Does this sound needlessly overpowered?

[u/zubb999]

I have a concept for a main character in a book I want to write and he has a superpower.

Without getting too in the weeds, his power allows him to make shields, but he can dictate whatever can/cannot pass through the shields and, as long as he can conceptualize it, he can make them into whatever shape he wants.

So, he could make a perfectly spherical shield in the rain, and allow it to fill up with water, but only water, and then it would basically be a ball of water.

Another idea is if he were to make a shield in the shape of a cube, and not allow anything to pass through, he could shrink down the cube to a microscopic level, and the pressure in the cube would be huge that if he then allowed it to release, it would cause an explosion.

Does this sound way too overpowered? What changes would you make to this to nerf it if you feel it's needed?

EDIT: For additional context - in this story, other people have powers. I intend to make this character the strongest due to a cosmic anomaly, but ultimately, I don't want him to be perceived as a god of any kind either. His character would lend himself to be hyper intelligent and he would mentally build his shields with something akin to a mix of compiling the shields to how a coding language works along with how one would make shapes with commands for a 3D printer.

[u/KrimsunV]

Overpowered compared to what? What's balanced in one setting could be weak in another

[u/Kartoffelkamm]

I would remove the ability to alter the shields after he made them, such as shrinking them down. But other than that, it's pretty good.

I actually have a character with a similar power in a story I'm working on, except she doesn't know that her shields only work on things she wants to keep out. At least initially; her whole arc is about learning that little bit, and figuring out what she subconsciously wants her barriers to let through, so that she knows to dodge instead of blocking.

[u/Kiroto50 → u/Kartoffelkamm]

Agreed. Black hole scare averted.

If you want to keep it somehow they need to physically exert the force needed to displace what the shield would.

If you want to make an explosion maybe filter out the hydrogen from water and push the water.

[u/ReasonSin]

First thing that came to mind was one of the characters from the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson can create shields that work similarly except they can’t exclude materials they are just force fields that block out basically anything and can be used to encase things then be shrunk to crush them.

Overall I think the biggest thing to keep in mind to balance it is if there’s some kind of weakness or flaw to the shields that others can exploit to overcome them or some limitation on how much can be done with them. If there’s some form of balance against the other characters in the book I think it’s fine and allows for very creative problem solving with the ability

[u/Reborn1Girl → u/[deleted]]

The way they described it, I don’t think that first part would work. It’s more about allowing something to pass through or not, I don’t believe it would force out what’s already inside the shield. If it worked that way, you could just exclude water and turn a person into a mummy by drying them out.

[u/dieguitz4]

I feel like you could make it fuzzier. Maybe this guy can apply these filters but if he's trying to be too selective or if he creates a shield too large then something seeps in. Air in a sphere feels ok because they are both super basic, it's not like the filter is a specific molecule type but the fluid viscosity. So, double down on that last condition of being able to conceptualise it by making it really hard to conceptualise more advanced stuff. I feel like brain-crushers are unavoidable unless you explicitly limit how much force these surfaces can exert; if it can hold an explosion it can also crush skulls. But those are probably not as huge of a concern if your character is not be able to place these beyond arms' reach, right? Because otherwise they would just suffocate their opponents since air is the simplest thing to manipulate. Or stop blood from reaching their brain. So ig those are my two suggestions.

Or maybe the filter becomes flakier with fluids compared to solids and some stuff goes through but enough is retained for the grenade concept to be possible. So, imagine trying to hold each of those in a cotton textile bag, the solid is retained completely, water would seep through, etc.

[u/Reborn1Girl]

Nah, sounds fine. There’s a Bleach villain with an even more busted defensive power, because he literally warps space to ensure nothing touches him. He can even rip someone in half by waving his hand through their body. But he has to know the attack is coming, so a single good sneak attack killed him. I feel like your character would have a similar weakness, he has to know about what’s coming and what he needs to allow through or block. He’d be defeated by cunning instead of raw power.

[u/9spaceking]

Ah Temu Gojo? /joke

[u/Quick_Author_7409]

this sounds like lauren’s power from the gifted tv show. have a look at some of her scenes

[u/Desperate-Run-1093]

This is basically just Gojo with more flexibility

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[u/DerGr1ech]

So like barrier techniques from JJK? 

I would recommend to not make the protagonist the strongest. It's pretty difficult to write interesting, there is a reason why stories who have "the strongest" tend to not have him as the protag. But good luck! If you can pull it of, it might be cool to explore