I think it's subjective. I also think that balance is based entirely on many things, such as the roleplayers themselves, the situations, and where the power is applied. Again, this is one of those things that you can't easily measure. If you have two characters with similar combat strength but in different areas, it's hard to say who's overpowered. A ranged high thaumaturge vs a melee warrior who moves slowly for example. The thaumaturge, if he has distance on the warrior is clearly overpowered compared to the warrior because he had the advantage. The same can be said if the warrior has melee range, and can down the caster as he's casting easily. Subjective. As for more subtle things, well. Underpowered can mean a lot of things too. Someone who is a non combatant in a combat situation will clearly be underpowered. They'll have to run. Or get a combatant friend to help them. But again, subjective. 'Power' is an odd measuring stick because what exactly constitutes power?
My only problem with what some call 'underpowered' characters is the fact that everyone cheers for them because they have so many weaknesses, while deriding characters who are stronger. I have a mix of strengths in my characters (there was a power level thread a while back where I talked about my charries there, that was so long ago though.) and people are so afraid to be strong they make characters who are weaker to be praised and not snubbed. I also wonder at how often this comes up considering most people don't get into open world RP fights with people anyway (I rarely see anyone who enjoys combat Rp that isn't planned like some sort of master plan to take over the world, which makes me sad). The way I see it, as long as you can take hits and be defeated, you're not overpowered. A'rk for example is well trained in melee and magical combat, but he has downfalls. Arrogance, underestimating his opponents, sticking to his own code of fighting, his Aether pool, complexity of some of his hand-made spells taking more time, only being trained in one or two weapons to any high degree and being shit with most other weapons, and so on.
Power or lack of it in characters is not a sin. If you're Christ and the man Jesus, or Punchbag Bob, it really doesn't matter as long as everyone is having fun and no one is bitter about the results. And that's genuinely what it comes down to. There's no baseline about what's too strong or too weak except by the people in the scene and what's supported by the setting itself as possible or impossible. And we've seen some characters even not the WoL do some crazy things. (Godbert nonwithstanding though. I think he's either a Primal or one of the Twelve in disguise.)
My only problem with what some call 'underpowered' characters is the fact that everyone cheers for them because they have so many weaknesses, while deriding characters who are stronger. I have a mix of strengths in my characters (there was a power level thread a while back where I talked about my charries there, that was so long ago though.) and people are so afraid to be strong they make characters who are weaker to be praised and not snubbed. I also wonder at how often this comes up considering most people don't get into open world RP fights with people anyway (I rarely see anyone who enjoys combat Rp that isn't planned like some sort of master plan to take over the world, which makes me sad). The way I see it, as long as you can take hits and be defeated, you're not overpowered. A'rk for example is well trained in melee and magical combat, but he has downfalls. Arrogance, underestimating his opponents, sticking to his own code of fighting, his Aether pool, complexity of some of his hand-made spells taking more time, only being trained in one or two weapons to any high degree and being shit with most other weapons, and so on.
Power or lack of it in characters is not a sin. If you're Christ and the man Jesus, or Punchbag Bob, it really doesn't matter as long as everyone is having fun and no one is bitter about the results. And that's genuinely what it comes down to. There's no baseline about what's too strong or too weak except by the people in the scene and what's supported by the setting itself as possible or impossible. And we've seen some characters even not the WoL do some crazy things. (Godbert nonwithstanding though. I think he's either a Primal or one of the Twelve in disguise.)
![[Image: ihatehim2.jpg]](http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc129/Inverse_Entropy/ihatehim2.jpg)
