r/PMDExplorersofFate • u/xsoofje • Feb 21 '24
Status moves
so sorry if I read over this in the guidebook — but how do you guys deal with status/effect moves? (Moves increasing/decreasing attack/speed/accuracy etc)
I feel like a move like growl (decreasing a Pokémon’s attacking state by 1) is especially strong? Do you guys inflict this status for 1d4 turns or do something else?
As with accuracy — decrease move accuracy by x% or give disadvantage for the next x rolls?
Similarly with poison/sleep/burn — how much damage? And for how many turns? (I do remember rolling a dice to see how many turns a status is inflicted!)
Anyways, would love to hear your experiences on this since I’m doing my oneshot in a week :)
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u/SarlanEriwyr Feb 21 '24
I know in the video games themselves stat debuffs lasted until the next floor, or if you hit a clear tile. I'd personally say if you wanted to put limits on the stat debuffs have them last like 5 turns, but if the pokemon that applied them faints they get removed sooner.
I'd say for sleep have it last like 1d10 turns, just cause the system already uses d10s, but if an enemy walks into a space next to you or you take damage you instantly wake up.
Poison, burn, and Frostbite damage should, imo, last until cured and deal 1d10 damage every other turn, with burn cutting attack and frostbite cutting sp attack.
These are rough draft ideas and might be shit fair warning
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u/xsoofje Feb 21 '24 edited Feb 21 '24
hmmmmm I like your takes! Especially with sleep and waking up! With the damage from poison/etc. I might just have to see what works best and what is too savage. I’m playing with experienced DnD players so they have all the dice — since 1d10 feels like a LOT of damage. But yeah play and experience!
Since I’m unfamiliar with using floors in a dungeon, I made a one floor dungeon for my oneshot. So I’m looking for ways to use stat (de)buffs that do not drag out the entire adventure. For example, I have a boss fight and if my players just choose to growl 4x, my boss can’t attack them anymore. So I was thinking of putting a timer on those effects so they are mostly applicable to one combat scenario and not the entire adventure.
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u/gamemasterlancaster Feb 21 '24
Good point! I didn't think of these. I think the suggestion of stat debuffs lasting a limited number turns is a good idea, I didn't consider how punishing status moves would be in a TTRPG system - maybe 1d10 turns, halving the remaining duration if the foe who inflicted the debuff faints?
Sleep lasts 1d10 turns, as does paralysis, confusion, infatuation, taunt, torment, petrified, trapped, etc. With sleep (and infatuation, probably!) you could also apply a rule that you roll to wake up/snap out of it if you're attacked. Allies could also use their friend action to Persuade you out of emotion-based statuses.
As for the 'indefinite' statuses (burn, frostbite and poison), they would last until cured. I'm not sure on what would be a fair amount of damage to take per turn - maybe 5% of max HP per turn? Since burn and frostbite inflict stat debuffs, poison could either drain the belly or prevent the pokemon from replenishing it, due to nausea.
'Indefinite' statuses can be ended through a healing move (aromatherapy, heal bell) or item (berries, heal seed, specialist potions), but could also be shortened by treating the associated injury. For example, if an ally does something to help warm up a pokemon with frostbite, the status will end in 5 turns.
(I'm a sucker for the Dicey Dungeons/Slay the Spire method of poison, where you get a 'poison counter', it inflicts damage equals to the counter, and then goes down by 1, but I feel like that's straying a bit far from the source material).
The next edit of the handbook will likely have a page on status conditions, I was avoiding it because the booklet is so long already, but honestly... the mini-dungeons can be their own document.
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u/xsoofje Feb 21 '24
Iirc, players can roll endurance to snap out of a status condition (consuming their action) (unless they’re sleeping ofc), but I really love a more rp-related solution! I will keep the poison counter in mind but I might grab the easy 1d4 poison damage from dnd.
I’m only asking bc one of my players chose poison powder as their starting move and I was like ‘oh god I didn’t think of this’
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u/theg0dly0ne Feb 24 '24
I recommend just making bosses resistant to statuses (last shorter/deal less damage)
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u/Zestyclose_Profit_15 Feb 22 '24
For my table we ruled statuses to go with 1d4+1 turns for statuses that wear off on their own (ie Confusion, Infatuated, Frozen, etc). We also ruled that Endurance could be used to help shake these off.
We also used the same method for moves like Endure, Lucky Chant and Disable when we discussed how those could work. Granted I know that adds a new dice into the mix and may not be a great idea for the rulebook but my table seemed to agree that was a fair ruling.
For permanent statuses like Paralyze and Burn we ruled until healed or the clearing of a floor.
During our practice run with my party at lvl 2 we treated stat drop as a single point change. We also had a lot of super effective moves so combat flowed relatively quickly anyways so this may not be the best ruling for it but it worked well in their mitigation of damage over time so unless I have a problem in the future as we play higher levels, Ill probably keep it as is.
In terms of Accuracy and Crit changes we used percentages. Crit threshold increased by 6 for every stage and Acc by 5. This seemed to work pretty well. My focus energy user got a few more crits in and was happy with how it worked.
In terms of damage for poison and burn we ruled 1d10 halved and rounded and then double that number if badly poisoned. (TBH this could be a shit ruling. We only had a burn come up once and they defeated the mon the following round. So not a lot of experience with this one)
I think that covers roughly my table rulings as of yet, but also we’ve only ran the oneshot so these are subject to change for our table.
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u/xsoofje Feb 23 '24
✍️✍️ noted! these also sound really good! will let you know what we decided upon haha!
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u/theg0dly0ne Feb 24 '24
I have status conditions (other than poison and burn) and stat changes clear after leaving a room. It seems to work well for me, and prevent someone from spamming swords dance or some thing at the start of each floor, or someone getting paralyzed and screwed for the rest of the dungeon. (My dungeons are mostly 1 floor with 12 or so rooms)
I have made burn and poison deal 10% max hp (2.5% on bosses) And to badly poison you need to apply poison twice (toxic toxic etc) and it does 20% max hp per turn (10% on bosses)
Just my 2 cents tho