History Main / RandomEffectSpell

[[folder:Strategy Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerIII'': A downplayed example. The Blue Scribes start out the battle with the six spells of the Lore of Tzeentch but, as soon as one is used, their entire list is reshuffled to produce six random spells picked from all lores of magic in the game, which then keep being reselected every time one is used. Thus, while the player still picks what particular spell is used, the actual selection of magic is randomly recreated several times throughout the battle.
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*** The Deck of many Things has 22 cards. Effects range from really good (gain wishes, experience, items, etc.) to extremely bad (fight a mini-death, lose all your possessions, or be locked in a void almost impossible to find).

* Acrobats in ''VideoGame/DokaponKingdom'' can get the "????" skill. It changes to a random skill every time a new battle starts.

** Chance/Hocus Pocus in the various incarnations of the franchise.
** This is carried over to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', where it can pull from about 20 different effects, good and bad.
** The Princess of Moonbrooke from ''VideoGame/DragonQuestII'' is the first character in the franchise to use Hocus Pocus, whose description in that game warns that "you will never know what will happen before it is casted".
** Meena's Silver Tarot Cards in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' have random effects when used as an item. Using them too many times in one battle dramatically increases the chance of her drawing the Fool, which [[TotalPartyKill casts Thwack on the entire party]].

* The first four ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy'' games feature a skill which gives a character a random item to be immediately used:

** [=NoLegs=] returns in ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy3'', as a Special Skill learnable by Matt, Natalie or Lance. He can be upgraded to give better items, whilst a fully-upgraded Cat Costume gives him the chance to appear randomly.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', the Hunter can summon a random animal, and the Geomancer can effect random effects based on the environment. The summoner also learns a command that allows them to call a random summon that they've learned, without using MP. Finally in the GBA and iOS/Android version, all four new classes get one command that lets them do something (seemingly) randomly -- the Cannoneer gets Open Fire which randomly uses one out of four possible attacks; the Gladiator gets Finisher which either inflicts a CriticalHit, deals 9999 damage with element that matches the character using it, or does nothing; the Necromancer gets Oath which again randomly uses one out of four possible attacks, and the Oracle gets Predict, which seemingly randomly picks an attack that could target either allies or enemies (or both), does random damage, and randomly inflicts some sort of status based on the move randomly chosen. [[note]]Except that it's not random at all but based on the last digit of the caster's HP and MP. Funny how the most random looking skill is actually not random at all, right?[[/note]]

** The Animist in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the Friend skill, which uses a random SummonMagic good or bad. Better hope you won't wind up accidentally blasting your own party with Ifrit!
* A number of Viviosaurs in ''VideoGame/FossilFighters: Champions'' have random effect spells. Coelanth has an ability that randomly inflicts any status effect, and Archaeo has one that's just random, period.
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'', the Juggle Pup and R&R Seal's Lucky Dice link attack can cause all sorts of randomness to happen to either you or your foes and for better or for worse. Not something you want to try out in a boss fight, as there's a chance for it to completely restore the HP of all enemies present. All of their basic attacks are random, as well, their normal dice attacking allies or enemies based on what side lands face up, and their ball/melon tossing attacks doing either no damage, decent damage, or high damage based on the color of ball/melon used.
** There's also the always beneficial Break Time command, that restores either your HP, link gauge, or drop gauge at random. As the name might imply, it's not really meant to be used in combat, as it leaves you wide open to abuse for a lengthy period of time (Though using it in midair offers a good degree of safety from many enemies).

* The "Bewildering Grace" spell from ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' is one of the potential skills you can use as a Dancer, and the kinds of effects you can get from it can be pretty extreme. It can screw you in spectacular ways, like bringing your entire party's HPTo1, preventing item use for the remainder of battle, or healing your opponents fully. But on the other hand, it can heal/buff your party, summon a monster that kills your enemies instantly, or, most importantly, multiply the amount of experience or job points you win at the end of the battle. The rarest of these multipliers is 100x, which can only be gotten at maximum boost. Get the 0.1% chance for the JP one, and your squad can safely master their main and secondary jobs right then and there. Get the 0.1% chance for experience, and be lucky enough to get it when facing the equally rare [[MetalSlime Cait enemy]], and [[GameBreaker you've basically won the game]].
* The Mystery items in the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' franchise, and, to a lesser extent, the Kooky Cookies. Almost everything Mystery gives you is good, and the Cookies are one of the only ways (outside of the rare Repel Gel) to turn see-through, so they definitely have LethalJokeItem potential.
* The rare Random Hearts equipment in ''VideoGame/{{Opoona}}'' adds random effects to all of your normal attacks, as dictated by a number.

** In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', Fuuka can use Oracle to cause a random effect, this can include restoring your HP and/or SP, curing status effects, but also potentially set your HPTo1.
** The Fool Arcana Chance in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' becomes any one of the other Arcana cards when it appears, adopting their effects. In ''Golden'', it instead replaces the remaining cards with random cards while refunding your draw.

* The Sage job tree in ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' has the spell Abracadabra. It randomly casts/executes any skill or spell available to any job, as well as some unusable through any other means. The most sought-after effect summons a random boss monster, which is then typically killed for rare loot.
* Falitza's "Press Fortune" ability in ''VideoGame/TheReconstruction''. Whether or not it even causes a good or bad effect to occur is random. Its effects aren't too varied, though -- just full-party buffs or debuffs. It can be upgraded to have four new effects, though -- increasing/decreasing the Rush meter, and advancing the skill chain by 8/breaking it.

* In ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', the Sprite kid's Lunar Magic spell does all manner of odd things, including healing the party, boosting everyone's abilities, shrinking them, or turning them into Moogles.
* In the [=PS3=] remake of ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', almost all of the arts and spells used by Patty Fleur are random in regards to what they'll do, though the odds of something good or bad happening can be tweaked by equipping certain skills. The most random of all is her Critical Moment spell, which has dozens of possible effects that make good or bad things happen to the party, the enemies, or both.
* The aptly named "Spell" spell in ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' has a few different effects, although the most common is turning some enemies into [[BlobMonster Bots]]; but in one location it summons a shrine from the ground, which is necessary to progress in the game.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' series has [[ChineseVampire Hsien-Ko]], who has an attack that throws a random object at her opponent. The objects run the gamut of size, power, and usefulness. One in particular is a statue of [[Franchise/StreetFighter Akuma]] that causes dizzy on a hit.
* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', many of Gilgamesh's attacks have him attack with one of eight random weapons, with different damage and properties for each. They range from Excalipoor, which deals a measly 1 damage per hit, and Excalibur, which crits for huge damage.

** There's also the [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Poké Balls]] and Assist Trophies, who summon a random character from their individual lists to do different things. Two Pokémon, Clefairy and Togepi, even do random things '''within''' the random item. (In the first game, Clefairy copies another Poké Ball Pokémon. In the other games, they both pick from a smaller pool of unique effects.)
** Lastly is the [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]], Supernova, which, while it does consistent damage, can inflict random status effects on its victims, such as slowing them, giving them a damage-dealing flower, reversing their controls or forcing a Shield Break.

** Finally, certain deities approve of their followers taking risks with Random Effect Spells. Nemelex Xobeh, the trickster god, will grant you decks of cards which will do various things when drawn. With the proper strategy, though, said decks can provide a wide range of useful abilities.
*** Xom, the god of chaos, however, [[JerkassGod delights in making random things happen to you for no reason whatsoever]].
* In ''[[VideoGame/ChocobosDungeon Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon]]'', the final ability for the Scholar job is "Truth", which casts a random spell when used. In the Platform/NintendoDS remake, this is now the Scholar's '''first''' ability; the new final ability is a variant narrowed to the most powerful spells only.

* The Magic Banana item in ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher 2'' has a number of random effects it can do to your monster. They run the gamut, but easily the most desirable of them is an effect which cuts your monster's Loyalty, but makes them live longer. Some people use SaveScumming and the item in tandem to create immortal monsters -- either for [[DiscOneNuke maxed-out stats,]] or [[VideogameCaringPotential to keep their favorite monster young and happy forever.]]

* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' has the Random power, which causes any one of the other powers to be used when activated. God help you if it chooses [[ActionBomb Spite]] though.
** There's also the Random Effect power, which restricts the possibilities to making your attacks a StatusInflictionAttack for a random status.

[[WMG:Non-Video Game Examples]]

* Presto's magic hat in ''WesternAnimation/DungeonsAndDragons1983'' can produce seemingly anything... but almost never what he actually wants at that moment. The produced items usually do turn out to be useful for the crisis at hand, at least with a bit of thought, but are never ideal.
* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls,'' [[ScienceHero Ford]] has an "Infinity-Sided Die" from his interdimensional travels. Since it has infinite sides, there are infinite possible outcomes whenever you roll it, which is why he never (purposely) uses it and just keeps it as a curio.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MightyMagiswords'', the Confusing Alien Magisword does something weird and different every time it's used. This includes altering a person's voice, summoning ducks, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick tearing a hole in time and space]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug,'' Marinette's Lucky Charm will turn into some seemingly-random object whenever she activates it. It's always something that can help the current situation (since her powers are based on luck), but she has to take a few seconds to figure out how.

* In ''[[VideoGame/ChocobosDungeon Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon]]'', the final ability for the Scholar job is "Truth", which casts a random spell when used. In the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS remake, this is now the Scholar's '''first''' ability; the new final ability is a variant narrowed to the most powerful spells only.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': The Togepi that spent time in Misty/Kasumi's care secretly knew ''one'' move that seemed to show up at the most coincidental moments. The move was ''Metronome'', already mentioned above in [=Eastern RPGs.=] An early episode showed a Clefairy colony whose have the Metronome as well. Given that this show is a LongRunner, it's appeared in a few other places, as well. For [[RandomNumberGod some reason]], the move most commonly used as a result of Metronome is Splash, which does absolutely nothing.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' has Paula's Pray command, which does a random assortment of things. It's free and can heal people and give status effects to enemies, but it can also give status effects to ''you'' -- so outside of the now-infamous final battle, you're generally better off sticking to Paula's BlackMagicianGirl skills.

* ''TabletopGame/FabulaUltima'': The aptly named Gamble spell produces one of five random effects. One of these effects harms the caster and two others are detrimental to everyone on the scene, but the last two--a powerful group heal that also [[AntiDebuff removes debuffs]], and a strong HerdHittingAttack of a random damage type--are so beneficial that they make it worth the risk of casting the spell.

** Sleep Talk picks and uses another one of the Pokemon's skills at random while it sleeps, making it the most predictable of all while still being random.

** There's also the [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Poké Balls]] and Assist Trophies, who summon a random character from their individual lists to do different things. Two Pokemon, Clefairy and Togepi, even do random things '''within''' the random item. (In the first game, Clefairy copies another Poké Ball Pokemon. In the other games, they both pick from a smaller pool of unique effects.)

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': The Togepi that spent time in Misty/Kasumi's care secretly knew ''one'' move that seemed to show up at the most coincidental moments. The move was ''Metronome'', already mentioned above in [=Eastern RPGs.=] An early episode showed a colony of Clefairies whose have the Metronome as well. Given that this show is a LongRunner, it's appeared in a few other places, as well. For [[RandomNumberGod some reason]], the move most commonly used as a result of Metronome is Splash, which does absolutely nothing.

*** A bag of beans contains a number of dry beans that, if planted, can grow into a patch of poisonous mushrooms, a patch of shrieking mushrooms, a friendly treant, an evil treant, a geyser of random liquid, a hungry monster, toads that turn into monsters when touched, a statue of you that badmouths you to other people, a tree whose fruit work as random magic potions, a pyramid with an evil mummy in it, a normal but blue fire, a nest of eggs that explode when eaten, or a giant beanstalk that leads to a random destination.

A Random Effect Spell is just that -- a spell or item in a video game that pulls from a pool of [[GameplayRandomization random effects]], instead of doing the same thing every time. Often (but not always) granted as a late-game spell or ability, or difficult to come by, the Random Effect Spell's effects can run the gauntlet from "really cool" to "really lame". How big the effect pool is can depend on the item or spell, though frequently, at least one or two of them will be a duplicate of an already-existing spell or ability (if not all of them). Frequently, at least one possible effect of the spell will be ''completely amazing'' (such as dealing massive damage to all enemies), but another will be ''[[PoisonMushroom completely horrible]]'' (such as cutting all your characters' health in half). Also frequent is one option which does absolutely nothing. Whether the risk is worth it generally depends on the ratio of good effects to bad ones in the pool, the cost of the ability, and how many (and how strong) the enemies are you're facing. Of course if you are playing on an emulator or SaveScumming is otherwise available, you can just keep resetting until you get the right luck.

Due to its random nature, it is frequently AwesomeButImpractical and a UselessUsefulSpell, but not always. If there are enough good effects, they can easily be a LethalJokeItem or spell. If the randomness results from the spell being ''miscast,'' then that's MagicMisfire. Compare RandomizedDamageAttack where it's only the damage that is random, but the effect stays the same - although they may overlap if one effect yield greater damage than the other.

* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series:

** Greater yet is the 'Wonder' spell, which can have a vast array of effects -- including nearly the entire archive of general spells, as well as a number of unique effects you can ONLY get from it: Creating [[EverythingIsBetterWithPenguins penguins]], causing giant mushrooms to grow, opening the very Gates of Hell... or turning you into a baboon.

** [[FantasticDrug Numerian fluids]] are a mixture of various chemicals seeping from the wreckage of ancient spaceships, altered by millennia of decay and radiation. Anyone crazy enough to drink such a substance experiences a mind-altering state similar to other drugs, but the real fun is in the side effects: because of the variability of the fluid's composition, it can cause anything from StandardStatusEffects to temporary/permanent superpowers to cellular degeneration (read: the flesh melts off your bones).