Cast from Hit Points: Difference between revisions
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Some fantasy settings have this as their standard system of magic. In those cases, the process will typically exact a price significantly less than the life of the caster. Particularly common in settings featuring magic which has limits and obeys [[Magic A Is Magic A|scientific]] (or [[Hand Wave|pseudo]]-[[Applied Phlebotinum|scientific]]) principles to some degree. A common form of the [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] if the [[Power At a Price|costs]] are [[The Dark Arts|exceptionally steep.]]
Not every [[Taking You with Me]] spell involves casting from HP. A parting shot may hurt the caster, but unless it is the act of casting that damages the caster, it doesn't qualify as casting from HP. When there is no way to recover at all from the loss, it is then [[Cast From Lifespan]]. You can usually be healed after you
Compare [[Living Battery]]. Polar opposite of [[Mana Shield]].
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* [[Sailor Moon]] has the Silver Crystal's use as this. Queen Selenity died from it's use, as has Sailor Moon [[Death Is Cheap|several times]].
** One occasion in the manga being so severe, Sailor Moon's ''entire body disintegrated completely'', she get better of course (because of the Galaxy Cauldron and the 'rebirth wave' she initiated), but damn.
* [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] gives one of these to Nanoha in the third season. It's called the Blaster System and it boosts Nanoha's power and gives her a set of [[Attack Drone
* [[Sumomomo Momomo]] in the final few episodes, sort of. {{spoiler|Koushi and Momoko were both poisoned, but Momoko was poisoned later than Koushi. However, due to her fighting it has sped up the poison and Momoko passes out due to the effects before Koushi does.}}
* In [[Mahoromatic]], Mahoro's most powerful weapon (usually manifesting as a plasma-like flame on her fist) is directly powered by her life force. Since her energy is running low to begin with, using it shortens her remaining lifespan dramatically. Mercilessly made explicit by the "Days until Mahoro stops functioning" counter that is shown after every episode. There will always be a significant drop in numbers whenever she uses it.
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** Similarly, [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=144 Channel] is a direct-example of this trope, allowing you to trade life for mana. It was a vital part of the Channel/[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=197 Fireball] combo, one of the first known [[One-Hit Kill|First Turn victory hands]].
** The ''New Phyrexia'' set introduces "Phyrexian mana" (the symbol for which looks a bit like phi ɸ), which can be paid with either one mana of the appropriate colour or 2 life.
* For the most part, whenever a card effect in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game]]'' requires a cost to activate, it's generally one of two things: a discard from your hand or deck or a payment of life points. Considering that the loss of either resource in their entirety means game over for you, this is very much a
** The third is typically the sacrifice of a monster, which also fits, even if it's not ''your'' hit points you're using.
** The Lightsworn-archetype Deck uses the first type, as several of the monsters and spell/trap cards discard two to three cards from the top of your deck after activation or at the end of every turn. The recently added Psychic-type monsters normally drain Life Points to use their effects, but there are also a few that give some back.
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** This is more of a [[Taking You with Me]] as the death curse doesn't kill the wizard, it's what wizards do when someone kills them.
*** It may be both- there is a passage in one of the more recent books which actually describes the 'mechanism' behind Death Curses which states that the reason a Death Curse is so powerful is that it uses ''all the energy in the wizard's body, including that keeping him alive''. Survival instinct is the usual reason that wizards don't cast it unless they're dying anyway, and unless they're being murdered they don't really have a motive to curse someone that they could take care of in some other fashion. If a wizard is sufficiently angry and no longer cares if he survives, he can cast his Death Curse anyway, and it ''will'' kill them. Harry almost does this before being snapped out by another character.
** There's also the use of Soulfire, which allows a caster to infuse some of their own soul into their spells to boost the power and effect of the spell. Unlike Hellfire, however, Soulfire isn't destructive, but rather constructive. {{spoiler|Harry ends up using Soulfire to generate a powerful hand-like construct of force to beat the hell out of a Denarian spellcaster.}} The drawback behind using Soulfire, of course, is that it uses ''your soul'' as the fuel to empower your spells. Partially drained souls in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' universe do regenerate, and pretty quickly if you do soul-affirming
** Also, for ghosts, just about any form of attack besides [[Good Old Fisticuffs]] is one of these. This becomes a major plot point in [[Ghost Story]] when an important character becomes one.
* In [[The Wheel of Time]], channeling results in physical and mental fatigue, depending on the amount and duration of the channeling. In extreme examples, channelling have "pushed" themselves past usual levels, but it puts them at the risk of losing the ability to channel, or, in extreme cases, death.
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* All spells in ''[[Wind Of The Forelands]]'' cost life energy, apparently of the nonreplaceable type. This, incidentally, is why the resident [[Witch Species]] is [[Squishy Wizard|so frail]].
** Mages from ''The [[Magister Trilogy]]'' are the same way, though the titular Magisters are those who have learned how to cast from ''other people's'' HP.
* [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series]]'' features magic as multiverse trickery invoked by high-level mathematics, with a nicely [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] reference to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and good ol' Schrodinger's Cat to explain why the more powerful spells require human sacrifice. While [[Fridge Logic|the reasoning breaks down a bit]] for smaller spells that
** Beyond this, you can "run" a spell in your head as long as you don't mind some minor [[Eldritch Abomination]] taking a small bite out of your brain. Doing this too often, even accidentally, results in Kranzberg's syndrome and a permanent trip to [[Bedlam House|St. Hilda's]]
* How the [[Physical God|Returned]] work in ''[[Warbreaker]]''. Most people in that world have an energy called Breath that can be used to fuel magic, but if it's completely drained they just lose magical ability (and a certain degree of keenness of the senses) until they can aquire more from someone else. The Returned, however, are kept alive by one immensely powerful Breath- this allows them to perform miracles beyond the capacity of ordinary magic, for the cost of their life. {{spoiler|The sword Nightblood, resident [[Artifact of Doom]], also functions like this, drawing on the Breaths of its wielder to fuel its powers. If the wielder runs out of Breaths while still using the sword, the results... aren't pretty}}.
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* In [[Warhammer Fantasy]] Ogre Butchers can cast a variety of Gut Magic. Along with the normal requirements of spells, they sometimes require the Butcher to inflict bodily harm on themselves. In particular the Trollguts spell, which is the best out of the 6 available to the Ogres, but permanently takes off one health from the caster that cannot be regenerated in any way (whereas the other ones are usually avoidable unless you displease the [[Random Number God]], and can be regenerated with another spell).
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', as usual.
** The psionics in AD&D used a spell-point system even when the actual spellcasters use [[Vancian Magic]]. Since an ability like
** 3E supplement ''[[Epic Level Handbook]]'' several extremely powerful spells, such as Hellball and Let Go of Me, work this way. The greatest example of this, however, is Vengeful Gaze of God, which deals 305d6 damage to an opponent while dealing 200d6 damage to the caster, who suffers from bleeding eyes and convulsing skin and, most of the time, dies. This spell will almost always kill anyone and anything it is used against, excluding the most powerful of monsters, who simply ''might'' be killed by it.
** 3E ''Fiendish Codex II'' offers the [[Hellfire]] Warlock, which upgrades the warlock's standard attack from "kinda okay" to "nuclear inferno" at the cost of 1 Constitution drain per shot. Since Constitution affects both current and maximum HP, it's generally a good idea to have someone on standby with a restoration spell or a cheap wand of lesser restoration with the spell provided by a Paladin (it is even suggested in the fluff).
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*** 3.5 ''Complete Arcane'' replaced it hit points damage with Constitution.
*** And the 4e Blood Mage paragon path allows you to take damage to deal as much extra with encounter and daily spells. This was so abusable it needed to be nerfed with errata. Twice.
** In ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' from AD&D era some of more formidable spells involved sacrifice of the caster's hit
*** And the Drow sometimes have "body weapon" enchantments as a last-ditch defence. These usually involve the loss of a body part. E.g. [http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Jalynfein Jalynfein] by [[Fingore|breaking a finger]] and saying a word could fire a burst of 24 [[Magic Missile
** ''[[Spelljammer]]'' spell "Create Atmosphere" involves permanent hit point sacrifice from the caster. It makes a ''cubic mile''/level of the air self-renewing for more than a year, after all.
** The 4th Edition Bloodclaw Weapon would let you pay a small amount of HP with every attack, which then would be doubled or tripled if the attack hit. This ended up being so much more powerful than other weapon enchantments (especially for Fighters and Barbarians, which get more HP than other classes) that it was nerfed to a once-per-battle use and it STILL managed to be usable.
*** The Blackguard subclass of the Paladin from Heroes of Shadow uses a variant of this mechanic as well, which is powerful enough to be their entire Striker damage bonus.
* The previous edition (using the Revised Core Rulebook) of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' RPG rules generally had Force powers cost vitality (the system's version of Hit Points) to activate. If you didn't have enough vitality, you could even use wound points (representing real and
* In the cooperative play game ''Middle-Earth Quest'', your hero deck is also your 'life pool.' Any card you play in combat, or even to move around the map, costs you a hitpoint.
* In the German tabletop RPG ''Das Schwarze Auge'' (aka ''The Dark Eye''), every magic user can do this, but not without consequences, usually additional damage. Excessive use of this in one of the novels leads to a mage permanently losing his ability to use magic. Later on, he uses a magic sword that also drinks from his [[Life Energy]], losing fingers on his good hand as a result.
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** Various spells throughout the series (starting with ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'s'' "Pep Up") sacrifice the caster to greatly replenish others in the party. Cue some WTF moments when the user is the only person in the party (Strago or Sabin in the Coliseum).
* In the ''[[Lost Kingdom]]'' games, you'll start using health for the cost of cards instead of [[Green Rocks|magic stones]]. In the second game, you could cast yourself to death if you use too much health since the first game left you with some mercy health if you overcasted (and it fixed possible [[Game Breaker|Game Breaking]] too).
* In the Free-to-Play MMO [[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons Online:
* Warlocks in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' have a spell called Life Tap that converts health into mana. Coupled with a number of [[Life Drain]] abilities [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|that do just what they say,]] and a recently added spell that lets them evocate back to full health in a matter of seconds, this makes warlocks the only spell-casting class that never, ever needs to stop to drink. "That's the great thing about being a warlock... you don't have to eat; you don't have to drink; [[Super Not-Drowning Skills|you don't even have to BREATHE.]] You can subsist entirely on the suffering of your enemies."
** They also have the spells Hellfire (which burns them as well as everything around them) and health funnel (transfers health from the caster to his demon), the only spells in the game that damage the user. Thus making them the only class (aside from Paladins, see below;) which could suicide themselves on demand, an ability with more practical uses than you'd think.
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* A few examples from the ''[[Diablo]]'' series:
** The spells Bone Spirit and Blood Star in the original ''Diablo'' drain both mana and hit points when cast. Their spell icons are red to signify this.
** There's a curse that forces this on characters from ''[[Diablo II]]''. Very nasty for [[Squishy Wizard
*** Specifically, the spell that does this causes one of two curses. If mana is greater than life, cast from HP curse shuts down the squishier players in short order. If life is greater than mana, however, it just causes a reduction to defense scores (the game's math is such that "defense" is rarely practical by the time this curse comes around, especially for the squishy ones). Since the effect is determined by the one creature it is cast on, rather than every creature in the effected area, teamwork tactics quickly reduce the threat this curse presents from "screwed" to "not good"
**** Those are two different curses. The first only works if you have more mana than life. Otherwise, you won't ever encounter it.
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** Making it a surprisingly effective defense if you only turn it on when getting hit by a high-damage attack...
* ''[[Parasite Eve]] 2'' had a Berserk status ailment that follows this trope. When Aya is beserked, using her weapons will sap her HP. Spells require HP to be used instead of MP, but the casting cost is doubled. While Berserk increases Aya's weapon power and levels up her parasite powers by 1, the HP cost that follows may not be worth it.
* Strangely warped in ''[[Harvest Moon|Rune Factory]]''. Nearly every action costs RP, but if you have none left, it will drain HP instead. The only thing you ''can't''
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Force Unleashed]]'' gives the character a rechargeable "force gauge" to measure how much force powers they can freely use. If you run out, points are reduced from hit points instead. This same system is used when the characters crossover into ''[[Soul Calibur]] IV''.
* In ''[[F-Zero]] X'' and GX/AX, [[Nitro Boost
* Inverted in ''[[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall]]''. Your character has a chance of absorbing the magicka (mana) of the spell being slung at him and add it to his own reserves but, if you absorb much more magicka than you have capacity for, you die.
* The Dominus Glyphs in ''[[Castlevania]]: Order of Ecclesia'' consume HP when used. {{spoiler|Equipping all three and casting them as a Union Glyph [[Forbidden Chekhov's Gun|will kill you outright. Usually]].}}
* The Sigil in ''[[Strife]]'' is the most powerful weapon in the entire game. Its ammo is your hitpoints of course, and it uses more when you upgrade it by finding the other pieces of it.
* [[Iji]]: If you manage to {{spoiler|[[Pacifist Run|avoid killing anything]] in the entire game}}, a NPC will leave behind the Massacre to help you in the final boss fight. Each shot takes one Health to fire, but the damage dealt is only slightly less than what you'd deal with [[Playing Tennis With the Boss|reflected shots]].
* While not specifically magic per se, the [[Blood Knight|Warrior class]] from [[Maple Story]] gains skills that, in exchange for Attacking Multiple Enemy's in a Single Attack, required payment from both HP and
** And in an inversion, the [[Squishy Wizard|Mage class]] gains a defensive buff that allows them to redirect up to 80% of the damage they receive to their MP.
** The Melee-based Brawler path of the Pirate class also learns a skill that converts HP into MP. The higher level the skill, the less HP you have to use to gain MP.
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* In ''[[Arcanum]]: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura,'' magic is kind of funny. There's no mana meter, per se, instead there's a blue "fatigue" meter which gets used up if you overdo physical actions, take blunt weapon hits, ''and'' is used up when you cast magic. An unwise spellcaster can cast themselves into unconsciousness rather quickly. So magic, in this game, doesn't kill you by casting it, but it does take a physical toll on you and if you overdo it you will wind up getting killed anyway by all the enemies piling onto your unconscious body.
* Top-down MMO space shooter Subspace is all about this. Firing bullets, launching bombs, leaving mines, and using your afterburner all drain your shield energy, which [[Good Thing You Can Heal|regenerates slowly]].
* Although ''[[Nethack]]'' characters themselves can't cast from hit points, wands
* Iari's Golemn spells in ''[[Summoner]] 2'' use HP, and explosion knocks her out. If you've got the right gems equipped, it's virtually the only way to kill her late in the game, so make sure you have it if you take her into Survival in the Arena, or you'll be there forever.
* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', {{spoiler|Axel}} puts his whole being into an attack and <s> dies</s> [[He's Just Hiding|takes a nap.]]
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* Some [[Black Magic]] spells in the first ''[[Spellforce]]'' can literally be cast from [[Hit Point]] (and a little mana). Their effect is the same as another [[Black Magic]] spell, which does a huge amount of damage, but cost a lot of mana and have a long cooldown.
* In ''[[SaGa Frontier 2]]'', once your characters run out of [[Mana Points|WeaponPoints or SpellPoints]], they'll lose their Life Points (which are different from regular [[Hit Points]].) Using skills or techniques can permanently kill the character once Life Points run out.
* In the original ''[[Saga Frontier]]'', there's a couple spells that certain characters can get that cost Life Points to buy. Seeing as most characters only get seven or eight of these
* Early on in ''[[Blood Rayne]] 2'', Rayne comes across a pair of supposedly legendary anti-vampire handguns called the Carpathian Dragons. Since they process blood for ammo, you reload them by draining mooks (which you also have to do to heal yourself, so you now have to balance keeping your health and ammo topped up). The Dragons can still be fired if their reservoirs run empty, but they'll drain blood directly from Rayne - which means that each shot saps a little of your health.
* [[Tier-Induced Scrappy|Infamously]], Pichu from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee''.
* In ''[[Atelier Rorona]]'', all special abilities and spells are this.
* Playing the Vampire race/class in ''[[Desktop Dungeons]]'' causes spells to be cast from your health instead of mana.
* ''[[Amea]]'' applies this by aversion of [[Required Secondary Powers]]
* In ''[[Fate/stay night|Fate Stay Night]]'', Servants are made of mana. Using their special techniques/Noble Phantasms uses up mana. If they use them too much, or use them when weakened or otherwise injured then there is a risk of burning themselves out. Luckily, most Masters constantly supply their Servants with mana, and only a truly incompetant Master (*cough*Shirou*cough*) would have to rely on [[Deus Sex Machina]] to start the mana-transfer.
* In the BYOND game ''[[Nestalgia]]'', which is an online game inspired by early 8-bit RPGS, has a warlock class which uses HP for spells. One spell, shift, consumes health from the warlock and restores the health of another party member.
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