I know this may sound strange as a story idea, but here goes. There is one story I've been mulling over for years, trying to figure out how to get it into a workable format. The reason is that the main character is a god, one on the level that what you see is only the physical manifestation he chooses, the tip of a very, very, big iceberg. His powers on the material plane are limited for two reasons, the first being his physical form can only handle so much power being pumped through it. The second, which partially plays into the first, is to avoid causing immense damage to this plane of reality. Never the less he can still easily be a plot killer if he acts directly. This in itself is obviously one of the reasons the story is a bit hard to work with. It's taken a lot of time but I think I have a possible working solution here. The main character doesn't undertake missions himself, instead he acts through others, gives orders, pulls strings, and things like that. I also wasn't going to straight up reveal what he is to the reader. Instead I was simply going to hint that something was different, such as people, the few who know the truth, never mouth off to him, always show respect, and him using his abilities in ways so subtle it's not easy to tell if it was abnormal or not. Opinions?
I think that a character like this could perhaps exist in the background, but they don't sound interesting enough or interactive enough to be a main character.
Have you read or seen Watchmen? Dr. Manhattan isn't a god per se but he is extremely powerful, and the book does a good job of keeping him in check with social and moral barriers. Granted his storyline is also to a great degree about his apathy towards things so he's not a particularly active character to begin with - your guy seems to have machinations goin' on, so maybe not applicable. If he's breaking your plot, you just have to either change the plot so he can't break it, or change him so his powers won't be enough. Not letting him use too much power because it'll damage his body is a good one, I think. You can make that limit him as much as you want or need to - though obviously at some point the question becomes, "Why is this character a god if he can only do regular human stuff?"
I'd say the best way to handle the challenges posed by such power, other than scaling it down, is to introduce a similarly strong opponent. If your protagonist is a god, make another god your antagonist. You've already got a couple limitations on his power, which are essential when dealing with deity-level characters. Consider adding weaknesses to the mix. Maybe it's possible to interfere with how he manifests in the material plane. That could allow even normal (but skilled) humans to be a potential threat.
You said that he can have any form he chooses. He could easily work around this limitation by manifesting himself as a mountain or so. I think this is the way to go. If this god created the phisycal reality to play with it, he may let it evolve naturally and make only small changes if it is absolutely necessary. As it is for his own entertainment he poses limitations to himself just for the bigger fun.
First of all, I think having a character that is that powerful will be problematic because in general people like to read stories that they can related to in some way, and an MC that is literally a god won't be particularly enjoyable. Second, you mention hiding the fact that he is that powerful. I think this would cause your readers to be angry. You should never deliberately hide information from your readers especially about your MC. That's going to piss people off to get halfway through the book and you're like "Oh, yeah, BTW. I'm a god!" I agree with Chickenfreak that a character that powerful should be a background character, not a MC, unless you find a way to sever him from his power source.
I dunno - if depends on how godly this character is, I think. He's clearly not all-powerful (at least in his current state), but I wonder if he's all-knowing/all-wise? He could still have faults and failures. We've got a thread around here somewhere about how to keep powerful or hyper-competent characters relatable that you've made me remember. I'll see if I can track it down. Might be useful. ETA: Found it. It's specifically about characters who are overpowered / what counts as overpowered, but there's some good discussion within, imo, about how to curb those really powerful characters. One thing that came up that I like was just giving the very powerful character an equally- or similarly-powered rival who can go toe-to-toe with them - they may be on a level above humans, but they do have contemporaries and threats. I don't think that's true, either - a character keeping a secret can be a plot point, and of course you have to keep things from the reader in mysteries. I don't think you should necessarily have your mc be privy to vital information and not tell the reader for no reason, but I think there can be a valid reason. I'm not sure if that's applicable to the op. Is this guy supposed to be hiding his godhood? Does it come out at an important point? Probably workable. If it's just arbitrary ... probably not great.
Clash of the Titans or something like, where the gods act out their drama through human agents. You can handle such a situation in several ways: e.g. rules of engagement by which even gods must abide; or they can manifest in only one form at each appearance, and act within the capabilities and tolerances of that form (i.e, if he's a mountain, he can't walk around or speak; if he's a sparrow, he can't carry a tune). What the most appropriate approach is will depend on the story, not the other way around. What is the central theme, moral or objective? What is the conflict? What kinds of event - plot points - must take place? What is the god's desire/intention/motivation? IOW - Let form follow function.
Both the US and Russia are capable to destroy the whole planet with their nuclear weapons. They are real world overpowered characters. Look at them, look at how they do their nasty businesses, what they can and cannot achieve with this ability in their hands. Now think about what would happen if only one of them existed.
This is an idea for the basis for your world, but I'm not getting any hint of conflict here. This godlike person/character is just existing, thus far. His powers on the material plane limited by what his physical attributes are. The other limit is are the powers themselves, which could cause immense damage to 'this plane' of reality. I think you need to start thinking about what the actual story PROBLEM will be. Is this god going to be forced to do something he doesn't want to do? Is he going to decide what the hell, I can do whatever I want, and wreak havoc on the world? Think about what is going to happen in your story, then the other facets of this character and his place in the story will fall into place. We don't really need to know the details here on this thread. This is your story, and yours to develop any way you want. But I'd say move along and get working on what this god is going to do next, or what others are going to do to him. And why. Who are your main characters in this story? What's at stake for them? That's where your story lies.
