History Main / ManaShield

* Adol in ''VideoGame/YsIIAncientYsVanishedTheFinalChapter'' acquires the Shield Magic, which directs any damage he receives into his MP, [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity just prior to the]] FinalBoss battle. It drains MP on its own rather quickly though.

* Adol in ''VideoGame/YsIIAncientYsVanishedTheFinalChapter'' can acquire a spell that directs any damage he receives into his MP. It drains MP on its own rather quickly though.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfMajEyal'' actually inverts this trope. Archmages can get a shield that converts incoming damage to a mana ''increase.'' The downside is that, if the damage would bring your mana above its maximum value, your shield ''explodes'' instead.

** The solipsist has a more traditional ManaShield: A certain percentage of incoming damage is dealt to PSI instead of health. Note that the solipsist has less health than the squishiest of wizards, so this is a useful skill to have.

* Adol in ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} II'' can acquire a spell that directs any damage he receives into his MP. It drains MP on its own rather quickly though.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'': Electrician has a skill that reduces incoming damage by half at the cost of mana.

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' mostly instead uses an Energy Shield that's fueled by the same primary attribute as your Mana (Intelligence), but doesn't directly interact with it. However the passive skill Mind over Matter causes 30% of damage to subtract from mana instead of life, and a few items with similar effects. There's also an inverted version, ''Eldritch Battery'' where your shield protects your mana instead, allowing you to keep casting while reserving all mana. These two can be combined, so 30% of damage goes to the energy shield that is effectively your mana (this may seem like an overcomplicated way of getting energy shield to protect the player's health, the thing it does already, but it's often mechanically superior).

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' mostly instead uses an Energy Shield that's fueled by the same source as your Mana (Intelligence), but doesn't directly interact with it. However the passive skill Mind over Matter causes 30% of damage to subtract from mana instead of life. You generally have much less mana, but it has the capacity to regenerate at a much faster rate. There's also an inverted version, ''Eldritch Battery'' where you lose all Shields and convert them into Mana, allowing you to keep casting with impunity.

* The Magic Armor in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' is a variation- it diverts damage to your money supply while also draining it at a steady pace to fuel its effects (as there is [[DummiedOut no]] ManaMeter in ''Twilight Princess'').

** Mages in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' used to have Mana Shield, which caused damage to briefly be dealt to your Mana instead of your Health. Unlike healers' spells and other mage absorption spells, it didn't become more efficient as you gained more Spell Power from gear; but unlike them, it didn't cost any mana if it expires unused. It was later replaced with Incanter's Ward, which is similar but has a much shorter duration and actually ''restores'' mana per damage blocked instead of draining it.

* Mages in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' had the spell Mana Shield, which causes damage to briefly be dealt to your Mana instead of your Health. Unlike healers' spells and other mage absorption spells, it didn't become more efficient as you gained more Spell Power from gear; but unlike them, it didn't cost any mana if it expired unused.
** In ''World of Warcraft'' Lady Deathwhisper casts one of these at the start of the fight, and doesn't drop it until her mana has been entirely depleted. Not that it stops her from [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules casting spells after anyway]].
** ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' did this with ManaShield on the Naga Sea Witch.

* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' Blitzcrank has an unusual variant. When reduced to low health he gains a mana shield that absorbs damage equal to a percentage of his current mana. Rather than draining mana it's limited by a cooldown.

* Mages in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' had the spell Mana Shield, which causes damage to briefly be dealt to your Mana instead of your Health. Unlike healers' spells and other mage absorption spells, it didn't become more efficient as you gained more Spell Power from gear; but unlike them, it didn't cost any mana if it expired unused.
** In ''World of Warcraft'' Lady Deathwhisper casts one of these at the start of the fight, and doesn't drop it until her mana has been entirely depleted. Not that it stops her from [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules casting spells after anyway]].
** ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' did this with ManaShield on the Naga Sea Witch.
* ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'' has a skill by the same name as the trope, which uses a rather intricate formula for determining the damage hit to the user's {{Mana|Points}} and also steadily drains it while in use. When their Mana does run out, any damage not blocked averts this trope. However, a recent Music-type skill {{subvert|edTrope}}s this trope, which regenerates quite a chunk of Mana such that it completely overrides the passive drain effect.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' is the TropeNamer. The eponymous spell, which is the lifeblood of the middle-to-late-game Sorcerer, not only reduced all damage by a third but redirected ''all the rest of the damage'' to mana instead of health. In fact, due to a famous glitch, a high-level Sorcerer is well-advised to have ''as low of a health count as possible'', enabling him to completely avoid stun from high damage attacks.
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', the Sorceress has an Energy shield that diverts a proportion of damage to Magic points.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' has the Time Mage ability "MP Switch" for this effect.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' have the "Damage > MP" and "MP Shield" abilities respectively. The former is something of a GameBreaker: it didn't put any overflow damage into HP (which made it incredibly useful for the main character to have for those 1-on-1 story fights), characters start with full MP at the beginning of the level, and they regain 10 MP every turn. In ''A2'', MP Shield is {{nerf}}ed heavily. Not only does overflow come from HP, MP also starts at 0, making this skill is a really bad choice for classes that actually use MP and only slightly better for those that don't.
** Particularly irritating opponents in the second game have both Damage > MP and Blood Price, the latter of which allows them to cast spells out of their HP. ''Particularly'' irritating ones can also heal themselves for more HP than it costs to cast the healing spell. Kill them quickly!

* In ''VideoGame/MapleStory'', all of the mage-type classes have a skill (commonly referred to as Magic Guard) that converts damage received to MP instead of HP, although it only absorbs up to 80% of the full damage. Still very important for mages to master, since they boast the highest amount of MP in the game out of any class, on top of potentially getting one-hit KO'ed by literally anything at the higher levels without it.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'', barrier abilities reduce damage while draining energy.
* The Magic Armor in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' is a variation- it diverts damage to your money supply while also draining it at a steady pace to fuel its effects (as there is [[DummiedOut no]] ManaMeter in ''Twilight Princess'').
* There's the Vigor ability available to psionic characters in ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. It uses psionic powers in order to create temporary hit points, so its effect is similar.
** Similarly, elans can sacrifice power points to reduce or eliminate hit point damage once per round.
* The Wraith Armor in ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain]]''.
* The Endure skill in ''VideoGame/BlueDragon''.
* One of the many GeoEffects in ''VideoGame/Disgaea3AbsenceOfJustice'' swaps your HP/MP values, so that running out of MP can get you killed on these spots. Good for quickly wiping out powerful enemies with low MP; not so good for your DumbMuscle, if you have any...

* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Fable|I}}'', this spell (dubbed "Physical Shield") is quite a [[GameBreaker game breaker]]. The game features a combat multiplier, which goes up as you're dealing damage to enemies and multiplies the experience you receive. Being hit resets it back to zero, but only if your hitpoints go down. If you absorb the damage into your mana, the multiplier stays. Using the mana shield constantly thus allows you to get the multiplier ridiculously high and level up much faster than you could without it.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'': Electrician has a skill that reduces incoming damage by half at the cost of mana.

* In the ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'' games, Doppelgangers are already tough as they are, what with being automatically 8 levels above the main character, and having an outrageous HP/SP regen points, AND having a very damaging weapons equipped, complete with devastating effects thrown in for good measure. Come Volume 3 (At Walking Pace/Redemption), and the Doppelganger has the Mana Shield in full force, making fighting him an exercise in patience, frustration, and revival items, as, for a good amount of time, your attacks will do exactly 0 damage until you run its SP to 0. On the good side though, once you do, he won't be able to do Arts, so that's one less worry to deal with.

* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' Blitzcrank has an unusual variant. When reduced to low health he gains a mana shield that absorbs damage equal to a percentage of his current mana. Rather than draining mana it's limited by a cooldown.
** Seraph's Embrace consumes a portion of the user's mana to gain a shield equal to the consumed mana for a short duration.

* While characters in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' can deal both standard HP damage and [[ManaBurn MP damage]], the Convert Damage skill allows you to either do this or its inversion, converting MP damage into HP damage. Use of this skill can make Nel and Maria into better tanks than Fayt or Cliff.[[note]]With Convert Damage: Preserve HP, 7 HP damage is converted into 1 MP damage, and while Cliff can easily reach [[{{Cap}} 99,999 HP]], Maria can reach 50,000 MP and Nel can reach 35,000 MP, giving them roughly twice the staying power.[[/note]]
* The Mage class in ''VideoGame/CubeWorld'' has a spell called Mana Shield; however, despite its name, casting the spell costs no Mana and simply causes a percent of damage taken to be nullified (up to a cap) instead of redirecting Health Point damage to your Mana Points.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has the Warbear energy bracers accessory, which lets monster attacks reduce your MP instead of your HP.
* In the multiplayer of ''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Dawn of War II]]'' and its expansions, several heroes can get shield upgrades which cause damage to drain their energy instead of health. Specifically, the Force Commander has the Iron Halo, the Chaos Lord the Dark Halo, the Warlock the Psychic Shield, the Hive Tyrant the Warp Field, and the Commissar Lord the Refractor Field.
* Adol in ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} II'' can acquire a spell that directs any damage he receives into his MP. It drains MP on its own rather quickly though.
* One of Gideon Jura's signature spells in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is a defensive shield that can stop just about anything, but each hit depletes his mana to sustain it.
* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' mostly instead uses an Energy Shield that's fueled by the same source as your Mana (Intelligence), but doesn't directly interact with it. However the passive skill Mind over Matter causes 30% of damage to subtract from mana instead of life. You generally have much less mana, but it has the capacity to regenerate at a much faster rate. There's also an inverted version, ''Eldritch Battery'' where you lose all Shields and convert them into Mana, allowing you to keep casting with impunity.
* ''VideoGame/PrayerOfTheFaithless'': The amount of [[{{Mana}} Stamina]] available when an attack is taken affects how much damage is dealt. More Stamina, less damage.

* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Advocates]] in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' get Inviolate Form, a power which forces attacks to mow through their magic points before their hit points. This synchronizes well with a whole ''lot'' of skills that can be combined to make Advocates into formidable tanks rather than the rather delicate angelic healers they initially appear to be.

* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Advocates]] in ''[[NexusWar Nexus Clash]]'' get Inviolate Form, a power which forces attacks to mow through their magic points before their hit points. This synchronizes well with a whole ''lot'' of skills that can be combined to make Advocates into formidable tanks rather than the rather delicate angelic healers they initially appear to be.

* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'', although it only absorbs up to 80% instead of full damage. Still very important for mages to master, as they would die to nearly anything in one hit at the higher levels without it.

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' mostly instead uses an Energy Shield that's fueled by the same source as your Mana (Intelligence), but doesn't directly interact with it. However the passive skill Mind over Matter causes 30% of damage to subtract from mana instead of life. You generally have much less mana, but it has the capacity to regenerate at a much faster rate.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' gives players the option to do this with the mod Quick Thinking. Whenever your health would be depleted, it gets reduced to 2 instead, and the remaining damage is deducted from your energy instead. However, you do get hit with a nasty stagger effect, which can send you into a CycleOfHurting, so it's better used as an emergency safety net rather than a way to let the squishy casters face-tank everything. For a short while, it was an absolute GameBreaker when used in conjunction with Rage, a mod that restores energy when you take damage to your health, but [[ObviousRulesPatch it got patched out rather quickly]].

* Much like ''World of Warcraft'', ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'' has a skill by the same name as the trope, which uses a rather intricate formula for determining the damage hit to the user's {{Mana|Points}} and also steadily drains it while in use. When their Mana does run out, any damage not blocked averts this trope.
** However, a recent Music-type skill {{subvert|edTrope}}s this trope, which regenerates quite a chunk of Mana such that it completely overrides the passive drain effect.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Diablo}} Diablo 2]]'', the Sorceress has an Energy shield that diverts a proportion of damage to Magic points.

** [[Creator/RaulJulia Of course]], ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' did this with ManaShield on the Naga Sea Witch.

* In ''LeagueOfLegends'' Blitzcrank has an unusual variant. When reduced to low health he gains a mana shield that absorbs damage equal to a percentage of his current mana. Rather than draining mana it's limited by a cooldown.

* One of [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Gideon Jura's]] signature spells is a defensive shield that can stop just about anything, but each hit depletes his mana to sustain it.