How do you control an overpowered character so they don't break the story?

[hell_yeahMylike]

For a main character or protagonist who is too capable, too difficult to defeat, practically impossible to beat, too overpowered, or too intelligent—how do people usually control these characters so that their power scale doesn't ruin the story?
(Excluding having them meet a stronger character.)

 

[Empress_Omnii]

so that their power scale doesn't ruin the story?

Well if you need to artificially force them to be weaker... maybe the power scale is already ruining it?

But (semi-)permanent debuffs or limiting their powers are the simplest solutions

 

[berjkley]

Makes so the story is not about power at all.

 

[hell_yeahMylike]

Makes so the story is not about power at all.

It makes the most sense. ??

 

[CheertheSecond]

For a main character or protagonist who is too capable, too difficult to defeat, practically impossible to beat, too overpowered, or too intelligent—how do people usually control these characters so that their power scale doesn't ruin the story?
(Excluding having them meet a stronger character.)View attachment 42873

Simple. Their overpoweredness belongs to a different category in comparison to other people's powers.

My character is an isekai. She lived in a world without qi and her martial arts evolved in that condition. The world she isekai in had qi and she had to deal with different problem.

Infinite strength isn't infinite friction force so she can't pull a punch stronger than the friction force her feet has. However, people with qi can amplify their own power (they still couldn't compare to her strength) and they can amplify friction force too.

It's like having intercontinental ballistic missiles in street fight on another planet. Sure. Your weapons are vastly stronger but those missiles aren't designed to target individuals so you have to be creative in how to apply your power in the situation.

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Uhh....I usually don't have any problems writing overpowered characters since I'm more of a psychological writer and most fights tend to test my character's moral actions, emotional stabilities and how they handle situational problems that power isn't useful. Even with intelligence, I usually deal with antagonist using their own mentality rather than prowess.

Though, I mostly stuck with simple problems such as....social interaction.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

You craft the story around their power levels. Put them in situations where being overpowered is not an issue, or makes the problem worse. You focus on their day-to-day lives. Have enemies attack their property, their friends, even their sense of self (there was one of the "instant trillionaire" books my wife was listening to that had the villains temporarily brainwash the apparently otherwise invincible MC to forget his family and side with them, for example).

 

[laccoff_mawning]

Make them want to hide their powers for various reasons.

Give them a problem that they can't solve with power nor intellect, like a woman's fickle mind and fragile emotional state.

 

[Amrasil207]

Mental torture, always work.

 

[Arkus86]

Kill them off. Preferably in a silly way, and replace them with a character that is not OP. They can't be a problem if they're dead... usually.

 

[Paul__Michaels]

Nothing is more overpowering than friendship.

 

[StenDuring]

Depends on style of overpowered. If your character can beat everything to a pulp but still wants to function in society then maybe he/she is only overpowered within the scope of some specific missions. It's not like he/she can do much more than anyone else in, for example, modern New York. Well, at least not and function normally in society any longer at least.

 

[Golden_Hyde]

Good luck on the story's delivery. If you're intended to make it close to how One Punch Man treated the OPness of Saitama, make it so that he/she/they kept struggling to find a worthy enemy without having to one shot kill everyone they encountered.

Don't fall for easy cheat system type of nonsense.

 

[Bimbanana]

Simple, i just put him on the edge of the planet

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

Add slice of life or equally op enemies

 

[DeepWater]

Have an anime style power limiter

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Because a lot of characters in web novels grow in power but not in congition. Their character development may not even exist, but if it does - usually it's a shitty small person to a less shitty small person, and a big person has to deal with big person things not small person things. If your super duper dapper character that can dominate the entire chessboard doesn't have the entire chessboard in their mind when acting, when their vision extends only to a few adjacent squares - then you are writing them wrong. If a character is powerful from the start, their cognition should be such that a person at a lower level would not be able to think on the same level as them as clearly not due to lack of intelligence, but due to lack of vision, experience. Either that or have them see the consequences of not acting at the required level of cognition, like with Sun Wukong, who ended up causing a major ruckus and paid the price. Or, you can have others pay the price and have the character see it. Otherwise, how about not writing a character be pointlessly powerful?

A good novel (and a few exceptional other novels from same setting) is this

Read Hong Huang: I Divide the World Equally with Hongjun RAW English Translation - WTR-LAB

Read Hong Huang: I Divide the World Equally with Hongjun / 洪荒：我与鸿钧平分世界 raw light novel translation in English - WTR-LAB

wtr-lab.com

where you can clearly see the gap in cognition between Sages and those below, clan leaders and those below, the goals and strategies and the differences in thinking.

Your character doesn't have to shift your story to city/country/etc-building, but you will have to add a lot of politics, because actions carry consequences and bigger actions carry larger consequences and if a character is so powerful, their every move is like a tsunami - then it can't splash uselessly where nobody can see, because the readers won't either and to see the gravity of the setting, you will have to show those politics. You will probably end up with a lot of side-stories, even arcs where the main character doesn't act at all, if they are too powerful, because if they act all the time it loses its shock factor. In Overlord we mostly see how other characters react to Nazarick and only decisive moments are led by the main characters. In the novel above, as the story progresses, the screen time of main character decreases - but their presence does not.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Give them character flaws.

 

[AnEmberOfSundown]

Makes so the story is not about power at all.

I mean...this is it right here, really.

If the story can't be about them advancing in "power" then make it about areas in which they need to grow.

My MC is incredibly deadly, but the story revolves around how she keeps people from seeing her that way and how she reconciles her natural talents with the kind of person she wants to be while working to overcome conditioning and trauma. Her power becomes more about "oh damn, our cinnamon roll can kick some ass...what else didn't we know?"

 

[Sylver]

For a main character or protagonist who is too capable, too difficult to defeat, practically impossible to beat, too overpowered, or too intelligent—how do people usually control these characters so that their power scale doesn't ruin the story?
(Excluding having them meet a stronger character.)View attachment 42873

Add limitations that suit in a natural flow to compliment the character/story.

Mayhaps they have the power of a God but their morality refuses them to kill? Or perhaps there is a weakness, a sort of loop-hole in their abilities that doesn't feel contrived or added in for the sake of "we need to defeat this guy with convenient weapon that solely exists to kill this guy", or as I call it, the McGuffin.