First of all - the Secret -- He gets captured, tortured, and his tongue is cut out, and then he is released, and during this time the elves are attacked. Any elf with half a brain is going to be able to make the connection that they tortured the information from him. I also think that the elves would take the torture into consideration, as it isn't as if he betrayed them willingly.
Now, he may have a lot of personal shame over it, but I wouldn't consider it to be as bad as his back story tries to make it be.
As for the talents - when GMing RMSS/FRP, I always followed one main rule, and that was that nobody was ever allowed more than one talent that affected a single aspect of the character.
Meaning that if the character had 1 talent that gave a bonus to initiative, he could not take a second one that does the same. If has has a talent that gives a bonus to DB, he cannot have a second one that gives a bonus to DB.
Now, the talent that gives an extra init roll, that is different from a bonus to init, so that one I would (and have) allowed with one that gives a bonus to init.
In short, if he has Combat Reflexes, he should not (IMO) also have Lightning Strike and Instinctive Defense (the Acrobat talent is an iffy one as well, though, you could rule that he + to OB from Combat Reflexes does not apply to that Special Attack).
He is correct in saying that "nothing uber" was chosen. However, the combination of some of the talents he selected does create "uber" when they are used together.
As for the flaws, none of them really limit the character in any manner. He is a Mentalism user, so the loss of his voice has no impact there.
Being a semi-spell user, he would most likely go with leather armor anyways, so no impact there (question -- if he HAD metal armor, is this reflected in his character sheet - did he at least buy ranks for it - if the answer is no, then it is definitely a worthless flaw).
Trauma - how many times are orcs going to be licking their blades in battle? Chances are little to none, as that is more of a "torture" type activity, so it will have little to no impact.
Secret -- How are the elves going to learn this secret? If they didn't already know, the only ones who can tell them are the character (who cannot talk, even in his sleep), and the orcs (who, if they survived, are unlikely to ever tell the elves). Another low to no impact flaw.
Friendslayer -- Heh! This flaw HELPS the player more often than it will hinder him. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to hit you with that, it is one of my flaws.." The net affect is that fumbles affect the character less often, so he has less chance of receiving a nasty result.
RivalNPC/Vow??? It boils down to - "I want to kill all orcs, but only if it won't kill me" This is a standard adventurer outlook, not a flaw of any sort. And there is no sort of rival in there anywhere. The Orcs are not rivals. The way he has it written is that it is almost compulsion, UNLESS he decides the odds aren't in his favor, then he get gets to do what he likes, so long as he promises himself to come back later to deal with it. Again, this is not a flaw, this is standard PC behavior in most cases... hehe
Flaws such as Bad Temper, Bloodlust, Fearlessness, Impulsive, Intolerance (Lesser), Minor Fear (Lesser), Trauma (triggered by just the sight of Orcs), and Sadist -- all focused on Orcs (say, half normal point values in some cases for limiting what the Flaw is against) would likely be much more appropriate than the majority of the flaws he selected.
If the flaw does not impede him in some manner, then it isn't truly a flaw....
I once had a character that had both a Fear of Magic and Intolerance (against magic), and his standard reaction when confronted with magic was to attack. Being the target of a spell would put him into a berserker rage to kill the caster. And he often had Bad Temper (though that was NOT one of his flaws) against any magic user regardless of who they were. The campaign started with him and others in prison and being forced to work with each other on a special mission to earn their freedom. One of the others was a mage. We almost didn't make it out of that initial meeting (my character was extremely nasty to the magic users in the group, and they were ready to kill him then and there).
The point is that the character's experiences should have left him with a lot of fear and anger, which could and likely would make him act impulsively and violently against any and all orcs (the focus of both the fear and the anger)
