Why did Poison Powder fail?

Question

So, I'm playing Pokemon Gold on the Virtual Console on the 3DS, and when my level 18 Oddish Used Poison Powder on a level 16 Clefairy, it said it failed and did nothing. Does anyone know why that happened? It happened a few times before with other Pokemon and other status moves. I know what some status moves do and why they fail, (Scary Face, Tail Whip, Growl, Leer, etc.) but why did Poison Powder fail?

Mod edit: this question is asking about Gen 2. Abilities did NOT exist in this era. Do not answer with Magic Guard — past responses have been proven false.

Comments

Did the text box say it failed, it missed, or the Pokemon avoided it?

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Did it by chance already had a status condition?

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i was playing crystal 3ds and silver's cyndaqil used a status move, but it failed. IDK why, but it happened to me also.

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because they already had a status condition.
lol.

Answer 1

There is a special AI handler for status moves that causes these to miss 64/256 of the time.

Comments

So 1/4 of the time

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Why you write 64/256 instead of 25% or 1/4?

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Source?