>>34768295I've been sitting on this idea for years.
Categorize all Pokemon into "Classes," sort of like how monsters are categorized in other RPGs.
Now all Pokemon will have an indication of their Class on the status screen, and with it comes passive benefits and disadvantages. These cannot be changed and there are no alternatives for any Species, like how there are for Abilities or Natures. A Pokemon's Class is completely dependent on its Species and never changes -- except maybe through evolution.
A Pokemon's "Class" is more or less related to its Egg Group, and has game mechanic impacting attributes. This means Class is not a meaningless classification like Body Type or Color. Pokemon can also be in more than one Class, but never more than two -- similar to Egg Groups.
In some cases, the Class's passive benefits may warrant replacing a Pokemon's ability as the Class "does the job already." Otherwise, most of these are not game breaking changes but nice little buffs that work more for flavor than anything else.
A list of Class ideas follows. This isn't an exhaustive list, nor all the benefits "great," but this is still what I came up a few years ago:
>AirborneGives the effects of Levitate
>AquaticReceives 5% less damage from Water-type attacks
>TerrestrialGains 5% bonus EXP at the end of a battle
>MonsterHas a slight 5% increase to critical hit ratio
>FieldPokemon cannot be forced to flee from a Wild battle
>FairyHas a 2% boost to the chance of secondary effects occurring
>HumanoidHas a 10% less chance of being Confused but a 10% higher chance of being Attracted
>MineralImmune to certain status effects (I wrote "Petrification" in my notes, which means I must've thought that should be a status effect at one point in time)
>AmorphousLacks a definite shape and therefore has a 5% boost to Evasion
>UndeadHas a 5% chance to hang on at 1HP when KO'd
>Mechanical5% resistance to non-volatile status effects
>Dragonkin5% boost to Accuracy
