I tend to believe that 'Mary Sue' lies in how you play a character more than how you plan them. I doubt that there will be much issue with your concept, as long as you are willing to allow him to loose, fail, and make mistakes on a regular bases.Â
You seem to have given a fair bit of thought to his weaknesses already, which is certainly a step in the right direction. Now you just need to make sure that those weaknesses will actually cause grief to the character in practice.
One thing that I would caution you on is the manipulation point. While it is fine to say your character will try to manipulate, this is a collaborative RP environment and his success will always depend on who he is trying to manipulate. It's a cool strategy to have, but other writers may see through it and you should be prepared for that.
I also have one suggestion, on the subject of multiple classes. I have a character, who is quite book smart (much like yours seems to be) and has studied arcanima. However she is terrible at the physical spell casting. I RP her understanding and even being able to explain the concepts of ruin, physic, bio, aetherflow, and the carbuncle, but she has only ever succeeded in casting the first two and ruin is especially unreliable for her.
You may want to consider a skill set like this, since your character seems to be primarily a mechanist, with magic as a side study. You could have him understand multiple schools theoretically and reference that knowlage,while inventing, but let him fail miserably if he actually tries to cast spells? That would also solve the problem of not wanting a Carby. Maybe he just can't handle summoning it?
There's my two gil anyways.
You seem to have given a fair bit of thought to his weaknesses already, which is certainly a step in the right direction. Now you just need to make sure that those weaknesses will actually cause grief to the character in practice.
One thing that I would caution you on is the manipulation point. While it is fine to say your character will try to manipulate, this is a collaborative RP environment and his success will always depend on who he is trying to manipulate. It's a cool strategy to have, but other writers may see through it and you should be prepared for that.
I also have one suggestion, on the subject of multiple classes. I have a character, who is quite book smart (much like yours seems to be) and has studied arcanima. However she is terrible at the physical spell casting. I RP her understanding and even being able to explain the concepts of ruin, physic, bio, aetherflow, and the carbuncle, but she has only ever succeeded in casting the first two and ruin is especially unreliable for her.
You may want to consider a skill set like this, since your character seems to be primarily a mechanist, with magic as a side study. You could have him understand multiple schools theoretically and reference that knowlage,while inventing, but let him fail miserably if he actually tries to cast spells? That would also solve the problem of not wanting a Carby. Maybe he just can't handle summoning it?
There's my two gil anyways.
