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I have an idea for a campaign but not quite sure how to make it work.
I want the players to all have one chosen spell to function as their "superpower." The story reason for it is the home brew god of magic has bestowed a gift upon the heroes to combat the bad guy.
I run into issues when deciding what spells to allow or not allow, if its something they should be able to just do as a spell like ability, and if this concept could even work in a world with sorcs and wizards. The end state of the players is admittedly going to be very OP but this is because the final antagonist is just plain nuts, a villain that is resurfacing after previous appearances in a friends campaign. Any advice is welcome, if the whole idea is rubbish them i'm fine with being told that.
The spell, whatever it may be, might not be an issue on its own, but if you have creative players, they might be able to make it too good by picking certain feats and/or other things.
Rather than give them a spell I would give them a special ability. If you give them a spell that is too low it won't seem special. If the spell is too good then you have balance issues.
You could draw up a short list that begins as a minor ability and grows in power as the characters advance. The progression should be thematic. A few examples:
Mentalism: charm person --> charm monster --> mass charm monster
Unlife: ray of enfeeblement --> enervation --> energy drain
Flame: burning hands --> fireball --> meteor swarm
I'd give the upgrades as soon as a cleric / wizard would gain access to the appropriate level of spell (so burning hands would improve to fireball at character level 5). This keeps the abilities in line so you don't have to worry about someone picking time stop as their superpower at level 1. Then all you have to do is decide how often the ability can be used. If you don't like limiting "superpowers" to X/day like traditional Vancian spellcasting, you can set a once per X rounds internal timer (like dragon breath weapons).