Bench Abilities V2

[Yung Dramps]

V1 approved by Ludicrousity and charizard8888, V2 approved by charizard8888

The Premise
Unlike many other pet mods, this one was designed exclusively for Battle Spot Singles, now Battle Stadium Singles. During these matches, you send out 3 mons while the other 3 stay on the bench. But what if those benched mons could still help out your allies even if not in battle? This Pet Mod answers this question by giving certain mons bench abilities that boost their allies in various ways, even when they're off the field. These abilities are active only when their users remain on the bench. Bench abilities are separate from standard abilities, occupying their own special "slot".

Slates
When making your bench ability, there are 3 factors you must specify:

Ability Effect: Duh. This can be anything from stat boosts, boosts to the effects of certain moves/abilities, etc. To prevent power-creep, I have implemented the following guidelines:

1. You may not make bench abilities that are blatantly superior to pre-existing ones, even if you try to give it to weaker mons to balance it out. For example, if there's a BA that gives +20% Attack to fire types, you may not make an ability that does that with an additional chance to burn, even if you give it to shit like Heatmor or Magmar.
2. There will be balance changes if something is determined to be under/over-powered.

Who's affected: Which mons are affected by the ability? These can be categorized by type, normal ability or stats.

Who gets the bench ability: Who gets the actual ability? Try to give passives to underutilized/normally weak mons. Up to 7 evolutionary lines are allowed for each ability, 5 submissions in total, and each mon can only have one bench ability!

About The Format
Going into Gen 8, Bench Abilities will be a National Pokedex mod as to conserve a lot of the work we have done and keep certain strategies alive. Now, last generation I managed this mod to not have anything be banned to stay in line with the no-bans policy of the official Battle Spot, but now that we are deviating in such a huge way already I figure we can be more free to actually ban things rather than trying to nerf BAs to stay in line with them. Megas and Z-Moves will be allowed and Dynamaxing will be banned.

Template
Ability Name:
Effect:
Given to:

Spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14GDawSGTJsvZD6aAaTgnsdygPRFb3Kx1Pb6lEksvXLo/edit#gid=0
Discord Server
https://discord.gg/EzqynZy

 

[Yung Dramps]

Ok, so before we do anything else

Slate #0: Distribution
This is gonna be super informal and fairly quick. What we're gonna do for this slate is take pre-existing Bench Abilities and distribute them to new Pokemon and Galarian forms introduced in Sword and Shield. I've already given the Will abilities to the Galar starters, so make your picks for what to give! There probably won't even be a real vote, just discussion about the distribution ideas and then putting them in. Think of it as a suggestion box of sorts. Other than that, the only rule is that each ability can now have 8 evolutionary lines have it at one time with the exception of the Wills.

EDIT: Balance change: Ancient Awakening only affects Rock type fossils. I don't think anyone wants Dracovish getting even more power and speed.

 

[Mintly]

Arctic Armor


Sinister Escort


Miracle Fluff


Knighthoot


Hibernation


Ancient Awakening


Heavy Expert


Fountain of Youth


Surface to Air


Eviofite


Safe Space

 

[Yung Dramps]

What's up with the slow subs? More please :]

 

[Ehmcee]

Knighthood:


Miracle Fluff:


Spooky Encounter:


Safe Space:
(Both)

Precocious Pupae:


edit:
kinda just agree with everything Spook put except for the grimmsnarl line

 

[Yung Dramps]

Get your subs in by tomorrow! After that I'm gonna implement some of these

 

[Yung Dramps]

Arctic Armor


Sinister Escort


Miracle Fluff


Knighthoot


Hibernation


Heavy Expert


Fountain of Youth


Surface to Air


Eviofite


Safe Space

Knighthood:


Miracle Fluff:


Spooky Encounter:


Safe Space:
(Both)

Precocious Pupae:


edit:
kinda just agree with everything Spook put except for the grimmsnarl line

These will be implemented! First real slate starts tomorrow.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Haha, yeah... "First slate starts tomorrow"... Good one Dramps

Sub abilities now. You can also continuing suggesting distribution changes for pre-existing ones

 

[Scoopapa]

Old abilities to new pokemon:
Protective Powder:

Guardian Angel:

Confidence Boost:

New Abilities:
Sweet Surprise: Reverses the effect of any stat drops caused by the enemy team.

Reasoning: Surround looks pretty broken. This would counter that. This will only royaly screw their team if they didn't design their team to have different configurations.

Jealousy: Your allied pokemon take -1 Def upon switching in

Reasoning: You're welcome. Now you at least have some intel ( they're almost certainly going to be chosen ) when you see these pokemon in team preview.

Weight Shift: Doubles the weight of the whole team. Stacks with Heavy Metal

Reasoning: a buff to some pokemon that enjoy using Heavy Slam / Heat Crash, fairly low key but these mons are fairly strong already.

 

[6Roggenrolas]

Old Abilities for new Pokemon:

Ancient Awakening:

Retro Racer:

Sinister Escort:

Surround:

New Abilities:

False Face: If your active ally Pokemon is not targeted by an attack after its first turn in battle (Fake Out rules), the opposing Pokemon loses -1 Speed. Only one False Face can be active on the bench at once.

Reasoning: Powerful speed control, but somewhat easy to play around and reserved for weaker Pokemon. Surround limitation included to prevent stacking of stat drops.

Patience: Increases the accuracy of all moves that go second by 1.2x.

Reasoning: Seemed like it would make a sense to have a "Zoom Lens" to go along with the effect of Legendary Presence. On worse Pokemon, but sometimes better to take advantage of since one could build a slower team.

Jamming: Damage of moves used by allies on consecutive turns is increased. (same rules as the Metronome item)

Reasoning: One fun potential with this project is to make usually unused effects come into play (as with Arctic Armor and Mist) and the Metronome item seemed like a great candidate, at least when put on mons that wouldn't cause its benefit to be too overwhelming.

Prophecy: The turn after an ally uses a Psychic move against a Dark type, that ally gains the Miracle Eye status.

Reasoning: Obviously very powerful because Unown. Potent for Psychic attackers, but has enough of a limitation aside from simply being on Unown where it feels fair.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Subs ending soon!

 

[Yung Dramps]

we need more pls

 

[Ehmcee]

Flower Power: Fellow Grass Type Pokemon see their moves damage multiplied by 1.3 under the sun. The effect dissipates when the sun dissapears.

Reasoning: Gives a slight buff to sun teams, in a generation where rain and sand are the dominant weather.

Overbearing: If one of your pokemon is hit with a contact move, a fairy lock effect is put in place and no pokemon can escape for the next turn.

Reasoning: Sort of a less OP Shadow Tag, you can switch in a check to a mon and guarantee that it has to stay in if it uses contact, mainly based on the fact that bears are scary... didn't wanna do a mean look effect cuz it was kinda OP, also bear puns.

 

[6Roggenrolas]

had a big huge post with the nice sprites but accidentally refreshed so just gonna repost with text and shorter reasoning, sorry

Mud Bath: If an ally Pokemon uses a Water-type move, it will also set the Mud Sport effect. (Electric moves do 1/3 damage)

Wooper, Quagsire, Barboach, Whiscash, Swinub, Piloswine

Underused effect, should be helpful for rain teams or those trying to use Gyarados. Gave it an activation clause so the opponent's Electric types aren't immediately invalidated.

Flower Shower: If an ally Pokemon uses a Grass-type move, it will also set the Water Sport effect. (Fire moves do 1/3 damage)

Lotad, Lombre, Ludicolo, Flabebe, Floette, Florges, Comfey

Again, also underused. Use case isn't as clear cut for a specific team archetype, but I'm sure Leavanny, Ferrothorn and the like will be appreciative.

Evothusiast: If an ally LC/NFE Pokemon has a BST lower than 400, it will have its highest stat boosted by 1 stage upon switch-in. (Only one Evothusiast can be active on the bench at a time)

Magikarp, Dunsparce, Wurmple, Silcoon, Cascoon, Feebas, Relicanth, Bagon, Shelgon

I feel like an ability with an effect operating on this basis is important to have, since one might be compelled to use an unevolved Pokemon for its bench ability but find it to never be strong enough for actual battle. This stat boost will help mitigate that somewhat, and give weaker LC/NFE Pokemon some sort of help beyond the overburdened eviolite. The 400 BST cutoff prevents problematic Pokemon (Scyther, Kadabra, etc.) from potentially being too annoying or entirely outclassing their evolved stage.

Phantom's Fear: Allied Ghost-types will have their charge attacks executed in 1 turn instead of 2. (Power herb effect)

Houndour, Houndoom, Absol, Weavile, Zorua, Zoroark

Makes it so that physical Ghost types (Dusknoir, Banette, Golurk, etc.) can actually rely on Phantom Force for STAB. Also allows for some fun stuff like Sky Attack Decidueye and Solar Beam Chandelure.

Permafrost: Ice-type Pokemon take half damage from Ground and Rock type attacks.
Mamoswine, Amaura, Aurorus, Bergmite, Avalugg

Ice is notoriously horrible defensively, and this ability helps to make that less of a problem by lessening damage from a threatening weakness and a type it's supposed to counter. Hopefully can make Hail teams more of a thing (but the boost also applies to enemy Ice types to make it less free.)

Bloodletting: Allied Pokemon that use a draining attack move on an opponent will inflict that Pokemon with the "Heal Block" status.

Zubat, Golbat, Crobat, Carvanha, Sharpedo, Buzzwole

A potent if situational effect, since not as many Pokemon run recovery in 3v3. However, this bench ability is on solid Pokemon and should be useful against bulkier or more stall-oriented teams.

Pack's Call: Allied Pokemon that use Howl will have their Speed stat raised sharply.

Poochyena, Mightyena, Electrike, Manectric, Rockruff, Lycanroc-Midday, Boltund

Howl is pretty mediocre, but is unfortunately the only setup move for many Pokemon. This bench ability gives it more of a Shift Gear effect and boosts a category of Pokemon working together in a cool tcg type way

Lone Wolf: If the other two non-benched ally Pokemon are fainted, an ally Pokemon will lower the opponent's Attack one stage upon being sent into battle. (This can stack with intimidate)

Growlithe, Arcanine, Entei, Raikou, Suicune, Luxray, Lycanroc-Midnight, Lycanroc-Dusk

A conceptual alternate to Pack's Call I stumbled upon, but an entirely distinct effect that seems pretty interesting and may help to turn the tables in a losing battle (or help out blitz offensive teams).

Demolitionist: If allied Pokemon use Explosion or Self-Destruct, the attack's type will match their primary type.

Voltorb, Electrode, Forretress, Turtonator

Seemed like a fun idea. Out of all the abilities that have been submitted this probably has the most potential to be broken or lead to a braindead strategy being big but... if it ends up not being broken it should be fun! Kept it to unpopular, less useful Pokemon to prevent it from getting out of hand more than it already may.

 

[Yung Dramps]

Ok, starting voting!

 

[Yung Dramps]

Uhhh... Anyone up for it?

 

[Samtendo09]

6Roggenrola's distribution for Ancient Awakening
Scoopapa's distribution for Guardian Angel
Overbearing
Demotionalist
Evothusiast
Patience

 

[Yung Dramps]

Alright, so this is clearly not working out. For whatever reason, this mod just isn't capturing the popularity it enjoyed in the final stretch of Gen 7. Should we just move on to playtesting? Anything else that can be done to keep this alive?

 

[TerrickTerran]

Just found this one. Looks really interesting.

 

[Yak Attack]

Alright, so this is clearly not working out. For whatever reason, this mod just isn't capturing the popularity it enjoyed in the final stretch of Gen 7. Should we just move on to playtesting? Anything else that can be done to keep this alive?

Bench Abilities and PokeClasses, my own mod, both are like OMs. I don't think the Pet Mod community is really prepared for an OM-like Pet Mod.

 

[thechurchofcage]

Bench Abilities and PokeClasses, my own mod, both are like OMs. I don't think the Pet Mod populace are really prepared for an OM-like Pet Mod.

That's a shame, this looked like a really interesting concept - like Shared Power but for 1v1

 

[thechurchofcage]

Yung Dramps Will you ever remake this one as an OM? I'd play it