Competency is a statistic about how capable a character is in doing villainous or heroic acts, while Success Rate is about how successful they managed to be in the end.
While the two tend to intersect, the concepts are different. A character having failed most of the goals doesn’t automatically mean that they’re inept. If that was the case, most villains would be considered incompetent since they’re usually expected to lose at the end of the story.
A character’s Success Rate is not solely influenced by their Competency. A perfectly competent character may still end up losing due to facing someone more powerful and/or smart than them or even by sheer bad luck for example.
Competency Levels
Hyper-Competent
The character is not just competent, they’re extremely efficient to the point their competence is famous in their work.
They rarely fail their goals, since they’ll often have many back-up plans and are prepared to any problem.
This doesn’t mean that they’re completely unbeatable, since like any human, they may still end up doing a little mistake, but said mistakes are never terrible enough to downplay their competence.
Competent
The character is pretty competent and will usually have an high Success Rate, although failing at the end doesn’t disqualify a character from being considered Competent, since a character can fail without having done anything particularly detrimental.
They’re good at their job and at doing heroics or evil acts, and while they can have flaws that may impair their plans, they are able to recover from their mistakes.
Mostly Competent
The character has many of the requirements to be considered Competent, but they have at least one that leads to their failure. This flaw is something that is a prominent part of their characterization and that they are unable to completely subvert.
Characters who commit a mistake that costs their win, but whose mistake can’t be tied back to a specific flaw they have, aren’t considered Mostly Competent.
Neutral
The character doesn’t have a precise level of competency, since they don’t have any goal to accomplish.
They’re often minor characters who don’t do heroic or villainous acts due to mostly minding their business in the background.
Mostly Incompetent
The character’s flaws constantly damage their possibilities of success. They aren’t completely incompetent since they are fairly smart and/or have good skills, but their flaws (like arrogance, laziness etc.) get very often in the way and stops them from accomplishing their goals.
Incompetent
The character is very prone to fail and has barely any trace of competence.
They don’t just have prominent flaws, they almost always are downright idiotic and tend to do actions that are detrimental to their plans. They’re so inept that other characters will avoid being affiliated with them since they could easily bring them down.
It’s extremely rare for an Incompetent character to be Successful, since that would require either having an huge stroke of luck or that all other characters are equally inefficient.
Success Rate
Successful
Characters who completely or almost completely succeeded in their goals, meaning they have rarely if ever failed any of their major goals.
Partially Successful
Characters who have mostly reached their primary goal, but still had failed in certain areas. How detrimental their failures are depends on the work and its tone. More light-hearted stories will put emphasize on what the character managed to achieve rather than what they couldn’t, while more dark works are likely to consider the failures.
Some works may even treat the win as a Pyrrhic Victory, where the success is not enough to compensate for its cost.
Partially Unsuccessful
Characters who have failed most of their goals, but managed to succeed in at least an aspect.
Unsuccessful
Characters who have mostly if not completely failed to accomplish all of their goals.
Relation to Magnificent Baddies and Pathetic Pinheads
Magnificent Baddies can never be below Competent, since competence is one of the main attributes of an MB. Even being Mostly Competent is incompatible with the criteria, since a Magnificent Baddie can’t have a fatal flaw that consistently causes them to lose.
Pathetic Pinheads are always below Neutral, since their main attribute is being extremely inept. PPs usually fall under Incompetent due to lacking intelligence, but being Mostly Incompetent can actually makes them look even more pathetic, since falling under that means they have the capabilities to succeed, but are unable to do so due to their fatal flaws.