If your character has particularly powerful traits then you can balance it out with terrible drawbacks. You don't necessarily need to be normal or just slightly above average to avoid transforming into a Mary Sue.
My char here as an exemple has an incredible amount of aether running in her body compared to other thaumaturges, making her spells devastating and giving her a greater mana pool than some of the better thaumaturges.
Sounds OP right? Yeah well have a look at the drawbacks.
Her power is too much for her body to handle, weakening it so much that she has a lot of troubles doing everyday activities, an exemple would be carrying supplies with her, or walking long distances or going up slopes. Even holding a pen or a fork for too long is tiring.
Everyday she has to use up a lot of her mana to avoid horrible headaches and muscle pain.
Obviously she's forced to find partners for every mission she takes on to make sure she doesn't get killed and manage to complete her mission without losing whatever the objective was (items the client needs back and the like).
Thus she's powerful but still extremely dependant of the help of others.
My char here as an exemple has an incredible amount of aether running in her body compared to other thaumaturges, making her spells devastating and giving her a greater mana pool than some of the better thaumaturges.
Sounds OP right? Yeah well have a look at the drawbacks.
Her power is too much for her body to handle, weakening it so much that she has a lot of troubles doing everyday activities, an exemple would be carrying supplies with her, or walking long distances or going up slopes. Even holding a pen or a fork for too long is tiring.
Everyday she has to use up a lot of her mana to avoid horrible headaches and muscle pain.
Obviously she's forced to find partners for every mission she takes on to make sure she doesn't get killed and manage to complete her mission without losing whatever the objective was (items the client needs back and the like).
Thus she's powerful but still extremely dependant of the help of others.
