User blog comment:Alyssa5582/What Constitutes OP?/@comment-1613839-20150918145743

I think these are great general guidelines...but I think it also can be hard to determine OPness just from these things. Alyssa said it well in her opinion "and think it's more how the character is being used instead of what special qualities." I thing normal characters with none of these things CAN be OP if they're played that way...and potentially a character with something from each of these categories could be not OP if they had some balances or weaknesses inherent in their character. Of course those are one-off characters and not standard. I think these guidelines are great for sorting and approving characters...but the longer a character has been around the harder it is since characters learn and grow on their own. A simple student could graduate being unremarkable except they are exceptionally bright. Then they join the Aurors and learn legilimency. A year later they become framed and run and join TBP and learn Occlumency and assassin skills. The work there for five years amassing wealth. Then they rejoin the Ministry as a spy and while there they become friends with the Ministry's animagi trainer and learn that...and after all that time they have multiple OP abilities which could be problematic. That's much harder to keep an eye on...for both the one playing it and the admin team when you suddenly realize the character's OP...and you never intended it that way.