Cast from Hit Points: Difference between revisions

* [[Natsume Yuujinchou]] - Whenever Natsume frees a Youkai from his late grandmother's (and his own) servitude, it has a physically draining effect.

* Sakura in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' is also physically drained by the effort of converting a Clow Card into a Sakura Card. When she learns that the cards will die unless they are converted, she attempts to convert six of them all at one time, half-killing herself in the process.

* In [[Fushigi Yuugi]], Mitsukake can only use his [[Healing Hands]] once a day because of this. {{spoiler|When he overdoes it towards the end, he dies}}.

* ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]'' has this in Yuji. As a Torch, he's technically already dead, and, under ordinary circumstances, would inevitably be doomed to burn out and fade from existence. However, he's also a Mystes, and happens to have the artifact Reiji Maigo sealed within him, which replenishes his power of existence every midnight. As such, as long as he doesn't use up all of his existence in a day, he can lend his power to Shana, and, later, cast his own unrestricted spells, using his very existence.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':

** The Face of Boe makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in "Gridlock," giving up the last of his life energy to help save the thousands of people trapped in New New York's underground traffic system.

** In "Rise of the Cybermen," the Doctor uses ten years of his life to recharge a power source in the TARDIS. Subverted in that ten years to a Time Lord is a scant few moments.

* The main character in ''[[Carnivale]]'' has to draw life-force from his surroundings to use his healing abilities. It is implied that he may have inadvertently caused the Dust Bowl in this way.

* Demons in ''[[Demon: The Fallen]]'' can enhance their powers by drawing energy from hitpoints... except that said hitpoints belong to their followers, not them.

* In [[Warhammer Fantasy]] Ogre Butchers can cast a variety of Gut Magic. Along with the normal requirements of spells, they sometimes require the Butcher to inflict bodily harm on themselves. In particular the Trollguts spell, which is the best out of the 6 available to the Ogres, but permanently takes off one health from the caster that cannot be regenerated in any way (whereas the other ones are usually avoidable unless you displease the [[Random Number God]], and can be regenerated with another spell).

** The psionics in AD&D used a spell-point system even when the actual spellcasters use [[Vancian Magic]]. Since an ability like Cast From Hit Points fits in so much better with a spell-point system, the 2nd edition had "Cannibalize" power that allowed mid-level psionicists to get extra power points from damaging Constitution.

** 3E supplement ''[[Epic Level Handbook]]'' several extremely powerful spells, such as Hellball and Let Go of Me, work this way. The greatest example of this, however, is Vengeful Gaze of God, which deals 305d6 damage to an opponent while dealing 200d6 damage to the caster, who suffers from bleeding eyes and convulsing skin and, most of the time, dies. This spell will almost always kill anyone and anything it is used against, excluding the most powerful of monsters, who simply ''might'' be killed by it.

** The supplemental advantage "Word of Power" drains so much fatigue that it's guaranteed to drain life from a normal person. It will keep speaking itself even if the caster dies in mid sentence.

* [[Pokémon Tabletop Adventures]] has the Psychic class, capable of using certain pokemon attacks, similar to the Martial Artist class. The martial artist's attacks can only be used a certain number of times per day, whereas the psychic's attacks can be used at will, but require this trope. (Thankfully, the nature of the psychic's key stats means they usually will have a large amount of HP to cast from.)

* As mentioned above, casting or controlling a spell in ''[[Slayers]] d20'' is based on stamina (a Fortitude saving throw modified by caster level), and deals subdual damage to the caster based on the spell's difficulty and your margin of success. You get a hefty bonus to your control checks by voluntarily taking lethal damage, or it might happen anyway if you botch horribly enough.

* [[Champions]] characters who run out of Endurance can continue to use their powers by taking Stun damage, at a rate of 1d6 Stun per 2 Endurance required. This only works for powers that draw on the user's own Endurance pool, as opposed to the Endurance Reserve power. A character can literally knock himself out from overexertion.

** Various spells throughout the series (starting with ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'s'' "Pep Up") sacrifice the caster to greatly replenish others in the party. Cue some WTF moments when the user is the only person in the party (Strago or Sabin in the Coliseum).

* In the ''[[Lost Kingdom]]'' games, you'll start using health for the cost of cards instead of [[Green Rocks|magic stones]]. In the second game, you could cast yourself to death if you use too much health since the first game left you with some mercy health if you overcasted (and it fixed possible [[Game Breaker|Game Breaking]] too).

* Warlocks in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' have a spell called Life Tap that converts health into mana. Coupled with a number of [[Life Drain]] abilities [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|that do just what they say,]] and a recently added spell that lets them evocate back to full health in a matter of seconds, this makes warlocks the only spell-casting class that never, ever needs to stop to drink. "That's the great thing about being a warlock... you don't have to eat; you don't have to drink; [[Super Not-Drowning Skills|you don't even have to BREATHE.]] You can subsist entirely on the suffering of your enemies."

** They also have the spells Hellfire (which burns them as well as everything around them) and health funnel (transfers health from the caster to his demon), the only spells in the game that damage the user. Thus making them the only class (aside from Paladins, see below;) which could suicide themselves on demand, an ability with more practical uses than you'd think.

** The Rune of Condemnation in ''[[Suikoden V]]'', being the child rune of the Rune of Punishment, is just like that. It can heal too depending on which spell you use.

* Because his battery life is drained by doing anything ANYTHING, be it shooting a laser, scrubbing a stain, or just standing still, but it is also his life meter for whenever he's attacked, the titular character from ''[[Chibi-Robo!]]'' falls under this trope.

** Energy Transfer is an even better example, since it allows the caster to pay life points to give their own special attack energy energy to an ally (who is, presumably, better at fighting than the Lunar Mage, and could put that energy to better use). Heal [[Nethack|Foo]] transfers life points on a one-to-one ratio; Energy Transfer actually consumes life points.

** The Zerg Defiler in Starcraft and Undead Lich in Warcraft III both have abilities that allow them to consume allied units to restore mana - allowing them to cast from ''other people's'' hit points.

* ''[[Metroid Prime]] 3: Corruption'' does this for the use of Hyper Mode. When Samus goes into it, she instantly loses one tank of energy. She can gain back some of the lost energy by exiting Hyper Mode early.

* There are several such spells in [[Guild Wars]] almost all of which belong to Necromancers. Several Blood Magic spells and some Death Magic have a minimal Energy cost, but require you to sacrifice a percentage of your HP to use them. See [http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Sacrifice this wiki page] for a listing of such skills.

* In [[Vagrant Story]], Ashley can learn special weapons-specific, and usually rather powerful or otherwise damn good, attacks called Break Arts. Using Break Arts doesn't cost MP, and doesn't increase Ashley's RISK. It does, however, take off a bit of HP. How much HP is taken varies based on the "strength" of the Break Art.

* In the original ''[[Legacy of Kain|Blood Omen]]'', Kain had a spell that allowed him to literally ''shoot his own blood'' at enemies. If it hit, he'd gain back any lost health plus some extra, as the enemies' blood would be sucked out of their bodies and into his. If it missed, or if he fired it at something with poisoned or tainted blood, he'd be SOL.

* In the MMORPG ''[[Dark Ages (video game)|Dark Ages]]'' by Nexon, the Monk class had access to four different forms of martial arts: Draco (Dragon), Kelberoth (a large cat-like creature), Scorpion, and White Bat. One of the abilities that came with Kelberoth Form was Kelberoth Strike, which dealt a large amount of damage to an enemy at the cost of a large chunk of the Monk's HP. As a result, Kelberoth Form was generally derided as inferior, suicidal, and utterly pointless for leveling purposes unless you had a Priest attached to your hip at all times.

* Legend Entertainment's Shannara (which is a videogame based on the books) has this for elfstones. "Mostly, the elfstones cannot be used twice without rest, or the user will be drained to the point of death." The elfstones themselves are also destroyed if used twice in succession. {{spoiler|Naturally, Davio has to die by using them twice in a battle near the end-game. (And earlier on, you can save Shella if you agree with Davio using the elfstones a second time, and Davio doesn't die, but does lose the elfstones, which instantly forfeits the game)}}

** In the books some magic works like this too, in 'The Elfstones of Shannara' Allanon's magic ages him substantially. Luckily he can recharge, which also handily explains why he's never arround except when adventuring needs to be done.

* In ''[[Knights in The Nightmare]]'', ''any'' action your knights and the heroines take costs some of their health (which can only be regained through leveling up). Maria and Meria both have [[Limit Break]]-style [[Finishing Move|finishing moves]] that do [[For Massive Damage|ridiculous amounts of damage to everything on the field]], but the VIT cost is so high that even three uses will kill them, meaning a game over. (Except in Easy Mode, where you can get more like seven or eight uses out of it.)

** Also, the "Time" and "Rounds" are essentially the life force of the Wisp:Time will always go down whenever one of your units is charging an attack.

* Some [[Black Magic]] spells in the first ''[[Spellforce]]'' can literally be cast from [[Hit Point]] (and a little mana). Their effect is the same as another [[Black Magic]] spell, which does a huge amount of damage, but cost a lot of mana and have a long cooldown.

* In ''[[SaGa Frontier 2]]'', once your characters run out of [[Mana Points|WeaponPoints or SpellPoints]], they'll lose their Life Points (which are different from regular [[Hit Points]].) Using skills or techniques can permanently kill the character once Life Points run out.

* [[Tier-Induced Scrappy|Infamously]], Pichu from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee''.

* In ''[[Atelier Rorona]]'', all special abilities and spells are this.

* The [[Blood Knight|Berzerker]] class in ''[[Dungeon Fighter Online]]'' is mostly built around this.

* Jedi Consulars and Sith Inquisitors can convert health into force in [[Star Wars: The Old Republic]], but doing so also lowers force regeneration for a short period.

* In ''[[Star Control]]'', a ship's crew functions as its hitpoints. So when the Ur-Quan Dreadnought launches [[Space Fighter|fighters]], the crew decreases (and increases if and when they return). Inn the second game, there are also the Orz can send crew members into space to board the enemy ship, while the Druuge Mauler can sacrifice crew members to the (otherwise very weak) reactor in order to fire their giant cannon more.

** It also shows how this concept backfires without really good AI: while all these abilities are very dangerous, the safest way to defeat all 3 ships is still to allow or provoke them into wasting their crews until they can't or won't do it, and only then closing in for the kill. Druuge don't know when to stop ''and'' use cannon recoil to evade incoming fire - thus you don't need to hit Mauler more than once: buzzing it or lobbing anything in its general direction gradually reduces it to [[One-Hit Wonder]], then depletes energy (that cannot be regained quickly now that it's out of sacrificial slaves) until the ship is utterly helpless. Ur-Quan fighters are [[One-Hit Wonder]]s that also die of touching one of the asteroids flying around (though unlike ships is not harmed by planets) - and don't even avoid them. You can harm these two just by evasion. Orz boarders are tougher and faster, but still are skeet on a predictable trajectory.