IT'S OVER 9000!

When making a character, how strong do you make them in relation to the world? Do you prefer to play as someone still learning, as someone incompetent, or do you like to start out as a seasoned badass? Do you change the strength of your character much throughout the RP?

I like to start out as someone who is special somehow, but has their interesting faults. Over the course of a RP I usually find out what I like and dislike about the character and might push them in certain directions to fix that. They might end up a bit stronger :p but it can also be fun to play a character who gets more and more faults or plotlines pulling them to make them weaker in general.

Perfect badassery is boring from my experience ;)

Both actually. I don't really have a preference for either, but they're never at the whole end of the experienced side. Sadly I've never done a Roleplay that lasted long enough to make a real character development, so I can't say much about that.

I will never make a seasoned bad ass character. Maybe as an NPC, but never as my main PC.
My whole draw on story telling is the room for improvement, and the improvement is the journey. My list so far goes:

Sydan Rhomes: Reasonably well trained, however no fully evolved pokemon and a chronic inferiority complex

Achilles Nimbus: Overcame crippling illness to be a good fighter who is acknowledged for that very accomplishment. However is still pretty mediocre in battle, despite his speed and technique, his lack of physical strength lets him down.

Max Ramsey: Well he's just started his pokemon journey so...

Drew Crowley: Similar to Sydan. He's reasonably well trained, but he's just average. Unlike Sydan he has nothing that makes him stand out in a crowd, other than his tactical prowess.

Lorenzo Immobile: No stronger than your average joe in combat. He's a scoundrel with little money. All he has is his skill of manipulation, which can only bring him so far.

I never used to go for badasses because I never wanted to be that RPer. My characters were often just average people thrown into crazy situations, like my Pokemon Walking Dead character who was actually an out-of-shape cook.

In recent years I have entered one or two RPs in which people are expected to be SOME level of strong, so I did make a few characters that weren't exactly beginners in combat. I always take care to give them some massive flaws though.

Currently, for example, I've put up an SU for Venice with a character who's actually a retired~ badass. xD As she is normally, she is strong but not overly powerful, and for several complicated reasons she tries to stay as far away from combat as possible. It'll be kinda hard to pull off, considering Venice is pretty much a battle RP, but it'll certainly be interesting!

Or my other character in that RP, who has no combat skills and dark gray morals. I'm so interested to see how he might develop.

Really, how strong I make my characters generally depends on the setting of the RP and how strong other characters are. I would never want to make the strongest character in an RP, but sometimes unequivocably weak characters don't make sense - especially in an RP where death is a feature. ^^

My characters usually have one or two areas that they are naturally skilled at or have worked to hone whilst they are much weaker in other areas. Playing a character with no weaknesses would be really boring however playing a character with no ability to win would suck a bit too.

Looking at some of my recent characters

Bridges L Skellen (One Piece) - He's fast, agile and skilled and highly intelligent making use of his medical knowledge to produce both potent medicines and poisons. That might sound OP, but let's remember this is a One Piece RP. Aside from those traits, Skellen has no special powers and he isn't particularly strong physically nor does he take hits very well. So even though he is an extremely dangerous person, he's almost always been the underdog in his fights too. I not too long ago joked that he was simultaneously the weakest and the most OP in a fight.

Tasman Bailey (Begin Again) - Tasman is a beginning trainer who is extremely intelligent and has a natural knack for strategising. However he's also got very little experience as a trainer which quite frequently holds him back, not too mention he has the personality flaw of boring far too easily.

Adalina Capello (Venice) - Okay so technically she hasn't been accepted yet, but she will be. Adalina is of a race called Fae (based on faery legend I'm like 100% sure). She is of one of the few species to actually possess magical abilities being able to warp reality to a minor degree - conjuring and metamorphosing objects, laying curses etc. Despite this though she is also easily overpowered being very small in stature and physically weak. She's more of "cause havoc and run away" character than a fighter.

I usually tend to play weaker characters, since I have self esteem issues that prevent me from seeing myself as a badass. Sometimes I play stronger characters, but I rarely throw my weight around, usually because I like to let others have the spotlight.

For example, Star Gazer in Titans is one of the weakest team members, but her fun personality and creativity make her fun to have around. On the other hand, Rex from Darker than it Seems might be the strongest member of the party, but he intentionally limits himself.