So basically, to explain the apparent slight confusion about Alden:
His birthmark power boost thing works under his control only in extreme situations and usually if he uses it more than a certain amount it destroys his memory of the event and drives him insane. Also, he spent four years of his life studying magic 24/7 and has a photographic memory. That equals insane amounts of knowledge of magic. He has the capacity to use it decently without the mark, but he is able to do a lot of the stuff he does in RP because he's doing it to people who aren't trying to resist or stop his spells. If he were in a combat situation, it would be very different. Not to mention, his intense paranoia, ignorance of the real world beyond magic, and his brain issues due to the mark all bring down his overpoweredness a lot. But although he threatens people a lot, especially when they scare or annoy him, he doesn't really mean to. He's just jumpy. The pain threshold thing is definitely true. And finally, he's skin and bones, so if somebody managed to get him in a situation where his magic was valueless, he'd be rendered almost entirely powerless. Last but not least, there's a fair chance that once people he's with figure out that the mark is what's killing his mind they'll try to figure out a way to remove it.