Under or over the top?

I can't help but notice that some roleplay characters are 'too perfect' or massively over the top, yet on the other end of the spectrum, there's the completely, well, 'too normal' characters. You know, merchants and such.

I try to keep my characters unique or.. at least interesting.

If you search for my characters on Argent Archives (I can't post links since I'm a new member of these forums \o/) :
My Main roleplaying character is Shadeveil
My most recent character is Shiei.

(Yes, I know Shadeveil's description and background are rather hefty)

Shiei is my supposedly normal character, no magic, no terribly tragic past, no evil wishes. Whereas Shadeveil is a bit of a badass, evil and incredibly easy to anger, even if she doesn't snap at you quite instantly ;3

Where would you put your characters into the spectrum?
Are they under or over the top?

Roleplaying on a Goblin was never easy. Getting constantly ignored by Blood elf females i never had it easy to "Get in there". Or getting punted around by Trolls which simply wish to do so because of their boredom. I always let them.

I would put my Goblin under the top. Trying to keep him as Underpowered as possible but sometimes being usefull afterall.

My characters vary greatly. I tend to decide upon making if I want them to be over the top or under the top. I rarely make a character balanced in the spectrum, but, I don't always make them exactly... Normal. I usually end up expanding on my character and developing it whilst RP'ing. Characters like my character Calterus are very normal, average citizens with no special ability, yet, still provide use. Whilst I have powerful characters like my Warlock which are often considered OP. I tend to always make my character under the top when fighting though.

Yes, i can see that some rp'ers likes to keep their character the true powerful one. Though that is OP rp. Let's take this for example that i saw yesterday. A man surrounded by 5 people. They had guns blades and everywhere. The man who was surrounded was supposed to be fat and yet agile enough to avoid them all and beat them up. I who was flying above was like this. So yeah, it isn''t very likely that we can stop this terror to keep coming.

As Kizon mentions my characters varies greatly as well.

But I do try to balance them out. They can be OP in one aspect, but if you have what is needed then they are UP as heck.

I do have 2 characters that isnt good in anything particular. I have a typical huge beer, friend loving pandaren. Really boring

I have a Hobo, an orphan child not able to do -anything- besides beg or snatch and run short distance before she needs to hide. However this is because so if anyone were to take her for adotopin or simmilar, she -can- be trained to become good at something. It is about development.


Other chars I have is my Main Faaria, due to my position in my guild she is over the normal, but have her weaknesses.

I also have a Demon Hunter, though despite what people like to believe they are not OP. Shine some Light or Nature or Elementum magic. Light will make the crawl and scream. if not they are doing it wrong. But if you however lack those, she will be faaaar over the top. Unless there is some other fancy stuff.


Point is, my characters are designed X. If i can not find a realistic way in the WoW lore to solve that my char is able to do, then I can not do anything against it. If there are 5+ people surrounding my char with guns, bows and swords. Most of the time it is a defeat. Depending on class and abilities.

I tend to make my characters genuinely powerful, but with their specific weaknesses that makes them able to be taken down, one of them is my worgen druid who suffers from the "hero disorder" for which there is no cure, this usually gets him somewhat wounded in battles with the Horde and the likes.

He is a master at Windweaving, Rootraising and Thornweaving, as he has practices the natural element of druidism for 63 years (excluding shapeshifting and lunar/Elune abilities), he's resistant to the azerothian kinds of poisons/venoms/toxins/etc. as well as curses, but with every strength he got a weakness, arcane magic plummets into him like a car against a wall of straw, he's very acrobatic and very defensive, but he actually got a pattern, so if people sees it, he's doomed.

But meh that's generally how I tend to make my characters, at the moment I only have one character who is generally weak, and that's a guy in his late thirties who is a "self-taught weaponswinger" and his class is "Jack"