Why do most sweepers have a randomly high special attack?

Question

I mean Pokémon like Toxicroak and Lierpard have medium high special attack. Toxicroak is built for physical sweeping so why give it medium special attack and Lierpard has the same amount of special attack as it has attack.

Liepard has barley any special moves so why even give it nasty plot, the only good special move I can think of on lierpard is shadow ball.

Sure Toxicroak has some good special moves but it has a better physical attack and better physical move pool so please explain. (I understand if its just game freak logic)

Answer 1

With Liepard it doesn't really matter either way because it's never really used for attacking, it's used for its ability Prankster. Also nearly all Pokemon can learn a mix of special/ physical moves, probably to make things easier in-game, since there are Pokemon that have really high defence or sp. defence stats (or both, like Shuckle), so imo whoever designed movesets just wanted to avoid more inexperienced players getting stuck when they have Pokemon with only physical moves.

In the case of Toxicroak, it's to give it diversity... I mean that's really the point of Pokemon that trainers can use whatever Pokemon in whatever way they deem viable, and special Toxicroak is actually really good for a surprise element.