OP RP is often laughed or snarked at by a lot of people who genuinely don't realize they themselves do the same thing. It's largely not intentional, but Power Creep happens and is a thing.
Example: M'sato started off as a largely uneducated tribal miqo'te (Learned very basic reading from a treatise on cultivating fungus and years of asking passing caravaners questions). He was also an untrained Hearer, and stayed that way for a long time, which had a serious negative effect on his sanity (as in, he tended to lose it now and then).Â
Six years of work trying to comprehend the voices and foreign feelings inside of his head resulted in a basic level of Conjury and journeyman-level comprehension of Archanima. He also possessed hunting, martial, and survival skills from having been raised in an environment where one should know how to kick the ass of another male in order to get to make babies with the ladies.
In the year I began to roleplay him, he explored the ruins of Nym looking to find a cure for the voices in his head and uncovered a fairy (He'd thought from the old pictures that it would be a dragon, which makes sense given they were military mages) and a whole lot of rubbings of old tablets he's still trying to translate.Â
He was also diagnosed correctly as a Hearer and was made to further study Conjury in order to master his ability to commune with the Elementals rather than struggle against them and get into an aetheric slap-fight...Which he always lost.
Now at this point, we're looking at a healing ubermage with both SCH and CNJ at potentially high levels. This is bordering on OP. Power Creep.Â
In order to deal with power creep, I placed limiters.Â
-M'sato's ability to use Conjury is limited and very slow when healing. It takes little out of him, but he actually has to stop and 'speak' with the elementals and request their assistance, and occasionally they do say no because Sato can be a dick at times. This makes it functionally useless for combat healing.
-M'sato can use Conjury offensively in combat, but he is incapable of casting more than the basics. He is very wary of walking into combat armed thus, and almost never uses it in a real fight when he could fall back on his much more familiar Arcanima.
-M'sato is incapable of learning Thaumaturgy without putting forth more effort than would be feasible for RP timeline purposes. Anything more than lighting candles and making ice cubes (though a handy bar trick) causes him to lose focus and control.
-Sato's martial skills have degraded from lack of use in recent years and due to recent injuries. He's good for hunting, but fighting on par with a trained soldier on a battlefield would probably result in him getting an asswhooping.
-He has very low levels of offensive magic in his repertoire as a Scholar. His focus is on using healing magic and shields to block damage. When he does cast offensive spells, they act primarily to blind or slow the enemy while someone with a big honking sword does the real work.
-M'sato is still learning how to use his Scholar magics. No matter how clever he is, his abbreviated education requires him to take significantly longer to translate and apply what he's acquired from the tablets of ancient Nym into working magic. After nearly a year, he still has yet to fully transcribe all the spells of the old Scholars into a useable form.
-I've also taken away much of M'sato's actual medical knowledge beyond what would be needed to act as the equivalent of a combat medic. He cannot perform complicated surgeries or mix alchemical antidotes of any type. He is forced to rely on magic for complicated healing, which is a significant drain on his aether reserves.
What is left is a character with a ludicrous amounts of willpower/stubbornness, a great deal of cleverness, and a varied life experience who, in practical terms, is able to dive into and out of a lot of fights with Scholar magics, but never be the person to actually deal the decisive blow. M'sato is a protector at heart, and his choices have led him to focus on keeping others alive over standing in the spotlight and actually slaying the dragon.
In my eyes, no longer borderline OP, but still kinda stronger than I'm usually comfortable working with.
Solomon, my most played alt, is a drunken bar manager and former mercenary who is good with sword and knives, but barely knows enough of reading and mathematics to balance the bar's budget. Solomon is thirty-seven in order to accommodate his mastery of weaponry, which he almost never uses unless he's sparring with a member of the bar staff (the clientele is a bit rough). He is horrible with magic, and the booze he consumes is beginning to take a serious toll on his health. He is a man in decline with rusting talents that serve no purpose in his current role. He's also a randy perv who is enjoying his 'retirement'.
Soren Walker is a former Ishgardian conscript and current-day airship pilot. Having had his fill of war, Soren left the service of the Holy See without permission and took on any old odd job he could. A goldsmith's apprentice prior to being drafted, he was given basic training alongside most others, but his mechanical aptitude landed him first into the mechanics' division, and then later into the role of pilot. Soren was trained to competency with bow and spear, but these days greatly prefers his self-made rifle, which he named Leanna. Soren's best and greatest skill is running away at speed from the havoc he tends to create just by being himself in crowded spaces, much to the consternation of his much more responsible business partners, Lunera and Ris.
Example: M'sato started off as a largely uneducated tribal miqo'te (Learned very basic reading from a treatise on cultivating fungus and years of asking passing caravaners questions). He was also an untrained Hearer, and stayed that way for a long time, which had a serious negative effect on his sanity (as in, he tended to lose it now and then).Â
Six years of work trying to comprehend the voices and foreign feelings inside of his head resulted in a basic level of Conjury and journeyman-level comprehension of Archanima. He also possessed hunting, martial, and survival skills from having been raised in an environment where one should know how to kick the ass of another male in order to get to make babies with the ladies.
In the year I began to roleplay him, he explored the ruins of Nym looking to find a cure for the voices in his head and uncovered a fairy (He'd thought from the old pictures that it would be a dragon, which makes sense given they were military mages) and a whole lot of rubbings of old tablets he's still trying to translate.Â
He was also diagnosed correctly as a Hearer and was made to further study Conjury in order to master his ability to commune with the Elementals rather than struggle against them and get into an aetheric slap-fight...Which he always lost.
Now at this point, we're looking at a healing ubermage with both SCH and CNJ at potentially high levels. This is bordering on OP. Power Creep.Â
In order to deal with power creep, I placed limiters.Â
-M'sato's ability to use Conjury is limited and very slow when healing. It takes little out of him, but he actually has to stop and 'speak' with the elementals and request their assistance, and occasionally they do say no because Sato can be a dick at times. This makes it functionally useless for combat healing.
-M'sato can use Conjury offensively in combat, but he is incapable of casting more than the basics. He is very wary of walking into combat armed thus, and almost never uses it in a real fight when he could fall back on his much more familiar Arcanima.
-M'sato is incapable of learning Thaumaturgy without putting forth more effort than would be feasible for RP timeline purposes. Anything more than lighting candles and making ice cubes (though a handy bar trick) causes him to lose focus and control.
-Sato's martial skills have degraded from lack of use in recent years and due to recent injuries. He's good for hunting, but fighting on par with a trained soldier on a battlefield would probably result in him getting an asswhooping.
-He has very low levels of offensive magic in his repertoire as a Scholar. His focus is on using healing magic and shields to block damage. When he does cast offensive spells, they act primarily to blind or slow the enemy while someone with a big honking sword does the real work.
-M'sato is still learning how to use his Scholar magics. No matter how clever he is, his abbreviated education requires him to take significantly longer to translate and apply what he's acquired from the tablets of ancient Nym into working magic. After nearly a year, he still has yet to fully transcribe all the spells of the old Scholars into a useable form.
-I've also taken away much of M'sato's actual medical knowledge beyond what would be needed to act as the equivalent of a combat medic. He cannot perform complicated surgeries or mix alchemical antidotes of any type. He is forced to rely on magic for complicated healing, which is a significant drain on his aether reserves.
What is left is a character with a ludicrous amounts of willpower/stubbornness, a great deal of cleverness, and a varied life experience who, in practical terms, is able to dive into and out of a lot of fights with Scholar magics, but never be the person to actually deal the decisive blow. M'sato is a protector at heart, and his choices have led him to focus on keeping others alive over standing in the spotlight and actually slaying the dragon.
In my eyes, no longer borderline OP, but still kinda stronger than I'm usually comfortable working with.
Solomon, my most played alt, is a drunken bar manager and former mercenary who is good with sword and knives, but barely knows enough of reading and mathematics to balance the bar's budget. Solomon is thirty-seven in order to accommodate his mastery of weaponry, which he almost never uses unless he's sparring with a member of the bar staff (the clientele is a bit rough). He is horrible with magic, and the booze he consumes is beginning to take a serious toll on his health. He is a man in decline with rusting talents that serve no purpose in his current role. He's also a randy perv who is enjoying his 'retirement'.
Soren Walker is a former Ishgardian conscript and current-day airship pilot. Having had his fill of war, Soren left the service of the Holy See without permission and took on any old odd job he could. A goldsmith's apprentice prior to being drafted, he was given basic training alongside most others, but his mechanical aptitude landed him first into the mechanics' division, and then later into the role of pilot. Soren was trained to competency with bow and spear, but these days greatly prefers his self-made rifle, which he named Leanna. Soren's best and greatest skill is running away at speed from the havoc he tends to create just by being himself in crowded spaces, much to the consternation of his much more responsible business partners, Lunera and Ris.
Characters: M'sato Tia (Lost Soul Seeker), Soren Walker (Ishgardian Midlander Pilot), Solomon Laguerre (Elezen Mercenary/Bar Manager)
Send me a PM if you feel like RP!
Send me a PM if you feel like RP!
