Important
Under Standard Battle Assumptions, no characters are allowed any preparation time, but the ability to prepare for certain encounters is still an important factor when it comes to certain matchups that allow for preparation to occur as well as to help ascertain a character's overall intelligence and resourcefulness.
Summary
Preparation refers to a character's skill to prepare for an upcoming conflict, usually by developing specific combat strategies that cater towards an opponent and or developing new technologies to counter them. Preparation may or may not involve the usage of other abilities in its process, depending on the characters and the nature of their preparation. There are many different ways in which a character may opt to prepare for a conflict, and the types listed on this page are not necessarily all-inclusive, but they are the most common.
Possible Types
- Technological - Preparation centered around technological supplements or developments; characters may use their preparation to gather technology that isn't commonly accessible to them or develop new technologies.
- Research— Preparation centered on gaining essential information. Through whichever means are available to them, a character might opt to do research on their opponent, whether it concerns an opponent's strengths, weaknesses, psychology, or all of the previous.
- Training - Preparation centered around improving one’s own abilities, whether that be through improving their base combat abilities (such as Martial Arts) or by improving on abilities unique to them.
- Environmental - Preparation centered around weaponizing their environment. Characters will typically set traps plastered around a given area and intend to exploit any pre-existing knowledge on the environment they battle in, if any exists.
- Summoning - Preparation centered around gathering assistance from other people, whether it be through friendly relationships, a master-servant style relationship, or even gathering armies. This is NOT to be confused with the ability to summon things by means of a unique power (although that can be made applicable here), and it's important to note that this style of preparation would be banned under most match-ups even when allowing for preparation to occur, due to invoking the participation of multiple different characters that would otherwise not be present.
Limitations
- Certain opponents may be difficult or impossible to properly plan for, especially those with abilities along the lines of Clairvoyance or Causality Manipulation.
- Characters might rely too heavily on their preparation and fall short if things don't go as planned.
- Characters might have restrictive options based on the amount of preparation time they've been given.
Notable Users
- Batman (DC)
- Doctor Doom (Marvel)
- The Doctor (Doctor Who)
- Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty)