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Minibosses; How to stat them?
Topic Started: May 25 2014, 02:44 AM (864 Views)
Diogeneticist
Pokémon Trainer
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I'm about to start GMing a small campaign in PTU and was wondering what the best way to stat a miniboss would be.

If the party explores some woods between the starting town and the nearest gym town, they will discover a pokemon centre being attacked by a wild muk (this ties in to a plot point where poison-type pokemon are becoming out of control).

I want this fight to really make the PCs feel like the poison pokemon threat is real, but, as it's quite early in the game and very close by to a gym, I feel that using the boss rules in the pdf might make it a bit overpowered and might demoralise them more than anything else!

And, since the battle would happen at the end of a day the party's pokemon will already be weakened, so a fully fledged boss battle might end up killing a pokemon which is a bit too drastic this early on.

Should I just stat it as a high level pokemon? Should I give it multiple moves per round? Should I increase its health by a medium chunk or use multiple health bars?

I haven't actually played yet so I may be over/underestimating the strength of the boss template, but I reckon the three-person party will have 2-3 pokemon each by that point, (4-5 if they avoid the forest and the first gym for a while) so they'll almost definitely not have a full party.

I'm just sort of asking for a bit of advice to help prevent me from having to nerf or buff the encounter mid-way through and making the battle seem arbitrary.
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castfromhp
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Mawile Ace
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Given it's really early on and your players won't have much variation in their team, I think you could just run it as a normal Muk without increasing its health bars. Can you tell us more about what you expect the party's levels to be around that point? If they're all using Pokémon < level 10, then even a vanilla level 35 Muk will probably be pretty scary due to their lack of move options and Muk's powerful attacks (at 2 more levels, at 37, Sludge Wave could be very devastating). And if you do stat at at a high level like that, be sure to calculate how much damage your players' attacks will do and ensure it doesn't have so much in its defenses that every attack does 1 damage.

You may want to give the Muk a second action each round, but I think it may be better to play it safe if you think the party will already be weakened at that point. Besides, it's probably better to undershoot on difficulty early in a game rather than overshoot, while you're still feeling the system out.

Here's a fun idea you can pull out that doesn't necessarily feel like buffing the encounter mid-battle if you need to make it more difficult: Describe the Muk as being peculiar in some way or oddly large compared to what the PCs expect. When it faints, instead of fainting, it splits up into multiple weaker Grimers (which you can quickly prepare stats for beforehand). This also ensures that someone doesn't catch the Muk straight off the bat and have an overleveled Pokémon early in the game. In fact, a successful capture before the Muk faints could even just pull one of the Grimers in the Muk blob away from the rest, which would be a pretty comical way for the party to realize what they're up against.
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Diogeneticist
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Level-wise they would probably have 2 level 9 pokemon each I'd say. (If they take a diversion they'll end up with higher levels and a couple of ground-type pokemon, but they're the sort of people to rush towards the first gym, heh.) I would probably only have the muk's level be in the mid 20s, so it would be one of those cheaty, illegal pokemon that Lance loves to use.

I was thinking of having something similar to the splitting up into grimers idea, but there's a sidequest in the same area that will involve a bunch of grimers--helping clear up a steam and protecting some paras. I don't particularly want to repeat encounters with the same pokemon too closely together. I'd change them to koffing or gulpin but it doesn't have quite the same feel to it. Grimers are sort of the embodiment of water pollution so they fit so well.

Though your idea definitely does nicely clear up the capturing problem. I was thinking of either having the Muk simply bat any balls thrown at it away or letting them capture it, but giving it a loyalty of 0 and having it actively try to attack the party on failed command checks. Maybe open up a plot line where they try and take it to a tamer.

I'll take your advice and play it safe. I'm just really scared the fight will be over very quickly and feel very tame and not the end of session climax I'm hoping for.
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castfromhp
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Mawile Ace
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If you're going to lower the Muk's level to be in the mid 20s, where it may not have access to Sludge Wave or other powerful attacks, then you can probably afford to give it a second action each round. Alternatively, if you don't want to repeat a Grimer encounter, why not make the Muk encounter into a Garbodor instead that splits into multiple Trubbish? Muk and Grimer are pretty similar in the first place that if you had done a miniboss Muk followed by a Grimer quest, it'd feel repetitive. Even the suggestion of Garbodor still feels a bit same-y to me, but it's a good step.
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Diogeneticist
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Hmm if I were going to swap out pokemon I think I'd swap out the grimers. I mean muk is the quintessential creeping ooze of pollution. Maybe I could use a water/poison or a grass/poison pokemon instead to try and bridge the gap between the more conceptual poison types (grimer, koffing, gulpin, trubbish etc.) and the venomous animals and noxious plants. And then I can still use the splitting up idea if the battle is too difficult or too easy (make the split at half health if the muk is hitting too hard, and at no health if the muk goes down quickly). It's just a shame, grimer/muk are the perfect pokemon for the concept and theres only really 4 families of pollution-y poison pokemon. I want to use them both for every battle heh.
Edited by Diogeneticist, May 25 2014, 04:44 AM.
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Tonic
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If you really want to extend your theme of poison types getting out of control, you could consider type-shifting regular pokemon to poison types (pg. 436-437 in the core book). Imagine their influence is becoming so strong that they're actually polluting & corrupting other species in their environments. I'm using a similar theme in my campaign and it's working out really well both thematically and mechanically. It gives you plenty of freedom since you can dual type poison with pretty much anything else.
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castfromhp
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A group of Skrelp that's poisoning the algae in a river could be a good substitute for the Grimers. I think between it and Qwilfish, it's more likely to have a polluting effect since it secretes venom in sprays of liquid rather than prickling spines. Otherwise, since you mentioned it's about protecting Paras populations, maybe Foongus crept into their natural territory and are killing off the mushrooms they normally are associated with?

Your idea on being adaptable with when the Muk splits is solid.

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If you really want to extend your theme of poison types getting out of control, you could consider type-shifting regular pokemon to poison types
Type-shifting is really cool, but if it's a very early game encounter like this with new players, it may be better to ease them in with vanilla Pokémon instead of throwing the strangeness at them right off the bat.
Edited by castfromhp, May 25 2014, 12:18 PM.
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RockstarRaccoon
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Hex Maniacal!
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Haven't played this game yet, but this looks like a pretty universal GM question.
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I'll take your advice and play it safe. I'm just really scared the fight will be over very quickly and feel very tame and not the end of session climax I'm hoping for.

Alot of people mistake difficulty for action. Just because the battle doesn't get particularly dangerous doesn't mean it won't be memorable or entertaining. If they encounter a Muk with only decent moves but it takes them forever to KO it simply because it's a meat monster.

This is how I picture an intense battle with Muk.

It's not using any big moves here, it just uses the fact that it's a big blob of toxic waste to completely absorb all of bellsprout's pitiful attacks. For a player that early in a campaign, an opponent who you can't seem to phase is absolutely terrifying, regardless of how slow it is, and especially if most of its attacks are just it using its mass to its advantage. If you really want it to be a Poisonny encounter, have it use Sludge or Poison Touch, maybe it keeps giving off noxious fumes (Stench) they have to roll against.

So... In short.... Have a Muk that's bigger than the players come out and try to blob their pokemon to death.

As for catching it, I wouldn't worry: as has been said, a trainer at that level isn't going to be able to effectively command a high-level Pokémon, and Poison types are being agitated by something anyway. I've had players get things like swords and gadgets that they can't use before. They usually either set them aside or find some more creative use for them. (By creative, I mean, if someone catches it, expect them to let it run wild in the first Team-Rocket hideout they come across)
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