Skill vs Other Stats discussion

[Creaturemaster971]

So this is partially a question for a series I'm writing (using this site as a guideline for keeping things consistent) and partially for the nature of vs threads, but does it bother anyone else how little skill actually often matters in matchups?

E.G. a tier 8-C character with Spatial Manipulation who's never fought a day in their life stomping a haxless character in the same tier who's been battling for centuries and has mastered every style of combat?

I'm trying to create a verse with characters to combat this notion, where in a universe full of hax, the two top-tier characters are entirely untouchable not for their powersets but for sheer skill, intellect, and experience, but I'm not sure if that's plausible without giving them absurd hax of their own.

 

[Creaturemaster971]

Bump

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

Three words: Preparation and Cunning

That's pretty much the only way this sort of thing can work in a story without said top-tiers appearing to have ridiculous plot armor on their person.

John Constantine isn't even remotely a "top-tier" in his verse, but he's a prime example of what I mean. When it comes to conflicts, he's almost all guile and silver tongue. His magic is pretty laughable by DC/Vertigo standards (in terms of power, anyway), but he gets by due to knowing the right time to use the right spell, and his intelligence and skill with prep are so high that even Batman can't keep up with him in that department. He's capable of simply talking his way out of numerous situations, as well.

And as annoying as it probably sounds, you're going to need to give the characters at least one thing that allows them to even the playing field. Resistances, power null, protective charms (if this series involves magic), something. Otherwise you're going to have to explain to the reader why these characters continually don't get murked by their opponents right out of the gate when they have nothing at their disposal that helps mitigate that possibility. It doesn't need to be anything like what Khâr or Gilgamesh have, but they should still have something, however small.

In the end though, it'll boil down to how well you can make such a thing believable to the reader. What you're trying to do is pretty ambitious, all things considered, and it's something that logically shouldn't be possible even in most fictional worlds. The main issue you'll face is trying to avoid PIS, since it's very easy for that to creep its way into something like this.

 

[Creaturemaster971]

Alright, I see what you mean.

For now, what I've been going off of as far as potential playing-field-levelers is ridiculous physical stats (Multi-Galaxy level and MFTL+) and some limited catch-all hax (e.g. one has basic Power Mimicry and Body Control, while the other has Instinctive Reaction and Empathic Manipulation).

 

[RRTheEndMan]

Remember, most Melee "skill" is really speed

 

[Creaturemaster971]

Remember, most Melee "skill" is really speed

Yeah, though I do like when analysis-based precognition is at play