How to balance a Nature Spirit?

One of my many stories has a powerful Nature Spirit as an occasional ally of the heroes. Heroes who are hunting for an evil Nature Spirit up to no good. The problem is that I don't know how to handle the good nature spirit's powers in the story. All those powers she has would have enabeled the heroes to win far too quickly and easily. Any ideas for making her less of an Deus ex Machina character and more balanced?

Don't describe the character in trope terms but in your own words. What do you mean when you say "spirit"? "Nature"? You're the one who decides how powerful "powerful" is. How anthropomorphicized are they? Why do they need the hero's help at all?

Nature spirit is such a broad term. What kind of nature spirit? Without that, I cannot even guess at the powers you are having trouble with.

Although a good starting point is that most nature spirit types have a domain. They can't control stuff outside of that domain.

edited 12th Jun '16 6:07:43 PM by war877

Balance isn't real.

You can write a story about an nearly omnipotent being. There are several very successful comics build on a similar premise.

The question is: How do I make this being so that it facilitates the stories I want it to.

Decide what issues this being can't help with; then try to establish why. Maybe it only holds power in certain areas, or in certain circumstances. Sure, it can strike out with great power in forests or swamps, or in the defense of sacred trees or glades, but maybe it has no power in cities or when no one attempts to harm nature around it.

Maybe it's bound by a code of conduct that prevents it from performing certain actions. Maybe it can only harm those who harm it; maybe it must help those that help it.

Well, she is based on the Scandinavian Skogsrå (a kind of Nature Spirit / Troll), so she looks more or less human, but with a fox-tail and power-wize is pretty much allmighty, at least in her domain. I'm not sure how large her domain is, but I guess it will be something unspecified ranging from "large" to "the whole world". She combines the ideas that supernatural beings being treated well often are helpful, if unpredictable and strange and the part of nature that is unpredictable, but "friendly". She loves everything living equally. Plants and animals, animals and humans . She has the same power over an ant-hill as over an human city. After all, humans belong in nature when all is said and done.

Ways of limiting her? It seems likes she tries to keep an balance in the world. "You didn't ask", "You didn't need to know" or "You managed just fine anyway so why complaining?" is is a common tings for her to say She is prone to wierd "logics" so common with of Trolls and The Fair Folk in stories.

You speak as if she is mother nature, rather than merely a legendary forest creature. As there are many skogsrå, I'd imagine they would each have power comparable one another. I'd imagine they would be rather limited. Comparable to a dryad, which each gets one tree. Low level spirits like this are rarely compared to gods in power.

Since your villain is another forest spirit, wouldn't they be essentially matched in the first place?

That is one of my problems. I'm uncertain about what her ranking is on the scale between Mother Earth and minor nature spirit. Also, the Skogsrå can vary quite a bit from story to story... Sometimes are they minor spirits, sometimes are they borderline gods. The evil nature spirit is based on the more nasty aspects of nature and the Skogsrå, so yeah, they are in theory equal, even tough the baddie is currently sealed in a can (but the baddie can still influence the "outside" world really well).

edited 13th Jun '16 1:59:49 PM by TheBorderPrince

Make the evil spirit really cunning. Give them a solid plan and excellent charisma. If they form a large support network of villains and other henchmen, you won't have to worry so much about an overpowered hero.

You can also make the friendly spirit more of a Big Good. Give her a belief in noninterventionism. Because of her beliefs, she will restrict herself to some advice and a few magic trinkets.

edited 13th Jun '16 3:18:12 PM by war877

You said the good spirit cares about all life? Would that include the bad spirit? That could be a reason. She wants to help stop the bad spirit because of the life it is endangering, but is also sometimes hesitant in endangering its life.

An eccelent idea... Given the Insane Troll Logic of the two Nature spirits would it actually make kind of sense.