Is it complex (power system)?

[Abnormals]

• Apprentice / Novice (1–5★): The foundational stage for beginners and those with weak talents. Individuals at this level are undergoing early training and lack significant combat or magical power.
• Warrior / Knight (6–10★): The standard tier for active combatants who have achieved basic proficiency in martial arts or magic, serving as the backbone of common military forces.
• Master Tier (11–20★): A level of moderate expertise where practitioners begin to transcend normal human limits, gaining a youthful physique and a slight extension to their natural lifespan.
• Saint Tier (21–30★): Comprising only a few dozen individuals, these regional heroes possess enhanced physical resilience and significant fame, living several decades longer than the average person.
• King Tier (31–50★): The national elite, consisting of fewer than 50 individuals worldwide. They maintain their physical prime for centuries and represent the primary power of sovereign nations.
• Legend Tier (51–70★): World-class mortals who have reached the near-peak of cultivation. With only 11 known members, they are long-lived masters who have spent centuries honing their crafts.
• Mythic Tier (71–100★): The absolute pinnacle of mortal existence. These four ageless beings are extremely rare, possessing the power to rival the world's greatest threats over a 5,000-year lifespan.
  
  
  - Every person gets awakened at the age of 5 or 7 and gets their star (level) cap. Each Tier gives some additional benefits

 

[Alski]

- Every person gets awakened at the age of 5 or 7 and gets their star (level) cap.

Finding out your star cap that early would lead to a rather shitty world.

 

[Abnormals]

Well, bypassing the cap is also an option

 

[simonsighs]

Nope, but I'm comparing it to NEN of Hunter x Hunter haha

 

[MakBow]

Doesn't matter if it's complex. What matters is if it fits with your story.

But no, it isn't complex, if anything, it's pretty simple.

 

[YukieSama]

I don't think it's complex. It seems like a simple escalation of power that can be directly translated to other generic systems like F-rank to S-rank, which isn't a bad thing. Does your story need a complex power system?

 

[Snakes_Emperor]

it's a pretty simple system i'd say, but the politics of it in your world will be... devastatingly bleak xD

When someone awakens at 7 with a max of 5 to 10 stars, they have basically failed at life, since they will be trampled down by a system that will, without fault, be more advantageous to the ones with higher star caps.0

 

[Eldoria]

Arranging levels hierarchically is easy. The difficult part is how to implement the levels into the characters' power in the scenes. How do you show the power difference between master and saint in a fight organically without it feeling forced? How do the limitations of each level affect the characters? What competitive advantages differentiate the higher levels from the lower ones? You need to narrate the power narrative coherently.

 

[Dawnathon]

Finding out your star cap that early would lead to a rather shitty world.

But if you mysteriously don't get a star cap as a child, you'll know you're the protagonist and are going to be the world's first 200 level god tier when you hit 18.

 

[MFontana]

Doesn't matter if it's complex. What matters is if it fits with your story.

But no, it isn't complex, if anything, it's pretty simple.

Arranging levels hierarchically is easy. The difficult part is how to implement the levels into the characters' power in the scenes. How do you show the power difference between master and saint in a fight organically without it feeling forced? How do the limitations of each level affect the characters? What competitive advantages differentiate the higher levels from the lower ones? You need to narrate the power narrative coherently.

Mak and El already addressed much of what I was going to say on those points, so I'll simply add that you should really take what they said to heart.

• Apprentice / Novice (1–5★): The foundational stage for beginners and those with weak talents. Individuals at this level are undergoing early training and lack significant combat or magical power.
• Warrior / Knight (6–10★): The standard tier for active combatants who have achieved basic proficiency in martial arts or magic, serving as the backbone of common military forces.
• Master Tier (11–20★): A level of moderate expertise where practitioners begin to transcend normal human limits, gaining a youthful physique and a slight extension to their natural lifespan.
• Saint Tier (21–30★): Comprising only a few dozen individuals, these regional heroes possess enhanced physical resilience and significant fame, living several decades longer than the average person.
• King Tier (31–50★): The national elite, consisting of fewer than 50 individuals worldwide. They maintain their physical prime for centuries and represent the primary power of sovereign nations.
• Legend Tier (51–70★): World-class mortals who have reached the near-peak of cultivation. With only 11 known members, they are long-lived masters who have spent centuries honing their crafts.
• Mythic Tier (71–100★): The absolute pinnacle of mortal existence. These four ageless beings are extremely rare, possessing the power to rival the world's greatest threats over a 5,000-year lifespan.
  
  
  - Every person gets awakened at the age of 5 or 7 and gets their star (level) cap. Each Tier gives some additional benefits

Well, bypassing the cap is also an option

To address the rest, I'll start with a simple question, and those born of it.
Why?
Why this power system at all?
What purpose does it serve for your narrative?
What roles do the characters have within it?
Why are the upper levels so limited, population wise?
Why are they even there if they are so limited?
Why even the extension to lifespan? (This would make it an increasingly boring existence, to be sure).

and How?
as in How do the character's grow beyond their cap?
If everyone CAN grow beyond their cap, then why is there a cap to begin with?
How is the system being implemented?

Overall, to me anyway, it reads like the typical Battle-Shonen power-up based rank system, and that lends itself strictly to a singular type of narrative (One that I personally find exceedingly boring, and predictable). It's liable to fall victim to "power-creep" very quickly if you're not careful about managing that against the intended threat-level of the challenges in order to maintain a degree of relevance and narrative tension.

The alternative narrative structure that the system lends itself well to is the typical Over-Powered Protagonist featured in the usual Isekai Power-Fantasy with more than the typical layering of wish-fulfillment. This structure is also full of narrative expectations, and can relatively quickly fall victim to its narrative flaws if an author isn't careful about managing them.

What you really need to ask yourself is "What kind of narrative do I want to tell?" because that will definitely play a part in the design of your own "power system" and will drastically impact its implementation. If you're going for either of those two narrative structures and styles, by all means use it how you have it already. It's lending itself nicely to what the readers of those narratives like to see. (Why fix what ain't broke?).
If you're trying for something different though, you may want to reconsider the system's structure, and exactly what portions of it are relevant to the narrative you want to write.

Personally, I'd suggest you keep it somewhere in this range here. It's the overall "sweet-spot" for narrative tension and impactful growth. (Yes, I also tweaked the system below with a few other suggested refinements).

• Apprentice / Novice (1–5★): The foundational stage for (civilians). Individuals at this level are undergoing early training and lack significant combat or magical power experience.
• Warrior / Knight (6–10★): The standard tier for active combatants who have achieved basic proficiency in martial arts or magic, serving as the backbone of common military forces.
• Master Tier (11–20★): A level of moderate expertise (and self-mastery) where practitioners begin to transcend normal human limits, gaining a youthful physique and a slight extension to their natural lifespan.

I'd also suggest you remove the whole "awakening and cap" bit, in favor of a system that rewards investment, self-mastery, and reasonable growth. Anyone can improve, with enough time, effort, dedication, and self-mastery. This makes the journey the focus, rather than the end-point.

The rest, is in your hands. Use the suggestions, or don't. It's up to you to decide what works for your narrative, and the kind of narrative you want to tell, and the target audience you have in mind.

 

[FRWriter]

Mak and El already addressed much of what I was going to say on those points, so I'll simply add that you should really take what they said to heart.



To address the rest, I'll start with a simple question, and those born of it.
Why?
Why this power system at all?
What purpose does it serve for your narrative?
What roles do the characters have within it?
Why are the upper levels so limited, population wise?
Why are they even there if they are so limited?
Why even the extension to lifespan? (This would make it an increasingly boring existence, to be sure).

and How?
as in How do the character's grow beyond their cap?
If everyone CAN grow beyond their cap, then why is there a cap to begin with?
How is the system being implemented?

Overall, to me anyway, it reads like the typical Battle-Shonen power-up based rank system, and that lends itself strictly to a singular type of narrative (One that I personally find exceedingly boring, and predictable). It's liable to fall victim to "power-creep" very quickly if you're not careful about managing that against the intended threat-level of the challenges in order to maintain a degree of relevance and narrative tension.

The alternative narrative structure that the system lends itself well to is the typical Over-Powered Protagonist featured in the usual Isekai Power-Fantasy with more than the typical layering of wish-fulfillment. This structure is also full of narrative expectations, and can relatively quickly fall victim to its narrative flaws if an author isn't careful about managing them.

What you really need to ask yourself is "What kind of narrative do I want to tell?" because that will definitely play a part in the design of your own "power system" and will drastically impact its implementation. If you're going for either of those two narrative structures and styles, by all means use it how you have it already. It's lending itself nicely to what the readers of those narratives like to see. (Why fix what ain't broke?).
If you're trying for something different though, you may want to reconsider the system's structure, and exactly what portions of it are relevant to the narrative you want to write.

Personally, I'd suggest you keep it somewhere in this range here. It's the overall "sweet-spot" for narrative tension and impactful growth. (Yes, I also tweaked the system below with a few other suggested refinements).

I'd also suggest you remove the whole "awakening and cap" bit, in favor of a system that rewards investment, self-mastery, and reasonable growth. Anyone can improve, with enough time, effort, dedication, and self-mastery. This makes the journey the focus, rather than the end-point.

The rest, is in your hands. Use the suggestions, or don't. It's up to you to decide what works for your narrative, and the kind of narrative you want to tell, and the target audience you have in mind.

Your helpful, absolutely true, and insightful comment probably took ten times the effort it took OP to prompt this system through GPT, with which it was created.

My heart is shattering, because I am doubtful your helpful reply will fall on fertile ground.

It's good advice though... learned something myself. When I create a story like that, I'll probably remember a thing or two.

 

[MFontana]

Your helpful, absolutely true, and insightful comment probably took ten times the effort it took OP to prompt this system through GPT, with which it was created.

My heart is shattering, because I am doubtful your helpful reply will fall on fertile ground.

It's good advice though... learned something myself. When I create a story like that, I'll probably remember a thing or two.

You're probably right (about all of that), but as long as it helped someone, then it was worth the effort. So thanks, for that. (And the compliments).

 

[Lysander_Works]

Sounds like I'm getting an advertisement from a mobile game

 

[CharlesEBrown]

If everyone awakens automatically with no special actions, then this is not only not complex, it is very limiting and boring. You really only have two ways to go with it: The MC is awakened at a ridiculously high level, threatens the cosmic order by his or her very existence and has to fight constantly until dead or at the absolute top of the heap OR MC winds up at the rock bottom of the scale and has to struggle constantly to do anything.
Both of which you can find dozens of existing stories of a similar nature out there already.

 

[MagicBunyip]

Every person gets awakened at the age of 5 or 7 and gets their star (level) cap.

New plan. Big twist.

Instead of 5 or 7 (why does it skip 6?).

Awakening is ONLY at 4.

Star Cap cannot be exceeded by any means.

Star Cap information is strictly private and is ONLY provided once, at awakening and only to the 4 year old directly. It cannot be divined by any other means.

Societal power hierarchy now revolves entirely around the ability of 4 year olds to remember and be honest about two digit numbers.

Best power cap system ever.

 

[Abnormals]

Mak and El already addressed much of what I was going to say on those points, so I'll simply add that you should really take what they said to heart.



To address the rest, I'll start with a simple question, and those born of it.
Why?
Why this power system at all?
What purpose does it serve for your narrative?
What roles do the characters have within it?
Why are the upper levels so limited, population wise?
Why are they even there if they are so limited?
Why even the extension to lifespan? (This would make it an increasingly boring existence, to be sure).

and How?
as in How do the character's grow beyond their cap?
If everyone CAN grow beyond their cap, then why is there a cap to begin with?
How is the system being implemented?

Overall, to me anyway, it reads like the typical Battle-Shonen power-up based rank system, and that lends itself strictly to a singular type of narrative (One that I personally find exceedingly boring, and predictable). It's liable to fall victim to "power-creep" very quickly if you're not careful about managing that against the intended threat-level of the challenges in order to maintain a degree of relevance and narrative tension.

The alternative narrative structure that the system lends itself well to is the typical Over-Powered Protagonist featured in the usual Isekai Power-Fantasy with more than the typical layering of wish-fulfillment. This structure is also full of narrative expectations, and can relatively quickly fall victim to its narrative flaws if an author isn't careful about managing them.

What you really need to ask yourself is "What kind of narrative do I want to tell?" because that will definitely play a part in the design of your own "power system" and will drastically impact its implementation. If you're going for either of those two narrative structures and styles, by all means use it how you have it already. It's lending itself nicely to what the readers of those narratives like to see. (Why fix what ain't broke?).
If you're trying for something different though, you may want to reconsider the system's structure, and exactly what portions of it are relevant to the narrative you want to write.

Personally, I'd suggest you keep it somewhere in this range here. It's the overall "sweet-spot" for narrative tension and impactful growth. (Yes, I also tweaked the system below with a few other suggested refinements).

I'd also suggest you remove the whole "awakening and cap" bit, in favor of a system that rewards investment, self-mastery, and reasonable growth. Anyone can improve, with enough time, effort, dedication, and self-mastery. This makes the journey the focus, rather than the end-point.

The rest, is in your hands. Use the suggestions, or don't. It's up to you to decide what works for your narrative, and the kind of narrative you want to tell, and the target audience you have in mind.

Power cap is related to the lore, or should I say, there is a reason, and it will be found out much later in the story, and bypassing is also possible
- If I go in simple terms, take that people are born with the compatibility of some limited resources ( which are made up during younger years), and that's why I go with the star

If everyone awakens automatically with no special actions, then this is not only not complex, it is very limiting and boring. You really only have two ways to go with it: The MC is awakened at a ridiculously high level, threatens the cosmic order by his or her very existence and has to fight constantly until dead or at the absolute top of the heap OR MC winds up at the rock bottom of the scale and has to struggle constantly to do anything.
Both of which you can find dozens of existing stories of a similar nature out there already.

The church is required, or should I say, a catalyst to solidify their vessel

But if you mysteriously don't get a star cap as a child, you'll know you're the protagonist and are going to be the world's first 200 level god tier when you hit 18.

That will be bad, and I have a solution - stars are capped, but even reaching the cap is too hard - It is like even if you get xp from a monster, it will take training - a lot of training to digest it
This is game-like because it is inside a game world

 

[BearlyAlive]

Power cap is related to the lore, or should I say, there is a reason, and it will be found out much later in the story, and bypassing is also possible
- If I go in simple terms, take that people are born with the compatibility of some limited resources ( which are made up during younger years), and that's why I go with the star

Then your whole system is just cultivation with extra steps. If the hard caps of your story are just soft caps caused by economic reasons or scarcity, your world either turns into communism, where the top divides the resources by some arbitrary method, or into pure "Chinese-style murder hobo capitalism" where the rich kill and plunder the weak for no reason other than because they can.

One big writing tip I can't see often enough is: Think about how your power system influences your economy and society.
Just slapping a cool-sounding system onto a random fantasy or cultivation setting can sometimes lead to weird incongruencies, for example, gemstone-based powers in a setting where the villains live in a diamond castle, yet they use a different power source. Or having mages that can create food, yet there's a food shortage in the story while mana potions cost less than an energy drink...

 

[MagicBunyip]

your world either turns into communism, where the top divides the resources by some arbitrary method, or into pure "Chinese-style murder hobo capitalism" where the rich kill and plunder the weak for no reason other than because they can.

I'm going to go from making jokes about four year olds deciding the societal hierarchy to be the guy who nit picks you when you are getting your politics objectively wrong.

The first thing you describe objectively isn't communism or even any remotely common misrepresentation of it, and the second thing you describe isn't specifically Chinese.

It isn't worth addressing your slippery slope argument itself, since the places it is sliding to are so wildly incorrect in their own right.

Lets not get into the details. Especially of the second one. It won't be fun. Maybe try not to do the second one again in particular. Catch someone on the wrong day and it could end up being a forum blood bath.

 

[Abnormals]

In the initial years with soul and the world respond + x(it is what will be revealed in the later story)= makes your vessel that decides your capacity, aka star cap

You can go above the star cap, but due to a lack of harmony and vessel, you have to increase your vessel(revealed in arc 3 or 4)- like you are trying to increase your height at the age of 30(example)

Potential isn't strength; they have to put in the same work as others to gain their star, and it is widely known that you may not even reach your star cap in your whole life - it needs risk

The world is infested with monsters, and humans need immediate strength, not potential alone

We got some top power, and power sure comes with appropriate status, too

It's the medieval period

Resources to grow are hard work (training) and hunting (monster) - no elixer, the most you can get is knowledge for magic and martial arts from family or academy

Doesn't matter if it's complex. What matters is if it fits with your story.

But no, it isn't complex, if anything, it's pretty simple.

Thx, someone tell me it is too complex to remember

 

[CharlesEBrown]

So sounds like a Cultivation system inspired either by the same sources as or literally by XNPC (world suddenly becomes a game world. either overnight or in a very short period of time).
An arbitrary group, either a real church or an organization passing itself off as a religious group (c.f. The Order of St. Vidicon in Christopher Stasheff's "Warlock" series), controls who can or cannot cultivate, and runs a test to show a person's "natural power cap" when they're still a child (5-7), then may provide teaching to exceed that cap for certain individuals as circumstances merit?