[Discussion] NPC Trainer Class Abilities

[destinedjagold]

On one of the Pokémon discord channel that I'm a member of, we were discussing about how good it would be if in the future games' story, the player needs to lose without them knowing that they need to. Difficulty was brought up and after suggestions were thrown, I suggested that trainer classes—like rivals, youngsters, nurses, evil team grunts/leaders, etc—could have different "abilities."

A general rule would be that "regular" trainer class abilities could have a 20% to 30% chance of activating per battle (and can only activate once per battle).

For example...

• a nurse has a chance to revive one of their fainted Pokémon and use them again in battle.
• an evil team grunt could 'temporarily steal' one of your Pokémon. This is assuming you have more than one active Pokémon in your team, and neither of you can use that 'stolen Pokemon' in the duration of that battle.
• a rival's Pokémon could hold on to 1 HP, surviving a KO.
• a ranger has a chance to call a wild Pokémon to battle you. SoS-style maybe?
• a gym leader's last Pokémon could get buffed.
• a youngster could send out the top percentage Rattata.
• etc.

Of course, the trainer abilities can only apply in the story-mode, not in online/offline PvP matches. Would you think this will be a welcome new addition? Could it lead to a lot of problems?

 

[Spyro]

I think this would make for a very unique and exciting mechanic, along with BW's thing where the trainers would appear on screen and react to the battle in some ways. I think having the ability only having a chance to trigger removes the few problems I see, notably frustration and redundance.
I feel it would maybe make the trainers feel more alive, instead of just puppets waiting for you to beat them. Somewhat like the anime, it could be also interesting to see if they would bring evolution mid-fight, both for the player and for the trainers!