Character powers from Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber series…
For those unfamiliar with the Amber books, its multiverse is a hierarchy of “Shadows,” infinite parallel reflections generated by the tension between the two absolute poles of Amber, the ultimate city of Order, and the Courts of Chaos. These countless worlds, including modern Earth, are merely distorted echoes of the one true reality of Amber, a pleasant kingdom a bit like mythic Camelot or the countryside around some 6th century Welsh castle.
The royal family of Amber possesses god-like power because they are the only beings capable of walking through the Pattern, a metaphysical blueprint of existence. By doing so, they become “attuned” to the fundamental source of reality, allowing them to mentally manipulate the fabric of Shadow to travel between worlds, pull objects from alternate realities, or reshape the environment around them to suit their will.
The laws of reality and physics are not consistent between these Shadows. For example, though gunpowder from modern Earth fails ignite in Amber, a character discovers the mundane jeweler’s rouge polishing compound worked there as an effective substitute in firearms. Confused munitions manufacturers on Earth were hired to make thousands of bullets packed with jeweler’s rouge, all of which “disappeared” after being shipped in cargo (unbeknownst to the them, through Shadows).
Most of the main characters in the series look human but possess fantastic degrees of fortitude and skill. In terms of Fast TTRPG, the elder generation of Amberites (Oberon) would be Level 100, the next generation (Corwin’s brothers and sisters) vary between Level 40 to 60, and the next generation (Merlin and family) might be between Level 20 to 30.
Powers used by various characters in the series include…
* BLOOD OF AMBER: Recover from wounds, exhaustion, poison, imprisonment, or bodily ruin with unnatural persistence; once per day, regain hit points equal to 1d6 per your Level after a short rest.
* BLOOD OF CHAOS: Reshape your body into another humanoid, beastly, monstrous, or hybrid form for 1 hour per your Level; alter your appearance, limbs, movement, or natural weapons.
* BRANCH OF YGG: Plant yourself at the boundary between realms, roads, or realities for 1 hour per your Level; creatures crossing that border feel the passage, and you sense whether they come from Order, Chaos, or stranger Shadows.
* COMBAT MASTERY: Read one nearby duel, ambush, battlefield, or tactical confrontation in an instant; for 1 minute per your Level, know the strongest position, weakest defense, and most dangerous opponent.
* COSMIC AUTHORITY: Impose your will on one nearby crowd, court, warband, or contested command for 10 minutes per your Level; lesser rivals hesitate to defy you openly, and allies rally behind your judgment.
* DEEP WATER: Breathe water, swim effortlessly, and move unseen beneath waves, rain, mist, or river shadow for 1 hour per your Level.
* DESTINY’S FAVOR: Turn coincidence toward your needs for 1 minute per your Level; once each round, create a minor lucky break, timely distraction, plausible escape route, or useful accident.
* FAR REACH: Extend invisible hands of power toward one nearby object, weapon, tool, key, or loose item; pull, lift, turn, fetch, or fling it for 1 round per your Level.
* GATE ART: Draw or trace a magical image of one known person, place, or threshold; for 10 minutes per your Level, use it to communicate across distance or open a passage between both ends.
* GHOSTWHEEL: Open rapid flickering sight-lines to distant places, people, or objects you know; for 1 minute per your Level, ask brief questions of far-off scenes or create a momentary transit window for a small object. Ghostwheel is specifically described as a sentient machine capable of creating vast numbers of Trump-like connections.
* GLAMOUR OF COURTS: Become polished, harmless, captivating, or socially impeccable for 1 hour per your Level; gain Advantage to mingle among elites, gather secrets, or disguise sharper intentions.
* HELLRIDE: Travel swiftly through strange and changing landscapes for 10 minutes per your Level; each turn of the road bends surrounding reality toward a destination, environment, or circumstance you seek.
* HIDDEN TRAIL: Vanish from pursuit through shadow, wilderness, crowds, or confusion for 10 minutes per your Level; those tracking you lose certainty about your route, motives, or destination.
* IMPOSSIBLE STRENGTH: Lift, hold, wrench, shove, or break one nearby creature, gate, chain, mast, beam, or burden with overwhelming force for 1 minute per your Level.
* LIVING COURT CARD: Focus on the remembered face or true image of one known creature; for 10 minutes per your Level, speak mind-to-mind across any distance and, with consent, draw one another through.
* LOGRUS TENDRILS: Send writhing invisible strands through nearby space for 1 round per your Level; probe through openings, seize distant objects, restrain small targets, or drag loose items into your grasp.
* MIND DUEL: Lock thoughts with one nearby creature for 1 minute per your Level; each round, press for truth, force hesitation, defend your own secrets, or inflict psychic strain causes 1d6 damage per your Level.
* PATTERN DEFENSE: Center yourself in ordered reality for 1 minute per your Level; resist illusion, madness, shapeshifting imposed by others, and hostile distortions of space or form.
* PATTERN WALK: Step through one nearby path, corridor, roadway, or open landscape and emerge from a different route that better serves your intent after 10 minutes per your Level of travel.
* POWER WORD: Speak one sharp word of command, denial, pain, silence, or focus; one nearby creature or magical effect is briefly interrupted, distracted, weakened, forced to pause, or wounded for damage equal to your Level.
* PREPARED SPELL: Set one spell, ward, charm, or psychic effect in readiness for 1 day per your Level; it triggers when a condition you name occurs nearby.
* REALITY SHIFT: Within 1 mile per your Level, alter one modest detail of your surroundings during travel such as weather, road quality, local customs, nearby terrain, or the likelihood of a useful object appearing.
* REGENCY: Sense the loyalties, rivalries, and unspoken tensions within one nearby court, family, council, or faction for 10 minutes per your Level.
* ROYAL BLOOD: Hold your ground against fear, humiliation, command, or supernatural intimidation for 10 minutes per your Level; creatures must overcome your presence to cow or dominate you.
* SHADOW MEMORY: Recall one route, face, place, conversation, or pattern of events with perfect clarity, no matter how long ago.
* SHADOW PORTAL: Open a momentary window into one distant place, nearby Shadow, or memorized location for 1 round per your Level; see through it, send a small object, or step across if the passage remains stable.
* SHADOW SUMMONS: Search neighboring realities for one mundane object, mount, tool, garment, weapon, or servant fitting your description; it arrives in 100 minutes minus your Level if such a thing plausibly exists.
* SHAPESHIFT HEALING: Rearrange your body to repair wounds, purge poison, restore a ruined feature, or adapt to injury; recover one serious bodily harm and your Level in hit points over 100 minutes minus your Level.
* SPELL SIGHT: Perceive the structure of one nearby enchantment, illusion, psychic influence, ward, or magical device for 10 minutes per your Level; learn what sustains it and how it might be broken.
* STORM OF SHADOWS: Draw hostile reality around one nearby area for 1 minute per your Level; weather turns strange, distances distort, and movement becomes treacherous and uncertain.
* TRUE IMAGE: Create an exact magical likeness of one creature, place, or object you know well; it may serve as a focus for communication, tracking, or later teleportation for 1 day per your Level.
* TRUMP: Focus on a painted image, remembered face, or symbolic likeness of a known creature or place; for 1 round per your Level, speak mind-to-mind across distance, or open a hand-to-hand passage if both sides consent. Trump cards enable contact and travel in Amber.
* UNMAKING: Unravel one nearby spell, illusion, conjured object, magical restraint, or supernatural structure by exposing its flaws; weaken or dismiss it if your casting overcomes its source.
* VEIL OF INTRIGUE: Conceal one lie, secret alliance, disguise, or hidden agenda for 1 hour per your Level; casual questioning, observation, and social pressure fail to reveal it.
* WORLDROOT: Anchor one nearby doorway, road, gate, border, or dimensional crossing for 1 hour per your Level; you sense who passes through and may prevent unstable crossings or forced teleportation.
Recap of which characters had which powers…
BENEDICT: Read one nearby battle, duel, ambush, or tactical situation in an instant; for 1 minute per your Level, you know the strongest position, weakest defense, and most dangerous combatant.
* BLEYS: Inspire allies with audacious confidence for 1 minute per your Level; those who follow your charge gain Advantage to advance, rally, or strike boldly against superior opposition.
* BRAND: Reach across distance, illusion, or Shadow to touch one nearby mind, object, or power source you can perceive; pull, alter, sabotage, or briefly destabilize it.
* CAINE: Vanish into shadow, brush, smoke, crowds, or confusion for 10 minutes per your Level; you remain difficult to track, predict, or catch in an exposed position.
* CORWIN: Endure imprisonment, mutilation, exhaustion, and despair beyond mortal limits; once per day, recover from a crippling wound, blindness, or incapacitating condition after resting 1 hour per your Level. Corwin’s legendary recovery is one of the most memorable personal gifts associated with Amberite blood.
* DARA: Reshape your body into another humanoid, beastly, monstrous, or hybrid form for 1 hour per your Level; retain your mind while altering appearance, limbs, movement, or natural weapons.
* DEIRDRE: Move with lethal elegance for 1 minute per your Level; gain Advantage to duel, disarm, evade close attacks, or strike a foe who underestimates you.
* DWORKIN: Draw a living image, symbol, doorway, or sigil on one nearby surface; for 10 minutes per your Level, it becomes a portal, message-link, or magical point of contact.
* ERIC: Claim authority over one nearby place, crowd, or contested command for 10 minutes per your Level; lesser rivals hesitate to defy you openly, and allies rally around your leadership.
* FIONA: Unravel one nearby spell, enchantment, illusion, psychic influence, or supernatural mechanism by understanding its pattern; weaken or dismiss it if your casting overcomes its source.
* FLORA: Become effortlessly polished, harmless, and socially acceptable for 1 hour per your Level; gain Advantage to pass among elites, gather gossip, or conceal sharper motives beneath charm.
* GANELON: Fight with the hard cunning of an exile and survivor for 1 minute per your Level; gain Advantage when outnumbered, betrayed, disguised, or forced to improvise under pressure.
* GÉRARD: Seize, lift, hold, or break one nearby creature, gate, chain, mast, beam, or burden with overwhelming strength for 1 minute per your Level.
* JULIAN: Mark one nearby creature as quarry for 1 hour per your Level; while pursuing it through wilderness, roads, or hostile territory, you cannot easily be lost or misled.
* JURT: Mutate yourself in anger or ambition for 1 minute per your Level; gain one monstrous adaptation such as claws, armored hide, night vision, leaping legs, or heightened ferocity.
* LLEWELLA: Move unseen beneath water, rain, mist, or deep shadow for 10 minutes per your Level; breathe water, swim gracefully, and emerge without a splash.
* LUKE: Conceal revenge, identity, or intent behind easy warmth for 1 hour per your Level; gain Advantage to maintain a false friendship, staged coincidence, or long-prepared betrayal.
* MANDOR: Arrange nearby floating objects, tools, blades, books, cups, or ornaments into obedient orbit for 10 minutes per your Level; command them to fetch, block, threaten, or perform delicate tasks.
* MARTIN: Slip away from dynastic expectations, trackers, or family obligations for 1 hour per your Level; those who seek you lose certainty about your trail, loyalties, or destination.
* MERLIN: Combine sorcery, technology, and cosmic power to construct one temporary magical device, servant, scanner, or gateway nearby; it functions for 10 minutes per your Level before fading.
* OBERON: Impose the weight of ancient kingship on one nearby gathering for 10 minutes per your Level; accusations fall silent, hidden loyalties surface, and even proud rivals hesitate before open defiance.
* RANDOM: Turn chance, improvisation, and reckless instinct in your favor for 1 minute per your Level; once each round, convert a small coincidence into an opening, escape route, distraction, or lucky break.
* VIALLE: Perceive the truth of one nearby creature’s emotional state without sight for 10 minutes per your Level; know whether it is grieving, deceiving, afraid, resolved, or quietly in love.