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Tharros Polemistis - Tharros Polemisits - 08-13-2014 05:23 AM
Full name: Tharros Polemistis
Age: Tharros has lived for over 2,000 years. His aging process is highly decelerated and physically, he only appears between his late 20's or early 30's.
Species: Griffin
Gender: Male
Height: 6 feet, 4 inches tall
Weight: 275 pounds.
IQ and intelligence: 195. Despite this, he has never had much formal education. His IQ has come from his centuries of existence and knowledge he has acquired throughout his extensive life. Since he has lived across the world for many centuries, he has mastered numerous different languages as well as sign language as a result. However, when it comes to modern technology such as phones and computers, he has yet to adapt to them and finds them useless and difficult.
Sexual orientation: Heterosexual
Birthdate: Unknown
Birth Place: Unknown.
Residence: Wherever fate takes him
Alignment: Neutral
Social class: Loner
Dominant hand: Ambidextrous
Appearance: Tharros is a toned warrior with a sleek and muscular build. Being the hybrid he is; Tharros has the head of an eagle, sporting white feathers and a large, golden colored and curved beak with two nostril pits. Despite having a beak, he has 2 rows of teeth with the upper and lower canines being 3 inch long fangs which are easily exposed. A pair of elongated, slightly pointed and erect white feathered ears are perked on the top of his head. He has a pair of piercing and rigid eyes with a glassy white sclera, deep gold irises and black feline pupils. Another eagle trait is his strong and durable white feathered wings protruding from his upper back. These are typically retracted and folded against his back. Once he fully spreads them out, his wingspan of 10 and a half feet is shown. On his chest, he has an excessively tufted, diamond shaped patch of white feathers. White feathers also cover a portion of his knees and ends at his upper shins, where his golden tarsus begins. Tharros has 5 digit anisodactyl talons for feet with the same gold color and black, slightly curved 5 inch claws on each end. His arms, torso and upper legs are that of a lion with brown, medium length fur covering those regions. He has a thick and large dark brown, somewhat spikey furred mane that encircles his neck and hangs just below shoulder level and overlaps the patch of feathers. His large paws have 3 inch, retractable white colored claws hidden within each of his fingertips. He has a long and thin tail with a large tuft of dark brown fur on the tip that is typically carried in an arc. When fully straightened, the tail is shown to be slightly over half of Tharros' height.
Personality: Due to his past transgressions, Tharros lives by a personal code, swearing to never take one's life no matter the situation. Although in the midst of battle, he's not against severely injuring his opponent so long as he knows they'll survive. If one were to die by his hands, it would be the ultimate act of humility for him. There are exceptions to this when it comes to undead foes such as demons and vampires as he believes their lives have already ended. He possesses immense willpower and a desire to "better" the world. He has an impulse to seek out malevolent forces where they hide and combat them if he feels they're a threat. He is extremely stubborn and does not believe in compromise. He believes in very clear definitions of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, and winner and loser. Tharros will rarely take the role of a leader, though he sometimes serves as second-in-command or as the backbone of an organization or group. When this position is offered to him and he has no option to accept, his natural born leadership is shown. This is when it is shown Tharros is fond of making impassioned speeches to boost the morale of his followers and to bestow them with his wisdom. It is very difficult to convince him to change his mind, but once his mind has changed, expect him to jump to the opposite extreme of the argument. He is extremely confident, though in a more stoic and less outspoken manner. He has a strong sense of self-worth and may express it in a particularly abrasive form of self-righteousness. He has a natural warrior-like mentality, preferring to fight stronger opponents rather than weaker ones and generally shows reluctance to fight those he considers weaker than himself. Tharros has incredible amounts of courage, both physically and mentally. That being said, he has the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation with no problem. He can easily face physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death. He acts rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement. Additionally, he is somewhat judgmental and will likely view an individual as an enemy before he counts them as an ally. He believes in confronting facing problems head on with a direct show of force and intimidation before they can become too serious a threat. Despite his life revolving around combat and caring little for anything else, Tharros is rather nonconfrontational when it comes to conflicts. He will initially attempt to peacefully resolve problems with speech and will only fight if he feels threatened or challenged. Moreover, he is a rather polite individual, exhibiting fine etiquette and prim mannerisms to strangers and allies. The key aspect of his personality is his strong, mostly unalterable convictions. He values honor above reason, is rarely forgiving to those that upset him and absolutely despises cowardice.
Abilities: Born to be a fighter, he has spent the countless years of his existence training. He has a wide array of abilities he can use both in and out of combat. The following is a list of his abilities.
Enhanced Condition: This ability has numerous uses. Tharros possess peak physical and mental condition. He has incredible physical fortitude throughout his entire body, allowing him to pull off astounding feats of herculean strength and can suffer high extents of pressure as well as damage. By placing a majority of the strength in his legs, he can leap far and high distances. Furthermore, he can fight for prolonged amounts of time before succumbing to exhaustion. Even so, he can function on low amounts of power, allowing him to operate for an extended amount of time and remain calm through stressful or painful situations. Tharros has drastically enhanced reaction speed, allowing him to maneuver around complex attacks, catch falling objects, block detriments and react instantaneously to what others take more time to react to. The extent of this is so great that in Tharros' perspective, the world around him appears to flow at a much slower pace then normal. He has an extremely well developed sense of balance and can precisely control his movements and muscles, making him unable to be uncoordinated. He can only fall over when physically uprooted or pushed, though most times he can land on his feet. Through much practice, Tharros can stand upright on even the most unstable of surfaces and can fight at seemingly impossible angles and positions. Also with ample training, he has learned to bend and twist his body far beyond the normal limits of physiology, although still only from the joints. His joints, muscles, tendons and physiology in general is modified to allow him to perform near-boneless looking contortions without stress or damage and stay in any position he chooses as long he needs to without effort or strain. He has immense memory and other mental capacities, allowing thinking on several different levels at once and while multitasking. He can remember great volumes of information and can recall a vast majority of the details of his experiences. Because he has existed for countless years, he possesses great wisdom: deep understanding and realization of concepts, people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgments and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of his emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one's actions. Since he has lived across the world within his extensive life, he has become fluent in multiple languages. Tharros has a regeneration ability which mainly shows its usefulness after combat. He can heal from injuries slightly faster than what is considered normal and he can survive otherwise fatal wounds. This has further allowed the numerous scars inflicted on him throughout his years to eventually fade and vanish. He can also can deny requirements for a long time such as the need of food, sleep and even water.
Enhanced Senses: While his vision is normal, it can act as a sort of telescope, allowing him to zoom his vision at will and see clearly from far distances. Using this will cause his pupils to make a noticeable increase in size. His eyes also allow him to perceive his surroundings in the darkest of areas as if they were under light. Once the night vision is activated, his irises don a green hue. Both of these sight enhancers can be switched on and off instantly and require nearly no energy to perform. His other senses are increased beyond a normal level as well. He can hear and smell clearly from far distances, taste poisons or other potential hazards and has the ability to sense vibrations through solid substances, liquids or even the air-pressure changes.
Flight: His highly durable wings allow him to reach speeds up to 400 mph. However, he actually has difficulty reaching flight without using the momentum from a powerful jump. Even once flight is achieved, he has very poor acceleration and could take extensive amounts of time before reaching full speed. He also has the ability to adapt to high altitude environments. He is able to withstand extremely high or low air pressure and isn't disoriented or deprived of normal breathing capacity by it as well as high wind friction, accompanied by an innate immunity to vertigo or fear of heights. Astonishingly, he can survive the vacuum of space for short periods of time, although it takes a bit of a toll on his body. His enhanced lung capacity assists with this. He has learned to control his flying well and can fight while airborne just as efficiently as on the ground.
Pride Empowerment: Because of the overexposure to the sin of pride, Tharros has become an embodiment of it and has the unique ability of Pride Empowerment as a result. The more confidence he has in himself, be it through thoughts, words or actions, the more his overall power is increased. This ability is typically hidden until Tharros actually exhorts his prideful tendencies. Moreover, this power is subconscious and he must act prideful naturally. If he is intentionally prideful, this ability will cease to function. There appears to be no limit to this once he begins gathering it up, meaning he can potentially reach a state of absolute infinite power if it goes on for long enough. Once enough time passes without exhorting pride, any built up power will gradually reset. In addition, Tharros can project a purple colored aura composed entirely of pride energy at will and the more power he has built up, the more intense the aura is. This doesn't aid with his abilities and simply displays the amount of energy is at his disposal, although it can be rather destructive at higher levels. The aura typically covers his entire body, but he can minimize it to anywhere on his body and can dispel it at any time.
Weaponry: Tharros wields a rather strange and unique weapon which is essentially 2 cross-halberds connected. Each of the 4 ends face the same way and consists of a large axe blade with a moderate sized, dagger-shaped spike mounted on top. It has a crescent shaped hook on the back side of the axe blade that is equal in size to the axe blade. The shaft is made of black and gold colored metal and the blades are composed of highly durable, gray colored steel. The weapon additionally has golden yellow guards. Its size is large, almost reaching Tharros in height from one bladed tip to the opposing one and weighs 27 pounds. The weapon is named Anemomylos and given its uncanny shape and overall difficulty in wielding, it has taken Tharros long to master as he has wielded this since his younger years. He utilizes this weapon with a series of quick and weak slashes or thrusts typically aiming with only one of the bladed edges or top mounted spikes. The crescent shaped hook is most useful for grappling. More lethal attacks can be done by spinning the weapon and making use of all 4 bladed edges, although these tend to be slower. Both paws are usually used to use this large and heavy weapon, but he has demonstrated one paw can wield Anemomylos with just as much capability. Tharros can throw the weapon in a boomerang-like fashion and can cover a large and wide ranged area before coming back to him. Furthermore, he can create small tremors by striking the ground with one of the bladed tips as well as unleash crescent-shaped air constructs at will by swinging the weapon. He can catch his weapon effortlessly and with no damage to himself if his back is turned or his eyes are focused elsewhere, even with one paw. He can also detach the weapon and have access to 2 cross-halberds with a swift and hefty pull. He uses these in a similar manner by employing various stabs and twirls to damage foes. These tend to be faster, but not as powerful.
![[Image: Anemomylos_by_Starry.png]](http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140303072237/sonicfanon/images/c/c5/Anemomylos_by_Starry.png)
Combat style: Throughout his many years, Tharros has studied and mastered innumerable styles of different Martial Arts, giving him physical, mental and spiritual perfection when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. It has given him the potential to harness his body's natural energy to maximize the power of each individual strike. He does have vast knowledge in a wide variation of weapon styles such as swords, spears, staffs and including his own. Although he possesses a formidable weapon and is highly proficient in using it, he prefers hand-to-hand and will only use Anemomylos when it’s absolutely necessary. He is an analytical and strategic genius, allowing him to swiftly and thoroughly examine his opponent's combat style through even the faintest of movements and with the abundant variants of combat styles, he can adapt to almost any kind of opponent. He can almost instantly understand an opponent's method of thinking and combat style. Once he understands his opponent's strategy, he's able to find their flaws and weaknesses and gain the upper hand with little effort. Tharros can create strategies and plans several steps ahead of his foe, making it seem as if he has a sense of precognition. He able to elaborate complex plans and strategies and apply them to combat. He has a refined balance of offence and defense which he can fluently lean towards one or the other depending on his opponent. Tharros is a tactical fighter who either utilizes very precise pressure point strikes to promptly immobilize foes, or target other crucial areas such as the stomach, chest and facial regions. He is also a fair fighter and will refuse to strike a downed opponent or strike from behind. The power in his strikes is immense and his attacks have incredible accuracy.
With knowledge of numerous fighting styles, Tharros has also adopted his own and typically combines techniques from other Martial Arts with his own unique style. He has learned to utilize his body's natural tools to maximum efficiency. His claws and talons can add to melee strikes for maximized damage. His beak can send forth a barrage of quick and deadly pecks in addition to a lethal bite using his formidable fangs. His wings can be additionally used to wrap around his body for increased defense and even a quick and powerful melee strike by lashing them forward. His tail and talons are prehensile, able to grasp objects with surprising speed, strength and accuracy, which is highly useful for combat. His tail aids in balance and is quite flexible, which he typically demonstrates by coiling it around even the smallest of objects. Despite his tail's slim and weak look, it can actually withstand slightly more than Tharros' weight and can be used to strike foes with a moderately damaging attack. Overall, Tharros is a highly disciplined and remarkably adept combatant who's well aware of his body's limitations. He can potentially overcome any opponent even with the odds against him.
Weaknesses: There aren't many weaknesses for Tharros but the few he has can hinder him greatly. His agility is slightly below average; although he is more quick and nimble then he appears. However, he can be put at a disadvantage against fast fighters. He is also rather large, which makes him an easy target in combat, especially in more crowded areas. Tharros has poor range with his attacks, especially considering he lacks any sort of reliable projectiles and relies heavily on extremely close ranged tactics. This can put him at a severe disadvantage against more ranged adversaries. When it comes to modern technology such as phones and computers, he has yet to adapt to them and finds them useless and difficult. Ghosts and spirits are another problem for him. His unfamiliarity with them both in knowledge and combat has resulted in a mild fear of them. Pride is a versatile tool for Tharros, but it can serve as a weakness at times. He will always allow a foe a stronger transformation if they have one and will make no intents to stop them, or allow them to retrieve a weapon and will refuse to strike from behind or while an opponent is down. His demeanor may become brash and confident if he gains the upper hand in combat, often insulting his opponent's flaws and becoming relatively careless as a result. While in a battle, he typically does not fight with his full power, preferring to put himself at a weaker level then his opponent to present a challenge. This can potentially lead to a number of problems for him. Sometimes he even allows his opponent to strike him without any resistance in a way to test their strength. The most prominent weakness of his pride is the desire to never back away from battle, even if he's aware it could be his undoing. Tharros prefers to die in pride, than flee and live a coward. Although since these actions fuel his Pride Empowerment, the level of these weaknesses is debatable. Humility is his most lethal weakness. If Tharros commits acts of humility, his power will make a noticeable decrease and will drop heavily the more it continues. The extension of this can be so severe to the point it could end his life. Unlike his Pride Empowerment, this will not reset over time and will instead slowly dissipate with prideful actions.
Backstory: The birthplace of Tharros Polemistis is unknown, although he was born over 3,000 years ago. His parents were killed when he was still within his egg. This was the work of a malevolent wizard by the name of Malefor, who committed such an act just to prove how powerful he was after many of his followers doubted his strength. Moreover, Tharros' father, Yvris, had been a part of this wizard's forces. His innate prideful disposition formed him the perfect contender to fight for the wicked sorcerer. He was a savage and adept fighter who instilled fear in all those who stood against him and his master. This however had changed once he met Andrea, where the endless power of love overwhelmed the battle torn Yvris. It wasn't long before their child was to be born, and they had plotted to train him to overthrow Malefor and put an end to his tyranny. This notion did not go unnoticed, and days before Tharros was born, Yvris and Andrea met a swift demise by the mage despite their valiant efforts.
The soon to be born Griffin was brought into the same legion of warriors his parents fought in, where he would begin training to become a formidable fighter. Most of these members, much like himself were mythological creatures and were able to fight for many eras. This appeared to be Malefor's goal; to amass an eternal army of the ultimate combatants. Upon hatching, he was taken care of by various members of the clan until he was strong enough to begin his training. Since he could walk on two feet, Tharros was trained day and night to become a formidable warrior. Despite the harsh training, Tharros was a rather meek and timid individual who was always reluctant to fight. Aside from this, the leader of this army controlled them by infecting them with the seven deadly sins. After the sin of Pride took over Tharros so many times, it eventually formed the Griffin into a prideful warrior who never questioned his unknown leader's intentions and wanted only to show his strength. He was even eventually counted among the very few to be one of the most trusted individuals and even led his own brigade at times to send forth destruction in the name of Malefor, the same individual who orphaned him. Although with talk from his allies, Tharros learned of his parent's fate as well as additional information about them. It was at this moment he began to resent Malefor, and swore to himself he would follow through with their intentions.
Malefor never actually revealed his presence and instead commanded his army of mythical warriors by telepathy while remaining hidden in an unknown location. Despite this, any notion of disobedience or abandonment was promptly dealt with. Centuries of this passed and Tharros had fought in many wars; achieving many victories, but also facing numerous defeats. This legion was disbanded long ago for reasons unknown and any trace of their existence has been lost in history. Tharros has lived on and continues his training for that is all he knows. He has spent his long years seeking out countless battles to increase his fighting prowess and will continue to do so until he meets his bitter end. The thought of Malefor returning is a frequent thought of his, and he intends to utilize his skill and power acquired over the years to prevent another uprising of his.
As Tharros reached the age of around 2,000, he awoke one day in what appeared to be a strange world where he recognized nothing at all. Perplexed by this, the Griffin sought out information regarding his whereabouts. Through the curious murmurs and turning of heads considering his status as a Griffin, the hybrid discovered he had somehow ended up a millennium ahead of his time. Unbeknownst to him, this was indeed a result of the clashing multidimensional emeralds clashing, which had sent him through time. Now in a world far beyond his grasp, Tharros wishes to return back to his own time feeling much out of place in this modern time. Plus he feels cataclysmic events will inevitably unfold should the fabric of time not be restored and this pride fueled warrior will fight to the end if need be.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Nail Strafer - 08-13-2014 10:51 AM
Welcome to the board! If you don't mind me asking, would you tell me how you found out about our site? I'll get onto the profile itself now.
- I don't think I have a problem with you playing a mythological creature. We've had dragons in here before, so a griffin isn't that big of a deal to me I suppose.
- You need to write details in those fields that have "unknown" for text. You can't hide stuff from the staff and the other players.
- If he is a loner, why is he in a relationship? And I don't think the rest of the profile mentions who he is in a relationship with, if he has one. And how did he get to be a good leader if he prefers working alone?
- The personality you wrote contradicts itself in places. He is non-confrontational, prefers to peacefully resolve problems, and only fights if challenged, and yet he has an impulse to go to malevolent forces and fight them head on with a big show of force? These two things don't fit together. And he wants to peacefully resolve problems and yet has a stubborn streak? You have to be willing to negotiate and be diplomatic if you want to peacefully resolve problems, and being stubborn and unwilling to change your mind isn't part of that.
- His weaknesses don't mean much. Even if he's slow and a big target, it sounds like he can pretty much power through any kind of attack and hit you anyway. Why worry about the damage sustained in the process? His regeneration would just heal him after the fact. And he does have long distance attacks (the magics you listed). The other weaknesses are all mental, which I'm not keen on. I would prefer more physical weaknesses and fewer powers.
- The biggest problem I have with this profile is that your character has way too many different powers. So let me see if I can summarize the list of powers he's got:
- He's basically immortal and has a near unlimited life span, with centuries' worth of knowledge
- He's super strong (Enhanced Condition)
- He has lots of endurance and recovers from injuries quickly
- He can think very quickly on his feet in tense, dangerous situations (Enhanced Condition)
- He's got sharpened senses (Enhanced Senses)
- He can fly
- He knows lots of different kinds of magic (Telekinesis, Telepathy, etc.)
- He has a super mode that gives him nearly infinite power (Pride Empowerment)
If he had all of these powers, he would be able to fight some of the super villains we've got on our board alone and win without much trouble. It's not supposed to work that way. Super villains are meant to be faced by multiple good guys at the same time and require a team effort to defeat. Your character needs to be better balanced.
Out of the powers I've listed, the super mode is right out. Pick three powers from what's left, and then I'll review some more from there. The magic will count for two powers if you want all of the types of magic you listed. If you only take some of the types of magic I would be willing to cut that back to one power.
This guy reminds me a little bit of the Immortals in Highlander. The immortals also lived hundreds/thousands of years and they acquired centuries' worth of knowledge and they all knew how to fight (because they'd be killed by other immortals otherwise). However, aside from living forever, they're still human at the basic level. They're still subject to most of the limitations of the human body and mind. If Tharros were more like that, I don't think I'd have a problem with him being immortal. But living a long time and having lots of knowledge would have to be balanced with other weaknesses in your profile, like I've outlined above.
Also, you might want to look at some of the accepted profiles to get an idea of what we usually accept around here. It may help you trim down Tharros' powers in a sensible way.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Tharros Polemisits - 08-14-2014 06:28 AM
I found this forum by sheer chance. I have been searching for places to expend my RPing skills and interact with others, and this place grasped my interest. Now, I'll be responding to the things you pointed out accordingly.
* The only unknown sections are his birthdate and birthplace, which considering both took 3,000 years from the current time, I don't feel they're relevant. I can remove them all together if need be.
* He is indeed in a relationship, however, his mate belongs to a friend of mind, and I've yet to ask for his permission to mention her in this profile. Originally, I was going to use her (and the two children they have) as his reason for wanting to return, but since I haven't spoken with the aforementioned friend, I left that part out in favor for the reasons given currently.
* I do agree with you his personality contradicts itself in places. Tharros is rather different from when I initially created him. He was formally a rather intimidating individual, but has in a sense, softened up to a small extent. They way I use him now is that he befriends who he believes is a strong combatant, then will issue a friendly challenge at some point. I do agree that his stubbornness needs to be organized better and I shall work on that promptly.
* As for his abilities; yes, Tharros is incredibly powerful. One could say he's overpowered, though in a reasonable sense. He has no city destroying attacks nor is he invincible. Granted his defenses are difficult to get through, but if he were to suffer a single sword stab or a gunshot for example, it will hinder him greatly. I have removed the Geokinesis, Aerokinesis, Telepathy and Telekinesis, none of which I'd consider magic by the way. That, I believe, would require spell casting or a chant of sorts, and Tharros is no sorcerer. The Pride Empowerment is no super mode and as it states in that section, his pride power resets after not using it for some time. To put it simply, the more prideful he gets, the more powerful he is, almost like Marvel's The Hulk, only with pride instead of rage. This is simply something I cannot remove as it is a crucial part of his character in backsotry. Doing so would require an entire overhaul of the character. Perhaps with what I said and maybe rereading it, you will potentially reconsider.
* As for the weaknesses, I believe the ones I listed suffice and is all I can really supply. The mental weaknesses are actually quite prominent, as in my experiences, Tharros' pride has gotten himself in hazardous predicaments.
And that will be all. I apologize if this is a hassle. I see potential in joining this community and I hope I can eventually be a part of it. I appreciate your feedback nevertheless. I am one who takes such in a positive manner to improve and better my characters
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Nail Strafer - 08-14-2014 07:29 AM
* Birthplace and birthdate aren't that important, but we like to see everything filled in as much as possible. We would rather have too much information than not enough. It makes it easier to review the profile and it can save the staff trouble later when you start roleplaying.
* I suppose for now maybe you could just not mention the relationship at all. But if you change your mind later, you can always ask for a profile edit. Out of curiousity, is Tharros supposed to originally be from a different continuity than Sonic? It's just that this character's not very Sonic-like. Still, I'll do my best to help you fit him with this setting.
* I look forward to your personality revision. We consider personality to be very important around here because it decides how your character will behave throughout the RP.
Quote:* As for his abilities; yes, Tharros is incredibly powerful. One could say he's overpowered, though in a reasonable sense. He has no city destroying attacks nor is he invincible. Granted his defenses are difficult to get through, but if he were to suffer a single sword stab or a gunshot for example, it will hinder him greatly.
* If that's what injuries do to him, then I don't think the profile got that across very well. You wrote that his Pride Empowerment ability can give him "absolute infinite" strength and that he can "regenerate" from wounds. Those words set off alarm bells in my head when I'm reviewing profiles, and I start thinking about Dragonball Z characters. Anyone with a DBZ-like power level would be a huge no-no around here. You may want to rewrite some parts of your profile to get across better how vulnerable he is to damage.
Quote:The Pride Empowerment is no super mode and as it states in that section, his pride power resets after not using it for some time. To put it simply, the more prideful he gets, the more powerful he is, almost like Marvel's The Hulk, only with pride instead of rage. This is simply something I cannot remove as it is a crucial part of his character in backsotry. Doing so would require an entire overhaul of the character. Perhaps with what I said and maybe rereading it, you will potentially reconsider.
* If you must have Pride Empowerment then it needs to have more downsides. Perhaps he gets stronger, but in return he loses self-control and becomes like a bezerker. He can dish out more damage, but in return he doesn't defend well against attacks thrown back at him and he could end up getting quite badly injured as a result. That bit about it giving him potentially "absolute infinite" power needs to go. Also, I think there should be a limit on how often he can use it (like so many times per day, for example).
Thank you for listening to what I have to say. I feel really bad about having to lay down such a big critique in my first post to you. But I'm glad that we can both talk to each other like this. You sound like you've done roleplaying before so I'm looking forward to having you in here. I just hope I can work out a plot for you to participate in.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Tharros Polemisits - 08-14-2014 08:29 AM
* Tharros isn't exactly Sonic-like, and is my only character that isn't in the Sonic style. But he's the only one that's fleshed out to this degree. But with how the story around here is, I'm sure beings from different dimensions and worlds can find themselves in the world of Sonic, which is why I figured Tharros would be just fine here.
* And you're right about the Pride Empowerment; to an extent. Yes he can reach a state of infinite power, but that's only a possibility, and if it goes on for a highly extensive amount of time much like the profile states. As for you're second point on this ability regarding having drawbacks; those are already present in his weakness section, hence why I stated that the mental weaknesses should suffice. Yes, the more prideful he is, the more powerful he gets, but he also becomes arrogant, insulting his opponent and becoming more careless. There may be a point where he thinks he's invincible, but in actuality is not and can lead to problems for him. Plus there's the portions that state he allows foes to attain powerful forms if they have one, fighting fairly, which means no strikes from behind, while an opponent is down, allowing one to retrieve a weapon and even going so far as giving an opponent a free strike to test their abilities. So yes,pride is Tharros' greatest strength, and his greatest weakness behind only humility with the latter.
I have no problem abiding by your words. There's no need to feel remorse as there was an abundance of information to cover, but I appropriate it nevertheless. I've actually RPd for a couple years now and I feel this will be a great opportunity to expand on things. I hope we can find a place for me as well. I feel I can be a great part of this community.
Also, I wanted to discuss a tiny matter. I can't seem to change my avatar. It claims I don't have the sufficient permissions. I presume you can be of assistance?
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Chadin - 08-15-2014 11:50 AM
Alright, better late than never, here's my two cents:
As Nail already mentioned, this character really seems to be way over-powered to me. The 'potentially limitless' power thing does raise a few alarm bells with me as well, but more because it's not entirely all that clear to me what defines him gaining pride and humility. So does landing a hit give him pride and taking a hit give him humility? Is it all based on interpreting role-play? It's also not terribly clear what he DOES with this power? Why is he able to dispel the aura at will when it sounds like this is pretty much a subconscious power?
This character hits hard with increased strength and endurance, has millennia of experience, doesn't age and is at peak physical and mental perfection. That's a recipe for a whole lot of butt-whopp'n. In the interests of balance, cliche as it may be, perhaps it would be best to float like a butterfly, sting like a bee? Compared to shoot first, shoot second, shoot some more and when everything's dead, ask a question? In other words, maybe he doesn't have the physical strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger and instead of brute strength relies on precise strikes and deflecting attacks like a frail old monk. A (single) double halberd would be ideal for such a play style as a halberd is historically one of the most versatile weapons ever fielded.
Ghosts and spirits - non existent, therefor listing them as a weakness is pointless. i suggest changing it to a weakness to magic/chaos attacks in general.
Boomerang? Really? How far is a "large and wide ranged area before coming back to him". That kind of debunks the 'vulnerable to range" weakness depending on how far and how often he can throw that thing. Considering he can fly it would he would be doubly unhindered. Maybe the usage should be dictated by his pride too?
A tremor? How many times can he use it? Only when really prideful? Might be better balanced that way. Consumes a great deal of energy to perform. This ought to be a listed as a separate power.
Quote:He is an analytical and strategic genius, allowing him to swiftly and thoroughly examine his opponent's combat style through even the faintest of movements and with the abundant variants of combat styles, he can adapt to almost any kind of opponent. He can almost instantly understand an opponent's method of thinking and combat style. Once he understands his opponent's strategy, he's able to find their flaws and weaknesses and gain the upper hand with little effort. Tharros can create strategies and plans several steps ahead of his foe, making it seem as if he has a sense of precognition. He able to elaborate complex plans and strategies and apply them to combat.
Yeah, this one's a bit of a sticky wicket for me. Granted, he's old and experienced enough to probably BE a grand master in every martial art EVER, but still. This seems a bit overkill. Given the nature of it, this is more of a special ability that deserves it's own heading instead of being just flavour text in the weapon description. Now, as I said, the backstory makes a valid argument for him being this way, but if he keeps his cool so well in a fight, he could take out Robotnik with ease. Heck any player on the board would be so much wet tissue paper to him. One way I can see to balance this would be that his pride would have to have a MAJOR effect on his tactical senses, like a berserker, only with pride and over-confidence. If nothing else, this needs to be emphasized more in your weakness section, which I should point out, is one tiny paragraph compared to all the strengths and the conditioning section in particularly.
The weapon is just silly. The only way I can picture you using something like this is by "General Grevious"'ing your opponent (I.e. constantly spinning the weapon above, in front, or beside you) (and we all remember how well that worked out). Ironically, the weapon would be infinitely more versatile if you went with JUST a double halberd, or even a pair of them if you wanted to dual-wield them. But combining them into one weapon... there's no way to use it without bonking yourself in the head, nutting yourself or risk slicing yourself open. Much less the tripping hazard.
Now, if you're dead set on using it, far be it for me to demand you follow historical precedent in a world with super sonic hedgehogs, but it would at least make for a slightly more authentic feel to the world if his weapon were at least practical. Heck, given how strong he's purported to be, he could just as easily ditch the weapon altogether.
Alright, there's what I thought at least, I hope I haven't scared you off or insulted you here. Just trying to ensure everyone can have fun.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Nail Strafer - 08-15-2014 11:15 PM
I have some more comments today as well:
* The reason I am insisting on physical weaknesses rather than mental ones is because it's much easier for a moderator to enforce physical weaknesses. Physical weaknesses are usually concrete and leave little to no room for debate. "You are vulnerable to this, this, and this". "You can only use this move so many times per day." "This attack will only work on this type of target and in this manner." Etc. This helps keep arguments to a minimum and allows us to focus more on roleplaying and having fun.
Meanwhile, only you truly know how your character's mental state and personality should be interpreted. The line between acting out of character to gain an unfair advantage and a legitimate interpretation of the character's personality is usually blurry at best. Plus I'd really hate to tell you how to play your own character from a mental standpoint. Our characters are an extension of ourselves, and for me to tell you how to make your characters think and behave would make me feel like the Thought Police. It would just be uncomfortable for everyone all around.
* While we're on the subject of concrete vs vague, the more concrete your profile is with its details, the easier it is for us to review it and accept it. Chadin gives a good example when he asks for specific details about how Pride Empowerment works. We like it when things like the ones he listed are spelled out clearly.
Speaking of specifics, even if it's only a rare possibility he could obtain infinite power with Pride Empowerment, that's unacceptable. There needs to be NO chance he could obtain infinite power whatsoever. You need to put a much smaller limit on the maximum power he can get.
* In regards to your avatar, I don't think you can change that until you've become a full member and your profile is accepted.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Tharros Polemisits - 08-16-2014 05:47 AM
Now since there's an overabundance of information and I don't necessarily have the time to cover all points covered in your two replies (some of which is given in the profile and my earlier replies), I will not be responding directly to such as I originally intended. My only reason for doing so is to address a proposal and a possible solution. I should actually be getting rest for work tonight right now, but I wanted to post this while it's fresh in my mind.
So it seems the most prominent issue is Tharros having access to infinite amounts of power. Now I'm not wanting to change the Griffin into something almost unrecognizable much like Chaidin suggested, but I have formulated a compromise and I am more then willing to go through with. So, what if Tharros' Pride Empowerment did indeed have limits? It was a question that has been circulating in my thoughts for some time, but I have yet to reach an idea on how to incorporate that, at least until about an hour ago. What if I were to display the amount of pride at the bottom of every post, much like I've seen here with my extensive searching. It would start out at zero percent of course, but with every prideful action, it increases by one percent. Say if he were to not exhort any pride in one post, then the percentage would drop by one and continue to do so until he is prideful once more. Now, this percentage cannot drop below zero, or exceed 100. The only exception of the former is acts of humility, which would decrease 5 percent, where it could delve into the negative numbers. Every 10 percent increases every stat of Tharros by one, so he'll ultimately become either ten times as powerful as normal while prideful, or can become 10 times as weak in the case of humility.
As a final note, I am aware you both wish for me to list specifics on what is pride and what is humility. I will do so at a later date and am merely presenting this idea for feedback. If anything is not clear, feel free to ask me.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Nail Strafer - 08-16-2014 09:57 AM
The meter itself could be a good idea. We have lots of people who write little notes at the bottom of their posts like that (like for how many bullets, arrows, charges, etc. that they have left). Me personally though, I think it might get irritating for you trying to keep track of every single prideful and humble action you do in every post.
Also, we'd have to have a measure of how powerful Tharros is to start with to know if ten times stronger/weaker is a good mechanic to use though. So in his normal state (1x), would Tharros be about as strong as say an MMA fighter or a weightlifter or something? Because if that's the kind of physical strength you'd be multiplying by (at 10x he has the strength of ten strong men in one body), I'd have to say no. Also, I think I'd prefer to just do away with the "ten times weaker" thing and simply have a smaller positive multiplier, like 2-3x.
Maybe it would be easier to just say that he can temporarily get twice as strong in a fight for about 30 seconds, and this ability can be called during a fight once he's gotten riled up and excited. But you can only use it once a fight or something like that. I know that's not as cool as the idea you had in mind, but if Tharros were my character I would think it'd be a pain on the butt having to micromanage that pride/humility meter. It's better to keep things as simple as you can.
RE: Tharros Polemistis - Chadin - 08-18-2014 01:15 PM
Yeah, as someone who plays D&D I know it can at times be a pain to keep track of things like that. Personally though, I'm okay with something like this so long as your ok with having to keep track of it.
But it would good idea to have some idea of the benchmark of Tharros' abilities like Nail said, if only for the sake of understanding his capabilities.