat, 5 Attack, 12 Defense, 14 Special Attack, 13 Special

Defense, and 3 Speed.

Setting the Scene and Starting Combat
GM: Alright Sylvana, you’ve gone on ahead of Maya and found your way to the lakeside. Turning to your right, there’s an area of heavy brush. Since this is your first time dealing with it, I’ll let you know now that it’s rough and slow terrain which means you’ll have a harder time targeting and moving through it. Maya, you’ll have to wait a while to pop in the scene because you got left behind. Sylvana: Got it. Well, I’m here to catch Pokémon, so what do I see? I’ll turn toward Archie and ask him if he’s noticed anything. “Hey Archie, you see any Pokémon around? Maybe something hiding in that thick brush over there.” GM: Archie perks up and sends small gouts of flame pointing in a few directions. Following his guide, you notice a few weeds that seem to be moving around. One’s floating in the shallow water near the shore, one’s past the heavy brush, and another is rustling about on land near the shore. Sylvana: Aha! Oddish, right? I grin and start to pull a Poké Ball out of my pocket. “Grass types! Should be a piece of cake.” GM: So you’re jumping straight into combat? We can do that. The Oddish look pretty scared of you anyhow, since you’re carrying a fire type with you. A Cyndaquil’s open flame stands out a lot! Lemme just draw up a quick map and we can start… Setting the Scene and Starting Combat Combat 255 Round One GM: Okay, tallying up your speeds, the initiative order will be Archie, then Sylvana, then the three Oddish. Archie’s up – take your Pokémon turn. Sylvana: I don’t really want to deal with three Oddish bearing down on me at once. Good thing I used Ace Trainer on Archie earlier today to raise his Special Attack by one Combat Stage. It’s up to 16 now, and I’ve Drained 1 Action Point today. I applied Agility Training, so his Overland is increased to 6. And then…“Archie, throw up a smokescreen near the bushes so that one will stay out of our way!” Since it’s my turn right after, I’ll shift up closer to the Oddish on land near the lake and throw a Poké Ball with my Standard Action. GM: Smart move that first one, but whoa are you sure? You usually want to weaken Pokémon some before trying to capture them. Sylvana: They’re just Oddish. I have a pretty good chance anyway, right? I’m rolling it. First I have to hit them with the Poké Ball, right? That’s an AC 6 status attack, and I’m in range, so… I rolled an 8 on my Accuracy Roll! Does that hit? GM: Yup. Oddish aren’t very fast. Now roll 1d100 for your capture roll. You’re using a basic Poké Ball so you don’t add or subtract anything. Sylvana rolls a 68 on her capture roll and subtracts her Trainer Level, 4, for a total of 64. The GM starts calculating the Oddish’s capture rate. He starts with 100, and then subtracts twice the Oddish’s level (13x2=26) then another 25 because the Oddish is above 75% Hit Points, then adds another 10 because the Oddish has two evolutions left. This nets a final capture rate of 59. Unfortunately Sylvana rolled too high to capture the Oddish. Hmm…Your Poké Ball hits spot on, but after a few shakes, the Oddish bursts out, breaking the ball. It looks incensed. Now the Oddish get to go. The GM rolls some dice. The Oddish near the bushes rolls an 8 to use Poison Powder on Sylvana. The Move normally has an AC of 6, but the Oddish is targeting through a smokescreen which gives a penalty of 3. The Oddish would have needed to roll at least a 10 to hit with Sylvana’s Speed Evasion of 1, so the attack misses. Other Pokémon would also take a penalty of 2 from targeting through Rough Terrain, but Oddish has the Naturewalk (Forest, Grassland) Capability and is not hindered by the grassy terrain. The other two Oddish huddle and target Archie, using Absorb and Poison Powder. They roll 10 and 12, both hits. GM: Archie’s been Poisoned now. Keep in mind he’s going to be down two combat stages in special defense as long as he’s poisoned. The other Oddish starts draining away Archie’s energy for… Absorb has a Damage Base of 2, but Oddish are Grass Type which means they get STAB or Same Type Attack Bonus on this Move. With a Damage Base of 4, the attack has a 1d8+6 damage roll plus the user’s Special Attack. The GM rolls a 4 on the d8 for a total of 10 damage from the Move and 14 more from the Oddish’s Special Attack – the final sum is 24 damage. Archie subtracts 4, his Special Defense after applying combat stages, from the damage and then halves it for resisting Grass Type Moves. He takes 10 damage, bringing him down to 50 Hit Points. If the Oddish were damaged, it would recover 5 Hit Points from the Absorb Move, half the damage it dealt. Combat 256 Round Two Sylvana: Okay so it’s my turn again now, right? This isn’t too bad so far, but I’m going to have to give Archie an Antidote ASAP. First though, let’s have him fry one of those Oddish, let’s say, the one in the water. Ember! Oh! I rolled a 20. That’s a Critical Hit, right? Ember has an AC of 2. As she exclaimed, Sylvana rolled a 20 on her accuracy check, easily overcoming the 2 evasion from the Oddish’s Special Defense. It’s a Damage Base 4 attack, but Archie also gets STAB for using it, raising it to DB 6, which has a damage roll of 2d6+8. This is doubled by the Critical Hit, making it 4d6+16, and Sylvana rolls a [5, 3, 5, 4]. She totals up the damage, adding Archie’s 16 Special Attack (note that this isn’t doubled by the Critical Hit). The attack does 49 damage, subtracting the Oddish’s Special Defense of 13 for 36 damage. However, it is then multiplied by 1.5 because Fire Type attacks are supereffective against Grass Types, dealing 54 damage to the Oddish. GM: Um, ouch! You take out that Oddish in one blow! It’s looking pretty crispy now as it Faints. If I were keeping track, it’d have three injuries. One from taking massive damage – your Ember did over half its Hit Points in one hit, and one each from hitting the 50% and 0% Hit Point Markers. Don’t forget to make Archie take poison damage. Archie loses a Tick of Hit Points – that’s 6 Hit Points for him with his max of 60. He’s now at 44/60 Hit Points. Sylvana: Oh…that Critical Hit was kind of a doubleedged sword. Guess I’ll catch another one. For now though, I’ll run up to Archie and apply an Antidote to him. GM: You don’t have Medic Training, so this is going to take up Archie’s next action as he stays still to let you treat him, alright? Combat 257 Sylvana: Sure. I just want to keep him from losing too many Hit Points from poison. GM: The two remaining Oddish close in on you, and they spray you and Archie with a fountain of Acid! Sylvana: They can hit both of us at once? GM: Yup. Acid’s a Cone 2 move, which means they can hit an area on the map like so. The Oddish roll 4 and 14 on their accuracy checks. Lucky for Sylvana and Archie, the first Oddish is still in the smokescreen, applying a -3 penalty to that Accuracy Roll of 4, so that attack misses. The other hits though. Oddish also get STAB for Acid, bringing its Damage Base from 4 to 6. The damage roll is 2d6+8. Rolling [3,3] and adding 14 Special Attack, the total damage is 28. Sylvana and Archie each take 23 damage after subtracting the 5 each has in Special Defense. This is enough to bring Archie below the 50% Hit Point Marker, so he takes an Injury! Archie’s max Hit Points are reduced by 1/10th, becoming 54, and leaving him at 21/54 Hit Points. Sylvana is left at 34/57 Hit Points. GM: Just calling it an Injury is boring, so let’s actually describe how you’re hurt. Archie’s probably a little blinded by the spray of acid right now. If we were using the optional rules for decreasing combat stages per injury, I’d give him a penalty to his accuracy. This is a pretty light-hearted campaign though, so we won’t use those rules. Sylvana: Ouch! Thanks, though this still looks pretty bleak for me. Archie won’t get an action next round because I used that antidote, and we’re both low enough on Hit Points that it looks like the Oddish might be able to finish us off… Maya: Hey, how about I show up and catch up to Sylvana and Archie about now then? It’s suitably dramatic, and it’ll keep Sylvana’s first capturing session from turning into a horrible experience for her. GM: That sounds like a great idea. Putting you in the initiative, it’s Archie, then Sylvana, then Maya, then the remaining two Oddish.

Round Three Sylvana: Archie’s skipped, so…I’m going to go up to the Oddish near the lake and kick it! Sylvana is making a Struggle Attack right now. Struggle Attacks are always available to Trainers and Pokémon, even if they’ve run out of other Moves to use. Struggle Attacks by default have a Damage Base of and AC of 4, and the Oddish has 2 physical evasion. Sylvana rolls a 6, just barely hitting. The damage roll is 1d8+6. Unfortunately, Sylvana rolls badly, only dealing 8 damage from the Move plus 8 from her attack stat for a total of 16. With the Oddish’s 12 Defense, it only takes 4 damage and is hardly hurt at all. GM: The Oddish giggles like it’s being tickled. You should grab some Moves like Strength from Athlete if you want to fight yourself, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that you weren’t able to do much to the Oddish there. Maya: But I’m a fighter though and through, so this is what I live for! I’ll charge onto the scene, straight into the smokescreen and heavy brush so I can Aerial Ace the Oddish there with a “HYAH!” Maya is a Martial Artist and a Tumbler, both of which are Trainer Classes that have access to Moves. Aerial Ace is a Move she learned when she took the Aerialist Feature in the Tumbler Class. Maya: Hey, I rolled a 1 for my accuracy check! That’s just my luck. GM: That would normally be an automatic miss, but Aerial Ace can’t miss. Even bad luck can’t stop you today. Aerial Ace is a Damage Base 6 Move, with a damage roll of 2d6+8. She rolls [5,6] for 19 damage before adding her Attack stat of 12. The Oddish subtracts 12 damage for its Defense, taking 19 damage which is then multiplied by 1.5 for its Flying weakness – final damage is 28. The Oddish is left at 25/53 Hit Points and takes two Injuries. One for Massive Damage, and one for hitting the 50% Hit Point Marker. GM: The Oddish teeters over from the blow. It’s still awake though, and it looks mad! The two Oddish spit out more acid all over Sylvana and Maya. The GM rolls a 2 for the attack on Maya, missing, but a 6 for Sylvana which hits. The attack does 30 damage, reduced by 5 by Special Defense, for a final total of 25. This leaves Sylvana at a precarious 9 Hit Points! Sylvana: Owww! Geez, I fall to my knees, barely able to stay awake under the poisonous assault. I guess I better end this next round or things are going to be bad, huh?

Round four

Sylvana: Okay, here goes nothing. I’ll have Archie use

Ember on the Oddish, and then hopefully I’ll be able to

catch it!

''The GM notices the time and wants to hurry the battle up''

''to wrap up the session more quickly. He and the players''

''agree to skip rolling for damage and instead use the set''

''damage for a given Damage Base instead. Sylvana rolls a''

''5 on her Accuracy Roll, which is enough to hit. With STAB''

added in, Ember is a Damage Base 6 attack, which is 15

''damage under the set damage chart. The attack does 31''

''damage total, which is reduced by 13 for Special Defense,''

''and then multiplied by 1.5 for super effectiveness, for a''

''total of 27 damage. The Oddish is brought down to 22 Hit''

Points and has two injuries – one from massive damage

and one from the 50% Hit Point Marker.

Sylvana: I’ll throw a Poké Ball at it on my turn now! A

10 should hit it, right? Now for the capture roll…Aw

man I rolled a 72. Minus 4 makes 68. That’s even worse

than what I rolled the first time!

GM: Don’t despair just yet. Let me calculate the capture

rate for the Oddish.

Again, the GM starts at 100 and subtracts the Oddish’s

''level times two. That’s 100 – 26 so far. The Oddish is under''

''50% Hit Points, so he leaves that unmodified for now. He''

''adds another 10 because Oddish has two evolutions left.''

''Each injury the Oddish has also adds 5 to its capture rate''

''for a total of 10. The final capture rate for the Pokémon is''

a whopping 94!

GM: …Yeah, you actually would’ve caught it with pretty

much any roll. See? It pays to weaken a Pokémon before

trying to catch it, even if it’s a weak Pokémon to start

with.

Maya: You got what you came for, right? I’m gonna

punch out the last Oddish then!

''Maya uses her own Struggle Attack, getting a 9 on her''

''Accuracy Roll. With a Damage Base of 4, the attack''

''does 11 damage plus her 12 attack for 23 total. With 12''

defense, the Oddish is able to take the blow but is weak.

GM: Well, it could keep fighting, but wild Pokémon

aren’t stupid. It just saw one of its kind roasted and the

other captured, so it’s not going to try to stick around

and fight this out. Either of you two going to try to stop

it if it tries to scurry away?

Sylvana: I don’t think I’m in any shape to chase after it.

Maya: It’d be mean to hunt it down and beat it up,

wouldn’t it? Sylvana got the capture she wanted already.

GM: Great! Now that the wildlife has been, erm, tamed,

the two of you can enjoy the rest of your afternoon

relaxing at the lakeside.

Sylvana: I’m just about to collapse, so I probably really

need the rest!

Maya: I bought refreshment items while we were in

town, so I can get both you and Archie fixed up.

GM: Don’t forget though, Injuries lower max Hit Points,

so Archie’s maxed out at 54 Hit Points. We’ll wrap up as

soon as I calculate experience points for the encounter.

''Sylvana automatically gains one trainer experience for''

''catching a new Pokémon species. The GM then totals up''

''the levels of the Oddish fought, getting 39. Even though''

''the last Oddish ran away, the GM decides to count it as''

''defeated because the players could have easily knocked it''

out if they wanted to – and he doesn’t want to encourage

players to brutally hunt down wild Pokémon just for

''Experience in the future. The GM decides this was an''

everyday encounter, with a significance multiplier of 1.

''This is divided by two, giving each player 19 Experience''

''for their Pokémon. Even though Maya arrived late and''

didn’t use a Pokémon, the GM decides to reward her

''with a portion of the Experience to allocate to any of''

''her Pokémon in order to keep things even. With a new''

Pokémon for Sylvana and Experience for both Trainers’

Pokémon, Sylvana’s charging in by herself against all

''those Oddish seems to have paid off this time, at least.''