Unique Magical "Superpower" Ideas

My current project has magic users as a central focus of the story, and I'm running into walls trying to come up with powers for some of them. In this world, being a mage functions much more like having a superpower in most universes than the traditional wizards- everyone has an ability or group of abilities that they can use, but they don't have a whole broad-ranging powerset nor do they have a way to learn new ones. There's three characters in particular I'm trying to come up with powers for, and I'd like them to suit their personalities and roles in the story at least a bit, since I tend to find it actually a little jarring when they don't and it's not a plot point. I've spent some time poking around the superpower wiki, but it's too large and not organized well enough for me to really get anywhere, and random power generators are usually too limited in scope.

A couple of general notes are that I would prefer for nobody to have immortality/invulnerability or anything similar, since the protagonists someone with this ability at one point and it's treated as a unique event. Also, average power level for mages in this setting is somewhere between Super Weight 2 and 3, with Leth possibly allowed to stretch into 4 at the peak of his power.

Leth Male, around fifteen, the half-brother of the main character whose abduction by the apocalypse cult the protagonists are trying to stop forms the inciting incident. A kind, usually compassionate boy who does have a surprisingly large capacity to be willfully naive when it comes to some of his brother's less-than-honorable exploits. Although he never had the chance to get much of an education, he does enjoy stories, fairy tales, and urban legands.

His ability(s) should be one of the most powerful of the characters we encounter, since the primary reason he's abducted is to be used as a sacrifice to increase the power of an eldritch abomination that's trying to make its way into the story's world. As an alternate to making him particularly powerful, he could have an ability that is specifically useful to said eldritch abomination, since the cult believes that their lord inherits the powers of those he consumes. He has a good singing voice, and I was hoping to incorporate that somehow without just giving him Charm Person or something similar. Also, whatever it is, he doesn't have a lot of control over it at the outset, although he gains it later.

Misha: Male, around twenty-five, the illegitimate son of a priest who meets the group while they're imprisoned by a local warlord, using his business with the man to give them an opportunity to escape and fleeing with them in the ensuing chaos. The most morally ambiguous member of the group but still not evil. He's quite educated for the setting but being a mage (which means being the subject of brutal witchhunts) requires that he keep his powers and personal life pretty close to his chest. Consequently, he tends to come off as perhaps a bit shallow at times. Quite the lady's man. Is very protective of one of the younger characters, to whom he becomes a bit of a surrogate older brother and dispenses some sage advice that he never follows himself.

I'd like him to have a direct attack power of some sort that's on the high end of average power for the setting, but still average, and for whatever reason, I always envision him as having some sort of aura as he uses it, like clouds of smoke or mist or something. I thought maybe creating shadowy creatures that will attack for him, but it's not quite what I'm going for...

Eska: Female, also around twenty-five, a native of the neighboring country and stands out in-story for being from different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups than most of the characters. Although mages are treated slightly better there, "better" just means "we'll completely exile you from our society forever as soon as you're old enough to fend for yourself" rather than "we'll publicly execute you if we find out". Joins the group after encountering them in the woods and deciding that she's bored and what they're doing is worthwhile. Having lived on her own for a while, she's a little short on normal social etiquette. Not excessively smart, but very aware of what's going on around her. She never met a debate she didn't like and forms a bit of an odd friendship with Misha that stops just short of being Vitriolic Best Buds. This may escalate to friends-with-benefits depending on the exact course the story takes.

I'd like her to be averagely powerful for the setting. I'd also like her to have vaguely nature-related powers without just becoming a generic Druid and not talking to animals. I intend for it to be a bit of a running gag that she will occasionally reference something her pet bird said to her and nobody can figure out if it's actually intelligent, if she has the ability to talk to animals, if she's just a little odd from being alone for so long, or if she's pulling their leg.

Sorry if this is all long and complicated or not a good thing to post here. Hopefully you guys' ideas are flowing better than mine are!

Leth: I've always had this idea of weird superpower that shouldn't even belong anywhere. (I have this superhero-satire world, but they only allow electromagnetics, absolutely no gravity or time travel or any other bullshit allowed), so here it goes:

Strong (and) Weak force manipulation. So everything, and I mean every kind of superpower you can think of (that isn't straight up reality-defying stuff or well, gravity) can be described in electromagnetics. Super speed? Electromagnetics. Temperature change? Electromagnetics. Periodic table of elements? Electromagnetic. Summoning everyday stuff out of your small pocket? Electromagnetics. Spontaneous genetic mutation? Electromagnetics, because DNA, duh. Photosynthesis or gamma radiation? well photons are part of electromagnetics ya dolt. That epic backflip your grandma did last summer? That's another story, next question. Alchemy? Oh wait.

So you see, The only thing we know of about Strong and Weak force is that we don't know much about them. Yes, their range are super short (subatomic or less than your average atom to be exact) and once you delve down into it you get into serious quantum stuff, but as we know, the only thing these forces mediate are nuclear fusion (or fission, because ironically strong force gets overwhelmed by electromagnetic force if your nucleus is too big), your average nuclear decay (weak force), and most of all, antimatters (weird correlation of EM, Strong and weak force at a high enough energy your face instantly turn into quark-gluon plasma). The reason these forces seem so inconsequential at around human-measurable range (lets say 1mm-1km) is because they seem to weaken very quickly by range compared to electromagnetics.

An eldritch abomination has to be well, weird. So why not put Strong and Weak force abilities to his equation? sounds fun. (And yeah, he has to put every substrate in his hand in order to press them down magically to a small size, then he can fuse/fission them.) Let's say he has 1kg of Uranium-235 (that'd be implying this magic allows his people to smelt Uranium, because you can't just throw uranium ore in your regular furnace.), and he presses it down in his hand. If that was a complete fission, a total of 19 billion kilocalories will be released. Wow, that's too much, huh.That blast would be even bigger than the one that devastated Hiroshima. They wouldn't have that much trouble getting away from enemies, for they will all be vaporized in that blast.

Was that too OP for you? Yes it is (its weight 4 after all), but Strong/Weak force is uncontrollable anyway, so that's my suggestion.

Misha: I always equate mysterious mists as icy hazes. Or barbeque smoke, I dunno, whatever I feel like, I'll go with it. I'm not hungry though, so let's move on.

So why not use freeze-drying techniques? I mean freezing something so fast that its target's water content recrystallize as ice (or evaporate) outside the body, dehydrating them if they thaw out? I mean they have to pull the water from somewhere, so why not use the victim's water content? It also makes for a fun way to preserve meat and fruits (or freeze-dry bodies as trophy if you want to go the 'wtf' path), as dehydrated meat that doesn't get freezer burn. might even be a joke if you want to go comedy path (ever tasted dehydrated soup? *crack* now you can)

(I'm going with this as you asked for straight up high damage)

Eska: You say nature, I'll say natural biology (as if there's something called artificial biology).Well this is hard. What about organic nitrogen storage? No, that's passive-powered. *Gasp* I have a- wait, photosynthesis is passive, as well (should kinda fit though, she's from a weird culture so she has to have something wierd too, right?). Ooh, what about aromatic compound magic? It's kind of useful to distract enemies from whatever the hell the party's doing, just put her *ahem* juice (where would it come from again?) in a vial and throw it somewhere to fool predators and annoying salesmen, mask your camp and bonfire's smoke smell, and maybe even synthesize Phenylalanine, a rather inconsequential essential amino acid if you eat regularly (and if you can't get enough other amino acids, you're still fucked).

or maybe miasma magic, the kind that eats your hopes and dreams, ooh and the rest of your family too. Or have her summon weird fungal turrets, that can talk telephatically (but can't see, gah)

I still would recommend aromatic compounds though, because good (or bad) smell can be advantageous if your enemies don't bother to wear gas masks (because who would, the ones that do work was invented during industrial revolution)

Some suggestions:

• Leth: Hands on injury healing (broken bones and cut muscles). Illusion (ability to create false visual images and impressions). True sight (abitity to see through false images and impressions, abitily to see when someone uses magic, when there is magic on something).
• Misha:An elemental power (standard water or fire magic. Elemental Powers). Low level telekinesis (may the force be with you).
• Eska: Astral projection (Create a ghost body that can see and do things elsewhere while the main body meditaties). Animate plants (send out vines or tree branches to ensnare).

edited 14th Jun '16 8:11:30 AM by war877

I like the idea of having Leth get some sort of true sight ability, which I think I might combine with some form of psychometrics. It could get pretty powerful, depending on what limits I decided to place on it, and it fits with the feel I wanted for it.

I'm still not sure where I'm going to go with Misha.

As for Eska, the aromatic stuff sounds cool. Almost like a very weak form of mind altering that can only effect mood in the broad sense, and works better on animals. At this moment, that's what I'm leaning towards. Plant manipulation is really a classic druid power, but I do like the look of it... hmmm.

Thanks for the ideas, and if anybody has any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them, too!

Hmm...

Leth: As he'll be one of the strongest people, with a excellent singing voice and ideally having a power useful to the Eldritch God... Why not have a Reality Warper voice, with his words allowing him to affect Reality directly? That's a power with obvious Incontinence issues, and I've really only seen that in Is This A Zombie? and even the character is too powerful she rarely speaks at all. So uniqueness shouldn't really be an issue, though admittedly I've had a similar idea long before noticing said Anime so... Depends on how nitpicky you are regarding originality.

Misha: I actually agree with Legonut 031 for him, Freeze-Drying isn't a power I've really seen used much and Elemental Abilities are pretty average. Or... You could give him the power to manipulate his Physical Structure, with the "mist" produced actually being the result of him gleefully distorting his body. So he could seem to be some superhuman freak given the versatile applications, but ultimately each Trick is inferior to someone truly specializing in it.

Eska: Her power could allow her to generate extra physical mass that she molds into a biological entity to serve her, though I would suggest straight up "Finger Snap, Poof!" materialization if you think its too "Motherly" otherwise. Regardless, The Power of Creation is a rather nature-y ability, and would allow further uncertainty as to her pet bird.