Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Difference between revisions

There are [[The Dark Arts|some attacks]] in the media that come at a price. Actually, there are a ''lot'' of attacks in media that [[Power At a Price|come at a price.]]

 

 

Whatever the case, the character's mentor will tell him that he can only use said attack a set number of times or he's never supposed to use it unless some requirement is met. Expect the [[Old Master]] to inform the hero that [[You Are Not Ready]]. And [[Rule of Drama|naturally]], a situation ''will'' come up where the character has no choice but to use the technique, or if it has a limited number of times it can be used safely, he or she will be forced to use it more than the safe number of times. Like [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun]], this technique (or rather, its overuse) comes at a ''heavy'' price. Unlike [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun]], the price is [[Necessary Drawback|nearly always paid]].

If the hero is ''lucky'', it could just be a [[Heroic RROD]]. But it's often worse than that.

 

{{examples}}

 

*** Probably not least because it involves fracturing the soul, and doing ''that'' involves murdering people.

* [[The Pendragon Adventure]]: It turns out that {{spoiler|all Travelers can pretty much warp reality like [[Big Bad|Saint Dane]] can, but doing so drains the life force of [[Heaven|Solara]]. Saint Dane avoids these drawbacks by relying on a warped version of Solara based on darkness.}}

* The ''[[Dragaera]]'' series has "Elder Sorcery", which involves the direct manipulation of raw chaos, and the practice of which is a capital crime by imperial edict. Those who research and practice it do so mainly out of curiosity and/or for the search for knowledge, since elder sorcery has long since been supplanted by the ''much'' safer and easier use "normal" sorcery, where the energy of raw chaos is first filtered through the Imperial Orb before being used. However, there are some circumstances where normal sorcery doesn't work, forcing the characters to resort to elder sorcery.

* In ''The Magician's Nephew'', the first chronological book in the [[Chronicles of Narnia]] series, there is a dark spell the Deplorable Word. When it is spoken, every form of life in the world with the sole exception of the speaker is killed instantly. [[Big Bad|Jadis]] actually boasts about the extensive measures she took to learn this and then use it to kill everybody in her homeworld as part of her backstory.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** There also exists an incredibly powerful dispel spell called ''Mordenkainen's Disjunction'', which can destroy just about any magic effect, even those created by gods. If it is used for this purpose, however, the caster may permanently lose all his magic abilities and/or anger the effect's creator. And he is no slouch, believe us.

** This is the point of the corrupt spells in the Book of Vile Darkness (and their Exalted Deeds counterparts, sacrifice spells). They are notably more powerful than other spells of their level—for instance, run-of-the-mill Blindness is a second-level spell, while Seething Eyebane, a corrupt first-level spell, causes the target's eyes to spew acid and explode—but there is always a tax, sometimes permanent, on one or more ability scores. The most powerful of these spells is harmful even to prepare and has a very good chance of rendering the caster dead and/or permanently insane [[Omnicidal Maniac|(if he wasn't already)]].

== Video Games ==

* In [[Diablo]] III, the Wizard differs from the Sorcerer and Sorceress of the previous two games in that s/he practices "dangerous and forbidden magics", which eventually caused him/her to be voluntarily exiled from his/her homeland. This explains why the Wizard has a greater array of [[Elemental Powers]] than either of its predecessor classes, including [[Mana|Arcane]] and [[Time Master|Time]].

* In the Fate scenario of ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', Saber comes under this limitation because using her Noble Phantasm requires all the mana she's currently holding to activate (and her flawed summoning means Shirou can't provide her with any), and she ends up facing at least three enemies that require—or at least seem to require—the use of it to defeat.

** In Heaven's Feel, projection {{spoiler|(more specifically, projection using Archer's arm)}} becomes this for Shirou. While it puts a strain on him in all three paths, this path spesifically gives him a clear limit on usage, and overuse will kill him. {{spoiler|Which it eventually does.}}

** {{spoiler|Hanekoma}} later proceeds to {{spoiler|revive Minamimoto as a Taboo Noise}} He reveals this himself to the player in the {{spoiler|[[Unreliable Narrator|secret reports]]}}

* Some Techniques and Spells in [[Romancing SaGa]] drain [[Life Energy]] if one is low leveled in That field of magic or if the weapon uses [[Life Energy]] for it's techniques.

** Exactly how forbidden to make it is left up to the player, though, and [[Multiple Endings|affects the outcome of the plot.]]

* ''[[Castlevania]]: Order of Ecclesia'', blah blah blah, Dominus glyphs, blah blah blah, union kills you dead on the spot {{spoiler|unless you're using it at the end of the last battle, where Albus's soul takes your place for the sacrifice.}}

*** Uh yeah, that's because it takes longer than a day (and it's only a day they spend in Drac's castle), Johnathan shows no ill effects. It's implied that that will come later. He probably won't survive to see Drac's resurrection in 1999 if he keeps using the whip or doesn't somehow lock its power back up. It has also been said that using the whip too much will cause death, making it a possibility that he didn't use it well enough. Jonathan was urged not to over use it by various characters.

* ''[[Breath of Fire]]: Dragon Quarter'' had an extreme version of this. The main character, Ryu, can transform into a ridiculously powerful dragon form at any time which can even floor bosses in a few attacks. However, there's a % counter in the top-right corner of the screen that's slowly ticking towards 100% throughout the game, and using dragon powers make the counter increase much more quickly than it normally does - and if the counter gets to 100%, it's game over. Without dragon powers, the boss fights are quite hard (especially the later ones), so it's down to the player to manage how often they use the dragon powers.

* Akuma's (Gouki in the original Japanese) fighting-style from ''[[Street Fighter]]'' has the Shun Goku Satsu attack, which effectively drags both the target ''and'' the practitioner into hell, where they're assaulted by demons. Until it was mastered by Akuma, it was generally assumed that using it would always be lethal to both. Of course, in-game, it's just a move that does a lot of damage...

* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': There is an unlockable weapon for the Demoman class called The Eyelander, a massive sword which decapitates and heals its user on a killing blow. The downside is that having the sword in your loadout reduces your max HP by 25, because the blade ''feeds on your soul''.

* In ''[[Zettai Hero Project]]'' Dangerama's entire skillset is composed of these. As a [[Death Seeker]], this makes sense.

* The "Mortal Draw" in ''[[Twilight Princess|The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]''. The attack involved sheathing your sword and untargeting the enemy. As soon as the enemy is within range you quickly pull out your sword and deliver a powerful attack able to one-shot most enemies. However, if you screw up the timing you're going to get hit.

** Though the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Grey]] [[Knight Templar|Wardens]] don't forbid blood magic.

* In ''[[Trauma Center]]: Under the Knife'' Derek's senior surgeon forbids him from using the [[Bullet Time|Healing Touch]] after his first intentional use of it makes him collapse after the operation... with the caveat he's completely aware Derek will merrily ignore this instruction if he thinks the Healing Touch will mean the difference between life and death.

[[Category:Power At a Price]]

[[Category:That Which Must Not Be Indexed]]