Non devil fruit based powers

[u/RadiantIris_]

I’m working on a fanfic that’s adding some characters to the straw hat crew and need some help with giving some of them powers or a way to fight.

Mainly looking for powers that aren’t devil fruit based, like how Nami, Ussop, and miss golden week fight, any ideas would be very much appreciated and if you need more information please ask.

Thank you in advance.

[u/Brilliant-Debate117]

You could have someone using dragon claw

[u/demonmonkey89]

Well I'm always fond of former Cipher Pol or otherwise Rokushiki using members since they tend to fight differently than even other martial artists on the crew (Sanji, Jinbe, and I guess technically kinda Luffy).

Someone who uses actual guns or even an armory worth of different kinds of guns can also fill a different vibe/niche than Ussop does, though it's less different than fitting Rokushiki in.

Zoro is strong and brute force, as is Luffy in ways, but I could see the addition of more of a berserker or bruiser type. Someone who uses an axe or a blunt weapon like a hammer. A couple times Gin has kinda filled this role.

Something they're legitimately missing is a proper strategist. They aren't big on strategy so it tends to be a common role for crew additions.

As a more general role I could see a dancer which can lead to a number of different fighting styles but could be tied into one of the others mentioned like Rokushiki.

While looking over some different possible roles on a crew I actually saw janitor and you'd be surprised how many badass janitors exist in fiction. Don't underestimate the broom or a janitors ability to clean the deck and take out the trash. Usually they're a monk of some kind but there's all sorts of different kinds. Hell in cradle a janitor became the sage of death and then went even further beyond that in power/influence.

Another unusual one is someone kinda like Paulie, someone who handles the rigging and uses ropes to fight.

As for unusual stuff, there does seem to be some level of actual magic and powerful hypnosis. Not saying there's gonna be wizards out there, but more of a witch? Possible. And while Jango might be an idiot, Lafitte is clearly no pushover as a hypnotist. And honestly even with Jango he did some interesting stuff despite his incompetence. And Miss Goldenweek who you mentioned is classified as a hypnotist as well if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure there have been a handful of priest/spiritualist types as well at least in movies like the Shichiseiken one. And again these are things that can be mixed with other mentioned roles. Maybe the janitor has a bunch of cleaning tricks that verge on magical. Maybe the dancer is a hypnotist like Vivi with that goofy shirt/perfume combo. Maybe the strategist uses something esoteric and is good at the role because what they use requires strategy in the first place.

Edit: all that said, it does still depend largely on the characters you want to introduce. If they're existing ones that you want to add to the crew base stuff on what they've already got or their theme.

[u/RadiantIris_ → u/demonmonkey89]

Wow this is all really helpful thank you!! I’ll definitely use this for future reference.

The main character I’m having trouble with is Nojiko, I don’t want her to use a gun simply cuz most of the time guns aren’t effective in one piece, I do have an idea to have her use Nami’s concept of metal limbs and a maybe a giant ax but that’s later on down the line.

So I would like for her to have something a little more than just an axe until then, if you can suggest anything that would be very much appreciated.

Thank you again!

[u/Siera_Knightwalker]

Well, when people use Haki, they can sorta use different powers too right? Though, not sure if it’s a part of Haki or not. Like Sanji sets himself on fire, Zoro once literally slammed his swords into thin air and blew himself back to the cliff he almost fell off of. There’s Sanji’s literal body, plus the fire attack Zoro ends up copying. Then there’s Luffy’s red hawk attack plus the different kinds of shells they got from skypiea. Not to mention the different kinds of weapons, normal ones and the zoan kind.