In the Tood: something something Pokemon (2024)

06. Trainer Classes

I've been thinking of a mechanic I'd like to see in Pokemon some day: Trainer classes that mean something. In the games, trainer classes are only really cosmetic, and don't offer anything unique in battle. However, I like to believe that they have some potential that could be used in a future game or fangame.

As a start, I thought of a fan region in which the central city contains a school. The school isn't just like the small ones you see in the actual games, but is instead a large one dedicated to people of all ages, more like a college of sorts. All potential students, whether trainers or not, can attend the school and obtain certifications to become members of a certain class.

Unlocking classes depends on meeting certain requirements in-game, for example:

• Youngster and Lass can be starting classes.
• Breeder can be unlocked when the player successfully breeds and hatches X eggs
• Nurse can be unlocked after using X amount of healing items on Pokemon
• Baker/Cook can be unlocked after you give Pokemon X amount of food items (assume there is a food crafting mechanic in my mind game)
• Ace Trainer requires all badges
• Pokemaniac requires X amount of Pokemon owned and entered into the Pokedex

And so on.

Each of these classes would also give some kind of benefit in battle or on the overworld.

• Starting class gives nothing
• Breeder reduces egg hatching steps and raises chances of Pokemon from eggs to have higher stats upon hatching
• Nurse can heal more when using items, and will cure all statuses automatically after battle
• Cook can give food with higher beneficial effects (like make better poffins or Pokemon-amie style friendship cakes)
• Ace Trainers get more EXP or something
• Pokemaniac gets slightly boosted capture rates.

Aside from the school, gyms would also work as places to unlock certain type specialty classes as well. The gym leaders in the region all work as teachers/instructors of some kind in their home towns, and allow trainers that beat them to become pupils at their gyms. Typically, they will be type specialty classes, like beating a ghost gym = hex maniac unlocked. The type based classes would allow Pokemon of a certain type to have their power increased.

There could also be multiple classes for one type as well, and some others can specialize in more than one type. Their overworld abilities could also vary. Other classes like the ones I mentioned above can have no specialty at all.

As some more examples:

• Swimmer: Specializes exclusively in water-types, and allows the player to cross water without Surf (obviously this would be available at some point after Surf is).
• Sailor: Specializes in water and fighting-types, increases Surf speed.
• Fisher: Specializes in water types, allows the player to more easily catch fish, and increases chances of finding rare Pokemon while fishing.
• Aroma Lady/Lad: Specialises in Grass-types and Fairy-types, comes with a sweet-scent-like field move that attracts rare Pokemon to patches of grass.
• Gardener: Grass-type specialist that can use Cut without need for the HM move
• Farmer: Grass and Ground type specialist that allows the player to harvest more berries from berry trees

Obviously, with 18 types, it would be a bit ridiculous to have 3 classes each. Maybe they can be unlockable titles for the same class. Like after gaining X amount of experience as a water type specialist, you can unlock the Swimmer perk, then the Sailor and Fisherman perk after more level-ups.

To counter the beneficial battle effects the player has, NPC trainers will also get the same benefits in battle as the player does. So when you battle a Hex Maniac, all their ghost type Pokemon moves will be boosted. I'd like to think that gym leaders and other NPCs will also get advanced classes the player can't get, so the fights against them will be a bit more of a challenge.

For example:

• A gym leader who is normal-type and is of the Doctor class may specialize in Pokemon that use a lot of HP recovery/drain moves. In-battle, these moves may have their effectiveness increased by 1.5x, because of the leader's affinity towards treating wounds. In addition, their Pokemon would also have a small chance of healing any status conditions during battle as well. Thus, the player would have to find a way of dealing with this during their fight. When the leader is beaten, the player would unlock the Nurse class, which would be a weaker version of the Doctor class in that it heals only 1.25x more and only cures status outside of battle.
• A gym leader who uses water-types and is an Olympic-level Swimmer may have all water-type moves given priority during battle, due to the leader being fast in the water. Beating this leader grants the player the Swimmer class, which is a weaker version of the Gym Leader's class in that it only gives a temporary speed boost when a Pokemon uses a water-type move, but does not guarantee moving first.

I have no concept of balance in video games, so I don't know how broken some of this stuff would be in-game and online, so I'll ignore that for the time being.