OC Reviews and Advice (Open!)

Advice 1 - Powers and Overpowered OCs

Hello there, and welcome to Syn's guide on how to make good characters! The first lesson will be on how to avoid overpowering your OCs.

It's fine for your character to be powerful, but sometimes it can be unrealistic or Mary Sueish. The first way to avoid OP characters is to make them earn their powers. Having super strong abilities you know how to use from day 1 is not a good idea. At first, you could make the OC struggle with using their powers and causing large mistakes. For example, someone with fire powers could burn themselves or set something alight accidentally. It will also make for realistic character growth as they train to get stronger over months/years.

The next solution is to simply limit the amount of power. Sure, having a Superman-esque OC who can do anything is fun, but it can make them overpowered. You could possibly their powers related to their species, element or personality/soul. This makes them more connected to the magic they use. Don't just give them every power to exist, and if they do have quite a lot of powers, have a logical reason why.

Another way is to give a reason why they have powers. Were they from a ritual? Was it something passed down through genes? Are they chosen for a certain task/prophecy? Just because people in the story are unsure where the powers come from, doesn't mean you should also be. If someone is born a human with no connection to the magical society, they most likely won't have magic abilities.