General Fighting Style and Likes/Fears and Quirks

First, likes/fears, right below the personality on all the templates. There are very few characters that fear nothing, even most of those are just bravado. Everyone has something they like and something they fear. However, not everyone fears death. And not everyone likes kittens or puppies. Psychological attacks such as some illusions and "fear" abilities will be met with mixed results precisely for this reason. For example, an ability that makes you see the person you're fighting as the person you like most, and that person loves to fight, you're gonna keep on fighting without any hindrances I'm pretty sure (my own Raiden Arashi likes his zanpakutou spirit and inner hollow most and both of them loves to fight). Another example, an ability that releases a huge "killer's intent", most characters aren't going to be affected by that, though some just might because they're a coward, inexperienced, etc. (Such as my own namesake might succumb to it at first, but then will snap out of it and start fighting back more effectively.) Note, only Serion and event characters are excluded from this part.

Just keep in mind that even the most hardy individual does have some fears and the most down, depressed person has some likes.

Now for the main issue, the General Fighting Style section. This includes your general fighting style, or how you generally fight, strengths, and weaknesses.

To fill out your general fighting style, ask yourself questions like: What are my character's strengths? Does he stick to range, or is he a brawler? Does use his intelligence in a fight, or is he a berserker? Sometimes mentioning some of your strengths and weaknesses here is also appropriate. However, make sure that your fighting style and your strengths/weaknesses don't contradict each other.

Strengths and weaknesses are for the sake of balancing a character. What constitutes as a strength or weakness? How big are some weaknesses compared to others?

Lots of things can be put down under one or the other. The most common ones include: swordsmanship and hand to hand combat skills, strengths, speed, durability, stamina, spiritual pressure/energy amount. But this can also include resistances and weaknesses to certain types of attacks. Keep in mind that there are more than just those, I'm sure, but you may have to explain why some things are a weakness. Having a lot of Averages is frowned upon, especially with new people, but is legal.

Before I get to approximately how each of those mentioned are weighed, let's get into character flaws. Only very few character flaws ARE weaknesses, but MOST ARE NOT WEAKNESSES. Such as not holding back, even in a sparring match, is not a weakness. Fighting on instinct is also not necessarily a weakness (and make sure it's on instinct, I've seen some characters claim they fight on instinct but is not RPed that way). Staff will be the judge if a character flaw is a weakness or not. Also of note are phobias. Only if what the person is afraid of is extremely common can it be considered a weakness. Such as a phobia of men/women or one of heights, though the former needs to be explained more in detail. Being claustrophobic or being afraid of being bound is not a common enough occurrence to really be considered a weakness (looks at namesake character), and there are others. Intelligence is more of a character thing than a real weakness or strength, it more belongs to fighting style than strengths/weaknesses. Anything not mentioned is average, which can be classified as either a strength or a weakness (more commonly the latter), depending on the type of fighter that they are. Also, everything is in relation to your tier. So a 1-5 who has horrid speed will run circles around a 3-1 who is a specialist in speed, where another 1-5 who is average in speed will outrun that 1-5 that is horrid in speed. Tier differences can allow for some leeway for traits, but only for major tier differences, and even then, be careful when RPing.

How much do some things in strengths and weaknesses weigh? Some items are race specific. Sometimes, how they weigh can vary depending on the type of fighter they are as well. Also, saying to what degree something is a strength or weakness is a very good idea, especially if you want a higher starting tier. And keep in mind that this will always be in relation to your current tier. Comparing to canon characters is not something you should do either.

Physical Strength: This one is about minor. It is tough to stay at a distance unless the person's speed is horrid. Pretty much, you can be overpowered in close combat depending on your strength in comparison to theirs, and vice versa or match them evenly. For a mostly physical fighter, having this as a weakness is a very bad thing, even at average it can be a bad thing. In the case of a physical fighter, this weighs slightly more.

Durability: This one is moderate. How much damage can you take before you just fall? This is one of the biggest attributes to a tank character, but usually among the lowest for a speed character.

Swordsmanship/hand to hand skill/weapon skills in general and other such skills: This one is fairly minor no matter what. It's more that you RP this than anything. It also relies more on your physical ability as well.

Stamina: This one is actually fairly big. How long can you last of fighting before you enter a fatigue state? Fatigue state does not always mean auto-win for the other guy. If this is poor, you'll obviously get into it much sooner. Most commonly average on characters.

Speed: A mixed bag, can weigh highly or very little. Now, this doesn't just include shunpo, sonido, blur, etc., but also reaction time and general movement speed. The reaction time deals with reflexes, and can be separated out. However, it still doesn't guarantee anything. Speed characters tend to be able to dodge more than take hits and can dodge more easily. Speed characters' durability tend to be average or below. Unless they have another weakness that counteracts a greater durability.

Spiritual pressure/energy amount: Like with speed, this one is varied on weight. To a physical fighter, it weighs very little, as at most it gives those that are not arrancar/hollow an excuse for a Kenpachi like skin, or a weak type of heirro. For a character that relies more on kido, cero, or their abilities, this holds much more prominence. For those without releases and going a Kenpachi route, this is needed to match up to those with such releases, though that case will be very highly regulated. Most can control how much spiritual pressure to output to at least some degree. Some can control it very well, others, not so much. Some have so much that they can't actively suppress it or need assistance in suppressing it.

Energy/elemental weaknesses/resistances: You must state by how much and it must make sense, being either your own element, or contradictory element, or explained in the background extremely well and also makes sense. Taking double damage from most elements and energy is a VERY big weakness. Full blown immunities are only with your own stuff. Resistant to other things should make sense, and full blown immunities to something like poisons are a no. If your character is not energy, and you're resistant to energy, it can only be towards racial stuff, like kido and cero/bala/energy manipulation outside of res/doll/zanpakutou abilities. There are virtually no elemental racial stuff. But please do not abuse this possibility. If all else fails, this is a bit of a last resort for weaknesses. Staff will decide if it's needed.

The next section deals more with racial stuff.

Kido/cero: Having kido as a weakness is actually pretty large, since it gives a shinigami/vizard a lot more options to do tactically, especially on the bakudo end, but is not a good enough excuse to have it as your lone weakness. Having cero/bala as a weakness is not bad at all. Actually, it's pretty minimal.

Hierro: This works in conjunction with durability. This weighs moderately. It lessens damage done. If it is strong, it can only block a sealed form zanpakutou in your base form if you're an arrancar. A shikai must be able to cut it. Only exception are major tier differences. However, it is okay for hollow and res. forms to have some parts be just as tough as a zanpakutou shikai equivalent or above (depending on the level) and be able to block shikai/bankai equivalents. Key word is parts. Hands, arms, legs, tails, wings, claws, potentially teeth, are all fine. But the main body and head must be cuttable. That also pertains to Sinners as well, despite not having a hierro.

High Speed Regeneration: This rates fairly high. On this particular one, it is a very good idea to be specific on how good you are if you so choose to be good in it. This arrancar/hollow specific racial ability is very much watched on, so be careful. Healing abilities in general are very much watched. Typically average on most characters.

Sensing/Pesquisa: There are several points to remember with regards to this:

1. Sensing is a persons ability to sense large concentration of spiritual energy, in other words a person or energy/elemental attack fired by that person. Pesquisa is an arrancar's version of Sensing, and works in a similar fashion to sonar.

2. Any one with spiritual energy can potentially sense. Some characters have no capacity at all for it, while others are so good at it they can sense for miles. This is entirely up to you, and can be defined in your fighting style.

3. Sensing is passive, so is always active. Special abilities based around sensing may not be though.

4. Pesquisa is a racial ability and only arrancar have it. But Another thing to note here is that bounto cannot be sensed by any normal means. Often a specialized piece of equipment is made for that, often made by someone with extensive knowledge of bounto.

5. It has no real effect on anyone else.

6. Its passive, as I said. But I imagine with practice you could turn it off. Again this is up to yourself, if you want your sensing to have an off switch that's fine.

7. There is no way to tell if someone can sense you, unless your a bounto (because you know they can't for the most part) or you're suppressing your power to the point of being undetectable. (As a rule, once combat starts if you were suppressing your power you automatically stop. It takes allot of concentration to do, and you do need good spiritual control.) As I said some people might not be able to sense, but there no way for you to know that unless they tell you in rp.

Enhanced senses: Unless stated and have a very good excuse, you do not have these. They can also be double-edged swords, potentially. So no being able to hear a person's heartbeat or hearing a baseball or rock being thrown unless you put your head extremely close to those, or smelling a person (unless they have horrid hygiene and that is stated in their app.) and tracking them down that way.

Lastly, there are quirks...kind of an unofficial thing that can also go into abilities potentially. Often stated in the General Fighting Style section, just below Weaknesses, they're extra things that aren't their main focus. Keep in mind, some of these, especially the combat usable ones, comes with a cost. Like Yuri's Hyper Intuition comes at the cost of not being able to detect spiritual pressure at all and being completely ineffective by non-biological beings/parts, and Kaytlyn's combination of Hyper Intuition and Hypersensitive Instincts comes with the cost of not having a Toukai/Segunda equivalent. Some things can be stated, but most characters already have anyways, like Hyper Competence. There isn't a real list of them, as they are mostly your own ideas. Like always, take caution with these.