Funny Powers & Modifiers

[Asperion]

Inspired by a misread of this thread, I got wondering what strange, warped, and wacky powers and power modifiers those out there in Herodom can create. Think of the Stuper! Powers game and how wacky they got with their abilities. Basically anything will go -  x-ray vision that cannot see through glass is good, blast that cannot hurt organics will work, etc. Lets have some fun with our great system get some rather wacky abilities!      🤣                     

[Christopher R Taylor]

N-Ray blocked by solid objects sounds ridiculous but it lets you see in total darkness and spot any illusions or images.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Straight out of Mystery Men, the power to become invisible, but only when no one is looking

[archer]

How about a deaf person who is invisible to sonar? 

 

People think she's just a normal deaf person but really sound waves just don't interact with the person at all, even with her ear drums.

 

But her powers only work correctly when she isn't wearing clothes since her clothes would reflect sound waves just fine.

[Derek Hiemforth]

This came from an actual character in a past campaign (not mine; another player's).

 

A character with Growth and Full, No-Fringe Invisibility, Linked.

 

Why's that weird?  Because this was back in the days when Growth added to PRE (3E, to be specific).  So when the character used Growth, he had a PRE of about 75, but he couldn't use it very effectively because no one could see him when he was grown.  The whole dynamic was just weird, and was one of those things that sounds like a much better idea on paper than it played out in practice.   

[Duke Bushido]

Enhanced Sense: Taste, Ranged, Area of Effect, floors only.

 

It's not discriminatory or anything.  It just lets you taste any floor.

 

Density increase, activates only in free fall; deactivates one segment after completing free falll.  (actually did that one-- do that one, semi-regularly.  I have mentioned before that  our super world is populated with people who have powers who have elected not to become spandex commandos, and of course, not every power or power set is ideal for costumed crime fighting.  This is the case for a young man who now makes his career as a stuntman: his sole power is the ability to survive a fall from any height.  His friends have nicknamed him "Crater."

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Accidental Change: into a 15d6 KA explosion.  GM controls the circumstances.  Literally he multiformed into a normal person with an always on 15d6KA explosion AE, with no personal immunity.  He was a bomb.

 

Had a player hand me a character with that as a disad in a one-shot I did at a game shop.  It was hilarious and actually fit the scenario really well.  He nuked an alien invasion base.

[DoctorImpossible]

Immunity to (Insert Genre You Don't Like)

 

Not sure it would be accepted in a tabletop game. Or rather, instead of actually building it into the sheet, I suspect most people are going to prefer it if you just ask ahead of a campaign that it not feature X, Y, or Z. If it was built in Hero, it would be basically a very powerful version of Transform as an area around you, big enough to cover any part of the setting you can be percieving. 

 

But, funnily enough, it does exist in DC. There is, or *was* at least, a paranormal investigator who looked into all sorts of the supernatural goings on, amd always was able to debunk them and shame the con artists behind it. In his original stories that was because his universe was a normal one. But, as the DC universe became more connected, and he was gradually sharing a world with *actual* Greek Gods and ghosts and ghouls, it was retconned into him being a metahuman who was reality warping, so the things he investigated really were real all along... until he was in range of them, at which point they turned into normal human con artistry, with all the signs of having existed as that the whole time, only to flip back to being supernatural once he'd left.

 

Personally, I'd like to try using it to make sure the campaign world was always some light-hearted family friendly adventure, not a grim, dark iron age game, or anything.

 

[Tjack]

On 6/28/2021 at 7:35 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

Accidental Change: into a 15d6 KA explosion.  GM controls the circumstances.  Literally he multiformed into a normal person with an always on 15d6KA explosion AE, with no personal immunity.  He was a bomb.

 

Had a player hand me a character with that as a disad in a one-shot I did at a game shop.  It was hilarious and actually fit the scenario really well.  He nuked an alien invasion base.

  
    Wasn’t this basically The Human Bomb?  A Golden Age DC character who was a member of the Freedom Fighters.

[Tjack]

2 hours ago, DoctorImpossible said:

Immunity to (Insert Genre You Don't Like)

 

Not sure it would be accepted in a tabletop game. Or rather, instead of actually building it into the sheet, I suspect most people are going to prefer it if you just ask ahead of a campaign that it not feature X, Y, or Z. If it was built in Hero, it would be basically a very powerful version of Transform as an area around you, big enough to cover any part of the setting you can be percieving. 

 

But, funnily enough, it does exist in DC. There is, or *was* at least, a paranormal investigator who looked into all sorts of the supernatural goings on, amd always was able to debunk them and shame the con artists behind it. In his original stories that was because his universe was a normal one. But, as the DC universe became more connected, and he was gradually sharing a world with *actual* Greek Gods and ghosts and ghouls, it was retconned into him being a metahuman who was reality warping, so the things he investigated really were real all along... until he was in range of them, at which point they turned into normal human con artistry, with all the signs of having existed as that the whole time, only to flip back to being supernatural once he'd left.

 

Personally, I'd like to try using it to make sure the campaign world was always some light-hearted family friendly adventure, not a grim, dark iron age game, or anything.

Immunity to (Insert Genre You Don't Like)

 

Not sure it would be accepted in a tabletop game. Or rather, instead of actually building it into the sheet, I suspect most people are going to prefer it if you just ask ahead of a campaign that it not feature X, Y, or Z. If it was built in Hero, it would be basically a very powerful version of Transform as an area around you, big enough to cover any part of the setting you can be percieving. 

 

But, funnily enough, it does exist in DC. There is, or *was* at least, a paranormal investigator who looked into all sorts of the supernatural goings on, amd always was able to debunk them and shame the con artists behind it. In his original stories that was because his universe was a normal one. But, as the DC universe became more connected, and he was gradually sharing a world with *actual* Greek Gods and ghosts and ghouls, it was retconned into him being a metahuman who was reality warping, so the things he investigated really were real all along... until he was in range of them, at which point they turned into normal human con artistry, with all the signs of having existed as that the whole time, only to flip back to being supernatural once he'd left.

 

Personally, I'd like to try using it to make sure the campaign world was always some light-hearted family friendly adventure, not a grim, dark iron age game, or anything.

    Dr. Terrance (Terry) Thirteen.  I think he was a recurring character in either House of Mystery or House of Secrets.  Both were horror books that featured stand-alone stories.  He was kind of a more grown up version of Scooby-Doo.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

Wasn’t this basically The Human Bomb?  A Golden Age DC character who was a member of the Freedom Fighters.

 

yeah but that character reassembled after exploding.

[BoloOfEarth]

I've mentioned this several times before, but in an adventure where Foxbat was trying to kidnap Adam West and Burt Ward, he created the Photonic Optical Waveform (POW) hologram generator.  Images to Sight and Normal Hearing, AoE, Only to create visual "sound" effects (POW!  BAM!  KA-BLAM!  WHIFF! etc.) based on the ongoing combat.  The players really enjoyed providing the various effects illustrated throughout the fight.

 

I created a flying brick character who applied for a position in the hero team.  Nearly impossible to hurt, decent STR and Flight, but he had a Vulnerability:  2x Effect from Knockback.  LOTS of property destruction wherever he fought, mostly from him getting knocked back through walls, floors, ceilings, etc.  IIRC, when the heroes were calling his references (past hero teams he'd either belonged to or worked with), one of the people they called said, "Oh, yeah, him.  What is ol' Crash Bandicoot up to nowadays?"

 

More recently, I've created a Shrinking character (Firefly) who has a force field that is Highly Perceivable.  Basically, whenever she has it on, she loses the benefit of the PER adjustment due to her size.  Not so much "funny" ha-ha as "funny" odd.

 

More often than not, my amusing stuff is based on how normal Powers, Advantages, and Limitations are defined rather than the literal power writeup itself. For instance, I made a character (Reefer Gladness) who can alter reality around him, but he thinks it's due to otherwise normal stuff he uses.  So his mind-altering Funky Acid Blaster is a normal bubble-gun with a laser pointer mounted on it to shine onto the bubbles it produces.  The bubble gun itself doesn't *actually* do anything other than blow soap bubbles into the air, but ol' Reefer Gladness is so convinced those bubbles cause an acid trip on anyone in the area that he can't use his power without that OAF.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

The bubble gun itself doesn't *actually* do anything other than blow soap bubbles into the air, but ol' Reefer Gladness is so convinced those bubbles cause an acid trip on anyone in the area that he can't use his power without that OAF.

 

Reminds me of Molecule Man from Marvel Comics who could literally do anything but didn't believe or know he could, and thought he had to use a metal "wand" for his powers.

[BoloOfEarth]

On 10/2/2021 at 12:02 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Reminds me of Molecule Man from Marvel Comics who could literally do anything but didn't believe or know he could, and thought he had to use a metal "wand" for his powers.

 

I knew he had a mental block that he didn't think he could alter molecules of living things, but didn't realize he used a wand at first.  

[Duke Bushido]

Had this one submitted some years ago:

 

Running: +4'

 

Extra Limbs, only while running: Character grows four additional legs.

Clinging: only useable with Extra Limbs.

 

 

There you go.  Running: plus four feet.

 

[Ninja-Bear]

2 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

There you go.  Running: plus four feet.

 

But Champions uses meters! 😁

[Duke Bushido]

And inches. 

 

 

 

 

[indy523]

How about a Looney Tunes Power

 

Physical and Energy Damager Reduction 100%, only verse self inflicted damage.

 

Almost the same:  Three Stooges Power

Permanent Mind Link between three characters, no ability to mind link with anyone else

100% damager reduction only vs damage you or someone you are mind linked to causes.

[dmjalund]

might be cheaper to buy personal immunity with STR (and any attacks the person posseses)

[Asperion]

How can I represent the Three Stooges Eye Poke?

[Ninja-Bear]

5 hours ago, Asperion said:

How can I represent the Three Stooges Eye Poke?

Martial maneuver-Flash.  Or if using Powers, Flash Attack.

[JackValhalla]

So, there was a Clairvoyance I made up that had a "visible" limitation. The character's senses would be channeled through an object, which would have eyes appear on it drawn on with Sharpie marker or stick-on googly eyes.

Also, a 12d6 Cosmetic Transform with a linked Flash, for a skunk-themed villain that could spray people with musk that made them stink until they were extensively and painfully cleansed. Turned out to be hella effective because characters hit with the musk were insanely easy to track by scent, which made their Secret ID very vulnerable.

I have a villain who's a "combat trickster". Among other things, she had an entangle with no range, which had a DEF limited to the toughness of the target's own clothes, and a BODY limited by the amount of their clothing. She would tie people up with their own clothes. Like, unsnapping your belt to bind your legs together, yanking your top off your shoulders and down to trap your arms against your hips.. if you were wearing a cape that was all the better. And if you wore a mask or helmet she could turn it around backwards to add a "blocks senses" element to the Entangle. I met a guy in Basic that could do this in real time, it was hilarious. Great for fun players with very dignified and self-possessed characters.

[Asperion]

17 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Martial maneuver-Flash.  Or if using Powers, Flash Attack.

 

Of course,  there has to be the "nyk, nyk" at some point in the attack to make everything proper and official.