History Main / InvulnerableCivilians

See Also HideYourChildren. Contrast with the LordBritishPostulate, where {{NPC}}s can't be killed by normal means, but can still be offed using some rather..."creative" methods. The opposite of this is VulnerableCivilians. Please put your aversions there.

** {{Justified|Trope}} with Namingway in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'''s DS remake: he has the ability to always appear in whatever location the story mandates your party to visit next, complain about his current situation, find a new calling, change his name to <Insertcurrentsituationhere> way and ask Cecil to help him out in some way and possibly reward him somehow, in no particular order. Said locations are invariably filled with lots of dangerous monsters, and the one time you actually need to fight him a good way into the game, he only has a measly 32 HP. So how does he survive? Simple: after you complete his subplot and find him in one of the randomly chosen locations afterwards, he gives you his good luck charm that he's apparently carried with him the entire time: a Safe Travel augment, which eliminates all random encounters. The game doesn't bother to elaborate if the very first monsters he runs into afterwards kill him brutally or if he barely manages to escape to a nearby town, realizes the danger he's been in the entire time and spends the rest of his life sobbing in the corner of a nearby inn.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' has an interesting version, as many [=NPCs=] will attack enemies that appear near them on the overworld, but thats purely visual and has no bearing on the actual battle, nor will anyone ever die to these monsters.

* In ''Global Defence Force'' (Chikyuu Boueigun 2) there are crowds of civilians running away from the alien enemies on many levels. Even if the player is fully kitted out with a superweapon capable of killing a gigantic Godzilla-alike lizard in one hit, shooting civilians will make them fly through the air, lie on the ground for a moment, then simply pick themselves up and start running again. Likewise if they are stepped on by the aforementioned lizard. If you shoot a single civilian with a continuous-fire weapon for long enough, though, they will vanish into thin air, but this seems to be a bug rather than 'death'.

* The webcomic ''VideoGame/RPGWorld'' lampshades this trope (just like it does for every single other video game trope in existence), in [[http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20021027.html this comic]].

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'': Subverted in Batman Arkham Knight, You have the Batmobile which is equipped with an arsenal of deadly weaponry such as a 60mm cannon, a minigun, and missle salvos, but when ever you try to shoot any of those weapons at a mook the weapons targeting automatically switches to the non lethal missle launcher (which is still brutal.

But sometimes these friendly faces show up where the monsters also live. Sometimes they don't, but follow you there. But the funny thing is, the monsters often just seem to ignore them. They only care about hurting you. Even attacks that catch the friendly characters in their wake don't seem to hurt them at all. Why is that?

* The concept is played with in the webcomic ''Webcomic/KidRadd''. "NPC Invulnerability" possessed by former NPC's makes them useful in dangerous situations, as they don't possess the ability to be hurt. Characters that have both NPC Invulnerability and offensive skills are quite rightly considered some of the most frightening things in existence.

-->'''"Lessons learned from video games" t-shirt'''

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Dampe the gravekeeper wanders around the graveyard at night. As you pull gravestones and ghosts come out of some of them, the ghosts attack you, but kindly ignore Dampe, who in turn ignores them. Always wondered why the hordes of skeleton monsters wandering around Hyrule field at night didn't march into Lon Lon Ranch and go on a stabbing rampage. Its door was always open.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. Tingle, the map selling fake fairy, can be found deep in the well-defended Clock town, on the peaceful road to Milk Ranch and...in the horrible, death-shrouded, fairy-frightening, blood-streaked, zombie-filled canyon/death temple found later in the game. Sure, he has unlimited balloons but there are heat-seeking flaming bats and death-birds everywhere.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': [=NPC=]s cannot die, despite often needing to be saved. If attacked by monsters, the worst that will happen is that they're knocked out briefly. If you attack them yourself, they'll dodge in fear but never get hit, while the Goron elder will [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment knock you back in retaliation]].
* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', a young girl you meet in an early area playfully follows you around. Enemies ignore her and only try to hurt you. This is more a case of ImprobableInfantSurvival, since most other civilians can be killed if you lure monsters close to them. And when the same character shows up as a teenager in Eye of the North, she is most certainly not invulnerable (though she's not a civilian anymore either).

* In ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsRoadRage'', however, you ''can'' run over both the pedestrian you've dropped off and other pedestrians waiting for a taxi on the road. However, other than complaining at you and being dragged off like every other object you can collide and drag with you, the pedestrians aren't any worse for wear afterwards.
* Same for the earlier ''VideoGame/{{Driver}}'' games. Goes to the ridiculous extreme in ''VideoGame/DriverSanFrancisco'' in which pedestrians dodge out of the way of cars as if [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation the Spidey Sense bit them in the taint]].

* The pedestrians in ''VideoGame/MidtownMadness'' also have incredible dodging skills, though in the first game, you could turn the weather to snowy and drive down the sidewalks of Lakeshore Drive to force them to dive into Lake Michigan. They would welcome death after that.
* In ''[[VideoGame/MidnightClub Midnight Club: Street Racing]]'' has invulnerable civilians that you can run over, but they'll get back up on their feet and continue on like nothing happened. The sequel, ''[[VideoGame/MidnightClub Midnight Club II]]'', averts this, as pedestrians you run over don't get back up and are treated as dead. [[WhatTheHellPlayer The opponents would even call you out for doing so]]. This stands out in a game that is otherwise non-violent, and subsequent games grant the pedestrians super dodging skills.
* In the EA developed ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'', you can spot tiny little pedestrians running around in the city campaign missions, they are unaffected by the hordes of tanks driving over them. ''Not'' the case in previous games in the series, where civilians were units just like any other... including being squishable beneath tanks if on foot (several of the games had cars and trucks as well as pedestrians).
* In ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', civilians will often find themselves struggling over purses or ancient artifacts, but they can walk through groups of evil body-possessing mages without a problem. Villain-side Mayhem missions are the only times they ''are'' attackable by players, just like enemies and scenery. However, the same attack that puts a dent in a SWAT officer's armor or destroys a car does absolutely nothing to a citizen.

* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' features one of the most frustrating applications of this trope. Some Invulnerable Civilians will ignore your attacks, but God help the adventurer who takes a swing at an NPC only to discover that a.) he's invincible and b.) he's ''pissed off.''
* The webcomic ''VideoGame/RPGWorld'' lampshades this trope (just like it does for every single other video game trope in existence), in [[http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20021027.html this comic]].
* In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VI'', if you lured monsters into town, they'd continue attacking you, but would completely ignore the townspeople walking around (funnily enough, the townspeople would be happy to attack ''you'' if you start killing them).
** This was corrected in ''Might & Magic VII'', where townspeople and monsters would fight each other if they ever crossed paths (all townspeople were randomly generated; all plot important {{NPC}}s were unkillable signpost conversations safely tucked away indoors).
** There is one exception to this in the first play area, where a semi-plot-important NPC offers the players [[DiscOneNuke a wand of fireball]] [[DealWithTheDevil in return for a later 'favour']]. Since the character in question carries the wand on him, enterprising players who know how M&M aggro works quickly learn that no favour is incurred if they just so happen to loot the wand from his corpse after he was [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial tragically killed by a completely random and not-at-all player-led monster incursion]] focused on his location.
* Certain areas in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' have wandering predators and wandering herbivores passing right by one another... but so help you if YOU should happen to walk near either of them.
** That specific case (herbivores and carnivores walking right by each other) was actually addressed in the game's latest expansion pack, where in some cases you have predators ignore you to go eat something that they actually hunt (wolves on some sort of moose like animal), though they will gladly start attacking you as soon as they are done 'eating'.
** The game also has several examples of merchants who are somewhat allied with enemy forces, but you can still purchase items from. They are usually marked as traitorous, or just willing to accept anyone's coin. And VendorTrash.
* In ''Global Defence Force'' (Chikyuu Boueigun 2) there are crowds of civilians running away from the alien enemies on many levels. Even if the player is fully kitted out with a superweapon capable of killing a gigantic Godzilla-alike lizard in one hit, shooting civilians will make them fly through the air, lie on the ground for a moment, then simply pick themselves up and start running again. Likewise if they are stepped on by the aforementioned lizard. If you shoot a single civilian with a continuous-fire weapon for long enough, though, they will vanish into thin air, but this seems to be a bug rather than 'death'.
* The Demon Scrolls in ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' will happily float right past any [=NPCs=] in the area, but if you get anywhere near them, they actually ''chase'' you out of SuicidalOverconfidence.

* ''VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours''. The main character, Tony Montana, will refuse to fire his gun at innocents. However, running people over is easily possible. Explosions? The pedestrians are just rattled. Even if you play with the 'murder spree possible' sub-characters some essential civilians, like the bank tellers, are still impossible to kill. Explosions? Tear pedestrians to shreds.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', monsters will completely ignore the few [=NPCs=] scattered around the game world. This is a good thing, as several [=NPCs=] are found in the middle of major danger zones will monsters crossing their path regularly while trying to get to you. However, monster attacks will still ''damage'' friendly [=NPCs=], so it's possible for them to die if you get into a fight near them and they get hit by, say, a few stray thrown boulders.
* Exaggerated and lampshaded in ''[[Website/GaiaOnline zOMG!]]'' when a lost little girl is found on the cliffs by the Otami Ruins, unharmed by all the particularly nasty Animated that live there.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Infinity}}'' models aren't allowed to declare attacks against civilians.
* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'':
** Averted. At one point, there was a near-invincible civilian in the form of the Guide (who could still be killed by lava, but would quickly respawn), but an update changed this to allow him to die like the other {{Non Player Character}}s. [=NPCs=] still can't be killed by the player under normal circumstances, although it is possible to with magma, and goodie bags dropped by enemies around Halloween commonly have Rotten Eggs, which can be used to damage and kill [=NPCs=].
** Killing the Guide by throwing his voodoo doll into a lava pit summons the Wall of Flesh.
** 1.2 adds the same potential fate for the Clothier, which lets you summon Skeletron again.

* In a non-videogame example, the [=NPCs=] of the Resistance in ''Webcomic/KidRadd'' actually ''weaponize'' this. Even though they are unable to damage others, their complete invulnerability (due to not being coded to take damage) makes them very effective shields for their more damage-oriented allies. [[spoiler: Even more dangerous are the [=NPCs=] who attack others after taking damage, ''but are still invincible''. Sheena, due to a series of events, eventually is able to transform between [=NPC=] and player character modes.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', a young girl you meet in an early area playfully follows you around. Enemies ignore her and only try to hurt you. This is more a case of InfantImmortality, since most other civilians can be killed if you lure monsters close to them. And when the same character shows up as a teenager in Eye of the North, she is most certainly not invulnerable (though she's not a civilian anymore either).

* Civilians in ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' are most of the time immune to damage and harm from both the player and enemies, and are completely ignored by most enemies. In particular, the first stage of ''Metal Slug 2/X'' contains a baby crawling around. Like most civilians they're immune to damage but they can get tossed around by your explosive weapons. They'll just get back up and continue crawling no worse for the wear. This trope, however, is [[VulnerableCivilians averted]] when mummies and zombies are involved.

* In a non-videogame example, the NPCs of the Resistance in ''Webcomic/KidRadd'' actually ''weaponize'' this. Even though they are unable to damage others, their complete invulnerability (due to not being coded to take damage) makes them very effective shields for their more damage-oriented allies. [[spoiler: Even more dangerous are the NPCs who attack others after taking damage, ''but are still invincible''. Sheena, due to a series of events, eventually is able to transform between NPC and player character modes.]]

* In ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'', anyone who isn't explicitly an enemy cannot be harmed at all, and is completely ignored by enemies.

* In ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'', anyone who isn't explicitly an enemy cannot be harmed at all.

* One noteable {{Aversion}} is ''[[VideoGame/MidnightClub Midnight Club II]]'', which featured pedestrians that could be ran over and [[WhatTheHellPlayer opponents that would call you out for doing so]]. This stands out in a game that is otherwise non-violent, and subsequent games grant the pedestrians super dodging skills.

!!Examples

** ''VideoGame/TheCrew'', which shares ''D:SF''[='=]s developer, maintains the incredible dodging skills on the pedestrians.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has a few areas with {{NPC}}s in dangerous areas. While most of them are in areas that don't have monsters spawn there, if you run a mob over there and manage to lose aggro, do they attack the {{NPC}}s? Nope. The only time the mobs seem to notice the {{NPC}}s is when you are supposed to escort them somewhere for a quest. In fact, during the early years of the game, there were almost no player-race enemies whatsoever. In fact, the only player-race enemy you fought at that time transformed into a monster.

* {{Justified|Trope}} with Namingway in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'''s DS remake: he has the ability to always appear in whatever location the story mandates your party to visit next, complain about his current situation, find a new calling, change his name to <Insertcurrentsituationhere> way and ask Cecil to help him out in some way and possibly reward him somehow, in no particular order. Said locations are invariably filled with lots of dangerous monsters, and the one time you actually need to fight him a good way into the game, he only has a measly 32 HP. So how does he survive? Simple: after you complete his subplot and find him in one of the randomly chosen locations afterwards, he gives you his good luck charm that he's apparently carried with him the entire time: a Safe Travel augment, which eliminates all random encounters. The game doesn't bother to elaborate if the very first monsters he runs into afterwards kill him brutally or if he barely manages to escape to a nearby town, realizes the danger he's been in the entire time and spends the rest of his life sobbing in the corner of a nearby inn.
* He's still alive and well in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears'' and has settled with setting up [[BonusDungeon challenge dungeons]] in each character tale, which might or might not mean he's learned his lesson. There's another member of his species that pops up during various dungeons to sell you items which might or might not be him, though.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' has an interesting version, as many [=NPCs=] will attack enemies that appear near them on the overworld, but thats purely visual and has no bearing on the actual battle, nor will anyone ever die to these monsters.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has several camps and other points of interest where many of an NPC populate them. While it is possible to drag monsters over to them, they won't attack them and even if you get them to use an AOE attack, the NPC will not get hurt at all. The only time an NPC can get hurt or attacked directly is if they're part of an EscortMission.

* In ''Guild Wars'', a young girl you meet in an early area playfully follows you around. Enemies ignore her and only try to hurt you. This is more a case of InfantImmortality, since most other civilians can be killed if you lure monsters close to them. And when the same character shows up as a teenager in Eye of the North, she is most certainly not invulnerable (though she's not a civilian anymore either).

* ''Neverwinter Nights'' features one of the most frustrating applications of this trope. Some Invulnerable Civilians will ignore your attacks, but God help the adventurer who takes a swing at an NPC only to discover that a.) he's invincible and b.) he's ''pissed off.''

* In ''Might & Magic VI'', if you lured monsters into town, they'd continue attacking you, but would completely ignore the townspeople walking around (funnily enough, the townspeople would be happy to attack ''you'' if you start killing them).

*** In ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsRoadRage'', however, you ''can'' run over both the pedestrian you've dropped off and other pedestrians waiting for a taxi on the road. However, other than complaining at you and being dragged off like every other object you can collide and drag with you, the pedestrians aren't any worse for wear afterwards.
** Same for the earlier ''VideoGame/{{Driver}}'' games. Goes to the ridiculous extreme in ''VideoGame/DriverSanFrancisco'' in which pedestrians dodge out of the way of cars as if [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation the Spidey Sense bit them in the taint]].
*** ''VideoGame/TheCrew'', which shares ''D:SF''[='=]s developer, maintains the incredible dodging skills on the pedestrians.
** The pedestrians in ''VideoGame/MidtownMadness'' also have incredible dodging skills, though in the first game, you could turn the weather to snowy and drive down the sidewalks of Lakeshore Drive to force them to dive into Lake Michigan. They would welcome death after that.
** One noteable {{Aversion}} is ''[[VideoGame/MidnightClub Midnight Club II]]'', which featured pedestrians that could be ran over and [[WhatTheHellPlayer opponents that would call you out for doing so]]. This stands out in a game that is otherwise non-violent, and subsequent games grant the pedestrians super dodging skills.