Pokemon - D20 Version, WARNING! Anthony is ideaing again!

While I ponder what to post next in both RPs, I figure I'd better share with you something I've been working on in my mind. Namely, how to convert the now 721 Pokémon into playable creatures for D&D Version 3.5 and Pathfinder. This is something I've voiced with my D&D group (of which Drag0nS0ul's a member), but I thought something down on "paper" as it were.

Now, D&D 3rd Edition does have rules for the development and leveling of its various monsters. However, Pokémon are not your average critters. They are fully capable of understanding Common, which allows Trainers to communicate with them and even understand commands. (Or, in the case of Meowth, that one Slowking, that one Gastly, and various telepathic Pokémon...actually speak it!) As such, the way Pokémon will be used in this will be as playable characters. Those of you who are familiar with D&D 2nd Edition's "Complete Book of Humanoids" will be familiar with THAT concept.

To help explain the rules, I will be creating and developing a Froakie/Frogadier/Greninja. Now...this may take several posts, so bear with me. Hopefully once you get the idea, you should be able to bring your favorite Mon in to spice things up. Perhaps as a playable familiar/animal companion?

Anyways...

Building a Pokémon

Pokémon all have an equivalent Race/Class. The character class they are based on is dependant on their overall abilities and skills. For example, since Froakie will eventually become a Ninja (Probably the next Croakage... *KA-BRICKED* OW!!!), we'll use the Ninja class template from Dragon Magazine #318. PDF of that magazine Essentially, this will form the basis of how the character develops in terms of base attacks and savings throws. Everything else, however, will be based on the Pokémon itself.

Your beginning stats, for example...YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER! *gets looks* I will explain.

As you know, each Pokémon builds differently and have "base stats". As such, your initial stat rolls cannot be placed just anywhere. You have to place your highest in the stats that (in the game) develop faster than the others. So...let's roll up some stats for my Froakie. So...roll 4D6 six times, deducting the lowest die for each roll...

12, 12, 16, 11, 15, 13

Okay...that's workable. Now, to figure out which stats go where, we will equate the stats as follows...

HP = CHA, Attack = STR, Defense = CON, Sp.Attack = INT, Sp.Defense = WIS, Speed = DEX

(Yes...I know HP is CON and AC relies on DEX, but I had to go with a 1-to-1 conversion for the stats and this made the most sense.)

Now, Froakie and its evolutions develop Speed highest, Special Attack next highest, Attack next highest, and HP/Def/Sp.Def all tie for lowest. So...in this case I'll be putting the 16 in DEX, 15 in INT, 13 in STR, and since the last three are a tie I can chose where to put which stats. So, in this case I will place the stats as follows:

STR 13, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 15, WIS 12, CHA 11

Now...please note that this was just for the initial stats. During battles, Attack, Defense, etc. will be something else entirely, but we'll talk about that later.

Now because Froakie's HP development is rather low (Glass cannon, basically. Heck...Fennekin/Braixen/Delphox has slightly better HP development and it's like a MAGE!), it's HD will also be low. In this case, unlike the actual Ninja class...it actually has a lower HD. D4, to be precise. So, starting HP will be 4 + the CON bonus of +1.

*winces* 5 HP to start? This could get ugly. Hopefully, it's higher DEX will help with AC.

Next post: We'll look at how this character develops skills and how Abilities = Feats.

....... Anthony... your getting a little to close to the scary part of the geek scale...

If I may make an alternate suggestion for stat allocation and reasoning behind the differences.

Str=Attack
Dex=speed
Con=HP (obvious direct link between overall beefiness and hp's)
Int=SP attack
Wis=Defense (Having the knowledge when to actually resist the physical blow and when to dodge/timing on how to dodge)
Chr=SP Defense (Ability to "convince" the other pokemon to not have their attack actually land. With Int being the opposite a higher int would let the attacker be able to see through this rouse and 'connect' with the special attack.)

They HAVE pokemon stuff on the DnD wiki Anth.

Ah...that works better. (Won't change Froakie's example, but that works better.)

Knight...unless I turn into a guest character on "The Big Bang Theory", I'll be fine. (Heck...the BBT characters scare ME!)

Anyways...let's move on...

Elemental types

Much like races in D&D can alter stats and abilities, the same is true for the different Pokémon elements. In fact, the different elements not only effect each other in different ways, the various Pokémon of a type are usually better in some way than the other types. For example, Water types tend to have more HP, Electric types are faster, Steel types have higher defenses but lower attack, etc.

Now I haven't yet determined for all of the types yet, but for Froakie since he is a Water type, he will get more HP. In this case, Water types start with an additional HD but do NOT get an additional CON bonus. So, Froakie's starting HP is now 9. Little better.

Abilities to Feats

The Abilities of Pokémon are pretty much the equivalent of Feats in D&D. However, let's be honest...no way in hell would any DM let any humanoid character have some of these Abilities. (Especially Wonder Guard.) As such, unlike normal characters, Pokémon do not gain Feats like other characters do. Instead, their Abilities are the only Feats they get. However, unlike in the games, Pokémon in the D&D world can learn ALL their Abilities.

When Pokémon learn their Abilities are based on how many Abilities they have as well as when those Pokémon evolve. (If ever.) So...let's look at Froakie. He only learns two Abilities: Torrent and Protean.

TORRENT: If Pokémon's HP is reduced to less than 1/4 of maximum, add 2DT to damage caused by Pokémon's Water attacks.

(I'll explain what a DT is later.)

PROTEAN: If Pokémon uses an attack that causes damage, Pokémon temporarily becomes that type. Does NOT automatically gain the bonuses of that type, though.

Now, since characters in D&D3/Pathfinder reach a maximum of Lv50, that means that Pokémon gain attacks, evolve, etc. at half their video game levels. So...Froakie will become a Frogadier at Lv8 and a Greninja at Lv18. For the sake of the Abilities, we'll have Froakie start with Torrent and then learn Protean at Lv18 when it becomes a Greninja.

So...what happens when they don't get any other Abilities/Feats? Simple...Pokémon gain additional buffs to the stats instead. Normally, characters would get a new feat every two levels. Pokémon, instead, get an additional stat increase every four levels. If DMs feel this is too much, they can use the "Effort Value" rule so that THEY can choose where the extra stat raise goes.

Skills

Monsters have skills just like humanoid characters. Like with normal characters, Pokémon can also learn skills in the same way. The amount of skills points they get/receive is based on their respective "class". So...since Froakie is being based off the Ninja class, it will recieve (6+INT mod)x4 skills to start and 6 + INT mod at every level. So...since Froakie's INT is 15, the modifier is +2. So, to start Froakie has 32 skill points.

A good rule of thumb for beginning characters is to put 4 points into as many class skills as possible. (6+INT mod, or 8 of them, in this case.) So, the class skills for Froakie would be...

Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Info, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Perception, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Swim, Tumble

...since those are the class skills for Ninjas. Now...excluding those that only humanoids could do (Bluff, Craft, Disguise, Sleight of Hand), I think I'll put points in...

Balance, Hide, Listen, Jump, Move Silently, Perception, Swim, Tumble.

So, that's that. Next post: Hits, AC, and a couple of new stats to know.

Wouldn't it be able to Disguise as well, considering the move Substitute? Or would Substitute count more as Hide?

I would say Substitute is kinda its own thing, but closer to Hide since the user is "disappearing" when the Substitute appears. Disguise, to me, trying to alter your own appearance to resemble someone else...whch I don't feel is the same thing.

Let's move on to the next bit...

Hits, AC, and other stats

All Pokémon actually have THREE different types of attacks. Whereas normal characters have attacks for melee and ranged...Pokémon also have an attack for special. So...just like melee adds STR to the base attack and ranged adds DEX, special adds INT, as was pointed out earlier.

Now...since we have a special attack, what do we have for special DEFENSE? Well...that's called the SAC.

And this is where things get interesting...

SAC is calculated like normal AC, only we use the CHA bonus (as per Steve's suggestion) instead of DEX. In fact...you can also calculate SAC for your normal humanoid characters as well...

HOWEVER

As it turns out, Pokémon view AC and SAC a bit differently. In fact...in regards to the kind of attacks Pokémon use, only the physical armor protects against their physical attacks and only the magical bonus magic armor has (if any) will protect against their specials. So...if you have +3 chainmail, only the +6 the chain gives will protect against the Pokémon's physicals and only the +3 will work for the specials. Also...the normal character will have to apply their INT bonus for the specials instead of the DEX bonus.

(TBH...I think Pathfinder and/or 3.5 D&D should use something like this. But that's just me...)

Now...there is one additional stat that Pokémon have: PP. This isn't rolled up like HP is, however...

All Pokémon start with 40 PP. This is essentially like a pool of stamina that they draw from for all of their attacks. This pool does not increase as you level. Instead, like in the game, you must find items to raise your PP. These items won't increase the individual moves' PP though...just your maximum pool of PP. The maximum you can raise your PP will be up to the DM's discretion.

Now...to explain how to use those PP...

Attacks

That various attacks that Pokémon learn via leveling have the following details:

Name - Obvious
Type - Melee, Ranged, or Special...which determines which attack roll you use
PP Cost - Also obvious
Effect - Damage if applicable plus any other effects

The damage you cause is where that DT I mentioned earlier comes in. DT means "die tier". See...since it IS kinda possible for Pokémon to learn certain moves at ANY time, not just at specific levels, the tier system for damage dice is used to balance this. The tier die is different depending on the Pokémon's evolutionary level. (If the Pokémon evolves, that is.) For example...Froakie has the following tier dice for his attacks...

Froakie/Frogadier/Greninja
Physical: D4/D4/D6
Special: D4/D6/D8

So...for an attack like...

Bubble
Special
PP Cost: 2
2DT damage, target hit must make Fortutude save (10+user's level) or gain -1 to Speed

...the damage would be 2D4 for Froakie, 2D6 to Frogadier, and 2D8 for Greninja.

I'll go into more details about attacks next post.

Pokemon D20?
Whould that be like playing the pokemon MD games?

no. from what i understand, it'd be like making a PKMN DnD campaign.

how did you get the MD games from D20?

isn't that the nickname for a 20-sided DnD dice?

with what you seem to know about DnD and from watching Spoony's Counter Monkey vids, i'm frankly surprised you made that mistake.

Yes it is.

Its possible to alter games to fit your needs. My friends and I combined D20 Modern with teh D20 CoC game to create a form of shadowrun. Our two other players refused to learn a new system just to try a new game so we had to improvise. We made house rules and it went well... until one of our players got pissy because he made a Close combat specialist and ran around corners without checking them out. His character was mowed down by a machine gun nest. (to make the guns more realistic: every character had 12 HP and bullets typically did 1d8).

There's when I learned that some players want realism, some want a serious story, and others just want a silly adventure.

Yep. It's kinda the silliness factor that made me come up with this idea.

Blame Drag0nS0ul, actually. Back during 2nd Edition D&D and Pokémon Gen 1...he dared me to turn several Pokémon into D&D monsters. As a bonus: When one GenCon event was hosting a "Dragomon" gaming session, which used D&D monsters in Pokémon like battles...the host used three of my creations (Charmeleon, Wartortle, Raichu) in it when I told him about it.

Anyways...back to...

Attacks Continued

All of the attacks learned by Pokémon are learned at their appropriate levels...but, just like with the evo levels, it is half what they are in the video games since D&D uses a cap of Lv50 for characters. Yes...you can go this high in D&D. Anything higher than Lv20 is considered "Epic Level" and there are rules for that...but that's another story for another time.

All attacks can be converted from the video games rather easily.

DAMAGE: If attacks do damage, the damage done is calculated using the base damage. Subtract 20 from the listed base damage and then divide by 10. This will give you the number of DT the attack will do. NOTE: If the result is 0, that means you use a lower tier die. So, if your tier die is D6, you would use a D4 instead. The tier die cannot be lower than a D2, though.

PP COST: The PP cost for the attack is equal to 40 divided by the starting maximum PP for the attack in the video games, rounded to the nearest whole number. So, with Bubble, since the game starts it with 30 PP, the PP cost in the D20 setting is 40/30 = 1.5 which is then rounded to 2. So...to make it easy...

40 or 35 = 1
30, 25, 20 = 2
15 = 3
10 = 4
5 = 8

ACCURACY: If an attack's accuracy in the video game is less than 100, this equates to a negative to the appropriate attack roll. This negative is equal to -1 for every 10 less than 100. So...trying to hit with Fire Blast or Blizzard means a -3 to the attack roll due to their accuracy of 70 in the video game.

SUPPORT ATTACKS: Support attacks, those that don't cause damage but may buff/debuff, don't use either attack rolls. Instead, the intended targets simply need to be within line of sight and/or whatever affected area applies.

CRITICAL RANGES: All of a Pokémon's attacks are considered to have a crit range of 20. Any effects/equips that may increase this range will add one to the range. So, Slash (which has enhanced crit) starts with a crit range of 19-20, and if a Pokémon uses Focus Energy that range will increase to 18-20.

Any attacks that cause debuffs or special conditions such as Poison do not use the percentages in the video games. Instead, appropriate savings throws are required. As a rule of thumb, you will use...

FORTITUDE: Special conditions like Poison, Sleep
WILLPOWER: Other conditions like Confusion or Flinch
REFLEX: Stat changes

(Exceptions may apply depending on the attack.)

Also, in regards to stat changes either positive or negative, they do not affect the main stats like STR or DEX. Instead...

ATTACK: Physical attack damage
DEFENSE: Physical AC and Fortitude Saves
SPECIAL ATTACK: Special attack damage
SPECIAL DEFENSE: Special AC and Willpower Saves
SPEED: Initiative and running speed
ACCURACY: Attack rolls (Melee, Ranged, and Special)
EVASION: Reflex Saves

Buffs/debuffs from Pokémon attacks and abilties cannot be more than +6 or less than -6. However, these bonuses can stack with other bonuses, such as from flanking.

When a Pokémon uses PP, that PP cannot be restored until the Pokémon gets a full rest. (8 hours, usually) This is the same as how Mages/Sorcerers/Priests have to rest to regain their spells. However...even if they run out of PP, they will not need to Struggle. After all...

...that's what BASIC attacks are for.

Like in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games (which sonic500 mentioned), all Pokémon have a basic attack they can use that are not as powerful as ones like Scratch or Ember. It's just a simple attack like how a regular character would swing a sword, only using whatever natural weapons it has.

Basic attacks use the physical tier die for the base damage. However, unlike the game attacks, basic attacks are the only attacks that can be used more than once a turn if the Pokémon's level is high enough. So, if you have a base attack at your level which is something like +6/+1, indicating you can attack twice, you can only attack twice using basic attacks. The other "named" attacks from the video games can only be used once per turn.

Another thing different from the games is that you do not have to "forget" any of your attacks to learn new ones. So, you'll basically have the entire movelist of your Pokémon at your disposal if your level is high enough.

TMs and Breed Moves

In the video games, additional moves can become available through breeding and TMs. In D20...it's not quite so simple.

When creating a new character, if you want your Pokémon to have a move it could learn through breeding, you must have the DM's permission to include it. (It could even be one of his choice instead of yours.) If it is feasable for the Pokémon to have more than one breed move at start, again the DM must allow it.

If the DM includes TMs/HMs in the session, they are not learned right away. Instead, TMs and HMs are treated like Manuals of Dexterity or any other magical books which raise stats...or like scrolls which can be scribed. The DM sets the amount of time needed to practice the technique in the TM/HM. (Usually 48 hours total over a span of less than 6 days, like the aforementioned Manual.) If successful, the move is then learned and added to your list of attacks.

That should be enough of an addition for now. (Getting late.) Next up...items and equipment, and the severe limitations therein for Pokémon.

no. from what i understand, it'd be like making a PKMN DnD campaign.

how did you get the MD games from D20?

isn't that the nickname for a 20-sided DnD dice?

with what you seem to know about DnD and from watching Spoony's Counter Monkey vids, i'm frankly surprised you made that mistake.

I know what D20 means and i know it's a DnD thing.
What i meant is this something were you play as pokemon like in the MD games?

i'd assume no. you'd probably RP as the trainer and the stats would more likely be for your team of *booming voice* INVINCIBLE MAGIKARP!!.