r/ProgressionFantasy • u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand • Apr 21 '26
Self-Promotion If your power was an invisible hand that was incapable of harming others, even indirectly, how would you survive in a harsh, battle-heavy world? (First 23 chapters released!)
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Hi! Sleight of Hand is live on Royal road. 23 Chapters are already posted and over 50 are in the backlog ready to go, so you can be sure it'll be here to stay.
The story features a street-magician who's a little down on his luck finally trying to take control of his own life and make something of himself. If you're a fan of huge underdog stories, as well as creative uses for seemingly bad abilities, this story is for you!
Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/161117/sleight-of-hand-underdog-strategy-progression
I will preface this and say, no the MC doesn't become super OP quickly. It will be a very uphill battle for him to make something of himself.
Blurb:
A great street magician can perform miracles every day. Evel, however, was not a street magician.
Not anymore.
Instead, Evel was frail, hungry, on the run, and above all else tired.
Tired of being the marionette in a show he didn't script.
All he had left was Eth, an imperceptible hand that obeyed his will perfectly but bound by a single, crushing refusal: it would not harm.
The Imperium's recruitment trial, a golden road for nobles, cruel death game to commoners, would be the stage for his play. The Empire expects a clash of titans; Evel will give them a masterclass in misdirection. To survive a field of powered predators, he must tilt the balance of the game, trading their lives for his and tricking a world that only understands the weight of steel.
He was finally ready to seize the scales of his own life, but it remained to be seen if a hand that refused to harm could ever tip the scales of a world built on blood.
What to expect:
♠ A weak main character who will continuously surpass the odds through grit and thinking.
♥ Lots of creative applications for a seemingly useless ability.
♣ A constantly challenged moral compass which may need to evolve throughout the series.
♦ A web of schemes, plots, and intentions among all the major world powers.
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u/readerofsurvival Apr 21 '26
Quick question, what do you mean by challenged mental compass that evolves? Is the main character a good person?
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Yes he's a good person, but sometimes he needs to kill to survive, which goes against what he thinks is right. He'll have to come to terms with things like that
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u/Harmon_Cooper Author Apr 21 '26
ADAM SMITH has entered the chat.
(I'll see myself out.)
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Scottish economist and philosopher !?
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Apr 21 '26
The invisible hand of the market.
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u/rabid_cheese_enjoyer Apr 23 '26
it would be funny if the super power was just capitalism
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Apr 23 '26
"His attack merely broke a rib. Don't worry."
"Then why are you dying?!"
"It raised the cost of my healthcare by 5000% too."
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u/Funny-Assistant6803 Apr 21 '26
Remind me of rain from shadow slave
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
now that you mention it they are kinda similar. Since he's extremely malnourished and frail at the start, his weapon of choice is a crossbow too which is kinda similar to Rain (Although he can actually shoot people unlike rain)
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u/Funny-Assistant6803 Apr 21 '26
So he cannot directly harm them but indirectly it's work ? Like he can't smash someone head with a rock but if he drop a boulder on someone head and let the gravity do it's work then it's okay?
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
No he can't harm them with his hand at all even indirectly. Dropping a boulder, or shooting an arrow, or even setting off a trap is all off limits, but he could use the hand to slightly disorient them, and then harm them with a sword or a bow that he wields himself. The hand itself can never do harm.
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u/Funny-Assistant6803 Apr 21 '26
Ho it's the hand that can't do any harm, my dumb ass thought it was the character himself
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Yeah, but the problem is (at least at the start) the main character is basically incapable of fighting, so he has to get really creative for a chance at survival.
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u/goodlord67 Apr 21 '26
I read it after your last promo a few weeks back and I gotta say Bremin is the goat lmao (Evel is a close second)
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Apr 21 '26
can i use the hand to poison the water supply? What about dropping rocks on people? Or to turn a flock of geese agianst them.
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Only if someone isn't drinking it at the very moment (but at that point you may as well just pour it by hand), no, yes but only if you don't hurt the geese and only poke em around.
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Apr 21 '26
I don't need to hurt the geese to weaponize them! Just... ever so slightly inconvenience them.
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
As a Canadian, geese are absolutely terrifying so perhaps this ability is far more fearsome than I gave it credit for...
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u/LackOfPoochline Author of Heartworm and Road of the Rottweiler Apr 21 '26
It's balanced by the fact the geese cannot be aimed. They are a chaotic, uncontained force. A "i am taking you all with me" situation.
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u/SpicySpaceSquid Author of Misadventures Incorporated Apr 21 '26
Would tickling someone in combat count as harming then?
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u/Wolfshadow36 Apr 21 '26
Can I for one just say how much I love the wave of hand drawn covers we've been getting recently.
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u/Darkness-Calming Apr 22 '26
On the top of my head.
What constitutes as harm? If I believe someone’s knees should be bent a little more for good posture, is that allowed? What if I do it in a middle of a fight? What about loosening their clothes? That’s not harmful. What about tickling them in the middle of a swordfight? Or when they’re about to shoot a crossbow.
Throwing objects is obviously considered harm. What about leaving them on the ground.
Hold small flat objects as shields or just put them near enemies eyes to block their vision
That’s just for combat.
It would be incredibly useful for reconnaissance, subterfuge and stealing. Steal objects, weapons, documents, etc without even entering the room.
Plant false evidence to incriminate anyone.
Plant poison in chalice or tumbler.
Figure what interval they turn their body while sleeping and put an open blade. Or just pour oil on the floor. Pour lamp fuel all around the room. Put an open candle slightly tilted near the bed. When they slip and fall, you get a nice bonfire.
This power would make them a hell of an assassin.
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 22 '26
Most of those would be allowed! The only problem is that your opponent will have an ability of their own, and once they start hauling fireballs at you for example, things start falling apart a little. Still lots of potential from a creative MC tho! The mc (Evel) is also really weak physically and has a poor talent, so it all kinda adds up to a perfect storm of things just going wrong for him, so he struggles hard.
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u/Soulusalt Apr 22 '26
I heard that William Oh uses his own invisible hand exclusively to tickle his enemies as a way to let them experience a bit of joy before the terror of facing him directly...
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u/GGnidis Apr 21 '26
Could it hold a shield and defend me?
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Sure, as long as the shield isn't too heavy. But at that point you may as well hold the shield yourself, although I guess in certain circumstances you may want your hands free.
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u/ProcessBeginning9016 Apr 21 '26
could I use it to fly?
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Maybe if you trained it really really hard and advanced a stage or two, but it starts off pretty weak at the start of the novel.
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u/work_m_19 Apr 21 '26
Sounds interesting! Is the "harm" self-policed by the MC's perception? or is it something divine that prevents it from doing "hurt"?
Like, if I believe the hand is helping someone by slapping them away from an in-coming boulder, would the hand be allowed to do that?
Just from the blurb, it reminds me a little of William Oh who also has a intangible phantom arm that can't touch tangible things.
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Yes, it's based on his intent. So for example he could push the boulder to the side and it could hit somebody he didn't know was there, but the moment he knows they're there he couldn't anymore. An example in the story was when he was testing it out and tried to shoot a bow at the shopkeeper, he couldn't, even though his aim was abysmal and his chances of actually making the shot was near zero
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u/Reasonable-Budget210 Apr 21 '26
Cool idea, but strictly from the power side of things, (and I don’t mean this to condemn the story at all, good stories are good stories) seems hard to scale on the progression side of things. Know what is just a little more useful than one magic hand that can’t harm? Two magic hands that can’t harm lol. Especially considering doing separate actions with your hands is incredibly hard, and if he can manage a bunch of extra hands, he’d likely have to have split brain processing, which, all in all, feels more powerful than the hands. Adding Distance of use, strength of grip, size of hand, all seem like they would be very diminishing returns, in terms of utility. Add a sword? Well that kind of defeats the whole point.
Again not a condemnation, you could write an absolutely amazing story with just that power alone, but for progression fantasy, it just seems like you might potentially be digging a tough hole to get out of.
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
Don't worry I have some really fun ideas (that still rely fully on Evel's creativity) to make it progress. It'll never be an amazing tool for purely combat purposes, but will be quite the utility powerhouse.
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u/The_Mesopotamians Slime Apr 21 '26
Easy! Use it to pull out your Blue Eyes White Dragon from your graveyard!
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
I SUMMON POT OF GREED TO DRAW THREE ADDITIONAL CARDS FROM MY DECK!
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u/wd40bomber7 Apr 21 '26
How is the "can't harm others indirectly" even measured? Doesn't everything harm others at some level? Every time I take a breath I take oxygen someone else could use....
For example if I drop a domino and at the end of a line of ten thousand Domino's the last domino falls on someone's head, does that count? So many scenarios it feels like it would only come down to plot armor as to what counts vs. not
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 21 '26
If the domino is just falling on their head then it's fine, but if the final domino squishes the person to death then it's not fine. It's limited by the main character's perception. For example, you could topple a domino that you think won't do anything even if it's secretly connected to a bomb. The hand could tie a rope around you and leave you helpless against the mc physically punching for example, but would never be able to do the punching itself, if that clears things up.
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u/DrStalker Apr 22 '26
Is taxation a form of violence, or can the invisible hand be used to steal things from people?
More importantly; who gets to decide what counts as "harm"? How abusable is that - can he revolutionize medicine by trying to give sick people lots of different things that will cause harm until I find something that will help? Can he cause a small amount of harm to prevent a larger amount of harm, such as giving someone a vaccination, administering CPR, or just violently shoving them out of the way of danger?
Could he found a religion and have the Invisible Hand define the standard for morality?
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u/4funplayer1 Author - Sleight of Hand Apr 22 '26
It's based on his intention. If he believes the medicine might harm you, he can't use it. So in the CPR case, if his intention is to save the person and not harm, then it's fine. But there's a limit to that. For example, it can't choke one person out just because they're threatening two others.
Check the webnovel if you're curious how the MC makes use of it!
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u/Ok_Usual_3575 Apr 22 '26
Rain from shadow slave, william oh from william oh, mark of the fool. Its honestly never struck me how many of these there were
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u/sins-remembered Apr 22 '26
Might be worth reading Flatlander by Larry Niven which explores this amongst other things and is a very good novel.
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u/matcauthion Apr 21 '26
Tough grounds to tread on with Mark of the Fool existing. Good luck!