User blog comment:NoFuryLikeMine/Is Godlike Power really the best thing?/@comment-1187478-20100227002321

"There just should be tabs on how powerfull a character can be. If it is ridiculously overpowered than it should have to be changed."

- Lither

That'd be where the common sense part comes in.

Greater Daemon deadlifting tanks? I'm pretty sure that's happened in GW-released fiction.

Psyker channelling enough Warp Strength to deadlift a tank? Hell no, that'd melt anything short of an Alpha-Plus' brain and central nervous system.

It all comes down to whether or not the character should be insanely powerful. We need to remember this is 40k, an entire setting that lives on cranking everything up to eleven. Larger than life characters, tanks the size of cities, walking fortresses with guns the size of skyscrapers, cathedrals the size of entire countries, a negative space wedgie that regularly spews out invasions of possessed, often psychic super soldiers who get pushed back by sheer brute force and tenacity.

The Necrons worship star-devouring gods who eat hope. There's an entire race of planet-eating alien bug-things who just arrived and are dead-set on killing and eating everything. Orks may seem funny and loud, but they're also 8-foot tall biologically engineered killing machines who last long enough after decapitation to decapitate you right back. The Eldar gave birth to a sadistic god of excess with their emotions.

Things in 40k thrive by being over the top. The thing to avoid is going over the top with something completely ridiculous. If something seems to fit having a lot of power, e.g. a Chapter Master, Greater Daemon, Chaos Lord, Archon, Inquisitor (or Inquisitor Lord), Ork Warboss, Eldar Autarch/Farseer, Necron Lord, Tau Shas'o and other beings whose birthright is to hand out preposterous amounts of asskick, by all means, make a powerful character.

By the same token, some organisations are inherently powerful, and it'd make very little sense for them to be weak. Space Marine Chapters, large Chaos Marine Warbands (inherent infighting), Ork Waaaaaaghs (again, infighting risk), Dark Eldar Kabals (powerful in a different fashion), Imperial Guard Regiments (Rated M for Manly), Hive Fleets and so on, should not be insipid, whining wrecks that can't fight their way out of a bar at closing time, let alone a full-blown war.

On the flipside, there are some characters who should NOT' be powerful skull-rippers and colon-stompers. Sure, it's funny to have a secretary punch out an Inquisitor, but bear in mind that they're both human. A secretary punching out an Ork, or a Space Marine or whatever, is a big no (although say the Secretary is a mother defending her children, and runs the Space Marine or Ork over with an articulated truck, that's plain old awesome). Keep away from that stuff whenever you can. There is no excuse for a bog-standard Guardsman going toe-to-toe with a Hive Tyrant and ripping it's head off with his bare hands. Or for said Guardsman to also be an honorary Space Marine or psyker of some kind. That's like pushing a pull door and expecting to get through.

Likewise with organisations. Hive Fleets are big, powerful, planet-eating hive-mind entities. Rogue Trader Fleets are small and rely on raiding or speed. Making them the most feared and dangerous thing ever is ridiculous.

What I'm saying boils down to the following:

Context is the deciding factor. 40k gets it's appeal from it's sheer balls-to-the-walls "Let's take everything and make it even more dangerous" approach.