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View Full Version : I'm sure it's been done before, but...Pokemon trainer in DnD?



overduegalaxy
2008-10-06, 12:48 PM
I'm having trouble deciding what would be the best route to go. The build by no means needs to be optimized (except for fun!), since no one else in my group is a big optimizer, but I would like it to be playable.

Conjurer wizard?

Druid -> Beastmaster?

Artificer with a homunculus army?

Some Cha-based class using leadership to order around a bunch of blink dogs and griffons?

Someone who carries around a lot of these (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#elementalGem)?

Some sort of horrible, monstrous combination of several of the above?

Fax Celestis
2008-10-06, 12:51 PM
Try my Animal Trainer.

ocato
2008-10-06, 01:16 PM
If you go Druid, you can get
Ashbound (EbSC): Double Duration, +3 luck bonus to attacks for summons
Child of Winter (EbSC): Adds some Vermin to your list, for variety/flavor
as well as SF Conjuration and Augment Summoning.

You even get a pikachu! Animal Companion

AstralFire
2008-10-06, 01:18 PM
I wouldn't bother; I love Pokemon, I can sing you the first five theme songs, but I'm of the opinion that the concept translates very poorly into d20.

IM@work
2008-10-06, 01:55 PM
play a malkonvoker, a summoner class and just summon a ton of monsters and give them stupid names. Use planar ally to get one to follow you around and repeat its name over and over again. Annoy all of your fellow players.
There, simple.

The Rose Dragon
2008-10-06, 01:58 PM
I wouldn't bother; I love Pokemon, I can sing you the first five theme songs, but I'm of the opinion that the concept translates very poorly into d20.

Except for M&M. It translates into M&M perfectly.

AstralFire
2008-10-06, 02:01 PM
Except for M&M. It translates into M&M perfectly.

From what I hear, M&M translates everything perfectly. It's certainly giving me a high standard to live up to; one of these days I will have to actually get a copy and see what's so hot about it. I'd barely even heard about it before a month ago.

The Rose Dragon
2008-10-06, 02:29 PM
Not everything. There are three places at where M&M fails.

1) Monty Haul campaigns. I think that one speaks for itself. EDIT: The thing which makes this irrelevant is that Monty Haul is something specific to computer games and D&D.

2) Normal life. Not sure why you want to simulate normal life, but there are systems that can do that and have sufficiently different characters (just at the mechanics level, of course).

3) Advancing power that remains relatively low. Low-power M&M works only between PL 3 - 7, and after that it quickly rises to become > 9 . 10 ^ 3 at PL 12. And if you follow the 15 pp per PL guideline, it is difficult to create the feeling of advancement.

Fizban
2008-10-06, 04:22 PM
Try this (http://www.scshop.com/~ritaxis/summoner.html) for something more like the show, or this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59152) if you're worried about powergaming. I think the first one's pretty good if your DM keeps his eyes open, though I would change a few things. I can show you my edited version if you're interested.

Dr Bwaa
2008-10-06, 04:34 PM
Oh, very simple. Play an Artificer, invent the Pokéball, and then catch stuff with the Pokéballs you make and send them into battle for you. Every time your party fights a monster and the thing is nearly defeated, leap in at the very end and yell "wait! don't kill it!" and then capture it instead. Voila!

Tengu_temp
2008-10-06, 05:20 PM
I wanted to write something in this thread, then I saw those:


Except for M&M. It translates into M&M perfectly.

From what I hear, M&M translates everything perfectly. It's certainly giving me a high standard to live up to; one of these days I will have to actually get a copy and see what's so hot about it. I'd barely even heard about it before a month ago.

Not everything. There are three places at where M&M fails.

1) Monty Haul campaigns. I think that one speaks for itself. EDIT: The thing which makes this irrelevant is that Monty Haul is something specific to computer games and D&D.

2) Normal life. Not sure why you want to simulate normal life, but there are systems that can do that and have sufficiently different characters (just at the mechanics level, of course).

3) Advancing power that remains relatively low. Low-power M&M works only between PL 3 - 7, and after that it quickly rises to become > 9 . 10 ^ 3 at PL 12. And if you follow the 15 pp per PL guideline, it is difficult to create the feeling of advancement.


And I don't have anything to add anymore. Poop.

Being an Artificer and crafting pokeballs works for normal DND, I guess.

Hadrian_Emrys
2008-10-06, 05:40 PM
I doubt anything outside of a Malconvoker comes even close to the theme. Homebrewing seems to be the answer though. Nothing stays more true to the source material than a +0 LA template that allows you to expend your actions in order to give them to a "pet".

Collin152
2008-10-06, 05:47 PM
I doubt anything outside of a Malconvoker comes even close to the theme. Homebrewing seems to be the answer though. Nothing stays more true to the source material than a +0 LA template that allows you to expend your actions in order to give them to a "pet".

You were working on something like that before, weren't you?

LibraryOgre
2008-10-06, 05:52 PM
Yeah, the artificer idea beats my suggestion of a druid or archivist with Craft Wondrous Items.

Rei_Jin
2008-10-06, 06:13 PM
I'd be looking at using a Psion (Shaper) and going into the Ectopic Adept Prestige Class. Then, just ask the DM if you can flavour your constructs to look different to what they normally would. There's a feat in Magic of Faerun called Thematic Casting, which could do just that if the DM allows you to adapt it to a Psion.

Also, you can channel your powers through your Psi-Crystal (if you choose to get one) from level 15 onwards, which would allow you to have any powers you manifest seem to come from the Astral Construct. Heck, your DM may even allow you to put your Psi-crystal into your construct, and combine the two.

Waspinator
2008-10-06, 09:23 PM
Refluffed Eternal Wands:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89353

kbk
2008-10-06, 10:06 PM
While, not strictly the same thing (I really dislike pokemon), I do have a topical story.

One FR campaign, we had a new player choose to play a minotaur barbarian. Well, minotaurs aren't liked in most areas, so we gave him a necklace of adaptation and kept him in a portable hole.

Whenever we got into an encounter, we unfurled the portable hole and yelled "I choose you minotaur barbarian!"

Unfortunately, the player stopped coming, and we sort of forgot about his minotaur for several months of game time. As it turns out, this was back when a necklace of adaptation only had fresh air for 7 days. So, the next time we choose the minotaur barbarian all we got was a corpse. Those were some confused kobolds.