Battle Rules and Guidelines

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Info

[Randomizer]

The battles in DisplacedEarth's roleplay, whether against another player, a gym leader, or some evildoer, have specific rules and guidelines that must be followed. For starters, a Pokémon must only use attacks that are in its learned moveset; this includes the 6-8 attacks it has already learned and not any that are unlearned or its species cannot learn. Each individual Pokémon may use attacks in different ways than other species of Pokémon might, or even just differently than others of its own kind. For example, a Charizard may use Flamethrower by gathering fire in his mouth, then spitting it out in a stream and sweeping it back and forth, while a Chandelure might just tilt her head forward and spew flames from the fire atop her head. These interpretations are entirely up to you as the roleplayer!


When battling in a thread, we ask that you place the following information at the top or bottom of your post:

The mod will have a similar bit in their post for the Pokémon being controlled by them, but they will have to keep track of the weather effects along with all of the above.

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Basics

During battles, mods will control the opponent Pokémon (unless you are battling against another roleplayer, in which case each person will control their character's Pokémon). The mod will be the one to determine whether or not attacks hit their Pokémon, and the player will determine whether or not attacks hit their Pokémon. Dodges are allowed, but must be used sparingly. If someone is allowing their Pokémon to dodge every attack, they will be asked to stop and warned if they do not.

It is an option to allow the mod to control everything in a battle if a player cannot work with this battle system for some reason, but it's usually best to try it yourself. It's really quite easy to figure out if you put a little effort into it.

Now, onto the technical things, such as how much damage an attack will do or how likely it is to hit the foe. These factors depend mostly on the attack's stats. It's a good idea to reference Veekun or Serebii to check on a move's stats, and to double-check for its compatibility with certain effects that occur from certain moves, such as Mirror Move's ability to copy the opponent's last attack.

For damaging moves, the damage done to the opponent first depends on whether or not it actually can damage the opponent. Let's say the attack used is Dig, and the opponent Pokémon is a Pidgeot. This move would do absolutely no damage, as Pidgeot's Flying type completely negates damage from any Ground-type attack. Other Pokémon types with special immunities are treated the same.

Beyond whether or not the attack would do any damage in the first place, it must be determined if, upon hitting, it would be Super Effective, Not Very Effective, or of regular effectiveness. So if the same Pokémon were using Dig on an Electric-type Pokemon, it would be a Super Effective hit, but if Dig were used on a Pokémon of the Bug type, it would be Not Very Effective. Regular effectiveness does normal damage, while Super Effective does doubled damage and Not Very Effective moves' damage is halved.

Then, the attack's Power comes into play. Dig has a power of 80, so if it hits an opponent of the Ground type, it would do damage according to the user's level but not multiplied or divided due to the regular effectiveness. So, if Dig is being used by a level 10 Diglett, the attack would do 8 damage. The formula is a simple one, it is merely 10% of the attack's regular power to determine how much damage will be done. This is done even more easily as a removal of the second number for a Pokémon level 10 and under; if the Pokémon's move has a power of 50, it would do 5 damage normally, if its power was 100, it would do 10 damage, and so on.

Here is a small chart of what to do to determine damage for each Pokémon level:

10 and below - 10% of move's power
Every other level - (level)% of move's power

This means that if a Pokémon's level is 50, it would do 50% of the move's power as damage. To figure out each percentage, just take the move's power, take the zero off of the end of it (so 90 would become 9 and 120 would become 12), then divide the Pokémon's level by the new number. By moving the decimal to the right once, this determines the base damage done by this Pokémon's attack.

STAB, or Same Type Attack Bonus, is the small attack bonus given to a Pokémon using an attack that matches one of their types. This will multiply the final base damage by 1.5, so be sure to remember that as well. Numbers that are still decimals when all of this is done round up if the first decimal number is at 5 or above and round down when 4 or below. (Diglett using Dig, a STAB move, would do 12 damage with STAB factored in.)

After all of this, you must consider Attack/Special Attack (Physical/Special) and Defense/Special Defense (Physical/Special) being boosted or lowered. You must subtract 1/4 of the base damage that would be done normally for each Defense/Special Defense boost on the opponent or lowered Attack/Special Attack point on the attacking Pokémon, and add 1/4 of the base damage for each Attack/Special Attack boost on the attacker or lowered Defense/Special Defense on the opponent. You must match up each individual move with their move 'type' properly. So, if the level 10 Diglett using Dig had used Hone Claws before he attacked, his Dig would do not 12 damage, but 15 damage to the opponent. (If Diglett had used a move to strengthen Special Attack, this would have no effect on the power of the physical attack Dig). However, if the opponent had used Defense Curl after Diglett used Hone Claws, then the damage would still be 12 because the attack boost is null against the defense boost.

(Note: Stat changes can only go above or below the base by 3. The base is that no stats are raised or lowered at all, unless there are special circumstances.)

Even when you know how much damage an attack would do to a particular opponent, the mod must determine whether or not that attack hits the opponent to do any damage. Regularly, the attack's Accuracy stat is all that needs to be used; for 100% Accuracy like Dig has, the mod will use a random number generator. If the number the page generates is 25, 50, or 75, the move will miss; otherwise, the move will work just fine. Increased Evasion and decreased Accuracy can stack up to the attacking Pokémon's move having a much lower chance of hitting. Here is a simple chart of which numbers hit by the generator will result in a miss depending on the foe's and attacker's stat boosts:

Attacking Pokémon	Defending Pokémon	Miss Numbers
-	-	25, 50, 75
-1 Accuracy	-	20, 25, 50, 75, 80
-2 Accuracy	-	10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90
-3 Accuracy	-	5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90, 95
-	-1 Evasion	50, 75
-	-2 Evasion	50
-	-3 Evasion	(no miss)
-	+1 Evasion	20, 25, 50, 75, 80
-	+2 Evasion	10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90
-	+3 Evasion	5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90, 95
-1 Accuracy	+1 Evasion	10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90
-2 Accuracy	+1 Evasion	5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90, 95
-3 Accuracy	+1 Evasion	5, 10, 20, 25, 30, 50, 70, 75, 80, 90, 95
-1 Accuracy	+2 Evasion	5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90, 95
-2 Accuracy	+2 Evasion	5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95
-3 Accuracy	+2 Evasion	5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95
-1 Accuracy	+3 Evasion	5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 80, 90, 95
-2 Accuracy	+3 Evasion	5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95
-3 Accuracy	+3 Evasion	5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 50, 55, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95

If a physical attack connects with a Pokemon that has a status-causing ability, such as Effect Spore or Static, the Battle Randomizer will tell you not only if the attack causes an effect, but will also tell you what the effect will be in the case of the move Effect Spore.

Critical Hits, which double the base damage of an attack (so Dig from a level 10 Diglett would do 24 damage rather than 12) are determined by the Battle Randomizer. For a regular everyday attack, like Dig, the mod will refresh this page once, and if the Critical Hit field reads 'Yes' then the attack will land a Critical Hit, provided it doesn't miss. Critical Hit. The likelihood of a Critical Hit increases with certain attacks and items; each one of these factors in play makes one more refresh of the Battle Randomizer. The mod would refresh twice if the Diglett using Dig has used Focus Energy, so there is a higher likelihood that the attack would be Critical.

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Weather

Weather effects can make or break a Pokémon battle. The different effects include Sunny, Raining, Hail, and Sandstorm. Each weather effect that wasn't happening before the battle began stays in play for six posts, then subsides. If a Pokémon that causes a weather effect appears in battle, their weather lasts six turns beyond them leaving the battle or being knocked out. It is often Hailing during the Winter months, Raining in the Spring, and Sunny in the Summer. Sandstorms are not terribly common during regular weather, but they can happen as well. If the Pokémon using an attack to change the weather is holding the proper Rock (Smooth, Icy, Heat, or Damp), the weather lasts for nine posts instead of six. Castform changes forms depending on the weather as well.

During normal weather, everything is.. well, normal. No attack types are affected in any way. The only thing normal skies can affect is the move Moonlight, giving it a boost to fully heal the Pokémon's HP, but this boost only works at night.

Sunny skies boost Fire-type attacks by x2, while causing Water-type attacks to only do 1/2 of their usual damage. Solar Beam doesn't need a turn to charge during this weather. Abilities are activated for Pokémon with the Chlorophyll, Dry Skin, Flower Gift, Forecast, Leaf Guard, and Solar Power abilities. The moves Morning Sun and Synthesis are boosted to heal the Pokémon entirely rather than only by half. Weather Ball's power doubles and its type becomes Fire.

Rain boosts Water-type attacks to x2, but Fire-type attacks can only do 1/2 of their normal damage. Thunder's accuracy is brought to 100 and Solarbeam does 1/2 of its usual damage. Abilities are activated for Pokémon with the Dry Skin, Forecast, Hydration, Rain Dish, or Swift Swim abilities. Moonlight, Morning Sun, and Synthesis only heal by 1/4 max HP during the Rain. Weather Ball becomes Water-type and its power is doubled.

Sandstorms do 1/16th of a Pokémon's HP of damage per turn unless the Pokémon is Steel, Rock, or Ground type or has the ability Sand Veil, Sand Rush, Sand Force, Overcoat, or Magic Guard. Pokémon of unaffected types get a +1 boost to their Special Defense. Sand Veil, Sand Rush, and Sand Force are activated by this weather. Weather Ball turns into the Rock type and is doubled in power.

Hail damages any Pokémon that isn't Ice-type by 1/16th of their max HP unless they have the Snow Cloak ability. Blizzard's accuracy increases to 100%. The Ice Body and Snow Cloak abilities are activated. Plain snow activates the abilities that Hail does, but it doesn't damage any Pokémon. Weather Ball becomes Ice-type and doubles in power in both Hail and snow.

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Stat Table

Optionally, you may use this table to make your required battle information look just a little bit prettier as well as making sure it's all there in a nice, neat fashion.
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Pokémon's species
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Pokémon's level
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Pokémon's type
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Pokémon's HP
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Status effects
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Stat changes
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Example:

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Flaaffy	Level 23
37/46	Paralyzed, Confused	+1 Special Attack, -1 Accuracy