The setting is asoiaf, in flea bottom. The protagonist, is a girl, with ice powers and a single powerful spirit. She can heal, fire out ice, cast shields, and what not. On the level of being able to take on 2 dozen men at a time. Healing is limited to mundane diseases and infection, and she cannot restore limbs or gross tissue damage. Problem. There are plenty of thugs to kill her in Flea bottom. But none of them will succeed. The crux of the story, is basically an overpowered, good and helpful protag, in one of the worst places in the continent. How do I test her, throw obstacles at her, and generally set up good conflict?
She doesn't sound that overpowered to me. She needs an obstable related to what she can do. Like how Superman is not strong if exposed to Kryptonite.
Maybe I misunderstood what you mean by "overpowered". I took it to mean she was outnumbered but do you mean she has "too many" powers that no-one can defeat her? It doesn't matter really, the answer is the same. You have to give her a weakness that her archnemesis knows about and exploits.
Give her limits on what she can cast and her recovery times. If uses too many high powered spells risks passing out or burning self out and if that happens, she needs recovery time. Have this be a common issue with magic castor's so that criminal gangs are aware of it and therefore send waves of attackers so she has to keep casting as cannot get all at once without being willing/able to take out large chunk of surrounding area.
Consider the Superman movies from the 70s/80s. They faced the problem of a vastly overpowered protagonist. They dealt with it by: Superman 1: Kryptonite to make him weaker than everyone else He gives a promise which prevents him doing what he wants Other people are put at risk and he can't be everywhere at once Superman 2: He gives up his powers He faces enemies who are as overpowered as he is Other people are put at risk and he can't be everywhere at once Superman 3: A material makes him turn bad An enemy (computer) is even more powerful than him
I giggled a little inside. Sounds like another half a dozen will do the trick! But in all seriousness, when it comes to overpowered, outrageously strong heroes or heroines, it's not what they can't do that gets them into trouble, it's what the people they care about can't do. Batman wears a mask because if people knew his identity, then the people he loved would be in danger. In Disney's Hercules, Meg gets kidnapped because she's the only thing Hades can threaten the guy with to get the upper hand. There's always hostage situations in superhero movies, and with good reason--no amount of super strength or smarts will stop a lifetime of 'it's my fault' disease if a loved one dies (well, maybe in some cases, but you get my meaning). Take advantage of the people she cares about.
Problem with attacking her loved ones. They're a deuterprotagonist. I don't really want to... you know, weaken or remove their agency. The usage of raw numbers, exhaustion, sounds good to me.
If she has ice powers, throw in some combatants with fire powers and/or throw her into a hot climate. Also, is there anything that she requires to fuel these powers? Is there some kind of mana limit? What is the cost? Maybe she needs to eat for energy or maybe she needs to drink water to help produce the ice and can't do it as well or maybe even at all when she is dehydrated. Maybe her body is not completely immune to the cold and she starts to slow down or stiffen up with prolonged use.
I'd start with putting her in a custom setting that's developed according to the needs of her story. Please, don't put it in Westeros. I know the temptation is great from personal experience but I think that you are better served with making your own setting, even if its essentially a copy-paste. If you want a classical magical story, put her against a fire mage. Or something like that. Another possibility, for a much darker story, is that she gets problem with a crime lord who, through mediateries, tells her that: "I can't harm you, you are to strong for my people. But I can hurt your friends, you family and your lovers. If you touch anything that's mine, I will kill the ones you hold close. You'll have to spend your whole life watching them at every moment and restrict them so that they can't wander beyond your immediete protection. Do you want that kind of life for yourself, and those you hold dear? I'm keeping eyes on you and yours. Back off and you're free to live as you wish. Move against me, and you'll have nothing to live for in this world." Because this girl sounds like she can beat up people, can she find people with contacts and money who don't want to be found? And can she be at two places at once?
A little more left field but fitting with the canon of ASOIAF - perhaps she can only use her powers in the season of winter, and come Summer she will be powerless. Might add some urgency to the story. (Or only at night, like a vampire etc)
Put a "Gotcha" in there. Maybe the source of her magic is her life force, and every time she uses it, she comes that much closer to death. So not only does she have to leverage that magic use and decide to save it in exchange for more conventional means (like a gun or sword), it also means that she could technically be extremely over powered, but the bigger the blast, the more it drains her. I know it's not the most original mechanic (Todd McFarlane did something similar with his Spawn comic) but hey, it's a thought.
Overpowered? Hardly. Can her ice feed the starving? Cloth the naked? Give shelter to the homeless? Can her healing mend a ravage mind or a broken soul? Not every conflict has to be about physical violence.
As I said, the heroine has no powers for gaining knowledge or information and so I would take it that a crime lord, with some experience from hiding from the Goldcloaks, would have an edge over her when she simply isn't provided with thugs to use her powers on in the open. The crime lord can leave town if necessary, send the heroine on a wild goose chase and kill the heroine's family and friends while the heroine is off chasing shadows. If the heroine can't find the crime lord then all her powers are worth nothing. EDITED: The thing isn't that the heroine can't touch the crime lord, but that doing so will cost her very, very much. Kind of like MAD in the Cold War. And given that its Asoiaf you want to base it off, the heroine would have already decided from the start, more likely than not, than the crime lord needed to die.
Write what you know emotionally. Research it. Think about it. Think about it as a meta level phenomenom, not just as some substance. Think what would be similar thing in meta level in your story. For instance.... Do you know really well in real life any of these emotionally? - Lonelynes? - Lonelynes among people? - Underachievement? - Being totally misunderstood? - Being too much under influence of narcism? - Identity confusion? - Being bullied? - Getting a role as a trophy? - .... Take the dynamics of that what you know emotionally. Change part of substance so that it fits your story and story world. Work a bit with symbolism and look what you got! The answer to your story can't be in our heads. It must be in your head and heart. You don't need answers but tools to dig and seek.
Everything has a weakness of some kind. Maybe you need to consider the rules of magic in your world. Putting your powers under a magnifying glass may help to reveal how you can throw obstacles at her. Look at Lord of the Rings. Frodo can wear a ring that makes him invisible. However, if he puts that ring on, it gives away his location which brings him closer to danger. Maybe she can heal, but it is draining and healing can't be done at will. The obvious weakness to ice is fire or high temperatures. She can cast a shield, but the shield only protect against certain things. For instance, she can cast a shield to protect her mind from being read but that shield won't stop projectiles. I like to think of things in terms of "and" and "but." See below for stupid example: 1. She can cast a shield AND protect herself from harm. This is stating your problem. She seems overpowered now. How can you create conflict if she can just cast a shield to protect herself from harm? 2. She can cast a shield BUT it causes her vision to blur and her gait to become unsteady. This is fixing your problem. She can still protect herself from harm but there is some sort of obstacle or complication that is thrown into the mix. What do you mean by "a single powerful spirit"? Do you mean like she is strong-willed? or is there a literal spirit dwelling inside of her that enables her powers? If it's the latter, maybe consider how that spirit could make her weak? Could the spirit's ability to channel power to your protagonist be dampened in some way? A curse. A potion. IDK.
I made the same mistake. I though overpowered was like 'overwhelmed.' I was trying to figure out how to knock off some of the opponents! I'll slink away now....
Random idea, how about the powers have a binding. Maybe she wanted to free some slaves or heal some decent sick people and in order to save lives she had to submit to a ritual, like a trade deal, this ritual could be held by the villain themselves, so the villain could of made a deal (too good to be true deals) that they would help those people and give the girl these shiny new powers BUT, if you use too much powers at once/in total/do to much good within a certain timeframe, you decide, these people will be the antagonists servants and cause chaos or be murdered or something.
I'm guessing her shield protects her from all physical damage? If she's really invincible, make her protect somebody who isn't from foes that aren't weak to her powers.
