Mage Killer: Difference between revisions

A [[Mage Killer]] is basically a [[Badass Normal]] whose capabilities of dealing with mages are somehow improved. He can [[Anti -Magic|resist harmful spells]], [[Power Nullifier|prevent enemies from using them]] or [[Attack Reflector|reflect them back to enemies]], for example. Anyway, enemies can't possibly defeat him with magic, and as a [[Badass Normal]] the [[Mage Killer]] has a major physical advantage over [[Squishy Wizard|mages with no combat prowess]] (that is, 95% of mages). His additional ablities may involve detecting magic or tracking its users. Sometimes he may even use magic, but very rarely, and not the usual earthquakes and meteors, but something subtle or [[Mana Burn|affecting only mages]]. If a [[Mage Killer]] is a member of an order who specializes in hunting mages, his anti-magic abilities are very likely to be [[Charles Atlas Superpower|a result of specific training]]. Anyway, a [[Mage Killer]] is usually very similar to a [[Magic Knight]], [[Dissimile|only with anti-magic instead of magic]]. When they run into [[Magic Knight|Magic Knights]] or [[Kung Fu Wizard|Kung Fu Wizards]], they've got problems.

Note that [[Anti -Magic]] is a ''power'' and [[Mage Killer]] is a ''character'' who fights mages and has abilities for that.

{{examples|Examples:}}

* Story of ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' basically revolves around this trope: Touma has the "Imagine Breaker", both a [[Power Nullifier]] and an [[Anti -Magic]], which he uses in one way: fist to face.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' has the voxyn, who were made by Yuuzhan Vong to hunt Force users. They could blanket their presence in the Force, but otherwise had no [[Anti -Magic]] powers, but they compensated for it by ability to track Force-sensitives and some other useful abilities like having a neurotoxin for blood, acid breath, etc.

* The Wardens in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' are wizards who are also specialists in both fighting supernatural forces and in taking down "warlocks" (in other words, rogue wizards who abuse their powers). To that end they have special training in combating warlocks, and carry specially-crafted swords that [[Anti -Magic|undo enchantments and magical constructs with a touch.]]

** [[The Dresden Files]] has a number of examples of this. The [[One -Man Army|mercenary Kincaid]] always brings special weapons to his battles, including exploding-tipped spears and paint guns that shoot holy water balls. He's also [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], and explains to Harry that the way to kill him without falling prey to his [[A Plague On Both Your Houses|death curse]] would be sniping him from a thousand yards away, killing him before he even notices the shot. {{spoiler|It works. [[Only Mostly Dead|But Harry gets better,]] [[Memory Gambit|to his dismay]].}}

** D&D 3.5 has a few prestige classes suited to this: the Mage Slayer, which gains a lot of damage potential against spellcasters but gets no magical powers of its own, and the Suel Archanamach, which is more like a special policeman who uses his limited [[Anti -Magic]] spellcasting power and martial prowess to keep mages in line.

*** The Silencer, from ''[[Dota 2 (Video Game)|Dota 2]]''. His backstory states that he's the end product of centuries of carefully picked pairings to create the most powerful mage to ever live. Growing up, he showed no special talents or abilities, causing other children to mock him. And on the day of testing he used the one spell he developed, [[Anti -Magic|Silence]], [[Brought Down to Normal|bringing all the other students down to normal]] so he could kick their asses in single combat.

** More specifically, he was trained in ways to kill Jedi, or capture them and [[Cold -Blooded Torture|torture them into insanity]] and [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|make them fall to the Dark Side.]] And he wasn't the only one either; he was part of a squad.

* [[Casting a Shadow|Dark]] [[Combat Pragmatist|type]] [[Pokémon]] were introduced in ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver (Video Game)|Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' to counter the [[Game Breaker]] [[Psychic Powers|Psychic]] type. They are outright [[No Sell|immune]] to Psychic attacks and their attacks do [[Elemental Rock -Paper -Scissors|double damage.]] They invoke the [[Badass Normal]] feel of this trope by appearing to be ordinary animals.

** Note though, that they don't have any kind of [[Anti -Magic]]. They mostly deal with humanoid [[SC Ps]] with a combination of psychology, cleverness, [[We Have Reserves]], and [[More Dakka]]. {{spoiler|Except Dr. Clef. He uses reality warping to cancel reality warping, and ''then'' uses psychology, cleverness, class Ds, and big guns.}}