Ideal Power Pairs

[Halyo_Alex]

I've been thinking about the cosmere powers i'd most want as a cosmere inhabitant, and I got curious about putting a small but important twist into the idea.

Limiting myself to a single pair of individual, innate powers, regardless of the "norm" for them (like surgepairs, shardblade, and shardplate coming as a bundle deal with a True spren bond for knights radiant, or the entire suite of Aons for an Elantrian).

The only exceptions are things that you need as a prerequisite to use the power, like the ability to inhale stormlight as a fuel for surgebinding, or to be able to draw Aons in the way that makes them actually have an effect.

With this restriction, I had a think about the two powers I'd most want...

I feel like I'd be most satisfied having the Surge of Transformation and A-Steel. I would have all the perks of inhaling Stormlight (or indeed, perhaps other Lights), plus the ability to soulcast substances into allomantically-suitable Steel. Add on top of that the mobility that A-Steel would give me, plus the fact that i could ALSO soulcast whatever the easy default "metal" is as Steelpushing objects, and I could see myself really enjoying "conjuring" sleek metal spikes to steelpush at my foes while deftly evading via well-placed metal anchors of my own creation, if needed. I wouldn't get a Blade or Plate, but with practice, I could learn to Soulcast a sword or armor when needed; or heck, practice Soulcasting until I can make a high-quality Aluminum-alloy sword and shield, or sword and chestplate to keep my off-hand free for mobility assistance.

What power pairs would you want? And why?

[Oversleep]

I wrote down a few back in they day:

Surge of Abrasion + Feruchemical steel is one of my favorites. You only need steel in very short bursts, so they can be very powerful, the rest of the way you use Abrasion.

AonDor + either Feruchemical steel or zinc. Steel allows you to bulllet time and draw Aons instantly, zinc allows you to get a lot of thinking done in very short time. Another nice combination is Feruchemical copper, as you can store complex Aon sequences you wouldn't be able to remember normally.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

I few days ago I would have said a kandra with allomantic bendalloy for insane quick change magic tricks to land the biggest "Fool Us" win ever... changing shape size or even species along with my clothing as I appear to continuously walk back and forth behind a curtain (or even just have curtains fall in front of me and try to get the changes done as they fall). 

 

But I just read warbreaker and I think I would give up my instant appearance changing act to fool Penn and Teller for the chance to be a kandra with awakening.  

I have no idea what blessing I would want... I feel like potency would have obvious advantages with the ability to augment your strength through awakened objects further.  Awareness would just be epic to further enhance all of your senses (would life sense potentially be extended and more powerful with awareness?).  Blessing of presence with awakening could be super useful for picking up and learning new commands and the blessing of stability... well I honestly don't know how it would do as there don't seem to be many folks working on emotions in warbreaker but its never a bad idea to guard your biggest weakness further as a Hemalurgic construct.  

With how durable kandra are shown to be in era 2 I love the idea of bullets and blades passing as harmlessly through my person as they do the cloth and ropes I am commanding in a fight.  And an added benefit of being a kandra with awakening... I can create another mouth or perhaps move my mouth if I was gagged and silences... I can hide a few colored handkerchiefs under my skin or make a few bones for a true body with layers of compressed colored cloth as certain bones (eventually being cosmere aware I would work to amass an entire true body made of aluminum).

Being a kandra has so much untold flexibility and they are by far my favorite monsters from any fantasy world.... and after warbreaker this last weekend awakening has to be my new favorite magic system in the cosmere.  Their powers combined... I think would make for a truly terrifying foe.  

[cometaryorbit]

For "useful in my real world life" Zinc Feruchemy - store zinc during boring stuff to make it apparently go faster, tap for bursts of genius - plus enough Breath to have a super-long, super-healthy life.

Although that feels kind of selfish, Surge of Transformation or Progression could do so much good.

For intellectual/philosophical interest, Gold Allomancy plus Forgery - exploring alternate timelines of yourself and then actualizing them with Soul Forging.

[WandererNearby]

Feruchemical Iron + Gravitation. You could make yourself super duper heavy right as you flew into the city gates headfirst and just smash them down. 

Forging + Progression. I think you could remove old injuries this way by forging them temporarily to being healed. I.e. forge Rysn so that she jumps slightly differently and doesn't get paralyzed then use progression to fully heal her. 

Allomantic pewter + any Knight's Radiant. You could sneakily always have pewter to burn as use it as tie breaker when fighting or a back up source of healing when you run out of Stormlight.

[Crucible of Shards]

I’ve always been partial to A-electrum as a protective measure. Combine it with F-zinc or F-steel and you have someone who is very hard to catch by surprise.

If you’re a cat thief, then being a Slider with F-steel would make you able get in and out in literally the blink of an eye. No one would see it coming 

[apepi]

I would love to see hemulargy with fabrials. It could lead to some wierd stuff.

I like the idea of none-powered people somehow getting powers.

[teknopathetic]

Forging and Gold/Malatium Misting seem pretty nicely tied together. Being able to fully understand someone's possible alternative lives must make Forging a heck of a lot easier. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by teknopathetic

[cometaryorbit]

14 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

Forging and Gold/Malatium Misting seem pretty nicely tied together. Being able to fully understand someone's possible alternative lives must make Forging a heck of a lot easier. 

That would be very cool, yeah.

[Letryx13]

On 2/19/2022 at 4:17 PM, Oversleep said:

AonDor + either Feruchemical steel or zinc. Steel allows you to bulllet time and draw Aons instantly, zinc allows you to get a lot of thinking done in very short time. Another nice combination is Feruchemical copper, as you can store complex Aon sequences you wouldn't be able to remember normally.

This is pretty much what I would do too. AonDor is the most versatile application of investiture seen so far. Other forms are more powerful, but AonDor can do almost anything other kinds of magic can do.  Use either feruchemical zinc or allomantic bendalloy for quick application, or copper feruchemy to remember all the Aons. Personally, I'd go copper feruchemy.

[Kandrafish]

Kandra with the Aviar Parasite and change into different bird anatomies to get different Aviar powers. (I felt the need to do a Kandra one)

I also like Gold Ferring with Illumination because Disguises are useful and with gold, you could in essence convert Stormlight healing into gold minds, I think.

My favourite might be Allomantic Zinc and Feruchemical Zinc because it would give you the ability to outsmart everyone and the ability to manipulate enemies and give friends quick signals/ essentially improved reaction times.

As an explanation, you can think through every problem fully and do so all of the time, plus you can manipulate the emotions of others while thinking at warp speed. Also, I feel like you should be able to use hard pushes to communicate to someone else. Like you intuit mentally that the enemy is going to attack so you signal that your friends should attack by pulling so hard on anger that they know it is you and pulling so hard on panic that they know it is you if they need to retreat. (maybe make it a combo of weird emotions like panic and happiness or anger and happiness so that it can be more like a code)

[SwordNimiForPresident]

Aon Dor in combination with pretty much anything would be pretty cool. The only thing that comes close in my opinion would be F-zinc or F-steel, simply because they provide something that is, so far, unique in the Cosmere. Slowing down time or speeding yourself up are incredibly powerful abilities.

I'll also add a shout out to double nicrosil. If you can get your hands on a tiny bit of an ability, you can keep it forever for the price of some Nickel, Chromium and Silicon.

 

[Frustration]

Feruchemist Dawnshard.

Not sure what that adds up to, but I want it.

[Halyo_Alex]

2 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Feruchemist Dawnshard.

Not sure what that adds up to, but I want it.

Considering that entails F-Duralumin Connection manipulation... That's a strong contender.

[Mazman]

F-Duralamin + AonDor 

I could, theoretically, store Connection to Sel, and then maybe use that Connection to use AonDor elsewhere in the Cosmere.

If that doesn't work, I would choose F-Zinc and F-Copper.

[Proletariat]

A Feruchemist on Ashyn could be very potent. You could use the storage of gold to suppress your immune system to get some surges from diseases, and then use the other metals to suppress any symptoms that made you tired, short of breath etc. and then eliminate the disease with your stored health once you'd reached your limit.

[Morningtide]

I would pick F-nicrosil and Bio-chromatic breath. You could store your breaths so that people couldn't tell how much you had, and then draw on them at any time. 

[Wandering Shade]

Enlightened Truthwatcher + Hemalurgy.

Brandon has said that any kind of future sight can help with placing spikes, and all truthwatchers also have Progression so they can heal the damage done by spiking someone. Being a radiant is also just super useful lol.

[Stormlit-man]

If I was in the cosmere I would want to be a nicrosil ferring and and the surge of transportation, this would hypothetically allow me to travel between realms in places other than roshar by storing the stormlight in nicrosil which would allow it to last for a lot longe time than in a gemstone. Maybe on my travels of the cosmere I would find other sources of investiture to store in in my nicrosil minds and be able to continue traveling.

[SwordNimiForPresident]

On 3/28/2022 at 4:54 PM, Morningtide said:

I would pick F-nicrosil and Bio-chromatic breath. You could store your breaths so that people couldn't tell how much you had, and then draw on them at any time. 

 

On 3/29/2022 at 10:52 PM, Stormlit-man said:

If I was in the cosmere I would want to be a nicrosil ferring and and the surge of transportation, this would hypothetically allow me to travel between realms in places other than roshar by storing the stormlight in nicrosil which would allow it to last for a lot longe time than in a gemstone. Maybe on my travels of the cosmere I would find other sources of investiture to store in in my nicrosil minds and be able to continue traveling.

I'm not sure if you can actually store Breath or Stormlight in nicrosil. You could probably store the abilities that they grant, such as perfect pitch or instinctive Awakening or maybe even the healing from Stormlight, but I believe (and I could be wrong) that physical manifestations of Investiture (Breath, Light, Mist) aren't store able in a metalmind.

[apepi]

Fabrial and Hemalurgy.

DIY 'radiant'.

[SwordNimiForPresident]

10 hours ago, apepi said:

Fabrial and Hemalurgy.

DIY 'radiant'.

An odd choice given that both are techniques available to anyone rather than exclusive powers. I guess the question is what abilities would you try to gain through Hemalurgy.

[Wandering Shade]

Something I was thinking about a while ago.

AonDor and Awakening.

Making a computer has never been easier.

[Lunu’anaki]

I would choose to have a Divine Breath (for immortality and the option to save someones life from nearly any problem I can think of) paired with the surge of gravitation, because flying and immortality sound like the best methods to travel the world and do as much good as humanly possible.

[Duxredux]

I wonder... I like the idea of F-Duralumin and A-Malatium. I don't know if those abilities would interact with each other as much as I think they might, but I could see it making me much better at understanding other people. It wouldn't have the same responsibility that comes with some of the really powerful abilities, but I might be able to become a really awesome therapist without emotional allomancy. That's something that is sorely needed in the Cosmere.