I'm writing a storyline for a game where the forces of evil have humanity cornered. Truly everything seems lost, that is, until our main character decides to step in. Let's call him Bob. The Chosen.
Bob is extremely strong and has a special ability that's seemingly designed to counter the evil monsters. As a result he defeats enemy after enemy effortlessly, becoming humanity's last hope. He is stationed in a small village on the front lines where he gets to know the villagers and protects them from the monster assaults. Word spreads about his deeds and a second character is introduced: Sir Dave the Brave, the Virtuous, Vigilant Paragon of Hope, Knighted by the King, Slayer of Monsters.
Dave is currently the kingdom's greatest swordsman and leads the royal knights against the forces of evil. He's beloved by the citizens because of how many of them he has saved. He and his army set up camp in the village on order and from that point on Dave serves as the face of the kingdom.
The problem is that Dave is only human - he does not have the unique superpowers Chosen like Bob have. He is still very strong, but very strong for a human. After he set up camp the player isn't going to look at him anymore unless he decides to raise his affection level with Dave. Dave only has a single chance to prove himself as the competent knight he is. But I'm afraid that it doesn't matter how many mobs I let him defeat, the player will invariably compare those feats to his own. I can't have him be strong enough to defeat the bosses, the player is supposed to do that on his own.
When he tags along to scout for one of the bosses and he gets swatted aside it doesn't really give the wanted reaction of "Goodness, that monster is strong!", but rather something of an "Haha, silly Dave got defeated again." His competence as a swordsman has become an informed attribute. Even if I let him defeat a few monsters on his own he still feels weak because the great Bob kills those in his free time to farm xp.
I don't want Dave to be strong strong, but I do want the player to acknowledge him. Is there a way to make Dave look like a competent knight without affecting his or Bob's power level?
Answer
You need to think about your protagonists weaknesses – now!
If your protagonist is simply above and beyond everything and everybody else it will get really, really boring. Your character needs some form of development, some things to strive for. Dave has to be better in something, and that something is not necessarily bashing monster's heads in.
Think about other aspects. Investigating a murder for example. Maybe your character is just bad at deducting stuff and needs to look up to Dave for being good at this stuff. Or talking to the locals. Maybe he is just not that good with people. Organizing people – a great leader can make an inspiring speech every day to send search parties so that he can help at multiple places at the same time. Not by himself, but by organizing everything. Dave has connections to the higher-ups. Dave has experience that tell him about monsters' weaknesses and strengths, when to fight and when to flee, when a dungeon will collapse and bury every character, no matter how strong ... Dave knows his way around town quickly in case you need to follow something. Or maybe he is good with medicine and can heal people?
Whatever it is, he didn't get to where is just by being good with a sword. Fighting is not all that there is to life. And brute strength is not everything that counts in the world, not even in a videogame world that is trying to make the player feel powerful.
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