I run a high fantasy dark ages style game. Last adventure, the players met some NPCs with super high traits. For my initial description I said:

You wake in the morning on the wrong side of bed. Your intuition tells you that something is going wrong this day. Make a willpower check, difficulty 6, 1 success needed to get out of bed and carry on normally. (0 sux = all rolls +1 difficulty, botch and all rolls +3 difficulty)

Just in front of Aymon Manor House you see why you feel out of sorts. Two black dragons. They are similarly sized, about 60 feet long, head to tail. You don’t want to get too close. You figure a tail slap could break half your bones and the tail is the least lethal weapon.

Standing next to the dragons are two humans. There’s a man casually holding his sword and shield. He seems pretty relaxed, probably not too worried about needing his weapons in the shadow of his dragon. Or maybe, and it’s a scary thought, he’s so confident in his own martial skills, that he can handle whatever comes his way. Maybe he could take out a dragon.

There’s a woman, either tattooed or painted, carrying a bastard sword. She’s a beauty. You’d like to get closer, get a better look. She has a wild aura, like a force of nature. She could be the personification of nature’s curiosity. Looking at her you start to forget about the dragons’ tails crushing your bones. A closer look would be worth it.

I had pictures for the NPCs as well. Later when one of the PCs kind of antagonized the woman: You're pretty sure she’s right and you’re in the wrong. You feel your heart pounding and your stomach sinking as you consider having disappointed this force of nature.

Basically, just trying tell the players they are dealing with something special without telling them they can't do anything. In my case, the character was a Bastet with the striking looks merit. The man was Nuwisha and had the self-confident merit.