Table of Contents
Raid Battles
Narrative Notes
These mechanics are for any kind of one versus many battle that’s intended to be difficult. The difficulty can swing based on various factors though, so you can have a raid battle that won’t be boss tier difficult as well. Flavorfully, you can lean into regional mechanics (Tera, Mega, Dynamax…) or you can just treat the boosts the Pokemon will be receiving as a “knowing the terrain” bonus.
Raid Badge Mechanic
A Pokemon with a Raid Badge is stronger than a normal Pokemon. This can be because of a regional phenomenon, knowing the terrain, weird experiments, Arceus’s blessing, or anything else that fits your game. When you see the term Raiders, it refers to all the opponents battling against the Pokemon with the Raid Badge.
A Raid Badge has a numerical level that goes with it. This level is referred to as it’s Badge Level. Pokemon with a Raid Badge observe the following rules.
- This Pokemon’s Max HP is multiplied by it’s Badge Level. (This is best imagined as multiple health bar layers, when you clear one, the next one starts taking damage.)
- Ex: Pikachu has 5 Hp (4 Base, 1 from Vit). If Pikachu is given a Level 5 Raid Badge, Pikachu’s HP at the start of the fight is now 25, not 5.
- This Pokemon has a Breakpoint at each multiple of it’s Badge Level below it’s new Max Hp.
- Ex: 5, 10, 15, 20 are the Breakpoints of the Pikachu listed above.
- Whenever this Pokemon’s health is reduced to a Breakpoint, it ignore the rest of the damage from the move that brought it to the Breakpoint.
- Ex: If Pikachu is at 16 HP and takes 4 damage, it only loses one health.
- Whenever this Pokemon is reduced to a Breakpoint, this Pokemon uses a Raid Move before the next Pokemon takes their turn.
- Ex: When Pikachu is reduced to 15 HP, it decides to take an Aggressive Stance, one of it’s Raid Moves.
- The Pokemon cannot Evade or Clash moves.
- At the start of a battle, a Pokemon with a Raid Badge can use one Raid Move immediately, before initiative starts.
The Raid Badge mechanic works around the observation that a number of weaker Pokemon have so many more actions than a lone stronger Pokemon that the stronger Pokemon doesn’t stand a chance. Raid Badges give the lone Pokemon back the actions it would spend on evading and clashing by giving it enough HP to absorb tons of damage from the weaker Pokemon. The lone Pokemon also gets the
Raid Moves
At a Breakpoint, a Pokemon with a Raid Badge gets to use one of the special actions listed here. These actions do not require a roll and do not count towards actions for the current round. Actions that target Raiders cannot be evaded or clashed. Whenever the Pokemon with a Raid Badge targets All Foes in Range as part of a Raid Move effect, all Raiders are targeted, even if there are more than the the Pokemon’s rank would allow it to target normally.
| Category | The Pokemon Takes on… | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Buff | an Aggressive Stance! | For the rest of the battle, all damaging moves this Pokemon uses may target All Foes in Range. |
| Buff | a Energized Stance! | This Pokemon increases the max number of actions it can take per round by 1. This can be done multiple times. |
| Buff | a Defensive Stance! | When this Pokemon uses this action, This Pokemon uses both Light Screen and Reflect. |
| Buff | an Amp’d Up Stance! | Increase this Pokemon’s Strength, Dexterity, Special, Defense, Special Defense by 2. This can be used multiple times. |
| Shield | an Wondrous Stance! | Until this Pokemon hits it’s next breakpoint, it gains the ability Wonder Guard. |
| Heal | a Restorative Stance! | When this Pokemon uses this action, reset all reduced attributes and traits from itself and remove any negative statuses. |
| Debuff | an Intimidating Stance! | When this Pokemon uses this action, reset all increased attributes and traits from the Raiders. |
| Regional | a Gigantic Stance! | This Pokemon Dynamaxes, following all rules in the Dynamax section of the core book except the HP increase. |
| Regional | a Shining Stance! | This Pokemon Terastallizes. |
| Regional | a Evolving Stance! | This Pokemon Mega Evolves. |
| Move | a Focused Stance! | Choose a Move this Pokemon knows. Whenever it uses that Move, the Move gains the “Never Fail” effect. |
| Move | a Tricky Stance! | This Pokemon uses a Support move from it’s overall move list. If it targets Foes, it targets All Foes in Range. |
| Move | A Specialized Stance! | Choose a Move this Pokemon knows. It can use that move any number of times in a single round. |
Specialized stance comes from Goat with a Monocle on the Pokerole Discord!
FAQ & Advice
- The Raid Battle mechanics are very much a toolkit, not a flat set of rules. It is quite possible to be brutally unfair to the party using some of the mechanics listed here. Take stock as the GM using these rules and be aware of what your party is looking for in a combat.
- Steel types are naturally tanky and reduce the amount of damage done to themselves via high defenses. Keep that in mind when using a Steel type as a Raid Boss: I reduce the star by one just for having the typing on the Raid Boss.
- Aggressive Stance is very swingy and can do lots of damage very quickly. It’s best saved for the last or second to last breakpoint, unless you’re feeling cruel.
- Be careful what you use Tricky Stance with. Attribute increases and decreases are the core of the this move, but you could be using it with status effect inflecting moves like Thunder Wave or Sing or other powerful support moves. Be careful when using these to not drive the raiders into a corner; a paralyzation of the Pokemon whose been super effective half the fight ratchets up the tension, putting every raider to sleep will feel cheap and unfair.