Main Charactering

[Kim]

Actually, another thing I was thinking. My story has two villains. Villain A served Villain B until B was killed, but not by A nor by a plot from A. I was thinking of having the main character die after killing B, having used up all his life/magic. A comes into power.

After that part, there being a race of sorts between the hero and B, set up by Death. The winner gets to live again. Thus the hero is able to come back, and it would also give me a chance to make the hero strong enough to defeat A.

[Marelo]

Mayhap it would be more dramatic/meaningful if a companion saw fit to sacrifice his life force to resurrect the hero?

[Kim]

Well, I really want it to be about him earning the strength he needs to defeat Villain A. Yeah, he defeated Villain B, but if someone just dies to bring the hero back, I'm not sure it'll be the same. Through the contest in the afterlife, he grows stronger, not just on a physical level, but on more of a character level as well, on top of earning the strength to stop A. I feel redundant.

[Marelo]

Eh, your story. You know what it should be more than I do.

[Mirai Gen]

Yeah a majority of this sounds like just the kind of thing you should mill over in your head before asking for advice.

If you have a character in your head it's tough for us to really help you shape him, considering we haven't even been given the literary function that's supposed to define his character for us.

[Pip Boy]

Originally Posted by Dante Must Die

Yeah a majority of this sounds like just the kind of thing you should mill over in your head before asking for advice.

If you have a character in your head it's tough for us to really help you shape him, considering we haven't even been given the literary function that's supposed to define his character for us.

I personally disagree with this. Maybe its just me, but most of the ideas I get in writing work as if this forum is Wilson and I am House. While nothing you say directly may be used, it may throw me into the chain of thinking that leads me to a good original idea that I may have never found without some inspiration.

Noncon, what kind of person is your main character? If you had to say his character traits stuck him in any one D&D class, what would it be? Would he be a barbarian? Paladin? wizard? Monk? If you character is a studious individual, perhaps he could make some discovery in magic that puts him above others. Perhaps while at first he is at a large handicap, he gains great power as he makes discoveries that he finds only because of his unique experiences. Death, for example. What if he finds some great secret in the afterlife he can use to his advantage after returning to life?

[Kim]

I was thinking of him essentially being NPC strength when compared to your normal D&D heroes. The only reason he is able to kill Villain B is because he uses up his life using the magic. I was essentially thinking of basically him coming back from the dead making it so that his magic was no longer restricted on basis of life as well as maybe learning some combat or getting a weapon or something in the afterlife.

I worry that that would make him too powerful. If I did do this though, I would have a consequence at the end. Towards the end of the story, Villain A goes to kill the Gods. Hero defeats him, but I was thinking of having the Gods make the hero stay in the realm of the Gods, unable to return to the human world, because he's too powerful.

[Marelo]

Yes, but what class would he be? What's his method of approaching problems?

[Kim]

He avoids confrontation. So maybe a rogue? He's good at coming up with ways around shit, because Fifth recommended it, and that works really for the character. I don't necessarily see that as a class thing, so yeah... I would guess some clever rogue type. But if a rogue could actually hold their own in a fair fight, no magic I mean. He worked on a farm, it makes sense for him to be at least reasonably strong. So clever rogue with a dash of fighter.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by NonCon

The main character can manipulate water, which isn't really that special, and since he refuses to use gems, knowing where they come from, he's at a real disadvantage.

So... Ideas? Make him stronger? Leave him as is? Make him more disadvantaged?

"Disadvantaged but good at coming up with clever ways around that" is usually the way to go there. Not easy to write, though.

Originally Posted by NonCon

I was used to that sub-forum being posted for shit you made, be it story or art, and this sub-forum for talking about other people's shit, or at least, that is how I understood it.

It still is mostly, probably? I'll have to check on how we're doing that post-namechange.

Originally Posted by Runswithnopants

I see.

Well, how much life, hypothetically, would it cost him to freeze a tiny droplet of moisture and propel it at high velocities for use as a weapon? What about using a tiny, paper-thin stream of water to cut people in half, or, heck, just rip them in half with the water in their own bodies?

I don't imagine it would take much energy to simply stop someone's blood from reaching his/her brain.

Originally Posted by NonCon

I was thinking of putting a requirement of physical contact or the magic starting from the user. Can't manipulate the water in the person without physically touching them sort of thing. Touching their armor or clothes does not count as touching them either. I dunno, I have been worrying that my magic system needs some balancing, but I don't really know how to go about such a thing without essentially making everyone and their dog overpowered.

Just say something about how he can't muck with water on people's insides easily cause their innate magic-ness stops him from doing that.