Alakazam's Striking Strength

[Kepekley23]

Alakazam's muscles are canonically atrophied and too weak to even support their own bodies, so shouldn't their Striking Strength be below average?

 

[Reppuzan]

This sounds fine.

The explicit Pokedex entries:

Emerald - "While it has strong psychic abilities and high intelligence, an Alakazam's muscles are very weak. It uses psychic power to move its body."

Mega Alakazam (Pokemon Sun) - "As a result of Mega Evolution, its power has been entirely converted into psychic energy, and it has lost all strength in its muscles."

Mega Alakazam (Pokemon Ultra Moon) - "Having traded away its muscles, Alakazam's true power has been unleashed. With its psychic powers, it can foresee all things."

 

[ProfessorKukui4Life]

I don't think below average is it just because it's known to be weak but yeah I agree his S.S. should be much lower than it is now.

However, could he keep his striking strength when he uses his psychic abilities? If he uses his psychic powers to move his body, then a separate key could be made where its much lower normally but higher via psychic stuff.

 

[Kepekley23]

Striking Strength is only for physical attacks and the Pokédex says Psychic Amped Alakazam is pitifully weak.

 

[Reppuzan]

@Kukui

It's so weak that it needs psychic power to support its own weight.

That's below average if I've ever heard it.

 

[ProfessorKukui4Life]

It only says it's normal muscles are physically weak, thats why it needs psychic power to move it's body. It never says anything about even it's psychic powers leaving it very weak.

Rep's reply has the dex entries to support it.

 

[Kepekley23]

@Kukui

The dex says Alakazam needs to use his psychic abilities to move his body

 

[WeeklyBattles]

Alakazam actually has a few physical moves, so there's a chance it can temporarily amp it's physical power to that level with its psychic abilities

 

[The_Everlasting]

"normal muscles"

Yeah, those are the muscles that actually determine Striking Strength.

Alakazam's muscles are too weak to support its body and in Mega Form loses all strength in them period in exchange for more psychic power.

Below Average is blatantly the case here.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

If it is literally unable to move without using its powers, then yeah, its Striking Strength should be below average, which fits in with its character.

 

[Kaltias]

Having your muscles weak to the point where you need amps to move is definitely below average. Average humans don't need to be amped to move their body, Alakazam does

 

[Kepekley23]

Alakazam doesn't learn any physical move naturally. The only non Psychic moves in its natural learnset are still psychic-ish (Disable and Recover)

 

[ProfessorKukui4Life]

That reminds me, there's a thread I gotta make about movesets...

Also, fair enough then. I agree with below average.

 

[NeoZex6399]

I agree with this

 

[WeeklyBattles]

Alakazam doesn't learn any physical move naturally. The only non Psychic moves in its natural learnset are still psychic-ish (Disable and Recover)

psycho cut

 

[Reppuzan]

I've made the revisions.

 

[Kaltias]

psycho cut

Pretty sure that this is just due to his psychic powers being strong.

"The user tears at the foe with blades formed by psychic power. It has a high critical-hit ratio."

 

[Kepekley23]

Psycho Cut is a psychic attack

 

[WeeklyBattles]

Psycho Cut is a physical psychic attack

 

[Reppuzan]

@Weekly

The animation is the user sending blades of psychic energy rather than actually swinging at their opponent.

Here.

And here.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

Alakazam uses Psycho Cut by creating a bunch of magical blades of psychic energy and firing them at the opponent. Malamar, Absol, and Gallade do this, too. In fact, I think Gallade is the only one in the anime who actually used a variation that just involved powering up its own blades then cutting something.

It does physical damage in the games, but Alakazam never actually hits anything.

 

[Kepekley23]

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x57qney

Go to 7:44. It's not.

 

[The_real_cal_howard]

This is perfectly okay.

 

[The_real_cal_howard]

Also, Alakazam should have "{insert striking strength equivalent of AP here} with (Psychic) powers". Alakazam can learn the elemental punches, even if via TM or tutor, and can still dish out damage from them. Whether or not it can learn it naturally would be irrelevant to the point, btw.

 

[Kepekley23]

It's definitely relevant though. We have agreed to only use what they can learn naturally.

 

[The_real_cal_howard]

Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to have the moves added onto Alakazam's profile. It's no different than the multitude of Pokemon who have Class 5 lifting strength due to HM04, when the only Pokemon that learns Strength via level-up is the Machop line. For example, Sceptile has the capacity to know Solar Beam, but doesn't learn it naturally and therefore won't have it in a normal match.

 

[Yobo_Blue]

I think the idea is that it's capable of it through it's psychic powers even if it can't necessarily use those moves.

 

[Imaginym]

In theory, if it can & does move its body with its Psychic powers, & can withstand the AP of its own Psychic abilities, then can't it move itself via its Psychic abilities to physically strike with the force behind its movement that of its Psychic powers?

Effectively using its telekinesis to move its own arms like those of a puppet, to strike physically.

If it moves its body Psychically, can't we assume it can do so with greater force with those same Psychic powers that it can survive the force of?

 

[Reppuzan]

I made the changes a while back, so I think I can close this.