How to Not Break the Universe - Crafting Original Characters for RWBY 

This is the nicest way you could have said “Don’t be OP”

tbh, this video should just be titled, “How to Not Make a Mary Sue” because that’s the vibe I’m getting

15:01 "there is no perfect RWBY character" what about shopkeep? he can run multiple businesses across Remnant

tldr, “And if everyone’s super....NO ONE will be.”

Power balancing was the first thing that I think of. The show already has enough power balancing issues, don’t add more with an OC

One thing I always had trouble with for making teams in general, is trying to not make characters be able to do EVERYTHING. If you have an OC that can do EVERYTHING awesomely then you need to ask why they even need a team in the first place. There needs to be some sort of drawback, which can be something in terms of personality, lack of skill, etc.

I've thought of an OC who's a faunus. Her semblance is "Chill", Which when her aura comes in contact with someone else it gives them a euphoric effect making them more relaxed. I thought of this yesterday. What do you think?

Me, someone who writes OCS in an already established world for three years: Interesting.

A workaround for the time thing: just increase your character’s perception of time, so that for them everything else is in slow motion, but it doesn’t effect anyone else, and doesn’t break reality

*Stops time* *instantly dies* *TIme resumes*

I have a team, Team GODS. Try beating that 😀. God of light Ozma Darkness god of darkness. Salem

Alex here, admin of the RWBY Fanon Wiki. Thanks for the shoutout to our wiki/guidelines! Glad to see someone appreciates the effort that went into our rules and what they entail. Most people just say they're too much and quit without ever taking the time to understand we're trying to have our OCs fit *within the universe* of the show. That or they purposefully want to make a god character that overpowers everything. Usually one of those two.

Hey Phoenix I believe putting all the OC videos into one playlist would be very helpful for people sort of guiding the person while designing their oc. This video has given me some ideas for my characters thanks for the help!

I’m working on making an OC team based on figures from American Folklore, and this video has been a big help. The Allusions in play are Paul Bunyan, Annie Oakley, John Henry, and Johnny Appleseed.

I have a question Will you be making short stories about your OC going on adventures on this channel? Keep up the good work!

9:45 The World, Star Platinum, Killer Queen, King Crimson, Made in Heaven: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."

Making a OC is definitely a hard process, but for me I like to look at mythology and legends and try and fit them into the universe (Billy the Kid, Cu From the Ulster cycle, etc) I’ve made up some stories that would be considered fairy tales in universe, my main OC Eion Cu which is largely based off Cu, the story is about a lance wielded who fought off a horde of Grimm to protect a town only to die in the process, though he saved the town as a result of his actions

On the story I'm working on, most of the characters have semblances based on their fairytale. Although they may appear mundane, most of their abilities are simple, yet reliable.

I had an OC whose semblance basically forced her to be on a team even though she wanted to be independent (it was part of her character development). It was called Spotlight (for one minute every single enemy within a certain radius would immediately and completely focus all of their attention on attacking her, ignoring any other stimulus e.g. environmental hazards, other opponents, a giant pit in front of them etc)

my oc is a cowboy like character from the borders of vacuo with the semblance to make dust but can only do so on a small scale, so only the size of bullets for his revolver

Honestly I kinda grew out of making an oc overpowered and not having them have weaknesses especially in recent years all my favorite stories have the main characters problems just thrown at them all at the same time. That struggle and to see them go through that pulls on my heart strings. Ive fallen for that type of thing. Low key sadistic I want to make my ocs go through that

This screams so much "YES!" for me, since my channel avatar/OC was designed with this in mind. I sincerely hope Legends of Remnant piques your interest, as my OC comic series is gonna try and act as a sort of "Expanded Universe" take on the world of RWBY, without breaking the canon of the overall story.

While designing my oc team, i've decided to use a cohesive theme for all of them. That theme being, nightmares and dreams. Right now i'm taking a break from designing them. Not because i gave up, but because i want to re-examine my approach for them.

Ooh I am very intrigued to hear your take on how to properly do this 😁.

This vid is the definition of perfect timing

Thanks dude, was writing my OC's just as you uploaded. Trying to work out what the curriculum of Shade would be like.

I made my team years ago and although my team leader is absolutely broken the only other thing that I pushed boundaries with is I gave a character with split personalities 2 semblances that have the same activation root and both take the same toll on the character.

I've been working on a character for a year and a half, the character is based off yin the dark side of yang, yin is often represented by a dragon so I made a red eyed crocodile skink fannus, but people say I should pick something else sense it's not very well known. I spent 2 hours talking with someone who ultimately said my idea sucked and I should try doing something else. I don't see anything wrong with my choice but now I've stopped working on my oc as I don't know if I should even share my idea's anymore.

This is really useful, thank you for this. I'm a beginner when it comes to OCs so I wanted to run my first one by you real quick. Tron Starzan, a 19-year-old, 3rd-year student, lived in the kingdom of Atlas with his sister Janus. Their mother, Tanya, was a high-ranking military soldier and was distant with her kids. Therefore, they would constantly try to compete for her attention. They both wanted to be huntsman, but each had different strengths. Tron was better at physical combat, but Janus was better at technology and strategy, and when it came time to make their weapons, they got so caught up in their competition that an accident occurred that led to both children getting injured. Tron got metal implants in his arms and a lot of scars while Janus was permanently paralyzed in her legs. Realizing that they had gone too far, the two of them decided to try talking things out and decided to collaborate on a weapon that Tron would use while Janus stayed behind and worked on becoming an engineer of sorts similar to Penny's dad, but focusing more on blacksmithing weapons and teaching other huntsmen in training the dangers of weapon creation. While their mother is still furious at both of them for what happened, she has worked to be more caring and less cold and has genuinely become proud of them both overtime. Tron's weapon is twofold: First is a sword called Metall Engel (German for metal angel) that has a slight electrical charge to it and his metal implants on his arms also work as a weapon of sorts which have retractable claws and cartridges to hold small dust viles. Tron's semblance is called upgrade. He can take out bits of his aura and temporarily upgrade the technology around him any way he wants. However, this is limited by a couple of factors: Firstly, the more complicated or longer the upgrade is, the more aura he needs to lose. Secondly, he will sometimes need to have extra parts handy to make upgrade work ( for example if he wanted his sword to have a grenade launcher feature, he'd need to have ammo on his person), Lastly, he has to have a solid idea of how the upgrade would work in his head, otherwise, it will malfunction. Tron is based on Ultron, specifically from the MCU. It's not perfect I know, but I wanted to get your opinion on the base idea so I can work on the rest of my team called JSTR.

The “No timestop semblances” thing is something that I’ve actually been considering for ages. There’s no easy way to make them actually useful and balanced at the same time. My idea for a tenuous solution to this is essentially just The Mindscape from Gravity falls. You’re not stopping time, but you are dipping into higher dimensional space, it’s easier to power balance than time-travel for the same reason that it’s more difficult to write: the entire concept of 4th-dimensional space is an absolute fustercluck to comprehend from our perspective without a very long-winded lead up.

Phoenix/Night: There can't be time stopping semblances. *Angry Relic noises*

Stuff like this should be much more common istg

Mary Sues are so common in RWBT fanfictions; I've read all sorts from a Silver-Eyed Warrior with amazing Semblance and Ren-like Aura abilities who could match Adam and basically outclass Team RWBY at everything they do, to a character with the Semblance to copy other semblances, who eventually went on to absorb Qrow's transformation magic and Amber's Maiden powers, and discover Ozpin's secret war all on his own. But these powers are cool in moderation, so when writing these types of characters I always have a caveat to their power level and weapons. For example, two of my OCs: The first has the Semblance _Envy;_ the ability to copy other Semblances, however he cannot copy magic and if his Aura breaks he 'forgets' every Semblance he has previously copied, and must rebuild his stock of powers. Additionally, his weapon is a spear that separates into a staff and dagger, with no Dust powers; he's a member of the White Fang in Mantle, and has very limited access to Dust. He is based on the poem 'Envy' by Mary Lamb. The second is a Silver-Eyed Warrior. Though he is more experienced in using his eyes than Ruby, due to being taught by his father and older sister, he lost his family as well as one of his eyes to an agent of Salem (not Cinder), making his eyes simply less powerful. Furthermore, his Semblance is _Soothing Tone_ which allows him to calm people with his voice. It isn't as effective as Ren's Tranquility when hiding Grimm, but it has a persuasive effect. Either way, it isn't very useful in a direct fight. He is based on Orpheus. And I _never_ give a main character Telekinesis, not in RWBY or any other media. No protagonist should have too much power. Anyway, I can't wait to see more of these videos!

Neo is so beloved because everyone wants a lick of that neopolitan ice cream--

This video actually helps a lot. I’ve never truly made a pure OC (a character that wasn’t inspired by a different character) and I think this helps a ton with that and what I should do. Thanks a bunch for this!

One of my favourite OC’s is the guy can manipule water, and his weapon is trident, which heavily uses lightning dust. Basically he uses water to launch jets of water, or flinging his hand and sending very fast shots of water, or his trident uses lightning from the trident to shock people in close combat, he isn’t very fast as the trident is large, so he fights by swinging it around himself allowing him to seem fast up close but is not so much in travelling. This character can’t handle ranged opponents that well, and he can be overwhelmed if the opponent is fast enough around them.

Hi everyone! I wish u all a great weekend!❤️

My OC’s semblance is called aura reactor,being that he is able to manipulate his electron aura. For his weapons I gave him nanobots since they work well with his semblance. Think of him as a much weaker magneto.

This is the 1st video I watched on your channel and Im already hooked

Thanks for the shoutout to the Fanon Wiki, Phoenix! I'm one of the reviewers there, and it seems you brought some people our way. Much love

When you cover semblances can you cover ways to avoid basically making them quirks from mha? I definitely struggle making them aura based

Name: jack (last name unknown) Race: human Fairytale: Jack and the beanstalk Age: 19 Weapon: dual hatchet pistols Semblance: titan His parents sold him to a gang leader at the age of 12 to settle their debt, afterwards jack abandoned his last name, no longer considering them family. The leader soon discovered his talent in theft and trained him in theft, escape, combat and aura use. His ability the clean out a house and evade atlas security, earned him the moniker (nimble jack). One night he snuck onto an atlas supply ship with the intention to rob the schnee household but he was caught and pursued by winter schnee on a manticores. He attempts to escape were less than successful, though he did manage to the edge of the city. Before winter could arrest him, jack awaken his semblance that let him create, a mammoth sized Humanoid aura avatar. The shock to winter, allowed him land a good gigant Punch. He jumped off of the city with his semblance allowing him to survive the fall, he but passed out shortly after.

I love videos like this especially when the fandom is meant to create character and has guidelines set by the show, this was great

I have two original characters that are twenty year old twins named Phita and Nami Burgundy Nami uses a small shield that fits on her left forearm and a double barrel shot gun that can be used as a mace. Nami's semblance allows her to phase but only as long as she can hold her breath.Phita uses her limbs as weapons as she is a very highly skilled close combat specialist.

The advice you're getting at is not terrible, but the logic behind it is. I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but damn did you get there. As an aspiring writer, I simply had to stop, because of your horrendous assertions. That said, though, here's everything wrong with what you said within the first eight minutes: 1.) Yeah, sure, funky and stark are totally colors. Don't get me started on this one... 2.) Semblances are supposed to be unique, not rare. Literally one-of-a-kind. No one is supposed to share them. Ever. But, then, the Schnee family semblance is somehow hereditary? Kinda hard to break a universe that's already been shattered, lol. But I digress. I personally subscribe to the Raymond McNeil headcanon that a semblance is unique, not because of what it does, but because of two factors: effect and visuals. Simply put: Speed + rose petals is unique to Ruby Rose. Magnetism + black aura, meanwhile is unique to Pyrrha Nikos. No one else can have either of those. But, magnetism while turning a slight shade of pink? Breathing fire with a black aura? Super speed with fire instead of rose petals? literally teleporting while leaving those rose petals in your wake? Those are fine and dandy. 3.) Since when the fuck are OCs meant to BE canon? There's a big difference between FITTING IN canon and BEING canon, dude. There is literally nothing wrong with 1,000 people making one or two silver-eyed warrior OCs each, precisely because your OCs don't exist in the same universe as everyone else's; seriously, dude, that is an absurd assertion. An OC, no matter what franchise we're talking, is always meant to exist in an unofficial AU in which they exist in a canon setting, unless and until the creator thereof states otherwise; no character of mine is meant to exist in the same universe as yours unless we both agree that they do, because by making a original character you are effectively creating said AU. So, yeah, creating a clan of silver-eyed warriors, sure there's plenty wrong with that. But creating one? Not at all, dude. 4.) Creating a mary sue is bad character design because you are breaking the AU in which he/she exists. It's as simple as that. This in no way has anything to do with the relative power-level of huntresses and huntsmen in anyone else's AU. Seriously, where the fuck did you even get that idea?!

Thank you for this

5:04 and now, we know why there are so few silver eye warriors left.

For my oc he fought in an underground fight club where he honed his skills and learned to fight outside of the schools. Kinda similar but slightly different from Blake’s reasons

Big tip I always use when thinking of characters: how could they be defeated? What are their flaws? What are they bad at? Are they bad at long range or close range fighting? Do their semblence help them in their fighting style? Are they better at fighting or better at aura manipulation, or maybe better at using their semblence? Is their semblence a support offense or defense semblence? Is it a passive or active semblence? Is it activation based or emotional based? What are their character flaws? Are they too prideful to back away from a fight? Maybe they dont want to fight with a group because they feel like they are better alone, or maybe their semblence is better for one on one fighting but is worse in team fights? How do they fight without their semblences? Think of how they are the worst at stuff, instead of what they are the best at. The best points will come along in the process of thinking of their worst points

You acctually helped me a lot, i like theese ideas and im really happy that my 3 OCs fit on them. And i kinda didnt know about the color name thing, i didnt even knew monty was the creator of rwby i made some search and... he died? Man it feels bad, i love this show and i really feel bad, but again thank you very much.

love ur vids, keep these up! cant wait for Vol 8

This is a really helpful video! Definitely gave me some ideas/things to think about for some of my own OCs

I think the main problem I had is inspiration. While have made my OC's (which I don't think are all that good yet that I'm currently working brushing up that I feel like I went a little to fast upon making) I had trouble incorporating bits and elements of my inspiration without making them too similar or the same character. I'm still working on in but I hope in Improve. I'm gonna be honest I can't draw and seeing the millions of OC makes me jealous but while I did write their character I still feel like mine are underwhelming to others but I'm happy I tried as I'm big as fan of RWBY as everyone else so I want to make my own and put in the world of RWBY.

Cool, now I can use these as help to create a character.

This is helpful for not just RWBY OCs but characters im general, in an existing universe or original. I gonna use your advice for my own original universe when creating characters, I especially liked the consequences of abilities advice.

I enjoy making RWBY characters based around a combat style. My current favorite is a guy with Gravity Knuckle Dusters whose Semblance is called Double Tap. His semblance lets him double the damage to an area he hits twice while his Knuckle Dusters apply Gravity Dust strips to his opponents so he can throw them off balance or just hit them a second time in that spot. He also has a similar Gravity function on a set of Metal Shin Guards. No long ranged combat, though he isn’t gonna try to start a fight that with an enemy before he’s in proximity

A character in a world must be of the world, a character in a story must be of the story. If the character appears exempt from the world or story, then they're of no relevance to anyone except the character's creator, no matter how interesting they are. This is true for any character, your's and their's.

There is only one OC character for me in the RWBY universe, and that character is....... . . . . . . . . . ....."Abused and Neglected Male Reader".

This is wonderful. As someone who has been moderating community rules on RWBY original characters (back when Google+ was a thing) and designing (/constantly redesigning) my own for circa five years now, I found that you covered everything in a clear, informative, engaging manner. I cannot wait to hear you go into specifics on different aspects of design and character building - it'll be an awesome resource for people.

13:00 weapon concept (gun functions) for Tactical Recoil Action Dual function: Boost/Shoot Example: Vita from Lyrical Nanoha Basically the gun side has two load functions: to power up weapon attacks or load bullets to shoot enemies. How quick or complicated it works depends on the weapon and the character Also read: Weaponized Exhaust

Things that bother me about OC's: Elemental and Transforming Semblances Ones that don't have Allusions Backstories that don't sound like it would fit into the RWBY Universe... (I mean I'm on a RWBY Amino and some OC's have great designs, weapons, semblances and stuff. But the amount of people who allude themselves into their OC is kinda annoying.) For Semblances some people use Grimm as an excuse for an OC getting it's semblance...

Me & my friend's OC's team is CAKE

Dude I love the Phoenix as well. I finally found someone who enjoys them as well. Subscribed

I remember Alice Cristar (i didn't know about the naming rules when I made her) she's based on a grimdark version of Alice in Wonderland and a creature known as an Ijiraq, which is basically a snow skinwalker. while she was born in Mistral, she was raised in Atlas, giving her more of an Atlassian feel. she's 24 and already graduated. her team was Team A.Q.U.A. she's always serene and unfeeling in terms of how she comes off to other people, giving off the sensation of a calm before the storm. she's also pretty secretive but is good at making people think they know enough about her to be comfortable talking to her. her weapon is White Lily, it's ironically a jet black sword, but since she specializes in using ice dust in combination with her semblance, the sword glows white when ice dust is being used and it's actually made out of black diamond surrounded by tempered steel. it doesn't have a ranged form however and that's because while she is a speed fighter, she relies on trapping her opponents. mainly she creates traps or distractions with her semblance and then strikes from the least expected angle. speaking of her semblance, it's called Cristar B. it creates aura based mirrors that bend the light and create a maze. they can be passed through quite easily, however they have a special reaction with ice dust that solidifies them. she can create these mirrors a maximum of 20 feet away, since she's been using them from five years old and her parents made a living on tutoring hunter academy students who needed extra help. what do you think? is she any good? (i know this is late)

I have a few questions regarding my OCs: Do the characters have to be inspired in a legend or myth? And would these semblances work or do you think it breaks reality: Stonewall, basically creates a wall, like an extension of the shield provided by aura. The character can’t make very large shields or keep them up for a very long time, the longer he keeps it up or the more damage it has to absorb, the more aura it costs. Blink, the ability to teleport (I got the idea from Overwatch). The character can only teleport to somewhere she has a line of sight to and can’t teleport indefinitely due to Aura. Overcharge, the ability to increase the strength of a particular limb for short release of energy. It would drain more aura the more energy is built up for a strike (this is the one I’m most unsure about). Premonition, the ability to see into the future. It would be used mostly in combat to see a few seconds into the future in order to predict an opponent’s move. The main drawback would be of course aura drain, and the reliability of each prediction: the further into the future he tries to see, the less reliable and clear the vision becomes. This would be because the distance into the future would increase the number of variables that need to be accounted for and because the future isn’t set in stone. The ability is also weaker in fights with many people because the number of people also increases the number of variables. What do you think? Would this work?

Yeah like mine shiranami Silvia her weapon is a sythe and bow and arrow and her semblance is kinda similar to Ruby but instead of rose petals she turns into a stream of water I have started to make a backstory for her like her weapons name is Scylla because I based her off of charybdis from the Greek myths she is from Vale and she went to beacon four years before team RWBY does haven't quite gotten to her teammates or their team name yet

As someone whose been on the Fanon wiki for 6 years (and has more WIP OCs than she knows what to do with), I love this video. Thank you, and I am totally gonna pay attention to your OCs. A handy tool for the CNR that I use is the Behind the Name website. Works great for searching up names that mean stuff like "stream" or "deer" or "ash".

This is such a great video! Thank you ❤️

Random comment: If you look at Mercury v Yang, there is no actual evidence that Mercury threw that match other than the fact that it worked out for Cinder's plan. If you look at the fight itself, there is no indication that Merc was holding back, in fact he came very close to knocking her out. My best guess is that he was either trying to win, but had the plan for if he did lose and that he was going to lose on purpose to another contestant down the line if he did beat Yang, or that he was going to try to pull the trick even if he won (where he would win, but still Em would make Yang think he was attacking her as he walked by her). The fact that Yang was as close to an aura break as she was is a good indication that he didn't throw the match on purpose.

9:29 - 11:14 The fairy tales my oc is base off of is Urashima Tarō and the the King of Kusasthali. What am I supposed to do?

This was a fun guide to creating your own RWBY OC, I'm hoping to create one someday ^^ Awesome video ^^

I had a friend that was wanting to do a RWBY Pathfinder campaign (fell through) but got the base for an OC. The idea is a family of vampires so the semblance is hereditary and called "bloodline." While powerful and very versatile (with some becoming "lords"), it drains both blood and aura so they can tire very fast. They also have such a unique power they developed specific gauntlets to be a base for all their weapons. They can cut the hand and mix it with dust (1 at a time for stability) but again, you are not going to last long using blood as a fuel source.

My OC's team is team MLDY pronounced melody is that ok?

Nah, I’ll keep my semblance: Za warudo!

10:10 I made a character whose semblance involves affecting the flow of time. However, she's not a student. She's the oldest teacher at Beacon, at like- 88 years old I think. She would have had DECADES to hone this power

Well idk how I found this video probably YT recommendations, but I quite enjoyed this video. And it helps with a character I was planning on making with the Kirin in Japanese mythology and this greatly helped with coming up with a semblance. Thanks for the video.

First?

Great video Phoenix/night. As someone who recently got into character designs and starting to work on my own ocs for RWBY, and I mostly agree with the things you were saying, like the weapons thing where it can’t be excessive and that the characters can’t be busted or insanely op depending on their skill and age. For one of my OCS named iron prime, he’s powerful and skilled, being good with blades and hand to hand combat and being a good shot, but he isn’t invincible as he doesn’t have a semblance or even an aura due to his physical condition, and if went up against people as skilled or more skilled than he is, he has a high chance of losing due to him being a sort of glass cannon, but even with that problem he can get back up and fight. The only thing I don’t bother with is the naming thing since I really don’t often like the names that are often restrictive. but one thing I think you could’ve included in the video would be their personality traits based on design, semblance, the tale that the creator got inspired from, or what they went through, like being in the Great War. other than that great video man, and due to my new fond of creativity for some modifications to the weapons of my OCS

My character's semblance is psychokinesis. he uses his mind to move objects and his weapon. focusing hard enough can also give him some limited levitation. extensive use of his semblance can cause migraines/headaches, and can even cause him to pass out if he pushes himself over his limits. I'm still working on other applications that don't sound too OP

Before the Grimm Campaign stuff got released, I worked on a modified DND 5E version for RWBY. Even now, I still use that when making new characters, purely because it helps to make sure they're somewhat balanced. This also included a system for making weapons & semblances with a points cost so that no weapon/character could do everything

This is the character as I came up with he's a falcon faunes he has very good eyesight on the long distance but bad eyesight on the close as his trait, he uses a dule caliber rotating barrel sniper rifle, 50 bmg and 338 leopold round, for variable speed. Retractable bayonets between the rotating barrels. His semblance is acceleration field it is about the size of a quarter and anything that passes through it goes faster and hits harder based upon how far it is from him, aka the farther he sets the field stronger his shots but harder to hit. He is good at killing grimm up to 5 miles but has trouble if they get close. He is an older huntsman who retired after the rest of his team, team WRLN(whirlwind), died at mountain glen, With which is one of the few survivors of with him lousing a leg and one of his hands to grimm, were he then moved to Menagerie or some other small settlement since he could no longer stand living in vale. His name is Nathan (no last name) based upon Navy. He has basic prosthetics for his hand and leg but nothing to fancy, more like prosthetics of real life. With mentioned to his weapon the gun part is actually real to see extent and is known as God since it can be used to kill anyone in a 5 miles of the shooter as long as you can see them, scary. But the retractable bayonet is spear is something I added. I can totally see him as that old grouchy who stays up in a watchtower of some sort who hates company but is great at keeping grimm away. If you have not realized his fatal flaw is close range like if you get within 10 feet he is in trouble.

I have a character named Lucinia Calla with the semblance "Aura Nullification". Essentially, it works in a similar manner to Tyrian's "Aura Disruption" and Gillian's "Aura Siphon" in that it messes around with another combatants aura in some way. However, Calla is able to completely remove a person's aura if they are in the immediate vicinity of her (and I mean incredibly close). Here's the catch, by activating her semblance, she loses her own aura temporarily for however long she is disabling the aura of her opponent, effectively turning the fight into a deathmatch. Her weapon compliments her semblance, being a dust-infused whip/lasso that she can use either from a distance, or to pull opponents closer and bind so that she can activate her semblance (she is definitely a close-quarters fighter considering her semblance essentially demands a near-mastery of martial arts and hand to hand combat). I honestly am excited for when I finally make my teams (yes, plural) and share them with others via a series of 3D Animations (I'm a first year student who _just_ finished my first semester, fun times), as fight choreography and character design is my interest, and Monty Oum (by extent RWBY and RvB) are massive inspirations.. NOTE: Calla's aura is inherently lower due to the nature of her semblance, as I felt if she had a regular amount of aura that it'd be too powerful in tandem with her semblance.

Ice manifestation, can create ice in various shapes, similar to Weiss's ice glyphs. Because tripping people and causing them to slide into a solid object is fun.

While I haven't really been looking too hard lately, it's nice to see/hear people still talking about ways to make a better OC for this fandom. As for an OC of my own I've toyed with since the beginning, the most finalized details I have for him would be that he's from a blacksmithing family with a semblance to mold and solidify his aura into armor that he or others can use. The thicker the armor, the smaller the covered area due to aura limitations.

A few things on my oc. She is a Komodo Dragon faunus (the trait being the bite/teeth being poisonous) and her Semblance is, to keep this short, Yang's but elemental. She gets hit by a specific element and it allows her to like, use that element. For example, she gets burned, she can then produce fire. Limit is 1 element and the most recent element overrides the previous one.

I have an OC named Vera Rose- She is Summer's older sister and has heterocromia eyes, one silver, the other a light blue. She does not get any of the insane powers Ruby does since her's is only in one eye and is a rare problem. Her semblance that I thought of is 'swap' which means after she has touched a person, she can swap places with the person she touched. She mainly uses it by swapping the placement of aura and with that, people as well. Her weapon is a Bō. Which is a long stick as a weapon, she modified it to where she would have one end with a gun, which is only able to work if she pressed down on the trigger to revert it. She tends to have a back up weapon in case her's doesn't work or in case her weapon get's thrown away by enemies. She is mainly an oc made for fun to be a female for Ruby and Yang to look up to, and to be a emotional support for Qrow and his semblance. I would like your opinions on her.

Also I like your OC she looks cool and I love the design you came up with it too.

Hey, I'm new to the channel and I loved this video. I was trying to create an OC and this video helped me a lot and reinforced my idea of semblance: I got the idea of an anime character that I love that is Vector Manipulation. Basically semblance allows you to change the strength and direction of things that come into contact with the body. But each change drains from your aura and the greater the force of change, the greater the drain. I also thought about focusing on medium distance combat with pistols, the idea of the weapon is that direct combat can drain your aura faster by trying to reflect the damage received by reflex, and reflecting your own shots using the aura allows for more accurate shooting. Thanks for the video

It has recently come to my attention that I accidentally mashed together two Greek heroes into one. Sting Hipol is my RWBY OC, and was supposed to be based on Hippolytus, Poseidon’s boy who rode horses. However, he’s designed to be a stingray Faunus. Lo and behold, Odysseus was killed by a spear with a stingray point for a head. ...Guess what Sting’s primary melee preference is.

I think I needed to hear that bit about "perfect close range and long range weapon" and the different fighting styles. The more OCs I made, the more I grew worried about weapons. I felt that if it didn't have at least a useful function in both categories, it wouldn't be a good weapon. I think I partially came to that conclusion due to only using Team RWBY's weaponry as an example (while not looking to how they actually use each function/form of their weapon), and also taking the "everything's a gun" joke a little too literally. I also think part of it was I got worried that the characters wouldn't be able to hold their own as an individual, although looking back at both RWBY and JNPR makes me feel that having to cooperate with others is a bit of a theme supported by fight scenes.

Thank you SO MUCH for this video!! I've been struggling a little when making my rwby oc's and this is just what I needed! It can be really hard coming up with a design that fits in the canon world :( I personally came up with a really good OC, not too OP for her age ahaha but the hardest part was coming up with a name that resembled her color..... And now I need to come up with 3 more OC's to finish the team, it's gonna take a while and I was kinda ready to give up, so this video showed up at the rght time for me, it gave me motivation! I'm gonna follow every step you mentioned, thank you so much!

I do enjoy that you emphasize a canon OC character. As I’m currently making my second for a story I’m planning to write, they will be having a mythical Faunus trait. The story containing this character is an AU and by that not meant to exist in a world of other OCs. Still though even beyond that this video certainly has several good points to help people when making characters.

just joined the Discord Cant wait to see more OCs

Thank you so much, I need it this

I wish people would make videos like this for all fandoms. Having one of these for Dragon Ball would be super amazing. You, sir, have earned a like and a subscription from me.

On the topic of manipulating time, it turns out that as of Volume 8 Episode 12, Marrow's Semblance of freezing people in place ISN'T done by manipulating time. Because one of the people Marrow freezes in this episode can still roll an eye despite being unable to move any other part of their body.

A far sighted sniper who hates how glasses look on themselves. They can shoot quite well, but have trouble in close combat.

I've made 4 OC, 2 detailed adults (same age as Winter) and their parents (one is dead). Just started writing some short stories about my OCs, this is going to be a big help. Being adults they have jobs with the Atlas Military

I'm currently making my own OC's, this video will help me a lot! Thank you!

This alone had taken like all my oc ideas and crushed them to the point I've scraped all but two I had seven and they wernt even that bad the last one that pushes it is my freaking kitsune. I'm not scraping him