User blog:Derpagonair/Pokemon Designing and You!

Here's a cheesy guide for myself on designing pokemon. It goes by base design and adding traits to make it seem more like one type.

Base Designs
Base designs should take after a real life thing, such as an animal, a plant, a pun (like how a Shaymin is LITERALLY a hedge-hog), an inanimate object, and so forth!

If you're really, REALLY stuck, you can draw a circle and add things onto that, but you have to have at least a vague idea/inspiration to what you're making. Say you've been looking at quails for a while and you've always noticed how similar "quail" is to "quarrel". That's a good start! You could make a pokemon that's based off a quail always quarreling.

Remember to keep designs simple! Pokemon are not complex, and generally don't have many patterns or features that are too complicated, but simple designs can look complex based on how they're set up (like Serperior, but it's simple if you break the design down in your mind.)

Base Typing
After you have a base design, what comes after? Base type! Now, sometimes it'll come very easy, like how I know that my quarreling quail should have Flying, but sometimes it's harder, like a super cute witch cat. I'd have to choose two types between normal, fairy, ghost, dark, psychic, depending on what I feel fits best.

The best way I could solve that issue is if I flesh out the design a bit more. If it's a ghostly cat that flies around and helps calm the souls of the dead, I'd pick Ghost/Fairy. If it's a super intelligent kitten with a heart of mischief, I'd choose Dark/Psychic. If it is a (rather cute) ghost that loves pulling pranks on others, I'd pick Dark/Ghost with a multitude of fairy moves. (My final pick for this design is Ghost/Fairy, but I know I want to give it the Prankster ability.)

If there's ever a type you really want to use on a pokemon, such as a peace-loving bird that brings destruction wherever it goes (hi Absol), but aren't able to make it triple type (I wanted to make it Normal/Flying, Flying/Fairy, or Flying/Dark, I settled on Flying/Fairy) then you can add it to pre-evolutions or future evolutions, like how this bird evolves from Flying/Fairy to Flying/Dark! (From the Peaceful Pokemon to the Reaper Bird pokemon- ooh, edgy.)

Battle Niche
Not all pokemon have to be memorable, but if you really want one to be, you can give them a certain niche to give them an edge in the metagame (which can be either a signature move OR an ability). This is really a rolling dice, since it can't be too powerful or it'll be broken (Mega Kanghaskhan's double-move niche: Ubers) or too weak/situational (Turtonator's Shell Trap, 150 BP but only if it gets hit by a physical attack: PU).

Niches don't even have to be a certain thing specialized to the pokemon. It can just be a combination that just works extremely well. Klefki's Swagger + Thunderwave + Prankster and amazing typing together made Klefki a terrifying force to deal with. Same with Swellow's STAB Scrappy Boomburst, which is only as good as it is due to Swellow's mediocre Special Attack. Even a good mixture of typing, stats, and moves can be called a niche, like Toxapex, because it specializes in poisoning pokemon while being tanky enough to take hits, and its Recover is invaluable for tanking. (Also, it can't get poisoned itself! Big bonus for tanky pokemon!)

It's not always bad to copy another pokemon's niche and altering it (such as copying Toxapex's but with sleep) unless it's one that is the only thing making the pokemon famous, like Shedinja's Wonder Guard, Blissey's high HP, and Shuckle's insanely high defense, in which case you should probably leave the poor pokes alone and be a little more original, unless you find a way to seriously alter the niche where it's not even considered copying anymore.

Let's say I made a pokemon that only received 1/2 of the damage it's supposed to take for three turns after it switches in, including Stealth Rock and Spikes. Doesn't even sund like Shedinja's ability! I took this from Shedinja's immunity to all attacks except super effective ones, and I made the immunity to all attacks. Now, that's overpowered, so I made it so it took 1/2 the damage it was supposed to. Still too powerful, so I made it only last 3 turns after it switches in. (Still pretty insane, but earlier I had 1/8th the damage for 5 turns.) This pokemon would get U-Turn, Baton Pass and Parting Shot, making it an amazing defense-pivot pokemon. (By the way, I'm actually not making this pokemon. Maybe.)

Types Should Make Sense
Some pokemon have their secondary typing be a more minor part of their design than primary, like Sneasel and Weavile, which don't really look like ice types but if you told someone they were then it isn't that much of a surprise. They look seriously dark type. But they live in cold climates and are hard-boiled for arctic weather, and I guess they have an icy demeanor. However, just because this has happened before doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try to avoid it.

I prefer when you can point at a pokemon and say "Hey, that's totally a(n) ____ type!" unlike Ho-Oh (which I really don't feel is a fire type), Flygon (What? That's not a bug type?) and Dragonair (So you're saying it lives in water, it's based off a water snake, and it's blue, but not a water type?) Don't forget about Lugia. IT'S THE GUARDIAN OF THE OCEAN, WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT WATER TYPE.

Sometimes you have to change the type for the sake of balance, which some fans speculate is part of the reason Gyarados wasn't Water/Dragon in the first gen (since dragons were so rare, same with Charizard) but if it makes sense, go with it!

If you are really, really desperate to make your water turtle with an ice shell look like something other than a Water/Ice type, then you might need to do a bit of redesigning. See the next part!

Making Types Make Sense
This is a bit of a struggle for me. Sometimes. I want to make my peace-bird earlier Flying/Fairy, but it just looks like a Normal/Flying that could evolve into Flying/Fairy but doesn't have enough fairy-ness to really justify it being one itself.

I've been trying to come up with a list of attributes for each type that can be stuck onto pokemon to make them seem like one type or another. Here's my notes so far! (I'm gonna take them down if I get a comment saying something like "Well this fire type pokemon here isn't a reptile, fox, desert animal or monkey!" because these are just in general.+)

Normal
Color Theme: Any, Beige

Most Common Vibe: None

Defining Attributes: They usually look rather plain.

These pokemon tend to be more early game, but can certainly appear later. Weird pokemon that don't really have a type that'd match typically get dumped either in here or in Psychic, like Lickitung, Ditto, and Melloetta. Same for moves, like Boomburst and Nature Power don't really have types that'd match, so they get stuck in Normal. Keep these simple, and you can take it easy when designing pokemon like these.

Fire
Color Theme: Red, Orange, Yellow, sometimes Black. (Neon blue fire also exists.)

Most Common Vibe: Cool, Tough. Occasionally Elegant (Delphox, Ninetails, Rapidash).

Defining Attributes:
 * Reptiles (lizards, turtles), foxes (Delphox and Ninetales), desert animals (Camerupt), monkeys? (Darmanitan, Chimchar, Simisear)
 * Fire-like fur (Ninetales's tails, Pyroar's mane, Flareon's tail/neck fur.)
 * Actual Fire (end of Charmander's tail, Ponyta's mane, Cyndaquil's back.)
 * Magma Cracks

Water
Color Theme: Blue, Dark Blue, White, Cream Yellow accents. Orange and pastel pink occasionally. Any color works (evident by Bruxish) but try to stay within those.

Most Common Vibe: Elegant/beautiful or tough and scary, like Milotic and Sharpedo. Exceptions are pokemon like Feebas and Magikarp.

Defining Attributes:
 * Typically based off aquatic creatures or creatures living in/near water. Also if it contains water.
 * Fins
 * Webbing (not spiderwebs, swimming webbing)

Grass
Color Theme: Green, plus flower colors.

Most Common Vibe: Smart, Cool, Cute

Defining Attributes:
 * Usually they're actual plants (like flowers, mushrooms, trees), have parts that are plants (wood horns), or have plants growing on them.
 * Also animals that represent peace/nature, like deer.
 * Leaves
 * Flowers
 * Vines

Electric
Color Theme: Yellow, black, white, orange. Also some navy blue and neon blue. Black stripes are way too common.

Most Common Vibe: Cool, Tough

Defining Attributes:
 * Animals that are generally regarded as kinda fast. Tigers, wolves, zebras.
 * Creatures based off of electrical objects, like plugs and
 * Sharp, jagged, lightning bolt shaped features.
 * Should invoke an energetic and powerful aura.
 * Magnets
 * Wires
 * Black zigzagged stripes?

Ice
Color Theme: Icy blue, white, blue.

Most Common Vibe: Majestic, powerful

Defining Attributes:
 * Arctic animals
 * Ice spikes
 * Diamond patterns
 * Snowflake-shaped features

Fighting
Color Theme: All

Most Common Vibe: Tough!

Defining Attributes:
 * Arms. Especially strong arms. If not, strong kicking legs.
 * Commonly bipedal
 * M u s c l e s
 * Strong fighting spirit
 * Looks like it can beat you to Zero and back.

Fighting
Color Theme: Purple, red,

Most Common Vibe: Tough!

Defining Attributes:
 * Arms. Especially strong arms. If not, strong kicking legs.
 * Commonly bipedal
 * M u s c l e s
 * Strong fighting spirit
 * Looks like it can beat you to Zero and back.

More coming soon, stay tuned!

General/Everything

 * https://www.dragonflycave.com/making-fake-pokemon

Naming

 * https://www.wordunscrambler.net/word-combiner.aspx - Combine words to make pokemon names.
 * https://snivy101.deviantart.com/journal/Tips-for-Naming-Fakemon-396978245 - Tips for pokemon naming pokemon
 * http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/pokemon-names.php#.Wo432KjwaM8 - If you're really desperate.

Deciding Stats

 * https://pokemondb.net/pokebase/244110/pokemon-types-ranked-after-average-stats - Useful if you know a pokemon's typing but not its stats.
 * http://ideadex.tumblr.com/post/79926593611/how-do-you-decide-on-base-stats-im-currently - Tips for deciding base stats in general.