This post is personal opinion and not how I expect or how people should Create/RP powerful characters. (This is added so I don’t have to say ‘in my opinion’ every other line.)
First of all, there is nothing wrong with making a powerful character what so ever. The character should be more than their “power level†(snort). The strength of a character should be vehicle to encourage varied and increased Role-play. Also, weaknesses should not be given to ‘balance out the character in combat.’ Weaknesses should be given round out the character in general and should be organic to how you want the character to be. Where the ‘balance’ comes into play it not the mathematical way the character can be defeated, but it should come from the way the characters is Role-played, the situations they get involved in, and how they deal with said situations.
I am going to use my own character for example.
Grave Shadow is a very powerful character, but most folks would not even know that. He rarely takes center stage if he gets into combat with other folks. He does not come off as godly. He rarely even gets into fights to demonstrate his ‘power.’
There is so much more a powerful character can do than step into a fight with an “I’m here bitches†and promptly critical hit on everyone in his way, but since this thread seems to be about combat I will start with that. In a Role-play event, (say something plot related and not Grindstone) where there are two sides of more than one PC or NPC on either side, every character deserves a chance in the spotlight. A powerful character really does not to be in that spotlight to be considered ‘powerful.’
In the case of Grave, if he does get into a combat situation with other individuals on his side, I tend to keep him role to a support role rather than exploding faces. His help allows other individuals to have their moment to shine and it does not make him weak or less powerful if he actually does little in terms of smashing. The other thing is, Grave rarely gets into combat because he chooses his fights and not all of them need his presence, but I will get to that later. If he gets in a one on one fight, that is a different beast all together. If it is an NPC, for case of the storyline you probably have the end of the fight already all planned out. If it is against a player, if you are using dice you can make the low rolls represent bad luck as folks have mentioned or other factors that would cause a powerful character to bumble. If you are not using dice, hopefully an OOC dialogue is also open otherwise it may not end well… or ever end.
On the topic of Realism, “Your character brought down a meteor on the last rp to save our asses why doesn’t he do that all the time.†The age old story sin of a character doing something amazing in once scene but for some reason cannot do it again in the next. An easy excuse is being tired or aether drained however for a powerful character this is where you can round out the character and plug in some interesting aspects that go beyond combat.
Grave does not get into every possible fight he could. This is partly so everyone gets a turn to Role-play stuff, and he also knows that not every fight needs his attention. This part is a bit more tailored to the character than in general for powerful characters, but he does not get involved all the time because he knows other people need to grow, need to make mistakes, and honestly need to suffer to be able to strengthen themselves. Then he also has his own dangers if he uses too much aether, and becomes too known. This is a plot limitation of a powerful character, consequences of things (NPC or not) if he ends up making too big of waves in the leylines. Grave basically belonged to a cult for a good thirtyish years of which despite him being a powerful character, it is filled with NPCS on par with him or far greater which would remind him of that if he does too much. Hence why as a powerful character, he will never get “we gots a problem turn on the Grave signal.â€
“Weaknesses†to round out a character really do not have to be all about combat. Your character hopefully does more than run into battle or pick fights. They are entities with personality quirks, physical limitations, and even the occasional flat out stupidities. Perfection in training does not make your character a Mary Sue, nor does perfection in training mean your character cannot be defeated. Unless your character spends every waking moment in a fight, flaws in combat style are not going to be what people see.
Grave has a few personality quirks that prevent him from doing things, but a big thing that affects both combat and out of combat is that he absolutely cannot heal folks in the usual way. Nature refuses to allow him to channel its power to mend flesh, and arrays designed to heal break down as he tries to apply aether to him. (And fairies just don’t like him) This is a major character plot thing which I will not go into detail, but when it involves physical damage to someone he is as helpless someone who just knows first aid. This is something that bothers him greatly, but he cannot do anything about it. Another aspect is that he is a bit withdrawn from things so often when he could up he just ends up not helping either because he does not know what is going on or feels his help will cause more harm than good. Neither of those are mathematical ways to defeat him, but still round him off somewhat.
What makes a powerful character… powerful is hardly how undefeatable he is. If the character is created with only combat prowess in mind or only role-played in his combat state, he ceases to be a character and more of just a tool. Powerful characters are only powerful or characters if they can relay that strength and relay their flaws inside and outside of combat without being the spotlight whenever they are present. That is actual realism even if your character can summon all three primal at once while balancing a lance on his nose. To create a character with mathematical way to defeat them for sake of being balanced robs them of depth and character and harkens back to video game bosses that have just a pattern you learn to beat them. If everything in RP was balanced it would be very boring thus it becomes a matter of Role-play to make even unbelievably unfair differences in ‘skill and power’ seem irrelevant for a good time.
First of all, there is nothing wrong with making a powerful character what so ever. The character should be more than their “power level†(snort). The strength of a character should be vehicle to encourage varied and increased Role-play. Also, weaknesses should not be given to ‘balance out the character in combat.’ Weaknesses should be given round out the character in general and should be organic to how you want the character to be. Where the ‘balance’ comes into play it not the mathematical way the character can be defeated, but it should come from the way the characters is Role-played, the situations they get involved in, and how they deal with said situations.
I am going to use my own character for example.
Grave Shadow is a very powerful character, but most folks would not even know that. He rarely takes center stage if he gets into combat with other folks. He does not come off as godly. He rarely even gets into fights to demonstrate his ‘power.’
There is so much more a powerful character can do than step into a fight with an “I’m here bitches†and promptly critical hit on everyone in his way, but since this thread seems to be about combat I will start with that. In a Role-play event, (say something plot related and not Grindstone) where there are two sides of more than one PC or NPC on either side, every character deserves a chance in the spotlight. A powerful character really does not to be in that spotlight to be considered ‘powerful.’
In the case of Grave, if he does get into a combat situation with other individuals on his side, I tend to keep him role to a support role rather than exploding faces. His help allows other individuals to have their moment to shine and it does not make him weak or less powerful if he actually does little in terms of smashing. The other thing is, Grave rarely gets into combat because he chooses his fights and not all of them need his presence, but I will get to that later. If he gets in a one on one fight, that is a different beast all together. If it is an NPC, for case of the storyline you probably have the end of the fight already all planned out. If it is against a player, if you are using dice you can make the low rolls represent bad luck as folks have mentioned or other factors that would cause a powerful character to bumble. If you are not using dice, hopefully an OOC dialogue is also open otherwise it may not end well… or ever end.
On the topic of Realism, “Your character brought down a meteor on the last rp to save our asses why doesn’t he do that all the time.†The age old story sin of a character doing something amazing in once scene but for some reason cannot do it again in the next. An easy excuse is being tired or aether drained however for a powerful character this is where you can round out the character and plug in some interesting aspects that go beyond combat.
Grave does not get into every possible fight he could. This is partly so everyone gets a turn to Role-play stuff, and he also knows that not every fight needs his attention. This part is a bit more tailored to the character than in general for powerful characters, but he does not get involved all the time because he knows other people need to grow, need to make mistakes, and honestly need to suffer to be able to strengthen themselves. Then he also has his own dangers if he uses too much aether, and becomes too known. This is a plot limitation of a powerful character, consequences of things (NPC or not) if he ends up making too big of waves in the leylines. Grave basically belonged to a cult for a good thirtyish years of which despite him being a powerful character, it is filled with NPCS on par with him or far greater which would remind him of that if he does too much. Hence why as a powerful character, he will never get “we gots a problem turn on the Grave signal.â€
“Weaknesses†to round out a character really do not have to be all about combat. Your character hopefully does more than run into battle or pick fights. They are entities with personality quirks, physical limitations, and even the occasional flat out stupidities. Perfection in training does not make your character a Mary Sue, nor does perfection in training mean your character cannot be defeated. Unless your character spends every waking moment in a fight, flaws in combat style are not going to be what people see.
Grave has a few personality quirks that prevent him from doing things, but a big thing that affects both combat and out of combat is that he absolutely cannot heal folks in the usual way. Nature refuses to allow him to channel its power to mend flesh, and arrays designed to heal break down as he tries to apply aether to him. (And fairies just don’t like him) This is a major character plot thing which I will not go into detail, but when it involves physical damage to someone he is as helpless someone who just knows first aid. This is something that bothers him greatly, but he cannot do anything about it. Another aspect is that he is a bit withdrawn from things so often when he could up he just ends up not helping either because he does not know what is going on or feels his help will cause more harm than good. Neither of those are mathematical ways to defeat him, but still round him off somewhat.
What makes a powerful character… powerful is hardly how undefeatable he is. If the character is created with only combat prowess in mind or only role-played in his combat state, he ceases to be a character and more of just a tool. Powerful characters are only powerful or characters if they can relay that strength and relay their flaws inside and outside of combat without being the spotlight whenever they are present. That is actual realism even if your character can summon all three primal at once while balancing a lance on his nose. To create a character with mathematical way to defeat them for sake of being balanced robs them of depth and character and harkens back to video game bosses that have just a pattern you learn to beat them. If everything in RP was balanced it would be very boring thus it becomes a matter of Role-play to make even unbelievably unfair differences in ‘skill and power’ seem irrelevant for a good time.
