Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Difference between revisions

[[File:wizardsandmelees_9442.jpg|frame|"If by 'war gods' you mean '[[Game Breaker|flame spewing apocalypse in human form]],' then yeah."]]

 

 

 

''Melee classes gain power as they level up at a linear rate. Magic users gain power as they level up quadratically.''

First off the idea that [[Reality Ensues]] for warriors at some point. They hit the limits of human (or near-human) ability and can't bend physics any farther. Since warriors don't have magic how is physical force supposed to beat say an intangible ghost or some supernatural baddie with the magical ability to ignore it. Basically warriors can only be so fantastic so even as they improve those improvements mean less.

 

 

Thirdly, there's more than a bit of [[Wish Fulfillment]] here. Gamers and by extension game designers tend to be geeks by definition. The idea that a wizard (generally a something of a brainy bookworm) may start out weaker then the [[Dumb Muscle]], but surpass them entirely in the end proving that its what you know not how strong you are holds a lot of inherent appeal. Especially to those that had a higher chance of running afoul of the real life [[The Bully|bullies]] and [[Jerk Jock|jocks]] who [[Kids Are Cruel|tore up their antique Tolkien]] or whatever.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** As Archer points out early on in the visual novel, "It's fine if you think I can only use bows...." He actually uses a kind of magic that lets him use a whole lot of swords all at once, including Saber's [[Wave Motion Gun|sword that fires energy blasts]].

* Inverted in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'': Hokuto Ryuuken is a variant style of Hokuto Shinken which heavily uses magic at the base of its style, as [[Charles Atlas Superpower|opposed to breath control and push-ups]]. And it's still stated to be explicitly inferior to Hokuto Shinken, to the point where Kenshiro doesn't even bother to [[Mega Manning|copy techniques]] from the school.

* Both played straight and subverted in the ''[[Slayers]]'' universe. Normal swordsmen such as Gourry and physical brawlers such as Prince Phil can only do so much in a land where magic is common knowledge and taught in schools (at least in one part of the world). Swordsman Gourry mainly gets by with supernaturally-powered swords, namely the [[Forgotten Superweapon|Sword of Light]] for the first set of novels and throughout all of the anime, and the [[Forgotten Superweapon|Blast Sword]] in the second half of the novels. The subversion comes in with the magic system. Humans can expand how much magic they can cast by increasing their stamina (Pool Capacity), but the actual strength of their magic (Bucket Capacity) is predetermined at birth. Zelgadis was a poor spell caster when he was a human, but thanks to the properties of the brau demon [[Heinz Hybrid|he was mixed with for his chimeric transformation]], both his Pool and Bucket Capacities are higher because brau demons, according to [[Word of God]], have a lot of magical power. In other words, the non-divine can only do so much to increase their magical output.

* Possibly lampshaded in ''[[MAR]]'', where Kouga, one of the knights in the evil Chess Pieces, is incredibly tough, but his lack of magical power means that he's ''automatically'' the weakest of his rank. He is easily defeated and humiliated by [[The Lancer]] Alviss, whose has a high level of magical power (and competence).

* Played around with in ''[[Those Who Hunt Elves]]'', though as this is a comic series the actual state of affairs isn't pinned down. Most relevant is the backstory of an [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]] who specializes (entirely) in kicking people in the knees, who after winning a tournament was challenged by "a Thin Man", an emaciated mage who used self-buffs (and expectation of the knee kick) to easily overpower him. Being too arrogant to recognize the serious flaws in his combat style, he decides this trope is clearly in effect, secretly changed his field of study, and has since been wandering around kicking people in the knees with invisible magical shielding up.

 

* Drizzt Do'Urden, R.A. Salvatore's famous character, both subverts this and falls victim to it. Frequently, he or one of his companions completely thrashes a powerful but unprepared wizard, but there are rare occasions where Drizzt is nearly dispatched by wizards who have, as yet, posed no threat to him, exemplified by his being duped into stumbling into a realm populated entirely by demon lords by a Quadratic Wizard in ''The Pirate King''.

** On of the best is when Artemis Entreri, Drizzt's [[Evil Counterpart]] and one of the deadliest assassins in the world, is put up against a battle wizard he doesn't manage to catch off guard. Said wizard proceeds to utterly school him without using a spell above fourth level. The ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' versions of Stoneskin (have to be hit a certain number of times before you take damage) and Flame Shield (when you hit someone, the attack [[Attack Reflector|hits you]]) is pretty hard to beat.

** The series makes it clear that the reason wizards don't rule the world is not that their magic doesn't give them the power to do so, but that wizards naturally fight among themselves (''Sourcery'' claims that the plural for wizard is 'war'), and magical conflict is incredibly destructive. The widespread abuse of magic would quickly make the world stop making sense. It's analogized to nuclear weaponry, with talks about avoiding a "first use of magic" in war, and the ancient mage wars leaving behind high levels of residual magic (ie. nuclear fallout) in the present day. The entire organizational structure of modern wizardry exists to keep them all in one place and encourage them to waste their energies either plotting against each other, immersing themselves in research, or enjoying their cushy academic position.

* Played straight in Steven Brusts's ''[[Dragaera]]'' series, where the single most powerful non-god is the well-beyond-legendary undead mage Sethra Lavode, who is notorious for being able to wipe out armies. She's also probably nothing like what reading that sentence will make you assume her to be like. For instance, her favorite method of wiping out armies is {{spoiler|with another army, but with better logistics.}}

* Also subverted in Stephen Brusts's ''[[Dragaera|Jhereg]]'' series with some degree of regularity, as demonstrated by the signature quote: "No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style."

* A weird Gamebook example: ''[[Goosebumps]]''. One special edition played more like a gamebook and required to keep track of items. The hunter sounds rather easy because you can fight off obstacles a lot better, but in practice, the spellcaster was the easiest. On the spellcaster path, you were able to avoid almost every single obstacle until you met the [[Final Boss]] unless you made one choice. The hunter meanwhile had more "Useless" items

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

** It should be noted though that in season seven, Willow didn't lose her power. She just got more hesitant to use it, since there was a very real possibility of her going crazy and trying to end the world again.

** Buffy finally caught up in Season Eight {{spoiler|by becoming a [[Flying Brick]].}}

== Tabletop Games ==

* Some [[Tabletop Games|Tabletop RPGs]] suffer from this.

** Another problem is that as primary casters gain levels, they gain access to spells that allow them to do pretty much anything. A Wizard, Cleric, or Druid with access to the huge list of spells published for them can fill almost any party role -- often better than the classes designed for that role -- while a fighter gains variations and slight improvements on "hit enemy with stick". So it's even more than "square", since casters have growing effects themselves (usually in more than one variable, too), number of times these can be used ''and'' flexibility.

** Originally the intent of ''D&D'' was that the common man was a Fighter and he would be more powerful at low level, but someone who performed magic (a Cleric or Magic-User) would make sacrifices at low level to become more powerful at high level. But this was further balanced by Fighters getting the best followers at high level (and at the time, henchmen were quite valuable even if they were low-level) and because Fighters were the only ones who could use magic swords. The majority (60%+) of magic swords were intelligent and carried special spell-like powers. Since a Fighter was the only one who could wield one, those found in treasure would usually end up in his hands. This limited spell-like ability made up for the Fighter having no spells of his own.

** Fighting Men progressed at a faster rate than Magic Users. The difference in XP progression was later (3.0+) deemed ineffective, largely due to when game designers learned basic math and common sense. They realized that given the same amount of EXP the wizard was at best one level behind the fighter, and later actually progressed faster. Getting rid of this also fixed broken multiclasses.

** ''AD&D'' has rules about followers, so a high-level warrior can easily attract a small army. Sadly, it was often ignored, especially since it required the character to own a keep. Warriors also got [[Hit Points]] from high Constitution while wizards didn't. AD&D2 class XP awards, quite sensibly, altered class balance depending on the game style: in relatively peaceful ones, utility spellcasting allows wizards and priests a little XP all the time, in war/dungeon warriors get XP bonus for each defeated opponent.

** Special powerful creatures could then resist the new unresistable spells. Of course a spell to temporarily reduce a creature's Magic Resistance [[Lensman Arms Race|soon developed]]...

** Yes, another way that earlier editions of D&D dealt with this problem was giving a lot of the more powerful monsters (the kind high-level adventurers would be facing) magic resistance (called anti-magic in some of the early editions). Even relatively low magic resistance could really ruin a caster's day, because, first, magic resistance was a flat percentage, meaning that it ''didn't matter'' how powerful a caster you were, your spells still had the same chance of failing completely, and, second, because there were ''no'' spells that could directly penetrate resistance. Third edition radically nerfed magic resistance into spell resistance by changing those two things: powerful casters are ''more likely'' to penetrate spell resistance, and there were a number of spells that could simply ignore it (the orb spells were incredibly broken, partly for this reason)

*** One notable example would be the Holy Word cleric. It's a no save spell that allows you to paralyze anything that is five levels below your caster level, which is normally your class level, with no save (and kill anything ten levels below you, but paralyzation = death anyway). Just with the core books, a cleric can get + 6 to his/her caster level, so anything that isn't more than two levels higher than them is going to be paralyzed more than long enough to die. With other books, you can specialize and get as much as + 35 to caster level, which means that you can instantly kill anybody within earshot who doesn't happen to be 40 levels above you. Nothing would survive. (Luckily, the DM can get around this by making his enemies good aligned, but there is also [[Evil Counterpart|a spell that is Holy Word, but for killing good aligned people.]]). Less an issue of a specific rule failure than a design decision. High-level spells often offer no chance to avoid. This was originally why Magic Resistance was introduced. Again, one feature ran into another.

** Another strange design decision was giving clerics access to heavy armor and most shields. This combined with two feats (Persist Spell and Divine Metamagic: Persist Spell) and one item (the nightstick, usually in multiples) allows a cleric to, at the cost of one spell slot per day, be every bit as effective as a fighter in melee while ALSO being able to call on nearly unlimited divine power.

** Notably, Evil-aligned Clerics tend to make better Necromancers than Necromancers themselves. A specialized Wizard must surrender the ability to cast spells from two other schools of Arcane magic in order to receive said specialization, which confers only one extra spell from their specialized school per day and a +2 bonus to Spellcraft checks. Evil clerics, solely so that the mechanic that the ability of a Good-aligned (or, rather, Positive Energy-channeling) Cleric to turn or destroy undead has its [[Evil Counterpart]], to rebuke or COMMAND undead. Most incorporeal undead also have a standard touch attack that afflicts ability drain, which can be a [[Game Breaker]] even at higher levels. What's worse? Some undead [[Viral Transformation|create spawn]]... and ''control it''. <ref>. Suppose an Evil Cleric encounters one Wraith. Wraith's touch attack drains points from the Constitution score, upon which a character's Fortitude save (the thing most likely to save you from Instant Death attacks) and Hit Points have their basis. Upon Con being reduced to 0, a character dies and its soul rises as a Wraith ''already under the control of the first Wraith'' within turns. So all Evil Cleric need do to start his own self-propagating army of health-draining, incorporeal, soul-devouring undead is to control SAID FIRST WRAITH</ref>.

** Druids are another example, able to combine the devastating Natural Spell feat with their animal forms, allowing them a melee presence on par with the strongest warriors while ''losing none of their casting power.'' Worse, at higher levels they can change form several times a day; morph into an eagle, rain lightning and fire on the enemy from safely out of reach, land, morph into a dire bear, wade into melee...and all while their animal companion is busy doing the fighter's job.

** Also, just about ''everyone'' in a typical RQ game will have some minor magic spells. Dedicated priests or Rune Lords (servants of their gods, like ''D&D'''s Paladins) have access to significantly more powerful divine magic, without the usual limitations most people have on them. To balance it, they have to spend most of their time on religious duties, severely cutting into their adventuring time.

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' plays this straight with a few armies. Lizardmen are a particularly drastic example. Hero Level Sarus are hard fighting warriors and while Skink Priests are solid casters, their lack of access to different Lores (and the Lore of Heaven isn't the greatest lore in the world) and the fact that they're made of tissue paper means that they're often not worth it (at least without an Engine of the Gods). On the other hand, Lord Level Sarus are merely really good fighters whereas Slaan's access to all the lores, the different abilities you can give them and the sheer power of their casting abilities means they can often devastate entire units all on their own.

* ''[[Ars Magica]]'' subverts this trope somewhat. On the one hand, magical progression is definitely quadratic and warrior progression is definitely linear -- but firstly player character magi normally start play after a 15 year apprenticeship so they're already way ahead of even the most hardened warrior rather than starting weaker and having to catch up; and secondly each player normally controls two characters, playing both a mage and a [[Muggle]], so there is no direct competition between the power levels of different types of characters.

* Played straight in ''[[Dark Heresy]]'', as generally until 4th level a Psyker gets spells such as Cheat at Poker and Summon Local Vermin. Once a Psyker gets to Psychic level 3 (available at 4th level) such as Punch Through a Tank with Your Bare Hands, Warp Reality So That You Can Ricochet Your Bullet Off of a Random Frying Pan and Kill the Enemy General from 5 km Away and Telekinetically Pull the Pins Out of Other People's Grenades While Still Attached to Them. Only subverted in that in casting those spells you have a greater chance of getting you soul eaten by daemons and killing the rest of your party because you got turned into a daemonhost.

** Or worse. Not many quadratic wizards have to worry about being sucked into the Warp because they botched their roll.

** In fact, since the amount of magic is determined by a dice-roll with a set chance for an extra roll, you can in theory have a mage with an arbitrary amount of magic (this troper had a mage with double the "average" amount, with all special stuff added he could have an effective magic amount of about 233, whilst normal is 50-ish).

* [[Legend Game System|Legend]] was specifically designed to avert this - warriors and wizards alike are equally Quadratic.

{{quote| "A mundane martial arts master can split a brick and jump over a hedge.<br />

A Terrestrial martial arts master can split a boulder and jump over a house.<br />

A Celestial martial arts master can split a city wall and jump over a mountain.<br />

A Sidereal martial arts master can split a soul and jump to [[Heaven]]. }}

* While it was played straight in older editions it is now mostly averted in the fourth edition of ''[[The Dark Eye]]'', while wizards can still be incredibly powerful, a single hit by an arrow or a powerful swing of a melee weapon will cause them to lie on the floor moaning in pain or at the very least make casting spells quite difficult. And while any spellcaster can learn to use weapons, they can rarely attain the same mastery as warriors since they lack the physical attributes to raise their combat talents as high as the warriors. The fact that the most powerful pure damage spell is partly [[Cast From Hit Points]] stops the wizards from becoming war gods.

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Luminous Arc 2]]'' has a rather notable trait about this. While [[Luminous Arc|the first one]] is actually more balanced, the second one seem to use this giving highest MAG Fatima and Sadie (who graces the bottom page picture, compared to [[Mighty Glacier]] Rasche) very high AO (turn frequency) and Movement. Their strongest spells? They hit 5 spaces up to 7 panels away.

** This is eventually justified. {{spoiler|From a gameplay perspective, that is. It's a plot point that late-game enemies tend to be very resistant, if not immune to magic.}}

* Played a hundred percent straight in very early (and now defunct) MMO ''Sierra's Realm''. Warriors at early levels could solo quest easily, dealing considerable damage and killing monsters rather speedily, whereas mages were next to worthless on their own, unable to so much as dent even the rats in the newbie zone. At higher levels, Warriors could still hold their own, though they required full suits of top-tier armor and high-end weapons all sporting as many enchantments as was possible in order to keep any sort of pace with the harsher monsters and possible PVP encounters. High level mages, on the other hand, were capable of obliterating absolutely anything in their path no matter what they wore - even completely naked, a high-end mage could wipe out the game's 'Boss' in only a few choice spells. Warriors were wise to keep their PVP flags permanently turned off, lest a stark nekkid mage toddle over and utterly vaporize them before they could so much as close to melee range.

* The text-based RPG ''[http://www.skotos.net/games/grendel/ Grendel's Revenge]'' had a rather interesting relationship with this trope through it's history. At first it was inverted, magical monsters were fairly balanced with young fighter monster for the first 50 or so levels, but the fighter monsters could get a host of passive, always on [[Status Buff|Status Buffs]] as well as timed ones from Leader monsters, whereas magical monsters had very few ways to get a status buffs at all. This got progressively worse since fighter monsters could wear better armor, get skills to boost their weapon skills (and the weapons gotten improves) while magical monsters could only wear a small selection of non-armor magical gear. At the 200+ level mark, fights between equal level solo magical and fighter monsters would be very hard for the magical monster's player since their attacks could not penetrate and they had no defense. Only by using sneak tactics like stunning, teleporting enemies into traps (which Builder clan mates had to prepare for the magical monster) and other means could they hold their own...all of which were not that effective against the fighter player to begin with, which ''still'' had very good resistances to these tactics. To make it worse, the maximum number of skills/powers/abilities was capped at '''7''', so magical characters could not get nearly as diverse a power set compared to fighters, and only [[Level Grinding]] to 700 could get you that far. Magical player outcries got so loud and exceedingly ''deconstructive'' (the game forum was for many months ''full'' of dissertations and long arguments on exactly how and why magical monsters had the raw end of the class system) that the designers made a series of wide ranging nerfs, buffs, and rebalances to fix the issue...which sometimes snowballed into creating other imbalances. It's worked, mostly, but the current state of game balance is unknown at this time.

** And ''don't'' get us started on game balance issues involving the non-combat classes!

* Played straight and later [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] in ''[[Runescape]]''. Melee combat is the cheapest to use (literally requiring no equipment at first), while magic is extremely expensive. Once you've leveled up magic, however, it starts hitting harder and more consistently than melee. Past about level 50, however, melee takes over again as doing the most damage thanks to better weapons. The best magic spells (which allow freezing and leeching hitpoints) allow really good mages to still have the upper hand over warriors, but it takes a lot of skill. Of course, this is in [[PvP]] combat. When fighting NPCs, melee is the best 90% of the time due to the lower cost (cost is much less of a consideration in [[PvP]] as opposed to PvM) and faster speed, though magic does have its niches. Ranged combat falls somewhere in the middle, able to dish out a large amount of power without costing quite as much as magic. Its progression is much more linear, however.

** Rage as the resource system made this happen, pre-Cata - the more damage you deal, the more rage you have, which then lets you do damage for real. Therefore, since the beginnings of [[WoW]], warriors sucked at low gear levels, getting rage starved and thus not able to "press any buttons", and then about halfway into an expansion their "white" (non-rage-consuming) damage exceeded a certain point and they suddenly get 100% rage every time they swing a weapon. A rather simple fix for this happened, however; rage intake now occurs on hits at a flat rate, based on unmodified weapon speed. Taking damage (which is usually suicidal unless you're tanking) and a couple of abilities also grant Rage, for those dry spots.

* ''[[Maple Story]]'' [[Inverted Trope|inverts]] this, if only for the main stretch of first job through fourth job promotion, for the Explorers. Magicians start extremely powerful while Archers, Warriors, Pirates, and to a certain extent Thieves are scrambling for kills at early levels. As everyone hits third job promotion, Magicians stop gaining power so quickly while everyone else catches up. Then fourth job is reached and Magicians are left in the dust, except for [[The Medic|Bishops]], who are needed for their extremely powerful buffs.

** Also, magic draws from the pool of "Spirit Points", as do Super Moves, that the party members share. Items with spells in them do not have this setback, making the player rely on the also-much-more-useful Super Moves. An example would be the "Curia" [[Yin-Yang Bomb|Silver]] Spell, which cures one person of any [[Standard Status Effects]]. Fina has ''two'' Super Moves that are better than this: "Lunar Cleansing" to cure ''everyone'' of [[Standard Status Effects|SSE]], and "Lunar Light," which does the same but can also resurrect those that were knocked out.

* In the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' series:

** ''Radiant Dawn'', and to a extent the previous game, averts this. Most enemies, even ''[[Mighty Glacier|Knights]]'', have decent resistance and mages have been further [[Nerf|nerfed]] from their already weak ''Path of Radiance'' selves by losing their good speed. The extra damage they deal to [[Kemonomimi|Laguz]] becomes a borderline [[Useless Item]] as they rarely face any. To top it off, they retain their downsides, such as weapons with low Might and having less Movement that regular physical classes. Even worse, few enemies are mages, making their high resistance worthless. (For what little it matters, several physical units on your team have good resistance but nothing to use it against.)

** The first two avert this, since magic isn't that useful in the first; it's mostly used for healing and support. In the second game, The Prince of Lorasia is the best tank and melee character, while the princess of Moonbrooke sits back and wastes groups of enemies with her magic. The Prince of Cannock can do either, though of course not as well as the dedicated characters.

** ''[[Dragon Quest Monsters]] Caravan Heart'' plays this straight, as the early spells (Blaze, Fireball) can be inferior to a monster's raw attacking power, and you only have six spell slots per monster. However, those six spells carry over for every reformation, including being powered up, so once a monster has Thordain or Explodet (which hits all enemies), Heal All, and Revive, they're set.

* ''[[Phantasy Star Online]]'' plays this straight overall, but it's a long road getting there. Forces start by being barely able to kill a room full of enemies before needing to go recharge their mana, while physical types have a far easier time of it. The Forces quickly outgrow their Hunter and Ranger counterparts, playing the trope straight, but hit a brick wall in Ultimate difficulty where the enemies' magic resistance gets a huge boost, subverting the trope. However, if you keep playing that Force and level up their high level area magic, you can easily clear an entire room in seconds without suffering a single attack, while a Hunter or Ranger would be swamped by the sheer number of foes. Even better, a Force with high level Jellen and Deband can raise their defense so high and the reduce enemies' attack so low that even a Force, weak armor and all, is in no real danger.

** Definitely subverted in ''[[Phantasy Star]] III''. Most characters have techniques; the handful who don't, including Rhys, your PC in the first generation, start out as competent warriors but by mid-generation are dishing out the most damage, hands-down. Only healing techniques tend to be useful; combat techniques are far outclassed by standard attacks.

** Subverted in ''[[Phantasy Star]] IV''. The first and second times he joins your party, Rune is of much higher level than the rest of your party and he can wipe out entire screens of enemies with a single spell. As the game progresses and the rest of the characters catch up to him, the difference in damage output tends to even out.

*** White Mages are actually better tanks than fighters. They have the Ruse spell, which raises evade by 80. Cast it a couple of times and almost no enemy can hit you. With careful leveling, they can do damage comparable to fighters.

*** If anything, the original Final Fantasy is Linear Fighter/Quadratic Black Belt. Black Belts start out substantially weaker than fighters, typically achieve parity somewhere around the volcano stage, and go on to become spicy kung-fu death on a stick in the endgame.

*** Played more or less straight in the [[Enhanced Remake|GBA remake]], though. Unless you get the [[Infinity+1 Sword|Ultima Weapon]], at which point Warriors become gods.

**** Even more reversed in the PSP and Iphone Remake, where Warriors get Barbarian Swords...which is ALWAYS even MORE powerful then the Ultima Weapon, while the best the Black Mage gets is...a shiny new dagger. However, the lack of new effective offense spells makes Mages incredibly useless as anything besides support, especially since endgame Red Mages can do anything the Black Mage can, and more.

*** This may have been referenced in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'', where Onion Knight's limit break is "Class Change," turning him into a sage when using magic attacks and a ninja while using physical attacks.

*** Oddly enough though, one of the most powerful classes mid-game (at least in the DS version) is actually a Geomancer... Despite how they were often a little unpredictable and worthless in most games, and frequently tossed aside as either a joke character or only used for a few semi-decent abilities, then ignored. Despite that they attack with, of all things, [[Improbable Weapon User|BELLS]], they actually can deal nice physical damage when being dual-wielded (mostly due to the fact that Dual-Wielding is utterly ''broken'' in that game) and their special attack (which literally ''has absolutely NO limits'' to how much you can use it) may be somewhat unpredictable, but they actually deal consistent magic damage and bypass magic defenses, along with not getting as much [[Useless Useful Spell|worthless status-inducing effects]]. It may actually not be that uncommon for a Geomancer to get lucky and be the first person to hit for damage [[Dragonball Z|in the Vegeta Level]].

*** But one of the best abilities (considering how little one has to work to obtain it) is obtained by a melee class, the Samurai. It hits every enemy for damage near 7.5k damage...and considering you get it at a point where enemies may have a couple thousand...''ouch''. Expensive to use but the game throws Gil at you like candy on halloween...and you can just spam it without any thought of finances near the end of the game...they throw thousands of gil at you and there's nowhere to spend it.

*** As things go, by endgame the three active physical skills that don't suck (RapidFire, Finisher, and Jump) pretty much become your bread and butter due to the sheer damage you can do with them, especially since you can only use two skills at a time anyways (unless you're a mime).

*** + Ultima + Ultima + Ultima. Not dead yet? Just let me use Mimic with Gogo now...

*** Case in point: black mages received a serious [[Nerf]] when "Manaburn" parties became popular at high levels. These parties, consisting of five black mages and one miscellaneous class (typically a bard or red mage for mana regen), would have the non-mage member pull something and then all the mages would rain holy hell down upon the monster before it could say "broken".

*** Red Mages did play the trope straight. Early on, they were basically a weaker version of a Paladin with a couple debuffs, since the early damage spells just weren't MP efficient even for a mediocre melee character. They couldn't really compete well with White Mages or Black Mages early on because of the slightly slower spell gain and significantly lower MP pool. Late game, they are one of the most indestructible classes, capable of doing decent melee damage, the best debuffers, the best buffers, and more than capable of competing with White Mages and Black Mages (the Red Mage spell list is much smaller, but they do get the most commonly used spells from both classes).

*** Scholar is another example, starting very weak and becoming much more versatile late game. Early Scholar is basically a Black Mage with almost no spells, but Cure added to the list. Late game, not only can Scholar replace Black Mages or White Mages with ease, but they have several unique spells of their own that no other class can ever get.

** Averted in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' where the wizard and summoner classes are most potent in the early and mid game, but fall off a bit in the late game as you start to pick up increasingly powerful characters, most of whom are warrior types. The long charge times of magic, especially summons, also limit their usefulness. But if you've got a mage with [[Game Breaker|Calculator skills]], it's played straight again.

*** To elaborate, most magic-using classes rely on fairly finite MP to cast spells, which can have charge times ranging from immediate to longer than the battle is likely to last. The calculator skillset, however, allows the character to access most of the spells she has learned from many of the magic classes, including some of the more powerful ones, and apply them to enemies instantly at any range without the expense of MP, provided said enemy meets the criteria of a player-generated mathematical "formula." This potentially allows mages to throw veritable nukes into enemy numbers or heal all their allies at once. It's somewhat limited by the calculator class's turtle speed and poor magic stat, but this is easily overcome by giving a black mage (a class with a very high magic stat and decent speed) calculator as a second class.

** Completely subverted in Nocturne though, as there, magic attacks actually get weaker the higher your level is, whilst physical attacks get stronger with level.

*** And nevermind the fact that you can only reliably damage the [[True Final Boss]] with physical attacks.

* [[Defense of the Ancients]]: Inverted with style. Early game is rocked by mages, late-game a single warrior can take out five mages.

* In [[League of Legends]], linear- and quadratic-ness depend entirely on the champion you are playing: unlike DotA, spellcasters DO scale with items. As a general rule of thumb, carries are moderately strong early and mid and dominate late, but tend to be very squishy to compensate, casters (including physical casters) are strong early and mid game, but fall off late and assassins are weak early, but dominate mid game and are still a threat late. Played straight with bruisers, who are generally strong in early and mid game, but lose effectiveness as enemy champions gain the means to actually take them down.

* It's tough to start as a wizard in ''[[Gothic|Gothic 2]]''. You don't even get any spells for the first third of the game, so get ready to use light swords and run very fast. But, if you stick with it, the later bosses become ridiculously easy. A properly built wizard can kill the last dragon in three shots, before he can even attack you.

* Normally used in the ''[[Avernum]]'' series, where priests and mages tend to become demigods in the second half in the games, vastly overshadowing the warriors' usefulness. Averted, however, in ''Avernum 6'', by having quadratic wizards ''and'' quadratic warriors. With the introduction of dual-wielding, a properly built fighter is the best source of single-target damage in the game.

** You can also get the best ending if you have very high charisma...which is extremely easy for mages since they have a spell that greatly increases their charisma. Planescape also gives an additional advantage for spellcasters by being much more dialogue-oriented than most RPGs. There's only 4 mandatory fights in the entire game; everything else can either be bypassed or solved through diplomacy. Because of this, intelligence, wisdom and charisma are extremely useful stats, as they allow you to get the best dialogue options. Mages will by definition have high intelligence, should have enough character building points left over to also boost their wisdom, and can learn the aforementioned spell to boost their charisma.

* The ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' series embraces this trope. Might-oriented heroes are good in short games or as scouts or garrison leaders, but heroes with a lot of Spell Power throwing level 5 spells tend to dominate the late game. This is reflected in the different types of town: Those associated with Mighty heroes like the Barbarian build up fast, but those associated with extreme magic users tend to take longer to build up but get the most powerful creatures like Titans or Black Dragons.

** At harder difficulties, everything is pretty much immune to those abilities until their primary defense is stripped, making the direct damage classes (Infiltrator and Soldier) the best.

*** That said, leveling the Warp power, taking Energy Drain as your secondary power and picking the Assault or Sniper Rifle when on the Collector ship it is possible to build an Adept that can deal death at all levels.

* Used to a degree in [[Dawn of War]] 2: Retribution with the Chaos campaign. The Chaos Sorcerer, Neroth, is frustratingly useless early on. You will lose count of how often you've had to stop and drag his [[Squishy Wizard]] rump off the ground. However later in the game with the right skills and equipment, he can decimate entire hordes of enemies single handedly, firing off two massive clouds of doombolts for a single casting or sending three huge fireballs at the enemy, automatically firing off flurries of doombolts periodically and more depending on what spells you've given him. However your other heroes can thankfully still hold their own towards the end.

* The [[World of Mana]] has a love/hate relationship with this trope, depending on what game you're playing.

** [[Sword of Mana]], a remake of [[Final Fantasy Adventure]], plays it straight unintentionally, mostly through the introduction of a slew of [[Good Bad Bugs]].

** [[Legend of Mana]] and [[Children of Mana]] both invert the formula ''hard''. In former, magic is almost always weaker than just smacking something with physical attacks, and in the latter, well...at least you have the capability of [[Healing Hands|healing magic.]]

* Played almost painfully straight in ''[[Majesty]]''. When your wizards are low-level, expect to hear their "I'm melting!" death cry very often. However, as the occasional lucky wizard survives a little longer (or keeps getting resurrected), and if you keep the library well-stocked with new spells, they quickly turn into apocalyptic forces that are only stymied by the rare magic-resistant enemy. About the only thing faster for clearing a group of enemies is to set a high bounty and then spam the barbarian god's berserk spell on your units, which gets very expensive very fast.

* Inverted in ''[[Vindictus]]''. Mage character [[Cute Witch|Evie]] is easily the most powerful character at low levels, due to her strong magic shields and powerful ranged magic attacks. Her quick evasion skills also helps compensate for her lack of defensive ability, since all low-level bosses being [[Might Glacier]] types. As the game progresses and strong [[Lightning Bruiser]] bosses become more common, Evie's defenses do not scale as quickly, thus it becomes progressively harder to solo. By comparison, the other characters get heavier armour and develop powerful defense and attack skills that make them far more survivable against later bosses, with Tank Fiona and Scrapper Karok becoming the predominant solo characters.

* [[Global Agenda]] has the Assault class, an absurd tank and a good destroyer, depending on build, but is nearly useless at low levels. The most sought-after teammate class (exceeding even the medic!) at higher levels.

 

 

== Web Comics ==

** Note that Vaarsuvius contributed more to the battle than the entire rest of the order together (except Belkar, who got ahold of an at-will fireball attack), and V only fled after the battle was already lost and invisibility was the only spell s/he had left.

** In the commentaries to one of the books, Rich admits that Vaarsuvius is, by this point (the party is around level 13 or 14) pretty much a living god, capable of single-handedly affecting the outcome of the battle. Having him/her get knocked off the wall and be unable to rejoin the others was an intentional plot to limit V's impact.

 

== Western Animation ==

 

 

== Real Life ==

** Even better, soldiers have been kicking ass since the first wedge became the first knife...then [[wikipedia:J. Robert Oppenheimer|this guy]] figured out how to [[Nuke'Em|flatten a city with a single bomb]]. [[Jerk Jock|Jerk Jocks]] have been attempting to drown nerds in toilets ever since; break 'em when they're young, or muscles will [[The Singularity|truly become redundant!]]

** Speaking of physicists, to quote ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'', "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space." Throwing stuff ''really'' hard and counting on it not slowing down may be a warrior move, but it took a wizard to come up with it (and more wizards to implement it).