forum What are some criminally underrated (But still amazing) Superpowers?

Started August 30, 2019 by @SpaceCadet_Bongo

tune

Any Ideas?

Personally I think Cyberkinesis, Liquid Transmutation, Reactive adaptation, are the most underrated but awesome powers.

Mostly related- flight used as a weapon rather than just a form of transportation. Why don't superheros drop a car on somebody from 50 feet up more often?

the power of probability, teleportation that is uncontrolled, shape shifting. i want to see a mystery with an undercover shape shifter but its a romance

I have a bunch of characters with different and here's a couple that have been surprisingly interesting to write about and useful in the story:

• Memory manipulation
• Power of persuasion
• Empathy/ emotion manipulation
• I forget the actual word for it, but being able to learn the history of a person or item just by touching it
• Phasing/intangibility
• Force fields
• Pyrokinesis
• Adaptive muscle memory (I don't actually have a character with this ability but is seriously cool and has so much potential).

Also powers that have potential: Being able to pass off any lie as truth and always know when someone is lying/what the real truth is.

The powers to sense the history of an object or place. Great for a detective novel!

Aura sensing. Being able to see the auras of things or people. Watch the show Warehouse 13, Leena is a great example of this and it'll explain a lot. But basically, seeing their emotions, being able to tell things about a person you've just met that you probably would never be told or have figured out on your own. Also, Anathema Device in Good Omens is a good example too btw.

The power to break anything. A N Y T H I N G. Think of the implications! The plot shenanagins! It would just be,,,, funny.

Those are all powers that characters in my writing have, but feel free to use them in your own unique ways and offer feedback on them!!!

Also, time powers are normally a plot device or macguffin, but Thief of Time by Sir Terry Pratchett actually fleshed out a lot of possibilities for those and how you can use them, it's a good read and you can find it pretty easily online.

Sorry, that's it for now, bye bye!

I don't know how much you like to research stuff but this website is a goldmine of superpower information!!! I have been using it fairly regularly when I am trying to come up with powered characters.

I've always liked the ability to make someone extremely dizzy, which sounds kinda lame but can be really cool. Also the ability to instill paranoia into someone is also very useful because you can use it to turn people against their teammates and such.

the ability to mess with other people's powers is a personal favourite. not just cancel them out, or block them, but say somebody has the ability to turn invisible. if somebody who can mess with others gifts is around, instead of turning invisible, they turn orange or something. it might not be on purpose, like, it could be something they have no control over that just happens whenever they're around.

Being able to fall from any height and not suffer any damage. Not shock absorption, just fall immunity. It's a useful power, but also good for gags. You can yeet yourself off of buildings for an easy escape, or to scare the shiz outta people.

For some reason that reminds me of a book that I can't remember the name of. It's about a kid who's immortal until a certain age and he cons people by betting that he'll survive after jumping off a building
There's also the whole plot about alchemy powers but that's another thing I'd recommend checking it out

I'll try to work out what it's called

Ah it's called The Secret Fire

how about frog powers? Like they can jump really high and stick to things with their fingers. They use their tongue to capture people and swing around? But when it gets cold they get all sleepy so they gotta stay warm.

the ability to mess with other people's powers is a personal favourite. not just cancel them out, or block them, but say somebody has the ability to turn invisible. if somebody who can mess with others gifts is around, instead of turning invisible, they turn orange or something. it might not be on purpose, like, it could be something they have no control over that just happens whenever they're around.

Okay so I was reading this and thinking about suggestions but- anything I can come up with it moot now. This post wins.

the ability to mess with other people's powers is a personal favourite. not just cancel them out, or block them, but say somebody has the ability to turn invisible. if somebody who can mess with others gifts is around, instead of turning invisible, they turn orange or something. it might not be on purpose, like, it could be something they have no control over that just happens whenever they're around.

Okay so I was reading this and thinking about suggestions but- anything I can come up with it moot now. This post wins.

yo yo yo ima use this too because one of my villains is a human that turned into a frog- human (its considered his superpower) so ima just make them painfully turn him from frog to human to frog and make the poor man c r y >:D

water manipulation/generation is OP if you're cruel/inventive enough. Here's some things you could do:

Summon water inside someones lungs
Dehydrate someone by moving all the water out of their body
Manipulate someones blood pressure, either give them a heart attack, or drop it so low they pass out/die
Getting water up your nose is painful enough without it actively trying to injure you
any locked room is now a death trap if you summon enough water
Can you freeze the water? If so, congrats, you can now freeze the water inside someones tears, sweat, blood, etc.

quantum/universal manipulation like franklin Richerds from MARVEL using advanced mathematic algorithms like Accelerator in a certain magical index