Crutch Character: Difference between revisions
→Tabletop Games
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A specific form of [[The Ace]]. See also [[Overrated and Underleveled]] and [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]. Contrast with [[Magikarp Power]] and [[One Man Party]]. This character often acts as the EXP version of [[So Long and Thanks For All the Gear]].
{{examples}}
* ''[[Guardian Heroes|Advance Guardian Heroes]]'' has an interesting version of this. Throughout the game, you're pitted against the main characters from the first game, and upon beating them they lend you their soul, offering a massive stat boost. However, said stat boosts get taken away frequently (whenever you fight one of the heroes, first you have to beat them, and then the souls you've collected so far are taken away and turned back into the characters they belong to, and then you have to fight them all over again all at once) and in the final boss fight they're permanently taken away one by one, so if you aren't still leveling up these boosted stats you'll be in for a world of hurt.▼
== First-Person Shooter ==
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== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGs]] ==
* Prince Rurik of ''[[Guild Wars]]'' escorts the party of PCs and, if so desired, NPC henchmen on a number of missions. Given that he's level 10 and never changes that, he's quite useful when your character is level three and, well, peters off after that. {{spoiler|Then, quite naturally, he bites the dust. Who didn't see that one coming?}}
** Heroes, introduced in ''Nightfall'' and further in ''Eye of the North'', act as customisable henchmen and veritable Crutch Characters. Each hero fills out a single party slot, but have access to any skills that your ''account'', rather than character, has unlocked. For Elonan characters (characters that start in the ''Nightfall'' campaign), ''Nightfall'' heroes are generally introduced at comparative levels to yours, but ''Eye of the North'' heroes are all max level, and you can get them at a level as low as 10 (half the level [[Cap]]). Heroes are useful throughout the Prophecies campaign, as the henchmen available to you only hit the level cap near enough three-fourths of the way through the game.
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** It's completely possible to turn your starter into a crutch character if you don't balance out your team. How many kids went through Pokémon Red or Blue with their awesomely powerful Charizard, got it to Level 65 or higher, and finished most of the game, only to find Victory Road ahead of them?
** [[Pokémon Black and White|Gen V]] just may have done this with the Starters themselves. In Generations past it was common practice to keep a starter around, not only because of loyalty, but because usually, wild pokemon of it's same type are uncommon or outclassed by the starter. This all changed with the advent of Gen V. With the sheer rise in power and impressiveness of the wild Pokemon in Unova, it makes the Starters look mediocre by comparison.
*** This is largely the domino effect of
* ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete|Lunar 2: Eternal Blue]]'' has an interesting twist on this—one of the main characters, Lucia, is a temporary Crutch Character. She starts out ridiculously strong, but the villain soon depowers her to the same level as the rest of the characters.
** Luna from the first game's also this due to her multi-target healing [[Limit Break]], which make everything easier.
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* In ''[[Dungeon Maker]]'', after the first dungeon you get a pet Mimic Slime. It's great early on because it copies the stats of enemies, but while you get steadily more powerful, the slime does not, and eventually its stats will stop growing altogether.
* In the ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' DLC ''Dead Money'', Dean Domino, despite not being the strongest of the three companions, is easily the most useful. His companion perk allows you to explore the denser concentrations of poisonous clouds without taking damage (temporarily), which is essential if you want to find everything, and he's the only one with a gun. Since there are only three enemies in the DLC, only one of which can shoot back (and even then only five times), he's basically a killing machine if you're not boxed in. The only reason he isn't a total [[Game Breaker]] is because he (and the rest of your companions) disappears about halfway into the main quest.
* ''[[Darklands]]'' allowed choosing age at character creation. Young character started with low skills but had a long life ahead of them, old characters started with decently high skills but aging would destroy them, possibly literally. Since the game's timescale means completion could take generations, the typical solution is a bunch of young guys with one mentor that retires and is replaced once the younger characters can stand on their own.
== Tabletop Games ==
* The pen and paper RPG ''[[Mekton Zeta]]'' has options for Rookie and Veteran characters. Veteran characters start with higher skills, but gain experience half as fast as Rookies. The Game Master's section even includes helpful advice on how Veterans tend to die or retire halfway through a series to let the younger protagonists take the lead...
* Not so rare; [[Dungeons & Dragons]] had a similar addition of this type of character. Often called an 'Advanced NPC' by 2nd Edition rules or in more modern terms 'The Over Powered NPC' -- a DM can run a pre-generated character who starts at least 3 levels or more higher then the party of players, has high level spells, equipment, abilities, skills, psychic powers, etc, and often leaves either early on, dies off fast, or only helps to a point.
* Another example of this type of character is found in ''Anima'
* ''[[Cyberpunk (role-playing game)|Cyberpunk]]'' has crutch items in the form of Skill Chips. They set the level of the user in the relevant skill to 3, making one moderately competent immediately, but cannot be leveraged as a springboard to higher levels of mastery, and the effects disappear as soon as they are removed.
== Third-Person Shooter ==
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* The Zuul of ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' appear to be this at first. They have several advantages: Their ships start out cheap, faster both tactically and strategically and better-armed than most races'. They can take slaves, depriving an enemy world of population while driving up their own production. Having to [[Planet Looters|overharvest]] means they can build up early money fast. '''However!''' They are a subversion who hew much closer to [[Difficult but Awesome]]. See that page for more details.
▲== Beat Em Up ==
▲* [[Guardian Heroes|Advance Guardian Heroes]] has an interesting version of this. Throughout the game, you're pitted against the main characters from the first game, and upon beating them they lend you their soul, offering a massive stat boost. However, said stat boosts get taken away frequently (whenever you fight one of the heroes, first you have to beat them, and then the souls you've collected so far are taken away and turned back into the characters they belong to, and then you have to fight them all over again all at once) and in the final boss fight they're permanently taken away one by one, so if you aren't still leveling up these boosted stats you'll be in for a world of hurt.
== Non Video Game Examples ==
* While ''[[Scrubs]]'' obviously enough is not a video game, Ed's character arc in season 8 [[Playing with a Trope|messes with tropes]] in a way that illustrates this trope. Ed starts out [[Brilliant but Lazy]], satisfied with where he is. However, none of the other interns are. So while Ed is off trolling Lost fansites, the other interns are actually getting better to the point where Ed is left in the dust. {{spoiler|When he completely fails at bettering himself in Dr. Cox's eyes, Cox doesn't hesitate in firing him and replacing him with a better intern.}}
* The dark side of ''[[Star Wars]]'' is quicker and easier but ultimately weaker in the end.
{{reflist}}
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