First off, thank you for taking the time to help me find a solution for this instead of a flat rejection or throwing on nerfs without working with me! I really appreciate the effort. I've spent the better part of the evening trying to think about how best to find a solution that works with the game rules. Please forgive me ahead of time, Fate canon gets complicated and that can be hard to adjust, but I think it's in those complications that I can find a good balance between playability and game appropriateness.
The biggest problem I have is that, despite all of his character growth in the UBW route, Archer still wants to stop existing If I make him fully human, without any way of being able recognize himself as a Heroic Spirit, he’ll give absolutely zero effort to keep kicking, and therefore be super difficult to play. As a Servant/Heroic Spirit, he has the incentive of not wanting to die and return to the Throne of Heroes, which would be his reason for interacting with other characters and trying to find a way to stay in Thedas, at least for a while.
Since Servants are technically living humans (just with bonuses) when they’re corporeal, maybe the Rift shard could entirely prevent his ability to turn into a spiritual form? He’d be able to tell he were still a Servant by some of the other traits (like not needing to eat or sleep, or being able to feel himself fading away if he doesn’t have enough mana), but if he tries to dematerialize his body, it just won’t work. I can’t remember if there are human ghosts or spirits in DA or not, but if there aren’t, the fact that he was a human before he died is what’s keeping him corporeal and “human” in the game.
Heavy nerfing of his powers is much easier to work with — I don’t need him to be capable of being able to summon the Reality Marble, to be able to create infinite copies of things like he can in canon, or to make Broken Phantasms (turning swords into arrow nukes) to be able to play him. Basic projection of his bow/arrows, Kanshou and Bakuya, as well as retaining his skills (Clairvoyance/True Eye of Mind/Independent Action) are the only crucial parts. Maybe some number/strength limits on the stronger projections and lengthy cooldowns for things like Rho Aias could work, coupled with only being able to use them if he has a Master (therefore giving other characters and their needs influence over him)?
Again, thank you for working with me. I hope I'm not causing you too much trouble.
Re: QUESTIONS
The biggest problem I have is that, despite all of his character growth in the UBW route, Archer still wants to stop existing If I make him fully human, without any way of being able recognize himself as a Heroic Spirit, he’ll give absolutely zero effort to keep kicking, and therefore be super difficult to play. As a Servant/Heroic Spirit, he has the incentive of not wanting to die and return to the Throne of Heroes, which would be his reason for interacting with other characters and trying to find a way to stay in Thedas, at least for a while.
Since Servants are technically living humans (just with bonuses) when they’re corporeal, maybe the Rift shard could entirely prevent his ability to turn into a spiritual form? He’d be able to tell he were still a Servant by some of the other traits (like not needing to eat or sleep, or being able to feel himself fading away if he doesn’t have enough mana), but if he tries to dematerialize his body, it just won’t work. I can’t remember if there are human ghosts or spirits in DA or not, but if there aren’t, the fact that he was a human before he died is what’s keeping him corporeal and “human” in the game.
Heavy nerfing of his powers is much easier to work with — I don’t need him to be capable of being able to summon the Reality Marble, to be able to create infinite copies of things like he can in canon, or to make Broken Phantasms (turning swords into arrow nukes) to be able to play him. Basic projection of his bow/arrows, Kanshou and Bakuya, as well as retaining his skills (Clairvoyance/True Eye of Mind/Independent Action) are the only crucial parts. Maybe some number/strength limits on the stronger projections and lengthy cooldowns for things like Rho Aias could work, coupled with only being able to use them if he has a Master (therefore giving other characters and their needs influence over him)?
Again, thank you for working with me. I hope I'm not causing you too much trouble.