Hawkwings wrote:Well to me here's what things look like:
frigidmagi's character - mixed social and melee character
Cavalier's character - thinky character plus expert martial artist (I think you messed up on attributes, increasing them costs 4BP each and you have them too high anyways. It's 8/6/4, not 9/7/4 as you have before bonus point increases)
Hawkwings' character - thinky with a side of archery
Lys' character - spoiled brat who hasn't worked a hard day in her entire life (see that stamina 1? That's what it means! ) Oh, and super socialite, with fancy swordwork too
I notice we have quite bit of overlap in abilities. It for example seems redundant that you took linguistics when it's one of my caste abilities, and I am going to start with Old and High Realm. So the difference is one of being able to talk to Realm peasants, who are only present in the Blessed Isle. On the other hand, investigate is one of
your caste abilities that I'm taking and it might seem redundant for more than one party member to be investigative. Then there's both your and Cavalier's characters being scholars, though at least with different foci. The biggest overlap may be that fridgidmagi and me both have social/melee builds. I'm not sure how to fix any of this without compromising character concepts, or whether it's even in need of fixing.
The last example is particularly difficult, because Eclipses and Zeniths are
both social characters, so to an extent it can't be helped. There is differentiation between the two, but it is rather subtle. An Eclipse is the able administrator and diplomat, whereas the Zenith is the inspiring leader and fiery orator. I tried to reflect this by not taking any points in performance, and focusing on manipulation over charisma, but there are still several similarities.
Your opinion of my character as a "spoiled brat" might change when I'm done writing the account of her exaltation. I wish I could give her more stamina, but there's just not enough points to have her be all I want her to be. I think I'll raise her resistance ability though, because my idea is that she is of a somewhat frail constitution, but overcomes it through skill and sheer willpower.
Willpower, hmm... Considering 7WP is "Extremely strong-willed and determined", 5 suits her just fine at this stage. And the description fits too, "diffident and a little shy". Anything above 8 is considered "unreasonably intense". If you're going to take WP10 then I expect a very domineering attitude and your characters being difficult to work with. And having two of them? Well that's a recipe for some epic intra-party conflict right there. If you two don't regularly argue about differences of thought and opinion, I will consider that a cop-out

The game is a bit inconsistent about these things. While it may
say that a person with high willpower is intense, that doesn't actually make much sense. What's the conviction virtue for, then? I tend to think of willpower as mental health levels. Just like someone who is very tough and muscular need not necessarily be a brute, I don't think someone with high willpower is necessarily unreasonable.
Now, someone with high willpower
and high conviction is a different matter. My character in particular makes conviction her crutch. She charges into battle, helps the needy, and turns down drunken orgies; but she doesn't do any of these things because she is brave, or because she cares, or because she disdains carnal pleasures. Rather she does what she does because it is Right and Necessary. Gods help you if you disagree.
This is not to say that she doesn't have inner emotions, and that everything is dictated by cold logic. Like I said, she's based a bit on Saber, so so she has real emotions but they are suppressed because she believes that's what has to be done. None of this is good for her mental health, and it expresses itself in the limit break I made for her: Crippling Indecision, or maybe Crushing Despair. The idea is that her conviction simply collapses from the strain put upon it, and she becomes unable to make decisions or commit to anything.