Why does burn not affect out of battle ?

[rosebunny]

What I mean is that poison effects Pokemon outside of battle
so why not burn it would make sense.
This has been bugging me for YEARS ever since I got Pokemon Red
And yes it may make the game unbalanced but even by the crazy logic of the Pokemon Universe a burn should hurt.
Recently they did that thing with Shaymin with it not being able to transform into sky form if it was frozen so why not burn ?

 

[Serene Grace]

This is a well posed question, however it belongs in General Pokémon Gaming since you're refering only to the gaming aspect of Pokémon.

 

[Ficher]

I really do not know and I asked myself this question many times, so I came up with a stupid answer. If a Pokémon is affected with poison, the poison is now inside the Pokémon, as in it affects its inner area. But when a Pokémon is burnt, you can't possibly imagine a Pokémon on fire all the way; it would be weird. Though I think they should be affected outside the battle.

Nice theory eh?

 

[[Enter Witty Name Here]]

Maybe because fire type attacks are generally a lot more powerful than most poison type attacks, so the lower chance of a burn and it not hurting after battle might compensate a bit for that. That's my theory anyway.

 

[rosebunny]

Well thanks I was wondering whether to post in general Pokemon Gaming
So thanks for moving.

 

[mondays suck]

Because with dealing damage in battle, halving attack AND dealing damage out of battle, burn would be overpowered.
Gameplay was chosen over realism here.

 

[AuraAshley1990]

i guess because of the effect it has in battle. honestly i dont know.

 

[Rankurusu]

Maybe because is only hurts when the opponent pokemon touches it? I honsstly have no clue...

 

[Amore]

I think it's two reasons:

1. With the attack-halving, and in-battle damage, it'd be overpowered.....
2. If it damaged outside of battle, it'd be like poison...they don't really have 2 status conditions that are really alike. Except Freeze and Sleep, and there are no moves that inflict freeze status other than as a secondary effect (no ice-type hypnosis)

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

My guess is, burn might afflict only the skin, so its effect is only felt when the Pokemon is moving around, i.e., in battle. When it's in its Pokeball it's stationary so it's not aggravating the burn, therefore no damage (of course, the fact that Pokemon follow you in HG/SS somewhat contradict this, but they're still just walking, which isn't as intense an activity as battling)

Since Poison is internal, it affects no matter what.