Special Feature Advice

If you have an idea for a Special Feature for your character you can come here to get some feedback. This topic is not the place where you apply for a special ability. Here, you can ask for advice on features listed in our guides as well as for original features.

Please fill in the following spine and post a reply in this topic to get advice:

Your Name: (your name or online alias)
Character: (your character's name & link to the sheet/sandbox)
Character Summary: (if you don't have a sheet or sandbox post with information about your character you should give us a short summary here including age, location and some personality traits of your new character)
Special Feature: (the feature you are applying for or considering)
Questions: (What do you want to know? Please make sure that you have sensible questions and don't ask which feature you should apply for. We expect that you have given this some thought before asking for advice.)
Admins, Members or Both?: (who do you want to comment?)

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[color=#85bc94][b]Your Name:[/b][/color]
[color=#85bc94][b]Character:[/b][/color]
[color=#85bc94][b]Character Summary:[/b][/color]
[color=#85bc94][b]Special Feature:[/b][/color]
[color=#85bc94][b]Questions:[/b][/color]
[color=#85bc94][b]Admins, Members or Both?:[/b][/color]

Your Name: Ash
Character: Evelyn Sartell
Character Summary: http://www.magical-hogwarts.org/rpg/index.php?topic=163127.0
Special Feature: Occlumency
Questions: Are there jobs for adults that involve this trait/skill? What are the base requirements needed in backstory to justify having an affinity for and developing it. If it negatively affects any other area of magic?
Admins, Members or Both?:?

Your Name: Ash
Character: Evelyn Sartell
Character Summary: http://www.magical-hogwarts.org/rpg/index.php?topic=163127.0
Special Feature: Occlumency
Questions: Are there jobs for adults that involve this trait/skill? What are the base requirements needed in backstory to justify having an affinity for and developing it. If it negatively affects any other area of magic?
Admins, Members or Both?:?

Hey Ash! I'm Dylan, one of the admins here.

I looked over your character notes and you've got a really great start!

Occlumency is a skill that takes years to master to any useful level of proficiency. For example my character Basil is eighteen and has been studying occlumency since he was ten and is only moderately proficient. A fourteen year would not have much ability in occlumency, but would still be able to out the training aspects if that's what interests you. She could be just starting out. The "base requirements" would consist of years of devoted study and high level of magical skill.

As far as professions that use that ability, an auror or unspeakable would certainly make use of their ability frequently. A career criminal might also make use of this skill depending on their area of expertise.

Occlumency does not affect other areas of magic, but can be physically and mentally exhausting which could cause a temporary decreased efficacy of other magic, but nothing long term.

One thing to keep in mind is that we highly recommend new drivers wait until they have at least one sorted character before applying for a special feature. Part of the approval process stems from driver activity and responsibility. We to see how new drivers will play characters without special features before granting them a special feature.

I hope that answered your question! Feel free to PM me with any other questions!

That's fair ^^ of the things that i may need approval for this one is the easiest to remove from my backstory. Cheers

Your Name: Leah
Character: Leona Millegan
Character Summary: Leona is seventeen years old and she was born in London, England. She has a stoic, calm, and collected personality, and she can seem a bit cold at times. However, she isn't as frigid as her outward demeanor would seem. On top of her stoic, calm, and collected personality, she is also very intelligent, quiet, and bookish, and has a deep desire to make friends. She doesn't have many friends, if any, as her cold-seeming demeanor usually seems to put people off.
Special Feature: Ice Elemental
Questions: Given her personality, do you think she has the potential to be a good Ice Elemental? Or, should I forego making Leona an Elemental altogether? At first glance, given her personality, ice powers seem to fit her, but I don't want a personality power to make her a stereotype of that, if that makes any sense.
Admins, Members or Both?: Admins

Your Name: Leah
Character: Leona Millegan
Character Summary: Leona is seventeen years old and she was born in London, England. She has a stoic, calm, and collected personality, and she can seem a bit cold at times. However, she isn't as frigid as her outward demeanor would seem. On top of her stoic, calm, and collected personality, she is also very intelligent, quiet, and bookish, and has a deep desire to make friends. She doesn't have many friends, if any, as her cold-seeming demeanor usually seems to put people off.
Special Feature: Ice Elemental
Questions: Given her personality, do you think she has the potential to be a good Ice Elemental? Or, should I forego making Leona an Elemental altogether? At first glance, given her personality, ice powers seem to fit her, but I don't want a personality power to make her a stereotype of that, if that makes any sense.
Admins, Members or Both?: Admins

Hey Leah! I'm Dylan, one of the admins here.

It looks like you have a good start for Leona here. She does sound a bit like an ice elemental, but you can read the full description of ice characteristics in the elemental guide, here. Not all ice elemental are the same, so don't feel like you have to make Leona fit the feature--either it fits her, or it doesn't. There are quite a few other things that come with being an elemental, that you may want to consider the way it fits your character. As mentioned in the guide, most elementals are part of the elemental council, which has a firm code the members are expected to live by. Furthermore, elementals will never be successful at wand magic, as the stronger their elemental powers are, the weaker their wand magic becomes.

This said, I highly recommend that you take awhile to get comfortable playing Leah before applying for a special feature. Driver reliability and post quality are some of the aspects we look for when approving a special feature. If we have not seen much of your posting by the time you apply, we may not have enough information to approve a feature. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me or post in here again. I hope I answered your question!

Hey Leah! I'm Dylan, one of the admins here.

It looks like you have a good start for Leona here. She does sound a bit like an ice elemental, but you can read the full description of ice characteristics in the elemental guide, here. Not all ice elemental are the same, so don't feel like you have to make Leona fit the feature--either it fits her, or it doesn't. There are quite a few other things that come with being an elemental, that you may want to consider the way it fits your character. As mentioned in the guide, most elementals are part of the elemental council, which has a firm code the members are expected to live by. Furthermore, elementals will never be successful at wand magic, as the stronger their elemental powers are, the weaker their wand magic becomes.

This said, I highly recommend that you take a while to get comfortable playing Leah before applying for a special feature. Driver reliability and post quality are some of the aspects we look for when approving a special feature. If we have not seen much of your posting by the time you apply, we may not have enough information to approve a feature. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me or post in here again. I hope I answered your question!

Thank you very much. As of right now, Leona's character profile is still in my Sandbox and I'm still working on her right now, so it'll probably be a bit before I add her as one of my RP characters. That is, if I decide to at all. I'm still debating that right now too. I don't want to add too many characters at once, even though I'm somewhat experienced with roleplaying, but the more characters you add, the more difficult it becomes to keep them all straight as far as personalities, backgrounds, and things like that go.