Bare minimum for a superpower

[CarburetorThompson]

I’ve seen plenty of discussions on bad or the worst abilities to give a character, but what are the barely passable ones like?

It’s easy to come up with a bad ability like ‘the power to tell magnetic north whenever you stand on one leg and touch your thumbs together‘ but what about an ability that is just barely better then just giving an average guy a gun or sword?

Asking because I genuinely don’t have any answers myself, but think the concept is interesting.

 

[TwistedRomcom]

Being supernaturally boring. You're so forgettable that you can get away with fairly serious crimes because the witnesses can't remember any meaningful traits or reliably pick you of a lineup, but you're also doomed to forever be a wallflower at parties and terrible at dating.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Seeing ghosts and being unable to interact with them or them you.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Invisibility and intangibility.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Invisibility and intangibility.

Invisibility and intangibility are extremely powerful. You would need to add conditions to those. Because they are powerful force multipliers.

Being supernaturally boring. You're so forgettable that you can get away with fairly serious crimes because the witnesses can't remember any meaningful traits or reliably pick you of a lineup, but you're also doomed to forever be a wallflower at parties and terrible at dating.

I think this is equally powerful as invisibility and intangibility, depending on the level of mental influence.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Invisibility and intangibility are extremely powerful. You would need to add conditions to those.

Hmmmmmm, I'm not sure how you'd put limits on invisibility, but a good limiter for intangibility would be the amount of phantom sensations you'd have to endure depending on how painful it is. Like, if you're using intangibility to let sword strikes pass through you, depending on how many strikes in succession you're avoiding, you'd be crippled with pain with enough sword strikes.

 

[Iceheart]

Being able to create and launch small stones. That is the superpower equivalent of firing a gun. So not useless, but neither unique or powerful.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Being able to shoot 1 more piece of ammunition from a physical firearm than the magazine can hold without having to reload. (Totally wasn't thinking about jjk while writing this...)

 

[SailusGebel]

The ability to not feel any pain when you step on lego blocks.

 

[BearlyAlive]

The ability to not feel any pain when you step on lego blocks.

That's too OP!

The ability to be slightly better than average.

 

[RootBeerBert]

Limiter removal, for a normal person it increases stats, but they’re not superhuman and they still suffer injuries for going past it.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

I believe I have a power barely on par with giving a gun. Was thinking about Best Jeanist, or whatever his name is, from MHA.
You can move a maximum of your body weight in man-made fabric.
It moves at the speed your hands can move and the strength of your mental grasp on the fabric matches the strength of your bite force of whatever you are manipulating.
You can have five parallel streams of thought for manipulating the fabric (though you'll normally want to keep one active to keep your body moving and functioning).
A thread is the minimum unit for fabric.

Did I miss anything? I feel like I missed some of the important information that prevents this from being OP.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

As for invisibility, besides eye-powers that can see through your invisibility, another good limiter (or counter) would be reflective surfaces, like mirrors. It's the opposite of vampires that have no reflections in mirrors. Mirrors are said to reveal the truth, so if you're using invisibility, try not to look directly into any mirrors, because if you catch your own reflection, you dispel your own invisibility.

 

[foxes]

I think there's a kryptonite for every ability. There's no such thing as a useless ability, there's just the wrong circumstances. Invisible will be spotted by daredevil. A ghost will be recognized by some psychic. You're just making up a universal tool.

 

[HelloHound]

never having the hiccups or sneeze again

 

[SailusGebel]

The ability that makes your farts silent and odorless.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

The ability to not be poisoned

 

[TwistedRomcom]

I believe I have a power barely on par with giving a gun. Was thinking about Best Jeanist, or whatever his name is, from MHA.
You can move a maximum of your body weight in man-made fabric.
It moves at the speed your hands can move and the strength of your mental grasp on the fabric matches the strength of your bite force of whatever you are manipulating.
You can have five parallel streams of thought for manipulating the fabric (though you'll normally want to keep one active to keep your body moving and functioning).
A thread is the minimum unit for fabric.

Did I miss anything? I feel like I missed some of the important information that prevents this from being OP.

This power lets you telekinetically interfere with (or maybe even strangle) 5 opponents at once with the clothes they're wearing and still be free to wield another weapon in your hands at the same time. Basically undefeatable in a firefight.

 

[SailusGebel]

The ability to not be poisoned

Wait, wait, wait a second! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW OP IT IS? LET ME EXPLAIN IT TO YOU!

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

Wait, wait, wait a second! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW OP IT IS? LET ME EXPLAIN IT TO YOU!

Alright, Buzz Killdrin