Poll of the Day > Which of these popular superpowers would you want?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Muscles posted...

mooreandrew58 posted...

TheSlinja posted...

problem with invul/imortal is that you are still base you, just without worry of death, i think id rather live a normal lifespan with a busted ass power than forever as my normal self

Yeah its only really useful if you have the cunning and patience of someone like vandal savage where overtime he works himself into positions of great power/influence

Shouldn't anyone be able to do that eventually with that amount of time? I mean for some it'll take longer but after a few hundred thousand years you should be able to learn

Some people dont have the willpower to change who they are to succeed in these kinds of things. If you have zero charisma its gonna take a lot of work. And some people are just dumb and that cant be changed. Being able to learn and spew back information you learned is different than being able to think critically and think on your feet strategize etc. I could probably study chess for 100 years and never get good enough the beat the beat thats ever lived.
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You dont need to be fast or strong if youre invisible.

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dont forget that if you want to use your extended time to place high in power you will need to be changing identities fairly often lest people realize that you are some 300 year old immortal
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TheSlinja posted...

dont forget that if you want to use your extended time to place high in power you will need to be changing identities fairly often lest people realize that you are some 300 year old immortal

Another reason I brought up cunning. Simply constantly getting false identification would eventually get you caught especially if trying to work into positionsnof power as thenbyoud be looked at harder
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wolfy42 posted...

Viking_Mudcrap posted...

Does Invulnerability = immortality?

If so, to what level? Could I ever kill myself?

All other options are weak, immortality is true power.

What if someone dumps you in a bunch of cement? You'll be stuck there immortal and invulnerable for a very long time, and go totally insane probably.

Shapeshifting at least gives you a way to escape most situations, which still making you almost invulnerable and immortal.

@wolfy42 wouldn't being invulnerable prevent you from going insane though?
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TheSlinja posted...

problem with invul/imortal is that you are still base you, just without worry of death, i think id rather live a normal lifespan with a busted ass power than forever as my normal self

I'll take immortality, especially seeing as how you get a defect-free body to go along with it.

I can confidently say that, barring a major world calamity, I could happily live 1000 years in my current state and not get bored.
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wolfy42 posted...

lots of shapeshifting nonsense

I don't think you know how shapeshifting works. It takes special versions of shapeshifting for it to do all those things you said.
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Yomi posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Viking_Mudcrap posted...

Does Invulnerability = immortality?

If so, to what level? Could I ever kill myself?

All other options are weak, immortality is true power.

What if someone dumps you in a bunch of cement? You'll be stuck there immortal and invulnerable for a very long time, and go totally insane probably.

Shapeshifting at least gives you a way to escape most situations, which still making you almost invulnerable and immortal.

@wolfy42 wouldn't being invulnerable prevent you from going insane though?

Even worse actually, because if it did prevent you from changing your mental state, you would just be tortured non-stop the whole time. Insanity would at least allow you some relief. Immortality by itself is actually a curse.

AllstarSniper32 posted...

I don't think you know how shapeshifting works. It takes special versions of shapeshifting for it to do all those things you said.

I'm going by the basic ability to change into any form with a similar mass (although you can alter the density of the mass etc to make yourself bigger/smaller etc). Being able to shapeshift in any way, allows you to instantly heal from any wound (usually even morphing from human to werewolf etc does the same thing) because you are already altering your basic organs etc.

The only way most of the things I mentioned would not work, is if you had a VERY limited for of shapeshift that did not let you actually alter internal organs at all, and only outward cosmetic appearance. That is totally different though, and even that could still be extremely useful.

As long as you can actually shapeshift into different forms though (a fish, or dolphin or bird, or a guy or a girl with different appearances etc), pretty much all my shapeshift stuff would work.

If you can morph into a cheetah for instance you can travel at extreme speeds (and you could probably make similar alterations to the human for to be mostly human and still reach extreme speeds for that matter).

Also the ability to alter your density is fairly important in shapeshifting, or again you would be very limited in it's use. If you can do that (for instance lighter bones to become a bird), you can fly, swim under water, move extremely fast on land (although birds can travel very fast as well....so not much need), climb, and in theory even do things like cling to walls/wall climb (like spiders), use sonar (like bats) etc.

Shapeshifting has huge possibilities.
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On Shapeshifting.

There are minor versions of shapeshifting, but they already have designations (like being a were-wolf etc). A shapeshifter is a term that includes most of those sub-forms of shifter. A shapeshifter has the ability to alter it's form into any other form, and if your not using a magic system (which we are not, these are just super powers), it generally breaks down as you can control your individual cells and alter how they are used and your appearance.

A generic shapeshifter has the ability to morph into any animal form (although sometimes restricted to animals they have touched/eaten etc (to get DNA from the animal basically). Sometimes the shifter is able to directly copy humans as well, right down to the DNA and fingerprints etc, by touching them (or anything that has their DNA at least).

Now, it is possible that the shifter power would only directly copy someones exact form, based on their DNA etc, although that is usually another sub-form of shifter. A real shifter can not only do that, but also alter individual body parts, body density, size etc (controlling directly the molecules/cells of the body).

This could for instance allow a shifter to alter their arm/hand into a steel blade that extends forward, kinda like the Terminators could.

Limits usually revolve around a few things.

The shifter can not usually add large amounts of mass, or at least not all at once (often the shifter can slowly absorb more mass through eating/absorbing it, but it's limited in how fast you can do that. The reverse is often possible quickly (loosing mass), but to get it back still is a very slow process.

This makes a shifter able to morph into a mouse from a human for instance, but then you would need to slowly gain mass over time before you could become a human again.

The shifter is still bound by the laws of science, so you can't make a horse that flies for instance (unless the bones were extremely weak/light and even then it's probably not possible).

That being said, the basic power of a shifter to alter it's cells, does prevent sickness/illness, age, and allows you to ignore most damage. To really destroy a shifter you need to destroy all of it's cells, and since a shifter can alter them, even fire will not normally work. Throw a shifter in molten lava, and in theory the shifter can alter its cells into molten lava as well, then move out of the lava and change back.

A true shifter is almost impossible to destroy and very very hard to contain. It could take a VERY long time for a new shifter who just gained it's powers to figure out how to use them though, and if the shifter did not know how to prevent it's cells from being destroyed (say by fire), it could end up dead before it got the chance to do so.

Still by far the most powerful ability.
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Stop referencing The thing
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wolfy42 posted...

A generic shapeshifter has the ability to morph into any animal form

So as you're typing this out do you just not notice you use two different words?
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AllstarSniper32 posted...

wolfy42 posted...

A generic shapeshifter has the ability to morph into any animal form

So as you're typing this out do you just not notice you use two different words?

Do you mean shapeshifter and morph?

I mean, I'm just going by the super power to shapeshift here, not werewolves etc. A polymorph from sci-fi movies/shows are different as well. The super power to shapeshift though (like the green guy from Teen Titans etc), basically follows those guidelines (and general from books etc).

*shrug*
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wolfy42 posted...

Do you mean shapeshifter and morph?

I mean, I'm just going by the super power to shapeshift here, not werewolves etc. A polymorph from sci-fi movies/shows are different as well. The super power to shapeshift though (like the green guy from Teen Titans etc), basically follows those guidelines (and general from books etc).

*shrug*

If fact here is the shapeshifting Wiki on super powers, backs up pretty much what I said, and even lists possible limitations (which were not mentioned in the post mind you). https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Shapeshifting

The user can shapeshift their form, transforming and reshaping themselves potentially down to their genetic and cellular structure.

Shapeshifting does have the potential to do what you said, but the basic form of it isn't to be able to do that. And judging by this topic and what Muscles has said for powers, the ones in this list aren't meant to be the OP versions of the power. Now, can you learn to get the OP version? Dunno.

Muscles posted...

With shifting you can get bigger/smaller to a certain extent, like a bear would be fine but a blue whale wouldn't work

You can change to make yourself look like The Flash, but you don't get his powers, just how he looks.
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AllstarSniper32 posted...

The user can shapeshift their form, transforming and reshaping themselves potentially down to their genetic and cellular structure.

Shapeshifting does have the potential to do what you said, but the basic form of it isn't to be able to do that. And judging by this topic and what Muscles has said for powers, the ones in this list aren't meant to be the OP versions of the power. Now, can you learn to get the OP version? Dunno.

Muscles posted...
With shifting you can get bigger/smaller to a certain extent, like a bear would be fine but a blue whale wouldn't work

You can change to make yourself look like The Flash, but you don't get his powers, just how he looks.

I took Muscles explination to mean you could increase/decrease your density a bit, allowing for a larger/smaller form (but only within reason for the amount of mass you have). I agree that everything I stated might not be possible, for instance you might only be able to reshape your body, but not actually change your cells. This would still let you potentially look like anyone, change sex, and possibly mimic animals or at least boost the muscles/strength to allow for faster running speeds etc (or at least olympic level performances).

It's quite likely you wouldn't even know your limits at first, but I still would go for shapeshift even if it was simply being able to assume the forms of other people (like Mystique), and not even able to change into different animals. So much fun could be had with that, you could still get insanely rich, but you would have WAY more...interesting....options while being rich *hehe*.

I personally don't want to live forever, or be immortal. As we saw in Xmen, Mystique was not invulnerable at all, so there is room for "lesser" versions of shapeshifting even as a super power.

Even if I couldn't transform into a bird and fly, and a dolphin and swim, and we basically said every power was limited by the fact it couldn't complete simulate any other power or make it obsolete. This would severly limit the powers of shapeshifting, removing any regeneration abilities (including long life), prevent flight and super speed (so no animal forms), and could even limit it to normal muscle tone etc (so no super strength etc). It would also prevent chameleon like powers probably (too close to invisibility) .

In such a case, you could only change your shape into another human, and perhaps, much like mystique, you would need to touch them/get their DNA to do so. I would still take that power over the others, but it's way less fun hehe.
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wolfy42 posted...

As we saw in Xmen, Mystique was not invulnerable at all, so there is room for "lesser" versions of shapeshifting even as a super power.

I feel like Mystique is the best example of base shape shifting. Especially the movie Mystique. Uh, not the JLaw one though.

And then as you get better at using your shape shifting you'd find out what next level shape shifting you have.
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Probably Telekinesis or shapeshifting. If it is Chronicle style telekinesis I am all in. Using it to fly, deflect pretty much any attack, manipulating locks, improving my own balance.

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Remember, lads: Ladies fawn over a man who can turn himself into a swan!

VideoboysaysCube posted...

Teleportation is probably the most practical. Never needing transportation ever again is huge. Saves tons of money and time.

....uh, try turning into a dragon (or helicopter) and flying. Shapeshifting is clearly the most practical. It combines the best aspects of everything.

Viking_Mudcrap posted...

Does Invulnerability = immortality?

If so, to what level? Could I ever kill myself?

All other options are weak, immortality is true power.

And out of everything, the thing most likely to make you immortal is shape-shifting. Invulnerability just shields damage, you're still at risk of dying from other means and you'll die of age eventually.

VideoboysaysCube posted...

You can teleport at a high altitude that's still below any flight paths. Or if you want to be extremely safe, you can just teleport to a distant spot that's within your line of vision and just keep teleporting in quick succession.

And your work-around sounds like more work than just flying via shapeshifting.

Yomi posted...

wouldn't being invulnerable prevent you from going insane though?

Why would it?

AllstarSniper32 posted...

Shapeshifting does have the potential to do what you said, but the basic form of it isn't to be able to do that.

What "basic form"? You're imposing your own perceived set of restrictions on what's generally the most open-ended power.
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shapeshifting is also likely to get you abducted and dissected by the government
of course the power makes eluding authorities easy but a life on the run is lame, at least with mind reading you can know exactly when people get suspicious lol
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Invulnerability

Id fight dangerous animals like lions and sharks and everyone would lose their shit

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Invulnerability can be more of a curse then anything else depending on how it plays out. See, what they don't really show in TV/comics etc, is that invulnerable characters like super man, would probably not really feel things very well. If a bullet can't even put a dent in your skin, your not gonna really notice the touch of someone either.

In theory, if you are invulnerable, you would possibly be able to sense when touching things, but pressure, would be very hard to determine.

Perhaps the solution is to be invulnerable because your body regenerates if damaged, but you still can actually be touched, affected etc by the things around you, then you could actually feel things, receive pleasure and pain etc.

I think Anne Rice actually touched on that a bit in some of her vampire books, the vampires eventually had their skin harden to a point where they were invulnerable, but also they couldn't control their strength well, or feel things easily either (she also dealt with the problems of existing for long periods of time etc for that matter).

Invulnerability btw, should automatically give you immortality (at least the immunity to aging) since age is caused by damaged cells over time, and your cells can't be damaged. An invulnerable entity should also be an immortal one automatically (unless a certain stipulation was included like the entity loses x cells a year or something and finally dies when there are not enough cells left to sustain its' body/mind etc.

Anyway, Invulnerability would be the absolute last power I would ever take, especially if you had no way to remove it. It would be a curse and a horrible one eventually.
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TheSlinja posted...

shapeshifting is also likely to get you abducted and dissected by the government
of course the power makes eluding authorities easy but a life on the run is lame, at least with mind reading you can know exactly when people get suspicious lol

I can't imagine that being a serious risk, considering that shapeshifting is an easy power to conceal since you're usually not in your normal, easily-ID'd form.

Granted, it's an actual power whereas you can use something like super strength or speed at a lower level and play it off as being merely greater than the top athletes. Likewise, you could use mind-reading while staying concealed and play it off as being super-intelligent. Some of the other powers -- like teleportation, invisibility, flight, and telekinesis -- can only ever look like powers, unless disguised as part of a magic act or something.

As for mind-reading helping you evade the government, that's *very* hard. You'd have to always be on alert and reading as many thoughts as possible. As such, you'd probably have to avoid crowds and cities which are pretty easy places to hide. By contrast, a shapeshifter might be hard to get on the government's radar and, if he transforms into other people, he'd also be difficult to positively ID if people even realized a shapeshifter was at work.

wolfy42 posted...

Invulnerability can be more of a curse then anything else depending on how it plays out. See, what they don't really show in TV/comics etc, is that invulnerable characters like super man, would probably not really feel things very well. If a bullet can't even put a dent in your skin, your not gonna really notice the touch of someone either.

If we're talking about those kinds of side-effects, hypothetically something like super strength should likewise greatly increase your resistance to damage. Your bone structure would need to become more dense to accommodate your new musculature which, because your muscles are also thicker, you're going to be harder to hurt.

wolfy42 posted...

Invulnerability btw, should automatically give you immortality (at least the immunity to aging) since age is caused by damaged cells over time, and your cells can't be damaged. An invulnerable entity should also be an immortal one automatically (unless a certain stipulation was included like the entity loses x cells a year or something and finally dies when there are not enough cells left to sustain its' body/mind etc.

There's no real logic to that assertion.
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Super heeling.
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Broken_Zeus posted...

If we're talking about those kinds of side-effects, hypothetically something like super strength should likewise greatly increase your resistance to damage. Your bone structure would need to become more dense to accommodate your new musculature which, because your muscles are also thicker, you're going to be harder to hurt.

Most heroes with super strength also have some form of super durability, otherwise the super strength would be worthless.

Broken_Zeus posted...

There's no real logic to that assertion.

IF your cells are invulnerable to damage, they won't be damaged over time, and will stay young and healthy no matter how old you get. Therefore, you should never die of old age, or even suffer effects of aging like most people do. It is very logical. In theory your body and cells should not change at all. Look at the vampires in Anne Rices world, the little girl "claudette???" couldn't even cut her hair etc. If you are invulnerable (totally), then nothing can really change over time with your body.

Superman for instance isn't invulnerable, and they are able to use wire cutters to remove a piece of his hair etc. He can be damaged. So yeah, if it's partial invulnerability only (some things can still damage you, including time), then you would not be immortal. If you are fully invulnerable though, you should not age at all.
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STEROLIZER posted...

Super heeling.

You are a super hero drag queen?:)
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Telekinesis btw would be the power with the second most potential in my opinion (although invulnerabity is pretty close.....I just consider it a curse).

Depending on the limitations TK can let you still do many of the other powers.

You can fly, by basically sitting on something and moving it with your mind (or possibly just moving your body with your mind).

Depending on the limitation you effectively have super strength, but without actually having to physically interact with the object.

While you can not teleport, in many ways being able to move things from range can accomplish the same effects, especially if teleporting can only be done to places you can see (to avoid teleporting into an object).

Again, you can basically increase your speed, by using TK to propel you, or objects you are on/inside etc.

Invulnerability would be better defense, but TK could allow you to move freely while surrounded in steal etc, since you could move it with your mind....not invulnerable, but VERY hard to damage.

While you can't actually breathe water, you could use your TK power to move through water and bring o2 with you, or move inside something that contains o2, under the water easily.

And while you can't read minds with TK, you can RIP THE BRAINS our of peoples skulls, which ....will probably cause people to just do whatever you want and you don't care what they are thinking *hehe*

So while I still would go for Shapeshifting cause I'm totally down for self orgies, TK is also a great and versatile power, and if shapeshifting was limited, and TK was....just pretty powerful (IE you could lift things with your mind up to 500 pounds, and anything you could see pretty much), then TK would certainly offer you a good alternative.

I still wanna be freaky with my shapeshifting though.
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Invulnerability meanwhile does give you alot (if you don't consider it a curse).

Super strength is pretty much given, even if you just have a normal human body, because you don't have normal human limits. You won't break bones, tear muscle, and in theory your muscles won't get tired either, so you could basically run at full speed probably forever.

So while you might not actually have the strength of a bear, you could use what you have much more then others without fear of damaging yourself, you could go faster and not worry about getting hurt ifyou fall, and you could use a glider etc from high spots, and not worry about crashing at the end. You might not be able to fly, but you could use various methods of flight with no fear of injury (and you could probably easily accumulate plenty of money to use technology to give you means of flight/moving fast, and even possibly augmenting your strength (again without having to worry about damaging body parts etc.)

You would not have any form of invisibility or teleportation/telekinesis but...you in theory would be ok under water (other wise your not very invulnerable if all someone needs to do is drown you). What is more, you also have lava breathing and in theory space breathing, or I guess just no need to breathe at all.

Most of the others can't really simulate another power, and are fairly limited. Teleportation, if it could be used on other objects (that your not touching from a distance), could allow you to simulate some of the TK powers, and could allow you to simulate super strength in a way (at least if there wasn't a limit on size of the object you wanted to teleport. Teleportation also can simulate super speed (you just keep teleporting a bit in front of yourself really fast), but it's also a power that is REALLY easy to limit, so I would basically include an auto-rezone in the power, so you can't teleport anywhere that has matter you can not easily displace (the ability basically PUSHES all matter in the space you are going to appear out of the way before you do, and if that is not possible, you do not teleport.
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Broken_Zeus posted...

Why would it?

@Broken_Zeus Because going insane would be a mental affliction and invulnerability implies you're impervious to being damaged or hurt in any way.
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Broken_Zeus posted...

What "basic form"? You're imposing your own perceived set of restrictions on what's generally the most open-ended power.

I've already said what I meant. Keep reading and maybe you'll catch it.
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All of these powers' potentials depend a lot on the limitations they have tbh, a telekinetic user with no restrictions at all could be a reality warper and that would kinda beat everything else in the list imo.
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TheSlinja posted...

shapeshifting is also likely to get you abducted and dissected by the government
of course the power makes eluding authorities easy but a life on the run is lame, at least with mind reading you can know exactly when people get suspicious lol

Any super power is gonna draw the governments attention. They would love to have soldiers with almost any power.

Shapeshifting would be a hard one for them to discover though provided you only ever change forms away from prying eyes.
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Yomi posted...

Broken_Zeus posted...

Why would it?

@Broken_Zeus Because going insane would be a mental affliction and invulnerability implies you're impervious to being damaged or hurt in any way.

It usually implies physical invulnerability. At least in a non canon story superman snapped when he got tricked into killing his wife and unborn child. While both can hurt physical and mental are two very different things
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mooreandrew58 posted...

TheSlinja posted...

shapeshifting is also likely to get you abducted and dissected by the government
of course the power makes eluding authorities easy but a life on the run is lame, at least with mind reading you can know exactly when people get suspicious lol

Any super power is gonna draw the governments attention. They would love to have soldiers with almost any power.

Shapeshifting would be a hard one for them to discover though provided you only ever change forms away from prying eyes.

yeah but prying eyes in 2019 and counting is a lot different than prying eyes of the past, phones, drones, hidden cameras, etc. Id be afraid of accidentally being caught on film
at least you cant see mind reading
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TheSlinja posted...

mooreandrew58 posted...

TheSlinja posted...

shapeshifting is also likely to get you abducted and dissected by the government
of course the power makes eluding authorities easy but a life on the run is lame, at least with mind reading you can know exactly when people get suspicious lol

Any super power is gonna draw the governments attention. They would love to have soldiers with almost any power.

Shapeshifting would be a hard one for them to discover though provided you only ever change forms away from prying eyes.

yeah but prying eyes in 2019 and counting is a lot different than prying eyes of the past, phones, drones, hidden cameras, etc. Id be afraid of accidentally being caught on film
at least you cant see mind reading

Yeah but knowing this id only do it behind closed doors like in my home. I wouldnt be using it to be a super hero so I dont see much reason id have a need to do it elsewhere.

Its also at least here in my country illegal to have cameras installed in a bathroom. So if I absolutely needed to id look for a bathroom
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mooreandrew58 posted...

Yomi posted...

Broken_Zeus posted...

Why would it?

@Broken_Zeus Because going insane would be a mental affliction and invulnerability implies you're impervious to being damaged or hurt in any way.

It usually implies physical invulnerability. At least in a non canon story superman snapped when he got tricked into killing his wife and unborn child. While both can hurt physical and mental are two very different things

Which is why the TC should specify the limitations of each power.
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wolfy42 posted...

You can be the hottest chick, or the studliest man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX5IUUafTVY" data-time="
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