Why isn't Dalinar more powerful?

[Trusk'our he/him]

Despite being bonded to a spren with a significantly greater amount of investiture than a typical radiant spren, Dalinar Kholin doesn't seem to be particularly powerful when compared to the other radiants.

He doesn’t seem to be able to hold a noticeably larger amount of stormlight than a normal radiant, and it doesn't seem to confer any greater affect to him than other radiants. His actual abilities do seem to have some pretty powerful potential, but if both he and another radiant of a different order coppied their powers into unsealed metalminds, then it seems unlikely to me that there would be a larger requirement of investiture to make Dalinar's powers function than say, a windrunner, because honorblades don't seem deviate in raw power, yet they confer those same abilities. Which means it's not the raw power that would allow him to use those particular abilities either, but rather that he happens to have that power set.

Is the reason he isn't more powerful than other radiants because the Stormfather’s power is not really Dalinar’s power, but his powers are from the bond itself, which would limit Dalinar's ability to draw on the Stormfather's full power, because it's not really his? Does a normal radiant's power not depend on the amount of investiture held by their spren?

[Frustration]

The stormfather's power is not Dalinar's though Dalinar does gain some powers by being bonded to the stormfather others do not, riding the storms, playing visions outside of stomrs, the map he's able to allow Lightweavers to make, etc

[Honorless he/him]

Yeah, the different Surges use different amounts of Investiture. A Windrunner's Lashings use more Investiture than a Lightweaver's Lightweaving, we see this in Oathbringer, when the group is in Kholinar. The alerter Voidspren could detect Kaladin's use of his Surges but not Shallan's. Just by the scale of it, I would say that Bondsmith abilities probably use even greater amounts of Investiture.

The Stormfather does say that a Bondsmith's abilities are greater than any other Radiant's but they're not for mere battle. So Bondsmith's aren't powerful in the way that anime characters with more power are on an entirely different level from their peers, stopping a dragon's punch with a mere finger or stuff like that.

Dalinar likely will become more powerful, like Ishar, now that Honor no longer regulates the Surges. Once, he learns to do more. But even now he can open a Perpendicularity and recharge the Stormlight of every nearby Radiant.

As for the Honorblades, they might very well be differently Invested, we don't have confirmation either way. Could also be that it's the other nine who're Invested more to be on the same level as Ishar's blade than Ishar's Blade's level of Investiture being lowered to the level of the other nine. We don't know much about the Honorblades.

[Frustration]

10 minutes ago, Honorless said:

Yeah, the different Surges use different amounts of Investiture. A Windrunner's Lashings use more Investiture than a Lightweaver's Lightweaving, we see this in Oathbringer, when the group is in Kholinar. The alerter Voidspren could detect Kaladin's use of his Surges but not Shallan's. Just by the scale of it, I would say that Bondsmith abilities probably use even greater amounts of Investiture.

Not neccesarily more investiture, but more noticable, lightweaving is kind of like a natural coppercloud, albeit a very weak one.

Pattern notices that Shallan's lightweaving is more "quiet"

[Honorless he/him]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Frustrated said:

Not neccesarily more investiture, but more noticable, lightweaving is kind of like a natural coppercloud, albeit a very weak one.

Pattern notices that Shallan's lightweaving is more "quiet"

Not just noticeability, Shallan actually required less Stormlight to draw from the spheres than Kaladin, we actually see this and they talk about it and strategize accordingly 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Honorless

[Quantus he/him]

7 hours ago, Honorless said:

Not just noticeability, Shallan actually required less Stormlight to draw from the spheres than Kaladin, we actually see this and they talk about it and strategize accordingly 

Hmm, there's that, but there's also the whole bit that Shallan was a step higher than Kaladin at the end of WoR, which itself should make her Stormlight use more efficient than his by the normal Bond progression.

 

 

Quote

 

tganchero (paraphrased)

How many oaths can a Radiant swear?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

There is an upper-limit/threshold to the number of oaths a Radiant may make. By the end of WoR, Shallan was a step higher than Kaladin.

Words of Radiance Lexington signing (March 18, 2014)

 

 

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Ingeniator said:

Hmm, there's that, but there's also the whole bit that Shallan was a step higher than Kaladin at the end of WoR, which itself should make her Stormlight use more efficient than his by the normal Bond progression.

For Testiment maybe, with Pattern I'm unconvinced