(10-07-2014, 03:40 PM)FreelanceWizard Wrote: I guess I'm the outlier here in that I see the world of the player characters as more of a mid-power "superheroic" setting, similar to a low Essence Exalted game or the more down to earth issues of Ultimates. Note that I say "the world of the player characters;" the PCs are a tiny subset of Eorzeans. Most Eorzeans are just average people living average fantasy lives in a setting where magic is relatively commonplace (how else do you explain those ceiling fans, huh? ). Those with combat skills are a subset of that, adventurers are a subset of that, competent adventurers are a subset of that, and you can go further if you want to subdivide based on access to Jobs, possession of the Echo, and so on. Yes, the vast majority of people are "grunts," as are the vast majority of adventurers; however, the player characters are the exceptional members of society -- the Company of Heroes sorts who can face down Primals, explore the depths of Allagan ruins, and go around generally being Big Damn Heroes.
However, just because the PCs are Heroic doesn't mean that they don't face significant challenges. It takes 8 highly skilled adventurers to take on a single high-ranking Garlean commander and 24 to challenge the beings within the Crystal Tower. There's always someone or something more powerful. Characters can be powerful without being unimaginably Advent Children or Super Saiyan powerful. They can (and should!) have weaknesses, mental issues, and an underlying construct to explain why they can do what they do.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with playing a character that's less powerful, but I don't think there's anything wrong with being powerful in the XIV setting. In fact, there's a lot of fun that can be had in exploring the implications of that power. How do you handle mundane issues like paying your rent or going out to dinner (or, Twelve forbid, trying to figure out how to split a check)? How do you best apply -- or don't apply -- that power? What's a real threat to you when you have magical healing, and shouldn't fates worse than death terrify you more?
I agree. I have three main characters that I play, each of varying strengths. Cyrus would be considered an average Eorzean. He isn't incredibly powerful, and likely never will be. Despite this, he has high aspirations and does his best to help whoever he can while struggling to pay rent and provide for his lady. That's his struggle. He's more afraid of leaving his lady alone than actual death.
Val is certainly above average and definitely my best physical fighter. He is an anti-hero of sorts, though I use the term "hero" loosely as he would never actually help anyone unless he knew he got something out of it or his woman more or less demanded it of him. His struggle is his own personal, selfish desires against what the society he's found himself in expects of him.Â
Melfice is far above average, at least mentally. I try not to play him too much because he is meant to be a relatively powerful boss character for certain plots, though I have no problem dumbing him down and lowering his power to balance his interactions with random people. In fact, part of his disguise is to act as a sniveling coward when it comes to fights so that no one suspects he's capable of things. He is deathly afraid of what could come of a wrong experiment or what people would do to him if they found out, or what his Mistress could do to him if she simply wanted to.Â
I'm not against powerful characters, so long as they are at least kept balanced (unless they're boss characters. In that case, go nuts--within the realm of reason).