Post by Robot on Apr 4, 2016 12:33:25 GMT
Overview
Mentor is the sixth and final class to round out our introductory set. It focuses on expending your Pokemon's TP in order to gain move access and is often viewed as a must for at least a single character in any given adventuring party. The utility support that this class provides out of combat is unmatched, as it applies to any pokemon, and grants access to moves that can't be reached without a Mentor.
Pros
-Skill Variety: Mentor fits a mess of builds because it can opt to use a number of different skill combinations, though the choices you make when taking the base feature lock you out of two of the Lessons.
-Move Access: Natural moves? Early learning? Egg list? Nothing's out of your reach unless it's TM exclusive.
-Extra Move Slot: Not as strong as it could be, the game already gives you access to six moves, but it helps. Pick up more coverage or support options for your entire team.
Cons
-Falls Off: Mentor stops offering anything once everyone has achieved a team of their favorites. This doesn't happen if players are constantly cycling as new and interesting options come open. This has more to do with the GM making wanted Pokemon available too early, and players getting settled. Mentor remains relevant late into the game if those 'locked in' picks come slowly.
-Current Playtest: Gates the amount of power Mentor can bring to bear based on the levels of it's Pokemon. 20 is relatively easy to reach, which brings status moves open. 30 Seems to be the limit, but reaching this point takes a bit longer.
-TP Intense: True for quite a few classes, but Mentor has the pleasant offset of a Feature that gives a massive 3 TP per pokemon for just a few minutes of your time.
Breakdown
Base Feature: 3/Daily Early/Natural Tutor. Early is equal to Skill X's Rank + Skill Y's Rank, making maxing both skills a priority as quickly as possible in most mentor builds. With experience curve functioning the way that it does, this is capable of building up faster then your Pokemon's levels do. With you reaching beyond that scope however, advancement is a bit less ooh-and-aah. Your Pokemon gain stat points. The moves you were looking forward to, you already have. Time to make the best of that and soullessly crush your enemies because there is no joy. As stated before, this is much more limited then it was, with the current play tests in effect.
Lessons: Gives you access to two abilities of four which allow you to 'Mentor' your Pokemon in some way. I put it in quotations because Intimidate is a 'Mentor' skill. We've all had that kind of person at some point in our lives, be it a parent or a boss. Yells at you till you get it right, then expects a thanks. Takes all kinds I guess. The lessons are as follows;
-Changing Viewpoints: One of the two picks for people that actively get mad at their GMs for randomly determining wild Pokemon statistics. I'm on the fence about the overall concept. With BST existing in the game as it does, randomly generated natures really can screw with something's potential, even if it would otherwise be a really good or even favorite pick. For a Tutor Point, allows you to swap to a similar nature, based on stats already touched. Helpful, but not a godsend.
-Corrective Learning: Yell at something until it forgets what you taught it before, also gets the tutor points you spent on that thing you don't want for it anymore. I KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU DAMNIT, FORGET WHAT I SAID BEFORE! Weakest of the four lessons, since it requires you to make poor decisions in microcrafting your unstoppable god killing machine.
-Empowered Development: TP Saver, and the strongest of the four options. Allows a 3-to-1 Edge/TP purchase, once per Pokemon. There's absolutely no reason not to take this option over the other three. Two of the others correct the way a Pokemon is generated, the remainder screws up poor planning. Empowered Development gives advanced capability edges, precious move speed, and skill improvements. Power.
-Versatile Teachings: As with Changing Viewpoints, VT lets you change something about a Pokemon when it's generated. In general, as a GM, when my player catches something, I aim to give it at least a neutral nature, and decent ability choices. Where my games tend to be hardball, I see no reason to push wanted Pokemon with bad initial loadouts on players. On par with Changing Viewpoints.
Expand Horizons: More like expand dong, amirite? Seriously, if you're going 'party support' this is a must have. +3 TP. Also you can laugh at the Ace Trainer who takes eight years to get his third bonus from Top Percentage.
Guidance: Not much to say, expands move limit from 6 to 7 per mon, as a Static. It's not a bad option, not really a good one either though. Depends on what sorts of builds you enjoy running, and how many aces you want to sleeve.
Move Tutor + Egg Tutor: These are at the heart of the class, and why people take Mentor as a support. Egg tutor isn't as necessary if your party is breeder happy, as it only functions once per target. Move Tutor is an absolute must even with the current limitations on it.
Lifelong Learning: Can have a fourth move come from a Tutor or TM source. Boring capstone is boring. Also mostly useless. In general, nearly every Pokemon in the game has at least three or four moves on it's levelup list that are must haves. Even with Guidance, the additional 'outsourced' move isn't really all that spectacular for a class you went all in for. The primary exception here is normal types, which can learn stupidly massive lists of Tutor moves.
Mentor is the sixth and final class to round out our introductory set. It focuses on expending your Pokemon's TP in order to gain move access and is often viewed as a must for at least a single character in any given adventuring party. The utility support that this class provides out of combat is unmatched, as it applies to any pokemon, and grants access to moves that can't be reached without a Mentor.
Pros
-Skill Variety: Mentor fits a mess of builds because it can opt to use a number of different skill combinations, though the choices you make when taking the base feature lock you out of two of the Lessons.
-Move Access: Natural moves? Early learning? Egg list? Nothing's out of your reach unless it's TM exclusive.
-Extra Move Slot: Not as strong as it could be, the game already gives you access to six moves, but it helps. Pick up more coverage or support options for your entire team.
Cons
-Falls Off: Mentor stops offering anything once everyone has achieved a team of their favorites. This doesn't happen if players are constantly cycling as new and interesting options come open. This has more to do with the GM making wanted Pokemon available too early, and players getting settled. Mentor remains relevant late into the game if those 'locked in' picks come slowly.
-Current Playtest: Gates the amount of power Mentor can bring to bear based on the levels of it's Pokemon. 20 is relatively easy to reach, which brings status moves open. 30 Seems to be the limit, but reaching this point takes a bit longer.
-TP Intense: True for quite a few classes, but Mentor has the pleasant offset of a Feature that gives a massive 3 TP per pokemon for just a few minutes of your time.
Breakdown
Base Feature: 3/Daily Early/Natural Tutor. Early is equal to Skill X's Rank + Skill Y's Rank, making maxing both skills a priority as quickly as possible in most mentor builds. With experience curve functioning the way that it does, this is capable of building up faster then your Pokemon's levels do. With you reaching beyond that scope however, advancement is a bit less ooh-and-aah. Your Pokemon gain stat points. The moves you were looking forward to, you already have. Time to make the best of that and soullessly crush your enemies because there is no joy. As stated before, this is much more limited then it was, with the current play tests in effect.
Lessons: Gives you access to two abilities of four which allow you to 'Mentor' your Pokemon in some way. I put it in quotations because Intimidate is a 'Mentor' skill. We've all had that kind of person at some point in our lives, be it a parent or a boss. Yells at you till you get it right, then expects a thanks. Takes all kinds I guess. The lessons are as follows;
-Changing Viewpoints: One of the two picks for people that actively get mad at their GMs for randomly determining wild Pokemon statistics. I'm on the fence about the overall concept. With BST existing in the game as it does, randomly generated natures really can screw with something's potential, even if it would otherwise be a really good or even favorite pick. For a Tutor Point, allows you to swap to a similar nature, based on stats already touched. Helpful, but not a godsend.
-Corrective Learning: Yell at something until it forgets what you taught it before, also gets the tutor points you spent on that thing you don't want for it anymore. I KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU DAMNIT, FORGET WHAT I SAID BEFORE! Weakest of the four lessons, since it requires you to make poor decisions in microcrafting your unstoppable god killing machine.
-Empowered Development: TP Saver, and the strongest of the four options. Allows a 3-to-1 Edge/TP purchase, once per Pokemon. There's absolutely no reason not to take this option over the other three. Two of the others correct the way a Pokemon is generated, the remainder screws up poor planning. Empowered Development gives advanced capability edges, precious move speed, and skill improvements. Power.
-Versatile Teachings: As with Changing Viewpoints, VT lets you change something about a Pokemon when it's generated. In general, as a GM, when my player catches something, I aim to give it at least a neutral nature, and decent ability choices. Where my games tend to be hardball, I see no reason to push wanted Pokemon with bad initial loadouts on players. On par with Changing Viewpoints.
Expand Horizons: More like expand dong, amirite? Seriously, if you're going 'party support' this is a must have. +3 TP. Also you can laugh at the Ace Trainer who takes eight years to get his third bonus from Top Percentage.
Guidance: Not much to say, expands move limit from 6 to 7 per mon, as a Static. It's not a bad option, not really a good one either though. Depends on what sorts of builds you enjoy running, and how many aces you want to sleeve.
Move Tutor + Egg Tutor: These are at the heart of the class, and why people take Mentor as a support. Egg tutor isn't as necessary if your party is breeder happy, as it only functions once per target. Move Tutor is an absolute must even with the current limitations on it.
Lifelong Learning: Can have a fourth move come from a Tutor or TM source. Boring capstone is boring. Also mostly useless. In general, nearly every Pokemon in the game has at least three or four moves on it's levelup list that are must haves. Even with Guidance, the additional 'outsourced' move isn't really all that spectacular for a class you went all in for. The primary exception here is normal types, which can learn stupidly massive lists of Tutor moves.