ITT: Come up with a superpower with a reasonable drawback
>A guy with superspeed who can only run super fast in a straight line (sudden change of direction would cause him to tumble and crash in that direction)
>He can maintain his superspeed based on his cardiovascular health (imagine a guy who could run 1000m in 30 seconds, this guy could run 300m in 3 seconds)
>ability to control your hair, like Medusa
>going to chemotherapy, like Whor
>>77366436
>read people's minds
>get depressed by all the shit you hear
Superstrength but is held back by your structure
technology could probably help you to get full potential though
>>77366436
>Telekinesis
>You can only lift as much as you can physically carry.
Telekinses for how long you can hold your breath
Darker than Black was great at this did a lot
>super speed
>body is still human
>perception isn't enhanced
he died when he ran super fast in a bunch of hail
>Super Strength, Speed, and Durability
>Weakness is fecal matter. Poop is like Kryptonite for her, taking a dump on the toilet weakens her all day and causes great pain. If someone threw feces in her hair it could kill her.
I actually tried to rite a story about a character like that once. Then I became disgusted as it turned into scat-themed bondage with the villain. Figured that even though I wasn't into it and was trying to go for comedy-drama, someone would fap to it and I hated myself for writing that trash. Then I threw it away.
>>77366829
>>77366436
What's the point of superspeed if you don't have the necessary perceptions, mental processing, and superflexes to use them properly? That's like having the Torch's superpower, but you're still vulnerable to fire, which makes it a hazard to your own welfare everytime you use it.
>>77366582
I like this one.
>You can boil liquids
>Inside bodies and your own included
>>77366436
>Have the power to conduct, absorb, and control electricity
>your body is 1.5x sensitive to electricity and you risk permanently fucking your nervous system if you abuse it
>>77366904
You can still do a lot of shit with super speed
just be more creative, having super speed without drawbacks is unimaginative and boring as hell
>>77366436
>the power to be completely invisible at will
>only works when your not moving (you can move your eyeballs, that's it)
>>77367471
>It's not at will, it's all the time
>If you aren't actively moving, your body immediately starts to fade into invisibility
>Develop issues with people ignoring you, and tics like bouncing your leg up and down so your ability doesn't trigger
OP said powers with limitations
not powers that are crippled
>super healing
>must eat a lot of food to maintain
A world where people have super powers. Though they don't have the implied secondary powers needed to survive using their powers.
Someone can fly. Yet they are still affected by cold, lack of oxygen, friction from the air, and physical exhaustion from the act of flight.
A person has super strenght. Yet they do not have the super durability. So they hurt them selves when ever they go beyond human norms.
>>77366904
>count the number of steps you need to take to be sure you don't crash into anything
>punch someone a hundred times a second
>throw something very fast
You can do lots of things with super speed even if you can't see what you're doing.
Reality warping, but you have to be awake to control it. If you fall asleep, your powers either short out or bring your dreams to life.
You also have to concentrate on stuff you do. You can't just imagine up a giant monster to kill your enemies, you have to keep imagining the giant monster or it'll poof out of existence.
Sounds like a lot of the power in Worm
>Holmes++ level deduction, but if you use it too much, you get huge migraines and you still need facts to work with
>turn into smoke and walk through walls, electricity hurts like a bitch and you can't fly (though you fall slower)
>you can hulk up any dogs nearby, it's slow and you have no more control over them than normal
>invincibility, but it turns off for a second or two after powerful hits
>invincibility and agelessness, but you can't heal if something trumps it and you still need food and oxygen
>invisibility, but does not work against cameras and you have to concentrate to supress it
>superspeed (personal time dilation), but the faster you go, the less you can interact with the world.
pic related is timestop that turns the target invincible, but is touch only and random duration (around a few minutes usually)
>invincibility when limpdicked
>pain is his fetish
>must constantly fight his inner nature to survive against his foes
>>77366436
If your power is balanced enough in its environment, it doesn't need a drawback typically. Usually like street levelers. They can take people out pretty easy one on one, but if they get swarmed or captured, they are still screwed.
>>77366436
>Can enhance parts of body (Super strength, etc.)
>Has some kind of monkey paw drawback depending on how much you use
>It doesn't kill you though and even if you end up crippled you can enhance your healing to recover
>>77369264
That's really neat. Works kind of like "mana" for a fighter: the more you use, the weaker you get long term (or immediately after the buff runs out), but you can spend time to regain it.
>>77367595
I really like this one.
>>77369338
Imp from Worm has something like that. Only instead of invisibility, she deletes peoples memory of her in real time (short term only, so you can remember her long term), so you forgot you were even having a conversation with her.
Came up with this idea for a script
>Addict & gambler get's extreme probability manipulation powers.
>to point where he can just have super awesome great luck at everything.
>the downside is that it works on a karma basis, if he doesn't use it for good, extreme bad luck comes around to fuck with him.
>>77369393
That's neat, they'd learn to be "gambling" not in games or casinos, but risking their life to help people, and still get their high.
They'd go from gambling to adrenaline pretty quickly.
>>77369393
>>77369454
That sounds cool
>>77369320
I wanted to make a superhero with this power but I didn't want to make something as boring as Superman or other heroes with the whole 'invulnerability, speed, strength,'
Like if you use Super strength to hit someone it's going to hurt depending on how much you use and if you use too much you're going to break your arm. You can speed up and recover but you still have a broken arm.
I might tweak it but I'm open to suggestions. Also
>Can switch superpowers with others
>Doesn't have the ability to use them properly or to the same extent
So if you switch your own power with someone that can go invisible and make force fields it's not going to work the same way due to being in another body.
>>77369393
I like that.
>Guy can create illusions, based on his mental state
>The more tired he is, the more potent the illusion
>He can only fully use his powers when drop-dead tired after staying up for days on end
>>77366436
You can slow down your perception of time, but can't move your body any faster than normal. When you are using your ability, you get tired at the rate of the full amount of time you experience, rather than what passes on the outside.
So if you spend 10 hours experiencing the world at half speed, it'll feel like twenty hours, and you'll feel accordingly drained.
You can use the ability to read extremely quickly, be great at hand to hand combat, and always have a witty reply ready, but you can't punch and harder than normal.
I've got a great death scene in mind, too. You see the muzzle flash from a sniper rifle in the building across the street, and instinctively activates your powers. But the bullet is still coming, and is only a few meters away, moving steadily towards you. You increase your perception rate, but the bullet is still coming. You realize you can't get out of the way, no matter what you do. You can only move so fast; you're either going to fall asleep and be hit by the bullet, or watch the bullet kill you in painful slowness.
You push your perception rate, 10x, 100x, 1000x, and think about your journey, etc, hoping some miracle will occur, but you're getting more and more tired. And finally, you nod off for a moment.
>>77369528
Reminds me of a stand I made for a jojo campaing.
Could connect two objects, or people, or people and objects, and share attributes between them, so for example, I could make a dumpster as light as a pebble, throw it then return it back to its original weight.
Downside was that said threads were visible and could be cut, and doing that would hurt the stand user
>>77369573
There was actually a similar comic irc like that involving the protagonist narrating as a bullet was about to collide with his skull.
Control over fire. You are not fireproof. And you do not have the finest of control.
>>77369528
Nah, make his arm super strong for one punch or a minute or whatever, but after that his baseline strength is way worse until he heals the limb. Same for speed and toughness.
Alternatively, make him spend the other physical factors to buff up one: sacrifice speed to be super tough, things like that, but make the transition long.
>>77369573
That would mean you get very tough, strong and quick (like going to the gym) much faster, because all that draining would really help train.
>>77369615
Do you remember anything about it? I'd love to read someone else's take on the concept.
>>77366455
Sounds like Tattletale from Worm.
>>77369561
>too tired to actually think of anything convincing, people around him are trapped in a roiling senseless deamscape
>>77369393
>>77369454
>>77369482
>>77369546
Isn't that just Longshot?
>>77369672
She doesn't read minds, nor did she get depressed.
It's more like Gallant (sense emotions), but he channeled that into a persona to help them.
>>77369647
>because all that draining would really help train
I was imagining it'd only be mentally draining, but I suppose the brain would still have to burn n times the calories to do n times the work.
>>77369735
You'd eventually get used to it, anyway.
Super strength and speed but with a violent metabolism that could be potentially fatal if not considered.
You pick up and throw a car 50 feet, but if you don't down 10,000 calories in the next 20 minutes you are going to look like a malnourished mummy.
Obviously if you don't use this super strength/speed you can survive on a normal amount of food.
>>77369650
I really wish, what I read about that work as pretty much a summary, from TVT(I know) talking about something a lot similar to this thread.
>>77369716
The getting information but kissing, food, and sex being ruined because you know too much shit
>>77369779
It's more that she very quickly figured out all the secrets and bad parts of everyone, which made her not want a romantic relationship, and she got information overload (and associated headaches) during sex IIRC.
>>77369702
Eh. My only experience of longshot is from 90's animated x-men.
I came up with the character through this one idea for a guy who's addicted to absolutely everything, and all the associations he as through them all allow him to solve crimes as a private detective, while switching from one addiction to another to ween himself off from the last thing.
And then I ripped off the idea of super awesome good luck & super awesome bad luck from a supernatural episode.
You can freeze time and move freely, but everything, except for air particles, is absolutely rigid and unmoving, so you can't move a single thing while time is frozen.
For example:
>grass won't bend or flatten when walked on so they're basically small razor sharp nails
>you can stand on plumes of smoke
>if you're wearing clothes, those clothes are stuck where they were when you froze time so the power is pretty much useless unless you're naked
Any thoughts?
>>77366436
enhanced physiology(strength speed senses, all the works) but without the necessary secondary powers. So you're still affected by momentum and other physical limits. So if you're running fast turning is a bitch and you'll slam into thing. Your shoes will break. If you try to jum too high you may break the pavement you're standing on, if you lift something too heavy it'll break, and so on.
Reality warping, limited to how much energy you can physically produce. So for instanceif you can lift, including your own body, 170 kg top, that's the amount of matter you can warp.If you're tired or hungry you'll be able to warp less. Warping will tire you out just like a physical activity.
Plus there are mental limits as you have to impose your will on reality. So non living things are easier to warp than conscious living things, older more stable things are easier than newer or temporary things.
Easier doesn't mean less physically tiring. The energy it requires depends on the mass, what you can do with it depends on your imagination and will and its own stability in reality. And if you're more aware of it it's easier to manipulate it, so closer things are easier than distant things, and things you know well are easier than things you're seeing for the first time. And they're not automatically functional. If you make a radio from a branch it will work as long as youre keeping your power active on it, but afterwards it will keep working only if you knew how to build a radio and made it functional.
>>77369913
Let them bring in the clothes and equipment with them, otherwise it's too niche use.
>>77369913
Wouldn't this mean you can't move air particles either so you suffocate?
>>77369573
>>77369647
This I like. I can imagine just a normal guy trying to do the right thing and his life getting really fucked up along the way.
>>77369949
>>77369913
>everything, except for air particles
![$_35[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/SRz265I.jpg "$_35[1].jpg")
>>77369767
Simple. Just carry buckets of these wherever you go to fuel yourself. Or attach some kind of hose to your mouth that constantly feeds it to you. Like Bane but with milkshakes.
Also do you have to shit? Because you'd be shitting constantly. An angry shitting Bane that can throw cars.
>>77369949
That's where I'd give some leniency otherwise it'd make the power completely useless.
>>77369948
Alright then how about this, anything you're touching when you freeze time will not be frozen.
>>77369913
The only use I can see for this would be fighting someone while you are naked. You use it to dodge punches and stuff while lining up your own. Although I feel like you'd immediately be aware of how 'clean' the air around you is.
>>77369994
>Alright then how about this, anything you're touching when you freeze time will not be frozen.
That's a bit too strong, because you can bring in people. Just let the power recognize what is your "clothes" and equipment, and bring it along.
>>77369573
>That death scene
Nigga that sounds sad as fuck, I love it.
>Person can create tornadoes under themselves to hover/fly
>The funnel cloud must touch the ground to maintain flight
>Increasing altitude requires stronger winds, but horizontal velocity can be increased without
>Person can only withstand g-forces they've trained for
![bvb72t1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/H4ct9IZ.jpg "bvb72t1[1].jpg")
>>77366582
Crime is fucked
>>77369988
>Like Bane but with milkshakes.
Got to admit, I laughed. Well done.
And yes, shitting would be a thing that would have to happen, but I'll concede that you'll shit less than expected since your body would be better at hauling out of caloric value of food.
>>77369988
>An angry shitting Bane that can throw cars.
Hahaha, neat.
>>77369975
could have to bring your own air supply
>>77366436
Be an empath, but you don't have emotions of your own. You're like a blank slate which is what allows you to easily interface with others' emotions and even absorb them which can be very useful if you're confronted with a very angry superdude..
Well perhaps no emotions is a big much. You're just very emotionally detached. And even when perceiving the emotions of others you don't really live them as if they were your own but you can still feel the richness of it.
The upside is that you can study their emotions rationally. The downside is that you might start desiring the emotions of others more and more in order to fill the emptiness in your life and you can become an emotions vampire draining people of all that makes them feel alive.
>>77369605
That sounds interesting. You thought about doing it or applying it to something else?
>>77369618
Is this the ability of most fire users? They can use and control fire but are not fireproof. Half the time they can't control it either.
>>77369647
>Alternatively, make him spend the other physical factors to buff up one
Similar to Ultra Boy? He can only use one power at a time so he's normal until he can switch. That sounds like a good suggestion though.
I recall reading a comic called Troublemakers with teenagers/kids with unconventional powers. One could cause karma related incidents but for some reason they only work for the people and things around her. I found it weird that they didn't work on her similar to >>77369393 Same comic also had some girl that could use 'better' abilities than the people around her, which I thought was a broken power.
>>77369913
There's a scene like this in This Book Is Full Of Spiders. Everything on the guy's body moves with him and he's able to see and breathe just fine, but there is absolutely no sound except for his own body's internal sounds (blood flow, heartbeat, etc).
A character who can do any feat humanly possibly to it's most logical extreme through willpower (he can jump really really really high, but can't fly). The drawback is that his powers are dependent on his mental state and confidence in himself.
>>77371920
>his nemesis is physically normal but great at demotivation/has some sort of confidence-draining superpower
>>77371952
I would love to see that mash-up
>>77371952
So instead of a motivational speaker, his nemesis is a demotivational speaker. A really peppy one
>Nobody believe in you! You'll never accomplish anything meaningful!
>able to shapeshift
>requires studying what you'll shapeshifting into in order to pull it off. You can't dupe someone who knows your target into believing you're them unless you pull off a convincing performance. Too distant from how they actually act and they immediately know things are weird. Too close and exact and the tiny differences will make them thing something is wrong. Have to hit a sweet spot between imitation and interpretation
>you also need to wear an extra-spatial device to store and deploy excess mass when changing size. If this device is ever removed it would be very very nasty.
>>77370247
that's actually part if Kid Mantis's power in Phantom Pain.
>super senses
>normal sound is too noisy, physical touch is too sensitive and feels weird, smell everything x 1000 intesity, eyes hurt from the strain
>>77372126
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8
>>77369702
Yeah, it's totally Longshot, still good though.
>>77371920
>>77371952
Is this a comic book/hero idea? Because I would love to see that happen.
>>77372126
When I was a kid I thought this was what life was like for dogs.
>>77371952
>Power is draining life energy
>low level passive field around you at all times. People just notice they feel kinda sleepy after hanging with you
>You can use it to heal yourself and reenergize yourself, and can even store more than your base level to 'spend' later
>but it's 'stored' as cancer
>this leads to things like staying up for weeks on end just to burn off the excess
>if you drain all the life out of something truly powerful, have only a short time to grievously injure yourself before the cancer reaches your brain
>>77372641
I wish someone would do a Jason Voorhees edit of this
>>77372868
Man that was already bad enough without the second half.
Imagine LITERALLY making people bummed/tired just with your presence. You'd get depressed super fast knowing nobody wants to hang out with you.
>>77373320
I think a lot of people would mistake 'I always get tired around this person' with 'I always feel relaxed and sleepy around this person, that must mean I think they're trustworthy and safe'.
Insomniacs would probably also like you.
The ability to turn invisible but it also makes you blind
imagine an invisible daredevil tho
>>77374009
I'm kinda surprised there are no invisible brawlers. They all seem to have some other psychic power they actually fight with.
>>77374277
Invisibility is a girl's power and girls aren't allowed to get their hands dirty.
An invisible girl brawler would be GOAT though.
>>77367595
That was a character in Misfits.
>>77374378
>invisibility is a girls power
>but being so good at stealth you might as well be invisible is a masculine power
weird
>>77366871
oh jeez, please tell me you were kidding and still have a copy somewhere.
that sounds fucking hilarious
>>77374448
Stealth requires actively trying and can be achieved through pure skill, while invisibility is easy and a gift. You use stealth to infiltrate, but invisibility to hide.
It sucks that your observation is kinda true, though.
>>77366436
Super strength that actually obeys the laws of physics
>Hold up a plane by the nose
>Oh wait shit the thin aluminium frame of a jetliner isn't actually strong enough to support the weight of the entire vehicle on an area the size of a man's hand
>Oh no I picked up a boat from underneath and instead of picking it up I just tore through the steel hull like a human-shaped spike
>>77374907
>invisibility is easy and a gift
It wouldn't even have to be that way, especially once your villains realize there's an invisible jackass running around. infra red goggles, heightened senses, lots of shit you'd have to learn to work around. You'd have it pretty easy on the streets but trying to break into a mastermind's base would still take work.
actually an invisible brawler would make for a pretty good partner for a skilled but weak character, since they could pretend that the weak guy has telekinetic powers when it's just the invisible guy punching things
>>77369702
No, Longshot's powers just backfire if he tries to use them for personal gain.
>>77374381
I should clarify it was less he had to move and more he had to focus back into perception when he felt ignored, so when the gang were being dismissive of him or he felt inadequate he would just ghost against his will.
He almost even became a villain because of it in the early draft, but viewers took to his character and powers so well they went in the opposite direction at full speed and made him the reluctant hero. Same they just kept going and went over the ledge after a bit. Suddenly he was nailing the hottest chick in the group, bit much.
>>77366904
Being able to dodge anything you can see, closing the distance to an enemy at will or just getting the fuck out of there faster than anyone else can follow are all pretty useful abilities.
A T. Rex with time freeze.
Telekinesis, but only within your arm span.
Invincibility, but only to things that wouldn't have killed you anyway (for example, you're completely immune to paper cuts but you wouldn't be immune to being beheaded).
>>77375146
What about a villain whose power is that they can make things or people invisible, and they use this to make people think that they have telekinesis?
>>77376389
Was expecting you to say make people and things invisible during rush hour.
The pandemonium would be absurd.
>Officer I swear I didn't see all those children crossing the street!
>Sure buddy, and maybe the prison guard won't see your whole cell block rush into your room late at night.
>>77366436
super hero with kaioken like powers. It already has a good drawback
>>77376562
Also, expensive paintings and jewels.
>>77376270
Then what's the fucking point of having it.
Grow a tough skin with apparel appendages based on the animal of your choice (only one/whoever decides it for themselves).
You need to wait until the next full moon for it to drop its effects, including the appendages/changes.
>>77376690
You either take no damage or die in one hit? Seems pretty useful to me.
>>77366436
>The ability to shittpost consistently
>Have to live in Australia
>>77376690
telekinesis within your arm span is still really great. You just have to be within striking distance to break someone's limbs or drive a stake of force right into their eye socket. Also you can carry as many things as you can fit into the space around you.
Being immune to literally everything that won't immediately kill you is also amazing. You're immune to all sorts of diseases, mind control, will almost never break a bone or even get bruised. Physical torture won't work. If you survive it, you walk away without a scratch. You suffer no wear-and-tear until the day you die, and can take solace that you will definitely die instantly, rather than become crippled or comatose
>>77369528
The protagonist from boku no hero academia is like that, potential be be super strong but damages him heaps
>>77376903
I already live in australia. Give me my unlimited brain wifi.
only have your superpower if you're in love
you're potent as a teenager but as you grow old you lose your powers
eventually you can't remember if you ever had them
there will be an arc where the hero takes a drug to simulate love
>>77377020
>said super is your rival
>make a raygun that nullifies their powers. They take it as proof that they no longer love their boyfriend/girlfriend and break up with them, and rush out to find a new relationship to sustain their power
>but they'll never love anyone the same way again.
>They start to think romantic love is the only thing anyone can offer them, and people who can't offer them that are worthless
>Get to watch gleefully as they tumbl down this spiral of depression you've triggered
>>77366436
A guy can make anything happen to anything but only if he writes on it in a rhyming haiku
>>77377564
Bit OP if it's literally "anything", he could always just make his first haiku remove the limitation.
>>77377564
>Japanese Zatanna
>>77377652
>>77377564
The haiku isn't really a limitation, it's flavor. You can put literally anything in haiku, especially with the amount of experience this person will be getting.
>>77366829
>>super speed
>>body is still human
imagine your destroyed knees after a day of super speed. shin splints from hell, blisters and torn up shoes
>>77376690
Dude you can literally shoot yourself in the gut and it wouldn't do shit because a gutshot won't instantly kill you. You're as close to invulnerable as possible.
You could run into a warzone completely naked with big iron plates protecting your brain and heart and come out totally unscathed.
