ITT: Ya'll help me write about magical powers or something

[Catterjune]

I'll keep the plot a secret for right now, but I need a list of about 10 or so "magical" powers that have drawbacks.

What I mean exactly is:

- These magical powers are permanently ingrained into a person. They are not like an article of clothing or hat that can be removed.

- These magical powers provide some sort of benefit.

- These magical powers also provide a terrible, terrible curse.

And I don't mean a benefit that also has a drawback like: "She can shapeshift, but only for 30 minutes or else she explodes." I mean something that's an actual drawback.

As for examples of ones I already thought up...

Power: The ability to steal someones youth
Drawback: At the expense of aging much much quicker

Power: The ability to alter someones memories
Drawback: At the expense of losing your own memories

Power: The ability to see the entire life of someone if you touch an item they last held.
Drawback: This ability is always in effect, so even accidentally touching something causes it to activate. To the outside people, it looks like you just kinda had a 1-second delay, but to you it feels like you lived their entire life in your mind.


And... that's all I got really. =\


Edit: I've talked it over with a few people on... some other site I frequent, and all their ideas are god awful. I'm not talking about an "upgraded" human. I mean a power that is a curse, or a power and a (hopefully related?) curse. Again, I am not looking for a power for an X-Men character. I'm looking for a Cursed Power or Ability. Something like "he can breathe underwater, but ONLY underwater" or something like that but not as stupid and useless.

[Darj]

I got some ideas:

 

1. If you don't mind taking powers from other shows/animes/etc., after reading the OP I thought in the power from this series "Pushing Daisies", where the guy can resurrect dead people after touching them, but if he touches them again they go back to being dead; and if he doesn't touch them in the next minute, another person will die instead. You could go for a more drastic version of the power:

 

Power: The ability of resurrecting a dead being after touching it.

Drawback: The nearest being (besides the user) to the resurrected being will die.

 

 

2. You mentioned shapeshifting as a bad example, but maybe it could work if the drawback was that the user cannot shift into its original form anymore (loses its identity), and can only shift into people near to him (1km or something around him), so the doppelganger will be at the risk of encountering with the original person. Also, he cannot take the shape of a dead person, so if the original person he took the form from suddenly dies, the user will randomly change into another person in the area. Plus, the user won't be able to go "oh, that guy just died so I will turn into him and continue with his life".

 

Power: The ability of shapeshifting into a nearby person.

Drawback: No longer can shift into its original form, and cannot take the shape of deceased people.

[Toffee.]

And I don't mean a benefit that also has a drawback like: "She can shapeshift, but only for 30 minutes or else she explodes." I mean something that's an actual drawback.

What if said shapeshifting has it's own little mentality to it?
Like, say for example, you could shapeshift, but in the process of doing so it leaves you in a severely weakened state from over-using it?

Not saying you should include that, but you know what I mean...

[Catterjune]

Power: The ability of resurrecting a dead being after touching it.

Drawback: The nearest being (besides the user) to the resurrected being will die.

I don't like it, because it seems really easy to play around with and not have it do anything really damaging. Like... if the nearest being is a plant... no one cares is a plant dies. Or the nearest fish, or the nearest most-non-mammals. And if you do accidentally kill your cat, you could revive it and then kill the thing you just brought back.

Then there's the fact that some deaths just aren't bring-back-able, like a decapitation or something like that.

Power: The ability of shapeshifting into a nearby person.

Drawback: No longer can shift into its original form, and cannot take the shape of deceased people.

Seems like it'd be too easy to game and find loopholes around it. Like... if I used it and turned into a duck, then wanted to go back to normal but couldn't, I'd probably just shapeshift into as close as normal as I could get. Like... "Hatcher... but with larger breasts, or 2 inches taller, or not as fat or with not-glasses-using eyes." and similar things.

What if said shapeshifting has it's own little mentality to it?
Like, say for example, you could shapeshift, but in the process of doing so it leaves you in a severely weakened state from over-using it?

Nah.


OKAY GUYS! When I say a "drawback" I think what I really meant to say is a "curse". A power that's more a curse then it is a gift. Bonus points if the curse is always active, but the power compensates to make them live a normal enough life. Triple word score if the "power" can also be used as a kind of weapon against someone.

[The Warden]

I don't know if this one would work for you, as it was from the drop of a hat:

 

Power: The ability to impose positive karma on someone

Drawback: The user gains an equal amount of negative karma

 

Just saying, you can weaponize bad luck.

[Catterjune]

So uhh... give someone "good luck" and receive "bad luck"? Not really weaponize-able and not much advantage there. If there's absolutely no net benefit to the user, and something negative when they use it, and it only works when you "activate" the power, then why would anyone use it?

[The Warden]

A kind and generous heart who would help people no matter the cost? Allows set up for the ever fun Break the Cutie scenario.

 

Also, negative karma can build up until you have a Kenny scenario. Cars would literally fly at you by that point.

[Toffee.]

You could, theoretically, include someone like Cyclops in this.
Provided, this fic takes place in some area where you literally cannot make a device that he/she can wear to focus said beams and let them see clearly at the same time.
Since, you know, Cyclops has to either keep his eyes closed, or wear special sunglasses(Which nullify his beams, btw), since said beams are uncontrollable. This also puts him/her in the same boat as Velma from Scooby Doo; Only smart one on the team, but becomes useless upon loosing her glasses, which tends to happen every now and then.

Yes I'm being obscure, but still...

[Catterjune]

... Okay guys! What I'm asking for is a a curse that can still be useful (or weaponized) to some degree. Think about those crappy "Corrupt a wish" topics and it'd be similar to that. If you suggest something and someone else can say "Oh well then I could skate around it by doing X or by not using my powers at all" then you're doing it wrong.

These are powers the people had since they were born, and they are now adults/teenagers so if there's a work around with their powers they've probably already figured it out.

[Toffee.]

Your made of paper.
Pros: You have the ability to self-origami yourself into various things, and to an extent, paper cut the hell out of people.
Cons: You have no physical strength, are incredibly light weight, and are highly flammable.

.....Like that?

[Darj]

Not sure if you want to get too much into physics but how about this?

 

Curse: The user cannot see matter (solid objects, atoms, etc.)

Power: The ability of seeing certain flows of energy and manipulate them with the body (e.g. literally grab or block with the hand an incoming flow of thermal/sound/etc. energy and redirect it; literally kick a sound wave). The energies the user detects are color-coded by his brain: thermal energy is seen as red, sound as white, electrical as yellow, etc.

 

Basically, the user would be living in an abstract world where he cannot see the objects themselves, but can still see any kind of energy going through them, which helps him to make sense of some things such as people who emit thermal energy.

Just to give an idea of his world, the user wouldn't be able to see any kind of wall unless some sort of energy is running through it. The user would also be able to literally see sounds, and manipulate them at will.

The offensive potential of this power would be that the user can simply manipulate the energies inside a foe and virtually disarm it: Take away his kinetic energy to stop his moves, or take away his thermal energy to turn him cold.

 

You might want to exclude radiant/light and nuclear energies from this power or otherwise daylight would be unbearable for the user, by seeing the energy on atoms the drawback of not being able to see matter would be pointless, and manipulating nuclear energy would be overpowered. Potential energies (e.g. gravity) would also be excluded because these kind of energies are stored and thus not flowing.

 

Also, I would put a limit to the amount of energy the user can handle so he won't be able to literally catch and throw lightnings.

[Catterjune]

Your made of paper.
Pros: You have the ability to self-origami yourself into various things, and to an extent, paper cut the hell out of people.
Cons: You have no physical strength, are incredibly light weight, and are highly flammable.

.....Like that?

Probably one of the best ones posted so far, but I'd probably not want the original ability to be so blatantly awful since they're supposed to survive until they're at least teenagers. Something closer to this train of thought though.

Not sure if you want to get too much into physics but how about this?

Curse: The user cannot see matter (solid objects, atoms, etc.)
Power: The ability of seeing certain flows of energy and manipulate them with the body (e.g. literally grab or block with the hand an incoming flow of thermal/sound/etc. energy and redirect it; literally kick a sound wave). The energies the user detects are color-coded by his brain: thermal energy is seen as red, sound as white, electrical as yellow, etc.

Basically, the user would be living in an abstract world where he cannot see the objects themselves, but can still see any kind of energy going through them, which helps him to make sense of some things such as people who emit thermal energy.
Just to give an idea of his world, the user wouldn't be able to see any kind of wall unless some sort of energy is running through it. The user would also be able to literally see sounds, and manipulate them at will.
The offensive potential of this power would be that the user can simply manipulate the energies inside a foe and virtually disarm it: Take away his kinetic energy to stop his moves, or take away his thermal energy to turn him cold.

You might want to exclude radiant/light and nuclear energies from this power or otherwise daylight would be unbearable for the user, by seeing the energy on atoms the drawback of not being able to see matter would be pointless, and manipulating nuclear energy would be overpowered. Potential energies (e.g. gravity) would also be excluded because these kind of energies are stored and thus not flowing.

Also, I would put a limit to the amount of energy the user can handle so he won't be able to literally catch and throw lightnings.

So basically, a blind person, but with an upgrade? No.



If your "curse" is something that a normal person could have then you're doing it wrong.

[Sleepy]

Let's see.... 

 

The concept of "Every time you smile a puppy dies".

Power: If the person ever feels a certain amount of happiness, someone really close to them in the area will die. The concept works under the same principle as "Fissure". If there are multiple potential targets, you get to choose. After the death has taken place, the feeling goes away altogether.

Curse: The ability is always active, so the user needs to always control their emotions... or be miserable, and if the user is alone, the user itself will die from this.

 

If it's convincing enough, you can tune the details. Like what distance exactly is "nearby", how much joy there has to be, and what kind of beings are affected by it (if you want it restricted to humans, you want it to be useful against wild beasts, or restricted to any species with a certain amount of intelligence, etc).

 

 

 

"Repelling man"

Power: Once the user's hands have had physical contact with any concrete object in solid state once, there can never be contact between the user and any part of the object/body of matter after the initial contact ended. The ability works like the opposite side of a magnet.

Curse: If you ever stretched hands with someone, touched any piece of clothing, the wallet, or anything physically. Never again.

 

This one is a weak one since always having gloves is a very easy work around it. Though, if the concept is acceptable enough, you could extend the ability to the whole body and give the character a very miserable nomad lifestyle.

I said in solid state because the user needs to be able to drink to survive. Not that they'd take the same water more than once though, thinking about it.

 

 

 

"Dry Skin".

Power: The user has the ability to remove hydrogen particles from any object it touches.

Curse: This is always in effect. You can dry things up if you touch them for too long, and if it's living beings, it can be dangerous, and that includes touching yourself. Also, due to the ability potentially being a natural thing instead of magic, you might need to absolve that hydrogen every so often, just like someone needs to eat every so often, only without the ability to hold it back as much, if at all. 

 

You could get around it if it if you are surrounded by water, but you wouldn't be able to live too normally anyways.

 

 

 

 

Those randomly came to mind...

[Sleepy]

Your made of paper.
Pros: You have the ability to self-origami yourself into various things, and to an extent, paper cut the hell out of people.
Cons: You have no physical strength, are incredibly light weight, and are highly flammable.

.....Like that?

Bakemonogatari?

[Catterjune]

Sleepy's: In general, better than most. More like that.


"Everytime you smile:"
Not sure how "auto death" would work so I'm a bit trepidatious on including it. Besides, death's not that fun. There's so many worse things that could happen.

"Repelling man"
It's a bit vague so... not sure...

Let's say he picked up a ball, threw it up in the air, and attempted to catch it. What happens? It floats like 5-6 inches in the air above his hand, like it's being suspended like a magnet? What if he touches a car like... very thoroughly, and then that car speeds towards him? If he touches a piano, and then someone picks up the piano and drops it on his head, is he safe?

What if he touches a screw, then that screw is used on OH LET'S SAY a Gameboy Advanced SP and then the GBA is thrown at him. Does the GBA stop in midair?

I don't hate it though. I like the idea behind it but it seems it needs a good amount of thinking behind it before being added. It's clever but the specifics just need hammering out.

"Dry Skin:"
I like the spirit behind Dry Skin, but I don't like some of the specifics. It just kind makes someone weirdly uncomfortable but it's not really like... permanent or something...




ON A COMPLETLEY UNRELATED NOTE

All this talk about touching and vaccuuming up stuff made think of a power. Touching something too long absorbs heat (or adds heat, I guess). Not sure if I want to make a lot of "touch-based" powers though. If it's touch based, obviously touching him or herself will cause them to suffer. Also if it makes things hotter, maybe they can't wear gloves because gloves would burst into flames after about an hour or so. If they can use the power without touching someone the "curse" becomes harder to come up with...

On a slightly related note, I can just edit all the current powers and make them all "touch" based. Memory girl can only alter memories of people she touches. The age stealer can only steal the youth from who she touches.

Etc etc!


This topic was actually helpful so far! O_o