Hmmm...interesting,
Perhaps the best way for me to answer the first question would be to use a RL-analogy of giving contributions to charity. When you do so, you know that it is only a small contribution compared to the enormity of e.g. a hunger disaster, and you know that there are large corporations and states that can give much more than you, but you still want to contribute to doing good by whatever limited means you can.
The same motivation would apply to some of my less powerful heroes. They may not be able to defeat Hamidon, but stopping a mugging is still a good deed.
As regards the second question, I probably like playing the less powerful characters best. However, I do have a couple of potentially very powerful characters who can be quite fun to play, because of the limitations and dilemmas they might be made to face. As an example, one of my characters is basically the spirit of the goddess Inanna trapped in the body of a schoolgirl, and the contrast between being Queen of Heaven and Earth on the one side and having to write an essay for school on the other side, for me provides for some interesting RP/IC-conflicts.
I don't know if any of this makes any sense 
Hello there. 
Personally for me, I enjoy having serious character flaws. Both it being a personality flaw, or a physical/magical weakness of some kind.
I guess we're talking more of the physical/magic, weaknesses/strengths in this thread, so...
As I see it, a Hero can't be all powerful, otherwise they wouldn't have a place in the world, and this would all be done with before it really started. I don't really like other people playing 'all powerful', because very little of what they actually do would make sense. Everyone has flaws, everyone.
My character for example, Lani, she's weak as a kitten physically, so her mutant skills enhance her defensive abilities. Without them she wouldn't stand a chance. The shields can be turned on and off(with prolonged use draining her ability to 'cast' them for a while), so if she was caught off guard, the weakness would be exploitable. Same for her attack. Sure, she can punch an apple and it'll bruise, but her real power is in a mental state, not a physical one, again, if she was caught off guard, drunk, or otherwise, she'd be light work to dispose of.
I try to think of my characters by first thinking what personality, and then what weakness, lastly is the strength. Weaknesses are more important than strengths, in my opinion. Goes for any sort of character I want to roleplay, not just restricted to City of Heroes.
Having a character with a weakness shows you are thinking of your character on more than one level.
Of course, this is just my opinion...
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I guess we're talking more of the physical/magic flaws/strengths in this thread, so...
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Not necessarily. A personality flaw can affect the character's skills, so in and of itself, it's a flaw that effects the character's abilities.
As regards flaws, this is very much the way I see it too,
I somehow always have much more fun picking weaknesses and flaws than powers when designing RP-characters; perhaps because I have so many of my own to choose from
I'm pretty much gonna to agree with Lotus here.
That said, however: Hmm...
Perhaps it's not a matter of the flawed heroes thinking about the fact that the uber-powerful heroes can do anything. Maybe they do what they do because it's the right thing to do, maybe they do it for a different reason. Added to that is the fact that merely because someone can do something, doesn't mean they will...
With regards to preference, I much prefer playing the hero with weakness and vulnerabilities. I find it much more interesting to be a magical-based hero, for example, who isn't really much of a spellcaster. As an added bonous, of course, it also sees them relying more on others for help.
I'd come up with more but my brain hasn't processed any coffee yet... 
I only just realised, I hadn't actually posted my own opinion. Like Hot-head, there's too much blood in my caffeine stream. 
But I shall do so now.
Personally, it's something that has been in the back of my mind since before a retcon that happened around new year last year. War Crow, at that point, turned from an all-powerful character, to a much more balanced character. Why? Because the player eventually came to the conclusion that people stopped asking for his help. There was no challange if you included War Crow, cause he could solve everything. It wasn't so much a matter of would, it was the could that in part got him 'cast out'.
Sure, they don't always use that power, but you know it's there, not using it for whatever reason, could actually contribute to people feeling patronised. It feels somehow... silly to me. You have it, so why not use it? Only to benefit others? Doesn't make sense to me. :s
My characters tend to be flawed, and certainly not all powerful. Amy, or Stargazer, is a healer, I think of all characters, she is probably the most powerful, rp-wise. She is stable emotionally, holds sway over life and death (emp/dark), but isn't very rich, and is very dedicated to helping the less fortunate in Paragon.
Shadow's Grace is a different matter. Yes, technically speaking, she could probably be one of the most powerful characters at GG. But instead of her strength, I made her main power, her weakness. She hits things with a sword, and is prisoner to a self-inflicted curse, which means she cannot die very easily, she regenerates damage, but it's not impossible at all to kill her. She's technically the champion of the goddess Scathach from Celtic mythology. However, instead of help, Scathach is usually the reason why Shadow's Grace gets into trouble. She's insubbordinant (sp) and more often that not mocks those around her, so not much help at all.
Then there are those like Mindblank, whom is just to darn shy to do anything, having a near-mortal fear of the spotlight.
So I think overall, I fall in the 'flawed' character bracket. It's just so much more interesting to play, I think.
I don't think there's much doubt which side I'm on.
In my opinion, an unflawed character is very very hard to play, and if played well boring not only for the player but for those around them too.
Flaws come in two "flavours" - Character flaws, and power flaws.
Character flaws are what means you don't live a perfect life, lacking and wanting for nothing, with nothing to hurt you, with no reason to go out and better yourself because you already have everything.
This is the one that's hard to do, and boring for a player, because as a hero it means you can't ever fail - as soon as you fail to save someone, you gain a flaw.
Power flaws are what means you don't always have the answer, have to rely on others around you, and allow you to fail. You can have phenominal cosmic power, but still have limitations. They can even be caused by character flaws (a disbelief in your own power or a refusal to use everything are both power and character flaws)
Hiki's firmly in the middle of the power flaws camp, and a quivering wreck somewhere at the bottom of the character flaws pile - that girl has enough neurosies to give an entire university masters degrees in psycology.
Coffee buzz... but only a little inspiration, sadly...
Anyway, I find I create characters who are good at one or two things at most and average at best at everything else. Ana Firebrand, for example, is a good fighter and has some knowledge about magic and mysticism but isn't really very good at it, having to rely on the knowledge of others in most cases.
With regard to personality flaws, Ana is quite insecure and uncomfortable with getting too close to people. She can be slow about expressing her opinion and talks mostly in general terms about her past. Thus, while she may (or may not ) be known to people, they'll not really know much about her opinions on things. This means that she can come across a little distant and quite formal at times. And, to make matters a little more complicated, she - having been an outsider for most of her life - feels she must do her best to greet new people and make them welcome.
At least, that is how I try to play her...
*reads over the description*
Y'know, I hadn't realised how complex she is til now.
Me?
I have a few characters...
Jess "Grav Mistress"
She falls in the "near god" catagory, I think. Or atleast she would if I choose to play her that way.
She's a mage of great lore and understanding and power, and on top of that, a Peacebringer.
I RP her in (power) situations as they come. Basically, if I can think of it, she can do it. Then my brain kicks in and starts to come up with a way that sounds plausible and somewhat down to earth, I add flaws (usually time) to that idea.
In the end, I hope Jess come across as an accomplished but still believable mage. Yes, a bit heavy on the power, perhaps, but still human.
Now, her personality... she does have flaws. But, still, the same principle I use applies to this.
Jess has a fairly stable personality, though lately even that's being severely tested.
Jess does have characterflaws, yes. But I think they're fairly well hidden. Though lately, one of those flaws/fears has been tested to the point of breaking. (This is an interesting time to RP Jess 
)
As for my other characters...
Tower of Power is a huge muscle with a large bank account, and a fairly stable personality (except when it comes to women, I found out )
Attomic Kitten... *ponders hard on strengths...* hmmm, a flawed character she is *ponders more on what strengths she has* Well, she's a cheerful character, crazy as I can make her, has healing powers and attomic blasts, not to mention an uncanny ability to make (minor) metagaming comments and pickign up on typos IC
addition:
on a more "Me" personal note, I tend to start of wanting to be allpowerful. I like to play a fps in god mode with unlimited ammo.
Then I get (naturally) bored with it and start to add the flaws.
I had a lot of fun running a lvl 40 mage through the entire game of Icewind Dale. I made him, picked his spells for solo ability: no team to worry about, just me and the bad guys.
So, my characters rarely HAVE to rely on others, on a team.
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
I wasn't going to post here, but...
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War Crow, at that point, turned from an all-powerful character, to a much more balanced character. Why? Because the player eventually came to the conclusion that people stopped asking for his help. There was no challange if you included War Crow, cause he could solve everything. It wasn't so much a matter of would, it was the could that in part got him 'cast out'.
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To be correct, I stopped taking Crow anywhere near anyone else because he would ruin their plot just by being there. It wasn't that people didn't ask him for help, it was that I'd hear that such-and-such a plot was setting off and I knew Crow would be unable to resist meddling, and would reduce the plot to "where's the baddy, okay, that's him taken care of."
He was an unplayable character. The progression from relatively ordinary human to god had been entirely logical, I just hadn't considered how that would fit into the setting. Basically, he was a high-end Mage: The Ascension character in a setting without the breaks they normally have. So, I gave him a really large case of backlash and he returned to something rather more normal.
Unfortunately, when I did bring him back, I discovered that the character was no longer interesting. I'd created Jason Caine, who was much more interesting, but was basically wiped off the RP map by plot. The entire thing left a bad taste in my mouth and I've never really managed to put it behind me.
I also think that the GG setting is far to prone to the creation and use of god characters. The fact that the players concerned either don't seem to realise what they have, or simply think it's a good thing, continues to amaze me.
By the way, I don't think the original question was phrased right. There are plenty of characters with enormous character and power flaws, who nevertheless are too powerful for the setting.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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Hiki's firmly in the middle of the power flaws camp, and a quivering wreck somewhere at the bottom of the character flaws pile - that girl has enough neurosies to give an entire university masters degrees in psycology.
[/ QUOTE ] Juan should just take Hiki to the Paragon City Exams Admissions board. "This is what I live with, give me my psychology qualifactions."
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Then there are those like Mindblank, whom is just to darn shy to do anything, having a near-mortal fear of the spotlight.
[/ QUOTE ] It's true, she blushes when her fiancee puts his arm around her.
I definetly prefer the flawed characters. Hannah when you get to look beneath the surface is a complex little bundle, generous and giving, but her reasons for why go back to her childhood. Plus her powers mean she can't really do the one thing she loves the most, professional gaming (Would you let someone who could interact with computers directly in a Quake competition?), and the double edged sword of while lots of electrical devices make for a very bright time and make her have glasses on all the time, none causes her to have a panic attack.
Zorielle has her fortunes and technology, but has to keep her employees safe, pay them, manage stocks, and her technology she makes needs to be developed, made, researched and tested. Protecting others in the city during the war cost her the ability to have children and her first wife, and she occasionally gets into ethical issues with others.
Juan might be a powerful psychic, but that doesn't help when he had to emasculate himself to stop his emotions and hormones driving his powers out of control, try to work and study hard without his gifts so he can become a psychologist, and put up with Mina/Hiki's woes.
Flaws in a sane ammount make a character fun and interesting to play, I find.
ShadowGhost:
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pickign up on typos IC
[/ QUOTE ] It's one of the laws of the internet, whenever you mention typos or grammar, something along those lines happen. 
I guess the major point of contact for me in this thread is Sara. Now, I've had debates about her power level before, and it turns out she isn't as bad as I thought. She does have an off-the-chart power level, but 98% of that is inextricably tied into her invulnerability, and her human outlook isn't really capable of manipulating that power in any godlike fashion, simply because she does not have the mind or will of a god. Yes, there's very little in the way of physical, energy or other effects that can damage her, but there are still a number of ways to get around that. Her personality flaws are well documented, and hopefully, they do come out. In terms of outlook, Sara has wound up being a human who just can't be physically damaged.
I think how it works out depends how you apply it. When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. As soon as you start going "Oh, I can just rearrange the world to do this.." where do you stop? That's why handwaving gods tend to not work, once you logically say they can do anything, there's no logical reason for them not to do everything.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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That's why handwaving gods tend to not work, once you logically say they can do anything, there's no logical reason for them not to do everything.
[/ QUOTE ] Unless you want to see the puny little humans squirm and claw their way through a situation for your own personal amusement while looking down from a cloud.
Wait, that's the GM's job!
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That's why handwaving gods tend to not work, once you logically say they can do anything, there's no logical reason for them not to do everything.
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Real gods are easy, they don't do things because they don't want to, or it isn't part of their domain. Any number of reasons.
The problem is people who suddenly gain godlike powers. They have no controls, and no reason to not do things. So that's exactly what Crow did, he put the world back the way he wanted it to be... and then the real gods stepped in and gave him a bit of a smack-down. Like I said, though, by that time I'd lost interest in the character and in CoH roleplay really.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I suppose that Alfred is somewhat balanced on this one. His previous problem that, despite all his efforts, the females he cared about always slipped away - well, that has not so much dissapeared as been nuked into dust by Kitmarch. He still has to contend with worrying about everyone (since the vast majority of people he knows, especially the attractive young women he is overprotective of, are suicidal in combat). Add to this his constant stress at having everyone babbling their thoughts at him, all the time, and he ends up fairly rounded.
In terms of powers - he's good at what he does, but what he does is actually rather limited. Yes, he can fight with telekenesis, read minds, and use his precognitition to warn himself and others of attacks - but that's about it. He is competent in his field - but ask him to fight hand to hand, or move very quietly, or break into a computer system without using his multiple gadgets - and he'll be found lacking, and in need of assistance.
It's no secret that I have a plot in the works to alter his 'abilities' scale. I don't wish to reveal too much, but the gist of it is that he, through no choice of his own, shall gain more power and sacrifice a great deal of control. This'll again balance out after a while, leaving him again a rounded character.
I feel Ves sits fairly well in the middle ground on this matter, (although if anyone disagrees feel free to say so)
Power-wise, he's highly capable at what he does best, hitting things, big things, small things and all the things inbetween, and physically he's rather hard to break, his nanotech keeps him up and running with shocking efficiency (much to his dismay in his early GG days when he was activly trying to fall in battle if only to escape the armoured shell he was held in.)
However, ask him to do anything more complicated than beating something around the head and he's instantly way out of his league. This becomes evident each time something involving magic occurs at GG or anywhere else for that matter, this often surfaces when there are problems with Nyu and her Dragon council, (last time Ves had to stand there and watch while feeling all useless as Jess used her skills with magic to assist her)
He's also a bit fragile when it comes to mental attacks, not being the brightest sharpest tool in the box does leave him open to various forms of nastyness (kinda helps that this ties in nicely with his actual powers for when he runs missions IC, as his main RP weaknesses are shown to their fullest)
From a personality point of view, well lets just say that he's a little slanted, his priorities being his family with Nyu, then the "family" that took him in (the Alliance), then his friends. Everything else is basically just back ground noise, if it doesn't affect him or someone he knows and cares about then it's not his concern.
Thats not to say he's unsociable, when he visits GG he's always polite (kinda) and friendly (a bit) but does have something of a temper (as some people saw last week when he was talking to Little Step on the FC roof late at night after the "suicide bomber" incedent. He kinda lost his composure and offered to send Jack home in several small packages and was rather blunt and rude. (And had loads of fun doing it, which is why I sometimes RP with my villains for a little quiet therapy)
All in all I think he's far from uber, infact he's more flawed than Sven's plans for the world cup tactics and squad selection
Well, I'm kind of new to this "RPing in computer games" thing. Luckily, I've had some nice people show me the way (thanks Luke!) - helped by my 20 years of PnP RPG experience (though I almost exclusively GM these days, so going back to being a player is quite interesting).
Shadowe (only has an "e" on the end because the name without is already taken, damnit) is based on a character I had planned for a Super-Hero PnP RPG a good 8 years ago.
He's pretty tough physically, though you wouldn't know it to look at him, and his powers are rather good (the ability to distinguish and analyse energy and particle emissions at a quantum level (as well as create them) is kind of cool, but has limited use), and he's very clever, rather rich and doesn't want for much, but he has his flaws. Boy, does he have them. One of them hasn't come up too much, for which I'm rather grateful. He likes attractive women. A lot. He's an incorrigible flirt. But he's also British (of the "stiff-upper-lip" variety) so he's rather reserved at the same time. This means that he will go out of his way to talk to attractive women, but they might not notice that he's trying to flirt with them (poorly). He's massively over-protective of his little sister (though that was mitigated IC with some help from Alfred recently). And he has a temper. A very bad one. And sometimes it shows.
I'm trying to play him like the level 43 Blaster he is in game - a powerful hero who knows his own strengths, is very confident of his own abilities, but who sometimes lets things get the better of him. I'm particularly looking forward to tonight's RP mish from the Rebirth plotline (if you don't know about it, where have you been?) as this will give me more opportunity to play out the sides of his character that don't come across very well in the social setting of GG.
I once played a "god-like" character in a PnP RPG. He's my favourite character ever. I'm never going to let him go, he will always have a place in my memories of RPing - but he got boring after a while, and I had to reduce his power to make him playable again.
Give me a flawed personality any day. Second to that is flawed abilities (one of Shadowes problems is that he can't always control his energy emmissions, which means that I hit Nova randomly every now and then - though I've been avoiding doing so at GG because I can't stand power-spamming - this is particulary dangerous in RP'd mish's, as you can probably imagine).
I'm looking to more rigorously define the powers Shadowe has that aren't represented by the powers in game (like the energy detection thing) to tighten up my knowledge of how he would react in certain situations.
Damn, this is a lot longer than I thought, and became all about my character. Sorry about that.
As a good friend of mine would say...
"...Anyway!.."
Flawed: Yes
Uber: No
Thanks
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise ; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
Hmmm flawed is definitely the way to go.
I've had 3 main characters in my time.
Reactionary, my longest running, was somewhat emotionally stunted when it came to women. He wasn't very good at the whole romance thing. He had a tendency to use ultra violence in certain cases, breaking bones needlessly just to scare a criminal that little bit more. He was arrogant in the mask and thought he was pretty unstoppable. Being able to predict a person's movements seconds in advance does have its advantages.
Basilisk on the other hand is a kid. A teenager who is still coming to terms with his responsibilities and his powers and the tie between the two. He's a total geek out of the mask, and a scared kid in the mask. His powers aren't even that remarkable in the grand scheme of things.
Ironclad...
Well Ironclad was originally concieved as a Superman-lite. Physically very strong, impervious to alot of things and able to fly. I've been toning him down recently though and merging him with a more Captain America Ultimates style. Brash, self righteous and a bit of a patriot in the costume. Out of it he's a pretty reserved, well spoken farmboy who still wears the fashions of yesteryear.
The closest to an uber-character I have had is the long running line of Scotbots.
This probably comes as news to most people who think that they're nothing more than a glorified vending machine...
The concept of the Scotbots is that they use a IID (Infinite Improbability Drive, for those who might not know) to create whatever it is that is requested. No matter how improbable it is, a Scotbot can theoretically make it.
However this is limited by all sorts of factors, primarily that the Scotbots are generally obstinate except where it comes to the production of drinks or food.
Secondly they have learned that doing certain things is Not Done.
Thirdly they are made by Sirius Cybernetics Corporation after all...
Of course no-one really takes advantage of this at all, because most people don't actually realise the Scotbots can do this.
My Characters tend to be polar opposites and oxy-morons
Ultra Nova is a bit like the phoneix in the sense that he is incredibally powerful and could defeat even hami on his own ( he can practically crack the planet in half if he fully exerted himself) , but has almost no control of his upper powers, therefore we must stunt his ownself by wearing the damping suit, and using the least amount of his powers that he can. He is also very stunted by his morals, he would not let his powers rage out of control nor could he concieve using half of his powers in fear of harming someone.To sum it up the more control Ultra loses the more powerful he becomes. Which is actually weird for me because i hate superman type characters.
Blitz on the other hand is very very weak for a mutant. But he is so skilled he can take down my enemies far more powerful than himself. The better in control he remains and the more he trains the more "powerful" he becomes
aaa [censored] i made a batman and a superman!
Also raven do you GGers take in account for the backstory of paragon? If so , and you character is so god like, do you take in account that in the paragon storyline Mirror Spirit will one day become more powerful than you as she is destined to become the most powerful acrane force on the planet? That would make her extremely powerful!
Powers
Max is very much on the 'flawed' side. Powers-wise, he's just a guy, no fancy powers, he happens to be able to use a gun to good effect.
He used to have the Masquerade department behind him, but even then, I placed IC limitations on what he could do, after almost doing really-bad-godmodding in the Catch Saga (Ravenswing will know what I'm on about )
Nowadays, after leaving the Department, he just has himself and some of the gadgets left over he 'forgot' to hand back.
Personality
Oh-so-flawed. He's arrogant, self-centered, and disrespectful of pretty much everyone else's feelings. And smokes like a chimney, only stopping for when Nyu was pregnant.
His main flaw in being a jerk, is that everyone seems to like him.
Unbreakable Object is somewhat in between. He's extremely strong, agile and damn near impossible to break. Hence the name. But he's still only a man, thus got fears. He's an arachnophobic (spell?), afraid of the dark, afraid of the lightning. He got far more flaws than powers. But to back his fears up, he has an arrogant, rude attitiude. As folks may have noticed.
He's a pretty soft guy beneath all that and absolutely not rude at all. Just misunderstood and scared. There you go.
Well, I know that both my Characters are in some ways 'Gimped', especially my Scrapper.
My Scrapper was my first ever character, and to be perfectly honest, as I've said many times before, I hate him, and have many times thought of deleting him.
Chi, however, was made as a secondary character, as a Tsoo Sorcerer- just for fun. Many people consider Storm a gimped set, but I don't care. He's fun to play, and although not the best 'Healer', he can tank like a pro .
For the second question, I prefer to play a support character, but Brutes/Scrappers are good for a change. I don't see the point in playing an MMO without the 'MM'. There's nothing more fun than aggroing an 8 man map, then running back screaming.
Personally, I usually cripple my character with flaws first and then add the skills.
(Look at Luke at the start of A New Hope...)
Then I meet with the group and usually annoy someone. Over time though, (Like RL), they often come to understand that the flaws are part of his/her/it's charm; and the extra skill points come in VERY handy.
(Though saying this, I've just got back from a game where I'm playing a Ex-policeman turned binman whose had a psychotic episode and is trying to escape from his ex whilst being helped by five fragments of his psyche. )
Okay, just a thought that came to me after some reflection with regards to plots, the characters and the development of plots.
There are characters out there, so powerful, that it makes me wonder; why would those 'flawed' heroes still go out and do something, if there are all-powerful beings out there, and there's almost nothing their Magic, Tech etc etc can't do?
In addition, I'd like to know, what do you prefer to play; A character that can solve the problems of the universe all by themselves, more or less. Or a character who is an addition to a group, which together solves problems, but alone could probably not do so much? And why?