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So, Characters (also known as Actors). These are what facilitate gameplay regardless of what it is you’re playing really. From the characters you play, to the other entities you encounter be it the store manager or the monsters you encounter on wild roads. Naturally, you’re gonna want to know how does any creature work in PTR2e? Well, due to our unified design philosophy, all creatures whether human or Pokemon (or potentially even something else) will operate on the same basic principles.
First things first is the core stats; also known as attributes. Thanks to our Foundry-centric design, we’re able to do the unthinkable here. Core stats will work exactly like they do in the Pokemon video game main series.
Yep, that’s right. The exact same stat calculation. The exact same base stat mechanic. No conversion or fiddling required. The only significant change here is that the default IV for any stat for any creature is 0. Raising IVs above zero will be the purview of various progression mechanics.
Naturally, you must then wonder “well, what are the base stats for a human trainer?”
Well, in short, humans will be mechanically a species just like any Pokemon species. The Human species simply has a couple of mechanical differences. It has no inherent ability tree like a Pokemon species would have, and it has a variable Base Stat Array in that you will have a baseline human statline, plus a number of “base stat points” to allocate across the array as you like (within certain limitations).
Because of the nature of TTRPG gameplay, EVs cannot be easily awarded as a post-combat reward and this would create some weird situations for progression given that EVs’ impact scales based on the creature’s level. To this end, we’ve made the decision that all creatures will receive their full EV allowance to allocate at character creation, which will inform how that character’s stats grow, and can be altered as needed.
After attributes, you have skills. We have a solid library of skills that offer a lot of granularity, and it’s our intention that you’ll be able to add to and modify this skill list for your own campaigns. We will go into this more in a section dedicated to discussing skills.
Each creature will also have access to several gear slot types. Each creature will get 1 Worn Item Slot, 1 Accessory Item Slot and 1 Belt Item Slot, with humans getting bonus Belt Item Slots at creation and a Wielded slot will be granted by various means. More on these slots and the types of items will come in our gear and economy segment.
And further to that is abilities. This is one of the places where humans (and human-like species) differ from Pokemon. Pokemon will receive a Starting Ability at level 1, a Basic Ability at level 20, an Advanced Ability at level 50 and a Master ability at level 80. These abilities will be selected from the species’ ability options up until the slot level they are filling, so you could place a Basic ability into the Advanced slot, but not an Advanced ability into the Basic slot. Humans (and similar) will not get any abilities naturally through this progression, but they will receive more Advancement Points to spend on the Advancement Web than Pokemon will.
Finally, Each actor will have their own inherent reserve of Power Points that they can use to activate and empower Moves, Perks and Abilities. This will be covered in more detail in a future Combat System update.