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Pokemon Tabletop United 1.5 Detective Character Build Question; Questions about a build for a character in a city campaign.
Topic Started: Jan 19 2016, 07:42 PM (2,170 Views)
duskdriver
Pokémon Trainer
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Hello, this is my first time posting on this forum. I've been playing in a Pokemon campaign for a little while now and had to create a new character. My GM and I discussed it and we thought that my new character should be a detective. I've made fighters, mystics and other archetypes but this my first time trying to make some one in law enforcement. I went and checked the class recommendations for law enforcement in the core rulebook but none of them seemed to gel with what I thought a detective should be. I was hoping a few of you could give me some advice on example builds for a detective in a Pokemon campaign. Thank you to any that respond.
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Eisen
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Pokémon Trainer
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Try the recommendations for "The Sleuth," instead. Chronicler is almost required, I would say.
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castfromhp
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Mawile Ace
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I think the detective archetype can work with a pretty wide variety of Classes and largely comes down to your Skill choices (Intuition, Perception, Guile, Stealth, and some Edu Skills are probably going to be handy) and Pokémon selection. Looking at Classes that fit that Skill profile, Chronicler would be fitting for a character that's good at recording and analyzing data. Oracle would make for a very powerful detective if you're willing to go the supernatural route. A number of combat Classes like Rogue or Hunter could be useful for taking down criminals. But honestly, moreso than many other archetypes, this is gonna come down to your roleplaying and the situations the GM puts you into.

This is one archetype that we've struggled with in PTU (at multiple points in time we've tried to make a dedicated Class for it but were unsatisfied with our efforts). I think the reason for this is because when it comes to making a detective character in a tabletop system, there are two major components:

1) The detective's skillset and abilities. In most traditional systems (PTU-included), this is expressed by their Skills that they can roll. In systems which put the narrative into mechanics directly, you'd have aspects and abilities that shape the narrative (such as by forcing clues to appear in a scene, automatically gleaning information from a suspect, gaining narrative currency against a character that can be spent later for various effects, etc). PTU isn't a "story game" system like that though, and it'd be incredibly jarring to introduce those sorts of mechanics for just one Class. That leaves Skills, and you can pretty reasonably grab the ones that'd be appropriate for a detective while taking a variety of different Class builds.

2) Probably more importantly, you can't have a detective character without the narrative context for them to do their work. The GM needs to create crimes and mysteries to solve, needs to lay out clues and information that can be followed along the narrative tropes of the detective genre, etc. For the most part, most Class builds in PTU can maintain their identity without needing the GM to specifically cater to them because they focus on battle mechanics which will always come up (Contest-oriented Classes are an exception, of course), but a detective is reliant on being in the right kind of story to make sense. As long as the GM is helping you by putting you in the right situations to play out a detective story, most builds that have the right Skills will feel right for a detective IMO.

I'd also add a third element for PTU specifically:

3) The Pokémon that a character chooses to use. Pokémon with Tracker, Premonition, Wired, ghostly and psychic capabilities, etc are going to be a huge boon to someone doing investigative work in law enforcement. This is also something that isn't necessarily tied to Classes very much, though maybe you could pick up a Psychic or Ghost Ace and focus on Pokémon with supernatural capabilities to help you solve crime.
Edited by castfromhp, Jan 19 2016, 08:20 PM.
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BatiroAtrain
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Pyramid King
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Social classes, of course! Provocateur is a given for an inquisitive type character geared toward figuring out people, and versatile enough to fit most personality types. The next classes you take should depend on your character's preferred way of dealing with people:
-If they're a no-nonsense, rough-and-tumble kind of detective you'd see in a noir film, go with Roughneck and maybe Rogue or Tumbler.
-If they're a more cerebral, Holmes-type detective, consider Chronicler, Mentor, or possibly some Researcher branches.
-If you want something a little more 'out there', more grounded in the Pokemon world, pick up some Ranger tools (not tied to a class), or start with Telepath and be a mind-reading investigator?

I admit it is a little difficult in PTU to tie your class choices to a career outside of Chef, but that's just for more versatility and fluidity for choosing. If you really want to probe for inspiration (or want to even homebrew something), I'd recommend grabbing the handbook for its sister system PTA and looking through their Ranger classes. That system even has a dedicated Detective class that you might be able to port to PTU if you really wanted to.
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Turneround360
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Personally if I were building a detective character I'd go Hobbyist to provide a much needed boost in varioius skills and use Diletante to grab things like Instinctive Aptitude, Skill Monkey and any other handy edges and features to represent the skill set your after.

Researcher can present you with various nieches to aid you, General can be quite handy with Breadth of Knowledge and Live and Learn (to make you even more awesome at skill checks)

My personal favourite though is Oracle its great to use even if refluffed as more gut feeling/hunch/instinct if out and out psychic visons and meditations don't tickle your fancy. Plus the combat utlitliy of the Class shouldn't be underestimated either.
Edited by Turneround360, Jan 20 2016, 04:47 AM.
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duskdriver
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First off I wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to this post. I appreciate "castfromhp"s explanation on why making a detective was difficult for you guys. You all were very helpful in narrowing down different play styles for me. In fact I was poised to make a Hobbyst, Chronicler, Oracle, Tumbler but alas it was a no go. I asked my GM and as for supernatural classes he found that he'd rather not deal with them so classes like Oracle and the like are inaccessible. Which is unfortunate because of the beautiful Tumbler-Oracle combo.

Despite that combo being no longer viable, I decided to continue with Hobbyst as it is a great introductory class, that allows access to significantly more edges and features than might be available to other builds. That and next to intuition, perception and Gen. Edu. are the detectives best weapons. For more investigation and travel elements I decided to also go into chronicler. It's albums allow different ways to get involved in the environment and it's fun, not to mention useful, just noticing the world I'm put in. As for combat classes I suppose that is where I am still unsure in.

I had considered Marksman, from Game of Throhs, but it's weapon style really doesn't gel well with any other combat class. Except for maybe Rouge but I'll get to that. Weapons just seem to be less useful to moves and get no where near the damage possible to learning actual Pokemon moves. But then again that's just my opinion. Rogue was interesting but it just doesn't give the kind of versatility the Tumbler gives. Tumbler gives Run away, which is a fantastic ability, but it also gets Dodge. Why would I not get Dodge? The only upside with going with Rouge is that you use their moves like weapons. So in theory I can use the weapon specialist class Marksman in combo with Rogue do to some neat things. So I suppose I'm still in conflict in that sense. If any of you have any advice I would be more than welcome to it. Again, thank you to anyone who responds.
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GrayGriffin
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"Ah, you unmasked me. Whatever shall I do."
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Once again, am I the only one who thinks Marksman/Skirmisher is a valid combo? None of Skirmisher's stuff relies on melee attacks at all. Just Weapon Attacks. Which you can still make with ranged weapons.
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ShadowSoul
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Have a big list of notable classes and edges!

  • Hobbyist-My favorite class, gives a lot of edges and enables your detective to have a broad skillset. Also, Skill Monkey.
  • General Researcher- knowledge edges and Echoes of the Future/Live and Learn
  • Occultism Researcher/Paleontology/Pokemon Caretaking- Thematics; bonuses like Pusher or Witch Hunter
  • Provocateur- Taunt thy enemies! Good battle class for social-skill heavy build
  • Chronicler- almost a must, allows you to get a lot of bonuses as you accrue information
  • Musician- A bit more bardic, but gives you combat options. Fun thematically.
  • Roughneck- A grizzled old veteran whose Mean Look stops perps from escaping.
  • Ninja- An infiltrator that can hide in plain sight.
  • Oracle- Supernatural knowledge. Would be fun if you can convince your GM to allow it.
  • Instruction- "It's elementary, dear Watson."
  • PokePsychologist-Thematic, and useful if you grab the relevant education.
  • More relevant edges- Art of Stealth, Smooth, Iron Mind, Acrobat, Wallrunner, Slippery, Scholar, Instincitve Aptitude.


Tumbler is still a decent class even without combination with Oracle by the way, and as stated in the above post, Marksman and Skirmisher work well together. It all depends on what you want to do and making the system work for you thematically.
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duskdriver
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GrayGriffin
Jan 21 2016, 11:13 AM
Once again, am I the only one who thinks Marksman/Skirmisher is a valid combo? None of Skirmisher's stuff relies on melee attacks at all. Just Weapon Attacks. Which you can still make with ranged weapons.
"GrayGriffin" I had not considered a Skirmisher/ Marksman combo. If you or anyone could elaborate on how a combo like that would work. I would greatly appreciate it. I've always found weapon uses in the core campaign a little confusing myself. So I would love to hear how you utilize them.
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GrayGriffin
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"Ah, you unmasked me. Whatever shall I do."
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I still haven't gotten the actual build into a game, but I generally go with Marksman/Aiming Down the Sights/Double Shot/Skirmisher/Harrier. I picked Vanguard as my Skirmisher ability, but I think both can work. Harrier, Weapon Finesse, and Outmaneuver all trigger on you using a damaging attack, and most of Marksman's stuff is based on making attacks. You can also use Swift Strikes with Clear Shot to get a priority attack with high crit rate.
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