Robot's Deconstruction Hour: Style Expert
Aug 10, 2016 17:27:38 GMT
flamefist96 and Faithless like this
Post by Robot on Aug 10, 2016 17:27:38 GMT
Overview: Why do good classes have such bad associations? Not to say -every- Style Expert is good, but quite a few are! Style Expert is the second of three classes in the Specialist Team bracket, for PTU's 1.05 Edition. The classes focus on the contest types of the moves your Pokemon use, and themes associated with Cool, Beauty, Cute, Smart, or Tough. Despite not being Type Aces, by nature the class selection will favor certain types because more moves for a given type will favor one category over another. As an example, Fire and Water moves are very often Beauty. Bug is very often Smart. Rock is very often Tough. This encourages specialization with certain typings, and associated Pokemon, because of the adjustments the given classes make to said moves. Thanks to Style Flourish, actually sits as a weird sort of Hybrid of Type Ace and Stat Ace.
Pros
-Uses off-list moves for an AP.
-Grants Abilities temporarily for an AP.
-Other benefits vary from Expert to Expert, but some are potent, innovative, or versatile and well thought out.
Cons
-Not all Experts created equal.
-Coordinator a possible prerequisite.
-Classes designed for contests, don't actually see contests.
-Contests.
-Paywall. Buy Poffin Tokens to unlock Style Expert now.
Base Feature: Mostly useless, give +2 Contest Dice in your chosen Contest Stat. It's basically designed to get you to your +6d6 Contest Stat faster, but hey, free poffin tokens to lure you into more Candy Crush shenanigans courtesy of King Games.
Style Flourish: 1 AP Free Action, +1 CS to your Contest Relevant Stat after you use an associated move, once per scene. Combat stages are pretty good, free actions are good. As AP spenders go, not the be all and end all, but certainly worth investing in. Pairs nicely with Ace Trainer and Stat Ace for a holy trinity of +3 for 3 AP without actually spending an action.
Style Entrainment: 1 AP Swift Action, Gain Abilities based on your Style Expert, one or the other at any given time. Giving Abilities to a Pokemon temporarily without burning Tutor points is very strong, it just depends on the ability gained as a result.
-Beauty gives Gentle Vibe, a combat stage reset and volatile status cure in one. Nice against some opponents but very situation dependent, or Serene Grace which increases your effect range substantially. The latter is typically going to be more useful where Fire moves often have secondary effects while also being beauty. Burn is good.
-Cool gives Defiant, which like Attack Ace is designed around punishing foes for trying to drop your stats by boosting your offense even further. It also gives Sniper, which is very strong before and after the rework, particularly with how Cool Expert operates. This will be gone into more detail later.
-Cute gives Cute Charm, attacking foe of the opposite gender is infatuated, or Cute Tears, attacking foe loses 2 CS in the attacking stat of the triggering move. You are supposed to be adorable, why do both of these Abilities make people feel bad for hitting you? They're still hitting you! Not a fan of either option, but there weren't any other abilities with cute in their name, so what do you want. Cute is supposed to be associated with the Speed stat, so maybe Celebrate?
-Smart gives Analytic or Anticipation, a small damage boost for going slower, or some vague knowledge of an opponent's moveset without actually spending the standard action on Pokemaniac. Neither is particularly bad, but GM dependent, you can usually assume something either does or does not have coverage.
-Tough gives Sturdy or Intimidate, Get out of one hit KO for free is never bad, also gives immunity to execute moves but nobody even uses those to my knowledge. In hindsight, against bosses with multiple healthbars those could be really useful. Intimidate is better then Cute Tears, since you don't have to get hit to trigger it, even if it only lowers the Attack stat.
Beauty Expert
Beautiful Ballet - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Mist or Captivate. Mist is a Scene x2 Blessing that prevents CS from being lowered, the weakest of all of the blessings. Captivate is like Screech or Metal Sound except it's a cone instead of a burst, is gender dependent, and once a Scene. Both moves for Rank 1 are garbage tier. Rank 2 gives Lovely Kiss, a sleep effect, and Mean Look, which applies Slow and Trapped. Both are excellent crowd control choices. I don't feel like they're worth two features for, being the problem. Feature Tax ahoy on a contest-themed class.
Fabulous Max - Once/Pokemon/Scene Turn a Beauty Move into an AoE, or expand the size of a Beauty AoE. I have just one question for you, EXPLOSIONS?! Pretty good, fun implications with Water Ace's Flood!
Enticing Beauty - Your Pokemon acts as a bait item as if it had Alluring, and adds +5 to the roll minimum (+3 for class entry, +2 for the base feature.) If you're running Capture Specialist, are some kind of master baiter, or otherwise really enjoy bringing more Pokemon afield, this is a useful utility feature.
Cool Expert
Cool Conduct - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Focus Energy or Noble Roar. The former expands crit range of all attacks by 3, granting the 'Pumped' status, very strong with crit oriented builds. Particularly strong with Cool Expert because it's Style Entrainment grants Sniper. Noble Roar lowers both attacking stats by -1 CS, and will be stronger when used against all the Twisted Power mixed sweeper builds we see if that playtest ever becomes core rules. In the moment, Noble Roar not that great, however. Rank 2 gives Roar and Double Team, Roar is fun to forcibly reposition enemies, but happens at the end of the round. It is better used on naturally slow Pokemon. Double Team gives accuracy or evasion bonuses as charges that can be spent reactively, not a bad option.
Rule of Cool - Once/Pokemon/Scene increase a Cool Move's Crit Chance by 3, and the attack cannot be interrupted in any way. No interceptions, no counter, no protect, no nothing. Whoever you gave your x4 longshot critical hit to is taking it, and liking it. Great on critical builds.
Action Hero Stunt - Daily x2 Probably the most subjective feature in the entire game, since the Trigger is 'your pokemon does a thing in a high stress situation, for dramatic high risk action and great justice.' Being a storytelling GM, as much as I am a horrific power gamer, I both appreciate that this feature exists, and hate it simultaneously. Yes, it gives players agency to do cool things, having their Pokemon make skill checks using their Poffin Dice instead of skill ranks. Why though? The spirit of fun at the core of the game begs for these kinds of moments, where a single die roll has terrible consequences. No, you aren't always going to have the skills to pull something off, but should it be a feature to pull these sorts of nutty things off? If it's not a combat situation, I tend to lean on 'no'. Mechanically speaking, with PTU's limited skills, allowing default dice, or use of a trainer's skill on it's pokemon's action, for action options that shouldn't be possible with a Pokemon should be okay in these sorts of circumstances anyway. Subjective rants ahoy!
Cute Expert
Cute Cuddle - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Charm or Block. Charm lowers Attack -1 CS, while Block wastes your action to... make the target stuck for one turn. Even though mechanically the latter functioned exactly like Mean Look in the video games. Neither of these are, or ever will be good options. Cute Expert is the worst, and not just because I hate cute things. Rank 2 is Teeter Dance, a Burst 1 Confusion Status AoE that is indiscriminate, or Attract, which literally everything and it's brother can learn via TM if you are super desperate for the move. It's like when they made these classes, the moves they chose were for something other then fighting. What is this? Required for later features in the class, but eww. Just eww.
Gleeful Steps - Once/Pokemon/Scene take a victory lap after using a Cute move. If that move also lands a KO, and you have Celebrate, make it two victory laps and teabag your opponent's corpse. Allows for some tactical movement, but compared to most of the other 1/1/Scene effects in the Style Expert class, it's probably the weakest.
Let's Be Friends - Scene Charm Check from one of your Pokemon to improve a wild's disposition. At 30 Speed, and 4 Poffins with a base feature, it's 6d6+6. It is still not enough to improve my disposition at the Cute Expert. What fresh hell is this, cute things, being cute at other things.
Smart Expert
Smart Scheme - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Fake Tears or Calm Mind. SpA Lower is meh, but +1 SpA and SpD as a Rank 1 move is really, really good for the features of the same type across all the Style Experts. Rank 2 grants Taunt or Flatter. The former Enrages a target, and prevents it from using Status class moves, which is really strong against opponents geared for that sort of thing. It also disables healing support moves such as Heal Pulse, but sadly since it is a volatile status it is easily removed. Flatter is a 2 stage SpA boost for an opponent that confuses them. Great on physical attackers, dangerous on special attackers. If they fail their confusion check, pre playtest they lose an action and take a tick. Post playtest, it's tons of damage. Either way, they make that? You screwed up. This is your life now.
Calculated Assault - If you are fighting a boss, +1 Acc to all allies isn't bad, or +Number of hits from all allies to your Charged Zap Cannon can be pretty lulsy if you want to get into accuracy extremes. It's once per scene per Pokemon. Probably pairs well with Commander, more small static bonuses to go with your small static bonuses.
Learn from Your Mistakes - Reroll skill checks with your Pokemon when they fail, 3/Day, with a bonus equal to your number of dice from Poffins, minimum +5. Sort of an Echoes of the Future for skill checks only. Not terrible if you can find creative ways to use it. See Action Hero Stunt above.
Tough Expert
Tough Tumble - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 grants Scary Face or Spite. Lower two speed stages has situational uses, disabling a move is a bit better, for when your opponent somehow gets their hands on a DB 13 At-Will. Spite is a free action if you're actually targeted too, but since it isn't on your Pokemon's movelist, this application of it can't actually be used. Rank 2 is Glare or Bide. The normal equivalent to T-Wave with a miss chance is the only way to paralyze ground types outside of Stun Spore or more niche picks like Body Slam. Bide can be useful, but only on exceptionally beefy Pokemon. One would imagine a Tough Expert would have those, or at least know what one looks like.
Macho Charge - Once/Pokemon/Scene a Tough move pushes all legal targets 3 meters away from the Attacking Pokemon. If you really want to make Team Rocket go blasting off, try Circle Throw on a Weight Class 1, with Macho Charge and Thrust applied. Funny, possibly useful. As often, situation dependent.
Endurance - Reduces falling damage, extends duration till suffocation, or ignore the heavily injured status for insert poffin dice value here. Considering the absolute rarity of any of these effects to actually see play, this is a wasted feature and should see a rework. Geode, as my example often is, has been running for a full year. There have been many water encounters, we used rebreathers and water Pokemon. There was one instance of falling damage, and it was self inflicted. Dropbees. That's all I'll say. In any game, unless a player is running a Taskmaster, you will rarely if ever see a Pokemon reach five injuries, unless it's story dependent or given to you in that condition in some way.
Pros
-Uses off-list moves for an AP.
-Grants Abilities temporarily for an AP.
-Other benefits vary from Expert to Expert, but some are potent, innovative, or versatile and well thought out.
Cons
-Not all Experts created equal.
-Coordinator a possible prerequisite.
-Classes designed for contests, don't actually see contests.
-Contests.
-Paywall. Buy Poffin Tokens to unlock Style Expert now.
Base Feature: Mostly useless, give +2 Contest Dice in your chosen Contest Stat. It's basically designed to get you to your +6d6 Contest Stat faster, but hey, free poffin tokens to lure you into more Candy Crush shenanigans courtesy of King Games.
Style Flourish: 1 AP Free Action, +1 CS to your Contest Relevant Stat after you use an associated move, once per scene. Combat stages are pretty good, free actions are good. As AP spenders go, not the be all and end all, but certainly worth investing in. Pairs nicely with Ace Trainer and Stat Ace for a holy trinity of +3 for 3 AP without actually spending an action.
Style Entrainment: 1 AP Swift Action, Gain Abilities based on your Style Expert, one or the other at any given time. Giving Abilities to a Pokemon temporarily without burning Tutor points is very strong, it just depends on the ability gained as a result.
-Beauty gives Gentle Vibe, a combat stage reset and volatile status cure in one. Nice against some opponents but very situation dependent, or Serene Grace which increases your effect range substantially. The latter is typically going to be more useful where Fire moves often have secondary effects while also being beauty. Burn is good.
-Cool gives Defiant, which like Attack Ace is designed around punishing foes for trying to drop your stats by boosting your offense even further. It also gives Sniper, which is very strong before and after the rework, particularly with how Cool Expert operates. This will be gone into more detail later.
-Cute gives Cute Charm, attacking foe of the opposite gender is infatuated, or Cute Tears, attacking foe loses 2 CS in the attacking stat of the triggering move. You are supposed to be adorable, why do both of these Abilities make people feel bad for hitting you? They're still hitting you! Not a fan of either option, but there weren't any other abilities with cute in their name, so what do you want. Cute is supposed to be associated with the Speed stat, so maybe Celebrate?
-Smart gives Analytic or Anticipation, a small damage boost for going slower, or some vague knowledge of an opponent's moveset without actually spending the standard action on Pokemaniac. Neither is particularly bad, but GM dependent, you can usually assume something either does or does not have coverage.
-Tough gives Sturdy or Intimidate, Get out of one hit KO for free is never bad, also gives immunity to execute moves but nobody even uses those to my knowledge. In hindsight, against bosses with multiple healthbars those could be really useful. Intimidate is better then Cute Tears, since you don't have to get hit to trigger it, even if it only lowers the Attack stat.
Beauty Expert
Beautiful Ballet - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Mist or Captivate. Mist is a Scene x2 Blessing that prevents CS from being lowered, the weakest of all of the blessings. Captivate is like Screech or Metal Sound except it's a cone instead of a burst, is gender dependent, and once a Scene. Both moves for Rank 1 are garbage tier. Rank 2 gives Lovely Kiss, a sleep effect, and Mean Look, which applies Slow and Trapped. Both are excellent crowd control choices. I don't feel like they're worth two features for, being the problem. Feature Tax ahoy on a contest-themed class.
Fabulous Max - Once/Pokemon/Scene Turn a Beauty Move into an AoE, or expand the size of a Beauty AoE. I have just one question for you, EXPLOSIONS?! Pretty good, fun implications with Water Ace's Flood!
Enticing Beauty - Your Pokemon acts as a bait item as if it had Alluring, and adds +5 to the roll minimum (+3 for class entry, +2 for the base feature.) If you're running Capture Specialist, are some kind of master baiter, or otherwise really enjoy bringing more Pokemon afield, this is a useful utility feature.
Cool Expert
Cool Conduct - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Focus Energy or Noble Roar. The former expands crit range of all attacks by 3, granting the 'Pumped' status, very strong with crit oriented builds. Particularly strong with Cool Expert because it's Style Entrainment grants Sniper. Noble Roar lowers both attacking stats by -1 CS, and will be stronger when used against all the Twisted Power mixed sweeper builds we see if that playtest ever becomes core rules. In the moment, Noble Roar not that great, however. Rank 2 gives Roar and Double Team, Roar is fun to forcibly reposition enemies, but happens at the end of the round. It is better used on naturally slow Pokemon. Double Team gives accuracy or evasion bonuses as charges that can be spent reactively, not a bad option.
Rule of Cool - Once/Pokemon/Scene increase a Cool Move's Crit Chance by 3, and the attack cannot be interrupted in any way. No interceptions, no counter, no protect, no nothing. Whoever you gave your x4 longshot critical hit to is taking it, and liking it. Great on critical builds.
Action Hero Stunt - Daily x2 Probably the most subjective feature in the entire game, since the Trigger is 'your pokemon does a thing in a high stress situation, for dramatic high risk action and great justice.' Being a storytelling GM, as much as I am a horrific power gamer, I both appreciate that this feature exists, and hate it simultaneously. Yes, it gives players agency to do cool things, having their Pokemon make skill checks using their Poffin Dice instead of skill ranks. Why though? The spirit of fun at the core of the game begs for these kinds of moments, where a single die roll has terrible consequences. No, you aren't always going to have the skills to pull something off, but should it be a feature to pull these sorts of nutty things off? If it's not a combat situation, I tend to lean on 'no'. Mechanically speaking, with PTU's limited skills, allowing default dice, or use of a trainer's skill on it's pokemon's action, for action options that shouldn't be possible with a Pokemon should be okay in these sorts of circumstances anyway. Subjective rants ahoy!
Cute Expert
Cute Cuddle - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Charm or Block. Charm lowers Attack -1 CS, while Block wastes your action to... make the target stuck for one turn. Even though mechanically the latter functioned exactly like Mean Look in the video games. Neither of these are, or ever will be good options. Cute Expert is the worst, and not just because I hate cute things. Rank 2 is Teeter Dance, a Burst 1 Confusion Status AoE that is indiscriminate, or Attract, which literally everything and it's brother can learn via TM if you are super desperate for the move. It's like when they made these classes, the moves they chose were for something other then fighting. What is this? Required for later features in the class, but eww. Just eww.
Gleeful Steps - Once/Pokemon/Scene take a victory lap after using a Cute move. If that move also lands a KO, and you have Celebrate, make it two victory laps and teabag your opponent's corpse. Allows for some tactical movement, but compared to most of the other 1/1/Scene effects in the Style Expert class, it's probably the weakest.
Let's Be Friends - Scene Charm Check from one of your Pokemon to improve a wild's disposition. At 30 Speed, and 4 Poffins with a base feature, it's 6d6+6. It is still not enough to improve my disposition at the Cute Expert. What fresh hell is this, cute things, being cute at other things.
Smart Expert
Smart Scheme - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 Grants Fake Tears or Calm Mind. SpA Lower is meh, but +1 SpA and SpD as a Rank 1 move is really, really good for the features of the same type across all the Style Experts. Rank 2 grants Taunt or Flatter. The former Enrages a target, and prevents it from using Status class moves, which is really strong against opponents geared for that sort of thing. It also disables healing support moves such as Heal Pulse, but sadly since it is a volatile status it is easily removed. Flatter is a 2 stage SpA boost for an opponent that confuses them. Great on physical attackers, dangerous on special attackers. If they fail their confusion check, pre playtest they lose an action and take a tick. Post playtest, it's tons of damage. Either way, they make that? You screwed up. This is your life now.
Calculated Assault - If you are fighting a boss, +1 Acc to all allies isn't bad, or +Number of hits from all allies to your Charged Zap Cannon can be pretty lulsy if you want to get into accuracy extremes. It's once per scene per Pokemon. Probably pairs well with Commander, more small static bonuses to go with your small static bonuses.
Learn from Your Mistakes - Reroll skill checks with your Pokemon when they fail, 3/Day, with a bonus equal to your number of dice from Poffins, minimum +5. Sort of an Echoes of the Future for skill checks only. Not terrible if you can find creative ways to use it. See Action Hero Stunt above.
Tough Expert
Tough Tumble - Move Grant for AP. Rank 1 grants Scary Face or Spite. Lower two speed stages has situational uses, disabling a move is a bit better, for when your opponent somehow gets their hands on a DB 13 At-Will. Spite is a free action if you're actually targeted too, but since it isn't on your Pokemon's movelist, this application of it can't actually be used. Rank 2 is Glare or Bide. The normal equivalent to T-Wave with a miss chance is the only way to paralyze ground types outside of Stun Spore or more niche picks like Body Slam. Bide can be useful, but only on exceptionally beefy Pokemon. One would imagine a Tough Expert would have those, or at least know what one looks like.
Macho Charge - Once/Pokemon/Scene a Tough move pushes all legal targets 3 meters away from the Attacking Pokemon. If you really want to make Team Rocket go blasting off, try Circle Throw on a Weight Class 1, with Macho Charge and Thrust applied. Funny, possibly useful. As often, situation dependent.
Endurance - Reduces falling damage, extends duration till suffocation, or ignore the heavily injured status for insert poffin dice value here. Considering the absolute rarity of any of these effects to actually see play, this is a wasted feature and should see a rework. Geode, as my example often is, has been running for a full year. There have been many water encounters, we used rebreathers and water Pokemon. There was one instance of falling damage, and it was self inflicted. Dropbees. That's all I'll say. In any game, unless a player is running a Taskmaster, you will rarely if ever see a Pokemon reach five injuries, unless it's story dependent or given to you in that condition in some way.