[quote=@whizzball1]
I agree concerning Drake. The draconian beast mode feels tacked on. But Drake and Spectre differ on an important point. While Drake certainly fits the description and thrust of your penultimate paragraph, Spectre does not, for a reason I didn't directly express about my character: he has a unified theme. None of his powers are tacked on; his history, personality, and abilities all converge. That theme is the balance between creation and destruction, and each of his three powers has to do with one part of that balance. Jade, however, in trying to keep the powers but conform to the roleplay, loses that theme and gains a new one. The powers, however, seem more starkly general than Spectre's because they're doing a lot of different things while "just" being crystal.
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Creation and destruction is in Jade's character, it's just not as obvious. I found Spectre's internal struggle more interesting than the duality of his powers. So I focused more on the hungry, evil, power granting side of his dark magic and the kind, beneficial, selfless side of his light magic. I suppose it could be made more apparent if I mentioned that her hungry crystals could penetrate Jade's victims or looked like rocky garnet, but I felt this was close enough. Alternatively, I could have gone with the light/dark theme if I used prism magic. A lot of Spectre's magic could be duplicated with a type of existence magic that dealt with splitting light into magical colors, but I felt that light representing good and darkness representing evil was too cliche. 

I've already said my piece on Spectre/Jade, but you are free to think otherwise, of course.

[quote=@whizzball1]

Spectre's powers alone were never the full expression of my creativity; everything about him worked together in synergy, or he'd just be a character who happens to control light, shadow, and crystal all at once. I could theoretically keep the theme, but I'd have to rehash the powers in order to fit him into the roleplay. Yet, if I shrink and remould him into a slightly smaller box, I will not be able to bring the idea to ultimate fruition. Is this a problem? I don't know yet—but I think there's a better way to find out.

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I suppose I could reiterate that Jade is basically an example of Spectre that could work in the RP. However, you're not going to agree with me and that's okay. 

[quote=@whizzball1]

I find your passing remark about the broadness of Spectre's powers interesting. You seem to consider it a problem. In fact, the idea of "too much power" is a common limitation, one that raises many questions and problems of its own. But you've been talking about limitations in such a general sense that we haven't been able to talk about specific limitations like that one. There are real problems—and real uses—of solid limitations. Some of the effects of these limitations can be seen in our characters. But, unless we focus on specific limitations rather than limitations in general, I don't think we can make any real points about them. I suspect that I'll return to the examples of Spectre, Drake, and Jade often, but in a more directed context.
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As a GM, something that we look for is a balance among all the characters. Strengths that enable them to overcome certain obstacles, and weaknesses that we can exploit for interesting encounters. When you have a character that is good at doing everything, it is difficult to give other characters time to shine or make a challenge that they can solve in an interesting way. It throws the power scale of the RP off, where things are always easy for the strongest characters, while their challenges are so above and beyond the rest of the players that they can't even participate. This is not to say every character needs to be perfectly balanced. But such large gaps in power and utility can discourage people with more focused kits that aren't as strong. This is why I said it would be more interesting to watch Jade solve problems than Spectre. Jade has to use her Crystal growing powers in many different ways, while Spectre has three Aeons to choose from. But looking at the characters already in the RP, I would have to say Jade and Spectre have too much raw power and utility to be accepted. 

As for talking about limitations in a broad sense, I feel all limitations should be judged based on how well they are implimented. Rules are nothing more than limitations. You cannot have a game without limitations. But it's how the limitations are set up that determines how benificial or hindering they are.

[quote=@whizzball1]

What do you say? Even besides the four limitations I examined in my starting post, there are other common ones worth considering, and our characters are a good jumping off point.
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Sure, this is a topic I find interesting. So long as it doesn't devolve into petty squabbling I'm fine. While Spectre is not a character I would personally play, it was important to have an approach like that to make a character like Jade. I also accept the fact that not everyone feels that Jade is a better character.