08/20/2007 - That's ONE way to make an entrance...

[Viking-Sensei]

See: Heterosis

Yep, I'd call what Ian has "vigor".

[gambit3le]

Ian really did it that time, he used his magical "god hole" spell to melt his way right to his target... or is it really HIS target...

The plot thickens! Just like JELLO!

[Calibur]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Ian is nearly under complete influence and control by the deity he has in his body. It may be eating him up bit by bit from the inside out or it may be exerting it's control over him slowly over time. Still, I gonna bet that the Ian we all knew isn't going to be there for much longer (if he isn't nearly totally gone already).

[Tiamat]

I think he's eaten. My opinion is that his personality self-destructed when he went supernova after he almost, but not quite, revived his sister.

[Graybeard]

Ceiling Ian is watching you pontificate!

By this do you mean he's fornicating the pontiff?

Nice to have this up and running, BTW.

[Maiazuru]

Its actually getting increasingly annoying, I'm sorry to say. We got a guy who has well-nigh godlike abilities, more power than an ENTIRE powerful civilization, and no true weakness to speak of thus far.

There's powering up a character, and then there's clearly OVERPOWERING that character. Ian was never as interesting as the others, and his power boost is making him downright boring. Whats the fun in a character who can do just about anything?

None to me.

[Viking-Sensei]

I suspect, and I may be wrong on this, but somewhere around the point where Ian blew up another god, that he ceased being a 'character' and started being something more akin to a force of nature.

Power like that always comes at a price... he's losing/lost something for all the abilities he's gained, quite possibly his life. It seems unbalanced so far just because we haven't seen whatever the side effect of his actions is. Patience.

[Taeweil]

I really hate making new accounts. My old one on the old old forums, then khyms, and now this. *sigh*

I feel so put out.

[Slamlander]

Its actually getting increasingly annoying, I'm sorry to say. We got a guy who has well-nigh godlike abilities, more power than an ENTIRE powerful civilization, and no true weakness to speak of thus far.

There's powering up a character, and then there's clearly OVERPOWERING that character. Ian was never as interesting as the others, and his power boost is making him downright boring. Whats the fun in a character who can do just about anything?

None to me.

You just nailed the Superman Problem dead square on the head. All authors are aware of it, including Poe. I'm also confident that there is a fix in the works and we simply haven't been introduce to it yet.

What this looks like is that we're about to be introduced to a serious bad-guy/villain. Think about it, this is about the re-emergence of the Elven Gods and we still don't know the origins of the humans and why the gods created all this.

[Shteven]

There's powering up a character, and then there's clearly OVERPOWERING that character. Ian was never as interesting as the others, and his power boost is making him downright boring. Whats the fun in a character who can do just about anything?

When you get to examine the price that was paid/consequences of that power. For example, Ian gave up his previous life (which may or may not be all that much to lose) the moment he gained his power. He made this sacrifice to save his sister, but when that failed, it's entirely possible he regrets taking on the power. He certainly wasn't happy at that moment. While it's possible (and even likely) that he's increased in power since he took on healing the villagers, at least back then it was extremely difficult for him to cope with using his powers. He may very well be over extending himself in his current attack, and prone to collapse soon after.

On another note, I'm not really convinced about this gods-looking-for-bodies idea. I don't see why you would create entire races when there's supposedly only 3 gods (according to the elves, at least). Trusting breeding to create something better than what a god could hand make...I don't know. Just because one person has been merged/possessed I'm not really sure all the gods are seeking something to attach to. Also, I believe it's already been mentioned that half-elves fall between elven and human powers, ie, mid-parent heterosis, rather than best-parent heterosis. Of course, this could be historically, and Ian really is that special, or just that elves refuse to believe they're inferior, etc etc. Take it for what you will