CAP 30 - Part 16 - Flavor Ability Discussion

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Tadasuke

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Okay pals, before we continue I'd like to briefly address a few things.

First and foremost, when submitting abilities in any CAP process thread, adhere to the banlist. If you don't, your submission will not be addressed and it will not be slated. Second, we are submitting flavor abilities. These are abilities that have no competitive implications. I understand that some of you may have read through the first few questions in my last post and got the impression that you have as much leeway as "this doesn't always overshadow Stamina so it's fine". This is not how flavor abilities work. Please read through the flavor ability threads for CAPs 28, 27, and 26 to gain a better understanding of how little competitive impact a flavor ability should have in CAP.

With that out of the way, let me talk about some of the abilities I've liked so far.
  • Power of Alchemy: Cool ability with very little distribution. I'm really not worried about exact translations since PS! and Smogon are both majority English speaking sites.
  • Liquid Ooze: Hasn't seen any real use in OU since Tentacruel was relevant, and even then it wasn't outstanding. Fits well with how drippy the art is.
  • Magician: Ties into the grimoire flavor aspect very nicely, little competitive impact and precedent with Lotl.
  • Telepathy: Nice and boring, plays into the psychic/magical sub-flavor in the art.
  • Illuminate: Literally no competitive use so it works just fine, the flavor is kinda there in the way that reading is an illuminating activity
  • Pressure: Staple hidden ability, mirrors Giratina
  • Gooey: I'm a bit on the fence about this one, but I'm honestly not convinced it would ever be used over Stamina. Same as Liquid Ooze, this fits the flavor of the book dripping really well.
I'm gonna leave this open for another 24 hours then open the poll.
 
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I decided to try to organize the suggested abilities so far into categories based on my opinions of them. I left off all the abilities that were suggested but fall in the banlists, or were generally regarded as too strong (namely Corrosion and Trace). Each category is roughly ranked within itself from most preferred to least preferred. There is personal bias afoot here, so not every ability got a particularly rational explanation or placement, although I tried to stay reasonable.

  • Inner Focus (I think this pairs well with Stamina in terms of endurance and focus, also see Mudsdale line having it)
  • Insomnia (I think it plays well into the idea of a cursed book that never sleeps)
  • Overcoat (I think the book, along with some magic and the general bulk of the Pokemon, is enough to justify)
  • Liquid Ooze (makes enough sense visually with all the dripping ink)
  • Poison Point (I think the prominent nib is enough, although admittedly it could use more spikes to justify)
  • Magician (invokes fellow object Pokemon Klefki and fits with the magic flavor)
  • Cursed Body (cursed book flavor is fitting enough with the magic motif)
  • Forewarn (inoffensive predictive magic flavor)
  • Anticipation (inoffensive predictive magic flavor)
  • Telepathy (inoffensive magic flavor)
  • Levitate (shnowshner is not technically wrong on some points, even if it's still a massive joke)
  • Unnerve (distribution is wide enough to justify, but I'm not really feeling it)
  • Pressure (distribution is wide enough to justify, but I'm not really feeling it)
  • Oblivious (this implies a lack of awareness that doesn't quite make sense to me for this design)
  • Gooey (ink usually isn't sticky enough to slow things down, I guess this could be handwaved as "magic ink")
  • Perish Body (not that big of a fan of giving out exclusive abilities from the current generation, although it fits OK for similar reasons to Cursed Body)
  • Power Spot (not that big of a fan of giving out exclusive abilities from the current generation)
  • Power of Alchemy (as mentioned before, it being more based on chemistry than alchemy takes away from the magic flavor and I think the chemistry angle is sort of plausible but still a stretch)
  • Illuminate (entirely based on a pun, and the Pokemon does not naturally light itself like other Illuminate Pokemon)
  • Quick Draw (I would prefer more gun inspiration for this to make sense and I dislike the potential RNG jank this introduces, plus the exclusive ability angle I mentioned earlier)
 
Are ability submissions still allowed? If so, i'd like to submit Aftermath. It fits with the cursed book flavor and fellow Flying-type object Pokemon Drifblim has it.

Other Abilities that I like are Cursed Body, Pressure, Power of Alchemy, Anticipation and Liquid Ooze.
Some that I don't particularly like are Illuminate and Gooey. Illuminate only shows up in Pokemon that can physically glow and I really can't envision Venomicon's ink being gooey.
 
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