Been reading up on them lately. What seems to me as the benchmark for the truly powerful Sith, were the abilities to dominate the minds of other powerful force users (master/lords), and being able to survive physical death as a wraith. Combined, these abilities made the top tiers nearly immortal. Such creatures could only be destroyed by banishing or dissolving their spirits with greater power than theirs. However, their power did diminish over time. Presumably, one needs to be alive to generate and store more force energy. In my opinion, these masters embodied the idea of dominance. These Sith survived, or even ruled, for 1,000s of years: (listed chronologically)
Marka Ragnos: Had a scepter that siphoned darkside energy, could redirect it as a beam, or empower non-sensitives.
Naga Sadow: Fooled masters with illusions of great armies. Once manipulated a dying star into an early supernova.
Exar Kun: An unpredictable duelist who defeated several jedi masters, and upon death, drained the force from an entire race.
Darth Nihilus: A wound in the force. Could drain all the life force from a planet and strip other dark lords of their powers at will.
Emperor Palpatine: Most successful in destroying the Jedi Order. Made force storms that devoured entire battle fleets.
Darth Caedus: Had an absurd list of esoteric powers, stalemated Luke, and briefly became an embodiment of the force.
And finally, though not technically a Sith, she's quite literally a living expression of the Dark Side of the force,
Abeloth: An immortal, shapeshifting, entity, with more power than Grand Masters and more ancient than the Sith themselves.
By my criteria, these are the ones with the deciding powers, the minimal weaknesses, knowledge, experience, strength of will, and control of themselves and the force that puts them a good notch above the rest. I do hope this thread get's revived though, I'd love hear some other's thoughts. Honorable mentions:
Lord Vitiate, I believe Exar Kun was a better duelist, and more favored by the old lords. Vitiate was also less capable in consuming force energy than Nihilus.
Revan. Revan was beaten by Vitiate, and hasn't yet proven his ability to exist as a spirit. I'm also unaware of him ever possessing someone or controlling their mind, which, again I think are really key in being a true Sith'ari. Caedus (Jacen Solo) hasn't existed as a wraith yet, and probably won't, but he did have mind control and the ability to rob others of the force, and of course, he was the grandson of the "Chosen One". and ya know he, "briefly transformed into the most powerful manifestation of the Force on record." So there's that. Anyway, the biggest limit is death, and mental domination is the way a Sith leads. Being able to force your will into a new body and therefore, resurrect indefinitely, is the very core of what it is to be Sith.
One more thing, Sidious is the most powerful sith based on "Lucas said so" and maybe the most learned and influential, but c'mon, not the strongest in a straight up fight. Let's look at some facts. He was killed most famously when thrown into a pit, and finally when shot in the back by Han Solo. In the game Jedi Knight after beating Yun, a dark jedi padawan, Yun demonstrates the ability to levitate away from the conflict, something Sidious couldn't do to save his life. In the game Jedi Outcast, artificially empowered would be jedi demonstrate the precognition to dodge sneak attacks from blaster weapons, something any force user should have down. I'm just saying is all.
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