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* Entering [[Bullet Time]], [[Time Master|manipulating time in general]] or even [[Time Stands Still|stopping it entirely]]
* [[Flying Brick]], at least at higher levels of power
* Any convenient way of bringing people [[Back
* [[Imagination-Based Superpower]]
* Mass [[Mind Control]]
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** Wasn't the reason given that since [[Physical God|Alastor]] consumes massive amounts of energy, something the [[Big Bad]] had just flooded the city with, he now had another source of it other than his Flame Haze's.
** The Snake of the Festival is the God of ''Creation'', and ''he'' seems to have no problems showing off: infinite power, immunity to flame, [[Prehensile Hair]], and a sword that {{spoiler|causes anyone who tries blocking it to sustain heavy injuries (Blutsager)}}. Plus the whole "Creator" bit.
* The ending of ''[[
* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has been suffering from this in recent seasons. During the timeskip between the second and third seasons, the main characters (who were already [[Person of Mass Destruction|People of Mass Destruction]] to start with) became obscenely powerful and had to have their powers nerfed in the third season by the use of [[Power Limiter]]s, extensive use of [[Anti-Magic]] fields and a half-hearted attempt to shift the focus over to the newer (and much weaker) characters, though ultimately the focus returned to the super-powerful main characters beating the crap out of people. The SSX Sound Stage and the ''ViVid'' manga solved this issue by completely switching focus to follow the new characters, but ''Force'' went the opposite direction by introducing villains with the ''even more'' broken power of ''complete immunity to all magic'', forcing the characters to essentially ditch their old powersets in favor of new weapons of [[Flawed Prototype|questionable reliability]].
** One cannot forget the new protagonist of Force, Tohma. He starts out rather basic, for this series anyway, but then {{spoiler|he becomes fully infected and is turned into a [[Divide by Zero|Zero Divider]], [[Cursed with Awesome|a person who can cause everyone around him to fall unconscious and possibly die, doing so completely subconsciously.]].}}
* Accelerator of ''[[
** Accelerator actually can't count anymore. His ability can be countered as shown by Amata Kihara. His power can even by disconnected and taken away from him. There are also a lot of characters stronger then him currently. His awakening could still count but that's another story.
** There's a list of at least a dozen characters, if not more, in the Toaru-'verse who are explicitly so broken no one can touch them except maybe a few other people on the broken list. There's a character who can make you fall into a coma if you ever think even the slightest negative or confrontational thing about her anywhere in the universe that's undefendable except with a [[Power Nullifier]] or [[Anti-Magic]]. There's a guy who's powerset includes the ability to be +1 in power to whoever he's fighting, can hit you with an instantaneous attack from anywhere that ignores everything but causality and destroys whatever it hits, and defends the same way PASSIVELY. Or the guy who can completely negate and make useless anything he thinks of "as a weapon". To be perfectly blunt, it's an entire UNIVERSE filled with cheating, insufferable assholes, who are all powermad, crazy, genocidal, [[A God Am I]]-types. This is done simply because the author needed people who only the somewhat doofy, nearly powerless main character could beat, catered to his own ability.
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** Ichigo himself after {{spoiler|his training in Dangai. He was strong enough to easily beat Aizen when Aizen was in his upgraded form thanks to the Hogyoku. No wonder he had to lose his powers or else every other conflict in the story would be Ichigo curbstomping his opponent. It still wasn't enough to kill Aizen who currently has a [[Nigh Invulnerability]] status.}}
* The ''[[Digimon]]'' franchise:
** [[Digimon Adventure|Angemon, and later HolyAngemon]], both seem to be on par with Digimon one level above their own. To recap: Patamon first evolved to Angemon in order to defeat Devimon (the first [[Big Bad]]), then didn't reach Adult-level again until halfway through the Vamdemon saga. When all of the Digimon evolved to their highest-level forms in order to face Vamdemon (Perfect for all 7 others), it was Angemon's attack that destroyed Phantomon, one of Vamdemon's most powerful subordinates at the Perfect level, and his attack had a debilitating effect on Vamdemon himself whereas no-one else could touch him until Angewomon came along. Angemon finally gets to evolve to Perfect just before the end of the show, and does the majority of the work in defeating Piemon, an Ultimate-level digimon that had already beaten the combined might of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon ''twice''.
** Specifically, HolyAngemon defeated Piemon with the ludicrously broken skill of ''opening a gate to a land of divine punishment, dragging him in and shutting the entrance''. Admittedly, this does suggest that Piemon was himself a story-breaker as he was too powerful to conventionally defeat and could only be stopped by way of an equally broken Digimon.
** It's worth noting that Angemon is supposed to be particularly powerful against thematically evil digimon (such as demons, ghosts, the undead, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|clowns]]), which makes sense given that he is an angelic Digimon. On the occasions where he fights Digimon who don't fit this criteria, he's no better than the other Adult Digimon.
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** As seen in the movies and video games, apparently Goku can absorb the energy of the spirit bomb to supplement his own strength. Though it might be [[Boring but Practical|more practical to throw it]] instead.
* ''[[Inuyasha]]'': Bakusaiga. It was introduced towards the end of the story just before the [[Final Battle]]. It was immediately lampshaded that the [[Big Bad]] didn't stand a chance against it, since it's capable of killing anything that merely comes into contact with anything it's cut and it can kill ''thousands'' with a single swing. As a result, the [[Big Bad]] immediately steals the sword owner's [[Morality Pet]] and traps her inside his body for most of the rest of the story. Characters even point out that this was done solely to prevent Bakusaiga from being used. When Sesshoumaru does finally rescue Rin and use the sword, Naraku's body is instantly destroyed, leaving the only threat left to be solved by Kagome making a wish.
* In a world where everybody is pretty darn broken, in ''[[High School DxD]]'' we have Ophis, a dragon who is also known as [[Red Baron|The Infinite One]]. First off, she's fully capable of wiping out ''anybody'' in this series, and ''[[
* Sebastian Michaelis from ''[[Black Butler]]'' is a [[Genius Bruiser]] with [[Nigh Invulnerability]] who can also use [[Magic and Powers|magic]]. The true extent of his powers is unknown. For example, we don't know if he can [[Teleportation|teleport]] or if [[Super Speed|he's just that fast]], possibly with the aid of [[Time Stands Still|stopping time]] entirely. However it is, we can determine from other evidence that he does have some sort of [[Time Master|time powers]] among his many abilities. He solves numerous seemingly impossible problems with ease. Though, especially later on, the plot does provide him with some challenges, such as opponents who can fight on his level. The true factor that prevents him from solving everything is that he's acting as a tool for [[The Chessmaster|Ciel]], who wants his success to be because of his own efforts, as it won't be valuable otherwise. He doesn't know much more about Sebastian's abilities than we do, so Ciel isn't using Sebastian to his full effectiveness.
== Comic Books ==
* [[Superman]]. Not every writer can make his battles interesting, as he shrugs off pretty much ''anything'' not [[Kryptonite Factor|Kryptonite]] as easily as [[Shooting Superman|those idiot grunts whose bullets he probably doesn't even notice]]. Making something other than Kryptonite, Darkseid, or Doomsday challenge him without [[Nerfing]] Supes severely (see the early seasons of ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'') is not a task just any writer can accomplish.
** One fight with the Weaponsmaster had a twist on the situation. Superman was ill and told the bad guys that now he cannot judge the force of his blows, thus they risk death by punching. Yes, making Superman sick just makes him more dangerous.
* One of the classic comic book examples is [[The Flash]], or really any [[Super Speed|super-speedster]]. There's no reason the Flash shouldn't see the villain and have him tied up and in prison before the villain has a chance to react. Instead super-speedsters get treated like normal people with a few arbitrarily chosen speed based abilities.
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*** Although in ''Kingdom Come'' The Flash can no longer talk with anyone except Superman, because he's too fast (only Superman's supersenses can hear him). In fact, he's so fast he's constantly blurry, even when standing still. The Spectre mentions that Flash is forever alone, unseen by most people in the city he guards "though all feel his presence".
*** Lampshaded a bit in the New 52 where Barry Allen is informed how fast he can process sensory input is the biggest bottleneck to his powers. At one point he gets shot due to over-thinking, and reverts to just processing the super-speed environment on a somewhat instinctual level.
* This is why the [[Martian Manhunter]] rarely gets used to his full potential, both in the comics and on ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]''. He's [[Superman]] with [[Shapeshifting]], [[Telepathy]], [[Mind Control]], and [[Intangible Man|phasing]], amongst other powers. Okay, so he's [[Weaksauce Weakness|vulnerable to fire]], but he's been shown to get over that. With the above mentioned problems with Superman, they're even worse for J'onn. {{spoiler|Which might be one reason why they killed him off in ''[[Final Crisis]]''.}}
** Lampshaded in a recent ''[[Green Lantern]]'' issue: {{spoiler|When [[Blackest Night|Black Lantern]] J'onn is fighting Hal and Barry, he picks up the fire station they are in and throws it into another building, saying "I'm as powerful as Superman. Why does everyone ''forget'' that?" Indeed, by the end of the issue he's incapacitated them both.}}
* This has been done right at least once, in ''[[Watchmen]]''. Dr. Manhattan is a [[Physical God]] who wins the Vietnam War practically singlehandely and ''should'' easily dissect the problem in the comic and excise it... except [[The Chessmaster]] plays not against his powers but his post-empowering uncertainty to get him to leave the planet.
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* [[Black Dude Dies First|Ambrose Chase]] from ''[[Planetary]]'' had concentration-based [[Reality Warper]] powers that allowed him to alter physics at will in a small radius around himself. Barring taking him completely by surprise (like a particular villain did by battling him in a universe that ran on [[Horror Tropes]] and using a bullet of [[Applied Phlebotinum]], hence the past tense), he was practically unkillable. {{spoiler|It turns out it didn't take; Chase used his power to freeze his own injury and trap himself in a pocket dimension until the others could extract and rescue him.}}
** The [[Big Bad]], Randall Dowling. His power allows him to [[Mind Virus|spread his own consciousness to minds around it]], basically screwing around with any parts of their memories at will, making people into [[Manchurian Agent]]s, or simply [[Hive Mind|turning other humans near him into more of himself]]. Notably, {{spoiler|he never even gets to ''use'' said power before the heroes drop him down a ravine, possibly because any conceivable combat scenario against him would involve the heroes having to fight enormous amounts of other people, provided they weren't ''already'' parts of him without being aware of it.}}
* In [[Irredeemable]] it turns out {{spoiler|the Plutonian}} is literally this personified and the people who know have (reasonably) decided that the knowledge of the full extent of power must at all costs be kept from them so to stop [[Go Mad
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== Tabletop Games ==
* If you try making a [[Super Speed|super-speedster]] in a tabletop RPG like ''[[Champions]]'', you'll quickly discover that you have to do it by buying the abilities the super-speedster actually uses, not the abilities the comic claims he has, since the latter is just too powerful (and therefore too expensive).
* This is a major problem in ''[[Dungeons
** Worse, repeatedly casting the "Love's Pain" spell (someone the target loves takes damage, cannot be stopped) on a [[Mook]] who you have given [[Fake Memories]] of loving your enemy...
** Hypothetically, a well-prepared [[Dungeon Master]] can counter all of these by having equally hyped-up enemies with appropriate countermeasures in place. Unfortunately, this not only pits the DM's foresight against the collective ingenuity of the players, and is little more than shooting down any possible solution the players come up with other than "big epic battle", it also pits the DM's memory against the collective output of Wizards of the Coast... forgot to give your big bad dragon a countermeasure to ''shivering touch''? Ooops.
*** Pro-Tip for DMs in this instance when you have a villain with high Intelligence (such as a dragon): {{spoiler|1=Cheat. So you didn't have the Intelligence to give your [[Big Bad]] cold resistance? Good thing that your [[Big Bad]] has an Intelligence far greater than your own, and ''did'' remember to prepare such a countermeasure. That's [[
*** Really, this isn't that hard to do. Any spellcasting big bad you just state that he's always got one of the myriad scry fooling or blocking spells on his lair (heck, theres a standard magical item that makes him not scryable), stick a permanent anticipate teleport on his fortress in case of teleporting in, dump a bunch of magical traps of the "These go off if anyone bar me or my trusted minions is nearby" variety and have a contingent spell immunity up (say from the feat, or spell) that "Makes me immune to any spell effect that would incapacitate me". Plus have a silent Dimension Door or two memorised to jump away if all this fails.
** Make your super powerful mage bad guy [[Genre Savvy]] and you're fine :)
** The ''Wish'' spell, which is pretty much as it sounds. The player wishes for ''anything'' to happen and reality will reshape itself to make it come true. There are some limitations, and some downsides. The spell is difficult to obtain and cast, and drains the life force of the caster (read: XP loss) to empower the events. If the wish is something too insane, the caster may die without yielding enough power to make it happen. Second, and usually even more importantly, you should be ''very'' careful what you wish for. Just wishing for a lot of gold, for example, may result in all the gold in every king's treasury teleported to you. However, how you will explain that to their armies that are sure to follow is not in the scope of the spell. In fact, the GM is specifcially instructed by Gygax on what wishes to give them a chance, in Second Edition, and if the players ask for more, to make SURE they regret it.
** ''Miracle'', the divine flavor of ''Wish'', is even more broken: The spell-replicating function of ''Miracle'' carries no XP burn and can duplicate the effects of ANY 7th level spell or lower and ANY 8th level Domain spell or lower. Only the massively broken reality-warping function of the spell incurs a possible XP burn. Also, ''Miracle'' is not a spell cast so much as a supplication made of a deity, removing the possibility of the spellcaster receiving any magical backlash—of course, if the deity in question (which is to say, the DM) doesn't feel like granting the request, ''Miracle'' may simply fail.
*** Easiest way to deal with this is "Err, ok, that's the eighth time this week you've used Miracle. Your deity tells you to shut the fuck up and stop bothering him, and ignores your petty request"
** The Glibness bard spell had a lot of room for potential abuse in an intrigue-based scenario due to the poor wordings of Bluff and Sense Motive for a time: essentially, a successful Bluff check to tell a lie, no matter how absurd it was, guaranteed it was believed as complete truth. Coupled with Glibness that gives a massive +30 bonus to Bluff checks to tell lies and immunity to lie-detecting magic and the team's bard investing skill points in Bluff, it was possible to make anyone believe anything and destroy a perfectly crafted intrigue campaign. [[Obvious Rule Patch|This was fortunately addressed with a slight rewording:]] instead of making a lie appear to be true, Bluff makes your interlocutor not notice the character is lying, but an absurd statement may not be believed and the character's sanity may be heavily questioned instead.
** ''Kuroth's Quill'' is quite likely the most powerful - and most broken - artifact in the game, at least in 2nd Edition. To be blunt, anything written by this reality warping tool of Chaos will come true. To quote the ''Book of Artifacts" directly, "Kuroth's Quill has the power to alter the course of a campaign - it is the equivalent of giving a character an unlimited number of twisted wishes,. For this reason, the player characters should have limited or no contact with the quill, and should strive to prevent anyone else from using it as well." Meaning that when used as a plot device, the goal should be to prevent a villain from gaining it, or destroy it entirely. The only true limits to the quill is that it is a [[Literal Genie]] and spelling counts when using it (kind of like the joke about the 12-inch pianist, but in this case, it happens if the user makes a spelling or grammar error) and it cannot create out of nothing. This means that say, wishing for a million gold pieces would transport it from somewhere else (like a king's royal vault, or even worse, a dragon's horde), or worse, transport the user ''to'' said vault. In either case, the rightful owners would be very angry.
* The ''[[Hero System]]'' rulebook puts stop-sign icons next to powers that have the potential to be Story Breakers, such as Danger Sense, Intangibility, Time Travel, or Summoning. The [[Game Master]] is urged to consider tightly limiting or outright disallowing them.
* Warp is extremely powerful in ''[[GURPS]]'', so much so that it is explicitly banned for players in the ''[[Dungeon Punk|Dungeon Fantasy]]'' books. The authors did eventually cave and add it in with the requirement that the player take a small Unusual Background named "Ha-''ha''! I Can Teleport!" and isn't able to improve it.
* The Primarchs and the God-Emperor in ''[[Warhammer
** There are rules for the Primarchs, but they can only be used in 5000 point or higher games. Said rules cause them to take up about one third of that total.
* The rulebooks for ''[[The Dresden Files (game)|The Dresden Files]]'' make suggestions on this front in two ways. In the section on building opposition, most of the guidelines are along the lines of taking your villain and giving him powers equal in cost to the [[Player Party]]'s. It suggests you create a group of antagonists instead, since as the party gets more powerful, the villain's powers would make them damn near impossible to fight effectively if the model was followed.<ref>One character having powers equal to three or four low-level characters is doable; one character having powers equal in cost to three or four high-level characters results in someone with huge magic potential, is impossible to hit, damn near impossible to harm even if you do hit'em, and will heal fast even if you somehow manage to harm them.</ref> It also suggests that Harry Dresden himself might be one, and gives suggestions for taking him out of the picture. Needless to say, Harry's margin comments are less than enthused about it.
{{quote|'''Harry:''' Billy, this whole section DISTURBS me. I'm making this face at you. Like, the one in the picture [http://i54.tinypic.com/2iia90o.png right here]. }}
== Video Games ==
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Story-Breaker Power]]▼
[[Category:Power]]
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