I'll echo Osric in that flaws make the character. Having proficiency in a handful of trades and skills is fantastic. However, having negatives to balance them out are what makes your character real. Taking their personality, and being real with it is important.
When I was building Endemerrin, I gave him a positive, and then thought of the negatives that would accompany it. I'll throw down a few examples of some of my thought processes~
Pro: He has a magitek prosthetic arm. It's made from cermet and other strong metals. Lots of positives there.
Con: It's prone to failure. Causes him significant stress or pain under certain circumstances. Easily disabled. I've a myriad of other negatives with this subject in particular, but, they're things I only let people find out about through RP~
Pro: Very selfless. Puts others before himself.
Con: Acts without thinking ahead. Takes on more than he can handle, and some times winds up not helping the situation at all. Prone to injury. Hell, right now he's actually recovering from a nasty wound he received rushing to the aid of some friends.
Pro: Possessed of a keen mind for mechanics and magitek.
Con: Absolutely abysmal with magic and the "arcane". Couldn't really cast a spell to save his life. Riding with a bit of Domri's post, Merri is an adventurer at heart. Because of this, his engineering often gets shelved in favor of adventure. His prosthetic, however, keeps him tied to a life of some engineering. He'd probably have given up on it long ago in favor of adventuring, otherwise.
Basically, you need to give your character something to weigh him down. Things that are consistent. They don't have to be apparent, though. For every flaw I'm willing to openly talk about with my character, he has two more hidden underneath that only really come out through RP. Your character certainly doesn't have to be an open book, but those flaws need to be there, and they need to come out at some point~
Even if a character looks sharp on the outside, they might very well be a mess on the inside.
All that being a personal opinion as well, of course. Take it with a grain of salt. :>
When I was building Endemerrin, I gave him a positive, and then thought of the negatives that would accompany it. I'll throw down a few examples of some of my thought processes~
Pro: He has a magitek prosthetic arm. It's made from cermet and other strong metals. Lots of positives there.
Con: It's prone to failure. Causes him significant stress or pain under certain circumstances. Easily disabled. I've a myriad of other negatives with this subject in particular, but, they're things I only let people find out about through RP~
Pro: Very selfless. Puts others before himself.
Con: Acts without thinking ahead. Takes on more than he can handle, and some times winds up not helping the situation at all. Prone to injury. Hell, right now he's actually recovering from a nasty wound he received rushing to the aid of some friends.
Pro: Possessed of a keen mind for mechanics and magitek.
Con: Absolutely abysmal with magic and the "arcane". Couldn't really cast a spell to save his life. Riding with a bit of Domri's post, Merri is an adventurer at heart. Because of this, his engineering often gets shelved in favor of adventure. His prosthetic, however, keeps him tied to a life of some engineering. He'd probably have given up on it long ago in favor of adventuring, otherwise.
Basically, you need to give your character something to weigh him down. Things that are consistent. They don't have to be apparent, though. For every flaw I'm willing to openly talk about with my character, he has two more hidden underneath that only really come out through RP. Your character certainly doesn't have to be an open book, but those flaws need to be there, and they need to come out at some point~
Even if a character looks sharp on the outside, they might very well be a mess on the inside.
All that being a personal opinion as well, of course. Take it with a grain of salt. :>