I definitely get where you're coming from, and perhaps the starting characters are a bit underwhelming. However, not all Fables were champions and heroes before they were pulled, and while some may be better off simply from the skills of their prior lives, I'm trying to avoid innate advantages. The new Fables are definitely strong, but they don't start out that way, they become powerful over the course of their journey. At the start, there should be a level of fear and uncertainty, especially in regards to their Shifts, as newer Fables won't exactly know what they are or how to use them. 

I'm definitely going to keep Hatches as fairly plain, but I suppose a little more leniency on starting Shifts couldn't hurt, so I'll allow that. 

For Pixel though, I would still like to tone down the blinking movements, if to a lesser degree.