Strigiformes (Male)
Ability: Insomnia
Approval
Body Mod: Acrophobia
From hatching, Hoothoot are kept firmly in a nest which encloses them entirely, with only one opening to enter and exit. The young Hootlets are allowed to fly out as soon as they believe themselves ready, and if they're wrong the mother Noctowl is always at hand to catch them. Strigi's first flight didn't go
quite so smoothly.
The second he looked out of that tiny hole, he felt a dizzying sensation sweeping up from his feet to the top of his head. Retreating into the safety of his nest, he shivered and shook until he felt able to ask what he had just experienced. His mother told him that it was known as 'fear of heights', and that all Hoothoot and Noctowl that suffered from it spent their days locked in their nests, unable to hunt and reliant on others.
Strigi wasn't going to let this happen to him. With his eyes firmly closed, he had his mother take him down to the ground. Determining that he was safe, he peeked out and saw a wide world, full of wonder and beauty. He vowed to learn to walk as well as - no,
better than - any other Pokémon. And he practiced... and practiced... and practiced... he even used
both legs. With all the practice, he found himself to be incredibly proficient at running and even able to achieve a short glide about half a metre above the ground for short periods of time, given a good run-up - that being not high enough to trigger his acrophobia. Later he was captured by the league.
Effects: Strigiformes is no longer a Consensually Flying Pokémon and loses his immunity to Ground-type moves, though keeping the Flying-type's other weaknesses and resistances.
On the upside, his constant practicing with running has left him fast, leaving him with an effective +2 modifier on speed as long as he is on the ground, which can be raised and lowered as normal but is reset to this by Haze and similar. He loses this boost when he is gliding, though immediately regains it upon landing.
Also, several moves are performed slightly differently as a result of his lack of flying, those being Steel Wing, Fly, Sky Attack, Wing Attack and any other attack he uses that the ref decides would involve him flying. He must use these by getting a nice long run-up and then gliding (and probably flapping his wings occasionally to stay airborne) to attack, so he uses slightly more energy for the run-up (decided by the referee) and it gains a priority of one lower than normal, since running up takes time.
Finally, should he already be gliding when a ground-based move (like Earthquake) is used, he will be immune to it as a normal Flying-type would; should he land during the attack he takes damage as normal.
So. Too overpowered? Too underpowered? Possibly better suited to my Swablu?