What is the most powerful magic in the Cosmere - Lots of spoilers

[Rune he/him]

Yes surgebinding is the most powerful. As noted by @cometaryorbit and @Frustration it has the potential to do a lot. The reason I think it is so powerful is because of how you access it-self improvement.  This self improvement increased the power you have access to.  The bounding done by Honor is one of morality, once he was gone the surges were open to anyone that could entice a spren (which isn’t that difficult as they are pretty naive).  This has now made it easy for anyone good or bad to access them as it’s not the standards of some objective truth but rather your subjective sense as shown by the splitting of the skybreakers (singers support vs human support).

[cometaryorbit]

6 minutes ago, Rune said:

 The bounding done by Honor is one of morality

I think there were actual mechanical limitations imposed (in RoW the Stormfather comments that the 'seeing Connection' power is new since Honor's decline, and the Ars Arcanum talks about Honor preventing Stoneshaping from being as destructive as Yolen's microkinesis - implicitly limiting it to manipulating interatomic or intermolecular bonds rather than splitting atoms).

The moral limitations seem to be more Ishar setting up the orders than Honor: Nohadon in Dalinar's visions complains about unwise people getting Surgebinding due to not all spren being "as discerning as honorspren", and Honor was alive then, so it seems that convincing a spren was all you needed then too.

[Dabbid]

With hemalurgy you can take any of these powers, and there are about 300 spots as said in Mistborn. You could become a Mistborn, Feruchemist, Bondsmith, Windrunner, and Lightweaver and all you would have to do is have the right metals and people with those powers.

[CtrlAltDepressed]

3 hours ago, Dabbid said:

You could become a Mistborn, Feruchemist, Bondsmith, Windrunner, and Lightweaver and all you would have to do is have the right metals and people with those powers.

You could. However, at least some of these spikes would require God metals that are extremely hard to come by. Disregarding the testing and knowledge required (which are also huge roadblocks) you still need the right metal to steal that power. 

 

Harmonium is extremely reactive and yields minuscule amounts of God metal. 

Trellium is very rare and would more than likely require interacting with Autonomy. 

Raysium is also rare and would require negotiations with Odium or a Fused.

Edglium hasnt been seen.

Aonium hasnt been seen.

Skaium hasnt been seen.

Tanavastium only exists as Honorblades.

Koravellium hasnt been seen. 

 

The other shards we havent even met yet. 

 

 

Personally I would put a Fullborn as the strongest. Compounding is seriously seriously op. Disregarding speed, strength, and all the allomantic abilities, being able to compound Atium would make you nearly invincible on its own. If you combine that with ridiculous speed and strength, weight manipulation, mental capacity heightened, speed bubbles, health, AND emotional manipulation....its not really a contest. Fullborns are way way way too strong. I fully believe Rashek could push / pull a Radiant like a ragdoll without even needing to compound. 

 

One smack from Rashek at full compounded strength would easily break shardplate in my opinion (just based off kaladin breaking plate with a couple lashings and his bare feet). 

[Forts Board]

... Draw aons into allomantic Metal and drink it. Take THAT, shards!

[Aredor]

On 5/21/2024 at 1:09 PM, CtrlAltDepressed said:

Koravellium hasnt been seen. 

I think you mean Koravelliumium 

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. In general, Elantrians are the most powerful magic users in the Cosmere. They can do anything the other magic systems can do and more! With enough preparation, they could give themselves Steelrunning, or Awaken objects, or Lightweave, and so, so much more. They could make Cosmere magical artifacts. They could probably even fly.

Even against Hoid, Salay, Ann, Fort, and Huck, Riina's chances of losing were only around 1 in 5. Shai destroyed quite a lot of the Set as an Elantrian. They're incredibly powerful, and there can be a lot of them. Much more than there can be of Fullborn, for example.

Being a Fullborn is impossible without intervention, and after Era 2, there'd have to be a lot of spikes made to become a full Feruchemist. That opens up that person to Harmony's control, which I would say diminishes their power and threat level. 

[The Stick]

I think a Bondsmithing Feruchemist is the absolute most powerful combination, because I have a theory that dictates that you could theoretically extinguish a sun, or make a planet weightless.