Standard Status Effects: Difference between revisions

== Poison / Plague / Bleeding ==

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

** It seems to depend on the character poisoned. So far, all the strictly human characters take gradual damage from poison. Soma (the {{spoiler|reincarnation of Dracula}}) and Alucard (A [[Dhampyr]]) Are immune to the damage, but still get lowered stats.

* In ''[[Light Crusader]]'', poison switches around controls instead of sapping health.

== [[Fighting Game]] ==

** Additionally, if Olimar throws a white Pikmin at an opponent and hits them, they'll take constant damage until the Pikmin is knocked off.

== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[Hack and Slash]] ==

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' has Poison, Disease, and Bleeding. Overall, some status effects in the game get their own mechanic, "conditions". Only one condition of a particular type can be on a character at a time, and conditions effect and are effected by certain skills, separate from other buffs and debuffs.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' lacks actual "poison" effects, but does offer a good deal of "toxic" damage which do basically the same thing, and actually stand in for poison a lot of the time. Their function is simple - apply additional damage over time for some time after the initial effect lands.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' uses Poison as a debuff status: Players afflicted with it only deal about half damage and cannot heal, and poisoned enemies suffer reduced attack and defense, and will take minor damage if a heal is used on them.

* [[World of Warcraft]] Has this all over. The Affliction Warlocks and Feral Cat Druids are desgined to take down enemies his way.

== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==

* Introduced in Patapon 3, poisoned units will have purple bubbles floating over them. Some items can be used to prevent or cause this status.

* [[Pandemic]] is about seeing how many people you can infect with Plague, and choosing the symptoms, infection vectors, and making it deadly without being especially noticeable.

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' actually has several varieties of poison - apart from the normal variety, there's also nausea (which combines Poison and ''Blindness''), sunstroke, and (ahem) a chest cold.

* In the early ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' games poison only prevents the afflicted character from healing damage (until PSIV, where it does damage.)

* ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'' includes a standard Poison effect that drains your health a bit every so often.

* There are two varieties of poison in the ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series: poisoned and envenomed. The difference between the two? Poisoned characters are only damaged when walking outside of battle. Envenomed characters take damage both in and out of battle.

* The ''[[Golden Sun]]'' RPG series has two kinds of Poison Status effects. One is called poison, which shows as cloud puffs that look like green skulls to appear as if it is leaking from your opponent's head, and inflicts about 10% of the victim's max HP in damage each time they act (which gets even more dangerous to bosses that move two or three times each round) as well as Venom Status, which shows pretty much the same as Poisoned, only it does twice the damage and instead of the skulls being green, they are a sickly-looking orange-red.

* Standard in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games. Notable in that it's rather easy to poison enemies (as easy as it is for them to poison you), it deals very considerable damage, and that left untreated, you ''will'' die. Sometimes it comes paired with ''[[Game Breaker|Pestilence]]'', an attack designed ''specifically'' as a [[One-Hit Kill]] for poisoned characters.

** The Sword of Wounding causes bleeding that drains 1 HP per round for 10 rounds (minutes).

* ''[[GURPS]]'' poisons are modeled fairly conventionally, in that they damage you in cycles of a defined length, and wear out after some number of cycles. However, while poisons ''normally'' deal the "toxic" damage type, there is nothing stopping them from dealing burning or crushing damage, and they can have other effects linked to them, frequently in the form of a temporary disadvantage.

* [[Shadow Era]] has several cards that poison enemy heroes or allies, doing one damage a turn. The "Plague" card exists, but has a very different effect (takes away three resources from both players).

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

* ''[[Disgaea]]'''s version of poison is particularly nasty, as it chops off a set percentage of HP each turn. In the first game, it was somewhere in the ballpark of 10 to 15%, but later games ramped it up to 20%, which can be crippling without treating it.

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

** Thermal Shock, maybe?

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' has burning cause a large amount of health degeneration (7 arrows vs. 4 for poison and disease). Burn effects usually last for shorter times to compensate.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' has this as the standard life-draining status. Works the same way for both player and enemy, although one should avoid using Fire inflicting attacks when Oilers are about.

* Fire Mages and Destruction Warlocks in [[World of Warcraft]] both get abilities that tick away at the targets HP.

** Strangely enough, there is a Water-type attack (Scald) and an '''Ice-type''' attack (Ice Burn) that can inflict this.

** In the card game, Burned Pokémon take 20 damage between turns if a coin flip lands on tails.

* Burns in ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' continuously cause damage and will wear off after walking a certain length of time, depending on the severity of the burns. Also, simply being in the Volkenon Lava Pits will sap HP unless a Cooler potion is used. Having a certain piece of equipment will prevent both of these effects.

* In ''[[Radiata Stories]]'', characters who are burned will act normally but will occasionally jump up in pain from the flames until removed.

* In some of the ''[[World of Mana]]'' games (such as ''[[Secret of Mana]]''), being on fire results in continual, persistent damage in which your characters can't do anything until the flames stop.

* Characters can be set aflame in ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled''. It acts similarly to Poison, draining health over time, but generally wears off after a while whereas Poison tends to last the whole fight unless cured. Not so bad in itself, but it can actually deal good damage should you be Poisoned ''and'' on fire.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ==

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

== [[Fighting Game]] ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* The ''[[Fly FF]]'' Psykeeper can use Satanology, which increases in duration based on his Int stat, ''eventually lasting longer than the cooldown period''. In [[PvP]], a Psykeeper with enough Int. can cause a melee class to be demolished!

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' feature a pretty clear "stun vs. immobilize" mechanic, only stun also tends to limit the speed at which stunned characters can move at down to pretty much the slowest a character is allowed to move. Still just about fast enough to move out of a fire burning under your feet, but not nearly fast enough for you to get anywhere, or get away. Immobilize on the other hand allows the character to fight, either using ranged attacks or meleeing with an enemy close enough, but cannot move from their position.

** The game also features "Hold" powers, which prevent the target from being able to do anything at all and making them totally helpless.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' has the Shock status, which causes the afflicted to be paralyzed for a second (and take damage, although this is blockable) due to spasms from electricity going through their bodies. This is probably the most notorious status effect later on, due to enemies being able to constantly reapply the status leading to death via infinite spasm-lock.

** In the card game, Paralyzed Pokémon can't attack or retreat during its owner's turn. It's cured at the end of that turn.

* Some Tactical and Massively Multiplayer [[RPG|RPGs]] will split Paralysis into two types: one that keeps the victim from moving around the map (often referred to as '''Immobilize'''), and one that allows them to move, but keeps them from actually doing anything (often referred to as '''Stun''', but it is often also combined with Immobilization).

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' has Stun, which has an excellent chance at stopping the afflicted party from moving at all. Another version is Paralyze, which may be the result of an Electric attack that is not repelled, absorbed or nulled: the victim remains convulsing for the rest of the turn, leaving it defenseless and open to physical revenge (all attacks it receives while paralyzed count as Criticals, netting the enemy, either the player or the computer, more Press Turns).

* ''[[Earthbound]]'''s version doesn't let you make basic attacks, defend, or access your items; but you can still use [[Psychic Powers|PSI]]. Also an exception, it will last out of battle until you talk to a Healer at a hospital or use [[Healing Hands|PSI Healing]] Gamma/Omega.

* A Paralyzed character or enemy in ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'' will be totally unable to move or act, as their time bar is frozen for the duration of the effect.

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

* [[Nippon Ichi]] games' paralysis stops movement (but not actions) and reduces the affected character's speed to 1 (meaning that every attack against it automatically hits). An exception is made for ''[[Phantom Brave]]'', where paralysis halves speed (which affects how many turns the character gets) and movement range.

** Note that, since fist weapons (from game 2) and guns (game 3) also run off speed for their damage formula, this effectively cuts their attack power in half.

* ''[[Achaea]]'' characters sleep lying down, but can still see and hear almost everything going on around them while asleep. Sleep is used as per usual to regain hit points and sometimes to control opponents in combat - unusually, characters get tired, yawn and spontaneously fall asleep if kept awake for too long.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has a pretty standard sleep mechanic, in that characters put to sleep will sleep standing up, be unable to act, and stay asleep for a comparatively really long time. Sleeping characters can be woken up by dealing damage to them, which can create tension in teams when wide-area sleeps are followed by wide-area fireballs, or be woken up by healing them. Basically anything that alters hit points.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' has the "regenerate health while asleep" version of this status, although the reason you'll see the status is if someone needs to clear space for a better status vial, due to the only area with sleep-inducing monsters not being in the game (as of 5/15/11)

== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==

** The Dread Lord heroes also have a 'sleep' skill that does what it says on the tin.

* Patapons (and enemies/bosses) can be put to sleep with the right units and weapons, although it's rare to see a boss fall asleep.

* Sleep in the ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series tends to last for several turns, and it usually cannot be interrupted by physical attacks.

* In almost every ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' game, sleeping could be cured with brute force, so you could have your [[Squishy Wizard]] or [[White Mage]] smack the sleeping characters for little damage and wake them up.

* Appears in the more recent ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' games, in the usual style of being unable to do anything until struck or more rarely, waking on one's own. Victims use the same animation they would as if they were stunned.

* Appears in ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'', where the victim is unable to act for a lengthy period of time, and is guaranteed to be critically hit, but will wake up upon taking damage.

* ''GURPS'' Afflictions can incapacitate their target in a variety of ways. To get the effect that "sleep" usually has in RPGs, you want to Daze them; Unconsciousness makes them fall over, and they can't be woken up until it wears off, other magic effects notwithstanding.

* [[Disgaea]]'s version of sleep immobilizes the character. Said character can be woken up with any attack, but in return the attack will be treated as a [[Critical Hit]].

== Silenced ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* In ''[[Air Rivals|Ace Online]]'', I-gears can Silence enemy gears and block them from using their skills.

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' has a particularly nasty status condition called Dazed. Characters suffering from it take twice as long to cast their spells and said spells can be interrupted by any attack that hits them.

* In ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'', when you're Silenced your character gets a speech bubble with [[Visible Silence]] and you can't use any Skills--magical or physical (apparently skills require you to [[Calling Your Attacks|call your attacks]]?). For classes that rely mostly on magic like Wizards and Priests until this wears off you're screwed... especially if your Priest, who can Cure it, is silenced.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

** They seemed to have learnt, seeing how in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', being silenced prevents your character from using magic, abilities and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|saying their victory quotes at the end of the battle]].

** In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' a certain boss whistles for help at one point as part of his AI script (it's not a listed ability). The game even plays a whistling sound effect. Silencing the boss ([[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|not that you can at that point without cheating]]) prevents this.

* In ''[[Icewind Dale]]'', one of the first mini-bosses is an evil cleric who has things to say when she dies. Is she is Silenced at the time, the game is [[Game Breaking Bug|locked in a during-event state and it is impossible to save the game at all]].

* ''[[Persona 3]]'' refers to this as '''Panic''', where a character, well, panics and can't concentrate on using magic or summoning their Persona.

** The [[Shin Megami Tensei|main series]] also has the ailment, as Mute.

* ''[[Wild Arms]]'' games calls this "Misery" and it affects all Force abilities.

* ''[[Exile]]'' has {{color|lightgrey|''Dumbfounded''}}, where the character forgets their spells. This is to avoid the whole "Why can they speak?" issue.

** The game also has a ridiculous variant, ''fleas''.

* ''The [[Elder Scrolls]] IV: [[Oblivion]]'' enemies will often cast a single spell after being silenced and then attack you with a weapon, this can be due the fact silence only effects spells, not scrolls or greater/lesser powers.

* ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'' - Silenced characters cannot cast magic, but can still use physical techniques that consume SP as well as normal attacks. Combo-attacks are disabled if the Silenced character's half of the attack is magical based as well.

* The Arts Seal status in ''Xenoblade Chronicles'' prevents you from using any attacks or abilities other then basic auto-attack.

* ''[[GURPS]]'' has both Mana Damper and Neutralize. The former acts on the mana level of the area, perhaps an area consisting of only one person (if you take appropriate enhancements). Neutralize disables an advantage; this is something innate to the character, rather than a spell they learned. Neutralize is meant for use against ''psionic'' powers, which are ostensibly different from magic in that they're something a character does entirely with their mind, not requiring mana or magic words or any of that stuff; but if the GM allows it, there's nothing really stopping you from using Neutralize to cancel a sorcerer's ability to generate mana.

** Its cousin, Addled, blocks ''everything'', but it barely ever shows up.

** Silence also blocks off certain physical abilities like the Warriors Shout abilities. However, being silenced never actually makes characters or monsters unable to talk.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

** In later titles, it limits your field of vision to a tiny circle around your character. In the case of enemies, it just makes them attack in random directions at random times.

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' wins the award for the most ridiculous name for this status effect, which it calls "uncontrollable crying".

* ''[[Radiata Stories]]'' actually blurs and pixelates the screen when your character is afflicted with Blind, so neither the character ''nor the player'' can see what's going on.

* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' games, there are moves that reduce the opponent's accuracy, which usually involve throwing something in their eyes. Though like most stat modifications, this is canceled as soon as the victim is switched out or otherwise leaves the battle.

* Since the first three ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games factored in accuracy in damage calculation (since number of hits per attack is one of the more important factors), this status effect resulted more in dealing less damage.

* In ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'', Blind results in a pretty standard reduction to your accuracy. This can be especially frustrating when it hits the [[Designated Hero]] before he can use any magic.

* In the ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series characters can get "dazzled" from a variety of moves. It can be very frustrating as the only cure is patience.

* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' has the Delusion status, which reduces the affected creature's accuracy.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* Many ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games have the player capable of casting berserk on enemies as well as themselves. Perfect for preventing [[Squishy Wizard|weak enemy mages]] from casting their powerful spells.

* In the ''[[Persona]]'' series, Berserk actually ''is'' a negative status effect, since it also halves the afflicted character's defense power. And of course, [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|an enemy's ailment spells will nearly always hit you while yours rarely work]]. So if your dedicated healer, who usually has the lowest max HP of the group, is hit with Berserk...

** However, there is a boss in the game whose strategy revolves around Berserking your characters and decimating them with powerful physical attacks. But the boss is also weak against one of the three physical weapon types, specifically, Pierce! So equip your Main Character with a spear, bring Aigis, Ken, and Yukari and then watch the boss get torn apart. One is advised to keep at least one person free of Rage, however, because the boss also uses Megidolaon, and you need someone who can heal.

*** For bonus points, that boss is ''the final Tartarus boss''. What a way to end the dungeon.

** The [[Shin Megami Tensei|series]] also has a form of [[Practical Taunt]] which greatly boosts enemies' Attack while dropping their Defense to nothing.

*** [[Digital Devil Saga]] has a boss fight against Ravana ({{spoiler|Varin Omega/Colonel Beck}}), who uses an attack called Hunger Wave. This causes the party to sink into a form of Berserk that is actually gnawing hunger - either they lose health from starvation or turn on each other. None of your items or skills can cure it; only Sera's song can do so. Fortunately, she's watching the battle and will run in at the start of any round where a party member is suffering from it, using her song to cure one member of the party; unfortunately, since she has no combat ability, she can't risk staying for longer than necessary, and thus can only cure one party member at a time.

** The second generation games (Gold/Silver/Crystal) introduced Swagger, a move that increased the opponent's attack power and confused the opponent, thus increasing the amount of damage they take when they hurt themself. They also had the Berserk Gene item, which is found where Cerulean Cave used to be, and does the same thing as Swagger to the Pokemon that uses it.

** Also there is the move Taunt which prevents use of non-damaging moves.

* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' has a slightly different version of Berserk that works a little bit like the Confuse status (see below). It's not a status that can be directly inflicted; however, stay in battle too long and your characters ''will'' go Berserk once they run out of Sanity Points. Also, if you want the protagonist to learn his most powerful abilities, [[Guide Dang It|you have to let him go Berserk.]]

* In ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'', a Berserk character doesn't get any significant boost to their power, but cannot be controlled and will physically attack as they see fit. Most of the time, they manage to attack enemies, so it's not so bad until you find monsters that love to inflict Berserk while only being vulnerable to magical damage.

* ''[[Breath of Fire III]]'': While not so much a curable status effect, having Rei {{spoiler|transform into his Weretiger form}} will cause him to become ''much'' stronger but uncontrollable, having him only attack physically, and becoming increasingly likely to attack allies every turn he stays in that form. Luckily, you can easily fix this by using Influence, which is normally [[Useless Useful Spell|pretty useless]]. With it, however, you can use Influence to target a boss monster and have Rei [[Game Breaker|only attack them]] [[Useless Useful Spell|for the whole fight]].

* ''[[Suikoden III]]'' treats Berserk as a buff more than a [[Standard Status Effect]]: Berserked characters have amped-up attack and the rune that gives them the amped attack takes up a slot and...that's it. They can still be controlled normally and suffer no other hindrances. As a result, most players actively seek out the effect for as many characters that can spare the slot.

* You can take this as a ''character flaw'' in ''[[GURPS]]'', in which case you have to roll to avoid flying into a rage during a fight. Affliction attacks can give temporary disadvantages like this one.

* In ''[[Fire Emblem]]'', the berserk effect forces characters to attack whoever is closest to them, which usually means their own allies. This is especially problematic late in the game.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' has ''two'' versions of this ailment: the standard confusion (referred to as "feeling strange"), and "Mushroomization" doubles as a [[Interface Screw|Meta-Effect]] out of battle.

** Confusion in ''[[Final Fantasy]] X'' means that they ''can'' attack the enemy, but usually don't; this can lead to [[Hilarity Ensues|much hilarity]] when Wakka hits ''himself'' in the head with a petrifying blitzball and dies instantly.

** And then you've got the infamous [[Demonic Spiders|Malboros]], who in most games ''love'' inflicting this status and '''Berserk''' together. On ''all'' of your party members. All you can do then is pray that the first character who gets hit can survive the blow (which they ''rarely'' do); if not, the combination turns into the status effect equivalent of a [[Total Party Kill]].

** In the card game, if a confused Pokémon tries to attack, its owner must flip a coin. If the flip lands on tails, it does 30 damage to itself. Like in the games, switching it out cures it.

* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games, confuse has a chance of making the affected character do something... Well, really stupid. A common manifestation is inexplicably tossing macca everywhere or simply hurting themselves a la Pokemon.

* Suffering confusion in ''[[Radiata Stories]]'' will make your player character control awkwardly, and your attacks can damage your allies.

* Frenzy from ''[[Elder Scrolls]] [[Oblivion]]'' can be used to turn enemies against each other and even their own summoned creatures. Custom spells can have entire towns killing each other.

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

* ''[[Shining Force]]'' is a little more merciful with it's confusion: A lot of the time, the confused character just stands there and mumbles to himself.

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* There is a sort of Charm effect in ''[[Pokémon]]''; when a Pokemon is under the effects of the ''Infatuation'' status condition, there is a 50% chance that they will be unable to perform their attack (in which case they are "immobilized by love"). This condition is caused by the move Attract and the ability Cute Charm, and only affects Pokemon of the opposite gender (e.g, a female Pokemon who uses Attract on a male Pokemon, or is struck with a physical attack by a male Pokemon; genderless Pokémon and Pokémon with the ability Oblivious are completely immune to the effect).

* ''The'' worst possible effect to suffer in ''[[Persona 3]]'' and by extension the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series, especially if one of your healers gets hit. One of the most famous screw-yous in the game is if the final boss of the former hits your healer with Charm, and the healer in turn casts the full-heal Diarahan on it. To put it in perspective, the final boss's last form has 6000 hitpoints. Characters in your party should at this point deal about 150 damage per hit. And the charm-reheal cycle can theoretically go on forever.

* A Charmed character in ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'' will, as per standard, turn on your party. Luckily, they aren't very smart and tend to avoid using their more powerful spells and attacks.

* Called Enthralled in ''[[The Last Remnant]]'' (and the visual effect is the union being controlled by the enemy with marionette strings), the victim of this effect will attack your other unions and always kill them, since they do the same damage that you do controlling them. The only saving grace is that you can also kill them quite easily, and revive them in the same turn.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[GURPS]]'' has Mind Control for the usual, temporary version of this; it comes in degrees, so if you have to decide every last little thing your new puppet does, the advantage is worth fewer points. For vampires, zombies, and the like, the Dominance advantage will infect your enemy and make them your thrall, although to ''keep'' them as your thrall, you have to pay Character Points to get them as an Ally.

* Being frozen in ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' is easily cured- just get hit. The biggest problem is that it changes the character's element to Water for the duration of the effect, increasing damage from Wind based attacks.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has three versions of being frozen; one simply renders you unable to move (but does not prevent other actions), while the second is this trope. In most cases, it immediately wears off upon receiving any damage. Mages deserve special mention for being able to freeze ''themselves'' in a block of ice, clearing all debuffs and becoming invulnerable for up to 10 seconds, at the cost of being unable to act. The third type, used primarily by bosses, encases the target in a block of ice that must be destroyed via attacks to free the player. If not broken, the player will stay in there more or less forever (or at least until the encounter ends).

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' has a bit of a merciful Freeze: You may not move or change direction but can still attack and shield, and recovery is as simple as being hit by anything or thawing naturally. A great crowd control status, though, as frozen monsters are effectively out of the fight, and monsters actually take decent damage if they thaw.

* In ''[[Command and Conquer]]'', any frozen unit/building can be shattered and killed by even the most pitiful attack. In one hit.

** This is probably more realistic than it seems for sufficiently-frozen things (and it would have to be ''cold'' to freeze something that quickly), since the bonding breaks down at low temperatures. If you ever get the chance, dip a piece of something soft like an orange or a rubber hose in a tub of liquid nitrogen and throw it at the wall.

** It ''does'' slow them down, but presumably they are moving too much to freeze solid.

* In all 3 Patapon games, Patapons, enemies, and bosses can get frozen and will not move from their place until cured or killed.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* Certain Fire type attacks allow the frozen ''[[Pokémon]]'' to free themselves... but freezing moves are unlikely to be used on them in the first place. In fact, Freeze is the least seen standard status effect in the Pokemon games, as it has no dedicated high-accuracy move and is only found as a low-percentage side effect of most Ice moves.

** An alternate way to defrost a frozen pokemon is to trick your opponent into hitting them with a fire type attack by switching pokemon. Of course, you want to be sure that your pokemon will survive the fire attack before you try this.

** As of Generation II, there's also about a 10% chance of your Pokemon thawing out by itself on its turn.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games using the Press Turn system make the Frozen effect a godsend when it affects enemies. Frozen enemies will have their Agility reduced to zero, and all physical attacks will ignore their defense and will always hit critical, which gives you an extra turn. A high-level spell called Cocytus (and its upgraded form, [[Game Breaker|Niflheim]]) will almost always inflict this status. It's the only feasible method of killing [[Boss in Mook Clothing|Arahabakis]]. Of course, the effect is just as devastating when ''you'' are affected.

* ''[[World of Mana]]'' calls this the "Snowman" ailment; in ''[[Legend of Mana]]'', this results in massive damage while frozen.

* In ''[[Phantasy Star Universe]]'', ice technics and bullets can produce this status at random. Characters will be trapped in ice and unable to move for a short period of time, making them easy targets for other attacks.

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[Turn Based Tactics]] ==

== [[Action Adventure]] ==

* In many of the later ''[[Castlevania]]'' games, being turned to stone freezes you temporarily, but also makes you far more vulnerable to damage -- gods help you if this happens in the [[Bonus Dungeon]].

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

== [[Real Time Strategy]] ==

== [[Roguelike]] ==

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

** Actually that would be the "Eraser" attack of the Monster Arena boss Shinryu. Not even [[Death Proof]] or [[Stone Proof]] armor will stop it. (Which is an even bigger pain in the ass) Since you can't swap anyone in for this fight (Since only three of the PCs can hold their breath indefinitely or fight underwater) you can't even let an aeon take the hit. So, if you don't kill him before his first attack (Or he uses one of his other two weaker attacks first) you will be healing one person back to full afterwords.

* The ''[[Wild Arms]]'' series replaces this with Brass, which like in FFIV, is a slow countdown until your character is turned into metal.

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' 's version of this is diamondization. The character is functionally death, and you even get a red tinted interface just like when someone has died. (They also look quite comical out of battle, with a head encased in a perfect cut diamond.)

* In ''[[Lufia]]'', petrified characters can still be attacked, but they take zero HP damage until cured.

** Petrification has been ''somewhat'' nerfed in most recent games... kind of. You basically become a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]], and the character will remain alive (but immobilized) until hit with anything. On the other hand, it's ''very'' hard to find an item cure.

* The ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' series also features Petrification. It turns the afficted character into a sitting duck that can be killed in one hit.

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

* Gorgons will do this in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: The Sacred Stones''. The first turn a character has been petrified, any creature that attacks the character has a higher chance of scoring a [[Critical Hit]].

* ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' features Cockatrices and Gorgons, whose breath and gaze carry a high chance to petrify. Once petrified, the victim may as well be dead for good, given how rare the curing item is. And if it hits an important character...

== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* Mages in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' can elect to take this ability. Hunters and their pets are masters of slowing, with Concussive Shot and Frost Trap for the Hunter and several pet families having abilities that slow the target's movement speed. Warriors, Druids and Rogues have Hamstring, a disease, and special poison respectively to slow down opponents.

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' has "crippled" as a condition, in addition to a number of hexes.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' stun causes lowered movement and attack speed. Generally caused by massive hits, and even has a gong sound when inflicted.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* There are a few attacks that lower your ''[[Pokémon]]'''s speed, the most notable of these being String Shot, a move found on most common Bug Pokemon. A more frustrating example (as the bugs are pathetically weak anyway) is the powerful Bubblebeam move, which deals damage and has a chance of lowering your speed. Misty and her Starmie back in the first games loved this move, and the speed-lowering meant that Starmie could quite easily hit you with two Bubblebeams in a row, knocking out most pokemon. Only two types resist the water-type Bubblebeam, and one of them is Water itself. If you didn't pick Bulbasaur, you're in for one hell of a battle.

* ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'': A Slowed character's Speed is heavily reduced, making their time bar fill up slower, and thus giving them less actions.

== [[Platform Game]] ==

* ''[[Kid Icarus]]'' gives a rare platformer example in the Eggplant Wizards. If Pit gets hit with one of the eggplants they toss, the upper half of his body gets transformed into an eggplant, rendering him unable to use any weapons or items. Oh, and he has to backtrack to the nearest available hospital in order to remove the curse, which may mean dodging MANY monsters if you intend to get there alive.

* Every [[Ratchet and Clank]] game has one weapon that you can use to turn your enemies into game-specific animals. From Chickens to penguins. Stronger versions of the weapons usually make the transformed foe explode when near other enemies.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

** In normal gameplay, some enemies can turn your characters into scarecrows (disables basic attacks and items) or mushrooms (can't act, but slowly regenerates). Oddly, actual numeric stats aren't lowered in either condition.

* In the first four ''[[.hack GU Games|.hack//]]'' games, this is the player, Kite's, special ability, the Data Drain. Data Drain is typically used on invincible boss monsters to make them vulnerable, but you can use it on regular enemies as well, which will cause them to transform into the lowest level monster that shares their general "form". Since you can only use data drain a limited number of times before getting a game over, this is normally avoided, but it can let you make your way deep into dungeons even if you're too low of a level. And, of course, a monster that's been data drained gives next to no experience, so it will actually prevent you from leveling up normally if you use it too much.

* ''Shiren the Wanderer: Mysterious Dungeon 2'' features an enemy that at low levels turns your items into rice balls, but at its maximum level turns YOU into a riceball! You're able to move around but do nothing else until it wears off.

* In ''[[Elder Scrolls]] [[Oblivion]]'' an item called the 'Wabbajack' causes enemies to turn into a random animal for a short time. As this restores their health and can result in less-than-friendly bears and demons being created in place of a possibly weaker enemy, this item is rarely used. On the plus side, [[Good Bad Bugs|it works on an otherwise invincible god-incarnate in the endgame, letting you kill him if you get lucky and end up with something harmless.]]

* ''[[Heretic]]'' and ''[[Hexen]]'' both have items that launch projectiles that do that - the [[Nobody Here but Us Chickens|"Morph Ovum"]] and the [[Messy Pig|"Porkalator"]], respectively.

** In that game, anyone who enters the Dark World changes into a form based on their inner self. Link has to acquire a certain item to retain his normal form while in the Dark World, but those golden traps somehow nullify the item's effect.

* These occasionally pop up in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games, though they are ''much'' rarer than other ailments. Examples are ''Bael's Bane'' from Baal Avatar in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' and ''Zotzilaha's Bane'' from ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]''.

* Warlocks in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' are well known for this ability, but a few other classes have limited versions; priests have Psychic Scream and warriors Intimidating Shout, both of which will scatter an entire group.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has two types of Fear effects, owing to its development history. One type causes NPC enemies (and NPC enemies only) to simply drop what they are doing and run away. This does not work on players, as it is an order to the AI. The second type of Fear affects both NPC and player characters, causing them to tremble with fear and be unable to take any action. Characters trembling in fear, however, can still lash out at attackers, essentially getting one free attack to retaliate with when attacked, though this is only doable every once in a while, rather than full-time.

** Fear gives damage over time, since health is morale, or assorted debuffs, depending on the source.

** Dread reduces effective level, maximum morale and power. At high strength, it forces the player to cower helplessly, while reducing morale to 1% of normal. In the worst cases, the Eye of Sauron fills the screen, blinding the hapless player.

* In ''[[Pokémon]]'', the move Roar scares the opponent into fleeing the battle (or switching out in trainer battles). The mysterious ghosts in Lavender Tower (pre-Silph Scope), make your pokemon "paralysed with fear" and unable to do anything.

** Also, several moves have a chance of making the opponent flinch, which makes them skip their turn. Only the faster Pokemon can cause flinching, so one strategy used is "para-flinch": first paralyze the opponent, which will pretty much ensure that you go first. Then, use Flinching attacks. Even if the attack doesn't make the enemy flinch, there is still a 25% chance it will skip its turn due to the paralysis, thus really cutting down the probability the opponent will attack. There also exists one attack, Fake Out, which strikes first and has a 100% chance of making the opponent flinch... but it can only be used on the first turn that Pokemon was sent out. The King's Rock item, when held, automatically adds a chance of flinching to any attack. Finally, some Pokemon have abilities to deal with flinching, either by preventing them (Inner Focus) or by raising Speed when flinched (Steadfast), presumably so they go first and thus cannot flinch from attacks any more.

* ''[[Persona]]'' has two versions: Fear and Distress. Fear will sometimes cause a party member to freeze up, stealing their turn, and sometimes makes them run away outright. Distress weakens them, and any attack that hits them while they're distressed is an automatic [[Critical Hit]]. An additional [[One-Hit Kill]] move, Ghastly Wail, will infallibly execute any enemy and ally inflicted with Fear.

** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games also occasionally have Intimidate as a conversation skill.

* Fear was another status effect used in [[The Legend of Dragoon]]. It cuts attack and defense in half, and the afflicted character is shown to have blue skulls floating around them, and visibly shivering.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' likes this one with basic fear spells and fear auras that surround powerful enemies. Fear also comes in several increments, from "Shaken" which merely reduces your combat effectiveness to "Cowering" which renders you completely helpless.

== [[Action Game]] ==

== [[Driving Game]] ==

== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* While usually not a status effect per se, ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' characters can get drunk, which obscures the players vision of the game and makes movement rather uncontrollable. This is usually done intentionally for fun (ingame holidays often serve free alcohol), but a few instances of it being inflicted by monsters exist as well. Unfortunately, characters sober up from those much faster. It also simulates impaired judgment when your character is "totally smashed", by making anything with a level look up to five levels lower than it actually is. A very subtle side-effect of being drunken is that your depth perception actually is slightly off.

** [[Guild Wars]] has this too: drinking alcohol will give your character the "intoxicated" effect, causing the screen to blur (with the effect becoming more pronounced the more you've had) and make your character randomly emote (/sit, /moan etc) and mutter amusing things ("I love you man!", "I think I'm gonna be sick"). This is mostly just for fun, but a handful of [[Player Versus Environment|PvE]]-only skills in the game require that your character be intoxicated to get the full effect from them.

== Platformers ==

== [[Roguelike]] ==

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* A variant known in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games in the level-based Death spell, which kills any enemy whose level is multiple of 5 and always hits those enemies at 100% accuracy.

** It should be noted that using X-Zone in this manner to kill the randomly-appearing boss Doom Gaze would result in not getting the Bahamut Esper upon his defeat. Not a good call; use Doom instead.

* Such moves in the [[Pokémon]] universe only work if the target's level is lower than or equal to the user's, except in the first game(s) where it was Speed. The moves also have 30% accuracy.

** When paired with Lock On or Mind Reader these moves have 100% accuracy, however most opponents are smart enough to swap when these moves are used, and few mons eve learn targeting and OHKO moves on a natural legal moveset.

** Even without such a move or ability, each level difference between the two Pokemon increases the success rate by 1%. Hence, a level 71-100 Pokemon could use 100% instant-kills (however, unless the opponent is a master of EV points and has an Event-Only Legendary, you're unlikely to need them).

** Hama and Mudo are the kindest versions of instant death in SMT - typically classed as elemental spells, they can be resisted, blocked, or even repelled. There are also at least two non-elemental, non-blockable instant death spells that [[Mooks]] get access to, which always work against characters affected by status effects: Eternal Rest kills sleeping characters, and Ghastly Wail targets the fearful. Some high-end bosses also receive special, similarly unblockable instant kill moves of their own that work off a specific criteria (For instance, {{spoiler|Izanami of [[Persona 4]]'s special move insta-kills characters affected by ''any'' status effect}}).

** However, SMT makes the skills also useful against a good many enemy monsters, with only a handful being really immune or even repelling them. In addition to that, there are actually bosses who can fall by using these spells on them (though those are rare).

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' has the Psi Flash ability. Once it reaches Beta, Gamma or Omega level, it possesses the ability to instantly kill select characters. Only Ness and the boss of the final sanctuary can use it though.

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

* ''[[Exile]]/[[Avernum]]'' has ''Dust'', the cause is the same as in Might and Magic.

* Characters in ''[[Ultima III]]'' could be turned to ash. Thankfully, the most powerful cleric spell could reverse this.

** It would also happen if you got petrified underwater.

* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' variant of this is Self-Destruct or Explosion, though no one actually dies per se. Both OHKO the user, while severely damaging or OHKO-ing the opponent as well. Ghost Pokemon are immune to this. The most common user of both moves is the Geodude/Graveler/Golem line, but Voltorb/Electrode is well known for it as well.

** Also as mentioned above, Brass in the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' series.

* Some Psynergy in the ''[[Golden Sun]]'' franchise puts an eight-turn counter on a certain character, after which they die. This is denoted by four flames next to their head which gradually go out. If a character is hit with this, the game's battle text exclaims that "The Spirit of Death embraces _____"!

== [[Web Comics]] ==

== Critical ==

== General ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

* While it is not classified formally as a status effect, reaching a given percentage of health has a myriad of positive and negative effects in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''.

** Many classes also gain benefits when their own health is reduced far enough; Rogues that have trained Cheat Death gain a powerful damage reduction ability [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|instead of hitting zero health]], although it only lasts a few seconds and can only activate every minute. Some casters automatically activate shields or self-heals at 50% health.

*** Properly-specced Priests even get healing bonuses on friendly targets at less than half health.

* Starting from the third generation, certain abilities (Overgrow, Blaze, Torrent, and Swarm) can have a bonus to attacks of a ''[[Pokémon]]'''s type when their HP is below 1/3 of their maximum.

** Certain berries only activate when the Pokemon is 'in a pinch' (1/3 health or lower) as well. Couple that with certain attacks that do incredible amounts of damage when your pokemon is near death (Reversal, Flail), and ''letting'' yourself get beat up by the opponent only to turn the tables seconds later becomes a viable option.

**** Taken to new extremes with the advent of [[Pokémon Black and White|the 5th generation]] of games, where Sturdy, which used to only provide an immunity to the already-banned OHKO moves, now acts as a built-in Focus Sash that ''never goes away.'' Combine this with the normally [[Useless Useful Spell|Useless Useful Item]] Shell Bell, which restores approximately 1 HP for every 8 damage you do, and you have an invincible plank in Aron.

***** To specify: Level 1 Aron + Endeavor (matches foe's HP to own) + Sturdy + Shell Bell + Sandstorm leads to: opponent attacks Aron, Sturdy leaves Aron at 1 HP, Aron uses Endeavor, lowering the opponent's [[HP to One]], Shell Bell fully restores, Aron's HP, enemy dies from Sandstorm (to which Aron is immune). Rinse and repeat.

* Some games have equipment that activate or increase in power when the wearer is in critical condition, such as "SOS" items in Square-Enix games.

* ''[[Lost Kingdoms]]'' doesn't really bother with this, unless you're the main character. Where you are, your movement becomes hindered the less hp you have, which makes you easy prey.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' has Hito-Shura take on a rather fetching red glow and stagger around holding his stomach when on the field.

** As a rule, ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games' bosses using ''Nocturne'''s battle system all have a move designed to fracture their one turn into two or four half-turns. Mot in ''Nocturne'' is [[That One Boss|especially hated]] for his unique ability to abuse this.

* If a party member other than the main character is knocked into Critical in ''[[Persona 3]]'', they may ask you to let them leave the fight. This can get annoying if they have healing magic, because if you tell them to stay, they'll tell you off... then heal themselves. You suffer no penalties for ordering them to keep fighting, incidentally.

* In ''[[Sands of Destruction]]'', when a character gets to critical, they get a unique "critical" pose. Morte uses her double-bladed sword to support herself, for instance, and Kire slouches. Taupy gets two, in one, he becomes unsteady on his feet, in another, he pulls a crutch out of [[Hammerspace]].

== Survival Horror ==

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

** Curse of Exhaustion, which lowers the target's movement speed.

** Curse of Doom, which deal a large amount of damage after a certain amount of time passes.

* ''[[Spiral Knights]]'' has a rare but powerful curse effect: A cursed player has certain weapons and items marked by the curse, and attempting to use them causes damage. At endgame, this can easily be the entire inventory of the player. At the status lasts 30 seconds (compared to the 7 seconds of everything else). For the enemies, it just damages them every time they do something. The only non-vial method of inflicting the status is the (Gran) Faust. Both yours and that Phantom's.

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

* Similarly, Disease from the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' games will prevent the character from healing while it's in effect.

* In ''[[Treasure of the Rudras]]'', Curse is called Pollution: character cannot cast Mantras until Purifier is used or a Costly MP Mantra is cast that can Purify it {{spoiler|PERSUAN}}

* And then there's the famous "Mushroom" status from ''[[Earthbound]]'', which is essentially this.

* ''[[Black Sigil]]: Blade of the Exiled'': It's not displayed in battle, but two of your characters spend a good portion of the game Cursed. The effect being that you tend to start battles with anywhere from one to four random status effects and debuffs. Can be a bit annoying when you catch fire as soon as you see a monster.

* ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' uses Curse to cause a Stun effect. In ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'', one bit of foreshadowing is that Curse doesn't work on the main character - while its failure on most characters is "(Character) dodged out of the way", for the main character it's always "But the curse dissipates before it reaches (Hero)!"

* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'', Basilisks can inflict a 'cursed' status upon you if you stay in their steam for too long. Not only does it instantly turn you to stone and kill you, it also '''permanently''' halves your health bar until you use a Purging Stone or go to the healer in New Londo, which requires trekking through a dangerous ruin filled with ghosts. Before patch 1.05, the halving effect even ''stacked'', meaning you could end up with a tiny sliver of a health bar if you were cursed multiple times.

== [[Third-Person Shooter]] ==

== [[MMORPG|MMORPGs]] ==

** Also, "Muddle" prevents you from using items, under "Zombie" you cannot be cured, "Encumberance" removes all your gear and prevents you from re-equipping for a time, and "Amnesia" prevents you from using job abilities and weapon-skills.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has a few odd ones:

** Debuffs that actually reduces the total health or stamina that the target can have.

** Debuffs that make it so that the target cannot actually be healed at all.

* ''[[Maple Story]]'' has seduce, which makes characters forced to move in a certain way, for example, jumping to the left. It also has a debuff called zombify, which makes characters take damage from the priest's heal and reduces the amount potions heal by one half.

* [[Guild Wars]] has Deep Wound, which reduces maximum HP and healing by 20% for its duration. This condition is popular amongst PvPers who like to use a tactic known as "spiking": the entire team targets a single enemy player, counts down from 3, then [[One-Hit Kill|simultaneously blast them with their most powerful skills]].

== [[Role Playing Game]] ==

** Note that there are several enemies who inflict Sap and Disease at the same time which, as you can immagine, is quite nasty. Oh, and Disease is the ONLY status in the game that ''doesn't'' go away if a character is KO'd and then revived, meaning that if a Diseased character is KO'd, a Phoenix Down would revive them... as a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]].

* ''Sonny'' has some ''ridiculous'' status effects, which are too many to list. Being knifed in the face is one such example. Really, some get ridiculously odd, it is odd-ish that ''zombies, insurgents, renegade combat medics, and blade dancing female zombies'' have to obey the orders of the [[Boss Battle|Mayor of Hew]] to ''sit down'', and why the heck (even ''with'' magic) several things that should have little or ''no'' relevance to combat make appearances.

* ''[[Xenoblade]]'' has a whole slew of different status ailments, with the caveat that the duration is measured in seconds, though combat is fast-paced enough that those few seconds spent helpless can hurt. It also has examples of some statuses requiring ''prerequisite'' status effects - for instance, the 'Break' status does bupkis but make the target vulnerable to attacks that cause 'Topple' (target is knocked on their backside, can't move or act and loses special shielding) and a target must be toppled before Daze can be applied (same as topple, but extends the duration and prevents the victim from accumulating aggro, allowing squishier party members to pour on the hurt.)

* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]-2'' has Wound damage, which reduces your character's max hp. It goes away after battle, and can be healed by a Wound Potion. Not dealing with wound damage can be pretty dangerous in some of the harder battles.

* Nippon Ichi games such as ''[[Disgaea]]'' have the "Deprave" status effect, signified by a black swirl over the victim's head. Depraved characters earn no experience, which of course is far more effective against the player than it is the enemy. Worse, it's also said that a depraved character doesn't ''give'' experience either, meaning you don't want to inflict it at all.

** Also in some Nippon Ichi games is an effect they call "Critical", but is unlike the Critical above (though some units do have low HP effects). This Critical is an effect on Geo Panels in ''Disgaea'' and a room in ''[[Soul Nomad]]''. If you're standing on a Critical Geo Panel, any attack that hits (doesn't miss) kills you. ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' had a proto-critical effect in the "Gamble" status condition, which made the odds 50/50 of missing or killing the Gambled character.