How to play a powerful character without nerfing yourself for the sake of others?

Argent Dawn
21

I accept character death but also I have an Annual Pass with a local necromancer who’ll just ress me within a day so it’s no worries.

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22

If your character can’t one shot a pit lord in flashy anime style, what is even the point?

I’m serious, the power creep in terms of what characters are able to do in-game and lore characters do on the regular makes the average RPer reckon they are capable of similar feats of glory. The nature of WoW RP is that it tends to in some sense revolve around combat, either through events or just randomly starting :poop: in old town and nobody wants their character to lose.

Your character could be a 10,000 year old druid who is a master of his craft but good luck trying to convince the 16 year old street rat that you could easily destroy them IC if it came to it. That street rat has the natural human talent to overcome all odds just like every human lore character.

EDIT: When I’ve played characters that should be pretty strong, I’ve just avoided in engaging in the kind of RP that would bring this kind of situation to a head. I’ve never been able to find a solution.

3 Likes
23

I don’t understand that meme. Does that mean giving your character a title is bad?

24

While I agree with this, there are two sides to that coin.

When you play a powerful character, there’s always others who do not want to accept defeat—absolutely regardless of what you do. It’s an ironic paradox: that kind of person plays weaker characters in order to avoid being called as too snowflaky, but the things they want to do by far surpass those supposedly-weak capabilities.

In the end, I’m of the opinion that you should give yourself as much power as you can portray through various means. Claim to be this great leader? Better lead a guild. Claim to have reputation? Better make that reputation a thing. Claim to have power? Better be able to defend it on all fronts.

And in that regard, while I don’t take PvP as the best way to show your IC skill (because of imbalances in 1v1s between classes, obviously), I do put some emphasis on gear (edit: and how well you can make use of it, since TF shreds the balance).

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25

The St. Anasterian Hospital for Mental Maladies just report that his neurodiversity is unrivaled in all of Quel’Thalas.

Aerilen the Auti—

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26

Titles aren’t inherently bad, but trying to make your character a forced figure of dread via your Alliance alts is.

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27

I’d say that there’s nothing wrong with nerfing your character for the sake of others on occasion.

If you’re doing it all of the time, then yes, you probably shouldn’t be playing that character concept with those people. But there’s nothing wrong with pulling your punches in certain situations.

If someone doesn’t want their character’s wounds to be instantly healed, perhaps your miracle-wielding priest finds themselves too tired to mend that particular person, or incapable of healing their wounds.
If someone really wants a spotlight moment for their character, maybe pull your heroic knight back into more of a supporting role rather than claiming the glory himself, even if he’s capable of doing so.
If the DM of an event wants the characters involved to be overrun, there’s nothing wrong with having your stalwart juggernaut flee with the others instead of stubbornly holding the line.

Sometimes to make roleplay enjoyable for everyone involved, you need to suspend certain traits of your character for a little bit. It’s not something that you should be doing all of the time though, that’s for sure.

3 Likes
28

Not good DMing in my opinion then.
The story/dm should not control the characters actions.
The actions of the characters should write the story.

Seems fair enough until I realize it’s either him breaking character (by accepting them heals) or me breaking character (by metagaming a reason to not heal).
Can feel very lame, had that happen to me on my healer at least once.

This is the only one I find reasonable IC because a heroic knight could easily think it is even -more- heroic and selfless letting other characters gain experience and glory as well.

29

Personally, I think it’s nigh impossible to RP a powerful character with random peeps - at least when it comes to combat rp.

Lorewise, I reckon that every DK, DH, Druid and Mage should be able to wipe the floor with every other class (with exception) but peeps so rarely RP their characters with any sort of fear or anxiety.

They know they’re not going to let their character -die- in a random fight with you, so they don’t care how powerful your character ought to be, and as such, your character will be nerfed with or without you deciding to hold back in any way.

The way to avoid this is to RP that powerful char with select friends or RPers who are going to acknowledge your character’s power and react accordingly.

30

Make it meaningful, make it relative. As others have said, don’t pitch a powerful character in amongst those that are, say, Grunt or Footman level (unless, hey, they ask you to!) A Demon Hunter kicking Murlocs is just a bit weird and sad. A Demon Hunter and colleagues hunting down a cadre of rogue Warlocks who made deals with Legion remnants? Cool!

I dont have any particularly powerful characters in WoW, as opposed to some other games, as it often doesnt feel it fits for me. My one possible exception is my Orc Shaman, who has survived since the First War and, as a result, is a fairly potent fighter.

Next point, though; balance. My Shaman, for instance, has a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge, and a LOT of experience fighting and not dying. At the same time, though, he is old; his joints and bones ache, he’s not fast, he feels like a bit of a stranger in the current Horde, the list goes on. A super powerful mage, for instance, is fine… IF they are balanced out with, say, being physically feeble. A super strong, nigh unkillable warrior who is as dense as a glacier is another well known trope. Strength has to have Weakness, or its just dull :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
31

Fill your character with crippling self-loathing so they don’t actually have a reason to ever go all RAAAAGH SUPER SAIYAN 523492343 because they just wanna die in a glorious, fair fight.

that’s prime muscular OP character design.

7 Likes
32

I used to be one of those powerful characters who flex on others but it wasn’t fun and I found myself afraid to portray him proper the more Roleplay experience I got over the years.

now I shy away from combat with randos and I mainly show my dominance through words when they confront me.
so many so called “heroes” who in reality is nothing more than thugs playing dress up, and the feeling when the glory seeking paladin who calls you out for being a demon summoner but with a few words and actions you earn the support of the on-lookers and in turn make the paladin out to be the villain in the encounter, is always a great feeling.

33

Make it logic.
Make it reasonable.
Some characters, are bound to be powerful. Death Knights are. Demon Hunters are. Some Warlocks or mages are.
but, you -have- weaknesses. There is a domain in which you’ll be… well. Not as good as the others. Some excellent warriors will be stuck in a certain situation - and fail. Or the other way around.

This is a very good example. You can’t be perfect. You have a weakness. You can’t be invulnerable. Something, will shut you down.

34

If you RP the classes as their dirt variants, sure.

Lorewise warriors are chosen by Titan Keepers for their undying resilience. Lorewise rogues are such masters of stealth and poison that the mage wouldn’t breathe, let alone cast a spell. Lorewise shamans— Well, in the Comic, a shaman destroys an entire army.

The lore classes, as they should be in their full potential (not the hero of Azeroth, either) are all extremely powerful. This misunderstanding that DKs instantly win against 10 warriors purely because they’re a DK is not only ridiculous, but wrong as well. Warriors aren’t footmen, rogues aren’t scouts, hunters aren’t archers.

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35

Mage casts an epic spell to wipe the floor with my warrior. My warrior casts spell reflect IC and the mage kills himself. Checkmate.

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36

I agree for tabletop roleplaying, where you’ve got a small group of players with abilities that are (meant to be) balanced. The DM can tailor the story around those particular characters and what they do.

I disagree for freeform roleplaying with larger groups. When you’ve got to cater to a community of thirty to forty players, any of whom might attend or might not attend on that particular day, it’s extremely difficult to cater to the capabilities of all of their characters. If a certain character with certain abilities attends the event, suddenly everyone involved might be able to bypass this particular encounter, or suddenly this particular story hook which you planned might be rendered pointless.
So either the DM designs events around the capabilities of dozens of different player-characters, or the players taking part accept that all of their characters should operate on a certain power-level to avoid derailing the story that the entire community’s involved in.

As an example, I’m in one of those guilds that has dire trolls. Yes, there’s jokes thrown around that they should be able to squash most obstacles flat, but these players know when to rein in the power-level of their characters, in situations where it would disrupt the event. In exchange, they’re given opportunities now and then where the brute strength of their dire troll characters is allowed to shine.

Had that happen to me multiple times on multiple healers, but I’m fine with it. I’m of the opinion that it’s okay to break character once in a while, for the sake of preserving the enjoyment of others.

This is a really subjective thing, and I’m used to people disagreeing with me when it comes to this. But I’m of the opinion that breaking your character can be necessary on occasion, to make a scene or event more enjoyable for the other people that are involved in it.

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37

unironically this

‘you are not worth my time’ works too if you want to be edgy : - )

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38

Props to any RPer who tries to use the “ENOUGH!” trope in an IC duel as a display of raw power.

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39

Exactly. Every class that’s available is effectively a hero class unto themselves. If you’re the peak of any of these professions, then you’re pretty much a demi-god. From the warrior who can cleave pitlords in two with a pair of giant claymores to the rogue who is the peerless assassin.

I see Faceslinger beat me to making this point. Heck.

2 Likes
40

I’ve had a superduper master hyper wizard almost die to novices a few times just because he refused to actually do his best, instead he was just trying to match the novice. I’m telling ya man characters that want to die but are too prideful to commit sudoku are the future.