Stein is a muscular male with silver-gray hair, large round glasses, and a handsome face. He is likely in his late twenties or early thirties. Stein's most notable trait is the large screw going through his head. He often turns this screw, as a means to focus his thoughts or as he prepares to attack an opponent. Stein's body, as well as his clothes, are the zig-zag stitches he has on both of them. He wears a white lab coat with a grey turtle neck underneath and a pair of black pants. Meisters, also known as weapon meisters are warriors who fight and battle using the weapon forms of demon weapons, people who are able to transform into traditional weapons. Stein is loosely based upon the two central characters from the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus and its 1931 movie adaption, being an amalgamation of the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein and his nameless man-made monster. Like Victor Frankenstein, Stein has a mindset in which he wishes to live in a world "without God," setting his own rules rather than following those of some higher power. In addition, Stein also has motifs centered around electricity, similar to that used by Victor Frankenstein in the 1931 movie to give life to the creature. Both his attacks evoke electricity and his current partner has attacks centered around electricity. The screw in Stein's head resembles the bolts found in the head or neck in many popular portrayals of Frankenstein's monster that all follow the 1931 movie's lead. Stein has more moves than just electricity; he can also use his soul as a shield, as shown when Stein battled Crona. When he battled Medusa, he also uses an attack straight to Medusa's stomach, causing her to nearly die. As an instructor of Death Weapon Meister Academy, his methods and tastes are often regarded as odd and strange but in spite of this, he possess common sense and is considerably a good guide for students in the academy. Stein's care for his students is genuine, putting forth effort in student-related training, lectures about soul studies, and even consultes students from time-to-time on their troubles.He also exhibits a strongly protective, paternal demeanor towards his students and expressed deep disgust and moral outrage towards Medusa for stating that she would abandon her own child, Crona, when they would become useless to her. Although he is a competent teacher with a strong logical streak, he heavily favors dissection classes much to the chagrin of many of his students.[10] He also has a twisted and sadistic sense of humor, often riling up others (both students and peers alike) for his own amusement. Being self-aware of his behavior coming off as suspicious and creepy, he enjoys playing it up to them. When asked by Death to participate in remedial lessons for DWMA students, he later admitted to finding it fun surprising them by playing the part of a creepy villain for the lesson. Wavelength Control: Stein is described as having a flexible well as powerful soul wavelength with highly advanced levels of control over it, enabling him to use a variety of capabilities with only his wavelength. Stein displays rare and extreme mastery of his own wavelength thanks to his flexible soul and can match his wavelength with another's to nullify their wavelength attacks or wield Weapons that usually require great wavelength synchronizationGenius Meister (天才職人, Tensai Shokunin): A very capable genius meister, Franken Stein's talent enables him to master most any weapon to a certain extent. He is considered to be more talented and skilled than even Maka's mother.[15] Scythe-Meister (鎌職人, Kama Shokunin): Franken Stein is known to be an extremely skilled scythe-meister and normally employs Death Scythe as his main weapon of choice. He's very adept at handling a scythe, enough to spin and twirl a scythe weapon with ease.[16] Stein's Fighting Style (シュタインの格闘スタイル, Shutain no Kakutō Sutairu):When using a scythe, his fighting style revolves around using his scythe weapon as a shield to block attacks and then immediately counter-attacking with his left hand with powerful attacks such as Soul Menace.[17] His skill enabled him to fairly easily and quickly outmatch Crona using the Demon Sword against him.[18] He was also able to fight on par with the witch, Medusa, and win albeit with a fair deal of luck.[19] Lamp Meister (ランプ職人, Ranpu Shokunin): Stein has shown the ability to use a lantern as a weapon such as the Demon Lamp with remarkable ability. While able to use it similar Kim Diehl's method, he can also improvise and use it like that of a propeller for his fists for extra damage, having done so against Soul Evans when he found he couldn't allow the formidable Death Scythe to touch the normal Demon Weapon without Jacqueline feeling pain due to the difference in power between the two weapons.[20] Hammer-type Meister: He is capable of using both the hammer form and the tonfa form of Marie, easily taking on Justin Law who retreated after Stein used Mjolnir's Lightning Rope,[21] even when the rogue death weapon merged with the Clown and used his abilities as a stationary weapon to his advantage, Stein manage to eventually defeat and kill Justin.[22] Stein hits Black Star during spar. Stein gains the upper hand between a spar with Black Star. Hand-to-Hand Combat (体術たいじゆつ, Taijutsu): Stein is exceptionally skilled in hand-to-hand combat.[23] With his unarmed combat skills combined with his other various skills, he's been able to easily take down Maka Albarn and Black☆Star when they both used their weapons in their first altercation and interaction with him.[3] He seemingly gained the upper-hand in his spar with Black☆Star as well, even after the assassin improved his skills greatly.[24] He's also not above abandoning the use of his weapon and relying on some of his unarmed ability, evident as he did so during his battle against Crona.[25] High Physical Abilities (高い身体能力, Takai karada nōryoku): Stein has amazing physical prowess: Enhanced Strength: Stein possesses enough strength to kick Crona a fair distance away when he saved Maka as well as break down the door of Santa Mario Novella Basilica with a kick, which Maka wasn't able to push open due to the doors only opening inwards.[26] His punch also managed to send Black☆Star a far distance away.[27] Enhanced Speed: Stein possesses incredible speed, moving fast enough to appear as a blur as he rushed towards Medusa during his fight with her.[28] He also managed to elude Ragnarok's eyesight moments after performing Experimental Ectoplasm when the weapon emerged from Crona's body.[29] Enhanced Endurance: Stein has great endurance for a human being, having taken multiple bloody-needles from Crona on the side of both his body and head and continuing to be able to fight despite the injuries.[30] He's also survived being drilled through the stomach and hit by a barrage of Medusa Gorgon's Vector Arrows at close range.[31] Genius Intellect: Stein is an extremely intelligent individual, resourceful in the medical field from years of dissections and vivisections, and considered brilliant though eccentric. He performs surgery on Soul after his and Maka's first fight with Crona, though technically unlicensed as a doctor. There are various rumors surrounding him about tinkering with his own body and performing zombie experiments,[32] eventually resurrecting Sid Barrett as a zombie.[33] He's also knowledgeable in Soul Studies and even has knowledge on magic and spells. Medical and Surgical Skills: According to Anya, Stein is a brilliant (but eccentric) unlicensed doctor. He's capable of performing advanced, life-saving surgeries as well as treating and aiding in ailments caused even by magic. During his early childhood in kindergarten, Stein saw kids his age play together like they were to told to, an act which sickened him because he saw it as blind obedience. He also made an issue out of the children focusing on taking notes and following instructions given to them by the teacher; saying it made him feel like losing control.[48] Having a disposition towards violence and selfishness, he was analyzed by various doctors and experts to determine the cause; while unable to conclude the reasoning behind it, they speculated Stein suffered some kind of traumatic event, while the young boy only saw their attempts as inane. He loves to intimidate people. He likes to experiment on anything he can get his hands on. This includes humans...he used to experiment on Maka's dad, Spirit whenever he slept.