History Main / ExponentialPotential

[[folder:Table Top Games]]

** ... as long as skeptical muggles aren't watching.

* ''LostMagic'': Where to ''start''? The game gives you up to eighteen runes, which you can also combine, either in twos only or also in threes. This gives you a potential '''5832''' spells, out of which '''400''' are in the game, and the bosses and you can do ''everything''. Terrain change, buff, debuff, Shooting, Summoning, Nuking. Tanking, Capturing, Walls, Traps, StandardStatusEffects, Roulette, etc..
* ''{{Magicka}}'': Essentially the main point of the game. You are given 8 different elements and can combine them up to five times to create different spells. You also choose how the power is released -- casting on yourself, your weapon, the area around you, an arc in front of you, or in a blast in front of you. You get all of these by the end of the tutorial, and without mana, the only limitation is that combining certain elements (lightning and water, for example) tends to blow up in your face.

* The first 2 ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' games have this, what with all those badges with effects like sleep, shrinking, multistomp... The smart way to play is to level up your badge points every level instead of your health or flower points (used for special attacks.) Because there are badges for raising your health and flowers, you'll be able to, at any time, switch from having high-health, high flower points, or whatever badges you want. It isn't hard to break the game by playing this way.

* To a lesser extent, ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' has this, too, what with all those badges with effects like sleep, shrinking, multistomp...

* ''RadiantHistoria''. Scrolling trough them every turn or so can get annoying sometimes.

* ''MageTheAscension''. There are no spell lists, only limits on what each level of each of nine main powers can roughly accomplish. There are five levels of each of the nine powers, and they can be freely mixed so long as your character believes they can be. In other words, a starting character has an unlimited number of potential effects within their power, and then it just goes up from there. Purely in theory, a character with enough abilities could turn the moon to cheese, reach up and pluck it out of the sky between their thumb and finger, pop it in their mouth, then eat it.

* ''LostMagic'': Where to ''start'' ? The game gives you up to eighteen runes, which you can also combine, either in twos only or also in threes. This gives you a potential '''5832''' spells, out of which '''400''' are in the game, and the bosses and you can do ''everything''. Terrain change, buff, debuff, Shooting, Summoning, Nuking. Tanking, Capturing, Walls, Traps, StandardStatusEffects, Roulette, etc..

* Ditto for ''GeniusTheTransgression'', only with super-scientific gadgets instead of magic, as well a few more limits.

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<<|VideogameTropes|>>

** In ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', there are '''56''' jobs with hundreds of abilities spread across 6 races, though some are basically just one races' slightly different version of the same job (Paladin and Defender, Soldier and Warrior, etc.)

* ''LostMagic'': Where to ''start'' ? The game gives you up to eighteen runes, which you can also combine, either in twos only or also in threes. This gives you a potential '''5832''' spells, out of which '''400''' are in the game, and the bosses and you can do ''everything''. Terrain change, buff, debuff, Shooting, Summoning, Nuking. Tanking, Capturing, Walls, Traps, StandardStatusEffects, Dragon Summoning, Roulette, etc..

* To a lesser extent, ''PaperMario'' has this, too, what with all those badges with effects like sleep, shrinking, multistomp...

* ''MageTheAscension''. There are no spell lists, only limits on what each level of each of nine main powers can roughly accomplish. There are five levels of each of the nine powers, and they can be freely mixed so long as your character believes they can be. In other words, a starting character has an unlimited number of potential effects within their power, and then it just goes up from there. Purely in theory, a character with enough abilities could turn the moon to cheese, reach up and pluck it out of the sky, pop it in their mouth, then eat it.

* ''MageTheAscension''. There are no spell lists, only limits on what each level of each of nine main powers can roughly accomplish. There are five levels of each of the nine powers, and they can be freely mixed so long as your character believes they can be. In other words, a starting character has an unlimited number of potential effects within their power, and then it just goes up from there. Purely in theory, a character with enough abilities could turn the moon to green cheese, pull it out of orbit, shrink it down so it flies into his mouth, then eat it.

Ah, you just opened up your newest game and have been EasingIntoTheAdventure. Maybe there's some ElementalRockPaperScissors, or StandardStatusEffects, but you can handle that. And you get a new spell!

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''LostMagic'': Where to ''start'' ? The game gives you up to eighteen runes, which you can also combine, either in twos only or also in threes. This gives you a potential '''5832''' spells, out of which '''400''' are in the game, and the bosses and you can do ''everything''. Terrain change, buff, debuff, Shooting, Summoning, Nuking. Tanking, Capturing, Walls, Traps, StandardStatusEffects, Dragon Summoning, Roulette, etc. etc.
* EternalDarkness: To a lesser extent, as it uses a similiar system - combination - but fewer runes.
* ''TheElderScrolls'' series. Oh, god, Elder Scrolls. You have FireIceLightning as damage types. You have spells to directly damage health, magic, and stamina...''in two subtly-different varieties''. You have levitation. Jump boosting. Buffs and debuffs for all 20-whatever skills. Demon and undead summoning. Lock opening. Telekinesis. And more. All of these effects can be custom-made based on target, duration, and area of effect, and combined as much as you want, even in impractical combinations such as "set yourself on fire for 5 seconds and heal yourself for 50 points of damage a second for five seconds". And this isn't even including spell mods.

*** And then there is alchemy. Each ingredient has from 2 to 4 (mostly 4) possible effects, you can combine 2-4 of them for a potion (the potion will have any effect shared by 2 or more ingredients) which brings a huge amount of possibilities, only negated in Morrowind by being only able to use potions on yourself. Upped in Oblivion where you can create "poisons" and apply them to weapon.
* {{Magicka}}: Essentially the main point of the game. You are given 8 different elements and can combine them up to five times to create different spells. You also choose how the power is released -- casting on yourself, your weapon, the area around you, an arc in front of you, or in a blast in front of you. You get all of these by the end of the tutorial, and without mana, the only limitation is that combining certain elements (lightning and water, for example) tends to blow up in your face.
* The ''FreedomForce'' games offer highly customizable powers, but I don't think it reaches the level of frustration described here...
** A single character generally only has a half dozen at most.
* 'RadiantHistoria' scrolling trough them every turn or so can get annoying sometimes.

* Many Japanese TurnBasedStrategy games (JRPG style) fall prey to this. In ''FinalFantasyTactics'', for example, you'll end up unlocking 19 jobs. By ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', there are '''56''' jobs with hundreds of abilities spread across 6 races, though some are basically just one races' slightly different version of the same job (Paladin and Defender, Soldier and Warrior, etc.)
** ''WildARMsXF'' is even more confusing; there are 16 normal classes and six or seven special ones, and each of them come with four to nine unusually unique abilities. Each class and ability can be used in specific situations and often must be used strategically, meaning the game is half strategy and half [[PuzzleGame puzzle]].
* ''MapleStory'' went from four starting classes to ''ten'', and the first five of the ten classes has at least two [[PrestigeClass independent branches]] as it develops.
** The current selection consists of: Ice/Lightning Wizard, Fire/Poison Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Page, Spearman, Assassin, Bandit, Dual Blade, Hunter, Crossbowman, Gunslinger, Brawler, Thunder Breaker, Wind Breaker, Blaze Wizard, Dawn Warrior, Night Walker, Aran, Evan, Wild Hunter, and Battle Mage, with a total of 22 classes. But that's only with one advancement. If you were to count different advancements, there are well over 100.
* ''GuildWars'' suffers a little from this, as there's the same types of spell -basic poison remove, basic status recovery, etc. - once in each expansion pack.
** The expansion packs were also stand alone games though, so they had to make sure someone who just picked up one of the expansions and it alone still had access to some of the basic effects.
* Blue Mages in ''FinalFantasyXI''. They can learn ''105'' spells, more than any other job, yet they can only use 20 at a time at the level cap. Bards have 68 songs, but can use them all. In fact, most of the mage jobs have a large spell list.
* An interesting variant of this, which doesn't deal with magic at all, is ''{{Jagged Alliance}} 2''. There is an overwhelming amount of different items and weapons which can be extremely useful in different situations, but it is largely impossible to carry everything you might need. Your window of opportunity for using some of these items is rather narrow as well, so a lot of items get ignored, even grenades at times, simply to avoid massive micromanagement. This becomes even more difficult with mods like ''JA2 v1.13'' which add several hundred items to the game. The solution (as in real life) is to have specialists who carry specific items, but then they can't carry other items and may end up being useless in most situations.
* {{Scribblenauts}} is like this to an extent. You have literally anything in the game's dictionary at your disposal, up to the limit on the number of objects imposed by your object bar. The ''player'' is the one who figures out new ways of doing stuff--the first time you try shooting your space shuttle or your mech with your shrink ray opens up a whole world of new solutions.

* {{Pokemon}}. You have nearly [[strike:five hundred]]''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters seven hundred]]'' choices for your Mons, and nearly all of them have about a dozen or two potential attacks for their move list. And that's just from leveling up; include the attacks that can be gained from [=TMs=] and breeding and things get crazy.
* This is the entire premise of ''SuvehNux'': learn part of the language of magic and build sentences that do just what you want.

[[AC:Table Top Games]]
* MageTheAscension. There are no spell lists, only limits on what each level of each of nine main powers can roughly accomplish. There are five levels of each of the nine powers, and they can be freely mixed so long as your character believes they can be. In other words, a starting character has an unlimited number of potential effects within their power, and then it just goes up from there. Purely in theory, a character with enough abilities could turn the moon to green cheese, pull it out of orbit, shrink it down so it flies into his mouth, then eat it.
* Ditto GeniusTheTransgression, only with super-scientific gadgets instead of magic, as well a a few more limits. But at Havoc isn't as bad as Paradox...
* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', Wizards can learn practically every spell in the game given enough time and gold, and can also make up their own spells, subject to GM approval. Clerics know all possible cleric spells (except those related to specific domains) automatically; druids have a slightly poorer set, but can also [[{{ShapeShifting}} Shapeshift]] into an enormous variety of creatures. The "Erudite [Spell-to-power]" variant of the [[PsychicPowers psion]] can learn every spell ''and'' [[PsychicPowers Psychic Power]] in the game! (It's generally regarded as ah... ''[[GameBreaker slightly]]'' stronger than a standard psion). The Archivist, in a manner similar to the Wizard, can learn every Cleric spell (including the domain spells) as well as Paladin, Ranger, Druid, and Adept spells, plus certain PrestigeClass spells ([[GameBreaker as well as the spells of anyone with a feat which lets them treat their spells as divine spells, which can include wizards]]). The [[GadgeteerGenius Artificer]] can create magic items that cast spells he does not know, or convert them from casting one spell to another.

[[AC: Webcomics]]
* {{Homestuck}} features a form of punch-card based alchemy that can be used to create and combine any object conceivable, and quite a few that aren't. Most of the protagonists have spent 10+ page montages going to town with this at least once each.

* In ''{{Disgaea}}'', you can learn a whole spate of ice/wind/fire/star spells, but the first tier spells are the cheapest to use, and don't do that much less damage compared to the last tier. Some of the special attacks learned by equipping items aren't that useful, either, and only a small handful get spammed ForMassiveDamage. (PhantomBrave and MakaiKingdom give the higher tier spells a better area of effectiveness, making their higher costs worth it.)

* {{Pokemon}}. You have nearly [[strike:five hundred]]''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters seven hundred]] choices for your Mons, and nearly all of them have about a dozen or two potential attacks for their move list. And that's just from leveling up; include the attacks that can be gained from [=TMs=] and breeding and things get crazy.

* {{Pokemon}}. You have nearly five hundred choices for your Mons, and nearly all of them have about a dozen or two potential attacks for their move list. And that's just from leveling up; include the attacks that can be gained from [=TMs=] and breeding and things get crazy.

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', Wizards can learn practically every spell in the game given enough time and gold, and can also make up their own spells, subject to GM approval. Clerics know all possible cleric spells (except those related to specific domains) automatically. The "Erudite [Spell-to-power]" variant of the [[PsychicPowers psion]] can learn every spell ''and'' [[PsychicPowers Psychic Power]] in the game! (It's generally regarded as ''[[GameBreaker slightly]]'' stronger than a standard psion). The Archivist, in a manner similar to the Wizard, can learn every Cleric spell (including the domain spells) as well as Paladin, Ranger, Druid, and Adept spells, plus certain PrestiegeClass spells.

** At least ''Daggerfall'' gave you the means to create spells that could level up with you, and spells could be deleted later if they turn out needless. From ''Morrowind'' on, you'll never be able to clean up the ever expanding clutter of static, single-purpose spells, some of which are obsolete the moment you get them.
*** Not true. You can delete spells in Morrowind-- as I recall, you hold shift and click the spell. Can't do that in Oblivion, far as I've seen - as always, there are mods to fix this.

** There's a new set of classes, called the Aran, being developed in the Korean version right now, though only one ice polearm-wielding class has been revealed for it thus far. If recent patterns are anything to go by, this will eventually bring the count to ''15''.

*** Not true. You can delete spells in Morrowind-- as I recall, you hold shift and click the spell. Can't do that in Oblivion, far as I've seen.

* Many Japanese TurnBasedStrategy games (JRPG style) fall prey to this. In ''FinalFantasyTactics'', for example, you'll end up unlocking 19 jobs. By ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'', there are '''56''' jobs with hundreds of abilities, many of which are similar or identical.

* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', Wizards can learn practically every spell in the game given enough time and gold, and can also make up their own spells, subject to GM approval. Clerics know all possible cleric spells (except those related to specific domains) automatically. The "Erudite [Spell-to-power]" variant of the [[PsychicPowers psion]] can learn every spell ''and'' [[PsychicPowers Psychic Power]] in the game! (It's generally regarded as ''[[GameBreaker slightly]]'' stronger than a standard psion).