Galvantula, the EleSpider Pokemon. I had never looked up its species name before and, seriously? I know they're only supposed to be one or two short words but that's the best they could come up with? Stun Spider would be way better. Whatever. Galvantula is actually super cool in every other aspect! I loved using it in the Black and White games and it was awesome to get a spider Pokemon that finally checked all the boxes of "cool," "good moves," and "good stats." We've had four different families of spider Pokemon now and Galvantula is still the only one that's not slow as dirt. If I had to guess, Game Freak is playing off of the lay-in-wait and ambush style of your classic spider, but come on.
Anyway, vanilla Galvantula is fast, it has an awesome ability in Compound Eyes and it hits...kind of hard? It really relies on the high base power of Thunder to pad its only passable 97 base Sp. Attack. It is definitely not sweeping opposing teams with its offensive power. Instead it is a fantastic hazards setter. It comes in and gets off a quick Sticky Web before it can get Taunted, then it can slap things with Thunder, Bug Buzz, or Energy Ball until it gets forced out, or spread status with Thunder Wave if it didn't get taunted. That's what it tends to do in competitive play, but what flavor does Galvantula actually want?
Going by its Pokedex entries, Galvantula's strategy is all about controlling the field of battle. He's a chill guy, he doesn't go looking for trouble, but when Galvantula is on the hunt or feeling threatened you quickly find yourself surrounded by an electric web hell. It spins traps around bird nests hoping the baby birds fall into it and die while they're still learning to fly. Brutal. It can shock you hard enough to leave you paralyzed for days. It fences any opponent in with a barrier of electric webbing and then as the foe lays there helpless, convulsing with electricity, it leisurely ambles over to snuff the last bit of life out of the fool that challenged it. Damn. How can we translate this into the actual game mechanics?
First off, we absolutely need to buff its signature move, Electroweb, and yes, it is going to be a bona fide signature move now. None of this TM crap. No more Pikachu and Alolan Geodude pulling actual freaking spider webs out of their asses. A base power of 75 with an accuracy adjustment down to 90% seems more than fair, and matches the ubiquitous Rock Slide in double battles. Next, we have to think about Galvantula's ability to paralyze foes. Changing Sticky Web into a version that paralyzes switch-ins instead of lowering speed is one option, but I want to go even bolder than that. To lean completely into the field hazard and speed control role, I'm proposing a new ability: Paralyzing Threads. While Galvantula is on the field, any time an opposing Pokemon has their Speed stat lowered, they take damage equal to 1/16 of their max HP. I want this to really give the feeling of your vitality slowly getting zapped away as you get more and more entangled in electrified webbing, unable to escape.
For balancing, I wanted to stick with the relatively low value of 1/16th HP damage along the lines of Sandstorm damage. Sticky Web's effect of lowering speed by one stage is already hugely powerful for the rest of your team, so doing Spikes level damage on top of that would be completely broken. But this ability suddenly gives you a reason to run Electroweb and Sticky Web together, continually sapping speed and health from all foes and making the field safer for any slow teammates. Galvantula already has a lot of great utility and coverage options like Light Screen, Thunder Wave, Helping Hand (via TM), and Energy Ball, so I won't be changing much with the movepool. The only big change will be to add Parabolic Charge as a late level up move (probably replacing Screech) because I love the idea of Galvantula draining the energy of all Pokemon caught in its battlefield web.
Stat-wise, I'm making some big buffs to survivability. HP, Def, and Sp. Def are all getting big boosts, along with a small buff to speed and some nerfs to Attack and Sp. Attack. Galvantula isn't a Regieleki that comes in guns blazing to leave a path of destruction before its own inevitable demise. No, Galvantula waits. It takes its time. It sets up a hazard zone and watches the life drain from your face as you move slower and slower until you stop moving altogether.
And there are our proposed changes. A fast, hazards setter that controls the speed of the opposing team and whittles away at their HP to let your heavy hitters finish the job. I think this contrasts excellently with our other Electric Bug type, Vikavolt, who we transformed into the terrifying flying rail-gun of death it always wanted to be. Check out those changes here: https://www.grumbledev.com/2024/01/vikavolt-great-power-and-no.html
I know that I've just added two powerful custom abilities here to solve my problems. Will I be adding more custom abilities? Yes. Am I going to fix all my problems with abilities? No! Probably not! I swear I have other good ideas!
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