History Main / HealthDamageAsymmetry

** In ''ChronoTrigger'', Magus as a villain has [[SixHundredSixtySix 6666]] HP[[hottip:* :Even ''after'' Lavos sucks away most of his powers]], [[RedemptionDemotion but doesn't have more than 999 under player control.]]

** This trope is the reason that the Necromancer's ''Iron Maiden'' curse, which reflects monsters melee attacks back at them, doesn't work in the long term. The further into the game you go, the less damage monsters do proportional to their health. It's better to go with the more basic ''Amplify Damage'' instead.

* ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' and {{Mon}} games in general tend to avert this for the same reason tactical [=RPGs=] do.

** Averted with the final boss of Partners in Time: the final battle is split up in three phases and is often called "evening-filling". Doesn't mean she can't still decimate you if you slip up, of course.

* ''AdventureQuestWorlds'' has recently done a move away from this trope in regards to boss fights. While player characters go over the 1,000 mark in terms of hit points and can do triple-digit damage to their enemies, the bosses do nasty damage in the triple digits (Wolfwing was doing about 300 damage with every hit), and will kill you quickly if you do not have a healer, a suitable plan or both.

* The MarioAndLuigi games avert this, because everything ([[GlassCannon INCLUDING YOUUUU]]) has crappy amounts of health. Everything and everyone is a Glass Cannon in their own respect. Think I'm kidding? Defeat [[FinalBoss Dark Bowser]] after taking off all of your armor. (You'll die in three hits. He'll die in two Magikoopa uses.)

** In ''ChronoTrigger'', Magus as a villain has [[SixHundredSixtySix 6666]] HP[[hottip:* :Even ''after'' Lavos sucks away most of his powers]], [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard but doesn't have more than 999 under player control.]]

** Granted, one of the game's main mechanics is the ability to dodge almost all incoming damage with proper timing.

[[AC:FightingGames]]

** ''{{Disgaea}}'' probably deserves special mention, as damage can rise to ridiculous levels (millions of damage per hit), but so can HP...

[[AC:MMORPGs]]

[[AC:MMORPGs]]

In [[FirstPersonShooter FPSes]], scaling up both damage and HP is a legitimate way of increasing difficulty, since speed, reflexes and stealth are often a part of gameplay. They avert this trope more easily. ShootEmUp games play it straight, especially with boss fights.

* Nearly every single [[EasternRPG JRPG]] ever. This can be taken to extremes with optional bosses.
** In ''ChronoTrigger'', Magus as a villain has [[SixHundredSixtySix 6666]] HP[[hottip:* :Even ''after'' Lavos sucks away most of his powers]], [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard but doesn't have more than 999 under player control.]]

* Fourth Edition ''DungeonsAndDragons'': Player characters have healing surges which let them recover damage for a while as long as they use their skills well. Enemies generally don't have healing surges. The result is that enemies have many more hit points than player characters in order to keep balance.

* The flash game Monsters' Den: Book of Dread plays this straight, but one might not notice it until the "end" boss(after that boss is endless play) [[spoiler: summons copies of you to his side. You can take them out in 1 or 2 swings if you've been playing right, but they're ''exact copies''. [[OhCrap So can they.]]]]

* Tactical [[RolePlayingGame RPGs]] tend to avoid this, as most fights are often made up of the same types of characters and monsters that you can recruit for your own team. However, for non-recruitable bosses, they often raise the HP much more than they raise the damage output...
** ''FinalFantasyTactics'' series
** ''{{Disgaea}}'' probably deserves special mention, as damage can rise to ridiculous levels (millions of damage per hit), but so can HP...
** However, many Tactical [=RPGs=] (definitely ''FireEmblem'' anyway) have this in a different form. Generally, the enemies will be much greater in number, but will be slightly weaker (except for the boss) or have poor strategy to compensate.
* ''[=~Pokémon~=]'' and {{Mon}} games in general tend to avert this for the same reason tactical [=RPGs=] do.
** In the ''PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games though, the bosses have much higher HP when you battle them than when you recruit them.
** The ''MonsterRancher'' series averts this trope even with the rare non-recruitable bosses. They have the same stat cap as any monsters you can raise.
* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' averts this with normal enemies, they have about the same hit points and damage as a player of the same level. (Somewhat lower on both to allow players to kill stuff of equal level.)
** However, player characters are allowed to deal a lot of damage compared to their health. This had led to issues in PvP until they introduced a defensive stat called resilence, which reduces damage taken from other players significantly. Woe to those who step into a battleground without wearing resilience equipment.
** Blizzard has had to address this issue a few times in general. In the first expansion, stamina was put on nearly every item in bigger chunks than the other stats, and for Cataclysm, health pools are planned to grow a lot again to combat this creeping up in nearly every gameplay aspect.
* ''AdventureQuestWorlds'' has recently done a move away from this trope in regards to boss fights. While player characters go over the 1,000 mark in terms of hit points and can do triple-digit damage to their enemies, the bosses do nasty damage in the triple digits (Wolfwing was doing about 300 damage with every hit), and will kill you quickly if you do not have a healer, a suitable plan or both.
* The original ''{{Everquest}}'' completely inverted it. Monster health and damage both scaled much faster than those of players. This was intentionally to force people to group constantly after the first few levels. It also caused the difficulty to scale into the stratosphere at the end game.

** This also applies in FPS games when you have difficulty mixed with friendly fire. For example, in Left4Dead, you won't do too much friendly fire damage to your teammates on Normal while Advanced ups the damage a little bit. On Expert, friendly fire damage is 100%, which means you can cause the same amount of damage to a survivor as you would to a zombie. This can cause an instant knock down if you're not careful since most guns can do more than 100 points of damage and survivors will never have more than 100 health.
* AtlanticaOnline generally keeps everything on the same level, though monster health and damage depends on where they are. Only bosses are significantly stronger and thougher, to the point where most of the fight will be the players entire party against the boss alone. Even areas designed for groups of players house mobs about on par with the player's mercenaries, but you'll almost always face three parties of monsters at once.

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* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' somewhat averts this with normal enemies, they have about the same hit points and damage as a player of the same level. (Somewhat lower on both to allow players to kill stuff of equal level.) Elites and especially bosses play this straight, since you're expected to tackle those with a group.
** However, player characters are allowed to deal a lot of damage compared to their health. This had led to issues in PvP until they introduced a defensive stat called resilence, which reduces damage taken from other players significantly. Woe to those who step into a battleground for the first time, though.
** Blizzard has had to adress this issue a few times in general. In the first expansion, stamina was put on nearly every item in bigger chunks than the other stats, and for Cataclysm, health pools are planned to grow a lot again to combat this creeping up in nearly every gameplay aspect.

** In ''ChronoTrigger'', Magus as a villain has [[SixHundredSixtySix 6666]] HP[[hottip:* :Even ''after'' Lavos sucks away most of his powers]], but doesn't have more than 999 under player control.