You may be wondering... Spirit, what in the name of The Sacred Church of Shitposting at 2 AM™ is a Swiss Army Knife character?

Well, to explain, a Swiss Army Knife [or SAK] character is a character with too many weapons or powers, enough to fit most, if not all combat roles one could think of, for example a ranger, a melee fighter, a caster, an engineer, a miracle user, etc etc etc. A SAK character easily kills the need for any other future character to fit any role, because why have a regular knife when you have a swiss army knife? Why have, say, a gunslinger when your main character is already a gunslinger as well as literally everything else?

[I believe I coined that term myself. Maybe someone already got ahead of me and coined the term. I dunno. I tried checking on Google, but I got nothing, so... Yeah, I think I coined this term first.]

As you can tell, I really, really hate this kind of character.

"But Spiriiiiit, what's wrong with a character having a lot of weapons and abilities? Doesn't that make them able to take on any situation easily?"

Yes, my friend, and that's part of the problem with SAK characters.

A good character should be able to learn new things, new solutions and approaches to new situations. In other words, they should have room for proper character development.
Having the easy solution to everything right off the bat just kills the need for any sort of development. How could you improve on what already has no flaws?

Characters should be faced with obstacles and conflicts, so their strengths and resolve can be properly tested, and so their unique skills are highlighted. What's the point on having a fuckload of powers if you can just wipe everyone off the face of the earth anyway, with just two or three? It's just wasted powers.

"But Spiriiiiiiiiit, that makes them very powerful, and super cool! It makes them really badass!"

NO.

NO, IT DOES NOT.

NO AND A MILLION GODDAMN TIMES, NO.

YOU HEARD ME? I SAID

*cough*

Sorry, I lost my temper a bit, there.

Anyway... No. It doesn't. Haphazardly adding powers to your character does not make them cool or badass. It doesn't even make them remotely interesting. It's like if you just threw a million objects into a giant blender, blend them all, and end up with a formless, colorless, unappealing substance. And yet, you insist on drinking that shit.

Why drink that when you can just drink a chocolate milkshake? It doesn't have nearly as many ingredients, but hey, it actually tastes good!

[Author's Note: I don't like milkshakes.]