What's Your Powerlevel?

[Spethah]

Pre-prosthetics: 4. The flattest of fours. All of her power came from knowledge, not just in thaumatergy and aether manipulation, but also knowledge on historic fights. Such knowledge was an advantage in most fights, especially larger scaled ones that involved more than a handleful of folk.

 

Post-prosthetics: 3.3. I specifically put that figure in since I have the same mindset on the "scale" as Warren. X'Septha is powerful at this point and posts a massive advantage in ranged combat. Her increased knowledge on aether manipulation has given her the ability to dual cast spells, not to the degree of simply throwing two spells together but also combining them which results in a mixture of effects. Previously such things would of been impossible due to the sheer multi-task factor, however by gaining prosthetics she's managed to overcome that barrier. That doesn't mean she would always win a fight however, merely just ranged combat to some degree. She's fragile in close range and without those arms she's completely useless. A price to pay to master an art.

[g0ne]

I'd say Eleni is 4ish, maybe a little bit higher. But only and only when it comes to archery and dexterity. Expect her to be beaten badly in anything else.

[Leanne]

I'd put Leanne between 4 and 3, really depending on the situation RP setting itself to determine what the gravitates towards. Leanne has some very uncanny acrobatic skills and is scary at all forms of ranged weaponry! Has some proficiency at pugilism and dagger fighting, and the rest...well, she could do some learning. One of her themes is of the ever learning girl, so while I'm not interested in it, I could see her learning proper aetheric manipulation!

[Martiallais]

Zarek's typically a very solid 4 (but sometimes a powerful 5 depending on the story). He's got some training but not enough to be a master (needs to find one in RP really). What he lacks in official training he makes up for in experience fighting (or throwing fights). 

 

I'd like to see him eventually get to 3 status by way of accessing chakra and all though, on a temporary basis. It's not the best example but I definitely view it as similar to say Rock Lee in Naruto.

[Zhavi]

Somewhere between 5 and 6. I've found that I enjoy forcing my characters to come up with alternatives to combat as a means of surviving, and I enjoy navigating them around characters who are much more powerful (caveat to that is that you always have to accept that your character might very easily die if they're being stupid around the over 9000 crowd).

 

There's a reason why Zhi sticks to the city. One, she understands it. Two, she has a higher chance of getting killed outside of it than in it. It doesn't mean she hasn't killed people -- anyone can kill another person, given the right opportunity and circumstances (hell, sometimes people with utterly no training accidentally kill someone else, in sometimes bizarre ways) -- but it does mean that up against a trained opponent her only option for survival is to talk her way out of it or flee.

 

I made her good at fleeing for that reason, lulz.

[cuideag]

I think Jajara would sit at a 5. Her life has basically been physical labor, be it training to become a defender of the clan or mining to help provide for it, so she physically pretty dang strong (for a lalafell anyway). It's more that she doesn't have the fine-tuned technique that would really make her stand out as a real contender because her life hasn't revolved around combat for quite a while now. If she really got back on the ball, she'd probably end up a 4 but no higher than that.

 

Delial is also a 5. Likewise, she has experience and some knowledge but she hasn't really had the time to sit and really focus on figuring out how she might make things explode and die without exploding and dying as well.

[Melodia]

Melodia was trained as Yellowjacket and as a skilled thief when she was aboard the pirate vessel, so I would put her at a 4.

 

Ruru has been trained as a Paladin, and has honed his arts as an assassin...between 4 and 3.

[Steel Wolf]

Steel is at a solid 5 with hopes that her story will move her in to a 4 or a near-3 spot. She's got her brute strength to fall back on, and it's seen her through most challenges so far, but she can be overpowered by someone with more training, a meager amount of agility or huge amounts of focused magical power.

[D'aito Kuji]

I think D'aito is a solid 5.  She's not especially skilled but can carry out most of the things she's tasked to do.  She's more or less an adventurer-for-hire "no job is too big, no fee is too big."  She carries a battle ax and isn't shy to use it if need be, but she prefers to talk things out.  Faced with incredible odds, she will throw herself into the middle of a mob, praying that Azeyma the Warden will guide and protect her.

 

This doesn't always work out.  I went back to playing TSW (The Secret World) for a while and left D'aito in a coma, recovering from grave injuries due to an ambush.

 

Now that I'm back in FFXIV, I plan to have her dealing with her scars (mental and physical) while still trying to achieve fame and fortune as an adventurer.

[Temmi]

Temariah is a solid 6 at most times, since she has some vision impairment and refuses to use conventional weapons, and also believes that the Elementals are a teensy step from Greenwrathing her, which makes her unwilling to use the blessings of conjury.

 

That being said.. if conditions are right, or desperate enough, she will tap into her conjury, which is quite powerful. When this happens, she's more of a 4, edging towards a 3. This, of course, would be her full potential, which she's only ever tapped once. Most of the few times she's used her conjury, she has used as little of it as possible to achieve what she wanted (using her power to stabilize someone to prevent them from dying, but not healing them a fraction more than that, leaving them on the brink of death).

[Aaron]

Normally in my stories, my characters are a 1, but for you guys, I have to handicap them. For RP with you guys, they are a 4. Well perhaps Niklas is a 3.

How is he higher than Aaron when they both fought to the death and Aaron won?  

 

Nik even admitted it.

 

Dude Nik didn't want to kill him. Besides he has fought for longer than Aaron has and is 5 years older than him so Nik has more experience. Besides I said perhaps he is a 3. He is still a 4 like the others.

Sorry but I had to fix this.

 

Nik /couldn't/ kill Aaron. We were using rolls and Aaron was dominating the majority of that fight.

 

And as you say on Skype Nik is 26, not 5 years older.

 

Edit - I know we talked about the latter already. This was mainly to address the former.

 

If you're using rolls there's no real motive for you to consciously lose because its not in your hands.

[Savarah]

Savarah is probably a fairly solid 4 (with the mentality of a 2). She a pretty good aether user with a strong command over her spells, with years of study under her belt. She can hold her own in any one-on-one, even coming out on top with a fair bit of effort.

 

Currently unnamed Xaela? Probably gonna sit around a 2.5, becoming a 2 under extreme circumstances. She comes from a martial family of status, and has trained as a swordswoman literally since she could walk. She takes combat very seriously, and is probably one of the best around.

[Knight Kat]

At her best; knowing what she's up against, having her best armor and using her chosen weapons, Kiht is a solid 4.

 

Context is a big factor. She is more typically around 4.5 (the power level that -should- be between 4 and 5) in that it really depends on what she's up against.

[Askier]

Ki is a basic 5.  Nothing particularly special.  He shoots competently and can handle a simple fight but he's just a dude made of meat, muscle and bone.

 

Jin'li on the other hand, yeah... once upon a time he was maybe a 6.  Weak, sickly, and very, very weak physically, he was only dangerous because he was intelligent, but get him in a fight up close without any range and he was a dead kitty.

 

But then rp happened, things happened, plots happened...and now, yeah he's a 1 or a 2.

 

Now not because he has Dragon Ball Z powers, cause he doesn't.  But he does have some-. . .  well I'll stop there. I'd ruin the mystery and surprise if I said more.

 

edit: Oh yeah, Askier. Solid 4. Brilliant, used explosives, solid in a fight if he had explosives, but just a meat bag like Ki in the end.

[Imo]

Imogene is 4 or a bit above 4 by my standards, but do note that I consider this game to be a high-power setting where experienced warriors can perform amazing feats. This doesn't change her ranking, however; fighting half a dozen NPCs or a single PC on equal footing is where I see her. She's just flashy about it.

 

I wonder are there any people who seriously, and non-terribly, RP 1 or 2. I saw a few people who were on level 1, but they were fascinatingly awful about it, and their characters were juvenile and angsty Mary Sues.

[Paradox]

When it comes to my characters, the list goes as follows.

 

A'rklonn Sargonnai: A solid 2.5 no doubt. In between 2 and 3 suits him best. He's got a diverse skillset, and incredibly good skills with most kinds of sorcery (barring the fact he heals like a wet duck; he's only good mostly with offensive conjury or using healing effects for body reinforcement). However, it isn't raw power alone but also his magic combinations/multicasting and thinking outside of the box based on lots of experience that adds to the raw power. This character has a long history outside of the FF universe though, which accounts for a lot of his strength. Still, no one is unbeatable, and finding out his weaknesses means he can be defeated.

 

 

Oriane Pelderain: Oriane is a 4 when it comes to using any kind of ranged weapon or thrown weapon/explosive. Someone who took an interest in gun weapons and magitek appropriated from Garlean sources after coming up as a heretic hunter in Ishgard, Oriane prefers range over close combat. She knows a little magic, but not very much; just enough to heal her wounds and keep a barrier up to protect her from other long ranged types. In hand to hand combat she's painfully mediocre; she can fight decent enough with a knife or sword to survive against your usual NPCs, but a skilled melee combatant would shut her down if she didn't have a small gun handy. She's most effective working in a two man cell with her partner.

 

Charlotte Snakesinger: Charlotte is an odd mix; if she's allowed to use all of her abilities, she counts as a 4, more or less. Charlotte is also not the sort of person who fights herself in most cases, preferring to use deception or use her thralls to fight for her. While she's very good at Black Magic and a few special arts she's loath to show off, much of her unique abilities are for subversion, subjugation, and mental disruption that takes time. Add to the fact she has to siphon much of her Aether from outside sources, and there are some disadvantages there. Physically she's a martial artist, but her martial skills are mostly based on leverage, throws, pressure points, and redirection of force meaning heavily armored opponents can shut her down hard. Her raw power is highly lacking if she's forced to fight 'normally'.

 

S'vanoh Tia: Van is a 4 for the most part. When it comes to mudra shaping, he's quick and efficient, and in hand to hand combat, he's good with knives and fists. However, outside of martial arts and ninjutsu, he doesn't have a lot of other talents other than knowing poisons. He combines physical strength and agility, along with good Chi levels, but his Aether is at the low end of the spectrum and he's basically incapable of magic. He's not a bad planner and is good at reading an opponent, but he's also used to working with a partner, and while he can win most one on one fights with someone near his level, he can be outsmarted. Tends to have a weakness for a cute or pretty face.

 

Vaelen Sargonnai: Vae is a 3.5 for the most part. A magic fencer like his father, who combines swordplay and magecraft. He prefers single sword or sword and shield style fighting and is best with those. He's got some martial arts skills from his mother's training, so his fighting is well rounded and he's adaptable in combat. Vae's biggest weakness is like his father, he tends to be quite cocky.

 

I have a few more characters in the works; one I need to namechange, and another that's going to be an Au Ra so I can't really designate what they'll be yet, though I have an idea. Also, to this:

 

 

I wonder are there any people who seriously, and non-terribly, RP 1 or 2. I saw a few people who were on level 1, but they were fascinatingly awful about it, and their characters were juvenile and angsty Mary Sues.

 

 

There are. I play various powerful characters, all with their own weaknesses or drawbacks. (example, A'rklonn has a lot of spell combinations but his Aether pool, while exceptionally large, is still finite like anything else's. He is very skilled with a sword, but is not a grandmaster and can be bested). To be fair, Rank 1 should be reserved for arc or story villains. I think a PC should only be able to fall in power level 2 or lower to be consistently played as a regular term character. Just my two cents.

 

[Leomoon]

Id say Tana is a 3. Unrivalled Master

 

shes suppose to be powerful and strong but not invicable because she is more in line with Guts from Berserk. Right now in story shes recovering from all sorts of things that would put a warrior out.

[ArmachiA]

I try to keep all of my characters somewhere between 4-6 just because that's my style of RP.

 

Armi is a solid 5, though can be pushed into 4 if the situation is desperate enough and can be a 6 is she loses confidence.

[Hyrist]

I'm not really sure I get all these power tiers. I can't help but look at them and think their a touch on the shallow end.

 

It's all really relative. Tier 1 is obviously posed to look like Gary Stue/Mary Sue and the rest works down as referential material down the line. But if we're going as far as making references, rather than rate players base on power level, maybe we should speak more along the lines of which character in comics/books/stories/anime.

 

Some examples using my characters:

 

Eric Verus bases himself on mystery/spy and some more lovecraftian-style stories. Power wise, there's something odd with how he interacts with Aether which gives him some default defenses against magic. But physically, he's just a man.

 

His real talent is his mind. He has a hobbyist's expertise in swordsmanship (fencing style) and is a crack shot with firearms due to his origins. All of these is due to his hand-eye coordination and analytic skill.

 

Hyrist Verus isn't any really odd skill wise. In fact, he's unable to attune to Soul Stones. Could be that he's yet to find one that fits him, or simply he doesn't have the talent. Unknown at this point. But he makes up for it by training with weapons. If he can wield it, he can use it. His strongest talent being swords.

 

Thing is, he doesn't respect his weapons that much. He has no qualms putting a sword into a position where it will break, if braking it can give him an edge in a fight somehow. But he also has an unreliable fighting drive due to his origins. This makes his 'skill/power' cap very erratic. He could take down a grandmaster or he could lose against a lucky novice, and he'd feel the same way about either one of them. He has no pride in his combat skills.

 

That said, he has little experience fighting beast/primals/voidsent/etc. His training in his weapons was for fighting other people. He'd avoid a fight against the wild or supernatural if he has a choice.

 

Lin Celistine , however, lives by her spears. She has a borderline unnatural drive to push the limits of her skills with a spear to the breaking point. She studies all styles and methods and when she runs out of methods, she studies other weapons only for the perspective of what concepts can be applied to her spear usage.

 

She can make the average Ishgardian Dragoon look clumsy in terms of agility, and her strength easily belies her small frame. Style wise, however, she prefers to hunt creatures rather than fight people and PTSD concerning all the lives lost at Cartneau actually makes her less effective when fighting people. 

 

Magically, she can't handle even the simplest of spells without straining herself (and flat passes out when she pushes her limits). And she's just as vulnerable when it comes to magick attacking her.

 

These are the 'strongest' three characters I have in the group, in my consideration, out of six

 

_______________________________________

 

So, everyone has strong and weak points, and, in the proper circumstances or assistance, they may even be able to topple someone on that tier 1 category.

 

But these traits don't make the characters. Their facets of the character that are reflections results, or foreshadows of their stories.

 

You don't read a Superman comic because he 'might lose' against the antagonist. It's about his interpersonal stories and internal struggles as he balances his heritage and powers against his upbringing and values.

 

Its those factors that make characters interesting for me. Strength, skill, they just establish backgrounds for me to work from.

[Caspar]

I feel sort of the same way, in a sense. The levels work as rough guidelines, but ultimately, I think that character strength in fiction is situational. Given the right circumstances and the right enemy, the invincible foe becomes reachable, etc. Like you might have the knack for the specific engagement you get into right at that moment, and then suddenly you're the one to beat. I think that happens often enough in fiction that it can safely be said even rp characters should be expected to fluctuate wildly in combat proficiency, to say nothing of other things such as negotiation or investigation.

[GloryRhodes]

The reason that I chose power levels instead of character descriptions or comic book/anime references is specifically because it is less descriptive of the subject at hand.  Superman can beat up Green Arrow all day long unless there is a specific narrative reason why Green Arrow will win.  Goku absolutely destroys Light Yagami in combat, but Light could kill him instantly if he learned his name.  It's much less useful for the purposes of this examination.

 

I was not looking at power level as a description of character, but rather as a descriptor.  Truly, it is not normally the essence of who a character is, but it does play a significant role in how that character interacts with the world.  Thor reacts to the world around him significantly different than does Daredevil in large part due to their relative power levels.  And this would be no different than Buff van Darkblade and The Basement Exterminator reacting differently.

 

This isn't really a matter of who could beat who in a fight, but rather about how their abilities cause them to interact with their environment, other characters and events.  While Buff van Darkblade might wave a hand and turn a mugger to ash, or completely ignore them, One of Seven Samurai would be more hesitant to engage in violence if they were numerous and armed.

 

While I understand that this chart does not encapsulate the whole of a player's character, or provide an accurate picture of their personality and situational abilities which might give them the edge over those more powerful, that is not the purpose of the list, and thus it will not be edited in a manner duplicitous to its intent.

 

I will, however, include, at great request, Rank 4.5.  Please see the original post for details.

[Leggerless]

*checks Fate-14 Sheet for clarification*

 

3.5

 

Better than a four, but definitely not the best fighter around. There's always a bigger fish.

[Alothia]

Even though this is a silly thread, let's try to keep it on topic, please. If you want to have silly conversations, keep it on topic.

 

I'm cleaning this thread up.

 

/AdminHat

[ZoktaiKhor]

I usually try to make characters 3-5 but give them weaknesses or flaw in their fighting style so it's not unfair or people can make counters to my character however if I make 1 or such i lay on several ways to overall weaken characters so that they can be taken down.

[CrimsonMars]

Chiyo would differently be a 4.5. 8-)