Character Superpower Workshop

Im kinda thinking about the ideas of a race of people who can manipulate energy. Have a few things built but kinda feels like I added a lot and yet I feel like I can do more.

At first this was going to be lighting but then It was changed so that lighting is the main project they use from converting it and basically works like Ki in DBZ.

Im honestly not sure how this translates them as to being more durable, super strength etc. Not sure about the science but had a neat idea that they don't fly they just allow some of the energy to grab onto to molecules through millions of "tiny hands" and just spider climb their way but it cane be seen so people just assume they can fly.

Also kinda wondering how much fantastical and how much actual science I should go on this. Like water affects their power but I also have a moment where he just arcs it through the rain drops as a moment of awsome

Why not just make them a race of energy.beings and then give them the ability to possess living object, augmenting them in the process, to give them the superpowers that can be achieved through manipulating energy-levels, at the expense of burning out the body if using too much of it (since, to be frank, human beings are not supposed to fire lightning through their hands in the first place. Expect massive burns on the palms if they try or fried fingers.)

And for the flying, they could just do it by temporarily leave the body and head out, flying between the clouds, or across the power-lines, and then return back to the host, imprinting everything they sensed and experienced and saw into the memory through electric impulses. (like how memories are formed in the first place.)

No need to throw a human being up there in this case.

I've been tossing around an idea for a villain for a while now, and I need to see if the powers given have any real potential. The character would be used for either a fantasy or superhero story, haven't decided which yet.

Basically, the character presents as an Invincible Villain- smart, nigh invulnerable, with a combo platter of powers that can smoke most heroes arrayed against them. Anyone that knows of this villain fears them, and rightfully so given what they bring against them.

Except the villain's weakness is right there: their fear. As long as the heroes and civilian populace think they can't beat the villain, they can't. When they start gaining more confidence, the villain's effectiveness goes down- world shattering attacks now aren't so world shattering anymore, hits begin to show meaningful impact, and the heroes are able to exploit more mistakes in tactics and strategy that begin to become apparent. Soon the villain is seen as a big pushover no one should have been threaten by, and with that their defeat is sealed... until time passes on and people forget who or how they were defeated in the first place, allowing that fear to come back again.

Thoughts?

Boring and already done.

(no offense.)

That is how Freddy Kreuger from the "Nightmare of Elm Street" movies is built.

Heard of him?

Edited by TitanJump on Jun 21st 2021 at 6:56:27 PM

Good to know. Thanks for the feedback

Just happy to have saved someone from a future problem down the line...

So I had an idea for a fantasy adventure centered around seven knights and an eighth member who embodies hopes and dreams with powers inspired by seven virtues but I’m dry on ideas on what they should be.

At the moment we got:

• Charity
• Chastity/purity (looking for a different word that doesn’t have sexual undertones to it)
• Diligence
• Humility
• Kindness
• Patience
• Temperance

Edited by Kappapeachie on Jul 15th 2021 at 4:46:53 AM

A few ideas:

Charity gives healing powers.

Diligence makes the person absolutely tireless. No matter how many hours he fights, he will never relent.

Humility gives the power to defeat the most prideful enemies. (They are usually the most powerful enemies too)

Temperance gives total control of his emotions: no fear, no doubt, no anger, no despair in any situation. He will always remain calm and reasonable.

Showing mercy, Kindness makes the person capable of reaching the heart of others and convince them of changing their ways, even the evil and corrupt.

1. Multiplication (Like how Jesus multiplied a handful of loafs and fish to feed thousands.)

2. Subtraction (The power to drain aggression away from others by dropping their hormone-levels to a bare minimum and drain the fuel for rage with them.)

3. Consistency (The user just keeps coming back no matter how many times they get killed.)... (They can still "die", though, but not "killed", just to make clear.)

4. Division (Splits things in a set number, like making one fireball into two fireballs but with half of the power divided between them. Keep splitting and you get matchsticks' worth of flame from a previously lethal single projectile.)

5. Mercy-strike (All attacks are non-lethal ones, but in exchange, all of them always hits the target they are aimed for, defenses regardless.)

6. Memorization (Keep stalling until all the attack-patterns are recorded, then perform a strategy that wins the fight in an instant by exploiting the flaws in those attack patterns to the user's advantage.)

7. Stamina-regen (Can't get exhausted, ever. Perfect for magic knights. However, it doesn't make them immortal or anything, just never tired or drained of energy.)

Alright, So my Child Soldier is also one who has Psychic Powers which includes Telepathy and Telekinesis. The thing is, she is heavily indoctrinated, having grown up in an organization that made her think that they were the good guys?

Is the indoctrination enough to justify why she just doesn’t try and use her Psychic Powers to find out for herself that her organization’s full of shit?

So, it depends on organization. But if they're going for villains with good publicity thing, then maybe some of the values they preach are good? Like, say, privacy?

Otherwise, indoctrination might do it. Or, for that matter, reading people's minds being pretty unpleasant.

Alright, so I have a villain, who’s powers are based on being a Writer, essentially being able to rewrite objects and bring forth objects by speaking alone.

Under him is his Quirky Miniboss Squad, and they have similar thematic superpowers. One has Mind Manipulation, which is related to writing characters, specifically their personalities. One is able to alter the terrain, which is related to the setting. And One is able to create monsters, which is related to writing Conflicts.

Can you help me think up anymore.

If you want to go pretty meta, you might have Scene Break, who can force limited changes of scene (like a chapter break, or such) maybe this would simply be literal teleportation (small scale or on a recharge or something) or maybe some sort of timeskip to when the situation is better for them?

Plot Armor, who can bestow the ability to survive impossible situations?

Eraser, who can make everyone else forget a character as they're removed from the story?

Some of these are way too powerful.

I can see one of the protagonist to fight this kind of villain instead.

Woman with power-nullification = Writer's Block.

It does seem like they want something out of the "traditional elements of a story", and some lists also include...

• Plot: ???
• Symbol: Runic Magic?
• Point of View: Some sort of mental manipulation (mind control, mind reading, Body Surf?)
• Resolution: ???

Alright, so I need to establish that the baseline of my series is abnormal and I want to do that with the beginning scene

Is a 12 year old kid chopping down a tree with a single strike with a not exactly sharp axe abnormal?

How thick and healthy is the tree?

@ Sky Haven Path 13:

I'd argue that's pretty abnormal under most circumstances. Even if the tree has been dead for a few months/years. Unless it is literally hanging together by only a few shards of wood, or the tree was already a young and thin sapling when it died, a single blow from an axe, let alone from a 12 year old, would be insufficient to fell it.

I have a Cyborg character with a vague idea of powers and a vague "mercenary hacker" occupation; I'm wondering what a decent set of "powers" that his augmentations afford would be. As it is, he has something along the lines of Technopathy; physically speaking, a lot of his cybernetics are necessary because of assassination attempts, so I'm wondering what some reasonable physical abilities having cybernetic augmentations/prostheses would afford (in order for him to be able to realistically survive said assassination attempts and/or defend himself). I'm drawing a blank beyond "enhanced strength" and something like "brainhacking" other cyborg characters.

Maybe hidden weaponry within his cybernetics? Rocket Punch, Literal Finger Guns, etc.?

Nanomachines allowing him to become The Assimilator and merge other sources of technology into himself to enter different combat-modes?

To create new parts for himself by breaking down metals and reforge them through 3d-printing into whatever new parts he needs replaced?

Temporarily fixing up allies by fixing their injuries with "cyborg-ification" and grant them augmented parts until proper ones can be made and put in place?'

Using nanomachines to harden the vehicles he is driving and make them much sturdier than usual?

Or simply create new, smaller, lifeforms to serve different support-roles for his missions, such as tiny scouts, or assassins or similar?

Things like this?

I like that first one! I ended up giving him a sort of "swiss army arm" with a lot of different augmentations, and the ability to scan enemies for potential weaknesses to exploit—he's meant to be a sort of "scrappy fighter" type of character. (no, not that scrappy )

Hi everyone!

I've created a villain for a story I'm planning to write who has a special power that makes him a very difficult opponent for the protagonists. Problem is, his power makes him so hard to fight that I can't figure out a way for the protagonists to defeat him. I guess the ideal would be to give him some weakness, but I don't really have any ideas that would fit...

The character is called Dr. Xoyd and has a rather peculiar power: He can transmit his wounds to other people whom he has consumed the DNA (usually by drinking their blood). He can also absorb their strength and youth for himself, which basically makes him immortal. Unfortunately, living forever is starting to bore him and the only thing that still gives him some pleasure is to feel pain. That's why he spends his time pretending to be a doctor in order to convince naive people to let him sample their blood for analysis, and once a year (on his birthday) he tortures himself in various ways for one night and then transfers all his wounds to his victims in order to keep on doing it.

Naturally, the protagonists want to stop him from continuing his crimes, but because of his power they can't hurt or kill him without him passing on his wounds to one of his unfortunate innocent victims. The fact that he can increase his strength at will makes it difficult to tie him up or imprison him as well. I was hoping that the protagonists could come up with a clever idea to defeat him despite all of this, but I can't think of one. Does anyone have an idea?

Would poison work, or would that count as a 'wound?' I'd also try drowning or suffocating him. Does he have to activate the wound transferal on purpose? If it doesn't activate automatically, I'd try instant methods of death such as hanging (making sure to snap the neck in the process). (Or at least methods of death as close to instant as possible to give him no time to pass on his wounds.)

There's also potentially persuading him to let himself die, if like you said he is bored of living. That'd take a particularly persuasive protagonist, however.

Would any of these work?

Thanks for the help but unfortunately these solutions would not work. The character's power activates pretty much automatically in case of instant death (as long as he still has victims attached to him, he cannot die). He also can transfer the effects of any poison to his victims as well. Same for drowning (that said, if he's stuck underwater for too long, he'll probably need to sacrifice more than one of his victims to survive).
BTW, the protagonists usually try to refrain from killing their enemies if they can avoid it.

While I like the idea of having the protagonists manipulate the character to trick him, convincing him to die wouldn't work. The character used to be bored with life because he has already experienced all the pleasures imaginable, but the pleasure that he gets from pain has revived his interest and now he wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.

Edited by Mimic45 on Mar 25th 2022 at 1:51:33 PM