So I gave it a try and took down Chandelure's model from about 1744 faces to 900. Took me all of 10 minutes once I figured out what I was doing. Although I managed to reimport it well, and the animations work, I have some concerns.
Disclaimer, I am a complete model importing noob. I just took about 15 minutes to figure it all out, so I have ZERO experience with this. That being said:
In animations, it seems blobby and disproportionate, and the specular maps (for glass effects and whatnot) do not work well anymore. I do not know how to import them to the model correctly in 3DS Max. My guess is that they do not function like regular textures, correct?
How Brawlbox handles the original model
How Brawlbox handles my edited, reimported model
How the model appears during animations
It goes without saying that I've done something wrong, but the "what", "where" and "how" is completely lost on me. I want to re-release all my pokemon models so people can properly enjoy them, but I do NOT want to learn the entire universe of model importing, rigging and etc just to do that. Can somebody here help me? A point in the right direction?