Hey all! A small while back we asked for feedback regarding Capture rules, Capture Specialist and the Multi-Tasking Feature. We focused on these specifically to answer the following questions:
- Does the community have any issues with in-combat captures and related rules? if so, which?
- Is Capture Specialist a bigger issue than we thought or is it a good & balanced class?
- Is Multi-Tasking truly too strong?
Thanks to the responses we received, we have a good idea of the direction we would like to go based on what the community likes. Here is what you all said:
Of the 39 responses we received
- 92.3% play with In-combat Captures
- 64.1% find no issue with catching Pokémon. 17.9% find catching Pokémon too easy and 17.9% find catching Pokémon too hard (We thought this particular split was interesting)
- 87.2% Disagree that in-combat captures slow down the game, mostly due to foundry automation
- 56.4% Disagree that in-combat captures allow for easy OHKOs
- 69.2% Disagree that Capture Specialist makes it too easy to obtain Pokémon
- 59% Agree that the Multi-Tasking Feature is too strong
While the numbers point at not many changes being required, from the specific feedback we learned a couple things, to summarize them:
- Capture Specialist while not viewed as a 'problem', does have low approval ratings, and can use some minor changes
- Lots of people dislike how high the AC check for Pokeball throws is
- High-Level captures can be very difficult / nigh impossible
- Multi-Tasking is an issue, especially in the group of people that find capture OH-KOing an issue
Thanks to this data and some long internal discussion, we have some changes coming which will be released alongside the Foundry 4.0 update.
- Buffs to Capture Modifier that encourage more strategical captures
- Buff to Evolution Stages
- Buffs to Condition Modifiers
- A new capture condition modifier that uses Combat Stages (Lower Stages make catching easier, Higher Stages makes catching harder)
- A buff to the accuracy of throwing a Pokéball (AC 4)
- A new Edge called Capture Expert that any class can take to further boost your accuracy (AC 3, Crit on 19)
- Two new Features: a general one called Acquired Knowledge to boost your capture rolls, and a replacement feature for Captured Momentum called Incognito that gives you better accuracy and a higher chance to catch a Pokémon from Stealth
- Multi-Tasking is being removed. It promotes an unhealthy imbalance in the game and makes smaller issues with balance way bigger than it is worth to keep and try to fix
In-combat capture is here to stay and we want to ensure it is fun for everyone, GM and Player alike. Our goal is to incentivize battling a Pokémon before attempting to capture it, and to promote catching a Pokémon you want rather than doing so to remove it from an encounter. So once again, thank you for the responses and we hope you are as excited for the capture update, as well as the Foundry 4.0 update as we are.