What makes a character competent?

[evilmastermind]

Taken generally, what does it mean to you for a TTRPG character to be competent?

To me competence carries with it implications of reliability in the field being so described. It covers the trials the character might face and brushes aside the trivial without a second thought. The character, in their fields of competency, is not unwillingly endlessly in over their head unless the genre or the GM happens to be a horror story.

Reilability is the one of the two most important things, because it's all dependent on how likeable he or she is to the players. I've seen "competent" characters shamed and abandoned by groups of players who thought that their skills weren't worth bringing them along. So you can be skillful, reliable but you also need that little bit of charisma to be considered competent at your job... it's subjective and in the players/group's minds.