Nen X Discussions

Nerfing Nen

Okay, so you may have this really great idea that's super unique and genuinely cool, only one thing...

It's way too overpowered.

Like Snake in Smash Bros overpowered (though actually, interesting fact, I've heard that Metaknight is the one that is banned from competitions for OPness)

So below, I hope to provide some help or reassurance!

Time
It's really obvious, but really quite important.

Someone practicing Nen for five years is probably going to be better than someone practicing Nen for one year. Someone practicing Nen intensely all day, every day is more likely than not going to advance much faster than someone who isn't.

It's pretty logical to think that someone practicing Nen for ten years or plus would be pretty powerful, so you don't have to hold back so much. But someone's who just started forming their ability is going to be weaker. I think a good way of nerfing a newbie would be if you view the character in their prime and powerful point and then walk backwards and try to see what you can knock off one by one. Perhaps range or potency? Time limit or amount of power it requires? Plain adeptness in using the ability?

Vows, Restrictions, and Conditions
This stuff is really great. Maybe your character has to hit it's target a certain number of times to use the ability. On the flip side, maybe your character has to receive a number of hits. I believe there's a chapter dedicated to this alone!

Other Nen Types
Keep in mind the character's Nen type and the type directly opposite and farther from the character's type. A Specialist will normally struggle with Enhancement and a Emitter will struggle with Conjuring. Let's say the character's ability has some heavy Emission in their ability but this character is a Conjurer. It would take a lot more out of the character, so we'd probably have to cut down on the range.

But there's still the question of "What exactly is overpowered and what isn't?"

Perhaps there really is no need to hack off anything from the ability... But what if there is? Is it really necessary to nerf this character? Is the character actually super weak and underpowered? Is this actually making this worse? What is OP? WHAT IS LIFE?

I wish I could tell you there's a formula to calculate OPness but unfortunately, there isn't. Personally, this is the most difficult subject for me to work around, since it's almost a personal opinion and it heavily depends on the setting in the writing too.

I like to try and figure it out by comparing a character to six other canon characters. Two of them having learned Nen for the same amount of time span as the character. Two of them being about equal in terms of talent. And two of them representing a similar discipline or passion of learning about Nen. And then try to figure out and rank from there.

What do you think are the limits of OP or not OP? What do you like to do to figure it out?