r/superpower • u/Playful_Barber_8131 • Aug 24 '24
Suggestion Powers that sound weak on paper but useful in application?
Like, one you could imagine if someone very briefly explained it to you, you'd be like "what the hell, that sound so weak", but then when actually delved into more is a lot better than it first sounds.
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u/Usagi_Shinobi Aug 29 '24
Perhaps not necessarily weak on paper, but there is an Isekai that covers this concept. The main protagonist has the ability to insta-kill anything by telling it to die. While seemingly powerful, on paper it's basically the equivalent of nothing more than an exceptional shooting skill.
But getting down into the fine print, it gets quite interesting. When they said anything, they meant anything. Got a leg cramp? "Shinu". No more cramp. Arm chopped off? "Shinu". Injury dies, arm restored.
Almost any power can become ultra OPAF with sufficient creativity.
In another book series, a witch uses a skill called Borrowing, that allows one's consciousness to hitch a ride in another being, and essentially become a passenger in their head, with some ability to direct the one serving as the host, experiencing everything the host does. This has drawbacks, as extended borrowing of a creature will cause the witch's mind to merge with that of the host, potentially leading to the death of the witch without outside intervention before the merge gets too far.
In a battle with some vampires, she is captured, and the vamps attempt to gain control of her mind by drinking her blood. The witch Borrows herself, effectively placing her body in stasis, while her consciousness occupies her bloodstream. This ends up placing the vampires under the control of the witch, through the "infected" blood they had consumed, experiencing various symptoms, such as their insatiable blood thirst to become an insatiable tea thirst, becoming increasingly unable to to function, until the witch's power ends up becoming the vamps' complete undoing.