A superpower generator where every power costs something
Every power here comes with a limit or a price, because a power without one is a cheat code and gives you nothing to write. That is the whole list.
A superpower generator suggests abilities for characters. This one pairs every power with a limit or a cost, grouped by where it came from: mutation, technology, magic, divine, small and catastrophic. A power without a cost gives a writer nothing to write. The lists are free with no account; powers built for your own character use a free account with 15 free credits.
Superpower generator
Powers, with their costs
- Never sleepsthe dreams arrive while awake instead
- Trades pain to another willing personwilling is doing a lot of work
- Doors open for himand never lock again afterward
- Immune to every poisonand to every medicine
- Knows the true name of anythingsaying one aloud costs a memory
- Knows if food is safeand can eat nothing she has not checked
- Sheds skin yearlyand some memories with it
- Lends a year of lifefrom the lender, never returned
- Tools last twice as longand cannot be given away
- Hears thoughts of the recently deadfor about an hour
- Hears a lie as it formsbefore the speaker decides to tell it
- Milk never sours near himnor does anything else change
- A suit that redirects forcethe force has to go somewhere
- Cannot be lied toand cannot stop hearing the truth
- Rewinds one minuteonly he remembers; only he is blamed
- Optical camouflagefails the moment you are looked for
- Answers a prayer once a yearnot necessarily the one asked
- Ends a warby a method she does not choose
- A drone swarm that obeys gestureand anyone else who learns the gestures
- Carries the voice of a godit uses her mouth without asking
- Takes a power from anotherboth lose it if she is wrong about them
- A rig that stores kinetic energyand discharges if left full
- Forgives a wrong, literallythe wronged party forgets they were
- Opens a way to somewhere elseit stays open
Or describe the character
Source, scale and cost in, ten powers out, each with its limit spelled out.
0 / 2000
The cost is the story
Accelerated healing is not a story. Accelerated healing that costs a year of life per repair is a story, because now every injury is a decision and the character has to choose what is worth it. The power is the premise. The limit is the plot. A superpower generator that skips the limit hands you half a tool.
The best costs are specific. They bite in ordinary moments as well as in fights. Magnetic hands sound useful until you cannot hold a child wearing a buckle. A voice that carries for miles sounds like an advantage until the character can never whisper a secret or apologize quietly.
Brandon Sanderson, who writes some of the most studied magic systems in fantasy, sums it up as his Second Law: "Limitations > Powers." His own example is blunter: "Superman is not his powers. Superman is his weaknesses." ([brandonsanderson.com](https://www.brandonsanderson.com/blogs/blog/sandersons-second-law))
Where the power comes from changes the rules
The source decides who can take the power away. Mutation lives in the body, so it ages, heals and breaks with it. Technology can be stolen, hacked or switched off. Magic and bargains mean somebody, somewhere, is keeping count. A divine gift comes with a giver who has opinions. Small powers force invention. Catastrophic ones become the plot whether you want them to or not.
That is why the lists are grouped by source. Choose the source first and half your rules are already written.
How to use the lists
Pick a group and read the power and its cost together, as one idea. Reroll until one makes you want to know what happens next. If you already have a character, describe them instead: who they are, what they want, what they fear. The generator returns ten abilities shaped around them, each with its own limit. That run needs a free FeelyWrite account.
Make the cost arrive before the payoff
A price the character pays afterward is a consequence. A price they pay first is a decision. Decisions are what readers actually follow. Ask what using the power costs in the same scene it is used.
Pick a limit the plot can attack
If the power fails when the user is frightened, a clever antagonist will frighten them. A limit that nobody in the story can exploit is a detail. A limit an enemy can aim at is structure.
Small powers carry books too
Always knowing what time it is, never dropping anything, animals trusting you instantly. Constraints this tight force invention. A domestic power in a serious situation is often more interesting than flight.
Write the rule in one sentence
"She can stop a heart for one minute, any heart, including her own." If you cannot write the power and its limit in one sentence, the reader will not be able to hold it either.
Common questions
- Why does every power have a cost?
- Because a power without one is a cheat code. If the character can always win by using it, the scene has no tension and the writer has no problem to solve.
- How do I come up with an original superpower?
- Do not chase a power nobody has used. Take a familiar one and give it an unusual limit, or narrow it until it gets strange: not fire, only smoke. Originality usually lives in the cost.
- Can I combine two of these?
- Yes. It usually works best when the two costs conflict. Picture a character whose healing shortens their life while their power only works when injured. That is a genuine dilemma, built in.
- Is the superpower generator free?
- The lists are free and need no account. Generating abilities for your own character needs a free FeelyWrite account. New accounts get 15 free credits, no card needed.
- How do I keep a power consistent across a novel?
- Write the rule down in one sentence and never break it without showing the price. In FeelyWrite the rule lives in Story DNA, under the world and its rules. Every feature reads it before it drafts a scene. A power cannot quietly grow if the draft keeps being written against its limit.
Put the power under pressure
A cost only matters in a scene. FeelyWrite keeps your rules in Story DNA and drafts the moment the bill comes due, in your voice. Writing fantasy or science fiction? The studio speaks both.
Start writing free