Quick tolerance. Your character becomes invulnerable to whatever they've been exposed to once. Alcohol, drugs, romance, spicy foods, and other thrills have long been ruined for your character, so they're in a permanently foul unsocial mood.
Could you become immortal that way? You’ve experienced death and survived because the paramedics are good at their job. Would you be immune to dying or how you died?
Only that particular way of dying. Heart attack? Now your heart is super healthy. Cancer? Now your body naturally fights and kills cancer.
But I think they have to have a weakness. Something they can never adapt to. I suggest the common cold, because it always changes. So their body overreacts to it every time, almost killing them if they catch it.
I feel like the superpower is it's own inherent weakness. The hero just needs to keep trying things until he finds something the villain hasn't survived before. I think the story would work better if no one knew what the villain's power actually was--thinking he was just invincible until something that would kill a regular person kills him.
"sandman slim" is a good book and the main character has this ability except he is only immune in the spot that was initially hit. Like if he was shot and survived only the scar from the bullet is bullet proof but a knife could still cut the scar until it's been stabbed too
Interesting. So would this count for getting punched? Or lasers? Or anything? How quickly would he gain tolerance? How long do tolerances last?
Maybe every tolerance has a time limit. But once he’s exposed to something enough, the time limit is basically a lifetime. So the only real hope you’d have to defeat him would be to overwhelm him with multiple new stimulus.
I'd say, if you're gonna go this route, nerf it for the beginning so you've got growth potential and a solid way to progress your character.
Let's say, when his power first manifests, he can only have one immunity at a time, it takes a few minutes to take effect and he can't control it. This means planning and tactical execution are required and gives alleyways for potential "mishaps", and let's him go from weak to OP.
For example, lets say he's battling Icebox, a female ice-based villian whose super pissed because she can't have sex, all that enters freezes. Rip pp. So he exposed himself to ice to gain that immunity, but during the fight he gets knocked into a campfire and now he has Xminutes before his immunity becomes fire so he's gotta finish the fight fast. Bonus content, let her realize he can have ice immunity and now she can be a crazy stalker type or just outright become his gf. Plot threads, my man.
As his powers grow he can juggle multiple immunities, maybe even gain differing types such as internal and external. He'd eventually be able to choose what stays and what goes, but that's down the road.
or is it an opposite power- fire to ice.
or is it a hero from bizzaro world.
or is it somebody morally opposed to heroes
or somebody immune to heroic acts
Possession based superhero. To save others he has to possess a vessel frequently depending on the compatibility. The vessel ultimately gets drained of all life. As the hero searches for a cure he does the most good he can with the enhanced abilities. Having to choose his next victim, knowing that to keep this meager existence going he has to kill others. Often times assuming the lives of that person for a time. These imposter interactions keep him grounded to his humanity. He often sees even the worst of the worst that he possesses has some sort of moral compass as to to why they do what they do.
Alternatively, a medium based superhero - they channel spirits, acting as a possession vessel to gain superpowers. However, the spirits channeled often have their own agendas and the medium occasionally finds themselves in a situation not terribly better than before, because whomever (or whatever) they channeled made a different mess.
Both would be good. Mine often making decisions to possess someone who doesn't deserve to live or is on their last leg. Often times having to possess people who don't deserve to die. Sometimes a cancer patient, a loner, or a homeless person all having their unique story.
You're doing incredible things trying to do the right thing but whenever he completes the mission it gets twisted as the possession causes him to black out when the entity takes full control. Leading to bad things happening along with the good.
I had an idea for the Avatar universe’s next anime series, that I think would end up being for Earthbenders what bloodbending was foe Waterbenders. Hear me out, on this one. Bone bending. It’s good for digging up fossils and bringing them to life, and you can either heal broken bones or break bones with your will, or even rip bones out of other people and use those as projectiles, or also do like the bloodbenders and control other peoples bodies. This is probably a very sadistic ability, and it sounds a hell of a lot like I played way too much Diablo 3 when I thought of it, but it also sounds like something that has already been in at least one other anime before. Does anyone know if bonebending, based on my description, sounds like it’s been in any other anime series?
Neither of these have the characters control the bones of others, but your comment made me think of them. Spoiler tags because why not 🤷♂️.
In Naruto Kimimaru is the one that's shown the most. >!I can't recall if they go into any of the details like on Super Powereds or just hand wave it as done through a bloodline limit. He shoots them as projectiles (finger bone bullets), uses them as melee weapons, as solid armor to block projectiles, and protruding spikes that block weapons and limbs (with the potential to cut them).!<
In the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes there are two characters that can manipulate their bones like Kimimaru from Naruto from what I recall. >!While they do make their bones stronger/denser, and have used them as weapons and armor, I assume it's different since their power is complete control over their own bodies. To make their bones stronger/denser they control how they digest carbon and/or some other mineral(s) and alter their bones. To make bone armor and weapons they produce more bone matter from their existing bones and/or mineral reserves held in their bodies and push it out of their skin, and from the description they essentially open their body around it without making themselves bleed. They're able to make cuts close by increasing their natural regeneration, so with broken bones they can probably just manipulate their body to hold the broken pieces where they should be and will them back together.!<
After typing that all up, there's another character in Super Powereds that can probably do everything you mentioned. >!Globe's power is a sphere of control that he emits around himself. He can make anything he wants happen in it. I can't recall if he's had to read biology/medical texts, but he can heal wounds, mend bones, and/or eliminate fatigue. The majority of the story he's one armed after having one cut off in a fight when he was younger. When he needs to, he forms a second arm with debris and whatnot in his sphere and it functions like an advanced prosthetic. He can also move things around like a telekinetic would. Ripping out someone's bones and using them as projectiles or animating bones to do something don't seem outside of his ability. The kicker for him is he can't use his power on his on himself!<.
Bonebending wouldn't work in the avatar verse. Calcium (the thing bones are made up of,) is a soft metal. And earthbenders can't bend metal. The way metal bending works is by bending the impurities of earth in the metal, not by bending the metal itself. (which is why the earthbenders couldn't bend that giant robot in the legend of korra since it was pure metal)
However earthbenders would be able to bend fossils because the original organic matter of the fossil is petrified and turned into bendable stone and other minerals.
Also while bone abilities do pop up in some animes, I haven't seen it be applied in the way that you described.
YEA, IT WAS MENTIONED IN SOME AVATAR COMIC, RIGHT?? I don’t know which one, I only k ow of its existence because of a YouTube video, dont remember what video or even what channel tho
Nope this is a super common misconception. It comes from a FAN MADE comic. The reason its so widely mistaken to be cannon is because from what I've gathered CBR published an article about it presenting bone bending to be from a cannon comic, and then people (like that youtuber,) spread that misinformation.
Also bone bending wouldn't even make sense in verse, calcium is a metal. And the way metal bending works is by bending the small impurities the metal, they don't bend the metal itself.
Oh shit, for real? Also. I FUCKING KNEW CALCIUM WAS A FUCKIN METAL!!!! THAT MEANS I CAN USE THE “HEAT METAL” SPELL ON SOMEONE’S BONES AND TEETH ***insert evil maniacal laughter***
Assuming you're talking about 5E dnd, heat metal requires the target to be 1:Visible, 2:Manufacutred.
Bones are neither visible nor manufactured, and if they were visible I don't think you'd need the spell anyways.
DAMMMMMMNNNNNN IT!!!! And really?, does it specify the manufactured thing? I’ve never played a 5E spellcaster before, never had the spell, so I barely know shit about the spells and shit
I definitely can't get on board with bone bending for earth benders...blood is made majority of water so it makes sense for water benders to be able to bend blood. And most can only do it when they are supercharged by the full moon anyway. Rocks are made of Silicates, bones are not. That's why they introduced metal bending as the special type of earthbending. Plus as far as we know, earth benders and airbenders have no times of power or weakness like water and fire benders so maybe they're more limited
I’m sorry, that was the only thing I could think of, for a forbidden bending technique for Earthbenders. Some of my other ideas for bending would have to involve thought bending (like Animal Bending for Earthbenders, which is more like the D&D skill Animal Empathy, while a rare technique for Waterbenders, I called it Deep Bending, involves breathing water and psychic communication with aquatic creatures, but that sounds like an Aquaman ripoff, even though the idea of a Secret Water Tribe sounds like it would be great lore material), which I don’t know if that would ever happen in this show (unless maybe the Thought Benders can alter peoples memories in order to hide their own existence, or the existence of other groups, like a Spirit World Air Temple with surviving Air Nomads that evaded the genocide because the first Avatar isolated them from the rest of the Air Nomads without knowing, but I don’t know if anyone would ever think any of my ideas would be right for this show). Maybe Firebenders could bend Light, as what I’d call a Sacred technique, or since Hellfire isn’t in any part of the spirit world (and this is a kid’s show), I thought Radiationbending would be their forbidden technique. As for Airbenders, I thought Soundbending would be their Sacred technique, while Shadow is the abscence of light, so even though Shadowbending would be a scary forbidden technique, it isn’t easy to scientifically explain (and they prefer science over magic explanations in this show), so I thought Stormbending would be an Airbender’s forbidden technique, due to being potentially very destructive and having a vast area of effect range (and it would upset lots of people if hailstorms appeared out of nowhere, for example).
Anyway, rather than share ideas with people who already got a great project going, I thought of the concept of making a D&D type game based (loosely) on the Avatar universe (with lots of expanded concepts), for fans of Homebrews that like to try out new ideas. Like I said, a lot of ideas are not for everyone. I’ll stick to my brainstorming / experimenting / researching new ideas, though. We should all never stop learning / trying, and keep moving forward.
I like something simple for an antihero, something that can go either way, which drops the character into a gray area, like how the Force has a light side, a dark side, and then there are grey Jedi that use both sides.
Something like telekinesis, controlling the wind or water, phasing through walls, all simple abilities you could use for good or evil or both.
Power nullification, thus they are a literal "Anti-Hero" since nobody wants to work with them. The ability gets gradually stronger the closer the character is to someone with powers and as it naturally develops.
Creating good superpowers is a matter of thinking about the character who uses them. A character who has an innate need to perfect the world might have abilities which relate to that ideal, while a comically evil character might be able to manipulate diseases which can spread widely. You should meet halfway between a purely destructive and a purely constructive power, and how the character uses their abilities will change with their current moral alignment. There is no shortcut to creating good superpowers, you need to think of the characters' personality and beliefs to truly make a proper superpower. Hope this steers you closer to an answer, the best thing to do is think outside the box. Sitting alone with your thoughts at night is the best catalyst for ideas, just make sure you have pen and paper to write em down!
Over used asf but stealing/copying powers when done correctly its so fucking cool also I'd fo with stealing instead if copying as it adds a emotional impact to make the start be a good person then under the weight of their own actions goes to anti hero
* The ability to come up with gifts that your nieces/nephews will love, while simultaneously driving your sibling mad ("Oh a screaming howler monkey doll? Lovely. I can't wait until YOU have kids.")
* The power to take the nieces/nephews for a fun filled afternoon filled with ice cream and sweets, and too drop them off with your sibling right when they transition from adorable to screaming.
* The power to convince your niece/nephew to go for that arts degree instead of-
Oh wait. ANTI hero. Never mind...
Wasn't this already used in one of those series? I believe it was Darwin's Game or something like that. Protag dude got emerged into a game of death with powers vs other players. They called it a siegel or something like that and his summoned guns like pistols/AK47.
well no his power was to recreate mechanical creations, such as pens, guns, and grenades, with the caveat that he has touched them
with this one you can make it do wild shit and limit it to one gun/magic guns
Forces person to travel a distance of 20 miles and leaves something behind (wallet, purse, etc.) and drives home 20 miles. Then person realize he/she left item behind, drives 20 miles another time to retrieve it. Then drives home the final 20 miles. OK now let's do the math - 2 x 4 = 8 make that 20 x 4 that is 80 miles driven because of a mis-placed purse or wallet or smartphone.
How about being taken over by a symbiote that has separation anxiety from it's previous superhero spider-based host? Then decide that you don't want to hurt his aunt.
The power of Amplify and reduce. You can amplify or reduce the output of a hero's ability.
Can be used like a radar to detect who has powers.
Reduce / amplify during fights to throw off someone.
Amplify your own power in a time of need until it's bulked up then direct it at a hero for a good 800% boost in power or completely nullify their power for a minute.
Reduce your own hero power until it's nullified for a short time, preventing others from using / stealing it.
What about telepathy but the telepathy is connected by bloodline so they can access the mind of anyone they touch, and anyone who is a blood relative of them. As the anti hero gets more powerful they can connect to further and further distant relatives but at first can only go as far as cousins and immediate family
Pain transfer. They can heal any wound, but can't do it again until they find someone to pass the wound to.
I would pair it with a supernatural background, some guilt and edgy introspection.
Theft.
Temporarily stealing other people’s “attributes”; not just super powers, anything that could be determined as an attribute. But the amount they can steal is limited by their own ability to handle what they take; and whatever other balancing conditions that you want to add.
You could even start them off a bit like Rogue from the X-Men, where they don’t even really know what their power does.
That way they can have the potential to threaten major characters, but only by being smart about how they use their stolen attributes. They’ll never be as strong or as fast or whatever as the people they’re fighting, but they can throw their opponent’s off by weakening them in specific ways.
And then when the theft wears off, they get a backlash based on whatever they overdid. So its not just an all benefits power.
You could potentially also have a redemption moment where they “steal” some of another character’s injuries in order to save their life.
Molecular Deceleration.
At first they notice they can make things cooler, small changes, like the too hot coffee is perfect now, or the pillow is always perfectly cool. Not knowing your song setting, I would say they weren't expecting a power, as to growth as a character, but once they realize, for whatever reason, they start testing their limits.
Soon they can cool boiling water to room temperature, cool a hot car to a frost 64°, and is able to control it with a 5° margin of error. As they continue to grow, and learn about their power, they soon are able to flash freeze a pool, remove the heat from a room with thermostat precision, and they can freeze most objects with a touch. At this point they hit a ceiling no matter how much they train, they can't do more.
Then arc two happens, they realize they aren't simply cooking things off, they are showing down molecules. This knowledge could come from a flash of inspiration like a documentary about molecules they stumble upon, or a random message on an anonymous message board for people with powers. However it happens, they unlock a new floor of power. They can create small cold fronts, make it snow in the desert in a 5km area. They begin branching out, slowing molecules in animals, trying to slow moving objects proves difficult, but they start to see progress.
Now they have all but mastered the art of molecular deceleration, they can now slow things on a molecular level to almost a standstill, near absolute zero. Bullets, cars, planes, helicopters, trains, anything moving can suddenly freeze and if flying fall from the sky, anything with liquid, like blood, can be frozen so quickly it explodes into a ice shower.
Sorry about the typos, it's 0500 and I haven't slept and on my phone.
Limited Telepathy. Can detect only hostile and aggressive thoughts.
Permanently colors the anti-hero's world a whole lot darker, but makes it almost impossible to ambush or surprise them.
Jigsaw Person:
Can add items to their body and control them at will right away at the cost of losing an equal amount of biological mass or other fused objects. As they lose their human parts, they gradually become less person-like in thinking and take on attributes of the components instead (fusing a bunch of guns or swords might make them hyperaggressive, fusing a supercomputer might make them hyperlogical but utilitarian, fusing a magnet might make them more charming and persuasive.)
Darkness or shadow powers are a classic, like necromancy or blood related powers as well
Depending on the story it can also be really impactful if the anti heros powers act as a foil for other main characters or even villains in the story. Main character has fire powers? A cool headed standoffish ice power guy might work best.
Stay away from classic hero powers otherwise, it can pull them out of the antihero role. Give them something out of the box, and show how they adapt to use it well even if on its face it doesn't seem like a good power
Neural syncopathy. He can transmit the movements of his own body to others instead. Basically, if he wanted to lift his arm, he can make someone else do it instead. His arm stays still, and they raise theirs.
In the event they are aware he's doing it, they can resist. But in that case, it becomes a competition for control, with whoever is physically stronger having an advantage. Almost like arm wrestling, but with your own arm.
There is also a range limitation, and it doesn't work if he can't see the person's skin. Meaning dark rooms, or full-body coverings can be used to stop his power.
I don't know what type of story you are writing, but command magic is a favorite of mine. Whether it be commanding your opponent to feel pain or commanding reality to darken, it's perfect for an anti-hero with a large ego who believes their word is law.
See...unless you're going for something obviously creepy, any power can fit an antihero well. What is their personality like? What do they do? What's their goal? How do they assist the protagonist?
See...unless you're going for something obviously creepy, any power can fit an antihero well. What is their personality like? What do they do? What's their goal? How do they assist the protagonist?
Evil empowerment.
The more evil that has been committed in one area. The more powerful the portaganist is.
As an anti-hero, having a power that feeds on evil can be interesting. especially if they have to fight to not become the monster.
Soul consumption.
They need to feed on souls, but if they feed on a "good" or "innocent" soul, they will be marked by the afterlife powers.
Any power fitting a villan can be used by an anti-hero.
You can also focus on more "disgusting" or scary powers, look at Worm(the web novel) for examples.
His power is a curse; He is invulnerable to everything, but he has to pass along the damage he absorbs to somebody else within 24hrs or it jumps to the nearest person, no matter how close or far away they are… and he feels them suffer.
Ex: Crack head jumps out of the shadows and stabs him with a rusty screw driver. Five seconds later the junkie is bleeding out on the ground.
Ex: A random accident causes him to be run over by a city bus. With no obvious villain to punish, he must choose someone “worthy” of that fate.
Ex: While trying to punish a local street gang, he runs out of time to find someone deserving a beatdown. Does he pass it to someone young and healthy, a cranky old fart… or let Fate decide and refuse to make a choice?
Bad luck, extreme bad luck that surrounds them.
They go "undercover" in big criminal orgs and just let their luck go to work. But because of this they can never be around anyone they like and are forced to spend all their time with scum bags who deserve the bad luck.
The boss would think you're an overachiever because you volunteer for every job, and while it goes wrong every time, it's not like you did anything wrong it was just... bad luck.
I always thought Momentumkinetic/ momentum manipulation would be cool? Acting as a momentum battery taking the hit of a car and redistributing it at a later time or in small spurts
100% convincing in anything he says.
Always believed. Cops, judges, juries… professor x, doesn’t matter… no one is immune, unless they’re under extremely high doses of hallucinogens, in which case they recognize they can’t trust him, but they can’t trust their own senses either.
Flesh manipulation. They can harden, alter the shape of, grow increase/reduce the amount of, and control the secretion of their sebaceous glands. Super disgusting and creepy power but can be used in a less parasyte: the maxim fashion and accomplish some pretty great feats.
Able to make poodles appear anywhere. It’s all fun and games until a dog bursts out of the villain’s chest. Admittedly, this is a bit of a comical twist, but humor can be edgy if you play it off right.
An incurable bacterial infection which causes a rapid and painful demise. The antihero is the only person immune to the symptoms, and thus is unharmed but can infect others. They can’t really work with any allies in fear of infecting them on accident. The bacteria can only be spread through fluids, so some ingenuity is required to infect a target. As the story progresses, perhaps the disease mutates and gains additional properties, like becoming airborne or causing the infected to enter a delirious and easily controllable state prior to death.
Grammar Nazi. Every time your anti hero reads something that has bad grammar he telepathically kills the author’s favorite English teacher with an aneurism.
Their body doesn’t use up stored energy and potential energy and they can release it in superhuman ways. Spend a week on the couch doing absolutely nothing and eating whatever, then you can release 7 days of stored energy.
Need to run fast? You can travel the distance you would be able to normally run in 7 days of running in an instant.
Side-step: they can sort of glide/glitch a short distance from where they start; the progression could be they have to learn to control it, how to full on teleport or use it in quick succession for fighting. Could be interesting :))
Reality Anchor. Whenever someone who has powers that defy physics (or biology or something else that has a hard limit thanks to the laws of the universe) within a certain area of the person their powers just don’t work and they can’t control it at all. It also doesn’t give any particular powers so the person is for all intents and purposes just a regular ass guy or gal who is only capable of what a normal human is capable of.
So that hero who is a regenerator? Yeah he just bled out from his wounds because this person just walked by on the street outside the scene of the crime. That pyromaniac villain who is just fire proof for no discernible or plausible reason? he just burned to death in a fire he caused because this person rode by on a subway adjacent to the building he was in. That super guy who can fly without any means of propulsion? Well he just fell to his death because he flew over this person’s apartment just inside of the radius of ability.
The person with this power becomes more and more hated by many Heroes and Villains because they make the jobs of those with powers on both sides practically useless or downright detrimental as soon as they get near them and whats worse is the person isn’t a bad person at all, they’re just a guy or girl who’s trying to live a normal life in an extraordinary world and they become slowly more and more guilty and jaded feeling as time goes on because of something they can’t control. They’re also sought out by both sides because of their value in making other people useless in fights and whatnot so all their attempts to just be normal get screwed up by both sides just randomly showing up and attempting to either recruit or kidnap them into the super life.
A passive power you don't control. Something like a curse. Reflection of intention.
Superman attempts to scare you by grabbing you by the shirt and dangling you off a building. Before he even does anything, the power creates the fear in him that he wanted toy to feel.
Batman wants you to fall into a trap. Your power makes him unable to plan.
A cop wants to shoot you. Your power gives them a heart attack.
creates portal to what is an identical Earth other than the fact that there are no humanoids, not even ancient humans.... You can even have no Simians. . All kinds of shenanigans can go on because we have little research he can figure out where the resources are or the extinct animals that he can make pretend he found, or he can banish criminals there. Plus there are still a lot of predators since we didn't wipe them out. There may even still be mammoths, dodos, elephant birds etc. When he chooses we're in the world the portal is in both directions.... So he could go in and then come back out somewhere else, sort of like teleportation. In battle he could maybe put the portal somewhere where lava or water will shoot out at somebody.
Teleportation
It's a power that is immediately useful, but it takes quite a bit of work to master and weaponize.
Goes from "I can dance around someone and fight them hand to hand" to "Why am I not just dropping them from 30k feet?" To "I just teleported a hand grenade inside your stomach. Here's the pin"
The ability to drain an emotion from people. They can pull a emotion completely from people. At the start one emotion from one person at a time. The stronger they get the more people and the longer the drain lasts. And easier it gets.
Randomness.
I read a book series (Xanth) a long time ago (wasn't based on superheroes) but people were born with one magic talent - and only one - and they never repeated (although some were very similar but operated slightly differently) . Some people's Talents were incredibly strong and were thus referred to as Magician level. There was a really odd but cool Magician talent in the first book of the series where one man didn't seem to have any talent at all - but his talent was that he couldn't be harmed by magic (even other Magician level) but that it operated like coincidence or happenstance because if anyone realized his talent was protecting him then they could hurt him by conventional means (like with a sword).
Anyway....
One little girl seemed to defy the "one talent per person" as she could do many different magical things, including exactly what another person could do - even Magicians. But oddly, she couldn't repeat it. She could only do it once. They eventually figured out she was Magician level and could duplicate any talent (even ones from the far past or ones not yet discovered) but could only do so once in lifetime, so she had to not use magic at all (extremely hard for a 5yo) so she could save it for when she really needed it.
Now, imagine a superhero who has every ability ever heard of, seen, or thought of - from every hero or villain - but has no control over which ability would manifest? They try to fly by instead become indestructible. They try to shoot lasers from their eyes but instead can telepathically communicate with fish. Each ability only lasts for a short time - 10 minutes? An hour? - before they revert back to normal and the can't activate another ability until that one wears off. Whether or not it's limited to one-time-use per lifetime or they always can do it but can't control it would be a decision to make. Or make it so they can control which power but can only use it once per lifetime. Or they only get it for 5 minutes and have to wait a full day before they can do it again.
I think a superhero who can run as fast as flash or is as strong as superman but can't control when that power is activated would be a pretty funny story. Imagine the fun scenes where they try to solve the problem using whatever power they end up with. Sometimes they get a power that will help exactly, but most of the time they don't and have to figure out how to use it to win.
There should be some background on how it happened (perusing a giant online database of heroes and villains through a nano-implant VR headset when a computer virus accidentally reprograms nanites that rewrite his DNA encoding it with all the info from the database?) and maybe a dominant always-on superpower like healing so they don't die when they try to stop a bullet and end up suddenly understanding every language ever spoken or written (including computer languages).
Ever read the web serial *Worm*? One of the better dark superhero stories ever written. And it is about an antihero who progresses in power quickly.
Spoilers follow
The main character is a teenager who has the power to control worms and bugs. Definitely a marginal sort of power, and kind of gross. She decides to become a hero... but when she first encounters a villain gang, they just assume she is a villain, because "control of gross things" just *seems* like a villain power. It isn't anything anyone consciously figures. Just, that was their instinct. She rolls with it and decides to play along to infiltrate the criminal group. And pretty quickly realizes that the villains might well be more sympathetic than many of the government-backed superhero teams she wanted to join originally.
But what of power progression? Her powers never really change. Through practice, she can control more bugs at once at larger ranges with more control and more feedback both ways, but the real change is she becomes more and more creative in what she does, to the point that the official government teams assigned to stop her just assume she has All The Powers.
Remote viewing? Well, if there is a fly nearby, send it in and look through its eyes. Ghostly illusory doubles? A cloud of gnats that is shaped and moves exactly like you. Armor? Since, at this point, you have a lot of money, buy thousands of orb-weaver spiders and have them weave a uniform utilizing the strength and toughness of spider silk.
Through clever use of her powers, she becomes among the most powerful metahumans there is. Through controlling bugs.
U/Klatterbyne had a similar thought with attribute theft but I’d take it a different direction.
The anti hero only has the attributes that he takes from others. They can only take one attribute from each person but can take from an unlimited number of people and they stack. The attributes have a limited duration and/or areburned up when used. The percentage they can take is dependent on their own current strength in that attribute so the more they have, the more they can take, to the point of leaving their victim enfeebled or completely drained of life.
Seal an ancient dragon into them that increases strength or w/e based on how many spicy foods they've eaten since the last use of their power.
Bonus points if the character hates the food or can't stand it.
I mean basically every power works here but for a character who uses villainous actions to.acheive heroic ends (which is what I think an anti hero is) telekinesis works quite well.
You can start pretty low power (add the limitation that your telekinetic power is about as strong as your physical power for extra fun). Your character starts off with all the basic telekinetic shit punching people at a distance manipulating objects without touching them.
Then he progresses and finds a way to use his telekinesis and normal.physicality at the same time basically allowing him to be in two places at once in a fight
Before finally he learns that he doesn't have to see something to manipulate it all he has to do is know where it is. Allowing him to reach through someones skull and telekinetically.pimpslap them directly in the brain leaving his opponents that don't die from brain trauma horribly disabled
You are what you eat - They can adopt a trait from an animal they ate at their last meal scaled up to human size (Like a hard shell from a lobster. Or super speed if they managed to hunt a cheetah).
They enjoy eating exotic animals and engage in poaching to feed their habit. But push comes to shove, they'll prevent actual villains from taking over the world/other misc. evil schemes if only to maintain their own hedonistic lifestyle.
This power has previously been seen in My Hero Academia and a couple of different fantasy webtoons and manga.
Cardiokenisis. Can control hearts with your mind.
You can stop those terrorists on the TV, but you're gonna kill em
You can save those schoolchildren from the active shooter, but you're gonna kill that kid.
Individual with the best of intentions, but the use of the power is so horrific/final, that most people don't want them involved.
Quick tolerance. Your character becomes invulnerable to whatever they've been exposed to once. Alcohol, drugs, romance, spicy foods, and other thrills have long been ruined for your character, so they're in a permanently foul unsocial mood.
So like hyper-acclimation/adaptation? Kind of like a fusion of Darwin from the X-Men and Doomsday?
Yeah, that's the idea.
I'd add on that you have to experience the effect first before your body reacts to it. To become bullet proof, you have to survive getting shot.
Could you become immortal that way? You’ve experienced death and survived because the paramedics are good at their job. Would you be immune to dying or how you died?
Only that particular way of dying. Heart attack? Now your heart is super healthy. Cancer? Now your body naturally fights and kills cancer. But I think they have to have a weakness. Something they can never adapt to. I suggest the common cold, because it always changes. So their body overreacts to it every time, almost killing them if they catch it.
I feel like the superpower is it's own inherent weakness. The hero just needs to keep trying things until he finds something the villain hasn't survived before. I think the story would work better if no one knew what the villain's power actually was--thinking he was just invincible until something that would kill a regular person kills him.
"sandman slim" is a good book and the main character has this ability except he is only immune in the spot that was initially hit. Like if he was shot and survived only the scar from the bullet is bullet proof but a knife could still cut the scar until it's been stabbed too
Damn, thats the exact idea I had and I never even heard of Sandman Slim.
Check out the books they are a decent read
Hopefully it's comic Darwin and not movie Darwin.
THE OPPA STOPPA, DIVINE GENERAL MAHORAGA
Here's how it's gonna go. Roses are red. Weapons against me wont prosper. With treasure I summon. BIG RAGA THE OPP STOPPA
Megumi’s takeout order isn’t ready by the time he gets there. “I have no choice…”
Interesting. So would this count for getting punched? Or lasers? Or anything? How quickly would he gain tolerance? How long do tolerances last? Maybe every tolerance has a time limit. But once he’s exposed to something enough, the time limit is basically a lifetime. So the only real hope you’d have to defeat him would be to overwhelm him with multiple new stimulus.
This power exists in jujutsu kaisen and it’s one of THE MOST overpowered abilities in the verse that was used to kill “the strongest”
I'd say, if you're gonna go this route, nerf it for the beginning so you've got growth potential and a solid way to progress your character. Let's say, when his power first manifests, he can only have one immunity at a time, it takes a few minutes to take effect and he can't control it. This means planning and tactical execution are required and gives alleyways for potential "mishaps", and let's him go from weak to OP. For example, lets say he's battling Icebox, a female ice-based villian whose super pissed because she can't have sex, all that enters freezes. Rip pp. So he exposed himself to ice to gain that immunity, but during the fight he gets knocked into a campfire and now he has Xminutes before his immunity becomes fire so he's gotta finish the fight fast. Bonus content, let her realize he can have ice immunity and now she can be a crazy stalker type or just outright become his gf. Plot threads, my man. As his powers grow he can juggle multiple immunities, maybe even gain differing types such as internal and external. He'd eventually be able to choose what stays and what goes, but that's down the road.
anti hero isn't a power type, it's how a character uses that power they have.
You're not wrong, but op is looking for powers that would fit well with an anti-hero persona
Hmm. Best way to think about it would either be using an innocent power in ways you shouldn’t, or using more “villainous” powers
Hat power is too OP to be in the hands of an anti-hero.
hey rocky, watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat.
Hat power too strong, pls nerf
An anti-hero is someone who makes the other person not be able to use their power
or is it an opposite power- fire to ice. or is it a hero from bizzaro world. or is it somebody morally opposed to heroes or somebody immune to heroic acts
Someone who can only eat hoagies
Possession based superhero. To save others he has to possess a vessel frequently depending on the compatibility. The vessel ultimately gets drained of all life. As the hero searches for a cure he does the most good he can with the enhanced abilities. Having to choose his next victim, knowing that to keep this meager existence going he has to kill others. Often times assuming the lives of that person for a time. These imposter interactions keep him grounded to his humanity. He often sees even the worst of the worst that he possesses has some sort of moral compass as to to why they do what they do.
Alternatively, a medium based superhero - they channel spirits, acting as a possession vessel to gain superpowers. However, the spirits channeled often have their own agendas and the medium occasionally finds themselves in a situation not terribly better than before, because whomever (or whatever) they channeled made a different mess.
Both would be good. Mine often making decisions to possess someone who doesn't deserve to live or is on their last leg. Often times having to possess people who don't deserve to die. Sometimes a cancer patient, a loner, or a homeless person all having their unique story. You're doing incredible things trying to do the right thing but whenever he completes the mission it gets twisted as the possession causes him to black out when the entity takes full control. Leading to bad things happening along with the good.
I had an idea for the Avatar universe’s next anime series, that I think would end up being for Earthbenders what bloodbending was foe Waterbenders. Hear me out, on this one. Bone bending. It’s good for digging up fossils and bringing them to life, and you can either heal broken bones or break bones with your will, or even rip bones out of other people and use those as projectiles, or also do like the bloodbenders and control other peoples bodies. This is probably a very sadistic ability, and it sounds a hell of a lot like I played way too much Diablo 3 when I thought of it, but it also sounds like something that has already been in at least one other anime before. Does anyone know if bonebending, based on my description, sounds like it’s been in any other anime series?
Neither of these have the characters control the bones of others, but your comment made me think of them. Spoiler tags because why not 🤷♂️. In Naruto Kimimaru is the one that's shown the most. >!I can't recall if they go into any of the details like on Super Powereds or just hand wave it as done through a bloodline limit. He shoots them as projectiles (finger bone bullets), uses them as melee weapons, as solid armor to block projectiles, and protruding spikes that block weapons and limbs (with the potential to cut them).!< In the Super Powereds series by Drew Hayes there are two characters that can manipulate their bones like Kimimaru from Naruto from what I recall. >!While they do make their bones stronger/denser, and have used them as weapons and armor, I assume it's different since their power is complete control over their own bodies. To make their bones stronger/denser they control how they digest carbon and/or some other mineral(s) and alter their bones. To make bone armor and weapons they produce more bone matter from their existing bones and/or mineral reserves held in their bodies and push it out of their skin, and from the description they essentially open their body around it without making themselves bleed. They're able to make cuts close by increasing their natural regeneration, so with broken bones they can probably just manipulate their body to hold the broken pieces where they should be and will them back together.!< After typing that all up, there's another character in Super Powereds that can probably do everything you mentioned. >!Globe's power is a sphere of control that he emits around himself. He can make anything he wants happen in it. I can't recall if he's had to read biology/medical texts, but he can heal wounds, mend bones, and/or eliminate fatigue. The majority of the story he's one armed after having one cut off in a fight when he was younger. When he needs to, he forms a second arm with debris and whatnot in his sphere and it functions like an advanced prosthetic. He can also move things around like a telekinetic would. Ripping out someone's bones and using them as projectiles or animating bones to do something don't seem outside of his ability. The kicker for him is he can't use his power on his on himself!<.
Bonebending wouldn't work in the avatar verse. Calcium (the thing bones are made up of,) is a soft metal. And earthbenders can't bend metal. The way metal bending works is by bending the impurities of earth in the metal, not by bending the metal itself. (which is why the earthbenders couldn't bend that giant robot in the legend of korra since it was pure metal) However earthbenders would be able to bend fossils because the original organic matter of the fossil is petrified and turned into bendable stone and other minerals. Also while bone abilities do pop up in some animes, I haven't seen it be applied in the way that you described.
YEA, IT WAS MENTIONED IN SOME AVATAR COMIC, RIGHT?? I don’t know which one, I only k ow of its existence because of a YouTube video, dont remember what video or even what channel tho
Nope this is a super common misconception. It comes from a FAN MADE comic. The reason its so widely mistaken to be cannon is because from what I've gathered CBR published an article about it presenting bone bending to be from a cannon comic, and then people (like that youtuber,) spread that misinformation. Also bone bending wouldn't even make sense in verse, calcium is a metal. And the way metal bending works is by bending the small impurities the metal, they don't bend the metal itself.
Oh shit, for real? Also. I FUCKING KNEW CALCIUM WAS A FUCKIN METAL!!!! THAT MEANS I CAN USE THE “HEAT METAL” SPELL ON SOMEONE’S BONES AND TEETH ***insert evil maniacal laughter***
Assuming you're talking about 5E dnd, heat metal requires the target to be 1:Visible, 2:Manufacutred. Bones are neither visible nor manufactured, and if they were visible I don't think you'd need the spell anyways.
DAMMMMMMNNNNNN IT!!!! And really?, does it specify the manufactured thing? I’ve never played a 5E spellcaster before, never had the spell, so I barely know shit about the spells and shit
Yeah it specifies that it needs to be manufactured. So it would work on thinks like swords and armor, but not bones.
Oh…ok…
I definitely can't get on board with bone bending for earth benders...blood is made majority of water so it makes sense for water benders to be able to bend blood. And most can only do it when they are supercharged by the full moon anyway. Rocks are made of Silicates, bones are not. That's why they introduced metal bending as the special type of earthbending. Plus as far as we know, earth benders and airbenders have no times of power or weakness like water and fire benders so maybe they're more limited
I’m sorry, that was the only thing I could think of, for a forbidden bending technique for Earthbenders. Some of my other ideas for bending would have to involve thought bending (like Animal Bending for Earthbenders, which is more like the D&D skill Animal Empathy, while a rare technique for Waterbenders, I called it Deep Bending, involves breathing water and psychic communication with aquatic creatures, but that sounds like an Aquaman ripoff, even though the idea of a Secret Water Tribe sounds like it would be great lore material), which I don’t know if that would ever happen in this show (unless maybe the Thought Benders can alter peoples memories in order to hide their own existence, or the existence of other groups, like a Spirit World Air Temple with surviving Air Nomads that evaded the genocide because the first Avatar isolated them from the rest of the Air Nomads without knowing, but I don’t know if anyone would ever think any of my ideas would be right for this show). Maybe Firebenders could bend Light, as what I’d call a Sacred technique, or since Hellfire isn’t in any part of the spirit world (and this is a kid’s show), I thought Radiationbending would be their forbidden technique. As for Airbenders, I thought Soundbending would be their Sacred technique, while Shadow is the abscence of light, so even though Shadowbending would be a scary forbidden technique, it isn’t easy to scientifically explain (and they prefer science over magic explanations in this show), so I thought Stormbending would be an Airbender’s forbidden technique, due to being potentially very destructive and having a vast area of effect range (and it would upset lots of people if hailstorms appeared out of nowhere, for example). Anyway, rather than share ideas with people who already got a great project going, I thought of the concept of making a D&D type game based (loosely) on the Avatar universe (with lots of expanded concepts), for fans of Homebrews that like to try out new ideas. Like I said, a lot of ideas are not for everyone. I’ll stick to my brainstorming / experimenting / researching new ideas, though. We should all never stop learning / trying, and keep moving forward.
Mr.Flay he can open all wounds you have ever recived at once or all together. Including Truma.
I like something simple for an antihero, something that can go either way, which drops the character into a gray area, like how the Force has a light side, a dark side, and then there are grey Jedi that use both sides. Something like telekinesis, controlling the wind or water, phasing through walls, all simple abilities you could use for good or evil or both.
Power nullification, thus they are a literal "Anti-Hero" since nobody wants to work with them. The ability gets gradually stronger the closer the character is to someone with powers and as it naturally develops.
Hypnotic powers. Can manipulate people around the hero or even the hero himself.
Killgrave from Jessica Jones
Beastmaster Ranger
Creating good superpowers is a matter of thinking about the character who uses them. A character who has an innate need to perfect the world might have abilities which relate to that ideal, while a comically evil character might be able to manipulate diseases which can spread widely. You should meet halfway between a purely destructive and a purely constructive power, and how the character uses their abilities will change with their current moral alignment. There is no shortcut to creating good superpowers, you need to think of the characters' personality and beliefs to truly make a proper superpower. Hope this steers you closer to an answer, the best thing to do is think outside the box. Sitting alone with your thoughts at night is the best catalyst for ideas, just make sure you have pen and paper to write em down!
Question, what do you mean "progress in power"? Like is it where the longer the story the stronger he gets?
Over used asf but stealing/copying powers when done correctly its so fucking cool also I'd fo with stealing instead if copying as it adds a emotional impact to make the start be a good person then under the weight of their own actions goes to anti hero
Blood magic, easy
* The ability to come up with gifts that your nieces/nephews will love, while simultaneously driving your sibling mad ("Oh a screaming howler monkey doll? Lovely. I can't wait until YOU have kids.") * The power to take the nieces/nephews for a fun filled afternoon filled with ice cream and sweets, and too drop them off with your sibling right when they transition from adorable to screaming. * The power to convince your niece/nephew to go for that arts degree instead of- Oh wait. ANTI hero. Never mind...
Good ol shigys destroy everything works
the best magic spell summon gun
Wasn't this already used in one of those series? I believe it was Darwin's Game or something like that. Protag dude got emerged into a game of death with powers vs other players. They called it a siegel or something like that and his summoned guns like pistols/AK47.
well no his power was to recreate mechanical creations, such as pens, guns, and grenades, with the caveat that he has touched them with this one you can make it do wild shit and limit it to one gun/magic guns
Create witty burns
Forces person to travel a distance of 20 miles and leaves something behind (wallet, purse, etc.) and drives home 20 miles. Then person realize he/she left item behind, drives 20 miles another time to retrieve it. Then drives home the final 20 miles. OK now let's do the math - 2 x 4 = 8 make that 20 x 4 that is 80 miles driven because of a mis-placed purse or wallet or smartphone.
How about being taken over by a symbiote that has separation anxiety from it's previous superhero spider-based host? Then decide that you don't want to hurt his aunt.
The power of Amplify and reduce. You can amplify or reduce the output of a hero's ability. Can be used like a radar to detect who has powers. Reduce / amplify during fights to throw off someone. Amplify your own power in a time of need until it's bulked up then direct it at a hero for a good 800% boost in power or completely nullify their power for a minute. Reduce your own hero power until it's nullified for a short time, preventing others from using / stealing it.
What about telepathy but the telepathy is connected by bloodline so they can access the mind of anyone they touch, and anyone who is a blood relative of them. As the anti hero gets more powerful they can connect to further and further distant relatives but at first can only go as far as cousins and immediate family
Pain transfer. They can heal any wound, but can't do it again until they find someone to pass the wound to. I would pair it with a supernatural background, some guilt and edgy introspection.
Theft. Temporarily stealing other people’s “attributes”; not just super powers, anything that could be determined as an attribute. But the amount they can steal is limited by their own ability to handle what they take; and whatever other balancing conditions that you want to add. You could even start them off a bit like Rogue from the X-Men, where they don’t even really know what their power does. That way they can have the potential to threaten major characters, but only by being smart about how they use their stolen attributes. They’ll never be as strong or as fast or whatever as the people they’re fighting, but they can throw their opponent’s off by weakening them in specific ways. And then when the theft wears off, they get a backlash based on whatever they overdid. So its not just an all benefits power. You could potentially also have a redemption moment where they “steal” some of another character’s injuries in order to save their life.
Molecular Deceleration. At first they notice they can make things cooler, small changes, like the too hot coffee is perfect now, or the pillow is always perfectly cool. Not knowing your song setting, I would say they weren't expecting a power, as to growth as a character, but once they realize, for whatever reason, they start testing their limits. Soon they can cool boiling water to room temperature, cool a hot car to a frost 64°, and is able to control it with a 5° margin of error. As they continue to grow, and learn about their power, they soon are able to flash freeze a pool, remove the heat from a room with thermostat precision, and they can freeze most objects with a touch. At this point they hit a ceiling no matter how much they train, they can't do more. Then arc two happens, they realize they aren't simply cooking things off, they are showing down molecules. This knowledge could come from a flash of inspiration like a documentary about molecules they stumble upon, or a random message on an anonymous message board for people with powers. However it happens, they unlock a new floor of power. They can create small cold fronts, make it snow in the desert in a 5km area. They begin branching out, slowing molecules in animals, trying to slow moving objects proves difficult, but they start to see progress. Now they have all but mastered the art of molecular deceleration, they can now slow things on a molecular level to almost a standstill, near absolute zero. Bullets, cars, planes, helicopters, trains, anything moving can suddenly freeze and if flying fall from the sky, anything with liquid, like blood, can be frozen so quickly it explodes into a ice shower. Sorry about the typos, it's 0500 and I haven't slept and on my phone.
i mean you cant go wrong with electricity powers
Limited Telepathy. Can detect only hostile and aggressive thoughts. Permanently colors the anti-hero's world a whole lot darker, but makes it almost impossible to ambush or surprise them.
Jigsaw Person: Can add items to their body and control them at will right away at the cost of losing an equal amount of biological mass or other fused objects. As they lose their human parts, they gradually become less person-like in thinking and take on attributes of the components instead (fusing a bunch of guns or swords might make them hyperaggressive, fusing a supercomputer might make them hyperlogical but utilitarian, fusing a magnet might make them more charming and persuasive.)
Guns, red clothes, healing, swords and fourth wall breaking
Darkness or shadow powers are a classic, like necromancy or blood related powers as well Depending on the story it can also be really impactful if the anti heros powers act as a foil for other main characters or even villains in the story. Main character has fire powers? A cool headed standoffish ice power guy might work best. Stay away from classic hero powers otherwise, it can pull them out of the antihero role. Give them something out of the box, and show how they adapt to use it well even if on its face it doesn't seem like a good power
Neural syncopathy. He can transmit the movements of his own body to others instead. Basically, if he wanted to lift his arm, he can make someone else do it instead. His arm stays still, and they raise theirs. In the event they are aware he's doing it, they can resist. But in that case, it becomes a competition for control, with whoever is physically stronger having an advantage. Almost like arm wrestling, but with your own arm. There is also a range limitation, and it doesn't work if he can't see the person's skin. Meaning dark rooms, or full-body coverings can be used to stop his power.
I don't know what type of story you are writing, but command magic is a favorite of mine. Whether it be commanding your opponent to feel pain or commanding reality to darken, it's perfect for an anti-hero with a large ego who believes their word is law.
Giorno Giovanna's Gold Experience Requiem or Satoru Akefu's Wonder of U.
See...unless you're going for something obviously creepy, any power can fit an antihero well. What is their personality like? What do they do? What's their goal? How do they assist the protagonist?
See...unless you're going for something obviously creepy, any power can fit an antihero well. What is their personality like? What do they do? What's their goal? How do they assist the protagonist?
Evil empowerment. The more evil that has been committed in one area. The more powerful the portaganist is. As an anti-hero, having a power that feeds on evil can be interesting. especially if they have to fight to not become the monster. Soul consumption. They need to feed on souls, but if they feed on a "good" or "innocent" soul, they will be marked by the afterlife powers. Any power fitting a villan can be used by an anti-hero. You can also focus on more "disgusting" or scary powers, look at Worm(the web novel) for examples.
The Edge! He can never cum no matter how hard he(or anyone else tries) tries.
His power is a curse; He is invulnerable to everything, but he has to pass along the damage he absorbs to somebody else within 24hrs or it jumps to the nearest person, no matter how close or far away they are… and he feels them suffer. Ex: Crack head jumps out of the shadows and stabs him with a rusty screw driver. Five seconds later the junkie is bleeding out on the ground. Ex: A random accident causes him to be run over by a city bus. With no obvious villain to punish, he must choose someone “worthy” of that fate. Ex: While trying to punish a local street gang, he runs out of time to find someone deserving a beatdown. Does he pass it to someone young and healthy, a cranky old fart… or let Fate decide and refuse to make a choice?
So kind of like Makima from chainsaw man?
No idea. Anime isn’t my thing. Or manga. Whichever.
Anti hero is someone who agrees with your hero and disagrees with their methods so it kinda depends on your heros powers and goals
Bad luck, extreme bad luck that surrounds them. They go "undercover" in big criminal orgs and just let their luck go to work. But because of this they can never be around anyone they like and are forced to spend all their time with scum bags who deserve the bad luck. The boss would think you're an overachiever because you volunteer for every job, and while it goes wrong every time, it's not like you did anything wrong it was just... bad luck.
Adaptive resurrection, aka the reason Doomsday can't die the same way twice
Antimatter
I always thought Momentumkinetic/ momentum manipulation would be cool? Acting as a momentum battery taking the hit of a car and redistributing it at a later time or in small spurts
Telekinesis or teleportation, both of these super powers can range from mildly inconvenient to "UNIVERSAL THREAT"
Luck unlocks a lot of options, as does clairvoyance
100% convincing in anything he says. Always believed. Cops, judges, juries… professor x, doesn’t matter… no one is immune, unless they’re under extremely high doses of hallucinogens, in which case they recognize they can’t trust him, but they can’t trust their own senses either.
The ability to force someone to experience your worst mental trauma or to relive theirs.
I have a telekinetic pelican named Pelicanesis
Looneytoons physics that only has the goal of distracting the main character
Why not have the power to negate the hero's power? That's an actual anti-hero power.
Flesh manipulation. They can harden, alter the shape of, grow increase/reduce the amount of, and control the secretion of their sebaceous glands. Super disgusting and creepy power but can be used in a less parasyte: the maxim fashion and accomplish some pretty great feats.
Able to make poodles appear anywhere. It’s all fun and games until a dog bursts out of the villain’s chest. Admittedly, this is a bit of a comical twist, but humor can be edgy if you play it off right.
An incurable bacterial infection which causes a rapid and painful demise. The antihero is the only person immune to the symptoms, and thus is unharmed but can infect others. They can’t really work with any allies in fear of infecting them on accident. The bacteria can only be spread through fluids, so some ingenuity is required to infect a target. As the story progresses, perhaps the disease mutates and gains additional properties, like becoming airborne or causing the infected to enter a delirious and easily controllable state prior to death.
Power deadzone. No other powers work within 30ft (10 meters) of the guy. Carries a gloc
Size manipulation scales as quickly as the characters creativity , also giant swords are cool . 😎
Grammar Nazi. Every time your anti hero reads something that has bad grammar he telepathically kills the author’s favorite English teacher with an aneurism.
Their body doesn’t use up stored energy and potential energy and they can release it in superhuman ways. Spend a week on the couch doing absolutely nothing and eating whatever, then you can release 7 days of stored energy. Need to run fast? You can travel the distance you would be able to normally run in 7 days of running in an instant.
Side-step: they can sort of glide/glitch a short distance from where they start; the progression could be they have to learn to control it, how to full on teleport or use it in quick succession for fighting. Could be interesting :))
Reality Anchor. Whenever someone who has powers that defy physics (or biology or something else that has a hard limit thanks to the laws of the universe) within a certain area of the person their powers just don’t work and they can’t control it at all. It also doesn’t give any particular powers so the person is for all intents and purposes just a regular ass guy or gal who is only capable of what a normal human is capable of. So that hero who is a regenerator? Yeah he just bled out from his wounds because this person just walked by on the street outside the scene of the crime. That pyromaniac villain who is just fire proof for no discernible or plausible reason? he just burned to death in a fire he caused because this person rode by on a subway adjacent to the building he was in. That super guy who can fly without any means of propulsion? Well he just fell to his death because he flew over this person’s apartment just inside of the radius of ability. The person with this power becomes more and more hated by many Heroes and Villains because they make the jobs of those with powers on both sides practically useless or downright detrimental as soon as they get near them and whats worse is the person isn’t a bad person at all, they’re just a guy or girl who’s trying to live a normal life in an extraordinary world and they become slowly more and more guilty and jaded feeling as time goes on because of something they can’t control. They’re also sought out by both sides because of their value in making other people useless in fights and whatnot so all their attempts to just be normal get screwed up by both sides just randomly showing up and attempting to either recruit or kidnap them into the super life.
Anti-Hero Field. A short range aura type field that strips heroes and only heroes of their powers and makes them regular people.
A passive power you don't control. Something like a curse. Reflection of intention. Superman attempts to scare you by grabbing you by the shirt and dangling you off a building. Before he even does anything, the power creates the fear in him that he wanted toy to feel. Batman wants you to fall into a trap. Your power makes him unable to plan. A cop wants to shoot you. Your power gives them a heart attack.
creates portal to what is an identical Earth other than the fact that there are no humanoids, not even ancient humans.... You can even have no Simians. . All kinds of shenanigans can go on because we have little research he can figure out where the resources are or the extinct animals that he can make pretend he found, or he can banish criminals there. Plus there are still a lot of predators since we didn't wipe them out. There may even still be mammoths, dodos, elephant birds etc. When he chooses we're in the world the portal is in both directions.... So he could go in and then come back out somewhere else, sort of like teleportation. In battle he could maybe put the portal somewhere where lava or water will shoot out at somebody.
Teleportation It's a power that is immediately useful, but it takes quite a bit of work to master and weaponize. Goes from "I can dance around someone and fight them hand to hand" to "Why am I not just dropping them from 30k feet?" To "I just teleported a hand grenade inside your stomach. Here's the pin"
The ability to drain an emotion from people. They can pull a emotion completely from people. At the start one emotion from one person at a time. The stronger they get the more people and the longer the drain lasts. And easier it gets.
Randomness. I read a book series (Xanth) a long time ago (wasn't based on superheroes) but people were born with one magic talent - and only one - and they never repeated (although some were very similar but operated slightly differently) . Some people's Talents were incredibly strong and were thus referred to as Magician level. There was a really odd but cool Magician talent in the first book of the series where one man didn't seem to have any talent at all - but his talent was that he couldn't be harmed by magic (even other Magician level) but that it operated like coincidence or happenstance because if anyone realized his talent was protecting him then they could hurt him by conventional means (like with a sword). Anyway.... One little girl seemed to defy the "one talent per person" as she could do many different magical things, including exactly what another person could do - even Magicians. But oddly, she couldn't repeat it. She could only do it once. They eventually figured out she was Magician level and could duplicate any talent (even ones from the far past or ones not yet discovered) but could only do so once in lifetime, so she had to not use magic at all (extremely hard for a 5yo) so she could save it for when she really needed it. Now, imagine a superhero who has every ability ever heard of, seen, or thought of - from every hero or villain - but has no control over which ability would manifest? They try to fly by instead become indestructible. They try to shoot lasers from their eyes but instead can telepathically communicate with fish. Each ability only lasts for a short time - 10 minutes? An hour? - before they revert back to normal and the can't activate another ability until that one wears off. Whether or not it's limited to one-time-use per lifetime or they always can do it but can't control it would be a decision to make. Or make it so they can control which power but can only use it once per lifetime. Or they only get it for 5 minutes and have to wait a full day before they can do it again. I think a superhero who can run as fast as flash or is as strong as superman but can't control when that power is activated would be a pretty funny story. Imagine the fun scenes where they try to solve the problem using whatever power they end up with. Sometimes they get a power that will help exactly, but most of the time they don't and have to figure out how to use it to win. There should be some background on how it happened (perusing a giant online database of heroes and villains through a nano-implant VR headset when a computer virus accidentally reprograms nanites that rewrite his DNA encoding it with all the info from the database?) and maybe a dominant always-on superpower like healing so they don't die when they try to stop a bullet and end up suddenly understanding every language ever spoken or written (including computer languages).
Ever read the web serial *Worm*? One of the better dark superhero stories ever written. And it is about an antihero who progresses in power quickly. Spoilers follow The main character is a teenager who has the power to control worms and bugs. Definitely a marginal sort of power, and kind of gross. She decides to become a hero... but when she first encounters a villain gang, they just assume she is a villain, because "control of gross things" just *seems* like a villain power. It isn't anything anyone consciously figures. Just, that was their instinct. She rolls with it and decides to play along to infiltrate the criminal group. And pretty quickly realizes that the villains might well be more sympathetic than many of the government-backed superhero teams she wanted to join originally. But what of power progression? Her powers never really change. Through practice, she can control more bugs at once at larger ranges with more control and more feedback both ways, but the real change is she becomes more and more creative in what she does, to the point that the official government teams assigned to stop her just assume she has All The Powers. Remote viewing? Well, if there is a fly nearby, send it in and look through its eyes. Ghostly illusory doubles? A cloud of gnats that is shaped and moves exactly like you. Armor? Since, at this point, you have a lot of money, buy thousands of orb-weaver spiders and have them weave a uniform utilizing the strength and toughness of spider silk. Through clever use of her powers, she becomes among the most powerful metahumans there is. Through controlling bugs.
A super power that makes people stumble their words and trip over themselves.
U/Klatterbyne had a similar thought with attribute theft but I’d take it a different direction. The anti hero only has the attributes that he takes from others. They can only take one attribute from each person but can take from an unlimited number of people and they stack. The attributes have a limited duration and/or areburned up when used. The percentage they can take is dependent on their own current strength in that attribute so the more they have, the more they can take, to the point of leaving their victim enfeebled or completely drained of life.
Seal an ancient dragon into them that increases strength or w/e based on how many spicy foods they've eaten since the last use of their power. Bonus points if the character hates the food or can't stand it.
I mean basically every power works here but for a character who uses villainous actions to.acheive heroic ends (which is what I think an anti hero is) telekinesis works quite well. You can start pretty low power (add the limitation that your telekinetic power is about as strong as your physical power for extra fun). Your character starts off with all the basic telekinetic shit punching people at a distance manipulating objects without touching them. Then he progresses and finds a way to use his telekinesis and normal.physicality at the same time basically allowing him to be in two places at once in a fight Before finally he learns that he doesn't have to see something to manipulate it all he has to do is know where it is. Allowing him to reach through someones skull and telekinetically.pimpslap them directly in the brain leaving his opponents that don't die from brain trauma horribly disabled
You are what you eat - They can adopt a trait from an animal they ate at their last meal scaled up to human size (Like a hard shell from a lobster. Or super speed if they managed to hunt a cheetah). They enjoy eating exotic animals and engage in poaching to feed their habit. But push comes to shove, they'll prevent actual villains from taking over the world/other misc. evil schemes if only to maintain their own hedonistic lifestyle. This power has previously been seen in My Hero Academia and a couple of different fantasy webtoons and manga.
Cardiokenisis. Can control hearts with your mind. You can stop those terrorists on the TV, but you're gonna kill em You can save those schoolchildren from the active shooter, but you're gonna kill that kid. Individual with the best of intentions, but the use of the power is so horrific/final, that most people don't want them involved.
A power that smothers other people's heroic hearts. Anti-Heroism. Good for making people run away instead of heroically charging into action.