Resources and Inspirations

I dunno if this is the right thread to post this, but since I have some degree of experience in fakedex-making, I thought I might as well share some pointers for making a balanced dex. I guess this fits as a resource/inspiration, but feel free to relocate this post if needed.

*Note: I didn't include gen VI as a viable reference for these pointers because it broke many norms that was established so far (with only 70+ original mons) and is probably made as such to balance the massive influx of Pokémon that gen V introduced. Megas and Primals are also a separate matter.

Legendaries
Legendary Pokémon are usually divided into two categories when it comes to BST: >600BST and ≦600BST.

>600BST legendaries are usually the strongest Pokémon in the dex judging by stats alone, and is defined by their trait of not having any base stat lower than 90. These guys are usually what some people refer to as "cover/box legends", or the Pokémon usually in the box covers of each version of the games since gen 2 (well yeah crystal version had Suicune which is 580BST only, but please bear with me for now lol). So far the legendary Pokémon past the 600BST mark had 660 BST or more. The highest BST so far is 720 (Arceus). While having 720 BST for a fakemon is ok, I would generally advise against it out of respect to the Pokémon god (unless you make some sort of Destroyer counterpart to Arceus or something, and even then, the whole idea sucks in my opinion).

≦600BST legendaries are more varied, and can usually be classified into 3 kinds: 580BST Group, 100-stat-across-the-board pixiemons, and 600BST eventmons. 580BST group mons are usually composed of 3 or 4 Pokémon that have a recurring theme. Examples are the elemental bird trio and the regi trio. They are usually accessible before the Pokémon League, although this is not necessarily followed. 100-stat-across-the-board pixiemons are self-explanatory. Mew, Manaphy, and Victini are some examples. 600BST eventmons, on the other hand, are special Pokémon (usually accessible postgame or in a special event detached from the story, hence "event" mons) which have varying stats and usually have signature moves of their own. Examples are Genesect, Deoxys and Heatran.

It is usually alright to include a variety of legendaries, since this seemed to be the trend starting with gen III.

Pseudolegends
There are Pokémon which are not treated as a legendary Pokémon, yet has the BST comparable to one. These are called pseudolegends. They can be encountered as late as Victory Road (BW Deino) or as early as before 3rd Gym (Platinum Gible). They have common traits such as:

1. Always has 3 stages
2. Base Pokémon always having 300 BST
3. Middle evo having 400+ BST
4. Final evo always having 600 BST
5. High level requirements for evolution

Maximum of 2 pseudolegends per dex (altho 1 is the optimal number for the sake of balance).

The 540 BST benchmark
This is worthy of note. For non-legendary, non-pseudolegendary mons, 540 BST is the "general" maximum. There are usually two Pokémon per generation that has this BST, except for gen III (only milotic probably because it's the only gen with a second pseudo) and gen VI (has none). So if you want a believable dex, don't get trigger-happy with sky-high BST's and make only 2 at most of the 540BST mons. The existing mons that have this BST are Gyarados, Snorlax, Kingdra, Blissey, Milotic, Magmortar, Electivire, Darmanitan Zen Mode, and Haxorus. Take note that while other Pokémon cannot generally exceed this BST benchmark, there will always be exceptions, stated in the next topic.

Oddball mons
Like I said above, 540 is the general benchmark for non-legend, non-pseudolegend Pokémon. However there are certain Pokémon that breaks the norm and exceed this benchmark: Arcanine(555), Slaking(670), Togekiss(545), Volcarona(550), Archeops(567), and Florges(552). Out of these, only Archeops and Slaking have a crippling ability. This may be a factor to consider if you want something with a high BST Pokémon but isn't classified as a legendary or pseudolegendary Pokémon.

Hope that helps!