"Revamping" Characters?

[Flamebird]

Ello,

Okay, so say I wasn't exactly making a new character, just kind of "rebooting" the old one. Say I just gave said character completely new abilities, changed minor things about their appearance, and completely changed their backstory. But it's still the same character. It's the same personality and basic physical appearance, and it has the same equipment, including stuff I bought. It's not a new character, but it's so heavily edited…

… would I have to count it as a "new character" on the profile I'm using?

[Eteri]

I personally wouldn't change the history.

But all the other stuff is fine, look at Madison! Went from briarheart shambles to book lady

[Lavinian Dementia]

Its a difficult line to draw between a revamp and a brand new character, however, Madison has given leeway to completely rejiggering the skills and abilities of a character. So with that in mind, changing history isn't as big a deal, you should be fine.

[Hysteria]

Skills and abilities can change a lot with a new level. For example, my character starts worshiping N'Jal, that could lead to a huge change in the types of abilities she has. History can change too as you flesh out the character.

[Letho]

I see no reason why edits, even such extensive ones as those to history or abilities, shouldn't be allowed, because that's basically what they are: edits. Writers do them all the time. I'm certain there are some people who create a character and it's just the way they want the character to be and it develops just the way they intended. But I believe a far greater number of us discover our characters as we write with them. And if at some point down the line you find out: "Hey, this ability doesn't really fit this character now that I tried it out a couple of times, and also this history I came up with isn't all that great and I came up with a far better one," I see no reason why you should be forced to start from the beginning again. I don't think writers have a tendency to scrap pages and pages of their work and then redo it them over again when they can just go back and do some corrections.

The only thing you're sacrificing is some continuity, but unless your character is closely involved with another and the changes you make affect the story between them, it shouldn't be a major concern.

[Flamebird]

Thank you all! This answers my question :)