Recommendations simple and weak but ingenious

[TenderHuman]

Looking for recommendations for action fantasy novels with simple and weak abilities that are used in ingenious ways by all sides.

Non-fantasy novels could work for that, I know, but I like some fantasy flavour because of poor taste

By simple, I do not mean the logic of how it is used - like some space magic shield that blocks and destroys everything it touches.

The logic can be very complicated. But the ability itself has to be simple, like a shield bash that has knockback effect.

Such a novel, I imagine, would have very interesting fight scenes that would be very strategic and varied.

And no, @TheEldritchGod, no recommendations for hacks because they'd just ruin the fun - unless everybody hacks. But then it gets nerdy and a chore to read.

Since the novels I seek are very hard to find (off top of my head I cannot find one), I will not impose further restrictions.

 

[Verdante]

It’s not a fantasy novel, but the setting is inside a game with fantasy elements like class, shields, etc if you don’t mind that.

The King’s Avatar has a lot of detailed fights where MC uses a combination of low class skills to fight his opponents. His opponents deal with him strategically and they all have their own styles of fighting.

It’s been a while since I last read it, but I remember the MC using a skill to reflect back damage others inflicted on him. The more damage he took in, the deadlier the skill was. They were in a big scale fight and hundreds of players were attacking him, he kept taking damage and he told all the clerics from his side to keep healing him. Then, he used the skill to create a whole massacre.

 

[TenderHuman]

It’s been a while since I last read it, but I remember the MC using a skill to reflect back damage others inflicted on him. The more damage he took in, the deadlier the skill was. They were in a big scale fight and hundreds of players were attacking him, he kept taking damage and he told all the clerics from his side to keep healing him. Then, he used the skill to create a whole massacre.

now this looks like something I wouldn't like.
Since it is neither a simple nor a weak power.

 

[FluffyGura]

How about https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/58157/summus-proelium ?
It's about a girl whose superpower is paint, which means that different colour give different effect. For example, blue paint is like a trampoline, and red paint is like a weight increaser. So the girl would spray herself with red paint to increase her weight and jump down a building onto her blue paint which cause her to shoot fucking sky high into the sky knocking out a villian flying on a hoverboard.

 

[Verdante]

now this looks like something I wouldn't like.
Since it is neither a simple nor a weak power.

Aww, I hope you find what you’re looking for

 

[Tyranomaster]

My novel has simple abilities, but its not very combat oriented. It's used with problem solving for construction and development, so take that for what it is.

Edit: It takes about half way through the first novel for these abilities to start showing up.

 

[mtgwolfie]

Looking for recommendations for action fantasy novels with simple and weak abilities that are used in ingenious ways by all sides.

Non-fantasy novels could work for that, I know, but I like some fantasy flavour because of poor taste

By simple, I do not mean the logic of how it is used - like some space magic shield that blocks and destroys everything it touches.

The logic can be very complicated. But the ability itself has to be simple, like a shield bash that has knockback effect.

Such a novel, I imagine, would have very interesting fight scenes that would be very strategic and varied.

And no, @TheEldritchGod, no recommendations for hacks because they'd just ruin the fun - unless everybody hacks. But then it gets nerdy and a chore to read.

Since the novels I seek are very hard to find (off top of my head I cannot find one), I will not impose further restrictions.

have you checked out the Xanth series by Piers Anthony? The first five novels are good, the next 5 are "meh", but after that the quality drops. It comes to feel more like a dating website. "remember this character from 3 books ago? now they're the main character!"

But the premise is along what you're asking for. everyone either HAS magic or IS magic. But the thing is, each person only has 1 magical ability. this guy can make inanimate objects talk. one guy's ability is a complete cancellation of hostile magic. it can be anything from creating a colored dot on the wall to turning all fruits explosive, to growing plants almost instantly. basically any idea you can narrow down to one single ability.

a lot of abilities have to be used in rather creative ways. the guy that can make inanimate objects talk has to travel with a spider that he can only understand because he ordered a piece of webbing to translate the spider's chittering. it's rather entertaining.

How about https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/58157/summus-proelium ?
It's about a girl whose superpower is paint, which means that different colour give different effect. For example, blue paint is like a trampoline, and red paint is like a weight increaser. So the girl would spray herself with red paint to increase her weight and jump down a building onto her blue paint which cause her to shoot fucking sky high into the sky knocking out a villian flying on a hoverboard.

outside of basic colors, do mixed colors have different effects or a midpoint of the two? for instance, purple paint. would it make her a little heavier and super bouncy? or is it an entirely different color, and thus an entirely different effect?

 

[LilRora]

BRAINPUNCH (yes it's written all in capital letters) might fit what you're looking for. It's a bit debatable if the mc's power is weak or not (not to spoil things too much, it's a very weak power similar to classic telekinesis, which is said from the very beginning, but has unusual properties that make it extremely deadly in certain situations), plus it's only got like 15 chapters now. Things might change later, but you can check it out. I'm not sure if it's on Scribble, if not then RR.

Also Royal Princess of Blood might fit, this one I'm sure is on Scribble, but that one isn't exactly an action story. It's technically tagged as one and it does get to action later on, but it's extremely slow and most of the first volume is more like a mystery. Read at your own risk?

 

[Jemini]

Well, if you don't mind the fact that it's the most horrifying (in a good way) novel ever written with a trigger warnings list that's so long it would be faster to list the things that are NOT horrifying that are in the series, you could always read Worm.

The MC has 3 abilities. 1. Control bugs. 2. Share sensory information with bugs. 3. Share additional brainpower with the bugs, although this last one only gives her enough additional brain power to precisely control the one bug that gets controlled by her power, so it's ultimately a wash. (And no, having the bug just hold still doesn't boost her either, the additional brain power is only for controlling the individual bug who's brainpower she's sharing.) It does give her the ability to control each and every one of her bugs independently and with a great deal of precision though. It also allows her to intuitively control said bug due to the fact that the shared brainpower also means sharing the instinctual awareness of how to go about with that bug's daily life functions.

Her catch phrase, by the way, is "don't underestimate me." Reason being, EVERYONE underestimates her, even the ones who strategically over-estimate her knowing she has a pension for performing far better than you think she would with abilities like that ultimately wind up falling short of what she winds up being able to pull of with brilliant strategy and creative use of her powers.

(Very first thing she does in the series with this power set is manipulate spiders to weave her a costume, which turns out to be stronger than Kevlar due to the tensile strength of spider silk. Yeah, she keeps pulling crap like that, using her control of bugs to do things you never expect something like that being capable of doing. At one point, she freaking hot-wires an elevator (causing it to trigger without a person to press the buttons,) by having centipedes use their bodies to short the wires. Just so many things you simply would not think of.)

Also, I do say bugs because she has a wide range of things that expand beyond any actual scientific phylum or species category you can label her under. It's not just insects, she can also control arachnids, crustaceans, annelida, and whatever phylum centipedes belong to. The people in the story tried to say she controls arthropods, which DOES cover the majority of the things she controls, but that doesn't cover the annelida she also controls. (annelida is things like earthworms or tapeworms. Basically, anything that fits the category of "worm.")

There's no single scientific label that covers everything she can control, but there is a colloquial term, and it's "bug." She controls bugs. Every single possible type of bug that can be seen without a microscope. (Because it does not cover germs, even though people frequently call those bugs as well.)

 

[TheEldritchGod]

And no, @TheEldritchGod, no recommendations for hacks because they'd just ruin the fun - unless everybody hacks. But then it gets nerdy and a chore to read.

Hrmmm... I don't know of any weak powers used in such a fashion.

In HKN, the MC has water control powers. Often seen as the weakest of the elemental powers because of its limited use.

The the MC started applying real world physics to the water.

How about increased surface tension to make lines of water like Spiderman's webs?
Why not ice or steam?
Why not ice-7 which is formed at 30,000 atmospheres?
Why not radioactive isotopes, like O-24 that decays into fluorine, thus becoming Hydrofluoric acid, a bone seeking poison?
Why not force the oxygen and hydrogen apart then ignite it?

But... I don't think that water elemental control qualifies as a weak power.

 

[TenderHuman]

have you checked out the Xanth series by Piers Anthony? The first five novels are good, the next 5 are "meh", but after that the quality drops. It comes to feel more like a dating website. "remember this character from 3 books ago? now they're the main character!"

But the premise is along what you're asking for. everyone either HAS magic or IS magic. But the thing is, each person only has 1 magical ability. this guy can make inanimate objects talk. one guy's ability is a complete cancellation of hostile magic. it can be anything from creating a colored dot on the wall to turning all fruits explosive, to growing plants almost instantly. basically any idea you can narrow down to one single ability.

a lot of abilities have to be used in rather creative ways. the guy that can make inanimate objects talk has to travel with a spider that he can only understand because he ordered a piece of webbing to translate the spider's chittering. it's rather entertaining.

outside of basic colors, do mixed colors have different effects or a midpoint of the two? for instance, purple paint. would it make her a little heavier and super bouncy? or is it an entirely different color, and thus an entirely different effect?

this seems interesting. Will check it out. Thank you

Well, if you don't mind the fact that it's the most horrifying (in a good way) novel ever written with a trigger warnings list that's so long it would be faster to list the things that are NOT horrifying that are in the series, you could always read Worm.

The MC has 3 abilities. 1. Control bugs. 2. Share sensory information with bugs. 3. Share additional brainpower with the bugs, although this last one only gives her enough additional brain power to precisely control the one bug that gets controlled by her power, so it's ultimately a wash. (And no, having the bug just hold still doesn't boost her either, the additional brain power is only for controlling the individual bug who's brainpower she's sharing.) It does give her the ability to control each and every one of her bugs independently and with a great deal of precision though. It also allows her to intuitively control said bug due to the fact that the shared brainpower also means sharing the instinctual awareness of how to go about with that bug's daily life functions.

Her catch phrase, by the way, is "don't underestimate me." Reason being, EVERYONE underestimates her, even the ones who strategically over-estimate her knowing she has a pension for performing far better than you think she would with abilities like that ultimately wind up falling short of what she winds up being able to pull of with brilliant strategy and creative use of her powers.

(Very first thing she does in the series with this power set is manipulate spiders to weave her a costume, which turns out to be stronger than Kevlar due to the tensile strength of spider silk. Yeah, she keeps pulling crap like that, using her control of bugs to do things you never expect something like that being capable of doing. At one point, she freaking hot-wires an elevator (causing it to trigger without a person to press the buttons,) by having centipedes use their bodies to short the wires. Just so many things you simply would not think of.)

Also, I do say bugs because she has a wide range of things that expand beyond any actual scientific phylum or species category you can label her under. It's not just insects, she can also control arachnids, crustaceans, annelida, and whatever phylum centipedes belong to. The people in the story tried to say she controls arthropods, which DOES cover the majority of the things she controls, but that doesn't cover the annelida she also controls. (annelida is things like earthworms or tapeworms. Basically, anything that fits the category of "worm.")

There's no single scientific label that covers everything she can control, but there is a colloquial term, and it's "bug." She controls bugs. Every single possible type of bug that can be seen without a microscope. (Because it does not cover germs, even though people frequently call those bugs as well.)

Wow, thank you for such a thourough recommendations. Though I have read Worm. And this novel has only a select cast of characters with weak abilities rather than everybody with weak abilities. And Taylor's bug powers being used for mass espionage, fighting and many others cannot be called weak.

My novel has simple abilities, but its not very combat oriented. It's used with problem solving for construction and development, so take that for what it is.

Edit: It takes about half way through the first novel for these abilities to start showing up.

I'll look. Thank you

 

[Jemini]

Wow, thank you for such a thourough recommendations. Though I have read Worm. And this novel has only a select cast of characters with weak abilities rather than everybody with weak abilities. And Taylor's bug powers being used for mass espionage, fighting and many others cannot be called weak.

Well they are very much perceived as weak by others, although I do suppose you're right that this is only because people simply don't consider the potential damage that can be done by an entire swarm of bugs working as a single unit.

That said, ultimately the strongest aspect of her power comes from how well it plays in conjunction with just about anybody she teams up with. The information gathering features of her powers mean she's just about the only thinker in the world who is not given an information overload headache by her own information collecting abilities, and that means she can relay info in real time very efficiently. (Also, her "thinker 1" rating is definitely way too low, and ironically this low rating is based on how lacking the evaluators are in the real information in regards to her abilities)

At any rate, in any other universe, Taylor's power really would be considered weak. The only reason it's so strong in her own universe is because 1. Super durability is rare and thus people's flesh is very susceptible to insect and spider bites, and 2. The author really considers how powerful information superiority can really be in an active conflict situation where everyone is disoriented.

As such, I suppose she would be pretty darn powerful due to the 2nd aspect in any world, it's just that writers for these other worlds usually don't consider the value of active information gathering as well as the author of Worm does, and thus characters with such powers are not given the rightly deserved chance to shine.

 

[Jemini]

Wow, thank you for such a thourough recommendations. Though I have read Worm. And this novel has only a select cast of characters with weak abilities rather than everybody with weak abilities. And Taylor's bug powers being used for mass espionage, fighting and many others cannot be called weak.

Anyway, I DO have another recommendation in mind. I'm not completely sure if you can call the characters in this series weak, but they are far more uniform in their abilities and are forced to make use of clever strategy due to being put on a more or less level playing field in terms of abilities with those they are up against.

The problem is, I can't remember the name of this series. All I can do is describe it and hope someone else recognizes it from the description.

So, the basic premise is that the earth is being periodically invaded by interdimensional aliens. Essentially, various alien worlds move dimensionally close to earth over various periods of time, and whenever another dimension gets close to earth the races from those other worlds start crossing into earth. Some are humanoid, some are very animalistic.

At any rate, the first key piece of information someone else who knows this series might pick up on is that these alien races are called "neighbors," and the second aspect of the premise is that a completely human-looking neighbor comes to earth and joins the earth defense team. He's a short boy with white hair, and has a special ability that allows him to detect when others are lying. (Can't tell what the truth is, he just gets some kind of ping from his ability whenever someone lies.)

As for the power system in this world, everyone has mana or whatever they call the energy in this world, but they can't manifest abilities on their own. They need special devices to manifest their abilities, and all the devices on earth take the form of guns that shoot special bullets, and there are various but fairly mass-produced and uniform types of bullets all the earth defense agents can get ahold of. One of the more distinctive ones are bullets that cause giant heavy weights to manifest on any surface they hit, which are primarily used for subdual, and the weights take the form of hexagonal blocks of heavy crystal that just manifest as though they're intersecting the limbs and bodies of the person who's hit.

So, anyway, everyone in this universe only has a single ability. The ability to pull the trigger on their guns. The abilities the guns have are dependent on the bullets loaded, and people with stronger mana can just shoot longer or use stronger class bullets. (Well, I mean, there are also non-gun devices that can be used, but the earth defense forces tend not to use those ones. There is a huge preference for the gun-types among the earth forces.)

And, there are occasional additional abilities for people who are very powerful conventionally, but these special abilities are usually limited in scope to something like the boy I mentioned earlier who can detect lies. Yes, the power scale of this world is such that lie detection is considered a very top-class power.

 

[melchi]

Looking for recommendations for action fantasy novels with simple and weak abilities that are used in ingenious ways by all sides.

Non-fantasy novels could work for that, I know, but I like some fantasy flavour because of poor taste

By simple, I do not mean the logic of how it is used - like some space magic shield that blocks and destroys everything it touches.

The logic can be very complicated. But the ability itself has to be simple, like a shield bash that has knockback effect.

Such a novel, I imagine, would have very interesting fight scenes that would be very strategic and varied.

And no, @TheEldritchGod, no recommendations for hacks because they'd just ruin the fun - unless everybody hacks. But then it gets nerdy and a chore to read.

Since the novels I seek are very hard to find (off top of my head I cannot find one), I will not impose further restrictions.

Have you tried ends of magic? I think it is on RR but a stub now because the first book is on KU. The MC takes antimagic as his main power.

 

[TenderHuman]

Have you tried ends of magic? I think it is on RR but a stub now because the first book is on KU. The MC takes antimagic as his main power.

have not

 

[melchi]

have not

https://www.amazon.com/Antimage-Ise...of Magic is a,available on Amazon and Audible! this one if interested.

 

[TenderHuman]

https://www.amazon.com/Antimage-Isekai-LitRPG-Adventure-Magic-ebook/dp/B0CJBL9RXV#:~:text=Ends of Magic is a,available on Amazon and Audible! this one if interested.

ruled by levels, Talents, and a near-infinite progression of power. Nathan will need to rely on himself to survive, forging alliances and taking every advantage he can get against those that seek to control him.

His unique capacity to counteract magic gives him an unprecedented edge, making him a beacon of resistance against those who wield magic as a weapon of control.

Um, yeah no. Thanks