Post date: Oct 15, 2017 2:37:24 PM
So, after a lengthy discussion the other day, I'm probably going to revise the power levels of the character.
Essentially, it boils down to that the PCs are meant to be the heroes of the story. Or the villains. Whatever. The players should be able to get to the point where they can do what they want. They spend the first four levels struggling, levels 5-10 coming into their own, 11-16 as dominant forces, and 17+ as the most powerful beings in existence.
Of course, this is why I don't end up playing a lot of these high-level games, because they seem a bit unrewarding to DM. Plus, I like to make my characters functional from about level 5.
Anyhow, the heroines of Touhou Project take the role of the heroes in the games and stories. They are the ones who have reached this high level of power. Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Reisen, Sanae and Youmu. The players should, similarly, be able to reach this level in time. D&D seems to be rather compressed in terms of power, so I find it a bit hard to distinguish between where characters should stand.
Anyway, the point is that Touhou seems to be a setting that has a lot of dangerous creatures, but they should be able to be overcome by the players. Just like in any other D&D game. Perhaps having the party do an epic showdown with a number of the above characters, and have a good chance of coming out on top.
This goes back to how I find it hard to do characters I think of as being more powerful. Take Seiran, Nazrin, Chen or Rumia, who I have all done so far. They're all meant to be tough for a level 1-4 party, but a solid fight once the party gets above level 5, and pick up some magical gear. These characters aren't too hard to do.
There's also characters who are tougher, but also meant to be defeated at some point, like Youmu, or Kokoro. The hard ones I'm finding are the top level powerhouses. It's like trying to write stats for Superman. He's indestructible, and a massive powerhouse, and has all sorts of superpowers. But, now that he's in D&D, we're playing a game where the players are meant to be able to beat him - in a fair fight, without Kryptonite or anything. Likewise, I've got characters like Yukari and Hecatia to deal with. They've got to be as dangerous as they're meat to be, but also relative to the D&D system. The players should be able to get to a point where they can take on these characters, or even be them.
I think this kind of impression came from going over fanfiction, or bad ones, anyway. The kind of ones where the OC comes in and beats up Reimu, or wrestles Yuugi or something. Because of those stories doing it badly, I think I spread that impression to everything; these OCs who shouldn't be able to beat someone shouldn't be able to beat someone. Or rather, they don't feel like they should be able to beat them. If the story had been done better, I should have been awed that this character had done something clever and won.
So, I should make these characters beatable, and it's up to the DM to make that point satisfying.
I think there's also that players like to say "But I can beat Tiamat/Superman/Yukari/Gilgamesh/Actually God by doing X". It makes me feel like these powerful creatures or characters are being trivialized. Obviously, these characters have weaknesses. They're part of a game in which their purpose is to be beaten by the players. So it makes me feel like I need to design them in such a way that someone can't come along and say "I cast X, and I beat it.", which is not what I should do when making a monster. I guess I just have to trust that a DM will make the game appropriate, and use the character as intended; to not let the players go "I Wish I win", and to make them work for it, perhaps over the course of the campaign.
On that note, perhaps I'll try making Yukari the next time I play.