Forums » RP Discussion » Skills versus Flaws

Most characters have a long list of skills of things they're good at. But what about an equally long list of things they're bad at?

In real life we are the same. I'm good with art and music, but I'm terrible at maths and science. I'm tall and big so I can reach many things and don't get cold fast, but I'm not as fast as other people and hit my head on things that are hanging low from a ceiling.

Do you take flaws on your character into consideration? If you do, do you try to create as many flaws as the character has skills? And do you actually apply those flaws in roleplay and don't just list them on your page? Are these flaws significant enough to impact the things your character can or can't do?

Flaws are one of the most fun parts of coming up with a new character For me anyway. Gabriel has a horrible temper and is prone to ragequits from time to time. I do use this in rp and it has gotten him into trouble a time or few. Even his magic use has it's flaws, because if he uses it too much he becomes exhausted and very hungry. It has led to some amusing situations in game!

most of my characters flaws are seen in roleplays, but aren't usually listed on their page. i usually roleplay to consider what flaws my characters possess. their flaws impact how they act, even if it's hardly noticed in most cases. it's usually hard for me to figure out how to show the flaws..

Most of the time my characters have a few more flaws than str's, this is usually cause some flaws arenn't as changing as others and some don't equal upto the str's so I feel they need to have a little more flawedness. Others have less flaws than str's as their main str's are relatively weak compared to flaws. I try to balance out my chars but as a human I can't always perfectly do so so it's all upto interpretation.

I try to take flaws into consideration, especially since a lot of places I RP in have character applications to fill out (and I just like trying to be as balanced as possible). Like flaws in real life, some of these are big, and some of them are small. I have a character who needs in-character consent to do certain things due to his supernatural nature, and I've got another one who, despite being one of the nicest guys ever, has heavy bias towards certain people and classes that makes him highly opinionated (and prone to offending certain groups).

Out of habit I may try to make the strengths match the weaknesses (skills and flaws fit into both where my creating skill is concerned), but on rare occasions some weaknesses are just so powerful that they nuke or counter a lot of the strengths. ... and then there's Taunter's case where I just haven't gotten around to figuring out more proper weaknesses for his strengths (some of which are numerous but are not combative)!

... yeah, it's a hit-and-miss with me. Sometimes I balance flaws and skills out well, and sometimes I flop hard.

I try to think of skills as a separate category from flaws and traits.

Anyone can try to learn a skill. They can practice and get better. They can forget. They can like it or dislike it. But they can work at it.

Whereas a trait is a natural bonus for and a flaw is a natural penalty against skills. They can change, but usually only with a great deal of time or exceptional circumstances. And they are more descriptive of a real person when taken all together.

For example, if someone is "bad at math", does that mean they don't have a very high skill in math? Or does it mean they DO have a high skill in math because they have studied hard, but they have some other fatal flaw that makes it very hard for them to use that skill when it really counts?

Or if they are good at dancing, is it because they have a natural aptitude for grace and people enjoy watching them move even if their technique is sloppy, or is it because they have a great deal of formal training that makes them precise and their choreography meaningful and symbolic?

Those are much more interesting statements to me than being "good" or "skilled" at something or not. I always aim for a good intermix of all three. Together they can create all kinds of tensions and complications!

For me, it depends on the character. Some have an equal list of flaws and perks, and one or two have very few flaws but they are more significant and effect more of the character.

With Jack being the only character of mine on the site as of this writing, I try to develop enough serious flaws to counteract his reanimate (hence non-dying) nature and try to tie those serious flaws into his character as an undead. Outside of that, I come up with little quirks and weaknesses that add to his character, but don't really affect him in a serious or dramatic fashion.

As far as skills and flaws go, I try to keep his skills separate from his reanimate status, since I believe skills come more from personality than from your race or genetics. I attempt to maintain a balance between things he can do well and things he's just no good in, but I also try to diversify what he's skilled in; i.e. some things he knows very well have few practical applications in real life, while some things that are very heavily utilized on a day-to-day basis are things he can't quite get the hang of.

For other characters, though, it's far less cut-and-dry than that... For example, I have a whole race of aliens whose entry on here I'm sitting on right now because even I think they're bordering on Sue-dom.

Heeheehee so...I have this character...named "Mary-sue" who I try to make as much the opposite of a Mary-Sue as I can. She is fun, I like her.

That being said:

I try to keep my characters pretty decently balanced between flaws and skills. Shita, for example, is amazing with earth magic, but has a much harder time using fire magic. Isn't it a shame that fire magic is her favorite? Another girl has this insane fear of chinchillas. Unfortunately one of my own personal writing flaws is that often many of my characters have the same issues. Often they will all be hot headed, or clumsy, or not get good at one particular thing or other. I think this is also a little unbalanced since if I ever do write a book I can't very well have an entire cast with short tempers running around! So I'm trying to work on that a bit.

Imperfection is part of completing any character; be it abilities, personality, or decisions. A person who attempts to present a "perfect" character is unbelievable and boring--I've sadly run into too many of those. Beyond that, to write perfection, one must be perfect--and none of us are. We just have what we all individually see as perfect.

Any and all of my characters are designed with as many gaping flaws as shining traits.

For example,

Luci is a bold, energetic personality who, early on, almost anyone falls in love with. However, the same traits that can make him endearing early on can become entirely abbrasive and obnoxious, especially when around the wrong personality types. He is spontaneous, but fickle; he is bold, but often oversteps his boundaries -- if he even acknowledges a boundary exists; he is charming, but unrestricted and a heartbreaker; he is impulsive, and can become unreliable even if on the opposite end he can draw someone out of their shell. He has a broad variety of abilities that help him with his style of living, but each expendature of power has the potential to drain him and end his otherwise immortality--ensuring he needs to work to live, and he lives to work, in spite of his impulses and urges for absolute freedom. Because of this he's almost impossible to establish any kind of long term bond with, because he's always busy, or off doing something or other far, far away--even worlds away.

Ferous is a hyper-intelligent personality who is often seen as cold, detached, or boring. However, in contrast to Luci, while people over time often find themselves drifting away from Luci they grow nearer to Ferous and find that the cold shell that often deters people actually hides a pretty warm person; the problem is the shell is so thick most people never get a chance to crack it. Ferous holds potential of a dangerous temper, and has a tremendous shadow in the past. So on and so forth. Ferous has chosen to stop giving away technology to people, as it always creates problems. The last person who made such a problem from one of Ferous' inventions was skinned alive. So uh... yeah...

Luci and Ferous were born from conflict between a single entity, with Ferous being close to the original divinity (albeit now corrupted), and Luci being the impulse that caused the massive fall and exodus from the heavens to begin with; the entity was going to literally rip itself asunder with its own internal turmoil if it hadn't been divided. Thus, in itself, they are two imperfections who divided and made complete individuals with the contrast.

Ash is often seen as strong, powerful and wise. However, the same traits also make him bull-headed, inflexible, and difficult to read the actual emotions of. He has extreme vices in sex, alcohol, and smokeables to begin--all tying back to his first ill decisions. He is responsible, but so much so he would take the entire world onto his shoulders before voicing his inability to deal with the burden he has chosen and would be crushed by it. He can also come across extremely cocky, depending on the environment. The flaws in the personality that had been refined through time and experience are now becoming way more apparent in his reincarnation, as Loki could tell you. Rofl. But yeah, even his weapon is a reminder of his mistakes, bearing his sin, as well as Luci and Ferous'--as it was the cross he divided them upon in a hermetic process.

All three above made stellar mistakes that... kind of... caused the whole biblical flood. So yeah. Mistakes and flaws.

Zenthus is calculating, manipulative, deceptive and unreliable. Even though he'll never directly lie, any time anyone who actually knows Zenthus talks to him, they have to wonder what angle he has, what he wants out of them, or how much danger they're actually in. He might never dirty his hands, and maintains a perfect external appearance, but can never, ever be relied on. He will put his cosmic tasks before any individual's well being, no matter how much he acts like someone's friend or lover. His need to be in control becomes overwhelming and became his undoing; unable to be trusted, neither could he trust anyone, even his most loyal servant and in betraying that servant, he made his ultimate mistake. Oh, and his powers come entirely from a dark, gruesome past which involves his original vessel being turned on by his people and, in counter, turning against and massacreing said people; now, he still tortures their souls and those of their families. He is the silver-tongued snake hidden behind the face of a porcelain angel, but the surface is where perfection ends.

Rudianos is the most unredeemable, flawed character I have; his only potential "perfection" is how damn near unstoppable he is in war and battle (but that was the very purpose of his creation; to expect him not to thrive in battle would be like expecting a car not to move down a road), and for a long time so was his loyalty. However, he is incapable of understanding the value of life and existance, incapable of feeling sentimental attachment, and so on. The closest he can ever get to love is to hate someone so much that he is bonded to them at the core--he is a being of negativity and hate. The nearest he had to a romance or sexual encounter was tearing his own mentor apart and being similarly torn apart by his mentor in gruesome metaphor, spewing profanities and their life-long hatred and resentment of each other wherein they became complete, and a single unified abomination. There is not supposed to be anything we can identify with in him, aside from all things we should be terrified of--and even that terror is what brings him life and pleasure--just not as much as pain and death.

Rumea may make a good leader at times and was always eager to 'save the world', but can be brash, abbrassive, and overly demanding. She has no tolerence for what she sees as stupidity. However, she can be a pretty loyal friend. It might be considered a flaw that she has RAW EVIL sealed inside her, and beyond that became a total recluse when she found out. Her most powerful spells also make the whole 'trying to be a good person' thing difficult, since if she wants to do real damage, usually she has to take the better part of a city with her. She's a walking wrecking ball, and ended up with countless bounties and a horrible legend about her.

Rafe is a good hearted guy, but has a bad temper he had to work very hard to learn to get ahold of. Also, he has a power of oblivious. A bunch of supermodel women pour out of his car with him and he doesn't even get how it looks to the common eye; luckily, his wife isn't the jealous type. Rafe's probably as close to a perfect character as I get though; his work ethic is impressive, his intent is almost always good, and he's devoted. I just let him develop as he did and he ended up being an odd copy of my own husband. o_O ...Plus a batsuit and a lot of money, now. But he wasn't always like that. He was just a poor bum at first. Never planned for him to become a vigilante.

Auroch is a pure hearted goon... who is terrified of using his abilities lest he turn into a demonic bloodthirsty berserker. His heart may be good, but his genetics are not. He also has a bit of a complex from never meeting either of his parents and chasing their ghosts through the lands to try to find out about them.


Flaws are a fundamental part of a character; nobody likes, or trusts someone who is perfect, or even acts like it. There is no such thing as true perfection, just someone presenting the image of them; any truly perfect character is incomplete and not "real", and are usually poorly thought--because perfection itself is in the eye of the beholder, and a trait that is wonderful to one person can be obnoxious or bad to another; something that starts off with good intention can be a deficit to the person it's intended to help, and so on. Everyone needs to struggle with something. That is life.

I flaws, even if it's gotten me some massive crap with characters like Rudianos/Santhis; some people can't stomach that kind of ... evil, really; I've had people assume it had to reflect on me OOCly somehow, not understanding that Rudi made even my skin crawl. But he's meant to challenge people, so...