Thoughts on characters without supernatural powers?

[fancypost bgcolor=transparent; borderwidth=0px; width: 400px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times;color:#;line-height: 12px;][justify]To be honest, many of my characters don't have supernatural powers. It can be interesting, but it can also be a huge disadvantage for the character. it's hard to roleplay them, but even playing them for a while without powers is good in my opinion.
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I generally find characters without powers, or with only a few minor powers (e.g. not elemental or size-shifting), more interesting. c:

[fancypost borderwidth=0px][justify][size=8]i generally find those without powers (or with only minor ones, like flower prints and glow) more interesting!
like verdigris oops

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Usually, powers don't matter to me when it comes to finding a character interesting. If they're a normal part of who they are, then I get a little bored of them, but having powers in itself doesn't affect me.

I think characters can be interesting with or without powers, and even if they have them what makes them interesting is the focus on their personality and motivation and actions, not the flashy stuff they can do. But then, it's just my preference not to give characters a lot of powers, I've never had a character with more than two.

I don't reallyfeel any different eternal characters with powers and characters without powers :/

Idk. I personally don't give my characters a whole bunch of powers all of the time, but sometimes I'll have fun and give them a bunch. It depends. I don't use them that often anyways XD

Powers don't really affect the way I view people's characters. What really matters is the personality and the way the character is handled. In the end development and writing means more to me than the bodies or powers. Though I do often admire how powers are incorporated or how those with no powers experience the world around them.

I have a couple characters who are pumped with nearly all powers available, and others who have nothing at all. I even have those with powers who are actually afraid of their own abilities and try to hide them.

[align=center][fancypost bgcolor=; bordercolor=transparent; borderwidth=0px; width: 350px;][justify][size=8]i had a deer character, with no powers. a lot of her development was centered around the fact that her species only lived for two to three years and she didn't have a lot of time left, and that she was distraught because she couldn't offer anything in raids due to the dragons etc., but did not want to be a medic. she was an interesting character to roleplay, and i often made museful posts that i'm quite proud of. i dropped her a little less than two weeks ago, but i might bring a character like her back.

Whether or not a character has powers doesn't really affect if I find them interesting. I personally tend not to give my characters powers unless needed for a plot, but I enjoy seeing the interesting uses people think up for powers.

[fancypost bgcolor=Transparent; border: 0px;width: 400px; margin-center: -5px; overflow: hidden; text-align: justify; font-family: calibri;]I only use powers for development/personality aspects, like my sea dragon/queen of an underwater group has water manipulation and telepathy (to speak to peeps underwater, and siren mind control stuff)

Beware The Beast wrote:

Powers don't really affect the way I view people's characters. What really matters is the personality and the way the character is handled. In the end development and writing means more to me than the bodies or powers. Though I do often admire how powers are incorporated or how those with no powers experience the world around them.

I have a couple characters who are pumped with nearly all powers available, and others who have nothing at all. I even have those with powers who are actually afraid of their own abilities and try to hide them.

[fancypost borderwidth=0;font-size:8pt; text-align:justify; line-height: 140%; width:450px;]it all comes down to development for me, yes the powers add an interesting aspect and both my current characters have shape shifting while one has elemental, though that is because i am indecisive over animals i want them to be though i plan on getting rid of that power for both, and elemental is used only in a non-offensive way, they literally make coffee using fire, that is all

for me powers don't matter, i used to love them but that was when i first joined and we only had a couple and getting telepathy was a big thing, now i look at the development for a character, how one expands on their personality rather than goes straight to powers to try and make the character more intimidating. yet there are ways powers and mutations can be used to develop a character a lot, but i enjoy seeing how someone without them interacts with the world, or one who despises what they can do and tries to suppress it

[fancypost bgcolor=#; border: 0px; width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size:9pt]I much prefer characters without powers. It adds an extra challenge to properly developing them, and I just like it more when a character can't unleash hellfire and is basically unstoppable in battle.

I mean, considering there's a vast amount of literature devoted to characters with no supernatural powers, I'd have to say that uh, yes, characters without supernatural powers can be interesting ;)

In the context of this site and rping, I'd still say the same. What we have here is a world where supernatural powers are everyday occurrences; having a character with no powers in a world where practically everyone else does makes for a great dynamic. How do they feel about not having powers? Are they insecure, are they afraid, do they take a long time to trust people because people with powers have hurt them in the past and they were unable to defend themselves in the face of a shapeshifting, fireball-throwing shadow entity?

You can explore just as much of a character's development without bringing powers into it at all. I have a character who is plagued by night terrors; he has to deal with fatigue, irritability, and the fact that the nightmares are slowly causing him to see his own den as unsafe.

Personally, I don't think you should solely define a character based on their powers, if you have a character with powers. That shouldn't be the only thing you care about in terms of development. Yes, powers are a major aspect of their life and identity, but a character with powers can have just as many non-power-related threads as a character without powers.

Powers alone are not what makes a character interesting; a major part of characterization rests on their personality, so there should be no problem with a character having no powers and still be entertaining and fun to RP.

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There are plenty of personality traits, physical characteristics, diseases, disabilities, and possibilities to have allowed diversity and development, but people seemed to have forgotten that. Instead, people are basing their characters off TV shows and movies and adding powers instead.

So much agreement with this paragraph. I must confess I have a TV show-based character, but that's more because I really love creating a complete AU (not just "this character came straight from their human or whatever life but somehow got reincarnated as a cat" but "this character, as a clan cat from the beginning").

My character Xenia has all powers, but I haven't used any of them, not even once.

I think it depends on how they are used. If the powers are only used to make a battle-monster, then I think it just damages the character tbh. Or if telepathy is only used to prevent spying during hp meetings, or if they only use scent manipulation to hide their scent after they drop off a dead body at the border, or if flower prints are only used by characters to grow marigold or whatever for their injured clanmates. On the other hand, powers can be used really well to develop your character. For example, shape-shifting can be used to create a werewolf character; or emotional manipulation can be used to create a character that accidentally makes other characters share the same emotions, so if the character feels sad everyone else feels sad and it creates a lot of conflict.

The only power I usually tend to make use of nowadays is multiple possessions/shape shifting. I find characters with little or no powers much more interesting personally, though it does depend on how powers are used with the character in question. I personally really don't like characters that have powers purely for the sake of having some kind of advantage in fights. It just seems to make fights much more one sided and therefore much less interesting.