Thought this was a fun idea. Basically this thread is about finding people who have a certain Power/Ability, it is incredibly niche, useless, self-destructive or just really weak. Or maybe it's useful, but they're really bad at using it. (Not just being unable to draw out its full potential, I mean "actually worthless" levels of incompetency)
For example,
Scolippi from JoJo's Stand, Rolling Stones has Death Manipulation, but he can't control it in any way, it just foresees the deaths of people who are fated to die, which prevents from dying until that moment, but it tries chasing them down and give them a peaceful death. Not only has this ruined Scolippi's life, but Rolling Stones is completely useless offensively AND defensively. Another example is
Kaido Wataru, whose Dimensional Travel can only be done in an incredibly risky motorbike maneuver and has basically no practical use whatsoever.
Abilities that are useless on their own but become useful when coupled with another of the character's powers should preferably not be suggested, since they aren't actually useless for the character. Also, if a character has a useless showing of an ability, but also simultaneously has access to a more powerful version of the same P&A, this should preferably not be suggested unless that only happens in a later key or is only accessible via optional equipment, in which case it's fine.
So yeah, feel free to suggest any really stupid and lame abilities any character might have, and I'll add them to this list.
- Absolute Zero
- Absorption
- Abstract Existence
- Acausality
- Accelerated Development - Komugi (Hunter X Hunter) - Komugi's abilities in Gungi, a board game, evolve incredibly any time she plays, but if she ever loses a game, she will die. Otherwise useless.
- Acid Manipulation
- Acrobatics
- Adaptation
- Additional Limbs - Xavier: (Xavier Renegade Angel) - Has had extra limbs exactly once for the sake of a gag.
- Adhesive Manipulation - Koriel Number 12 (Baroque) - Certain pieces of equipment may be Adhesive, which prevents Number 12 from removing them. Basically the only positive is that they can't be stolen or forcibly removed by others.
- Afterimage Creation - Tanzra & The Lord of Light (ActRaiser) - Followed by a trail of afterimages. Completely useless.
- Age Manipulation - Ainur (Lord of the Rings) - Can cause people to not age (though they still die when their time is up), which is useless on themselves given they're immortal.
- Air Manipulation
- Alternate Future Display - Pennywise (It, 2017) - Can show others darker timelines to scare them. Not really bad but the worst case of the very few users of AFD.
- Animal Manipulation - Hunter Slugcat (Rain World) - Makes more powerful predators spawn and makes them more aggressive towards the hunter, with even otherwise neutral species trying to kill it on sight.
- Antimatter Manipulation - - Ant-Man (Scott Lang, Marvel Comics) - Turned himself into antimatter on accident, which would cause him to explode on contact with normal matter.
- Astral Projection - Jake Long (American Dragon: Jake Long) - Can manipulate his astral form for mental training of sorts using a special incense.
- Attack Reflection
- Aura - Maids such as Lunamaria (I Was Caught up in a Hero Summoning, but That World Is at Peace) - Their aura is not only completely useless but only visible to other Maids.
- Automatic Translation - Lupin III (Lupin III) - Owns a a device capable of translating the language of dolphins, which must be wrapped around a dolphin's body to operate.
- Avatar Creation - The Lord of Light (ActRaiser) - Can only be used on statues built in their image. Not useless and in fact an important tool of theirs, but it's a pretty big restriction especially when considering SBA.
- Awakened Power
- Berserk Mode
- Beyond-Dimensional Existence
- BFR - Vector (Marvel Comics) - Can push himself and others nearby through the fabric of space and Self-BFR himself.
- Biological Manipulation - Ant-Man (Scott Lang, Marvel Comics) - Can shrink his own organs to feel sick
- Black Hole Creation - The Player (Combat Warriors) - Has no control over the black hole and is very likely to be killed by it.
- Blessed
- Blood Manipulation
- Bodily Weaponry
- Body Control - Father (Fullmetal Alchemist) - Can make his facial features appear and disappear. Normally useless, particularly so given who has it.
- Body Puppetry
- Bone Manipulation
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Breath Attack
- Broadway Force - Rayman (Rayman) - Can make bosses dance but only after defeating them.
- Camouflage
- Causality Manipulation
- Chaos Manipulation - Ganondorf (The Legend of Zelda) - Causes vague and unusable amounts of discord and disaster.
- Chi Manipulation - Karate Kid (Earth-Prime, DC Comics) - Can make people fall asleep by manipulating their chakra, however this seems to be unusable in combat.
- Clairvoyance
- Cloth Manipulation
- Conceptual Manipulation
- Construction
- Corrosion Inducement
- Corruption - Ghirahim (The Legend of Zelda) - Can only corrupt certain small animals, and only at night.
- Cosmic Awareness
- Creation - Fil Necati (Kral Şakir) - Can sometimes create watermelons from his nose.
- Crystal Manipulation - Catherine The Great (Majo Taisen) - Can create small useless crystals when transforming.
- Curse Manipulation - The Living One (Arcanum) - Has access to various weapons that subtly undermine them in various ways while wielded, sometimes permanently.
- Cyborgization
- Damage Boost - Bonus attack users from Puzzle and Dragons - Bonus attack requires setup to use, it can't be boosted by multipliers, it has no element so it can't hit for weakness exploitation, and only does 1 damage total, though that damage can't be resisted.
- Damage Reduction
- Damage Transferal - The Accused (FLEAUX!) - Can only transfer damage to an ally, which is still useful but not a restriction the power usually has. Additionally there's a decent bit of danger involved in casting Sorceries at all given it can make casting future spells harder and eventually cause Chaos Revenge.
- Danmaku
- Darkness Manipulation
- Data Manipulation
- Death Manipulation - Scolippi (JoJo) - His Stand, Rolling Stones, is not controlled by him, it just senses future deaths of those nearby and tries to kill them before that fate can happen. This has ruined Scolippi's life and has no use in combat.
- Deconstruction - Bracken (Lethal Company) - Instantly decomposes upon death.
- Density Manipulation
- Dimensional Manipulation
- Dimensional Travel - Kaido Wataru (Kurayami Dance) - By successfully performing an incredibly risky bike maneuver, Kaido can visit the world of the afterlife, which serves no practical purpose.
- Disease Manipulation - Koriel Number 12 (Baroque) - Can give others (or himself) a stomachache, which lowers stats a bit and doesn't do much else.
- Dream Manipulation
- Duplication
- Durability Negation
- Ectoplasm Manipulation
- Earth Manipulation - Mevolent (Skulduggery Pleasant) - Can only turn himself into a stone statue for a random amount of time, which could be decades.
- Elasticity - Nephilem - When shrinking back into a fetus, which allows him to crawl through small spaces, the Nephilem becomes very bouncy. This mostly makes control harder.
- Electricity Manipulation - David (Battle For Dream Island) - Can yell loudly enough to emanate small sparks.
- Elemental Manipulation
- Empathic Manipulation - Faramir (Lord of the Rings) - Faramir's presence naturally invokes feelings of respect and nobility in others, though this aura is much weaker in him than it would be in a Numenorean.
- Empowerment - Lunamaria (I Was Caught up in a Hero Summoning, but That World Is at Peace) - Can temporarily increase her Maid Power, which is completely useless as detailed in "Aura", which also leaves her exhausted.
- Energy Manipulation
- Energy Projection - The Accused (FLEAUX!) - If a character fails to cast spells repeatedly in one day, they will suffer Chaos Revenge, which has a variety of negative effects, including emanating a powerful burst of energy that hurts all nearby, which is usually going to be your party members. You can't even use it strategically since there's only a 1/6 chance of it happening on a Chaos Revenge.
- Enhanced Senses - Gorilla (Real World) - Slightly better hearing and smell, otherwise roughly at human levels.
- Existence Erasure - Pandora (Street Fighter X Tekken) - Can only erase itself.
- Explosion Manipulation - Hector Salamanca (Breaking Bad) - Can make himself explode by repeatedly ringing a bell, which can easily be reacted to. Is otherwise paralyzed.
- Extrasensory Perception - May (Guilty Gear) - Can sense that a person is bald even if their heads aren't visible. This terrifies her.
- Fate Manipulation - Hector (Fire Emblem) - Fated to die on a battlefield, which is pretty bad in a series about war and his death does end up screwing his side of the conflict pretty badly.
- Fear Manipulation - Employee (Lobotomy Corporation) - Can only be used when they're driven insane, and they have resistance to Madness Manipulation which only becomes better with their equipment. This madness will also cause them to commit suicide.
- Fire Manipulation - Jimmy (Fangs) - Will be set on fire when exposed to silver or entering a church.
- Fissionism
- Flight - Father (Fullmetal Alchemist) - Despite being gaseous in nature, Father is stuck inside his flask and will die if it's broken, as such this doesn't have any use.
- Forcefield Creation
- Fragrance Manipulation - The Accused (FLEAUX!) - Can make a target smell of manure until next dawn. This has basically no use and there's a decent bit of danger involved in casting Sorceries at all given it can make casting future spells harder and eventually cause Chaos Revenge.
- Free Movement
- Fungus Manipulation
- Fusionism - Koriel Number 12 (Baroque) - Can fuse with God upon finding their physical location, which is through a long, difficult dungeon, and he also needs to take special precautions to not go insane in their presence.
- Genius Intelligence - Komugi (Hunter X Hunter) - A genius solely in the regards of Gungi, a board game, kind of stupid otherwise.
- Gravity Manipulation - Naota Nandaba (FLCL) - When the portal in his head activates he will be tossed around by gravity. He has no control over this.
- Hacking
- Hair Manipulation - Kusuo Saiki (Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan) - Can swap hairstyles with others.
- Healing - Slime Bunny (Epic Battle Fantasy) - Fights only by healing opponents.
- Higher-Dimensional Existence - Dan Phantom (Danny Phantom) - Is the embodiment of the timeline, but due to his unstable nature, he's passively destroying the timeline and himself so eventually he ends up taking himself out as well as the timeline.
- Hive Mind
- Holy Manipulation
- Homing Attack
- Ice Manipulation
- Illusion Creation
- Immersion
- Immortality (Type 4) - Blades (Xenoblade) - Whenever a Driver resonates with a dead Blade's core crystal, they will be resurrected, with no memories of their previous life. This has absolutely no combat applicability.
- Incorporeality
- Information Analysis - Terry Bogard (Fatal Fury) - Specially skilled in accurately guessing a woman's measurements.
- Information Manipulation
- Inorganic Physiology - Bubble (Battle for Dream Island) - Still vulnerable to things that IP would normally protect from, and also has the same durability a bubble would despite her AP.
- Instinctive Action
- Intangibility - Father (Fullmetal Alchemist) - Despite being gaseous in nature, Father is stuck inside his flask and will die if it's broken, as such this doesn't have any use.
- Invisibility - The Accused (FLEAUX!) - Can only render a small weapon invisible and only until they draw it, upon which it must rapidly draw blood or the caster takes damage. Additionally there's a decent bit of danger involved in casting Sorceries at all given it can make casting future spells harder and eventually cause Chaos Revenge.
- Invulnerability - Magent Magent (JoJo) - Can make himself invulnerable to basically all harm if he remains immobile in a kneeling position.
- Large Size - Suez Canal Crab (Monument Mythos) - Could barely move due to its weight and eventually died just by tripping and falling over.
- Law Manipulation - Hamazura Shiage (To Aru) - As a level 0 esper, these abilities cannot be observed at any level above that which only an electron microscope can see.
- Life Manipulation - Pepsiman (PS1) - Gives life to objects that actively hunt him down.
- Light Manipulation - Monarch of Pointland (Flatland) - Can cause a glow when he speaks. However as he is completely immobile and cannot see the 3D world this glow is even more useless than the average light would be; Spirit Jellyfish (Elden Ring) - Can glow red. This does nothing.
- Longevity
- Madness Manipulation - Employee (Lobotomy Corporation) - Can only be used when they're driven insane, and they have resistance to Madness Manipulation which only becomes better with their equipment. This madness will also cause them to commit suicide.
- Magic
- Magma Manipulation
- Magnetism Manipulation - Clefairy (Pokémon) - Can create magnetic fields with seemingly no use, if in a large enough group.
- Marksmanship
- Martial Arts - Velma Dinkley (Velma) - Her achievements are in women's self defense classes, which are generally less effective than proper martial arts training.
- Mathematics Manipulation
- Matter Manipulation
- Memory Manipulation - Tōya Kagari (XBlaze) - Passively erases his own memories.
- Metal Manipulation
- Mind Manipulation - Meng Xia - The ability will only be activated when she is near the inevitable death (being in coma for three years due to car crash in Meng Xia's case). It is not combat-applicable and it actually won't affect the "real world".
- Morality Manipulation
- Multilocation
- Multiple Selves - Xavier: (Xavier Renegade Angel) - His snake hand is alive, and other severed body parts can regrow into snakes.
- Nanotechnology
- Necromancy
- Nigh-Omniscience
- Non-Physical Interaction
- Non-Standard Breathing
- Nonexistent Physiology
- Omnipresence
- Omniscience
- Organic Manipulation - Koriel Number 12 (Baroque) - With a certain item, can make himself or others secrete a mysterious liquid. Has absolutely no practical effect.
- Pain Manipulation
- Paper Manipulation
- Paralysis Inducement - The Soul Blazer (Soul Blazer) - Can only be used against enemies too strong for him to hurt, which isn't useless, in fact it is quite handy, but he needs to strike them with one specific sword rather than other, more powerful ones which might allow him to actually inflict damage.
- Peak Human Physical Characteristics
- Perception Manipulation
- Petrification - Tiamat (Spelunky) - When she dies, Tiamat will be petrified.
- Photographic Memory - The Accused (FLEAUX!) - Through a Profession (which they can only have 2 of, and many give very important buffs so you're sacrificing a lot for this), the Accused can memorize everything they hear with a successful Willpower roll. Not only does that have a chance of backfiring (Willpower rolling can cause the die to degrade and become smaller, and if it does so too much the character panics), but it's really not an impressive talent at all given that literally every character can do this as long as the person playing them pays attention.
- Physics Manipulation
- Plant Manipulation - Hunter Slugcat (Rain World) - Makes more powerful predators spawn and makes them more aggressive towards the hunter, with even otherwise neutral species trying to kill it on sight.
- Plasma Manipulation
- Platform Creation - Sans (Undertale) - Sans' platforms aid Frisk in avoiding his attacks and have no other purpose.
- Plot Manipulation - Nega-Chin (The Fairly OddParents!) - Always doomed to lose to good.
- Pocket Reality Manipulation - Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) - Unaware of her ability to create closed spaces. Not combat applicable and can be harmful to her world.
- Poison Manipulation - Commander Rimanah (E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy) - Passively releases a chemical substance that forces certain insects to flee from him. These insects are basically a complete non-threat and not even particularly common.
- Portal Creation - Naota Nandaba (FLCL) - Has a portal in his head that he has little control over and that summons robots that attempt to kill him, and causes other inconveniences.
- Possession
- Power Absorption
- Power Bestowal
- Power Mimicry
- Power Modification
- Power Nullification - The Soul Blazer (Soul Blazer) - Only works on magma attacks, and since it's cast by a light shone around the soul orbiting him, sufficiently fast ones still have a chance of reaching him.
- Precognition - Miyama Kaito (I Was Caught up in a Hero Summoning, but That World Is at Peace) - Can only sense whether the "baby castella" dish prepared by Kuro will be good or bad.
- Preparation
- Pressure Points - Gorilla (An Extremely Attractive Gorilla) - Can... You know what, just look for yourself.
- Probability Manipulation - Milo Murphy (Phineas & Ferb) - Actively negative bad luck.
- Psychometry
- Purification
- Quantum Manipulation - Hamazura Shiage (To Aru) - As a level 0 esper, these abilities cannot be observed at any level above that which only an electron microscope can see.
- Radiation Manipulation -
- Rage Power - Trina Riffin (Grojband) - Her power gets amped to ridiculous extents, however it only lasts about 20 seconds and she couldn't aim worth jack with it.
- Reactive Evolution - JC Denton (Deus Ex) - Lockpicks automatically modify their shape to that of the lock. This isn't useless but I think it's fair to say it's much worse than actually becoming stronger in combat, especially when it still takes multiple to open most locks.
- Reality Warping - Deathtoll (Soul Blazer) - While immense in scope, Deathtoll needed to make a business deal with the King of the world to actually use these abilities. Presumably, he can't otherwise.
- Reconstruction
- Regeneration - Hundun (Spelunky) - When his heads are destroyed, the holes they made in Hundun's shell close. Unfortunately, he is also incapacitated if his heads are destroyed.
- Resistance - Tingle (Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland) - Resistance to Healing. 'Nuff said.
- Resistance Negation
- Resurrection - Koichi Zenigata (Lupin III) - Resurrected after heart failure by hearing Lupin's name.
- Retrocognition
- Sand Manipulation
- Sealing - Phalanx (Ghosts 'n' Goblins) - Can only seal himself away.
- Self-Destruction - Hector Salamanca (Breaking Bad) - Can make himself explode by repeatedly ringing a bell, which can easily be reacted to. Is otherwise paralyzed.
- Self-Sustenance - Ted (I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream) - Kept alive forever in a helpless, agonizing form as a means of torture.
- Sense Manipulation
- Shapeshifting - Sissel, Yomiel and Missile (Ghost Trick) - Ghosts can change their appearance at will. However, they are also invisible and must meet very specific circumstances to let others see them, making the whole thing pretty pointless most of the time.
- Size Manipulation - Randō (Yu Yu Hakusho) - While this greatly weakens whoever it's cast on, it has an obvious, long-winded buildup and can be countered and reflects onto the user if it's not perfectly enunciated or not fully heard by the target.
- Sleep Manipulation - Kamen Rider Wizard (Kamen Rider) - Can only make himself fall asleep.
- Small Size - Monarch of Pointland (Flatland) - Is a point.
- Smoke Manipulation - John Constantine (Vertigo/DC Comics) - Can make images appear in smoke, as well as make smokers choke on theirs a bit.
- Soul Manipulation - Deathtoll (Soul Blazer) - While immense in scope, Deathtoll needed to make a business deal with the King of the world to actually use these abilities. Presumably, he can't otherwise.
- Sound Manipulation - Pepsi-Drinking Man (Pepsiman) - His Pepsi plays the Pepsiman theme when about to be drank.
- Spatial Manipulation - Young (Anodyne, Second Key) - The Swap Tool can be used to literally swap pieces of the environment, however in this key Young doesn't have the strength to use it that way and can only use it to move blocks in one specific puzzle.
- Statistics Amplification - God (Epic Battle Fantasy) - Passively boosts his enemies' stats.
- Statistics Reduction - Gebura (Lobotomy Corporation) - Passively reduces her own stats, though she does also have a form of offensive stat reduction.
- Status Effect Inducement
- Stealth Mastery
- Subjective Reality - Hamazura Shiage (To Aru) - As a level 0 esper, these abilities cannot be observed at any level above that which only an electron microscope can see.
- Summoning - Princess Elise - Can not control her summoning, which happens when she dies or despairs, and it just kills everyone, including her.
- Superhuman Physical Characteristics - Lily Pad (Plants vs. Zombies) - Has superhuman durability and LS, but is effectively immobile and defenseless.
- Supernatural Luck - Bennett (Genshin Impact) - Bennett is extremely unlucky, to the point that earthquakes have sometimes split the ground under him, entire teams have abandoned him because of his bad luck rubbing off, his enemies (whom he picks to be much weaker than him as he'd otherwise not stand a chance) basically never miss and a thunderstorm conjures up instantly just to ruin what would have been a pleasant day for him.
- Supernatural Willpower
- Surface Scaling
- Technology Manipulation - Kusuo Saiki (Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan) - Can upgrade PCs to Windows 10.
- Telekinesis
- Telepathy - Garrett (Thief) - Only capable of hearing telepathic conversations, but cannot communicate through them.
- Teleportation - Henry Stickmin (Henry Stickmin Collection) - Owns a mainly unreliable teleporter that typically just puts him into danger.
- Temperature Manipulation - Uiharu Kazari (To Aru) - Can keep the temperature of something she's wrapping her hand around stable. Since she has to directly touch it it doesn't even work on extremely hot or cold objects.
- Text Manipulation - Bearded Devil (Dungeons & Dragons) - Can mark a soul it has corrupted with their name, but with their role in devil society they're fairly unlikely to ever achieve this.
- Thread Manipulation
- Time Manipulation
- Time Stop
- Time Travel - Rintarou Okabe (Steins;Gate) - Can send data back to the past only following a very complex series of limitations.
- Toon Force
- Transduality
- Transformation - Humans (The Amazing Digital Circus) - If extremely stressed, they can irreversibly transform into violent monsters, effectively permanently killing them when they are otherwise immortal)
- Transmutation - Kusuo Saiki (Saiki Kusuo No Psi Nan) - Can carbonate any drink.
- Underground Mobility
- Underwater Breathing
- Unholy Manipulation
- Vector Manipulation
- Vehicular Mastery
- Vibration Manipulation - Ichiban Kasuga (Like A Dragon) - uhh
- Void Manipulation
- Water Manipulation - John Constantine (Vertigo/DC Comics) - Caused the image of a snake to appear in his glass.
- Weapon Control
- Weapon Creation - Woof (Death Road to Canada) - 1% chance to create nearly worthless throwable poop when barking.
- Weapon Mastery - Spear Thrower (TABS) - Decent at throwing spears, but only carries one at a time and needs a few seconds to spawn another, has no tactical thinking or other means of combat.
- Weather Manipulation
- Zero-Dimensionality - Monarch of Pointland (Flatland) - Is a point.
- A LOT OF ABILITIES - Straizo (JoJo) - Has access to Hamon which gifts him with over a dozen abilities, but using it will instantly kill him.
- EVEN MORE ABILITIES - The Peasant (UnderMine) - The entire Curses section is entirely negative for The Peasant.
