No Self-Buffs: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Strangely often, the magician, witch, wizard, [[Religion Is Magic|cleric]], [[Evil Sorcerer]], [[Mad Scientist]], [[An Adventurer Is You|support class]], etc. have the ability to bestow strange and amazing transformations, alterations, [[Magic and Powers|powers]] and [[Status Buff|buffs]] on other people, for whichever reason, but are unable to use their amazing powers to directly benefit themselves. Though rather thematic, it doesn't seem to be directly mentioned in most [[Fairy Tales]] and mythologies, even when it is implied.

== [[Literature]] ==

* In the book ''[[The Candy Shop War]],'' magicians can't usually use their magic on themselves for a number of reasons. The most prominent is that magic works better on the young, and by the time you're old enough to understand magic, you're not a kid anymore.

* In the ''Spellsong Cycle'', magicians cannot cast magic on themselves. They can, however, cast magic on ''each other''.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series the Aes Sedai can not use their powers (mostly Healing) on themselves. This is explained by the magic needing to "weaved" and "applied" to someone. In this way its impossible to to lay a weave upon yourself as you would be unable to properly see it. It's a pity they couldn't use mirrors or bend light or something to get around that ... other than that, it's a pretty consistent rule: there's an anecdote about an Aes Sedai whose mental block (Wilders often acquire these when learning to keep a lid on their powers on their own) was that she couldn't touch the Source with her eyes open. Naturally, this made her rather ineffective.

== [[Video Games]] ==

** Mostly averted in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', any spell which can buff a target can buff the caster (indeed some default to buffing the caster if there is no target).

*** A few exceptions exist where the caster can only cast a buff on someone else, but the effects of the buff also benefit the caster. One example would be [http://www.wowhead.com/spell=54646 Focus Magic], which increases the target's [[Critical Hit]] chance by 3%, and when they score one increases your own. A fairly common variant is a spell cast on the casters minion by default that directly or indirectly benefits the caster as well.

*** With the introduction of Deathknights, Death Coil returns as a spell that can be used to damage enemies or heal friendly undead, most commonly the Deathknights Ghoul minion. However, they can temporarily become undead themselves and use this spell to heal themselves.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' naturally has the support powersets mainly only able to buff others, though some can also buff themselves; sometimes while debuffing or damaging enemies in the process, sometimes in a power that affects all of their teammates, including themselves. The reasons for this are obvious; even two buffers looking after each other can be a very effective team.

** Very slightly averted with the Kritzkrieg, which allows the Medic to heal himself with the taunt, although it's much slower than the usual healing rate and leaves him wide open to attacks. However, its Ubercharge effect is completely [[No Self-Buffs]] since the medic cannot take advantage of it.

** The Engineer benefits less from his dispenser than other classes, as metal generation is limited while ammo is not, even though the two are interchangeable when it comes to picking up dropped weapons and ammo boxes.

* ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' introduces Heal Pulse, which heals a target other than the user. It's made for double battles.

** Which does nothing to abate the guilt when a wild Audino spams it on you while you're [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|beating the crap out of the poor thing for precious EXP]].

* In ''[[Gaia Online|zOMG!]]'', the strongest and most stamina-effective heal is Wish... which can't be used on the user. Previously, this was also the case with Rock Armor, which has since been changed.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

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