Instant Death Radius: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]'' 3rd Edition was lousy with this, as monsters with reach (such as any monster that was ''larger than you'') could lay serious hurt on you with an Attack of Opportunity if you got within its radius, and unless the monster was using a reach weapon, it could threaten every square within its radius, meaning you could not charge or otherwise get close without sucking up an Attack of Opportunity and taking some heinous damage (because any melee monster worth its salt invariably has very high Strength, and high Strength = high attack bonus = high damage). A caster or archer could just hang back and blast them at range, but if you were a fighter or other class whose primary focus was on melee and wielding the weapons you would normally expect such characters to wield (swords, spears, axes, hammers and other weapons with normal reach), you could pretty much forget about actually doing any damage or contributing to the fight in any way other than being a "meat shield" for the others. Little wonder that the five-foot-step rule, which is called "shifting" in 4th Edition, was clarified in 3.5.

** It got much worse if the enemies were good at tripping or grappling; one Huge monster in the Monster Manual 4 has an anti-magic grab, preferred subterranean environs, and moves with a faster climb speed than many characters of the appropriate level could run. Fortunately (or [[Game Breaker|unfortunately for the DM]]) Attack of Opportunity optimized character builds can invert this trope entirely. [[Radical Taoist]] developed a number of builds on the [[Wizards of the Coast]] forums (the best known of which was called Lester the Molester) that could not be approached without provoking tons of AoOs; this character would attack a foe if that foe attacked him, attacked a nearby ally, or moved -- hell, even if ''they did nothing at all''.

** The main thing though isn't the AoOs, but the full attack that follows. You can expect even the half-decent melee enemies to utterly annihilate you later on accordingly or at least beat you to within an inch of your life before you get another turn. Not sometimes, but every single turn. Dragons are infamous for this, as the higher age categories get six or more attacks per round. And the only way to stand up to regular melee enemies in close combat is to either be an Evasion Tank (see [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]) or just be heavily optimized...in effect, stuff that would normally be a [[Game Breaker]] is required for basic competency.

*** [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html Attack of Opportunity! Attack of Opportunity!]

** One of third edition's supplements introduced a monster-only feat "[[Large and In Charge]]" which allowed them to add [[Punched Across the Room|knockback]] to their attack of opportunity against human-sized attackers.

* In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', getting in close combat with Khorne Berserkers, Genestealers, and Grey Knight Terminators is simply a death wish. One troper who uses Grey Knights had a game in which a Grey Knight Hero and 5 Terminators single handedly chopped up an Eldar Avatar, Wraithlord, a Warlock and his buddies (through shooting), and an entire 20 man Guardian team in the same game in 5 different close combats.

** It is an exceedingly bad idea to let a Carnifex near your tanks. not even your prized [[Nigh Invulnerable|Monolith]] will last the assault phase...

** Another oft-noted example is the Leman Russ Demolishor. With a 24" Instant Death Radius for it's Demolishor Cannon, most players give one a wide berth. Unfortunately, a Leman Russ also has at least one other weapon, so staying away from the big gun doesn't quite mean you're safe.

** Only a foolish player fails to give a wide berth to units like Kharn The Betrayer (His [[Instant Death Radius]] extends to allies in range of his axe), Ghazghkull (Sure he's a [[Mighty Glacier]], but watch him and a few nobs assaulting anything that isn't comprised of 30+ Models. Not even the two most heavily armoured vehicles will last a single assault turn just by going on the averages of dice rolls) and the notorious Nob Biker List (Despite no longer being the monster it once was, it was for quite a while the Fuck You list for Ork players in the Tournment scene; boasting a single centerpiece unit which simply refused to die, was a scoring unit, moved quite fast and destroyed anything within its 18" range of death).

** The Eldar Farseer's [[Mind Rape|Mind War]] power is another example, it pretty much instant kills a single model within 18" unless they've got Ld 10 and a lot of Wounds (and sometimes even then) if you roll well. Also useful for 'declawing' a unit by removing it's heavy weapon trooper or [[Power Fist]]-wielding squad leader.

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* Several classic ''[[BattleTech]]'' designs ([[Glass Cannon|Hunchback]], Victor, Demolisher, Atlas, you name them) have a reputation for this. The thing they have in common is the AC/20 -- the biggest autocannon in the game, short ranged but able to inflict potentially crippling damage all to a single location in one shot. As a result, most units much prefer to stay outside its nine-hex 'bubble of doom'.

** This also applies to the Gauss Rifle family and Clan ER-PPC weapons, both of which may hit only 75% as hard as the AC/20, but reach out to a range in excess of 20 hexes while being capable of [[Boom! Headshot!|taking off a 'Mech's head with a single shot.]]

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]'' quite deliberately gives this capability to its upper-tier [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] to discourage [[Munchkin|Munchkins]] from fighting them. The titular Cthulhu has an unblockable, undodgeable [[One-Hit Polykill]] at close range, and the power levels actually go ''[[Serial Escalation|up]]'' from there.

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** Nearly every boss in the game has a stupidly devastating melee-range spell. Shilf is about the only one that getting close is a remotely good idea.

* Used in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', but generally only on a temporary basis. Many of them are one-shot spells that are technically survivable, but the healers won't like you.

** Frequently found on at least one of the members of each [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] (Maulgar, Kaelthas, Illidari Council).

** The Shade of Aran will pull ''casters'' in to melee range shortly before casting his instant death radius spell.

** Demonform Illidan is so dangerous in melee that he's tanked not by a regular tank class but by a warlock, so they can hold aggro without getting near him. (And also because he only deals spell damage in this form, making their armor useless.)

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* Tigrex in ''[[Monster Hunter]] Freedom Unite'' has a tail whip that trips you and pulls you toward him. If you are close and not in front of him, this is basically all he does. If he hits you with one, he hits you with as many as he wants (i.e. you die).

* Mobile Bosses in [[Gundam vs. Series]] have a death sentence for suits with motion wave guns as their standard arsenal as most of them have [[Attack Drone]] units to blindside your suit while their charge attack can knock off three quarters of your health.

* The [[That One Boss|Leechgrave]] in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days ~~Over 2~~|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'' is like this, forcing the player to [[Flunky Boss|kill off the four Tentaclaws]] to allow the main part to be attacked safely (your death is pretty much guaranteed if you try to go for the main part otherwise, and your attack won't do nearly as much damage either).

* The [[That One Boss|Leechgrave]] in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days|Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2]]'' is like this, forcing the player to [[Flunky Boss|kill off the four Tentaclaws]] to allow the main part to be attacked safely (your death is pretty much guaranteed if you try to go for the main part otherwise, and your attack won't do nearly as much damage either).

* Vergil from ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' will start summoning Spiral Swords once you lower him to 2/3 health in [[Harder Than Hard|Dante Must Die]] mode. As the name suggests, this creates swords spinning around him that damage and hitstun you. Since you are on DMD, prepare for a world of hurt when he takes advantage of this. Fortunately, they don't last forever.

** Inverted with Beowulf, however. He's a toughie in close, so you might think that [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him|sticking to Dante's guns]] is the way to go. Well, he's got a nasty, nasty feathers of light attack that he may use when you get Dante too far from him, and then you're in trouble. Big trouble.

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** The Pyro is a [[Kill It with Fire|blazing deathball]] within a space of about [[Video Game Flamethrowers Suck|five meters]], and also possesses a rather effective array of melee weapons as well. Any further out however, and nothing in the Pyro's arsenal but secondary weapons will be able to hit you at all.

** The Heavy basically turns into an Instant Death Radius up to medium range any time the minigun is revved up. At point blank range, anything that has the misfortune to be in front of a Heavy--even another Heavy--will die ''in less than a second''.

* Every boss in [[Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume]] other than the first one can automatically use a special attack at the end of their chain of attacks against you, even if they wouldn't be able to do so had you taken another story path and recruited them. Unless you have a ''lot'' of HP or you're using one of the main character's unique abilities, this is for all intents and purposes an automatic knockout. What's worse, if your characters attack en masse and the counter manages to KO one of you without the use of a special, they'll use the special on a second attacking character, typically knocking them out too. Against sword-using bosses like Darius, this means you shouldn't let anyone other than the main character get within reach of the counter, and maybe not even him until you've worn your foe down a bit. Against mages like Liselotte, well, here's hoping you've got at least five revival items on hand. And then there's the final boss of the good path, whose counter targets every character who attacked her and has a chance of stunning anyone who survives it.

* ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'', Xbox remake, has the Gleaming Blade move and its [[Limit Break|Ultimate Technique versions]]. They do a number on normal enemies and can punish even [[Harder Than Hard|Master Ninja]] bosses significantly.

* In one ''[[Cortex Command]]'' mod, there are robots known as Zombie Bots, which can instantly gib anybody within their claw attack radius.

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* The Flowsand Lord in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' has an attack that works like this: Enemies within its massive range get pulled onto tiles right next to him and get hit with a large amount of damage, which he absorbs to heal himself. And its range is so large that once you're hit with it, it's next to impossible for a character to move out of range before he uses it again. There are only five classes in the entire game that can hit him from outside the range of his attack, and you fight him early enough that you're unlikely to have any of those classes.

* In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', the duel with the Arishok can be really easy or ''really hard'' depending on what type of character you are playing. The Arishok has no ranged attacks, but makes up for that with ''brutal'' melee attacks. He's also [[Lightning Bruiser|pretty fast]], so staying out of his [[Instant Death Radius]] while trying to attack him or drink a healing potion isn't easy. Mage!Hawke, despite being a [[Squishy Wizard]], has an advantage since mage staff attacks are ranged.

* Used to ''ludicrously'' unfair effect in ''[[Devil Survivor]]'', where one late-game boss, Belberith, has an Instant Death Radius of ''[[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|the entire map you fight him on]]''.

** In the sequel, ''[[Devil Survivor 2]]'', the final boss, {{spoiler|Polaris}}, has this in it's first form and with one of it's components in it's third form as well. Said component follows up on this with the [[Sarcasm Mode|wonderful]] attack Multi-Strike [[This Is Gonna Suck|that can potentially hit everyone in the party two to seven times for 200+ physical damage per hit, where you'll most likely have about 500 Hit Points for the main characters by that point, if not lower]]. Thankfully though, equipping Null/Absorb/Repel Physical will stop the nightmare.

* Several examples in [[Dark Souls]] exist, particularly the boss fight with Seath the Scaleless. His attacks consist of area denial by raising crystal columns in predetermined spots. While you can dodge it and get close to him, you better not take it for granted as Seath can make the entire surrounding area you fight in covered in crystals. And if you don't die from it already, the Curse effect probably will.