Talk:Meowth (5e Race)

Musicus Meter Score: 6.5-7

This race has a score of 6.5-7 according to the Musicus Meter race guidelines. With this metric, first-party races' scores range from 4.5 to 8. This is a guideline, not a rule, and it's important to use your own judgment alongside this scoring.

This scoring may be the groundwork for a focused {{needsbalance}} usage. A contributor to this page may request a detailed breakdown of this page's balance. Without this information, {{needsbalance}} may then be removed. This meter cannot be the sole basis for a needsbalance template, but may be included as an accessory to a wider discussion of a race's balance.

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Meowth

Cost	Racial Trait
2	Charisma score increases by 1.
-1	Small
0.5	Darkvision
0.5	Cat Scratch
0.5	Pay Day
-0.5	Doesn't Know Common
3.5	Total.

Kantonean +3

Cost	Racial Trait
2	Dexterity score increases by 2.
0.5	Unnerve
0.5	Pickup
3	Total.

Alolan +3.5

Cost	Racial Trait
1	Dexterity score increases by 1.
1	Intelligence score increases by 1.
0.5	Classy Cat
0.5	Rattled
0.5	Extra Language
3.5	Total.

This little feline was an interesting pokemon to make into a race, mostly because I had so much to work with but had to figure out what to include, what to leave out, and how to balance it all. I think it turned out alright.

Pay Day actually went through a couple of revisions. Originally it was going to grant proficiency with either Stealth or Sleight of hand, along with giving the player the option to have proficiency in Thieves' Tools instead of a skill, with a bonus of being able to pick locks without a tool set at disadvantage, which would be meowth using it's claw to lockpick, a reference to the anime episode "Spinarak Attack", where it was seen as The Black Arachnid's partner in crime. This was meant to be a call-back to the Society section where it mentioned how a meowth assisted a thief by using it's claw to pick locks. Ultimately, I decided that making Pay Day a renamed version of the Halfling's Lucky trait made more sense since, despite all the talk of how lucky these pokemon were, I didn't include anything, well, lucky. I was even tempted to rename Pay Day to it's Japanese name, "Coin for a Cat", since it made me think of reflipping a coin, but decided Pay Day was too iconic of a name to replace.

Speaking of the Society section, the part that mentions how meowths are looked down upon by their fellows if they walk on two legs and speak Common is meant to be a reference to the anime once again. The episode in question is "Go West Young Meowth" and refers to Meowth's love interest, Meowzie, and how she calls him a freak for walking like that and speaking a human language. This is also why Kantonean Meowth doesn't innately know Common. The reason Alolan Meowth does is not just because of how it was pampered, but because it is found in a major city (ironically, both Meowth can mostly be found near a city with a major shopping center, a mansion, etc).

Cat Scratch (which is a flipped version of Scratch Cat) and Classy Cat are both references to Meowth and Persian's pokedex classification respectively. Amusingly enough, this is the only time Persian is referenced in the whole page. I was thinking about writing some information on Persian, but I realized I had already written so much that I decided against it. I might add a bit more later. --MetalShadowOverlord (talk) 16:46, 6 February 2019 (MST)