Revisions: Sandshrew, Sandslash, and the Nido Family
#027-028 Sandshrew and Sandslash #029-031 Nidoran♀ , Nidorina, and Nidoqueen #032-034Nidoran♂, Nidorino, and Nidoking
I’m finally working on this project again! Progress will continue to be sporadic due to a high volume of real-life responsibilities, but I hope that this progress report will be a better sign that I still care than occasionally answered asks. Revision consists not just of proofreading, but also a lotof running numbers. The most important part of the revision process is masking sure that every modifier, damage amount, armor class, hit point total, saving throw, and challenge rating is properly calculated. Unfortunately, it’s very repetitive, very time-intensive, and not very exciting, but occasionally it gives me the opportunity to see the system in action in its purest form.
For this progress report, I have the avatar of this blog—Nidoking—as well as its juvenile forms and its female counterpart. Sandshrew and Sandslash are also here because otherwise it’d be weird to have their art on these pages but no their stat blocks. There wasn’t so intensive of a revision process for these Pokemon as there was for the starter Pokemon; all of these stat blocks were primarily about readability and Challenge Rating correction. We also have art of Nidoking and Nidoqueen, courtesy of and with permission from tumblr user Diogonen!
Sometimes when I think of a novel mechanic for the D&D system, such as Sandshrew and Sandslash’s Rollout dealing more damage over successive hits, I try to write it as clearly as I can. That’s the hardest part about writing rules: you need to be even more clear than you think you are, because only you truly know what you mean. In this case, I veered too far into being so clear that I became excessively verbose instead. Why was Rollout a special Slash attack instead of its own attack? The best lesson I have learned over the course of writing this blog is when to stop trying to reference other mechanics and moves and just condense things into themselves sometimes. However, just like with the Squirtle family, the Tortle Package came out between the publication of the original stat block and now, so I could revise Defense Curl to act like the official action, Shell Defense.
As for the Nidoran family, the job was about Challenge Rating correction. I liked the idea of having Nidoking and Nidoqueen as solid mid-level monsters; they each have a Challenge Rating of 10 and it’s desirable that they be fought together. However, after crunching the numbers, Nidoqueen was far more powerful than I had originally thought. Despite being the more “defensive” monster, she was on par with Nidoking’s damage output with none of the drawbacks. There’s no exciting process here, but after pushing and pulling to find a new balance, I was able to bring her and Nidoking down to a more appropriate level of power by tweaking their defensive stats. I find myself lowering hit points more often than anything else in my revision process. Have you ever heard the expression “the brightest candle burns the shortest?” My design philosophy gradually gravitated towards that axiom. I prefer monsters whose encounters will be intense and short over monsters whose encounters will be drawn-out and long…but of course, each has its place.
I also removed Nidoking and Nidoqueen’s vulnerability to cold damage and immunity to lightning damage. My adherence to the type chart is something that may seem arbitrary at first glance, but ultimately it comes down to the immediate visual nature of the Pokemon. Just looking at a Nidoking or Nidoqueen, would you be able to tell that it would be vulnerable to cold or immune to lightning? Unlike creatures whose life is represented by a flame on its tail or monsters literally made of non-conductive earth, Nidoking and Nidoqueen possess no cues. I don’t design these creatures with the assumption that they will be treated as Pokemon in-game, or that all players will recognize them as such and use Pokemon logic against them, so I removed those non-obvious type effectivenesses. Poison is a little different, as many creatures are non-obviously poisonous, but the fact that it has poison attacks means that being susceptible to poison itself would be weird.
Click Read More below for a detailed list of changes made to these Pokemon, relative to how they appeared in Preview: The Kanto Compilation.
Individual Changes
Sandshrew and Sandslash.Revised Sand Rush to protect against more conditions. Corrected the attack bonus of Sandshrew’s Scratch and Sandslash’s Slash to +3 from +6 and +5 from +6, respectively. Revised Defense Curl to more closely resemble Shell Defense. Changed Rollout into a distinct attack.
Nidoran♀. Reduced the damage of Poison Sting to 1 piercing damage and 5 (2d4) poison damage from 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage and 2 (1d4) poison damage.
Nidoqueen. Reduced the damage of Earth Power to 36 (8d8) from 45 (10d8). Removed vulnerability to cold and immunity to lightning damage.
Nidoking.Removed vulnerability to cold and immunity to lightning damage.
