I was thinking something along the lines of being able to manipulate the distance between atoms - basically being able to spontaneously implode or explode objects at will, or possibly move them around. That would be really OP though and it doesn’t fit within your criteria. Maybe make it a mask power or something (assuming you still have Kanohi).
Poison/gas/acid is always an option, but you could just as easily have that be a darker form of combat for Toa of Air or Water. Are there different levels of power/rarity between these elements or are they all supposed to be essentially of the same power level? Because you could get reaaall creative/OP with “Aether” being able to make black holes (i.e. Chronurgy).
Although they are very thematically different, I also question the logic behind making Ice and Water different elements? Plasma, in the G1 sense of being basically extreme heat, is amalgamated into fire - why not ice into water?
I think these two excerpts from his recent post sum it up:
With plasma and fire, the two function similarly, both dealing with heat and combustion in their own ways. There’s nuance to it, but a Toa of Fire and a Toa of Plasma can basically accomplish the same things in the same ways. Water and ice don’t share this similarity. Even if they are different forms of the same thing, they function very similarly. It’s like saying that Toa of Air should be able to control dry ice because they can control nitrogen in its gaseous form. Sure, the chemistry is there, but it breaks the feel of the element.
Toa of different elements are on roughly the same degree of power. Making or controlling the same amount of matter/energy, regardless of your element, will require the same amount of effort. That said, some elements are better at killing people, so to avoid being merciless killers, a Toa of Lightning, for example, has to get more creative–which is part of why I gave that element magnetism.
Jay hit the nail on the head. Ice is good for stabbing people and it gives you hypothermia. Water is better for pushing people and things around and makes things wet. In a loose sense, one could consider Ice to be similar to Earth, with the distinguishing factor being that it doesn’t become lava when it melts and it’s always really cold.
This is also why I didn’t just throw Poison into Water and/or Air–there’s a big difference between airbending and flooding a room with mustard gas or laughing gas.
my element list for my version of G3 was energy/lightning, fire, water, earth, air and metal as the primary elements. besides light and shadow, other lesser or alternate ones that would be introduced would be sound, plants and psyonics
Bloody hell, I glanced over this one. Ash consists of smoke and, well, ash. If you’ve played Skyrim, Dragonborn has some ash-themed destruction magic that should give you an idea of its most basic uses in a fight. Caking things in ash can be useful in a fight because you can use it to make enemies trip or get stuck, and you can use it to obscure vision or choke out a target. And, because ash consists of solid particles, you could make (weak) structures out of it, although just making a giant mound of the stuff can be more useful than you’d expect.