History Main / WeakButskilled

[[WeakButSkilled/AnimeAndManga Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* A common SelfImposedChallenge in video games, the LowLevelRun, is an example of invoking this trope. Just getting through these games with vastly reduced HP, MP, and resources is difficult enough, and it often takes raw skill (often to the point of exploiting GoodBadBugs) to keep your level low to begin with.
* ''VideoGame/AbyssCrossing'': Mikoto has a [[MasterOfNone mediocre stat distribution]] compared to all other characters, but she has passive TP regen, making it easier for her to use TP skills. She also comes with multihit skills by default, which makes up for her low offensive stats.
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
** Certain [[ThatOneBoss bosses]] display the ability to kick your ass despite using statistically weaker planes (such as Espada Team using a ''starting'' fighter and a "multirole" fighter-bomber in a pure air-to-air mission)... to an extent that might be considered the computer CherryTapping ''you''.
** On the other side, you have, canonically at least, Mobius One in his Raptor against up to six Wyverns and Gryphus One against the Fenrirs, as well as Cipher and Talisman in (Strike) Eagles against [[spoiler:Solo Wing Pixy]]'s Morgan and Ilya's Nosferatu respectively. While neither the Raptor nor the Eagle are objectively "weak" in-game, they are statistically outclassed by these superfighters. Nevertheless, the protagonists still pull off wins. Then you get to the CherryTapping examples...
* The pitches of the tall and female pitchers from ''VideoGame/ArcStyleBaseball3D'' don't have a whole lot of speed, but they make up for it with a wide array of breaking balls that can make the CPU's life a hell.
* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'':
** Sonja of Yellow Comet is a highly intelligent and skilled analyst who excels in FogOfWar maps with her increased vision and is able to mess with her opponents by [[ConfusionFu hiding her HP and money stats from enemies]], but has only average-level stats and suffers from [[BornUnlucky nasty luck that frequently makes her do less than normal damage]]. This contrasts her father Kanbei who has [[UnskilledButStrong overpowered units but is dumb as a sack of hammers]].
** Adder of Black Hole is a completely and perfectly average CO (which translates to [[OvershadowedByAwesome weak by comparison]] in this game) and CO powers which do nothing more than boost movement ranges, but because he's such a skilled and quick thinker he compensates by having a ''very'' short CO power meter which he can use much more frequently than others, clocking in at only two stars for regular (which can be charged in one good turn) or five for super.
* Certain guns such as the Mozambique and Wingman in ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'' have become [[ButtMonkey memes]] overtime, for being supposedly inferior to other weapons of their class. True their damage outputs aren't entirely game-breaking, but don't laugh too hard, for in the hands of a skilled player. It will be they who will laugh last. The same can be said for [[DarkActionGirl Wraith]] and [[TheCutie Wattson]]. One can [[TheSneakyGuy catch you from behind]], the other will catch you in it's [[{{Pun}} web...uh...fences]].
* Luanne Lui from ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'', mostly due to her speed. She's as fast as Pete Wheeler, but lacks his hitting power, mostly hitting infield.
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has two examples:
** [[HighlyVisibleNinja Bang Shishigami]] is one of the few pure humans in the series (i.e. having no genetic or eldritch empowerment). He also lacks an empowered weapon with which to do battle with these beings, though [[spoiler:he actually possesses a powerful Nox Nyctores, but has no idea how to use it and it has been in its dormant state]]. However, his long years of ninja training, which include various ninja skills (including the hidden technique [[SuperMode "Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan"]] [[note]]yes, that can be attained through training[[/note]]), and most importantly creative uses of them (especially the last one), enable him to survive against both members of the game's super-powered BigBadDuumvirate, and with all those skills, he can handle himself just fine against various superpowered other characters in the game.
** Jin Kisaragi lacks most of the raw power that most characters have in their fighting styles, instead relying mainly on his skills as a swordsman in conjunction with his ice abilities. This is especially obvious when contrasted with the UnskilledButStrong Ragna; Ragna attacks in a rather simple style of or vertical slashes as well as punches and kicks to overwhelm the opponent. Jin however has much more precision and speed as well as different horizontal attacks to fit different situations, and a more refined looking style compared to his brother. This also extends to gameplay as he's a JackOfAllStats.
* ''VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense'' has Boss Bloon Vortex, [[BlowYouAway Deadly Master of Air]]. Unlike its brethren Bloonarius and Lych which have abilities that make them insanely difficult to destroy (massive health pool and periodic [[ZergRush Zerg Rushes]] from Bloonarius and the ability to become invulnerable and leech lives and buffs for Lych), Vortex has no abilities that let it outlast or ignore damage.\\

That said, Vortex can be far more brutal than either if not handled correctly; its periodic tornados blow away projectiles, it has a slipstream that makes bloons behind it move at unholy speeds, it's by far the fastest moving boss in the game, and every 25% of its health (12.5% for its [[HarderThanHard Elite mode]]), it shocks and disables all nearby towers in its radius, including the normally resistant [[AllYourPowersCombined Paragons]], and gains a far more powerful projectile shield that lets it block nearly all non-hitscan projectiles. Combined with its blisteringly fast speed and the duration of the stun, if you aren't properly prepared for Vortex, it is capable of absolutely crushing your defense and leaving you vulnerable to a fast death by either the regular bloons or the boss. Worse, because of how the game severly punishes you for attempting to sell stronger towers by forcing you to lose atleast 5% of the money you spent and removing any buffs (or paragon levels), a badly prepared defense can be absolutely unsalvageable, compared to the other bosses which give you some leeway.
* Two of the heroes in ''VideoGame/{{Bonfire}}'':
** Zivko has only average Attack, but his Blast attack gains an extremely high damage multiplier if he accumulates charges. This makes it weak if you just use it as a standard attack, but [[GatheringSteam if you have the time to build up charges]] it can be very powerful, often killing weaker enemies outright. However, he does still have trouble against heavily-armored enemies, as the damage multiplier occurs ''after'' armor reduction.
** Nadia has below-average Attack and her basic attack has a low damage multiplier on top of that, making her unlikely to deal much direct damage. Her real potential comes from the poison she applies with that weak attack, which [[ArmorPiercingAttack ignores Armor]] and often deals more damage than her attack did [[DamageOverTime for 3 turns in a row]]. Her [[CounterAttack Riposte]] also has a high damage multiplier that allows it to do strong damage even with her low Attack, but it requires a turn to set up.
* In ''Videogame/Borderlands3'', Typhus [=DeLeon=], the First Vault Hunter differs from his successors in that rather than simply being an extremely deadly mercenary he got by more on his luck and wits, stating that he's not that great in a fight. He credits his success to being smarter than his enemies, [[spoiler:small enough to get into places others can't and being ugly enough that no one would bother paying him any attention]].
* ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'': The Void class has the lowest health of all battleships, many of its other base stats are incredibly low, and even its better stats are just on par with other ships in the same categories. The one area where it excels is in system support: it can have more officers assigned to its systems than any other ship, and the total number of officers it can have is six rather than five. It also comes with a Pirate Transponder that gives you a 20% discount at shops and makes neutral units friendly toward you during space battles.
* ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'': The titular character, as well as his brother Mugman, are, on their own, extremely weak and fragile, with three direct hits from the enemy being enough to shatter them into pieces. However, they are also very agile and persistent, constantly dodging their adversaries' attacks and continuously barraging them with their FingerGun projectiles until the enemy is defeated from [[DeathOfAThousandCuts all the continuous injuries]].
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'':
** You are (or rather, [[NintendoHard will become]]) this from the very beginning to the end. You can level up your abilities and adapt to stronger armor, but your opponents in terms of sheer strength and power will almost always outclass you. Fortunately, as you are an Undead, you basically learn from each death you suffer, and grow more knowledgeable on [[CombatPragmatist utilizing certain tactics]] to win against these foes.
** The Ashen One, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', is notable for being this ''even by comparison to the other protagonists'' - as an Unkindled, they have even less metaphysical 'oomph' behind them than the Chosen Undead or the Bearer of the Curse, and are fit only to be cinders to the First Flame. In case you were thinking this made them a pushover, bear in mind that the Ashen One's kill list has a guy who ''eats gods'' on it, and said god-eater isn't even the toughest target on that list.
* You, in ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. Even when you get the laser sword, super speed and inhuman damage soaking. You'll still get taken down by most enemies if you don't think carefully.
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'':
** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'': Lady, despite being a fully human [[DemonSlaying demon hunter]] with no supernatural powers, is still a BadassNormal that is able to pull a good fight with her [[WalkingArmory rich weapon arsenal]], and against [[StrongAndSkilled Dante himself]] too.
** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': V lacks highly-damaging attacks to stagger the stronger enemies on his own, and on higher difficulties, his summons can get stalemated fast. However, being able to mix ranged and melee attacks while recovering Devil Trigger gauge at the same time makes it very easy to get style points as V and he offers better crowd control than Nero and Dante. This puts him in contrast with [[UnskilledButStrong Urizen]] and [[spoiler: [[StrongAndSkilled Vergil himself]]. In fact, V has all of his skills and Urizen has all of his raw strength.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', the characters [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Onion Knight]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX Zidane]] qualify. For the former, due to still being young, his bravery attacks aren't very strong or as varied as the other Cosmos warriors, but makes up for it by [[FragileSpeedster attacking and moving quickly]], having both [[MagicKnight short and long range options]] as well as all of them having branching attacks that deplete HP. For the latter, Zidane hits slightly harder than Onion Knight and just as fast, but his strength lies in dominating at aerial combat, and he is very good at getting his opponent up in the air quickly to get pummeled by aerial combos.
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** Rogues in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', like in the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' example above, can take a passive ability that allows them to base their damage with daggers off their Dexterity instead of their Strength. This usually results in an immediate damage increase out of the Rogue, as players usually build their Rogues with high Dexterity.
** In the [[VideoGame/DragonAgeII sequel]], Rogues have a few different skills they can take that do things like replace Dexterity with Strength for calculating damage, gain them a 1% bonus to critical hit damage per point of Cunning (high level rogues will easily have 30+ points of Cunning, before any armor bonuses), and increase the 'chance' of scoring a critical hit by 1% per each point of Cunning. Combine this with the fact that your characters no longer control like drunken yaks like in the first game, and a Rogue ability that moves them directly to the target's rear, thereby making flanking 'much' easier, a Rogue with 14 strength will really put the Cannon in GlassCannon.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' has a seriously flawed LevelScaling system in which avoiding EmptyLevels is extremely difficult without resorting to being a full-blown {{Munchkin}}. Enemies level scale based purely on your level, but your actual strength in combat involves many factors besides just level (health gain per level, attributes, equipment, and skills). As such, leveling up with too many non-combat skills is likely to result in an insignificant bonus to your abilities, but all enemies still increase in strength. One way to combat the issue is to combine this trope with a LowLevelAdvantage by increasing ''skills'' but ''never sleeping'' (which is required to actually level up). Though this severely limits your ability to make use of NPC trainers, as you can only use them five times per level, your skills will still increase naturally through use and by finding [[RareCandy skill books]]. This ultimately leads to the world being saved from a horde of feeble monsters by a strangely competent insomniac.
* ''VideoGame/FallenLondon:'' Tomb-Colonists. Their bodies are ravaged by injuries so horrible they stuck even after [[DeathIsCheap dying and getting back up]], and continued to degrade after that from both age and wear. But since the kind of person that gets so horribly damaged usually leads a dangerous life to begin with, and because the Tomb-Colonies are ''horribly dull'', they usually pass their days challenging each other to deadly duels (or at least, deadly for others that aren't as ragged as them). Thus, their mangled bodies can't put out much strength, but they have more experience than anyone else and can easily kill much livelier and stronger fighters in seconds. Fittingly, they're one of the three factions who can teach you how to be Dangerous (with the heavily-armed Revolutionaries and the muscular, brawl-happy Dockers being the other two).
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** In the first two games, it's possible to take an at-creation trait called Skilled, that makes your character into one of these. You gain perks (miscellaneous, but potent benefits) less often but get a bonus to all your skills (medicine, gun skills, etc). It's generally considered inferior to its counterpart trait since skills are easy to raise and specialize in, but perks come only with level gains.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'':
*** The Skilled trait makes a comeback, where it instead means that you get 10% less experience points, but instead gain 5 experience points in every skill. Here it becomes a trait to cherish, as while it takes more time level up, a low level character with Skilled can be more effective than a high level character.
*** Since (except for the ballistic fist) most unarmed weapons only require 2 strength to be used properly, a character can have only 2 strength (pitifully low) but still have vast unarmed combat abilities, capable of punching people across rooms. The learnable combat moves take this up to eleven, allowing enemies to be knocked down, disarmed, and countered without "strength" factoring into it at all. Possibly averted in that unarmed combat is based off of "endurance", a measure of how resistant you are to attacks, which could be thought of as "strong"
*** If Raul Tejada is inspired to be the Vaquero that he once was, he states that while he's an old man who's eyesight and body aren't what they used to be, his brains can make up for that and he's still quick with a gun. His Old Vaquero perk lets him fire revolvers and lever-action rifles 33% faster.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':
** The Swordmaster Class tend to be this, but the class that epitomizes the trope would be the even rarer class, Assassin. Swordmasters have high speed and skill with a relatively low strength cap, but also gain a boost anywhere from 15% to 30%, depending on game, to their critical chance. Assassins tend to have the lowest strength cap in any given game they're in for final class promotions, but also have the highest skill cap, and are the only class with a one hit kill move that deals death even if they'd normally not even do damage with a normal attack.
** One specific character example is Luthier from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and its [[VideoGameRemake remake]], ''Echoes: Shadows of Valentia''. He has a fairly low magic growth but the highest skill growth in the game, and he even gets an UnskilledButStrong foil in his little sister Delthea.
* ''VideoGame/{{Frantic}} 3'': The Tactician ship. It's weak with its 4 weapon slots and 3 hit shield, plus its speed is average. However, it has 12 accessory slots allowing for the most customisability and a high energy bar with recharge rate.
* ''VideoGame/GameMasterPlus'': The Joker class can only equip weapons and body armor with mediocre stats, but they also have a large variety of enemy skills to choose from. By the end of the game, they'll have much better support skills than the Fighter and Tinker classes.
* You as Gene in ''VideoGame/GodHand''. Sure, between the [[SuperMode Unleash]] and the [[LimitBreak Reel/Roulette]] you do have a lot of power, but the other 80% of the time when you're building up to the former, even simple mooks can tear you a new breathing hole very fast. Dodging and knowing when and how to retaliate are very important. It's a NintendoHard game, folks.
* A rare villainous example from ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' -- High level [[BeastMan Charr]] are still not at a particularly high level compared to most enemies you face at maximum level, but still manage to be some of the hardest enemies in the game because they have better thought out combinations of skills than most enemies and [[ThePowerOfFriendship being a lot more coordinated]].
* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', the player character Gordon Freeman is a scientist who theoretically isn't cut out for the kind of mayhem caused by the resonance cascade. He has to make do without any firearms at first, and, given a skilled player controlling him, could be said to either take a quick, practical [[TookALevelInBadAss level in badass]] or just discover that he's naturally skilled as a fighter. The second game {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it with a speech by Breen to the troops:
--> "How could one man have slipped through your forces' fingers? Time and time again? How is it possible? This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist who had hardly earned the distinction of his Ph.D. at the time of the Black Mesa Incident. I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills. The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards, simply that--an ordinary man. How could you have failed to apprehend him?"
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or [=ODSTs=]. While they lack the physical upgrades or the PoweredArmor that the Spartans possess, they're just as rigorously trained for combat and more than prove their worth. ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' has you, as a mere rookie in the [=ODSTs=], playing as this trope to survive. Alone and stranded in the ruins of New Mombasa, the only weapons available at the start for you are a submachine gun, pistol, and frag grenades. Using these, along with whatever weapons, ammo, and medical supplies you manage to scavenge along the journey, you have to take on literally hundreds of Covenant troops, several of whom are comparable in strength to Spartans, and eventually reunite with the remaining [=ODSTs=].
** Edward Buck, from the same game mentioned above, also qualifies. He later becomes StrongAndSkilled by becoming a Spartan-IV.
** The UNSC in general is this during their war with the Covenant. They're at a major numerical ''and'' technological disadvantage throughout the franchise, yet continually manage to prevent humanity's extinction (and the extinction of all other life in the galaxy via the Halo Array) through strategy, [[CombatPragmatist pragmatism,]] and sheer determination.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': Master Xehanort, the series' BigBad, is this. In the past, he was one of the most powerful Keyblade Masters in history. In the present...not so much, something he bitterly acknowledges, knowing how old age has sapped away his strength and stamina, to the point where he becomes exhausted after a single fight with the much younger Terra. That said, Xehanort still is a Keyblade Master, and he has the skills to prove it, being a very proficient mage, possessing magic strong enough to [[spoiler: overwhelm Mickey's Ultima.]] Outside of battle, he's also shown to have retained his cunning, having spent much of his elderly years as a master manipulator working to orchestrate a new Keyblade War.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Mission Vao and T3-M4 have the lowest hit points in the party, but they're the best when it comes to disabling mines, hacking computers, picking locks, or turning the security systems against your enemies. Mission also has a nasty sneak attack ability while T3-M4 can be equipped with stun guns and flame-throwers in addition to blasters.
* ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'':
** Tanimura from ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'' is the smallest and skinniest of the four protagonists, and this is represented with him having the lowest health and paltry damage output without upgrades. However, he can [[CounterAttack parry almost any move]] and has powerful grappling options thanks to his knowledge of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiho-jutsu taiho-jutsu]], and upgrades allow him to use [[LimitBreak Heat Actions]] after every possible combo finisher, alongside the ability to build Heat via his signature parry and grapple. The result is a defensive fighting style where subduing the enemy and using their strength against them is key to unlocking devastating bursts of power.
** The Heroes of Tomorrow, aka the protagonists of ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'', are pretty low on the power-scale compared to the rest of the series' heroes, almost comparable to an {{Elite Mook|s}} in terms of individual power. Instead of relying on brute strength, a la previous protagonist [[OneManArmy Kiryu]], the group instead makes use of teamwork and strategy to take down opponents that would otherwise be far out of their league.
* You, in ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'': A good player with half-decent skill ranks can annihilate mighty bosses while taking only ScratchDamage, while an incompetent player with mighty stats will be [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] in short order.
* Doctor Mordin Solus in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' was a member of the Special forces of his Race. He's small, but can take out several mercenaries by himself.
-->'''Mordin:''' Not always been a doctor, can handle myself. Advantage of being Salarian. Turians, Krogan, Vorcha all obvious threats... *[[VerbalTic sharp inhale]]* Never see me coming.
** Most salarian soldiers do this. The salarians are not a strong race, so they use their heads to fight.
** Shepard in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' was a regular, ordinary human, who ''still'' managed to take down Krogan, Thresher Maws and Reapers. Technically, this makes them ''more'' badass than they are in the sequels, as the Lazarus Project turns them into an EmpoweredBadassNormal.
* ''Franchise/MegaMan'':
** In the games where he is playable, Proto Man is an example of this. [[spoiler:Due to a defect in his power system, he is in constant pain]], and ingame tends to take fewer hits because of it. Avoiding hits and fighting smart is his only option to take on enemies.
** Mega Man, himself, at least to begin within his games. His Mega Buster is vastly inferior in terms of power to his opponents. Only by the end of the game, when he's a walking arsenal of doom, does he go to the other side...and then ''still'' requires skill, because he's still just a small robot facing huge massive weapons of destruction.
** His buster's ability to adapt weapons is also an interesting case of this. He's instantly able to [[PossessionImpliesMastery use new weapons]], but because he lacks the specialized bodies of the masters he took them from he tends to end up with similar, often limited versions of the weapons as he's limited to using only what he has to utilize it. While Top Man could spin and shoot all around the arena due to the wheels on his feet Mega Man can only spin in the air, yet for projectile-only weapons like Search Snake he gets a version identical to that of the robot master.
** VideoGame/MegaManX fits even more than Mega Man, considering the fact that he's almost always smaller and less technically able than the opponents he faces, but he's goddamn unstoppable once he starts. Add the fact that ''every game'' still manages to have ThatOneBoss even ''after'' he gets his 'Ultimate' armor.
** It's stated in canon that adherence to this trope is entirely voluntary for all incarnations of Mega Man. With their [[TropeNamers signature]] [[PowerCopying adaptability]] and intellect, any Mega Man could easily become powerful enough to wipe the floor with the rest of the cast combined and quite rightfully fear the [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity corruption]] this could lead to. This doesn't explain Bass' tendency to lose his copied weapons too despite that his sole purpose is to defeat Mega Man and become the most powerful robot in existence. One would guess he wants to do it on his own merits instead of relying on other, "inferior" robot masters' weapons.
** Zero from the same franchise is also this, he doesn't have the same adaptability as X nor does he have armor upgrades to compensate for his less than great durability, thus making him a GlassCannon, but his skill with a sword is second to none, even learning techniques to gain advantages for his weaknesses.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', Solid Snake has aged considerably but is still able to fight effectively against physically and technologically superior opponents using his elite covert warfare skills. This is in fact a major theme of the first and fourth games: experience and skill trumps pure strength. Snake repeatedly triumphs against the Genome Soldiers of the first game, and the [=PMCs=] of the fourth game, because he knows what he is doing and has the confidence and ability to pull it off, while the other side is relatively unskilled but has a significant numerical and technological superiority.
%%* Faith from the 3D {{platformer}} ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge''.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'':
** This is how the titular hunters prevail against the many, many large and life-threatening monsters they face. Even the strongest weapons still take dozens or hundreds of hits to kill one such target, while the monsters can easily kill hunters in one or two hits, but through skilled evasive maneuvers, exploitation of all the right weak points, and management of the items they carry in their pouches, hunters regularly come back in one piece with the bits and pieces of monsters that are tens of meters long as their victory trophies.
** Embodied best perhaps by the humble [[KnightlySwordAndShield Sword and Shield]]. It doesn't have the strongest blows or the mightiest defences, and even compared to the [[DualWielding Dual Blades]] it isn't particularly fast. Even the games advise this weapon as a beginner's choice. But it is still one of the best weapons for mobility and repositioning options, and thanks to the high rate of attack it's a more effective weapon for inflicting elemental damage and {{Status Effect}}s even if the raw damage isn't so great. Best of all, ''World'' gives the Sword and Shield the unique ability to use items and the new Slinger while still unsheathed, giving a healer or trapper a lot of flexibility.
* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'', Loid is first found hiding from bullies in a trash can. He is extremely skilled with weaponry however, and is able to use beams, flamethrowers, and many other tools in to aid in combat. When R7038 defeats the party on Mt. Itoi, Loid comes in with a ''tank'' to rescue them.
** In ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' Jeff Andonuts is to Ness and his party. He used the Bad Key Machine to free Ness and Paula from underneath the Threed graveyard. Despite his lack of PSI, he proves himself invaluable with his heavy bazooka, neutralizer, and especially with his bottle rockets which is an insane GameBreaker (Even crazier is when you equip with the Rabbit's Foot).
* Aliens in ''VideoGame/MutantFootballLeague'' have high speed and high intelligence, giving them an inherent edge in reaction time, evasiveness, field awareness, self preservation, and adapting as the play unfolds. This makes them ideal quarterbacks and defensive backs, and desirable at wideout and RB. They're also the weakest species in the game, with low tackling ability, hitting power, and [[FragileSpeedster durability]]. The all-alien Galaxy Chaos team has an electric offense and a solid secondary, but struggles to stop the run because they can't bring down the ballcarrier. They can't injure or kill key players on the opposing offense, either. Compare Orcs and the (nearly) all-orc team, the Orcs of Hazzard, who have [[UnskilledButStrong all of the exact opposite strong points and weaknesses]].
* You, in ''VideoGame/NetHack''. Your only hope of survival is good tactics, but with proper preparation you can survive the wrath of a GOD.
* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' this is a fundamental part of the conflict between Sand and Qara. It is implied that Sand has no extraordinary aptitude for magic, and yet though training and dedication, he's an accomplished wizard when you meet him, knowing both the theory and practice of magic. As a sorceress, Qara comes by her power naturally, but doesn't bother to learn to ''do'' anything with it beyond the apparently all-purpose application of "Blow Stuff Up".
* The ''VideoGame/ObsCure'' series of SurvivalHorror games features multiple playable characters, and they fall into either this trope or UnskilledButStrong.
** In the first game, Josh, [[{{Delinquents}} Stan]], and [[GirlNextDoor Shannon]] fall into this trope, with Josh able to more easily find items in a room, Stan able to pick locks far more quickly and skip the LockpickingMinigame, and Shannon [[TheMedic able to use first aid kits (on herself or her partner) more effectively]] and offer puzzle tips. [[LovableJock Kenny]], meanwhile, gets a sprint, and Ashley gets a rapid-fire attack. Notably, using Josh and Stan as one's main characters is recommended for getting through the game quickly, especially on normal difficulty, where Kenny's sprint and Ashley's rapid fire attack aren't as necessary.
** Stan, Shannon, and Kenny return in the second game. This time, Stan is the only character able to pick locks at all, while Shannon's unique ability is now that she can suck dangerous dark auras out of the environment without harm to herself (a power she gained after the events of the first game, going hand-in-hand with [[NotAsYouKnowThem her goth makeover]]). Of the new characters, [[GamerChick Mei]] can use her PDA to hack computers and locks, and [[GeniusDitz Amy]] gets Shannon's old puzzle-solving abilities. Kenny, meanwhile, has greater strength that allows him to push heavy objects and do more melee damage to enemies, abilities that he shares with [[FunnyForeigner Sven]], while Corey is a daredevil who can climb across [[ThePrecariousLedge high ledges]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/OddworldStrangersWrath'', Stranger decidedly qualifies as a badass, despite being "kinda shrimpy [[spoiler:for a Steef]]".
** [[AlmightyJanitor Abe]] as well. As the ([[DeadpanSnarker very snarky]]) manual puts it, he's "the skinny guy with no weapons". You want to win, you need to be smart and not fight fair.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'', Waka fights Amaterasu twice, and though he loses he urges her to get stronger. It's clear that he's far stronger than Ammy through most of the game's beginning and middle because he [[spoiler:shows up to help in the very final fight, and manages to block a full strength blast from Yami long enough to deliver a FinalSpeech. It helps he's been awake and active for 100 years while Amaterasu was weakened SealedGoodInACan, but he's still just a mortal and survives fighting gods]].
* ''VideoGame/Payday2'':
** The Ghost class can be this. They have fewer damage dealing skills then their Enforcer or Technician allies, they will typically wear less armor in order to be faster and harder to see, and will also use smaller guns/silenced guns to increase their concealment. But a good Ghost can open every door, slip in and out undetected, and steal every single loot bag on the map without any guards knowing what the fuck is going on.
** The Fugitive class could arguably be considered this, as well- most of their skillset revolves around seemingly minor tricks, like a little extra concealment or extra movement speed, and at face value a pure, focused Fugitive doesn't seem like a good fit for the game. Then you pair the appropriate skills with other classes and you see how much better they are for it.
*** Fugitive Medic Bags may not reset the Downed count, but it still heals to full health and he carries ''alot'' of them, allowing the Mastermind's Doctor Bags to be saved for real emergencies, and a fleet-footed Mastermind with the Inspire skill Aced can run around the field reviving the entire team and have the healing supplies to salvage a potentially doomed heist, while pairing the Fugitive's Akimbo Aced skill with the Mastermind's pistol perks will make him a dual-wielding force to be reckoned with.
*** An Enforcer with the Fugitive's Thick Skin can make them tankier than they already are while giving them a much-needed movement boost, with healing options to help them last longer.
*** A Ghost with Low Blow, Sneaky Bastard, Sixth Sense and silenced weapons with the right perks can ''solo'' some of the hardest stealth missions in the game quickly, and still be able to put up a good fight when things go south.
*** A Technician can make use of the Fugitive's movement boost to set up turrets and mines quickly before an assault starts, and pairing with the Tech's sniper perks with the Fugitive's Run-and-Gun perk will make them an accurate yet fleet-footed marksman, with both the former and latter setups thinning out assaults before they get too close while allowing them to quickly reach and reactivate stalled drills, or reload empty turrets.
* ''VideoGame/Persona3'': The Michael Persona has a full-team heal, two ma-dyne spells, repels his weakness, and learns the unique move Heaven's Blade, which has the highest critical rate in the game and will do almost as much damage as Brave Blade. However, he has very low stats that don't grow easily.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': The captains are tiny astronauts that, if on their own, could be defeated with little difficulty by almost any enemy in the series. But by commanding and utilizing the skills of the titular Pikmin, they're capable of handling anything that comes their way.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Several Pokémon qualify as this. For example, Sableye is a Pokemon with a base stat total of merely 380. However, it has only one weakness with three immunities, and has the ability Prankster which gives priority to non-damaging moves, allowing Sableye to cripple your opponent's team with several very annoying moves.
** Sableye got some love from a [[TookALevelInBadass Mega Evolution]], making it much more bulky to compensate for its fragility, and giving it Magic Bounce instead of Prankster, returning pesky traps and status effects back to sender.
** Whimsicott is seen as a better choice stats wise, but due to its Grass/Fairy typing, it's vulnerable to many other types, however, its high speed and Sableye's Prankster make it a lethal threat in Battle Spot and Nintendo's VGC format.
** Nidoking has [[MasterOfNone mediocre stats all-round]], but in later gens the Sheer Force ability turned it into one of these. This grants a 33% power boost to moves with a secondary effect, and Nidoking learns a ''[[ConfusionFu lot]]'' of these, [[MagicKnight from both sides of the physical/special spectrum]]. It also allows it to use Life Orb without any drawbacks. Combined, this means it hits surprisingly hard for only having 85 base Special Attack and 92 (or 102 from Gen 6 on) base Attack.
** The ability Technician provides a 50% boost to all moves with a base power of 60 or less, which (more often than not) have useful secondary effects such as increased priority, hitting multiple times or bypassing accuracy; putting them on par with the more common "STAB spam" moves such as Thunderbolt or Flamethrower.
** The move Foul Play runs on this trope, allowing the user to turn its target's strength against it instead of using its own. It uses the target's Attack stat rather than the user's, allowing even [[StoneWall Stone Walls]] or [[FragileSpeedster Fragile Speedsters]] to deal hefty damage to the right target.
* ''VideoGame/PrayerOfTheFaithless'': Amalie has high Skill growth to make her attacks more accurate, make her more likely to crit, and more likely to graze enemy attacks, but her Power and Armor growth are mediocre. She also lacks the Miasma abilities and telepathy of other Manna, so she has to fall back on combat skill to compensate.
* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'': Little Mac, particularly in his NES incarnation. Pint-sized guy vs. title holders who are many times bigger and more muscular than him, anyone? His Star Punch is only acquired by hitting the opponent at a moment of opportunity, and tends to be less powerful than many later game opponents' punches, which clearly shows how much the players must rely on tactics and be more efficient than their opponents.
* ''VideoGame/ReKuroi'': Remy is the weakest of the party offensively and she never goes on missions alone because of her defensive specialization. However, she has a lot of military experience compared to the other party members. In battle, she's has an autopassive that allows her to use the Mercy mechanic without taking up an entire spell slot, showing that she's the most skilled at non-lethally subduing human opponents. She can also turn an enemy's attack against themself by inflicting Misfire, effectively using their own strength against them rather than using her own middling offensive power.
* ''VideoGame/RealityMinds'': Rasheed and Reffian cannot stack their offensive buffs as high as the main trio, but they have other subtle advantages that make up for their lack of damage output. Rasheed can lower enemies' resistance to stat down effects and has access to the burst series of chain skills, which have higher chances of inflicting stat downs. Reffian has the highest base agility, which means she has an easier time casting her healing spells before enemies can move.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'': Leon S. Kennedy -- particularly if the player does a [[SelfImposedChallenge knife- or]] [[ExaggeratedTrope no-upgrades-handgun-only]] run. He's more agile than he was as a rookie in the RCPD, and he's gotten advanced combat training since then, too -- which are the only things keeping him alive against a literal army of parasite-powered villagers, cultists, soldiers, giants, giant ''bugs'', Regenerators, and chainsaw nuts with sacks over their heads -- not to mention the obligatory freakshow bosses, every single one of which is capable of killing him in one hit. Sure, he has superior firepower for most of the game -- but a gun isn't much use to someone who can't put the bullets where they need to go.
* This Trope is played ''very straight'' in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series. With a proper usage of [[StatusBuff status buffs]], [[UselessUsefulSpell instant death spells]] and [[AttackItsWeakPoint exploiting your opponent's weakness]], you can easily triumph over a more powerful opponent. That, being NintendoHard, the same principle applies to your enemies.
* Any ShootEmUp such as ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' or ''VideoGame/BeatHazard'' requires that the player be this.
* Ned Flanders in ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsWrestling'' is the weakest character in the game, save for his Lightning Bolt attack, which does the greatest damage in the game. All you have to do is survive so you can use it.
* Hunters in ''VideoGame/{{Sinjid}}'' are this. Their base attacks are weak, they can't regain [[{{Mana}} Focus]] as well as the other classes, and if they run out of Focus during a fight, they're toast. On the other hand, they can be devastating if the right strategies and combos are used. Out of all the available classes in the game, [[DifficultButAwesome they're the most difficult to master, but are the most rewarding]].
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** [[BadassNormal Amy Rose]] may lack the raw speed and athletic ability of pretty much anyone else within Sonic's circle, but she's able to make use of her hammer, acrobatics and tarot magic to keep up. Notably, she actually spends a lot of the side-games of the Dreamcast era working to avert this in order to earn Sonic's respect and become a true hero like him. After spending time doing things like [[TrainingFromHell boxercising with weighted training gear]], [[JumpedAtTheCall throwing herself into more and more of Sonic's adventures]] and slowly adding more and more tricks to her book, by the time ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' comes around, [[EmpoweredBadassNormal she's made herself strong enough to perform to roughly the same standards as everyone else]] while still retaining all the same techniques and tricks she had before.
** Being one of the youngest in Sonic's crew, Cream the Rabbit is obviously going to be very physically weak. However as many a foe [[GameBreaker (and player)]] has come to find out, when Cream teams up with [[ActionPet Cheese, her chao companion,]] she can shred through enemies just as easily as anyone else.
** In ''VideoGame/SonicManiaPlus'', Ray the Squirrel can't fly like Tails, he glides instead. While he can't reach up areas by simply smashing a button, he can still do it if he takes enough distance and a good angle to glide upper. Also, unlike the little fox, he's never exhausted meaning that you have more control on where you land.
** The FanGame ''VideoGame/SonicRoboBlast2'' gives us an interesting case with [[spoiler:[[TokenEvilTeammate Fang the Sniper]]. He can't spin like most characters can and is barred from being able to destroy breakable walls as a result, but his tail bounce is great at building up both horizontal and vertical distance, and his popgun lets him take out enemies with ease. The unusual part is that his tail bounce can also break some floors with it, a feature exclusive to him and Amy Rose (who's [[UnskilledButStrong the opposite of this trope]] in this game).]]
** The WackyRacing SpinOff ''VideoGame/SonicRoboBlast2Kart'' has characters with low weight and top speed, which are the equivalents of ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' lightweight characters. Tails is the slowest and lightest of the default characters, but his high acceleration allows him to quickly recover from spinning out, and his excellent handling makes it easy to zip around corners while chaining boosts. Bonus characters that also fit the role include Chao, who takes Tails's stats to their extreme, Dark and Hero Chao, who are a single point lower than Tails in speed and weight respectively, and Motobug, Ray (Rouge in 1.0.2), and Ulala, who are similarly slow but are heavier.
* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'':
** Old and ill and all, Gen can still pack quite a punch against younger, healthier and physically stronger fighters than himself. If Akuma is to be believed (and why shouldn't he be?), Gen's age and illness are the '''only''' things that make it remotely fair (in-story) for him to fight any of the other characters.
** Many of the female characters fit this trope, but arguably ninja girl Ibuki fits this for the girls of the game the most. She is a fragile speedster who has some of the weakest special attacks in the game and in universe many of the bulkier characters call her out for her "soft punches". She does make up for her generally low damage for having among the best knockdown or reset games in the game and being able to extend her combo's and juggles with precision and execution.
** Despite being considered a JokeCharacter both in and out of universe, Dan Hibiki possesses a surprisingly comprehensive knowledge of martial arts. Gameplay wise, he's always been dangerous in the right hands and upgrades he's received over the years have given him several unique skills. It's worth noting that his status as this trope is only in comparison to the other playable characters, as supplementary materials have shown him taking down a group of armed thugs without breaking a sweat.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** Mario himself applies this trope to varying degrees in platforms games.
*** In 2D games, when he lacks his transformations, he can only [[GoombaStomp stomp weak enemies]] like Goombas and Bullet Bills, while others like Koopas and Bob-Ombs are only paralyzed for few seconds or [[ActionBomb ready to explode]]. However, in this state, he can still kick and hold them so he can use their strength to defeat other enemies or break some walls.
*** In 3D games, Mario can do amazing acrobatics and is more resistant, but he still has to defeat bosses this way: while they are often [[UnskilledButStrong strong but imprecise]], he can avoid their attacks at ease and wait for the opportunity to counterattack.
** While Mario is the JackOfAllStats in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', his special moves focus less on power than keeping the enemy at distance while keeping maximum control: these moves consist of cutting an opponent in its tracks with fireballs, reflecting projectiles with a cape, or propelling other players out of stage with a water jet. Even his most powerful special move, the Super Jump Punch, only makes minimal damage and leaves him powerless until he falls on the ground, but remains at the same strength (while Luigi's equivalent goes from ridiculously weak to absurdly strong) and after Mario falls on the ground, he recovers instantly (while his brother is powerless for a few seconds as he falls on his head).
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/CaptainToadTreasureTracker'', Captain Toad is only able to walk or toddle, and is unable to jump. This doesn't stop him to solve complex puzzles and to fight powerful monsters.
** While Mario is an UnskilledButStrong character in ''VideoGame/MarioGolf'', other characters like Luigi, Peach or Toad are this, as they don't hit the ball hard but have much more control over it.
** A similar example occurs in ''VideoGame/MarioTennis'', where Mario is the JackOfAllStats: Technique characters like Peach or Waluigi don't have a powerful smash, but can lead the ball wherever they want.
* ''VideoGame/SwordOfPaladin'':
** Before becoming a Paladin, Nade combat style focuses more on countering an enemy's attack than raw power. Once he masters the Iai Blade, he's able to singlehandedly defeat Theseus, the current strongest Einherjar, simply by countering the latter's multihit attacks. He becomes StrongAndSkilled as a Paladin, since he retains his more technical sword skills while getting a massive stat boost. [[spoiler:Eventually, his Paladin powers are weakened because he has to use a portion of it to preserve Sophie's life, but he's still surprisingly capable due to his sword skills and wide variety of skills from Paladin souls.]]
** This trope becomes a problem for many of the guest characters. While they all have decent skillsets on paper, stats are heavily affected by equipment, which can only be changed through story events. Story events almost never give upgrades to guest characters, leaving them in the dust compared to main characters. However, they can still change their ornament and skills gems, giving them a fighting chance as long as the enemy isn't too strong. Brigid and [[spoiler:Zash]] in particular can use the Tactics skillset without having to equip the Commander gem, giving them a fighting chance despite being outclassed by the enemies in their side story.
* Miles Kilo from ''VideoGame/{{Syndicate}}'' (2012) is a downplayed version. While he has none of the truly super abilities of the other Agents, he's technically still a SuperSoldier by normal human standards. Nevertheless, as his InUniverse dossier notes, he is unusually creative and independent, which enables him to come up on top against better-empowered foes. Indeed, he was specifically chosen for the DART 6 chip because he had sufficient skills and abilities to fully make use of it, but if the prototype failed, he was only a physiologically barely-above-average agent who could be easily replaced. [[spoiler:His creative thinking and independence, however, makes him a nightmare for Eurocorp when he turns on them.]]
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'''s various classes include a few of these.
** The Sniper has only his rifle, his wits, and his marksmanship to take down his opponents. And more often than not, he does.
** TheEngineer is rather weak, but displays incredible skill around his machines.
** TheMedic is also pitiful in offensive and defensive capabilities, but the entire game is said to revolve around his abilities.
** The Spy has one of the weakest melee weapons in the game, but his GuileHero skills make up for it, giving him the ability to instant-kill anything that isn't invulnerable. Except for snipers with the Razorback.
** The Scout, while fast, isn't strong enough for front-line combat. Instead, the ''player'' has to be extremely skilled in using his speed and mobility to get in close and harass the enemy with some of the game's highest-damage guns.
* Garrett from the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series is very much like this. He's reasonably athletic (he can run and mantle with the best of them, although he's no ninja), but in strength and combat is no match for the muscular bruiser guards or straight-out superhuman monsters he's regularly faced with. Instead, he relies on smarts and stealth to outmaneuver and outwit them all.
* DiscussedTrope in ''VideoGame/UnderNightInBirth'': In Linne's arcade ending, Hilda notes with frustration that Linne's [[TouchedByVorlons EXS abilities]] aren't even that strong, especially compared to Hilda's screen-filling blades of raw darkness. Linne just has thousands of years of experience and technique, and her swordplay is incredibly dangerous as a result.
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has some examples:
** This is a base requirement for ''any'' monster that intends to fight a human and hopes to survive, due to their incredibly weak souls and even weaker bodies. The only advantage a monster brings into battle is its attunement to magic.
** On the other hand, the Human Child is this if you do a Pacifist run. Sparing all the monsters means that you never get [=EXP=]. As a consequence, you always keep 20 [=HP=] and your ATK and DEF stay at 0 (aside from the boosts your items give you, and not counting the extremely costly [[ArmorOfInvincibility Temmie Armor]] it's never a big boost). Their skills rest less on fighting than convincing their opponent that they don't want to fight, then befriending them. Therefore, some of the opponents during the last parts of the game may be able to deplete a quarter of your life with just one hit, meaning that you have to be very good at dodging their attacks if you want to survive.
** If you take the No Mercy route, however, you will face a FinalBoss who applies this trope in a brilliant way. If you "Check" them, the scan says they're the easiest enemy in the game and that they only have 1 AT and 1 DF, which seems to support this. However, this character, while the weakest, is also the single most difficult battle in the game by an ''enormous'' margin. Sure, all of their attacks only do 1 HP damage, but they don't trigger your MercyInvincibility, meaning they chip off [[DeathOfAThousandCuts 1 HP per frame]], they come at you so fast and densely that there's little time to react and even less room to dodge, and on top of that they inflict a DamageOverTime effect that stacks with every hit you take. And sure, the character has only 1 HP, but they get around this by simply ''dodging'' every single attack you throw their way. When they get serious, the character even starts abusing the game's battle system itself by attacking out of turn, switching from one attack to another [[SmashCut in the middle of the attack animation]], or even just [[spoiler:never taking any action, and therefore never ending their turn, never allowing ''you'' to take any actions]]. This character's name is [[spoiler:Sans... turns out he's BrilliantButLazy]].
** The No Mercy route leaves one interesting implication that the game teases at, but never answers. [[spoiler:If this is what Sans can do, then how powerful is his brother, Papyrus, who has ''way'' better stats than Sans, actually? You might fight Papyrus earlier in the game, but is made blatantly clear that he is holding back against you in this battle, because he is an extremely good-natured guy who doesn't actually want to seriously harm the player. When you face Sans, however, he is giving you absolutely no quarter whatsoever and applying himself to his fullest, because he sees no reason to hold back against a genocidal monster like you.]]
* From ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', [[TheEngineer Engineers]]. In combat, they're [[MasterOfNone Masters of None]] who lack the speed and movement range of [[SuperSpeed Scouts]], the toughness of [[StoneWall Lancers]] and [[HeavilyArmoredMook Stormtroopers]] and the long-range fire-power of [[GlassCannon Snipers]]. However, given the fact that they can repair [[TankGoodness the Edelweiss and Shamrock]], rebuild sandbags, replenish ammunition and grenades, [[StuffBlowingUp carry three grenades instead of one]], [[LandMineGoesClick defuse mines]], and [[CombatMedic heal squad members at double efficiency]], means that Engineers are some of the most versatile squad members in the game.
* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', Clementine is not very strong physically, but she's pretty handy with a pistol after Lee teaches her how to shoot. In the first episode of Season 2, at least, she doesn't have a gun so she has to use the environment to her advantage whenever she's caught in a confrontation to survive.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': Teshin is practically a BadassNormal compared to the Tenno he trains, but what he lacks in amazing and powerful abilities, he more than makes up for with his centuries of experience.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'', the match making can place very low tiers in matches with the bigger, nastier high level tanks. A skilled pilot, however, will stay hidden, reveal the enemy to his artillery, manage to destroy the enemy artillery and capture once the dust has settled down. In fact, a pilot that is good at this will do more to help win than his strongest teammates without firing a single shot.
* Adol from ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' series can't take a lot of damage, especially if he is underleveled or if he's up against a boss, so the key to survive as him is to learn how to dodge and counter attack.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'':
** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d with the comment that fighting technique is used to compensate for weakness. The context, however, is an {{inver|tedTrope}}sion, pointing out that Berserker, consumed with magical bloodlust, is so damn fast and strong that he doesn't ''need'' skill.
** Archer has one of the worst statistics of all the servants in the Grail War and has no divine blessings or the like. However, he is immortal, and has spent a ''lot'' of the time he has fighting and devising tactics that maximize his strengths [[spoiler:thanks to creating copies of Heroic Spirits' legendary weapons]]. Consequently he's able to stand up to epic legends and demi-gods like Saber and Berserker, [[spoiler:and when Shirou borrows Archer's power in one bad end, he even beats Saber Alter in a sword fight]]. In spite of his Servant class designation, Archer is actually closer to being a JackOfAllStats than the GlassCannon that would otherwise be implied. First off, Archer specifically says that he wasn't originally a warrior or a hero or anything like that; [[spoiler:he's actually a mage, the most fragile class there is]]. Whereas other [[spoiler:mages]] have all sorts of cool tricks [[spoiler:or spells]] they can pull out for most everything, Archer [[spoiler:only knows two types of spells, [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer though what spells they are]]]]! Moreover, unlike virtually every other participant in the Grail War, Archer [[spoiler:is not actually a traditional Heroic Spirit]]. This makes him virtually inscrutable since he has no notable weaknesses or famous AchillesHeel for others to exploit, [[spoiler:save, as shown other media like ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'' or ''Literature/FateZero'' an enemy that's fast and skilled enough to catch and use his forged Noble Phantasms can easily turn them against him]].
** Assassin is fast but not very strong and is wielding an essentially normal sword. His magical energy is not only low, it only declines because it cannot be restored. However, he fights on more than equal terms with Saber herself and only loses because his sword is bent from blocking an attack of hers. Even Lancer, who thinks nothing of fighting several other Heroic Spirits at once so long as he is on the defensive, highly dislikes the idea of having to fight Assassin. Let's put it in perspective: Assassin's secret technique allows him to strike thrice in the same exact instant. This is NOT a Noble Phantasm, magic spell, or of divine origin; he simply trained a lot. [[spoiler:Then reality itself ''gave up'' and gave him what he wanted... a form of Second Magic. '''[[BeyondTheImpossible Which should be impossible to replicate]]''']].
*** This is the central idea of the Assassin class. In a direct confrontation it is unlikely Assassin could win against any of the other Heroic Spirits. However, their skill in assassination and their Presence Concealment ability make Assassins extremely adept at eliminating enemy Masters.
** [[spoiler:Souichirou]]. He trained in a martial arts style [[ConfusionFu so strange that when people fight him for the first time they have no idea what he's going to do next]]. Because of this he is able to almost kill Saber (second strongest Servant in the Grail War) during their first encounter, [[BareFistedMonk unarmed]] with a strength-boosting enhancement given to him by Caster.
** Caster herself is also unskilled but strong. Physically she is weak enough to literally get beat up by a teenage girl, and her Noble Phantasm is easily the weakest one of the eight Servants, however she is able to use guile, pragmatism and outright cheating on several occasions to become a major threat to our protagonists.
** The fight between [[spoiler:Shirou and Gilgamesh]] is a contest between weak but skilled and UnskilledButStrong. Both use the same weapons, but while [[spoiler:Shirou]]'s are weaker copies than [[spoiler:Gilgamesh]]'s, he has more skill wielding them. The result is that in a direct clash they are evenly matched with only the rate at which they can grab a new weapon making the difference, and [[spoiler:in his Reality Marble Shirou can grab a sword instantly]]. [[spoiler:Gilgamesh's]] trademark arrogance also worked in [[spoiler:Shirou's]] favor, since the former deliberately refused to use his armor or his ultimate weapon at the beginning of the fight, thinking that his opponent wasn't worthy. By the time he realized he might actually need them, it was too late.
** Generally, because OlderIsBetter in the ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'', most Servants from "recent" history (around the 1500s onward) kinda have to be this, otherwise they would constantly be getting [[CurbStompBattle Curb-Stomped]] by their older and more straightforwardly powerful opponents.
* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': Makina quite literally. Makina is physically even weaker than you'd expect for someone that looks about twelve, but she picks up on anything Yuuji teaches her regarding exercise, sniping or martial arts almost immediately. Her endurance is still terrible, though.
* The Nanaya Clan is revealed in ''[[VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}} Kagetsu Tohya]]'' to have next to no supernatural abilities at all nor superstrength or ''anything'' but pure assassin skills. The most badass of them all, Nanaya Kiri, only has the ability to sense the thoughts and emotions of others. Normally, they go up against horribly dangerous monsters at the likes of Vermillion Akiha or worse. Akiha's who actually know how to fight, that is. And they win. Just think if Shiki had actually grown up with them before they were wiped out and ''then'' gotten his Mystic Eyes. How much training can a six year old really have received anyway? Yet he still takes out Nero Chaos, Roa, Walachia, Satsuki and at least one more of the 27 top Dead Apostles before they even notice he's there.
* ''VisualNovel/KindredSpiritsOnTheRoof'':
** There's a variation with Kiri when she ends up being chased by her teacher Tsukuyo and her yearmate Yuna. Kiri doesn't have the speed or stamina to outpace Yuna, much less Yuna's friend Hina(a member of the track team), so she resorts to clever ruses like opening doors to mislead her pursuers into thinking she's gone into various classrooms and forcing them to search each one. It works until Hina jumps out a second-story window while Kiri is on the ground below and quickly closes the gap.
** Miyu Inamoto, vice-captain of the track team, is highly skilled at running and has a good grasp of technique, but isn't as fast as her girlfriend and the team captain, [[UnskilledButStrong Matsuri Amshima]].
* The titular protagonist of ''VisualNovel/SablesGrimoire'' is, like all human mages, a lot less powerful in his magic than the various demihuman races of his world. However he is a savant when it comes to designing new spells, something most mages don't even think about. Sometimes he needs his more powerful friends to actually put his magical ideas into practice.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Dylan barely has any powers to speak of and isn't physically imposing at all, but his cleverness and determination is what gets him out of trouble. He explains this to Melissa in 'Confronting the Dark'.
* ''WebAnimation/EpithetErased'': Giovanni is less effective in a straight fight than the other Inscribed, but he's learned enough variety in his powers to give him some advantages they don't have, such as a high level of mobility.
* ''WebAnimation/SonicInXMinutes'': Infinite has the ability to create illusions thanks to his Phantom Ruby. However, everyone is aware that Infinite's illusions are just that - illusions, and so they deride him as "weak." However, Infinite is very clever and creative in the ways he uses his illusions, such as disguising himself and Eggman to sneak into the rebel base. [[AdaptationalPersonalityChange This is the opposite]] of Infinite's portrayal in [[VideoGame/SonicForces the original game]], where he was UnskilledButStrong.
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': [[LegacyOfTheChosen Oscar Pine]] has all the memories of [[BigGood Ozpin]], including his fighting skills. However, he doesn't have the muscle memory to put these to effective use, and thus has to train to build up his skill.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/CastlevaniaRPG'': Alec's magic is far weaker than Katrina's, but he has much finer control of it, allowing him to use an area-of-effect TurnUndead while specifically not hitting Darkmoon, his vampire ally and later friend.
* Ree, and Scra as well, from ''Webcomic/TheCroaking'':
** Ree is a [[WingedHumanoid kestrel]] and thus smaller and lighter than many of her peers, but she is the [[ActionGirl fastest and most agile flyer, good at fighting, and excellent in shooting.]]
** Scra, a [[WingedHumanoid crow]], is also smaller than many of his classmates, and can't fly due to a clipped wing, but he makes it up with great skills in hand-to-hand-combat.
* ''Webcomic/DICETheCubeThatChangesEverything'': Dongtae and Mio shows Team Charlie that even [[spoiler:with their stats reset]], they aren't A-rankers for nothing. They outmaneuver them and take them out one by one with {{Improvised Weapon}}s.
* Gote, from the long-defunct webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Dominion}}'', is a millenia-old immortal with no magical powers and more importantly ''no healing factor.'' How? In an email, the creator of said webcomic responded to that very question: "''When somebody punches you multiple times, you learn to duck. They do it ENOUGH, you learn to hit back. Do this for a few thousand years, and you can do it damned near PERFECTLY. ;)''" His nemesis Mack (the actual protagonist ironically enough) was by contrast a DBZ-grade superhuman.
* ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'': Fooker while protecting Ki from [[spoiler:Sam]], who is a football player, as he apparently had been "moonlighting with the UGA" at the time and knew martial arts well enough to win. This also comes up when he fights [[spoiler:his counterpart in the Nega-Verse]]; he doesn't fare quite as well in this case, but manages to gain the upper hand when his opponent gets distracted.
* ''Webcomic/{{Inverloch}}'' gives us an unintentional CripplingOverspecialization subversion. Raul is the smartest headmaster ever at the Wizarding Academy, but he has almost no magical strength.
* In ''Webcomic/JupiterMen'', Nathan has no superpowers and relies entirely on his technology and rigorous training. He's the only member of the team with any superhero expertise prior to the events of the story, making him the de facto leader and the one everyone looks to for guidance. This is perhaps best demonstrated in Episode 33, where his measured reason and experience lets him instruct the team on how to dismantle the chaos they accidentally caused.
* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'':
** Ten Winds (an [[TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} air-aspect Terrestrial]]) is, in terms of raw power (or in Secret's case, potential power), the weakest of the group. But he's also a former member of what's essentially an Exalted Seal Team 6; an extremely skilled fighter, frequently shown taking on Exalted who should (in theory) be able to steamroll him.
** Nemen Yi (a Sidereal Exalted) mocks the Messenger Gods for their inability to fight, since "they don't even get perfect attacks". She is immediately knocked out cold by something they ''do'' get: Perfect Delivery... of a letter wrapped around a rock.
* The eponymous ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'' has no magic, no fighting talent, and no special abilities that don't relate to carrying stuff. His companions are a warrior, mage and cleric of considerable power. But he's responsible for more of their victories than not. The dark god Baphuma'al wants vengeance on the three conventional adventurers, but he just wants to avoid Nodwick. Vengeance there isn't worth the risk.
* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': Undine Wells, the [[MakingASplash water-wielding]] member of [[ClassicalElementsEnsemble Team Alchemical]], doesn't have as much raw power as her teammates, and her own non-combative nature means her powers lack the "oomph" factor of some other girls. However, her precision and control of her element are apparently well above the standard of most other magical girls. Plus, when it comes to elements, Water is one that is much better used skillfully than powerfully, something that training with Heartful Punch helps her realize.
* While Bun-Bun from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' is hardly weak, he ''is'' still a mini-lop rabbit, and relies on this trope when taking on particularly tough opponents like [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=990404 Mecha Easter Bunny]], evil Aylee, Alien Santa Claus, or the dread pirate Black Soul.
* ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'':
** Quentyn scored very low on everything he tried out, in particular those based on physical or magical strength. But because he tried and trained for practically everything he is practically a JackOfAllTrades, incidentally very useful for a Questor.
** Racconans in general are apparently this in comparison to human mages. Almost all Racconans are lux sensitive thus they have well-established schools of magic while the few humans who have the talent have little to no opportunity for formal training (thanks mainly to religious prohibitions) but all those that have appeared either can barely even see lux or have enough raw power to send Racconan mages running.
* Hatz from ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'' is a [[BadassNormal human]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSamurai swordsman]] in a setting where Great Family members and Princesses of Jahad are naturally ''much'' stronger than everyone else. But through [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower constant gruelling training]], he has developed enough skill with his blades to competently go toe-to-toe with people that far outstrip him physically.
* ''Webcomic/UnOrdinary'':
** Despite [[MeaningfulName John Doe]] being a "cripple" and having no special ability of his own, he is still able to defend himself from and defeat low and mid-tier individuals with his superior hand-to-hand fighting ability. [[spoiler:He's actually faking his "cripple" status, though his father truly has no powers, so he was being willfully weak after government agents essentially crippled his mind to force him to behave after he drew their attention at his old school.]]
** Evie is one of the weakest powered characters, but knows how to use her mild "[[LightEmUp Illumination]]" ability to its fullest extent by powering up after clapping her hands over the eyes of her attackers. She's also taking the time to learn martial arts, which she picks up very quickly.
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': Bastion was born to a [[FantasticCasteSystem caste]] with a weak link to the BackgroundMagicField, so he can only handle small magnitudes of Aspects and has to be touching his target. However, he has an exhaustive education in magic theory and [[BoxingLessonsForSuperman complementary sciences]] from the Black Tongue AncientConspiracy, so he's phenomenally effective with his power and can wipe the floor with trained {{Magic Knight}}s.
* Jason in the Webcomic/WalkyVerse is exactly this. He once said he grew up a "mortal among gods".
* Gray Yeon from ''Webcomic/WeakHero''. In a series about fighting amongst high school delinquents, he's 5'2 and much skinnier than the other characters. But what he lacks in physicality he makes up for it with brains, and being a CombatPragmatist. He uses the knowledge he's studied on fighting techniques and human anatomy to give himself an advantage in battle. As well as reading his opponents' movements and employing psychological warfare.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Starting with the second season of ''Series/CobraKai,'' Sam (who was years out of practice) and Demitri (who was not shown to have any such skills to speak of) personified this trope. Neither is exactly a physical powerhouse, but the school brawl of "No Mercy" showed that nor do they get frustrated by multiple shots in succession. She was able to capitalize on Tory's dissipating patience while he capitalized on Hawk's sloppiness to get in the final blow for their respective fights. It's also the key to his CharacterDevelopment and her ShesBack arc.
* In ''Literature/MotherOfLearning'', Zorian's {{mana}} reserves are much smaller than those of combat mages like Taiven, but as the GroundhogDayLoop he is stuck in continues he picks up enough finesse and [[CombatPragmatist trickery]] to hold his own against a lot of very dangerous opponents.
* ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' sometimes puts high-level players in control of low-level avatars. Having to start over again after losing the high-level avatar is Arthéon's backstory and [[spoiler:Fantöm]]'s fate after the first WhamEpisode. Ystos has a so far webseries-only second character that he once used during a tournament. Watching the replay of all the battles in which he took part in a row takes about thirty seconds.
* Sensei Ito, the aikido instructor at Whateley Academy in the Literature/WhateleyUniverse. He ''is'' this trope. He's a little old man with NO superpowers who starts each term by demonstrating this point. By picking the most powerful mutant in the class and then ''beating the crap out of him'' in front of everyone.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** For [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderSokka Sokka]], InAWorld where most of the main characters can [[ElementalPowers control the various elements,]] he's still the most Normal of the BadassNormal characters. To deal with that, Sokka often uses [[CombatPragmatist strategies]] and his weapons to bring down his enemies. He's also very resourceful and a fast learner -- see 'Sokka's Master' and how quickly he picks up swordsmanship despite having not been shown to have any prior experience in that particular weapon. He has, also, grown up in a tribe which relied on non-bending forms of combat for decades and picked up a lot on his own before being formally trained. That would have helped a lot when he met Piandao.
** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderAvatarAang Aang]] could be considered this, especially before he learns the other Bending skills, since Airbending itself mostly relies on evading. Bumi taunts him with this:
--->'''Bumi:''' Typical Airbender tactics, avoid and evade. I was hoping the Avatar would be a little less *kicks a rock at the Avatar* '''PREDICTABLE'''.
** Though "weak" is a relative term, it applies more to the Air Nomad philosophy of [[TechnicalPacifist (technical) pacifism]] than their power. The Fire Nation waited until [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent Sozin's Comet]] to move on them for a reason. Season Three of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' showed how [[StoryBreakerPower broken]] Airbending truly is, in the hands of an aggressor.
** This is eventually [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderPrincessAzula Azula's]] undoing against Zuko: at first, ''she'' appears more powerful thanks to her raw talent at Firebending, but once he matches her in their final fight, she's a fourteen-year-old against an opponent who's sixteen, more used to physical strain, and that has recently learned a style that employs very little movement, and she gets tired much faster. Her recent spectacular VillainousBreakdown isn't helping her any, either.
** In ''Legend of Korra'' Pro-Bending competitors tend to fall into this when placed into a proper no-holds-barred fight. Due to the restrictions and rules in place during Pro-Bending tournaments, Pro-Bending oriented styles tend to focus on using smaller amounts of bending material to deliver fast, precise attacks over relatively small distances with emphasis on the basics of attacking and dodging at a distance rather than learning bigger, flashier techniques. While this gives them the advantage when fighting in close quarters or in locations where bending material is less readily accesible, it also makes them weaker in hand-to-hand combat or longer distance battles due to them [[DamnYouMuscleMemory often still fighting as if they're in a Pro-Bending match]] and being too conservative to keep up with benders who are able to use more material and apply more force.
* [[Characters/DCAUBatman Bruce Wayne]] in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is like this considering that he's [[OldMaster older and more physically frail]]; he still knows how to fight but his stamina is seriously limited. Terry too; the batsuit might enhance his strength compared to a normal human, but considering the sort of opponents he tends to go toe-to-toe with, he still is usually outmatched in terms of sheer physical force. One episode even has Terry take down the new Batsuit, which has been taken over by a malevolent AI, using nothing more than his skills, Batman's old utility belt, and Nightwing's old mask.
* ''Franchise/{{Ben 10}}'':
** Kevin Levin fits this trope upon transforming into [[AllYourPowersCombined Kevin 11]]. He becomes a physical amalgamation of all ten of Ben's first forms, but the abilities he gains are only a tenth as powerful in comparison to Ben's. That said, he can use them in conjunction with each other, such as combining Stinkfly's gunk with Heatblast's flames to create an explosion.
** Rook from ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' is one of the few aliens in the franchise to lack any ability that could qualify as a superpower, and his weapons, while [[SwissArmyWeapon extremely versatile]], is pointed out to lack power. Yet, he is skilled enough to stand against much more powerful enemies and defeat them. ''Predators And Prey'' even have him defeating one of the major antagonists in a hand-to-hand fight.
** [[Characters/Ben10BenTennyson Ben Tennyson]] in general. Whenever he picks the wrong alien to turn into, gets stuck with one other than what he wanted, has to go without turning for a while, or is otherwise ends up in a disadvantage in raw power he uses his head to win.
* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny. He managed to win a heavyweight wrestling match against the aptly named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Crusher]] through sheer pluck and, admittedly, a lot of cheating.
* Lucas from ''WesternAnimation/CyberSix'', since the enemies in the show are {{Super Soldier}}s and monsters created in a lab and he's just [[{{Muggles}} a muggle who can box]]. He holds his own against a Fixed Idea, a creature that can smash bricks with it's bare hands, simply because he's an experienced enough fighter to dodge it's telegraphed moves.
* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': The title character is a master of the martial arts and beats other lightweights around with ease, but every time he tries to use his skills against a large, strong character, he might as well be punching a stone wall. Then he says LetsGetDangerous.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'':
** Every akumatized villain, even the ones with weaker or less flashy powers, can put up a fight against the heroes. Case in point, Troublemaker (whose only power was {{intangibility}}) is one of the few villains who actually managed to ''steal [[TransformationTrinket an earring]] off of Ladybug''.
** The titular heroes also count. Their [[TransformationTrinket Miraculous]] give each of them superhuman physical ability and their signature weapons, but these are usually eclipsed by the powers many of [[MonsterOfTheWeek their opponents are given]]. While they have their own [[ThePowerOfCreation respective]] [[PowerOfTheVoid powers]], they only get a single use each that puts them on a time limit before they detransform, meaning they have to get creative to make the most out of them.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** Trixie's a stage magician by trade, yet when her power was tested by an Ursa Minor it proved rather inadequate. Later her power output was boosted by an artifact to around Celestia or Luna's level, she was capable of using, with ease no less, spells which Twilight considered far outside her range. And she's just a performer.
** That same episode shows that Zecora, who can't even use magic since she isn't a unicorn, knows more about the subject than ''Twilight''.
** Scootaloo might have weak puny wings, but on the ground, she gets serious horsepower out of them. Especially with a fully loaded little red wagon attached.
** Sunburst possesses great knowledge of spells, but lacks the raw power necessary to apply most of them.
* While Lilith Clawthorne in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is far from weak, she lacks the raw magical power of her sister, instead being far more familiar with the theory and basics of magic that her BrilliantButLazy sister doesn't bother with. This becomes useful in season 2, when [[spoiler:she and Eda lose their magical power and have to rely on glyphs. Lilith quickly takes to the more skill-based system]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': [[Characters/SamuraiJackJack The eponymous protagonist]] of the show isn't very large or physically powerful, but he's one of the most badass warriors in the entire world because of his mastery of swordsmanship and martial arts from all over the world. One example is the episode where he meets the Scotsman's clan and is forced into a stone-throwing contest to test his worth. Unfamiliar with the sport, he did poorly in the first attempt, but after noting that his mocking opponent was much heavier than the stone, he used a martial arts move of redirecting balance and energy to fling him an equal distance.
* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'':
** A stock and trade for the Twiggets, one of the major allies of the Rebellion. Individually they're no match for the Horde, but they're extremely crafty, very resourceful, and expert marksmen who have no problem using strike and run tactics against more powerful opponents.
** Similarly, Hordak's minion Imp is on the low end of the power scale where the Horde is concerned, but he is an expert at espionage and saboutage. He is also proficient enough at evasion that he's near impossible to catch when he's found.
* Bioborg villain, Easel from ''WesternAnimation/SkysurferStrikeForce'' is the shortest, least imposing and most human looking of the borgs, but his [[MadArtist Mad]] ArtAttacker powers are invaluable to Cybron's plans.
* WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}. [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsTitularCharacter The guy]] is so weak he can't even lift a barbell with stuffed toys, yet he is an expert in karate, and one training session with Sandy Cheeks had the park cut in half from the practice they had.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** [[Characters/StevenUniversePearl Pearl]] admits that she wasn't built for fighting. She is not as scrappy as Amethyst and can't touch Garnet on the power scale, but will still hold her own alongside them or against them with her spear thanks to technique and practice, and a Homeworld gem calls her a "terrifying renegade" thousands of years after her rebellion. The fusions that include her [[StrongAndSkilled add her finesse to the power of her partner(s)]], making them very impressive in battle.
** Likewise, her student [[Characters/StevenUniverseConnieMaheswaran Connie Maheswaran]] is a human child, far weaker and more fragile than even the least combat worthy gem. She's made up for this for being extremely fast and agile, and with Rose's Sword (which is a OneHitKill weapon on Gems) her lack of strength doesn't matter. Again like Pearl the fusion she's involved with (Stevonnie) is the physically weakest one so far, yet humiliated the very powerful Jasper with far superior skill and tactics.
** [[Characters/StevenUniversePeridot Peridot]] joins the Crystal Gems after a HeelFaceTurn and admits that, due to Homeworld's dwindling resource supply, she (like all the other Peridots of her generation) has to be given bionic "limb enhancers" to give her the ability to fight. However, Steven and Amethyst help her discover that she has the ability to [[ExtraOreDinary psychically control metal]]. Though it takes Peridot a while to master the art, and she never quite reaches the raw power of the other Gems, her skills quickly grow to the point where she's able to stand alongside the Crystal Gems in battle armed with nothing but a trash can lid and cans of soda. Even in her first proper fight with ferrokinesis, she was able to defeat the [[spoiler:Corrupted Jasper]] using nothing but a large jagged piece of steel.
* Contrary to traditional, mostly-equal power levels, the Autobots of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' are almost universally weaker than all but the lowliest Decepticon. They manage to get around this through a combination of team-based tactics and resource management that, while not entirely closing the gap, grant them some measure of advantage over their better-armed-but-less-organized counterparts.
** This applies not just to the main cast, but the Autobots on a larger scale as well: while the Autobots used the [[PersonOfMassDestruction Omega Sentinels]] to actually win the Great War, the reason they got that far in the first place was because their ''logistics'' were vastly superior to the Decepticons thanks to their [[PortalNetwork Space Bridges.]]
** True of the original generation 1 Transformers as well. Autobots were ordinary citizens, while Decepticons were the military caste. What's more, Decepticons could fly, and the first Autobots could not.
* Beck from ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'' definitely qualifies. He has spent a lifetime roof-hopping, dueling, and racing bikes -- thus is an exceptionally agile and fast enough to hold his own in protracted battles with Paige and Tesler, who are trained combatants with a lot more power to throw around. Beck rarely wins any battles, but he always gets away. And this all before he officially begins his uprising or gets any form of training.
* TheTeam in ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}''. They aren't very strong on their own, but they are very good at working together, using the environment to their advantage, working out [[ThePlan plans]], and using their powers in diverse ways. [[spoiler:The first season finale has them fight the mind-controlled Justice League, and win. Even if the League was limited by whoever was pulling their strings, it's still an impressive feat.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
!!Sports
* Martial Arts:
** The Gracie family used their UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu with this principle to win several of the early UFC and other NHB/Vale Tudo tournaments despite being generally smaller, lighter and weaker than many of their muscular powerhouse opponents through proper application of techniques with which the other fighters were unfamiliar, and in fact Royce Gracie was chosen to represent the family in the early UFC for this reason (as opposed to a larger relative). When the rest of the world became familiar with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the advantage disappeared.
** Hélio Gracie, the founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was notable for begin quite weak and having a sickly body in his youth. BJJ came from him adapting UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} ''ne waza'' (Ground fighting) techniques so he could use techniques that rely on skill instead of strength.
** Creator/RandyCouture, former UFC Heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, had a smashing comeback win in 2007, where he defeated then-heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. Despite Sylvia outweighed him by about 55lbs, Couture won by simply out-timing him and picking apart his opponent's weak striking technique. He's come back to the sport a second time and despite being in his 40's is doing quite well by relying on his skill and experience to out strike his opponents, although a noticeable drop in power means he's stopped fighting in the Heavyweight Division. This is all the more impressive when one realizes Couture was originally a wrestler.\\
\\
Wrestling is a large part of why Couture is still competitive at 47-years-old in a sport filled with 20-somethings. His particular striking style (save for in the Sylvia fight) relies on "dirty boxing," using his Greco-Roman wrestling skills to control opponents in the clinch while freeing one arm or the other to strike with. This allows him to stifle the movement of faster, more explosive strikers with his grappling skill, and throw submission artists off their game by throwing power punches in a range of combat where hand strikes are usually less dangerous. Couture makes up for the limitations of speed and chin due to his age by bridging the gap between striking and clinch grappling with his skill in both areas.
** Having a greater variety of offensive weapons makes it easier to compensate for a lack of punching power in UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts. Fighters like Michael Bisping, Frankie Edgar, Forrest Griffin, and Dominick Cruz have been title contenders, and even champions, despite having little punching power.
** Mainoumi Shuhei, sumo wrestler. He weighs only 216 pounds (for a sumo wrestler, that's tiny) and in fact failed the Sumo Association's height requirement until he [[LoopholeAbuse had a doctor inject silicone into his scalp to fake it]] (causing the rules to be changed in the process, because the Association didn't want anyone else to have to go through such a painful procedure). He was also quite possibly the most ''skilled'' sumo wrestler in the modern age. Known as "the department store of techniques," he was recorded as using 33 different winning moves to complete his matches (most wrestlers don't use more than a dozen across their career), including techniques that had either not been seen in the modern era or that he personally made up. He earned five special prizes for technique, and at the height of his career, he was ranked as one of the top (''san'yaku'') wrestlers in Japan, defeating wrestlers twice his size for the honor.
** Wing Chun is designed as a practical Martial Art designed to be usable by someone with the muscle mass of a stick. In fact, it's worth noting that the (possibly apocryphal) legend of its creation states that it was created by a woman.
** In general though, many professional fighters [[AvertedTrope do NOT consider this]] to be TruthInTelevision. Fighters like Ramsey Dewey have gone on record saying that an unfit but technically sound fighter will lose handily to a fitter, stronger faster opponent with even a little bit of training. This is backed up by masters of Traditional Martial Arts like Wing-Chun, Tai-Chi, Kung Fu etc. losing repeatedly and handily to even mediocre MMA fighters. Though any smart MMA Fighter of any level of skill, should beware of [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatists]]. For pure force won't always win them a fight, this is a harsh truth.
** Compared to more aggressive martial arts like Karate or Muay Thai, Tai Chi comes to mind here. It is generally practiced slowly, focusing on flow, movement and most importantly [[StoneWall defence]]. In a fight, Tai Chi targets the weak spots of an opponent, or manipulating their strength against them. It even supposedly has health benefits, calming the mind and body, whilst sharpening precision.
* Boxing:
** Paulie Malignaggi has excellent handspeed, good skills, and a decent chin, but can't crack an egg with his punches and suffers from hand problems. He has 27 professional wins, but only five of them have been by knockout.
** [[TheAce Floyd Mayweather Jr.]] when he moved to the welterweight division. He lost the power he had at the lower weight classes, and on top of having hand issues, was able to continue his undefeated career based off of pure boxing skills, ring intelligence, and masterful defense.
** UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli was a curious example. While not objectively weak (one does not accumulate 37 KO's without some amount of strength), his punching power was significantly lower than many of his peers in the heavyweight division. But while he lacked a true "knockout punch", he had a very unique combination of speed, timing, stamina, toughness, savvy, and psychological manipulation, and he used all these assets to overwhelm his opponents. He was basically the embodiment of using Strength as a dump stat.
* Tennis:
** Roger Federer. Sure he's not super thin and wiry but he's not OVERLY tall like some in UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}}, nor is he massively built like other giants of the game like Nadal. He doesn't rely on massive serves, power volleys or other such tactics to win-- just sheer skill.
** Marcelo Ríos stood at just 5'9" and had a rather thin contexture, but his massive natural talent made up for his lack of physique, taking him to be ranked 1st for a short time. However his career burnt quickly, having to retire at just 28 from a [[GameBreakingInjury chronic back injury]].
** This also applies to a lot of female UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}} players like Maria Sharapova. Maria Sharapova is actually known as a power player on the woman's court. It's just that the William Sisters, especially Serena, make her [[OvershadowedByAwesome look weak by comparison]].
* Hockey: UsefulNotes/WayneGretzky. To quote the other wiki: "Gretzky's basic athletic abilities were not considered impressive. He was 6 ft (1.83 m) tall, weighing only 160 pounds (73 kg) as an 18-year-old NHL rookie in 1979, and 185 pounds (84 kg) at the end of his career in 1999. At the beginning of Gretzky's NHL career, many critics opined that Gretzky was "too small, too wiry, and too slow to be a force in the NHL". On the other hand, his intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. It was said that he "seems to have eyes in the back of his head" and had a knack of "rolling with a check".
* UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}}:
** There are quite a few pitchers who can't throw above 85-86 mph (91-93 is considered normal) but have the ability to get hitters out consistently due either to perfect pitch placement or outstanding movement on their pitches. The so-called 'crafty lefties' like Jamie Moyer and Mark Buehrle are a good example of this.
** Then there are knuckleball pitchers, who combine this trope (knuckleballs have very little velocity and hence take relatively little arm strength to throw, but take absolute mastery to pitch consistently), with LethalJokeCharacter [[note]]knuckleballs are notoriously [[UnpredictableResults unpredictable in their movement]], so a wild pitch is as likely as a strike.[[/note]], OldSoldier [[note]]the best known knuckleballers like the Niekro brothers, Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey didn't come into their own until their mid-thirties, when most pitchers hit the downward slope[[/note]] and GlassCannon [[note]]the pitch is dependent on the pitcher's fingernails to throw properly, so an injury that most other players wouldn't notice and could fix with a bandage will wreck a knuckleballer[[/note]].
** The above goes double for right-handed pitchers. Righty pitchers who can't break 90 mph are generally considered batting practice pitchers, as right-handers can't get quite as much of a tricky windup or funky delivery between their positioning on the mound and their own body mechanics compared to southpaws. However, pitchers like Josh Tomlin, Marco Estrada, Kyle Hendricks, and Yusmeiro Petit have been known to log incredible performances and years, with Tomlin and Petit coming close to logging perfect games, while Estrada and Hendricks both made All-Star and playoff appearances in 2016 (as did Tomlin with the playoffs). This is mainly a factor of their near perfect control, but also of their tricky off-speed pitches (the curveball for Tomlin and Petit, and the changeup for Hendricks and Estrada) that they use to create separation in both movement and speed from their fastballs.
** Petit is a particularly interesting case, as his pitch command is actually pretty average compared to guys like Tomlin and Hendricks. What he ''does'' have is a unique delivery that makes his fastball [[ConfusionFu basically impossible to time properly]]. Despite the fact that it averages 89 mph, Petit's fastball is especially deceptive because his hand (and thus, the ball) goes from above his head, to behind his head, then back out from behind his shoulder during the course of his pitching motion (from the batter's perspective). Thus, it becomes what's colloquially known as an "invisiball", a fastball that seems to just "appear" at the pitcher release point, rather than allowing the batter to follow it through the pitcher's delivery. Combined with his excellent slider and curveball (and a decent changeup), batters can't really find a comfortable or easy pitch to swing at.
** Greg Maddux was one of the best pitchers of his time, but had a comparatively weak (mid to high 80's) fastball compared to his contemporaries. He compensated for this with his impeccable ball control and trick pitches.
** Maddux is actually part of a group of pitchers who started off with solid or power fastballs, but lost speed due to age or injury (as a rookie, Maddux was rocking a 93 mph four-seam). Guys like Bartolo Colon, Jake Peavy, C.C. Sabathia, Mike Mussina, and Pedro Martinez all lost power as they got older, but they adapted to their changing outlook by brushing up on their command, movement, and/or pitch repertoire. Mussina in particular stands out, as he was averaging 86 mph by his final season, but still managed a 20-9 record with a 3.37 ERA, made even more impressive by his comeback from an injury-riddled campaign the year before; he is the only player to ever retire willingly after winning 20 games in a season.
** Then there was Tommy John, who amassed 286 wins in his career despite appearing hittable. Ken Singleton once said you couldn't wait to bat against John, then after the game wonder how in the world you were 0 for 4 that day.
** Another key skill for these pitchers: learning the hitters. Every hitter has pitches they can do very little against. Additionally, every hitter must anticipate what's coming and try to keep their timing on with incredible skill. As long as your control and ability to keep the hitter off-balance hold up, a pitcher with excellent knowledge of the opposing line-up can be a terror.
** Sabermetrics, the attempt to use modern scientific statistics to understand baseball, values one particular stat for hitters above all others. No, not average. Not RBI. Not homers. That statistic, On-Base Percentage, is simply how often a hitter gets on base, regardless of power. Slugging - a measure of power - is nice, but OBP is king; the rule of thumb is that OBP is about three times as valuable as Slugging. Sabermetrics doesn't care how you get on base, but ''that'' you get there. As depicted in ''Film/{{Moneyball}}'' (both the film and book), this led to the Oakland A's discovering Kevin Youkilis, a player who was overlooked in the draft because he had a wonky stance, decent but uninspiring average, and less-than-stellar physique. The A's took a special interest in him because they realized his decent batting average masked a stunningly good on-base percentage. He had the plate patience and self-control to battle pitchers deep into the count, wearing their arms out and getting to first base on ball 4. The book jokingly called him "Euclis, the Greek God of Walks". Youkilis went on to be an All-Star, an expert defender, and while his career .281 average is good, it's not great. His career OBP of .381, on the other hand, is [[https://www.fangraphs.com/library/offense/obp/ outright impressive]].
* Football: Steve Largent, a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, was small (under 6 feet tall and 180 lbs) and not particularly strong or fast. His strengths were his incredibly sure hands and his ability to read defensive coverage like a book. By the time he retired, he'd set almost every receiving record in the book. Unfortunately for him, Jerry Rice came along a few years later to break most of them.
* Basketball:
** Steph Curry, the point guard for the Golden State Warriors, is not as big or tall as a lot of other NBA players but his ball handling skills are phenomenal, his passing skills are top ranked, and [[TheDreaded his legendary 3 point shooting]], along with his [[ImprobableAimingSkills ability to make highly contested shots from anywhere on the floor]], is the stuff of {{Nightmare|Fuel}}s for opposing teams. It's these skills that allowed him, in 2015, to lead the Golden State Warriors to winning their first NBA Championship since 1975 and also allowed him to become the NBA MVP.
** Larry Bird was fairly middling in terms of his specific skills, excelling mostly at three pointers but was probably weakest at dribbling. What made him a force in 80's basketball was his sheer energy and desire to win, content with being a play maker if he isn't in the best shot. And everyone admitted [[YouFightLikeACow he was the biggest trash talker in the league]].
* Spin bowlers in UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}}. A spin bowler normally bowls at about half the speed of a good fast bowler, but uses a set of elaborate techniques to make the ball "swing" in the air and bounce in improbable ways instead.
* Golfers in general tend not to be particularly strong, especially compared to athletes in other sports, but Jim Furyk stands out as an utter weakling. Hitting tee shots that some LPGA players could match in length, and a good 80 yards shorter than some big hitters on the PGA Tour are capable of hitting it, Furyk has ridden excellent accuracy in all facets of the game, and, when playing well, unfailing precision in his short game to a US Open victory, a 2nd place finish in the 2016 US Open at ''Oakmont'', one of the longest courses in Open history, a few other runner up finishes at Major championships, a [=FedEx=] Cup championship, and he even holds sole possession of the PGA Tour single round scoring record, as he once shot a ''58'' at a Tour event.
* Racquetball players. Suit up, go to the gym, and find a 70 year old and challenge him or her. We'll wait here - you won't be long.
!! Other
* [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3353107/Mouse-bites-snake-to-death.html Mouse wins epic boss battle]] against venomous snake with "barely a scratch on him".
* Essentially the role of aggressor pilots in the US Navy and in Top Gun, during the Cold War. Flying outdated F-5 Tigers and A-4 Skyhawks, the more experienced aggressors regularly curbstomped pilots in the Navy's newest Cool Planes: The F-14 and F/A-18.
** This is due to the agility of the outdated aircraft [[note]] despite being subsonic, the A-4 has a 720 degree roll rate and is remarkably agile, due to having a good engine and light frame[[/note]] and the fact that these engagements always occur within visual range. The F-14 especially was designed to fight at extremely long distance with its advanced radar and long range missiles, in close it was too large and couldn't accelerate fast enough[[note]] no thanks to the crappy [=TF30=] engines forced on the design, and almost always carrying drop tanks with several tons of fuel. With the tanks off and better engines, the Tomcat became a better dogfighter[[/note]]. In the case of the F/A-18, it was purely due to pilot skill as the F/A-18 is also quite agile but is still slightly inferior. In addition the instructors are truly some of the best fighter pilots in the world.
** On the US Air Force side, there are plenty of stories of pilots in F-15s and F-16s getting shot down by Air National Guard pilots in outdated F-4Cs at Red Flag... because while the boys have the superior fighters, the old guys in crap planes have been flying those planes since ''Vietnam''.
* In computer science, improving algorithms can cause a laptop being able to outperform a vast cluster of super-computers in certain applications. No matter how much power you have, no matter how much you optimize the code, a better algorithm will always outperform a brute force one.
* Animals, such as raccoons, monkeys, and such are pretty darn scrawny compared to the average human being. However, thanks to being able to move quickly, expertly climb, and a knack on how to use serious pressure with their sharp claws, [[CurbStompBattle big ol' human will lose the fight.]]
* Spiders are a wonderful example among the smaller animals, though their webs can be easily broken by larger creatures. The traps they lay are not only delicately spun but serve as both their nests and works of art. Without spiders to ambush the pests of our world, we'd be swarmed by them all too often. Perhaps you should rethink of killing our [[DarkIsNotEvil eight-legged friend]] next time, hm?
* On the whole, humans themselves are generally this. When it comes to raw physical strength, stature, speed, agility, or even senses such as sight or smell, there are many, ''many'' animals that can kick even the fittest human's ass in seconds. Unfortunately for the animals, the humans learned how to use tools and the environment around them to their advantage. Humans also are a social species, communicating and working together to fell beasts well above their size, and have the wherewithal to preserve knowledge and pass it on for others to use and future generations to refine. Incredible stamina at a walk is merely a bonus - humans didn't need to fight to the death when they could just pursue the prey until it collapsed.
* This is actively encouraged among car drivers. Since you're controlling a potential killing machine, there are many rule and regulations established. Generally a slow, gentler driver is less likely to cause an accident, than an aggressive, heavy-handed one. Learning to drive is less about [[ItsAllAboutMe ruling the road]] and more about patience, navigation and observation.
* [[{{Ninja}} Ninja]] compared to other kinds of warriors aren't particularly well-armed. That's because, despite what media suggests, real shinobi rarely did any fighting. In truth, ninja were mostly spies, saboteurs and the occasional assassin. Still they were not ones to be messed with, for what they lack in military training (though some were former samurai), they more than make up with [[CombatPragmatist versatility and skill]].
* This is a common case found among warehouse workers, particularly those that sort heavy items physically. They aren't given any special machinery to aid them, other than a conveyor belt. These individuals must work fast and accurately in order to avoid saturation. But the key to doing so, is not raw strength (for a rushed stacking can waste time and [[HoistbyHisOwnPetard be perilous]]), but careful timing and gauging the weight of the object first.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Anime/AldnoahZero'', the villainous Martians pilot physics-breaking {{Super Robot|Genre}}s, while the heroic Earthlings can only field pathetic MechaMooks, which allow the Martians to completely massacre the Earth forces. However, protagonist [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Inaho Kaizuka]] repeatedly dominates the Martians through clever application of physics to exploit weaknesses in the Martian machines, often taking advantage of the Martians' arrogance at their invincibility, and he does this while piloting a basic training unit.
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
** The only way the inherently much physically weaker humans can survive multiple Titans encounters is to be very, ''very'', '''very''' skilled.
** Annie Leonhart nearly effortless tosses both Eren and the much larger Reiner on their asses. Eren is amazed at how strong she is, but Annie explains that she is not that strong. She uses techniques that can turn an opponent's superior size and weight against them.
** Eren later takes a page from Annie's book against [[spoiler:Reiner, in Armored Titan form. He quickly realizes that Reiner's armor makes brute force a non-option, so he starts using Annie's techniques to get the Armored Titan in joint locks and grapples, which ''are'' effective even with the armor]].
* Kaku Kaioh in the ''Manga/BakiTheGrappler'' series. Was once very physically strong, until he came to believe that this was the superior way to fight, as his strength would fade with age, but skill would not.
* Any human in ''Manga/BeetTheVandelBuster'' capable of threatening a high star Vandel, including the main characters. Slade in particular fits this, he is small but quick, his special weapon is invisible rather than being an obvious representation of power like usual, and he is fond of advanced techniques involving intricate timing. [[spoiler:He is nearly killed when fighting Beltorze's puppet since Beltorze is just as intelligent a fighter ''and'' has a ton of raw power to boot.]]
* ''Manga/BigWindup'' -– {{Invoked|Trope}} - Momome points out that despite Tajima's exceptional speed and accuracy, he just doesn't have the build to be a power hitter in baseball. While he has been holding his own so far, there are signs that as the series goes on [[spoiler:he will struggle to progress as a result of this handicap while the other players like Hanai overtake him in usefulness by virtue of their superior power and range]].
* ''Manga/BlackClover'':
** The Black Bulls who don't have large amounts of magic power like aristocrats make up for it:
*** Finral doesn't have the large magical power of other nobles and his kind nature makes him unable to TeleFrag. However, he still makes his rare Spatial Magic useful, quickly creating portals to close large distances, forcibly warp enemies, and help comrades avoid attacks in the midst of battle.
*** As Magna states himself, he doesn't have the large magical power that nobles have, and needs to use his magic wisely as a result. Thus, he uses aim, proper timing, and tricky pitches to make the most of his fireball spells.
*** Vanessa tells Noelle that she specializes in magic control, which is seen in how she fights. Her magic isn't powerful, with even her fate manipulation only used for evasion, but she controls her threads to bind enemies and wrap around their wrists and ankles to make them her puppets.
*** Grey's Transformation Magic doesn't have much outright offensive use, but she can use it to change other spells' attributes, essentially making enemies' attacks useless or changing the environment to suit the situation. The guidebook gives her a 3/5 in Magic Amount but a 5/5 in Magic Control.
*** Zora's Trap Magic isn't overtly strong and like other peasants he doesn't have as much mana as nobles. Instead, he uses planning and trickery to make the most out of his counter traps.
*** Nero's Sealing Magic isn't offensively powerful, ranking her a Stage Six in combat ability, but it has a variety of effects like sealing damage and imprisoning enemies that make it very useful.
** In general, any human being pitted against an Elf or Devil, Royal or not automatically become this because these non-humans have ''way'' stronger magic than humans. However, because non-humans are prideful and look down on humans as inferior, most throw powerful spells semi-haphazardly (and if you're the WorldsStrongestMan you don't really need to do anything else). This means that weaker humans can catch a few off guard and outmaneuver them with their strategic use of weaker magic.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** Mayuri Kurotsuchi is not much of a physical fighter and even admits his zanpakuto works as a motion-sensor to compensate for his poor combat skills. What he ''is'' is a brilliant scientist with CrazyPrepared skills on Batman's level. When he does have to fight himself, he proves himself as dangerous as you'd expect from a Captain by countering the opponents' tricks beforehand, using a variety of nasty poisons, setting traps, and generally doing everything possible to win the fight before it even starts. Uryu only manages to defeat him with a DangerousForbiddenTechnique that left him worse off than Mayuri in the long run (Mayuri's self-experimentation meant that he was able to pull himself back together, while Uryu lost his Quincy powers).
** Speaking of Uryu, he, as well as Orihime, fit this trope among Ichigo's circle of close friends, lacking in power, but having unique abilities. Uryu is a Quincy, with the power to absorb and manipulate spirit energy. He's capable of harnessing it in several creative ways, including creating energy weapons, energy cages, and even ''puppeteering his own body's limbs'' after Mayuri rendered them immobile in their battle. For Orihime, she controls the Shun Shun Rikka, a series of spirits with unique abilities, allowing her to do things such as heal injuries and create energy shields. She's able to use it for attacks, but they're weak due to Orihime's naturally gentle demeanor. [[spoiler: The Fullbring Arc reveals that she's been improving in the versatility of her abilities, demonstrating powers she hadn't had before, such as producing a shield that performs offense ''and'' defense. In the Blood War arc, she actually teams up with Ichigo to take on ''the'' ''BigBad'', Yhwach.]]
** Szayelaporro Granz, Mayuri's direct counterpart in the Espadas. Granz is the 8th Espada, meaning, in terms of spirit energy, he's the second-weakest of the team, the only one beneath him being Aaroniero. However, being a counterpart to Mayuri, Szayelaporro is a MadScientist who has a whole arsenal of deadly devices and traps at his disposal. His unique abilities and tools include creating minions that he can ''eat'' to heal his own wounds, creating voodoo dolls to torture and break his enemies' vitals, taking direct control of other living beings, and even a method of ''self-resurrection'' via stealing an opponent's life force. Even Mayuri, who became disgusted by the Espada's claims of being perfect, admitted that he ''was'' impressed by his abilities.
** In comparison to their Captains, most Lieutenant-class Soul Reapers are this. Lieutenants like Shuhei Hisagi, Momo Hinamori, Izuru Kira, and Yumichika Ayasegawa, while lacking in raw power, all demonstrate good combat skill and Kido proficiency, meaning they're able to keep up with and aid their Captains in larger conflicts.
** Yoruichi technically falls under this. Unlike most Soul Reapers, she lacks a Zanpakuto, and is generally shown to lack in raw power compared to the stronger characters in-series. Kisuke actually made special armor for her to compensate for her strength in the fight against Aizen. That said, Yoruichi is recognized as the "Goddess of Flash", the fastest Shunpo user in the Soul Society. On top of that, she's a master martial artist, as shown when she defeated all of the Onmitsukido (minus Soi-Fon) ''all by herself,'' and possesses impressive Kido proficiency.
** Rukia Kuchiki of Squad 13. She's lacking in strength, but when it comes to being a warrior, she's a lot more level-headed than her [[HotBlooded usual]] [[{{Tsundere}} demeanor]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold would suggest.]] Her Zanpakuto, Sode no Shirayuki, enables her to control ice through graceful, dance-like techniques. Additionally, like her elder brother Byakuya, Rukia is shown having high proficiency in Kido, and is shown using several varied spells to aid in her battle. [[spoiler:Besides Hachi, Rukia's the ''only'' non-Captain character to kill an Espada, defeating Aaroniero, the 9th Espada. The kicker? She beat him ''all by herself.'']]
** [[spoiler: During the Fullbring Arc, Ichigo, in comparison to most of the Xcution members, becomes this. During his training with them to master Fullbring powers, he slowly starts regaining the use of spirit energy. As his powers were already depleted over a year before, Ichigo was now much weaker than he was before. However, unlike the Xcution members, save Ginjo and Tsukishima, Ichigo has [[TaughtByExperience spent several months in actual battles for survival.]] As such, his fighting experience allows him to keep up with them despite having much weaker powers.]]
* ''Anime/BloodPlus'': Both Saya and Haji are {{Vegetarian Vampire}}s that refrain from drinking blood as much as possible, and are thus barely stronger than ordinary humans as a result. Nonetheless, they're both skilled fighters and can easily hold their own against more powerful opponents.
* In ''Manga/Brave10'', Rokuro is one of the smallest, lithest dudes on the team and gets thrown around like a ragdoll more than once, but he has his [[MakeSomeNoise sonic techniques]], later [[spoiler:BloodMagic]], and is fast and precise with [[HiddenWeapons suntetsu]] and his chain whip.
* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': Gouta Nakamura's [[DeadlyDisc Moter Gear]] is noted as having the lowest attack power of all the offensive buso renkin in the series but he is able to make up for it with the weapon's versatility and his own intelligence. As a result Gouta has one of the most successful on-screen battle records of the Alchemist Warriors in the series.
* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' hero Touma Kamijou only has his trusty [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] when up against [[PersonOfMassDestruction incredibly powerful]] Espers and Magicians. He still manages to hold his own quite well thanks to his wits, overwhelming tenacity, and the occasionally clever applications he employs with his limited arsenal.
* When taking part in a baseball game in ''Anime/{{Charlotte}}'', Misa falls into this because, while she has the athletic skill, she can only act by possessing the body of her non-athletic sister, Yusa. This leaves her with a body that can't keep up with her actual ability. Despite this she's a key player in the baseball game against a telekinetic pitcher.
* This is Ikki's entire Shtick in ''Literature/ChivalryOfAFailedKnight''. His magical ability is best described as "barely". Nonetheless, he manages to hold on through skill, endurance, the ability to read his opponent's fighting style, and a technique that pools all his meager magic into one single attack.
* Clare from ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', despite being in theory the weakest of all the warriors, has learned every trick and tactic there is to kill Awakened Ones. Normally, she's [[CripplingOverspecialization cripplingly overspecialized]], but as the series progresses, Awakened Beings start coming out of the woodwork. [[spoiler:And then subverted horribly when she finally meets up with Priscilla after years of searching. Priscilla is by far the strongest character currently in the series and all the skill in the world can't put a scratch on her.]]
* Lelouch Vi Britannia of ''Anime/CodeGeass'' uses his intelligence and tactics as counter his AcePilot rival, all while being an average pilot and outright pathetic ground-pounder himself.
* Chiko, of ''Manga/TheDaughterOfTwentyFaces''. Being just a pre-teen girl, she's physically weaker than everyone else she ever fights. However, she possesses impressive agility, quick wits, and clever resourcefulness, having been trained by a GentlemanThief.
* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'':
** Shinobu Kocho is physically the weakest Hashira, as she doesn't even have the strength to decapitate a demon. But her speed and arsenal of poisons make up for it.
** One extra tidbit of information for a volume release showed the pure physical strength rankings of all Hashira by using arm-wrestling as a gauge, Obanai was on the bottom rankings along with Shinobu who had already proclaimed herself to be the physically weakest Pillar; he however protests that physical strength isn't everything, having great confidence in his sword skills and that is validated by him being chosen as the swordsmanship mentor during the Hashira training regime.
** Tanjiro's father, Tanjuro, looks outright ghastly due his illness in flashbacks, yet his Breathing techniques allowed him to perform physical feats that his body shouldn't be able to handle, like performing his ritual of the Hinokami Kagura in the snow for hours upon hours without getting tired.
** [[BadassNormal Humans]] in general are especially this, compared to even the weakest of Demons. The final fight between Kyojuro and Akaza highlight this, even at his [[ExaggeratedTrope strongest]] the Flame Hashira narrowly failed to behead his brutal opponent. However, Akaza didn't escape unscathed with both his neck, chest and [[DirtyCoward pride]] severely damaged.
* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
** The series has had humans who regularly engaged hands-on with Digimon. ''Anime/DigimonFusion''[='=]s Zenjirou used his kendo skills combined with a digimon-made sword, while ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad''[='=]s Masaru went barehanded against other digimon.
** Puppetmon from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' is one of the physically weakest Mega levels of all, but his special skills means he's able to keep pace with the physical powerhouse Wargreymon and even take control of him. Note, that he's only weak for his level, he'd beat most ultimates physically.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
** In the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', there's a bit where Goku goes back in time and meets Master Roshi's old teacher, Mutaitou. By this point Goku is far stronger than the OldMaster, including having killed the monster that wiped out both the master and all of his dojo except Roshi and his EvilCounterpart [[TheRival rival]], Tsuru. However, when they spar, Goku's moves are so reckless and sloppy that Mutaitou manages to counter all his attacks with ease. Goku's first meeting with Mr. Popo prior to this went much the same way.
** Compared to the Saiyans at the beginning of Z, Goku was this. Since he was raised on Earth, which had weak fighters compared to the rest of the universe, Goku lacked real strength when Raditz came looking for him. However, Goku was able to sense energy, hide his power, and had great control of his ki, something that surprised Raditz when Goku ''bent'' his Kamehameha and powered up at various points.
** King Kai in a nutshell. When he debuted during the Saiyan Saga, he was weaker than Vegeta at the time, and didn't get any stronger. He also trained Goku from weaker than Raditz to way stronger than Nappa in a mere six months, most of the Z Warriors from weaker than Nappa to strong enough to beat the Ginyu Force in ''a month and half'', and invented the Kaio-ken and the Spirit Bomb, two techniques that left in awe even the Gods of Destruction.
** This trope is the bane of the human protagonists' existence. It's entirely possible that Krillin, Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu might be able to keep pace with the Saiyans in terms of actual fighting ''skill'', but the uber-powerful foes the protagonists face mean that the humans typically end up as benchwarmers, or are simply beat up as per TheWorfEffect. In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Tenshinhan, Yamcha, and Chaozu faced the Ginyu Force while being trained by King Kai. King Kai's training methods, which were so good they allowed Goku to utterly thrash [[TheDragon Nappa]] when he returned to Earth, proved just as effective for the humans in that it allowed them to keep pace with Freeza's elite troops, and come out on top.
*** The reason this rarely works in ''Dragon Ball'' is because generally powerful characters are simply incapable of being harmed by anything that isn't at least somewhat close to their power level. They will just laugh it off. Even if a weaker opponent has the skill to get around their defense and hit them 100 times before they can react it doesn't matter, because none of the those 100 blows will hurt them. Krillin struggled to hurt Vegeta when Vegeta was deliberately standing there wide open so Krillin could injure him so he'd require healing because Vegeta was that much stronger.
*** When it comes to [[KiManipulation ki attacks]], it's the humans among the protagonists that have the creative attacks with special properties (geometry-breaking beams that can be supercharged with life energy, remote controlled projectiles that can turn on a dime, ki ''buzzsaws'' that seem to be able to metaphorically punch well above their weight class), while the Saiyans mostly just have increasingly large orbs and lasers to throw around. It's not always enough to even the power gap, but sometimes the results can be surprising...
*** The humans and Nameks also have the ability to sense people's life force energy, or ki. They can also manipulate their ki to seem less powerful than it is, either surprising an ignorant opponent or hiding from someone trying to pinpoint their location. The Saiyans and Frieza's army don't even realize this is possible before they see it, relying on machinery to do the same thing.
*** The 23rd Tournament arc also makes a really big point of this trope: Krillin and Yamcha are absolutely {{curbstomp|Battle}}ed, but the crowd still cheers wildly for them because their skills were still top-notch.
** Piccolo gets this during the fight on Namek with Frieza. Though his {{power level|s}} was slightly lower than Frieza's even after his [[FusionDance fusion with Nail]], Piccolo's fighting skills nonetheless allow him to go toe-to-toe with Frieza's second form.
** ''Vegeta'', of all people, gets this treatment more than once:
*** In his second battle with Zarbon he found out that, even with the recent Zenkai boost, he was still weaker than his opponent. However he was a battle hardened fighter and Zarbon had grown rusty due being around Frieza for years, so Vegeta managed to get around his defenses and land ''two'' crippling blows. NoHoldsBarredBeatdown ensues.
*** During his fight with Recoome, Vegeta showed much more skill than his opponent... And not enough power to actually hurt him, something Recoome mocked him for.
*** When dealing with Perfect Cell, Vegeta found himself just as outmatched in terms of power as he had been against Recoome, something Cell mocked him for just like Recoome. Then, [[OhCrap much to Cell's horror]], Vegeta revealed the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugdge3Cn9L0 Final Flash]] and nearly ''killed him''-Cell had to dodge, and even then he received what would have been crippling damage against anyone without [[FromASingleCell his immense regenerative power]].
*** After Vegeta was defeated by Cell, Trunks stepped in with his newly revealed Ultra Super Saiyan form, powerful enough to overcome Cell... But too slow to actually ''hit'' him, in addition to drain his energy and stamina far faster than normal. Cell promptly revealed that Vegeta could have done it too, he just hadn't bothered because, being far more skilled than Trunks, he had not needed to use it in combat to notice the drawbacks.
*** In ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'', he has the best showing against [[PhysicalGod Beerus]] because of his good fighting sense, outperforming the far stronger [=SSJ3=] Goku, Gohan, and Gotenks. Beerus even laments that he's "highly skilled, but lacks the power to match it."
** Gohan (who could be the poster child for UnskilledButStrong) {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this when he trains with Krillin. When Krillin congratulates him on how strong he is, Gohan says Krillin kept surprising him just because of how many different techniques he knew.
** Unbelievably, ''[[FakeUltimateHero Mr. Satan]]'': in his fight with Cell he attacks with great skill and in such a way that he would have ''destroyed'' a normal opponent (indeed, the ''first'' attack had a good chance to ''kill'' a normal human), but as his opponent was the far stronger Cell he didn't even scratch him. He later proves it again in the flashback of his fight with Spopovich and then when going against two gunmen - and as these opponents were [[{{Muggles}} normal humans]] he [[CurbStompBattle annihilated them]].
** [[spoiler:[[Manga/JacoTheGalacticPatrolman Jaco]]]] has shown his skills again and again, proving that [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass his bragging of being a super elite for being a member of the Galactic Patrol is well-founded]], with feats that include instantly calculating how much strength he needed to kick a falling giant rocket away from East City without blowing it up and noticing things that escaped ''Beerus and Champa''. In his solo series he also flat-out admits ''any'' adult Saiyan would destroy him (he's gotten better by ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'', enough to fight a small army of Frieza's soldiers and come out on top, but he's still far from the big guys).
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' has many examples of how power alone does ''not'' win one a fight, and there are plenty of times where an comparatively weaker fighter manages to defeat or hold his own against a stronger one, using unique skills or greater experience:
*** Although Jaco didn't fight like in the movie, he is able to see Goku and Frieza's battle, something only ''Gohan'' is able to do. He was also the first to see that Goku was unharmed from Frieza's energy blast. He also catches Frost [[spoiler:cheating when no one else did]].
*** When Goku drops his guard, it makes even his powerful body vulnerable to light attacks. Sorbet manages to pierce his heart with a common ray gun after attacking Goku InTheBack.
*** Vegeta effortlessly overpowers the drained Frieza and knocks him out of his golden form, but still loses when Frieza [[RageQuit blows up the planet]] as Frieza can survive in the vacuum of space, while Vegeta can't.
*** Piccolo is this to almost everyone at the Universal tournament. This nearly costs Frost his match since he could have easily put Piccolo away. Piccolo nearly beats him using smart tactics and his own quick thinking. He only loses because [[spoiler:Frost poisons him]].
*** Master Roshi was one of the strongest people on the planet, [[CantCatchUp but he fell badly behind]] before the end of the original ''Dragon Ball''. He's still, however, a highly skilled and trained martial artist. He manages to take down Frieza's army thanks to his greater experience and he teaches Goku the [[spoiler:Evil Containment Wave]]. In the Universal Survival Saga, he is chosen to be on U7's team over ''Goten and Trunks'' because of his greater experience and moveset, while the kids had proven themselves inefficient fighters.
*** Hit is anything but weak, but he falls behind Goku and Vegeta in terms of pure power. Still, he defeats Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta with ease, despite only using a low amount of power. He can do this because [[spoiler:he can jump 0.1 seconds ahead in time and aim for his vital spots, which Vegeta can't figure out since to him it looks like Hit is moving so fast that he seemingly disappears]]. When Goku successfully figures out how to counter Hit's fighting style, he fares better against Hit in his base form than Vegeta did even at full power. Hit also completely defies VillainForgotToLevelGrind, as he [[spoiler:levels up his time-leap ''mid-fight'' and has several more time techniques in his arsenal in the Universe Survival Arc]]. When he fights, he usually has to be stuck with WorfHadTheFlu (he's an assassin fighting in tournaments where he isn't allowed to kill) to keep things fair, and when he fights Goku without any limitations, he quickly ''kills'' him ([[DeathIsCheap It didn't stick]], of course, but still).
*** A trait among every version of Zamasu, [[spoiler:barring Black]]. While he's by no means "weak", his power falls behind Goku, Vegeta, later Future Trunks, the angels, and Gods of Destruction. However, being a Supreme Kai, he posses abilities that are exclusive to his race. He also knows Instant Movement. [[spoiler:His future counterpart adds CompleteImmortality to that list, and it effectively means he can tank anything Goku or Vegeta dish out and still come out unscathed]].
*** ''Krillin'' actually manages to defeat Gohan and stand his ground against Goku in tournament-ruled sparring bouts. Krillin's vast arsenal of techniques [[spoiler:such as the Solar Flare X100 and the remote-controlled Destructo Discs]] definitely give him a solid chance.
*** [[spoiler: During the Tournament of Power, thanks to the intensity of the battles and opponents he meets this time around, in particular the Universe 6 Saiyans and Jiren, Goku ends up being met and even surpassed in raw power more than once. The fact that he has to engage in such fights in quick succession also means that Goku ends up greatly weakened more than once in the Tournament. As such, he has to rely more on his fighting skills and experience to survive. When he fought Caulifla and later Kale in a 2-on-1 match, Goku had already spent a lot of his strength in his first confrontation with Jiren. However, he's still a master martial artist with tons more experience over the two girls, and as such, is able to keep pace with them even when he's double-teamed. In his second confrontation with Jiren, Goku's shown using more creative uses of his techniques against him, such as creating tiny ki landmines and using Krillin's Destructo Disc to slice out the arena right under Jiren, a tactic that Krillin had used against him beforehand.]]
*** [[spoiler: Towards the climax of the Tournament of Power, with the ranks being whittled down to the strongest fighters left, Androids 17 and 18 become this in comparison to most of the other participants. While they don't match up to them in raw power, as Androids, their [[PerpetualMotionMonster energy and stamina is actually limitless,]] so they can fight without ever becoming tired or fatigued. At the same time, they're also quite clever and pragmatic in combat. Android 17 stands out with many creative uses of his energy barrier, and, even more impressive, he becomes ''the actual winner of the Tournament.'']]
*** [[spoiler: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] regarding Dyspo of Universe 11. While his strength is lacking, the threat he poses comes from his SuperSpeed. Namely, he's arguably ''the fastest fighter in the Multiverse.'' He's able to threaten both Ultimate Gohan and Golden Frieza simply because he's too fast to keep up with, with Gohan having to resort to TakingYouWithMe to defeat him. However, beyond his speed, when it comes to fighting '' skill'', Dyspo's moves are noted as being simple, straightforward, and ultimately predictable. Goku and Frieza (at first), after getting used to his speed and reading his moves were able to counter him, and Hit nearly defeated Dyspo ''twice'', only failing to do so because of his teammate Rum'shii.]]
*** Ultra Instinct is this ''as a PowerUp''. Ultra Instinct isn't a racial trait (though all Angels seem to know it) or even a technique, ''per se'', but a state of mind; it boosts the user to a state of physical LudicrousPrecision (with maybe a touch of HyperAwareness), making even vast chasms of difference in PowerLevels almost a non-issue. [[spoiler:Jiren's power is leagues above everyone else at the tournament, but Ultra Instinct Goku is able to put him on the ropes because he perfectly dodges all of Jiren's attacks and every one of ''his'' blows are disproportionately powerful.]]
*** In the ''Moro'' Arc, we discover that this is the principle behind the Yardratians' Spirit Control. Being a race that's weak in power, to compensate, they have learned to become so skilled with their ki that they basically became efficient on ki alone. [[spoiler:Vegeta trains with them for a while, learning to make much more powerful energy blasts at a lower cost, becoming more powerful with the implication that Goku did the same. Additionally, he learned some techniques Goku ''hadn't'' learned, mainly Forced Spirit Fission, which allowed Vegeta to restore the ki Moro stole.]] Other tricks include duplication, gigantification and even HealingHands.
* ''Manga/DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai'':
** Hyunckel. At the beginning of the series he is portrayed as relatively strong and extremely skilled, but in the last chapters he's actually one of the weakest characters in the main cast, power-wise (though his skill level remains above average). He even develops a special technique allowing him to [[spoiler:use his life as a weapon, in order to compensate his lack of sheer power]]. It quickly becomes one of the strongest skills in the series.
** Also [[spoiler:Aban]], as near the end of the manga he's nowhere as strong as the other cast members, but still useful because of his skills.
* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'': Played with in Vorona's case. By most measures, she is StrongAndSkilled, being an excellent martial artist with strength and speed enhanced by training and knowledge of a body's weak points. But she keeps comparing herself to Shizuo Heiwajima, who is the epitome of UnskilledButStrong. In their first encounter, Vorona shot a knife at a vulnerable nerve cluster in Shizuo's shoulder. He ignored it, threw her motorcycle at her, and chased her truck on foot while repeatedly kicking a car in front of himself as a shield against her gun.
* ''Manga/Eyeshield21'':
** Kisiragi is a weak pretty-boy with little stamina and only average speed. Yet he manages to be CoDragons with [[ManipulativeBastard Marco]] alongside the UnskilledButStrong [[TheJuggernaut Gaou]] due to his ability to knock the ball out of a receiver's hand just after they get their hands on it. With only this skill, and his own stubbornness, Kisiragi shuts down Monta, the best Wide Receiver in-series, and helps his idol, Gaou, take down Hiruma, possibly the smartest Quarterback around.
** Compared with his junior teammates, who are very large and powerful, quarterback Osamu Kobanzame from the Kyoshin Poseidons is a pushover. He's short, he's not particularly fast or strong, and he's a coward. However, because he don't want to become a burden for his teammates, he strives to perform to the best he can. As result, he became quarterback with great short-pass precision, with no interceptions during the tournament thanks to his cautious playing. And [[SelfDeprecation despite his own misgivings]], his junior teammates actually greatly valued him.
** The Devil Bats have Manabu Yukimitsu. He's only about as strong as Sena, and slightly faster than [[MightyGlacier Kurita]]. What he does have is the brains to be a master of the option route with [[MagnificentBastard Hiruma]] as his quarterback, and the {{determinat|or}}ion to pull it off.
** Akira Nakabou, AKA "Chuubou", is a junior high student with a lot of passion and ambition who joins Team Japan in the World Youth Cup arc. He's a fairly average athelete, but his mastery of the three-point block ("Delta Dynamite") makes him able to take down linemen much bigger and stronger than he.
* Arguably Mystogan from ''Manga/FairyTail''. Despite not possessing his own inherent magic like the rest of Earth-land inhabitants, he is still considered one of the strongest mages of Fairy Tail. Meaning he uses nothing but his skill and ingenuity with his magical staves in order to take down and dominate his foes. For no greater proof, these abilities were enough to make him an S-Class Mage of Fairy Tail and even [[SmugSuper Laxus]] pre-CharacterDevelopment considered him the only person in Fairy Tail [[WorthyOpponent worth his time to fight]] (yes, even over Natsu or Erza).
* From ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': Toki is this, after [[HeroicSacrifice contracting radiation poisoning during his efforts to save his brother Kenshiro and Ken's fiance Yuria during a nuclear attack]]. Due to the sickness, while he is no longer stronger than his Hokuto Shinken disciples/brothers [[TheHero Kenshiro]] and [[BigBad Raoh]], he is far more adept at Hokuto Shinken than either of them. In fact, before the nuclear war, it was ''he'', not Kenshiro, who was going to be the successor of Hokuto, and everyone agreed it was how it should have been and that, had he been in perfect health, neither Kenshiro, nor Raoh, would have been able to [[StrongAndSkilled touch him]].
* The [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent Homunculus Wrath]] [[spoiler:a.k.a. King Bradley]] in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. He cannot [[HealingFactor regenerate]] like the other Homunculi and he's also turning sixty, something he likes to remind us often, downplaying his combat performance as well as the effectiveness of his [[MagicalEye Ultimate Eye]]; a [[CombatClairvoyance skill]] that lacks the sheer power of, say, Lust's [[WolverineClaws Ultimate Lance]] or Greed's [[MadeOfIron Ultimate Shield]]. Finally, [[GunsVsSwords he uses swords in a world where firearms]] and [[FunctionalMagic long range alchemic attacks]] are fairly common. All in all, he shouldn't pose a significant threat to our heroes, right?... [[OldSoldier W-R-O-N-G]].
* Sagara Sousuke from ''Literature/FullMetalPanic''. Both when in hand to hand combat (with men who are a lot more muscled, no less), ''and'' when he's fighting in his [[HumongousMecha AS]] (although this trope is more pronounced when he's in an inferior AS). There have been numerous times where he was piloting an old, worn down model of AS while fighting against new, far superior AS. And while everyone underestimates him and thinks he'll never win, he ends up taking down the opponents easily by using his skill and strategies. It also helps that he's a CombatPragmatist. (On the other hand, in sister series ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'', his skills as applied to every day school life is clearly overkill.)
* ''Manga/FutureDiary'':
** Until he TookALevelInBadass, Yuki usually just let his {{Yandere}} ActionGirlfriend do the fighting for him. However, he is the most skilled at utilizing the power of his Diary and anticipates moves in combat or finds very specific information from the future.
** Yukki's girlfriend is the polar opposite of Yukki, but still manages to fit this trope. She is very strong and skilled, but her Diary is the weakest, only able to predict one persons actions and her own Dead End.
* ''Literature/TheGeniusPrincesGuideToRaisingANationOutOfDebtHeyHowAboutTreason'': Wein convinces Earthworld's ambassador to have the empire's troops train Natra's troops. While the training makes Natra's troops able to match and surpass soldiers from other countries on an individual basis, they still have lower numbers and barely any military budget, forcing them to rely on clever tactics to win most battles.
* The Oarai and Jatkosota schools' sensha-do teams in ''Anime/GirlsUndPanzer'' are this, owing to their low numbers and lack of equipment compared to all the other schools. The latter especially, considering they have a limited tank selection and are mentioned as regularly stealing equipment and supplies from the other schools. They persist on the merits of their tank crews and have a fearsome reputation that makes even [[TheDreaded Kuromorimine's team]] wary.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'':
*** Char Aznable. While [[TheHero Amuro]] has greater PsychicPowers, [[ArchEnemy Char]] is a much more experienced pilot, so the two are evenly matched.
*** Amuro's eponymous [[SuperPrototype Gundam]] is also much stronger than Char's [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority re-painted]] {{mook|s}} units, at least at first, but as Char receives more powerful mobile suits, Amuro's piloting skill increases proportionally. Eventually, Char receives a Gelgoog, which is an even match for the Gundam, and finally the Zeong, which ends up reversing their roles by being ''more powerful'' than the Gundam.
*** When they return in ''Char's Counterattack'', Amuro had significantly more experience in ''Char's Counterattack'' than Char had in the original series, and stronger PsychicPowers to boot. (Char was only 20 when he faced off against Amuro for the first time. Amuro was 29 in CCA.) Once he answers Char's Sazabi with the Nu Gundam, The Red Comet CantCatchUp.
*** Hayato. He piloted the Guntank, a pretty sub-par Mobile Suit that had horrendous mobility, slow reaction time, and was useless in terms of close combat; yet he still managed to use it well, and survive the One Year War.
** A similar situation occurs in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'', early in the series there are a few veterans that can completely outmatch the Gundam pilots as far as skill is concerned, and best the Gundams in one on one combat. But the Gundams are so strong they can just shrug off the attacks.
** ''Gundam'' fans also ascribe this quality to ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket 0080]]''[='s=] Bernard "Bernie" Wiseman. By his own admission, he's only ever piloted once and he got shot down very quickly, but in the final episode he uses strategy, tactics, and traps to defeat a Gundam superior to Amuro Ray's[[note]]albeit with a less skilled test pilot behind the controls[[/note]]. And he does all this in a Zaku II, which is the poster child for MechaMooks.
** Ricardo Fellini and his Wing Gundam Fenice from ''[[Anime/GundamBuildFighters Build Fighters]]''. It's been pointed out that his gunpla is of an old make, one he's had since he was a kid, so his kit could be considered inferior from the outset, but he's introduced as the Italian Champion. As well, it has no Plavsky Particle manipulation gimmicks whatsoever, [[spoiler:but that didn't stop him from fighting the Star Build Strike to a draw ''after'' the latter went SuperMode in episode 15, or trouncing them before then]]. To note, he's the first person we see to cause Team Nemesis to worry and overclock [[spoiler:Aila's Embody System]] and, unlike [[spoiler:Sei and Reiji with the Star Build Strike's RG Mode]], he didn't have anything to help even the odds after that happened.
** Shimon Izuna of ''Anime/GundamBuildFightersTry'' has a basic [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Destiny Gundam]], built straight out of the box by his younger brother. Both Yuuma and Mr. Ral are convinced that it's going to lose, especially when his teammates' suits, equally built Murasame and Jet Windam, are taken out. Instead, Shimon's boxing skills end up making the suit a powerhouse, tearing apart a team based on the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Crossbone Vanguard]], but also fighting the Build Burning to a standstill.
** Team [=BUILD DiVERS=] have this going for them in ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRise''. Compared to many of the other teams in GBN, especially the heroes of [[Anime/GundamBuildDivers the previous series]], the team is pathetically weak. They have a hard time fighting Alus' One-Eyes army straight on, but once they start to realize their extremely-simplistic AttackAttackAttack patterns, they're able to easily overcome them with skill.
* ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'':
** Compared to Ippo, Kenta Kobashi is a weakling, and he's got no badass knockout techniques. In fact, he's never scored a knockout in his career... and yet, Kobashi gives Ippo a run for his money by playing mind-games, making frequent use of clinches, and using a stance that allows him to easily reach with point-getting jabs, while sacrificing his ability to score heavy blows. Definitely ''not badass'', and the audience hates him, but by playing with the rules, Kobashi manages to win most of his matches. He would've beaten Ippo too, if he hadn't tried to finish him with a knockout.
** Also Ichiro Miyata. His own physical strength is pathetic when compared to other boxers, and he has a FatalFlaw in the form of a glass jaw... but he also has ''huge'' speed and does what he can to use counters to his benefit.
* Cao Cao in ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'' is this trope. He's just a normal human who admittedly has [[SuperpowerLottery the strongest spear (and weapon created in the entire series)]] that can kill a god, but all it takes is just one hit from any character in this series and he's down for the count since the protagonists are devils who are a lot more durable than he is. It should be easy to take him down, right? [[OneManArmy NOPE]].
* ''Literature/InfiniteStratos'':
** Maya Yamada, the assistant homeroom teacher, goes up against two students in Ace Customs, using a training IS... and effortlessly curb-stomps them.
** In the same vein, Charles [[spoiler:a.k.a. Charlotte]] Dunois. Having explicitly stated to pilot an outdated 2nd Generation IS Rafale Revive II (the same type that Yamada-sensei uses), albeit customized, she can and has gone toe-to-toe with more modern 3rd generation machines such as Blue Tears and Schwarzer Roegen.
* ''Manga/InitialD'' gives us Takumi and his [=AE86=] Trueno. Although his Trueno pales in comparison to more powerful cars like the RX-7s and Skylines, his skill with the Trueno is what allows him to, to the shock of those who haven't seen him in action yet, hold his own against such more powerful cars.
* This is a common recurring motif in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', especially once Stands are introduced in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]''. Stand abilities after often towards the wacky end of the spectrum, but in the hands of a skilled user, [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower even seemingly innocuous Stands can be deadly]].
** A Stand's strength is inversely proportional to how far away from its user it can operate, making this trope common among long-range Stand users. Despite lacking a lot of raw power, creative use of their abilities allow long-ranged Stand users to threaten the heroes every bit as effectively, if not more so, than short-ranged fighters who get up close and personal. Often enough, most of a Stand fight is attempting to ''catch'' a long-range Stand user while they hide somewhere and use their Stand to hassle the protagonists, who can't effectively fight back until they pin down the user.
** Joseph Joestar, from Part 2 of ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'', never fully masters the way of [[SuperNaturalMartialArts Hamon]] like his grandfather, ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Phantom Blood]]'' protagonist Jonathan Joestar. What he lacks in mastery over Hamon, he more than makes up for in [[GuileHero creativity and guile]], defeating his opponents by outwitting them rather than simply overpowering them. In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', he does get a Stand, Hermit Purple, but unlike the punch ghosts his companions have, it's just purple vines, and its special powers revolve around information gathering. He's still able to get a ''lot'' of use out of it as CombatTentacles, it conducts Hamon, and he's still good at coming up with plans on the fly. The Empress stand targets him because of Hermit Purple's relative weakness, only to find out that its divination powers can be used to make maps to the ''exact'' thing (in this case, a barrel of tar) he'd need to defeat her.
** Jotaro throughout most of ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' is a bizarre fusion of this and UnskilledButStrong. His stand, Star Platinum, has excellent stats, but since Jotaro has only had it for a few days at the start of its adventure, he has absolutely no idea what it can actually ''do''. So unlike the others on his team, he has to make do without use of a special ability throughout the whole trip. He manages with tactical skill, innovative techniques (like focusing all his power into Star's fingertips to allow them to stretch beyond his normal range, or ''inhaling'' a stand that took the form of mist), and some [[BoringButPractical good old fashioned]] RapidFireFisticuffs. [[spoiler:During the final battle, he figures out that his power is TimeStandsStill.]]
** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'' has multiple villains with this characteristic:
*** Oingo's stand Khnum is essentially a weaker version of the earlier Yellow Temperance, as they both allow the user to [[MasterOfDisguise disguise themselves as others]], but Yellow Temperance could also defend against attacks and absorb people, while Khnum is ''just'' the disguises and doesn't even change Oingo's clothes. However, Oingo is better at ''utilizing'' his disguises than Yellow Temperance's user Rubber Soul; while Rubber Soul blew his Kakyoin disguise by acting ridiculously out-of-character, Oingo is able to fool the Crusaders when disguising himself as Jotaro (even replicating a cigarette trick Jotaro liked to do).
*** The D'Arby brothers, Daniel and Terence, work in an organization filled with assassins who have incredibly dangerous and lethal stand powers ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Oingo and Boingo]]), while their stands have no combat potential ''at all''. What their Stands can do is [[YourSoulIsMine steal souls]] of those who lose to them (in bets or video games, respectively), which does absolutely dip if they can't get people to play against them in the first place. Daniel D'Arby uses a lot of careful preparation and some incredible cheating skills with his knowledge of where Dio's mansion is as bait to [[NearVillainVictory nearly win all of the Crusaders' souls]], only failing because Jotaro psyched him into being HoistByHisOwnPetard. Terence, meanwhile, also made a very difficult roadblock to the crusaders with his Stand Atum's ability to read minds with yes-or-no questions.
** In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'', Shigekiyo "Shigechi" Yangu is a greedy middle schooler with a Colony Stand called "Harvest", which appears as a swarm of 500 robotic bee-men. Each individual Harvest is only a few inches tall and proportionally strong... but a swarm of them can [[DeathOfAThousandCuts gruesomely rip victims apart piece-by-piece]], inject purloined chemicals (such as liquor) into them with stingers, tear out sinews or tendons, rip off ears and tongues, [[EyeScream gouge out eyes]] and sever major artories. And Shigechi is ruthless enough to be aware of and explot all of these abilities if pressed. In his debute, he takes on both Josuke and Okuyasu, who both have more conventional "Power Type" Stands (with Okuyasu having a StoryBreakerPower in his "Erase Anything" ability), simultaneously, and almost ''wins''. [[spoiler:He even comes close to defeating the story's BigBad, MadBomber SerialKiller Yoshikage Kira, on his own before being fatally tricked.]] Josuke even describes Harvest in all seriousness as one of the most powerful Stands he's ever seen, characterizing it as "practically invincible". Not bad for a preteen with a Stand most obviously intended for MundaneUtility!
** From ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'', Mista's Stand, Sex Pistols, is the weakest in terms of power out of Bucciarati's group (including Moody Blues, which isn't even meant for combat), and he's pretty much helpless if he doesn't have a gun with bullets. But with his talent as a marksman, skill in commanding his Stand, and identifying the weaknesses of his enemies, he can hold his own against much stronger Stands. Considering that his enemies are still human, they are still vulnerable to gunfire like any ordinary person.
* ''Manga/KamisamaKiss'' gives us Nanami, an ordinary human turned PhysicalGod. She has plenty of divine power and she's both intelligent and cunning, but she is still only a human in terms of physical strength and endurance.
* ''Manga/{{Kekkaishi}}'''s Tokine builds her combat style on this trope. Comparatively speaking, the barriers she can create have nowhere near the explosive power as those made by Yoshimori, nor can she make them as big. The solution? Just use the barriers you have in really awesome ways...
* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'':
** CreepyChild Chikage Kushinada (and her teacher, Mikumo) adheres to this trope. She's a grade school girl but is shown to be at least on par with the teenage characters because she has enough skill to fight and defeat normal adults. She is a fighter of 100% skill, 0% power, rather than split between the two. What is actually meant by this is that Chikage applies no force of her own during a fight, but uses the enemy's force against them, a tactic used in multiple martial arts. While most fighters are a combination of strength and skill (strength being striking power, skill being throwing power or technique-related ability) Chikage is all skill--she only throws her enemy in such a way as to use their own weight, momentum, etc., against them, rather than create an impact herself. As usual, this stems from the manga taking a martial arts concept to its absolute extreme.
** Miu, as pointed out to Kenichi at the beginning of his training.
* ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'':
** Kuroko doesn't have the talent or the build for basketball, but because of his highly refined and practiced skill at Misdirection (which requires [[spoiler:enhanced tactical acuity and play-reading, foresight, and an iron-clad rationale dedicated to performing his specific role)]], he was able to be considered the "Phantom Sixth Player" of the legendary Generation of Miracles, his middle school team which took the national championship three years in a row.
** Among the point guards of the national-level teams, Serin's Izuki Shun is physically the weakest by a sizeable margin. However, his Eagle Eye, polished fundamentals (particularly passing and stealing), and his ability to read plays and predict upwards of three to four moves ahead allows him to go toe-to-toe with players like [[spoiler:the expert Kasuga Ryuuhei of Seihou, BadassNormal Kasamatsu Yukio of Kaijou, and even Uncrowned King "Thunder Beast" Hayama Koutaro]]. Hayama in particular recognizes him as a "first-rate player", and admits he can't beat him unless he plays at his absolute best ''and'' plans his attack first.
* Sano from ''Manga/TheLawOfUeki'' has two powers: to turn towels to steel and his Level 2 [[spoiler:make the towel steel supermagnetic]]. From this, towel-boomerangs, towel-swords, towel-gags and at one point [[spoiler:charging at extreme speeds using a towel MAGLEV TRAIN]].
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** Chrono Harlaown is explicitly mentioned in the first season to be weaker in {{power level|s}} compared to Nanoha and Fate, a comparison he scoffs at, stating there's more to magic than that. He then proceeds to prove his point during the penultimate episode of the first season where he pulls a OneManArmy in [[BigBad Precia's]] [[StormingTheCastle Garden of Time]] while everyone else needed to charge in as a team, and again [[ComicBookAdaptation in the manga volume set immediately before the second season]] where he effortlessly defeated an improved Fate in record time when she had to battle him for her Mage Exam.
** An even better example is Nanoha and Fate's OldMaster, the original Head Trainer Fern Corrado of the [[TheFederation Time-Space Administration Bureau]]. Despite being a lowly [[RandomPowerRanking AA-ranked]] mage using standard bureau equipment, [[ComicBookAdaptation the third season manga]] revealed that she managed to beat the [[RankInflation AAA-ranked]], BiggerStick-equipped Nanoha and Fate at the same time when they entered the TSAB training school.
** Yuuno Scrya is quite possibly the weakest -- or at least just ''definitely'' the least well-armed -- combatant in the series. However, his mastery of binding and barrier magics make him the most capable NonActionGuy ever. He's also demonstrated the ability to force someone to be teleported against their will, which, when you think about it, is probably the single most lethal ability ever shown in the series. The unpleasant [[TeleFrag possibilities]] for it are endless, but sadly never explored.
** Shamal is in the same position as Yuuno, only she does have a powerful Device backing her up.
*** She debatably has the most impressive record in the series at standoff combat, nearly paralyzing Nanoha from at least a half-mile away, and in every battle she's had a part in her opponents did not know she was there until attacked. Her skills with barrier, portal, and teleportation magic have endless tactical application that the series never explores, from making people run into instant magical walls at several times the speed of sound to portaling them off somewhere unpleasant. Yuuno would be capable of the same tricks if he had a copy of her Device.
*** There is the part in the final battle of ''A's'' where she locates the defense program's core and, with the help of Yuuno and Arf, teleports it to outer space, where the Arc-En-Ciel can be fired at it without risk of vaporizing a good chunk of Japan; scrying, binding and teleportation magic succeeds where {{Wave Motion Gun}}s can't completely do the job.
** Teana in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers StrikerS]]'' often worries about her own worth as a mage, noting that she has no unique skills and not that much magical power compared to the other members of Section 6. However, she eventually learns how to put her illusion magic to good use in conjunction with her sharpshooting skills, and [[spoiler:defeats three of the Numbers Cyborgs by use of perfectly timed attacks and some help from Vice]]. She is apparently Nanoha's best student, as she is the only canon character whom Nanoha taught her signature [[WaveMotionGun Starlight Breaker]] spell (well, Reinforce also used it but she merely [[PowerCopying copied Nanoha]]). There is a subtle meaning to this fact: Starlight Breaker's quirk is that it isn't powered by the caster's mana but rather, the [[SuckingInLines magical energy dispersed in the environment]]. In other words, it is the ultimate achievement for a weak but skilled mage, allowing her to unleash powers way over her head by skillfully managing the available resources.
** Veyron from ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce''. In the mostly UnskilledButStrong Hückebein family, he's the only one who cannot [[SuperMode React]]. Nevertheless he can hold his own against Riot Force 6's operators and actually defeats a Reacted enemy Eclipse infectee in direct combat.
** Vivio in ''Manga/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaVivid''. After ''[=StrikerS=]'', Vivio underwent a RedemptionDemotion and now lacks both a Relic Core and had her Linker Core damaged from Nanoha's attack. She's notably weaker, lacking her [[AntiMagic Saint's Armor]], pure magical power and the build for attack or defense. Multiple characters tell her that she's not meant for combat and she gets beaten by other martial arts competitors. Despite this, she develops a fighting style based around skillful dodging and careful attacks, one that lets her fight with [[spoiler:her Nanoha-mama albeit in a practice match.]]
* ''Manga/MagilumiereCoLtd'': Most extermination companies work on "bigger Kaii require bigger explosions" principle and are good at what they advertise. Magilumere's magical girls come up with the right approach for each Kaii on case by case basis, and while they are more efficient at it, they are notably slower and struggle to take down a Kaii solo.
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
** The Pro Hero, "Eraser Head"; is this due to his Quirk, "[[PowerNullifier Erasure]]". While effective by neutralizing the activation of Quirks of others, it can't affect those that are "mutant" types [[spoiler:(since they're always activated)]] or are naturally [[{{Muggles}} Quirkless]]. However, Aizawa makes up for it with his wits and being skilled in combat, capture equipment, and stealth to win a fight. His stats give him an average 3/5 in Power and Cooperation, but a good 4/5 in Speed and Intelligence, and an overwhelming 6/5 in Technique.
** The "Hero Killer" Stain also falls into this if you judge purely by Quirk. Stain's Quirk, "[[BloodMagic Bloodcurdle]]" allows him to paralyze a person by ingesting their blood, with certain blood types being more susceptible than others. Not much compared to powers like SuperStrength, PlayingWithFire, or being AnIcePerson. He makes up for it by DualWielding knives and honing his raw physical combat ability to high levels to make the most out of his Quirk in combat. His stats give him an excellent 5/5 in Technique and a whopping 6/5 in Speed.
** When using Full Cowl. Izuku Midoriya's overall power at 5% is only marginally stronger than he was without using it, and he lacks the explosive power of a full powered Smash. However, by increasing his overall power, even at a smaller percent, he is capable of fighting longer, is much faster as a result, and is capable of working in strategies better since he no longer needs to fear breaking his limbs. Furthermore, because he is limiting his power, he can gradually utilize more of it as he improves, allowing him to steadily increase his power, thus improving his abilities naturally. However, as he increases his power with One For All in certain percentages, he reverts back to UnskilledButStrong as he has to train to master higher the higher increase in power into his skill.
** Hitoshi Shinso has excellent control over his Quirk, "[[MindManipulation Brainwashing]]", and is very good at tricking people into [[IShallTauntYou answering his questions in order to activate it]], but as noted by Aizawa during his match against Midoriya, his combat skills are relatively poor and once Midoriya is able to break free of Shinso's MindManipulation, he overpowers him in minutes. His stats reflect this very well, with his Technique and Intelligence both being 4/5, but Power, Speed, and Cooperation being an underwhelming 1/5.
** Neito Monoma's Quirk allows him to copy the abilities of others' quirks, but he could only use them one at a time and up for 5 minutes. Due to these limitations, he will never be able to rigorously train them like his peers do. But he's listed as having a 5/5 in both Technique and Intelligence, and can use the different quirks creatively.
** Best Jeanist is the No. 4 (later promoted to No. 3 after All-Might's retirement) Pro-Hero who's quirk "Fiber Master" gives him control over fibers, denim being the most effective. [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower In-spite of its strange nature, it is an incredibly versatile quirk that is good for offense, defense, and capture]], him being able to overpower and capture an entire league's worth of Nomu's and being able to block a direct attack by All-For-One. All-For-One himself makes an observation that his super-abilities are almost completely reliant on skill and thus rejects it for its low power level, implying that while "Fiber Master" is versatile, it relies on practice and technique for it to be the least bit useful.
** Mirio Togata, AKA Lemillion, possesses the quirk "Permeation" that makes him intangible at will. This came with a laundry list of drawbacks (complete loss of sense and an ability to breathe due to all light and matter slipping through him, his clothes falling off, his body mass weighing him down and causing him to fall through the floor, etc.) that made him fall behind the rest of his peers, but with extensive training in both physical combat and practice with his Quirk under Sir Nighteye's supervision, Mirio became one of UA's most promising students. Sir Nighteye chose Lemillion as a potential candidate for One-For-All and Aizawa (famous for his high-standards) claims that he is good enough to become the next No. 1 hero even among active pros.
** [[CuteButPsycho Himiko Toga]]'s Quirk allows her to copy the looks of someone whose blood she drunk but not their Quirks [[spoiler:at first]], so in combat she relies on a knife and being fast and skilled enough to get the drop even on Heroes in training.
** To an extent, Hawks also qualifies, having a Quirk which allows him to control the feathers of his wings with his mind. His direct attacks against the Hood do not cause much damage, but he can still demolish ordinary Nomu through pure speed compensating for his average strength. His wings also provide him various forms of utility. Using almost all of his feathers, he was able to telekinetically evacuate everyone in a collapsing building alongside those on the ground, and he can use the feathers to complete multiple tasks at once from a distance, as well as pick up on conversations covertly. In fact, he is one of the few heroes with multiple 6/5 scores in the Ultra Analysis Data Book -- both Speed AND Technique.
** Surprisingly, [[GreaterScopeVillain All For One]] himself proves superior with this trope alone. Unlike All Might who relied purely on his brute strength, All For One survived merely by the grotesque collection of Quirks he stole. Furthermore, the villain was fighting in a much weaker state than before. It's terrifying to think how overpowered he was in his prime.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Shikamaru Nara lacks raw power and stamina (by ninja standards) and is initially too lazy to even put in much training, but his sheer intelligence means that he can consistently hold his own against opponents who are not only stronger, but older and more experienced than him. As he was wonderfully described by some troper, "Watching Shikamaru fight is like watching an acrobat work without a net."
** Amusingly, Sakura Haruno is this in after the TimeSkip despite possessing SuperStrength and juggernaut-esque healing, as her power and healing abilities are almost solely derived from her excellent chakra control. In terms of her chakra capacity, she's a drop in the ocean next to her far more powerful teammates. Tsunade (her mentor) is much the same.
** Haku is this in spades. His best attacks come from zipping around at high speed, nailing people with senbon needles in their pressure points, and using his ice mirrors to get faster. Not once does he ever use a truly destructive technique, and yet he would have beaten both Naruto and Sasuke [[spoiler:without even trying to kill them]], had Naruto not gone berserk when Sasuke went down.
** Itachi Uchiha is known to have been [[spoiler:severely weakened by keeping his Sharingan activated permanently]] throughout the series, yet still [[spoiler:manages to completely obliterate his perfectly healthy genius brother in their proverbial duel of fate]]. Even before the diminished capacity [[spoiler:derived from his illness is brought up]], he is said to have less than average power/endurance, which his partner Kisame Hoshikagi hints at by reminding Itachi that he shouldn't use his exceptional ocular powers more than a few times a day, lest he be completely drained. What Itachi lacks in quantitative power, he more than makes up for in qualitative.
** For that matter, Neji Hyuga is one of the most dangerous of the Konoha 12 and the first to make Jonin, despite having relatively low physical strength. His mastery of the [[PressurePoint Gentle Fist]], [[SuperSenses Byakugan]], and [[DeflectorShields Heavenly Spin]] render him capable of crippling opponents far physically stronger than him while blocking, dodging, or redirecting most attacks. For instance, he was able to fight on equal terms with Naruto during the Chunin exams and was favored to win that fight, even when Naruto drew power from the Nine Tailed Fox, allowing Naruto to completely outclass him in terms of raw power, stamina, and quantity of attacks (thanks to Naruto's Shadow Clones).
** Rock Lee [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] this trope. He's immensely strong, fast, and durable, and has mastered the Eight Celestial Gates, which makes him exponentially more powerful. However, he also has ''only'' his physical skills because he can't use chakra other than for the gates. His sensei Might Guy is much the same way, though he ''can'' use conventional chakra techniques (but just chooses not to).
** The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, was this as well, at least compared to his peers. His most destructive technique shown was the A-Rank Rasengan... which at full power, can destroy ''maybe'' a twenty-foot area. Compared even to most equivalent elemental jutsu, that's pretty underwhelming (for comparison's sake, the A-Rank Giant Waterfall Jutsu can splinter and flood an entire forest in the hands of a Jounin-level user). And yet his speed, brutally efficient combat style, and mastery of sealing techniques (not to mention his teleportation powers) made him one of the deadliest shinobi in all of history.
** Tobi, at least in comparison with other members of Akatsuki. His space-time abilities make him one of the most powerful tactical fighters of the series, but he almost never uses large scale ninjutsu, whereas the rest of Akatsuki relies on several highly destructive techniques. It's because of this deficiency in raw power that Itachi was convinced that "Madara" was a shadow of his former self; at the time, Tobi was masquerading as the real Madara Uchiha, who was tied with the First Hokage (aka the second "God of Shinobi") in strength. It should be noted that his ability to control several tailed beasts with his eyes makes up for his lack of personal firepower. And this is not to mention when he became [[PhysicalGod Jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails]]...
** Konan is a subversion. At first glance, her paper ninjutsu seems fairly underwhelming, as she mainly uses it to travel around, capture or bog down opponents, and avoid taking hits via flight or splitting into sheets of paper. It's effective enough to get the better of multiple Konoha shinobi, and even Jiraya for a while, but ultimately doesn't amount to much. That is, until she faces the above-mentioned Tobi [[spoiler:and breaks out the explosives. [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale Six-hundred]] ''billion'' [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill explosive]] [[ThrowDownTheBomblet tags]], in fact. Tobi only escapes by using the RealityWarper Izanagi and sacrificing his left eye in the process]].
** Though Kakashi Hatake lacks in stamina compared to other top-level ninja, he's considered the equal of the unbelievably powerful Might Guy by virtue of having learned literal hundreds of jutsu and being a master tactician who rarely fights his enemies head-on until he's ready to destroy them.
*** Despite still being ''way'' more powerful than the average Jounin, he's also ''way'' outclassed in strength by most of the Kage-level fighters he's compared to as an equal. It's perhaps no surprise that Kakashi was a student of the aforementioned Fourth Hokage.
*** One of the most interesting things about Kakashi's case is that his strength is so obviously displayed. He's known internationally as "The Man Who Copied a Thousand Jutsu", but that in and of itself both hides and reveals his true strength: not that he can copy your techniques with his Sharingan, but that he has thousands of them and thus likely has a counter to ''everything you can do''. And yet he consistently makes people fall for variations on the same tricks, time after time. He basically subverts his own combat style at will just to screw with his enemies.
** Kabuto Yakushi during Part 1, in a similar vein to Sakura above. Sure, he can't destroy much himself, but he can sever muscles and tendons and even damage internal organs with his Chakra Scalpels (which are normally impossible to use in combat because they require such intense focus; they're a technique intended for surgery). And he can also heal himself from any injury he takes, up to and including [[spoiler:having his stomach puréed by Naruto's Rasengan]], by using that same unreal chakra control to ''heal the individual cells of his body''. It has limits, though, as he lacks the chakra capacity to completely recover from large enough hits; [[spoiler:Naruto's attack still takes him out despite not killing him like it should have]]. He became Strong AND Skilled during Part 2, [[spoiler:thanks to assimilating his old master Orochimaru's remains and mastering the techniques of him and several of his strongest minions while losing none of the brilliance he had already, which allows him to become one of the few beings capable of defeating Itachi Uchiha, only losing thanks to Sasuke's interference]].
** Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, had become this by the end of his life. While undeniably still strong enough to hold the title of Hokage, Sarutobi's incredible raw power had degraded over time, as age sapped his stamina and chakra capacity. In his prime, Sarutobi was capable of using [[BeyondTheImpossible Ninjutsu of all]] [[ElementalPowers five elements simultaneously]] basically at will, but by the time he's in his 70's, he can really only use one or two at a time, and he can't spam them with impunity either. Instead, he focused on his bojutsu, fuuinjutsu, and combination attacks, as well as a greater reliance on strategy and working with his Summons than in his youth. His age doesn't stop him from [[spoiler:going toe-to-toe with [[HeroKiller Orochimaru]] and two (imperfectly) reanimated Hokage]] during Operation Konoha Crush and holding him to, at best, a PyrrhicVictory, [[spoiler:though Sarutobi admits that if he'd been at his full strength, he could have taken Orochimaru out via [[TakingYouWithMe his Shiki Fuuin]]]].
* This is the explicit reason Evangeline [=McDowell=] was able to reach the quarterfinals during the first TournamentArc of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' despite being BroughtDownToNormal. Even a [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld ten-year-old]] girl can do some damage when she has been practicing [[WaifFu aikijutsu]] since before most of the competition's grandparents were born (she only had to break out the [[PeoplePuppets strings]] against Setsuna).
** It is heavily implied that she learned straight from either Morihei Ueshiba or Takeda Sokaku (respectively, the creators of Aikido and Aiki-Jujutsu.)
** Takahata is unable to cast spells but still manages to be badass within a society of mages with his [[YinYangBomb Kanka]] ([[RedBaron his title]] is "[[StoicSpectacles Death Glasses Takahata]]").
** The most straightforward example is probably Nodoka, who has very little actual combat experience or magical skill, but still does a number on [[spoiler:a RealityWarper who had been erasing people from existence]], simply by skillful use of [[{{Telepathy}} her artifact]]. Her artifact is a diary that can read a person's surface thoughts if she knows their name. Not impressive, by itself, but handy. When she TookALevelInBadass, she teams up with a group of artifact hunters and grabs two things: a ring that, when pointed at a person, reveals their true name, and a doohickey that lets her read books without opening them. The most major villains in the series have been defeated by "What are you planning?", "Where can I find X?", or "How do I escape from this situation?"
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Usopp and Nami are the crew's LovableCoward and token girl respectively, and have little ability in physical combat. WordOfGod has even stated that Usopp will ''always'' be the weakest fighter of the crew. However, both are highly skilled in their specific fields of sharpshooting and navigation. Usopp, an amateur GadgeteerGenius, has also built various weapons for himself and a WeatherControlMachine for Nami with the specific intent of using their brains over their brawn to win battles. And he has proved that he's no pushover; when he goes all-out, he's capable of giving ''Luffy'' a run for his money while his entire body is injured and bandaged up. And as for Nami... she's an expert meteorologist with a WeatherControlMachine.
** [[BadassBookworm Robin]] would also qualify. While her physical strength is minuscule compared to the majority of foes that come her way, her extensive experience as an assassin as well as having two decades to work out the uses of her powers ensure that she's still very much a serious threat to most people. Furthermore, the nature of her powers allow her to apply what strength she has almost infinitely, limited only by the surface area of what she is grabbing. She has used this to twist a giant's arm behind its back with a giant arm made of other arms. Through smart use of her powers, she's one of the most dangerous Straw Hats and often lumped in with the far physically stronger 'monstrous trio.'
** For a villainous example, Foxy. He's not exactly "weak" per se, but he's a total joke compared to Luffy when it comes to raw power. He makes up for it with surprisingly clever use of his Devil Fruit power, as well as cheap tactics and low blows.
** Another villainous example is Ain from the twelfth movie ''Anime/OnePieceFilmZ''. She may be far from weak, but her physical strength still pales in comparison to her captain and several of her foes. To make up for it, she is very fast and uses [[FountainOfYouth her Devil Fruit powers]] in creative ways to gain or regain the upper hand in fights.
** Amongst the Seven Warlords of the Sea, [[CastingAShadow Gekko Moriah]] is the [[NonActionGuy least physically fit]] and the [[BadassDecay most rusty from slacking off his training]] due to his DarkAndTroubledPast, but his complete and utter mastery of his Devil Fruit's powers and having a [[ZombieApocalypse shit-ton of zombies of varying strength]] serving with absolute loyalty allows him to take on the entire Straw Hat crew at once and still have a decent chance of winning. Unfortunately for him, the World Government saw his poor performance as too much of a hassle to justify keeping around [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and attempted to have him killed]] [[spoiler:though he escaped with his life and went into hiding]].
** Rebecca from the Dressrosa arc may very well be the physically weakest fighter in the Corrida tournament, but she still makes it to the finals because she is the master of a fighting style that lets her use her opponents' strength against them and [[RingOut knock them out of the ring]], and because she is the only one whose [[CombatClairvoyance Haki]] is good enough to anticipate Cavendish's/[[spoiler:Hakuba's]] attack and dodge it. That said, she is very fast, so she's not entirely without physical skills.
** This is usually a trait of the more successful Paramecia-type Devil Fruit users. While they lack the straightforward abilities of [[ElementalEmbodiment Logia]] or [[{{Animorphism}} Zoan]] fruits, they often make up for it with the most outside-the-box thinking and diversity in the application of a single fruit's powers. While a few Paramecia Fruits provide massive destructive power (the category is simply a catch-all for anything that's not Logia or Zoan), most are far from impressive. Even the main character Luffy became far ''weaker'' as a child when he ate the Gum-Gum Fruit and became a RubberMan; it took years of training before he could even regain the ability to throw a punch. While he's become monstrously strong since then, he's had to come up with truly bizarre ways of utilizing his Devil Fruit power to do so (thus, he personally doesn't fit this trope, but his Devil Fruit power pretty much does).
** There are some clear example of Zoans like this, because the inherent combat potential varies greatly depending on which specific animal the Zoan can transform into. Being able to become a leopard or a king cobra or a ''[[UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex T. rex]]'' provides very obvious strength, but transforming into a giraffe? Not so much. But after eating that Devil Fruit, Kaku is able to use both his assassin training and his innate creativity to come up with an amazing variety of deadly attacks using his giraffe transformation, and does so ''on the fly'' in the middle of battle.
* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'':
** Three years prior to the series, the titular character was able to kill a monster despite being a {{Muggle|s}} at the time through skillful [[DeadlyDodging maneuvers]] and clever [[ImprobableWeaponUser use]] of his tie.
** In comparison to her sister and Psykos, Fubuki's Esper abilities don't have the raw power to match their feats, but she's a capable Esper in her own right and can use what she has well enough to [[spoiler:fend off Psykos]].
** Zombieman doesn't have freakish [[SuperStrength strength]], or much offensive capacity at all, but his main skill is being unable to die, ''ever''; and since he can practically regenerate from everything, with a skill like that you don't need to be terribly strong when you can simply outlast the strength of your enemy.
** For extremely relative values of "weak", but [[HeroKiller Garō]] is noted as posing a particular threat because, while previous monsters relied on brute strength to overwhelm heroes, Garō fights with actual martial arts and specializes in redirecting his opponents' attacks instead of just countering them. Basically, his fighting style is geared specifically towards defeating heroes. [[spoiler:Once he goes OneWingedAngel, he becomes this especially in comparison to Saitama, as while he's still much weaker (something he himself admits), he completely surpasses him in terms of martial arts and even manages to force him to fight "Semi-Seriously".]]
* Carol Reed from ''Manga/OukeNoMonshou'' has zero fighting skill, but her almost encyclopedic knowledge of AncientEgypt comes off ''very'' handy when she needs to get the upper hand in the middle of constant power struggles in Pharaoh Memphis's court.
* ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'':
** Red and Blue's main Pokémon have levels that range from the 80s to 90s, while only Green's main powerhouse Pokémon has the level of 80 and everyone else is around 60-70 (her Granbull is only in its 20s). However, she rarely engages in direct combat as her victories are contributed to her skilled use of [[GambitIndex gambits]].
** Yellow counts too, when she's not using her [[SuperEmpowering level-booster powers]]. By base level alone, she is by far the weakest of the Dex Holders. She can think up of a few sound strategies during battle to make up for her lack of strength (since overusing her powers rapidly exhausts her), but the flaws of this trope are pointed out to her when she works out a complicated scheme to counter Lance's offense but is unable to actually break through his defense due to simply not having enough power.
* ''Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis'':
** Syuusuke Fuji. He eschews physical fitness and outright strength in favor of counter techniques that require outrageous (impossible) amounts of skill to perform. He later gains some strength in a filler training camp in the anime, but this never happens in the manga. Either way, it stops being addressed as the series delves into further ludicrousness.
** Also Eiji Kikumaru, who has a flashy and fun style of playing yet is plagued by low stamina. [[spoiler:Unlike Fuji, his TrainingFromHell that makes him go from FragileSpeedster to LightningBruiser happens in both the anime and manga.]]
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[DarkMagicalGirl Akemi Homura]] is eventually revealed to be a version of this. [[spoiler:Her actual powers are fairly limited; her status as one of the most accomplished warriors in the series comes from her creative applications of them. As well as a ''lot'' of [[MoreDakka Dakka]].]]
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'':
** Ranma defeated Prince Herb, who far outclassed him in every way possible, by using a technique to gather up all of the energy Herb was giving off and turning it against him.
** {{Subverted|Trope}} with Happosai: at first he seems just a frail old man who can easily toss far stronger opponents through walls or over the horizon by redirecting their momentum with a pipe, but at times he shows that [[StrongAndSkilled he's just as powerful]], and rarely shows his real power because [[ItAmusedMe it's funnier that way]].
* ''Manga/RecordOfRagnarok'':
** While many of the human warriors are definitely strong by normal human standards, such as [[WorldsStrongestMan Lü Bu]] and [[TheAce Adam]], when compared to the gods they end up facing in the Ragnarok tournament, they are far outclassed in the strength department. However, they make up for this in the skill department, having honed their techniques and fighting styles to their absolute limits, allowing them to face the gods on equal ground.
** [[MasterSwordsman Sasaki Kojiro]] makes up for being physically weaker than other characters by spending his entire life (and afterlife) honing his skills with a sword, his training eventually putting him on the same level as other, much stronger characters. [[spoiler:In fact, it's this skill that ends up as the deciding factor in his victory over [[UnskilledButStrong Poseidon]].]]
** While [[CombatPragmatist Jack the Ripper]] may be even weaker than Sasaki, his sheer intelligence, trickery, and mastery over weapons puts him on an even playing field with even a powerful god like [[SkilledButNaive Heracles]].
* The main character from ''Manga/RedRiver1995'' herself, Yuri Suzuki. She's a complete weakling physically speaking and can't do a thing when she's being sexually assaulted, but being from the future has its advantages. She is revered as Ishtar because she rode a horse, something that's common nowadays, but in ancient Turkey was unheard of. She also recognized an iron sword and used it against Zuwa, ignoring the other, weaker swords available. Back in the Bronze Age, iron was a GameBreaker, so the fact that she knew what iron was and how effective a weapon it is causes the people to see her as very intelligent.
* ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'': The {{doppelganger}} criminal encountered early in Season II knows full well the value of this trope. A doppelganger's power is to copy the form of a person onto another person or themselves - which will get you pretty far if you grab someone like a vampire or a werewolf, but doesn't do you much good if you end up snagging a human or a witch. So the criminal trains himself in martial arts, which humans came up with ''because they're weak'', and now he can hold himself against an entire AmazonBrigade with a human's form.
* Kenshin Himura of ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' fits this trope. Kenshin is a short, skinny and relatively weak man, so much so that he eventually has to give up swordmanship because his kenjutsu style is meant to be used by stronger men and overusing it damaged his muscles. Despite this handicap, he is able to take down the most powerful warriors in the series (aside from his own master) because he's just ''that damn skilled''.
* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'': Among the physical combat-inclined Sailor Senshi, Sailor Venus and Uranus are this compared to Sailor Jupiter: Jupiter is the physically strongest of the Sailor Senshi, but the other two are so much more skilled that Uranus handed her a CurbStompBattle, and in the manga the (untransformed) fight between a BrainwashedAndCrazy Jupiter and Venus [[OneHitKO was over in one kick]].
* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'': While Jin is definitely not physically weak, he's a lot more reliant on technical skill than his rival Mugen. This trope is most evident in the fight against [[spoiler:Kariya]]; Jin's actually very close in skill with him, but outclassed in sheer power and Ki-Attacks.
* ''Manga/ShamanKing'':
** Yoh's father tends to say "It matters not who has the most furyoku, but who uses it properly". He can defeat his overpowered son and friends with his technique alone, but then again, Yoh and friends don't seem to understand that in the anime.
** To stop Lee Bai Long after he goes berserk once Jun's spell tag is destroyed, Anna summons the ghost of Bai Long's deceased master, who possesses Yoh in order to put the raging [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombie]] down. Bai Long's master died a decrepit old man -- [[CurbStompBattle and still kicks Bai Long's ass.]]
* ''Manga/StarStrikeItRich'': Nozomi, at least relatively to Hina: she doesn't have nearly as much strength, but she has experience, unlike her opponent. As such, she can capitalize on Hina's big openings to pin her leg to the ground. However, the sheer gap in raw strength means Nozomi couldn't win a real fight, something she is well aware of.
* ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': [[TheHero Kirito]] is this in real life. While he retains the muscle memory of sword skills he picked up in SAO, his real body, having spent two years in a coma, isn't very athletic. Nonetheless, he was able to hold his own against Suguha, a kendo quarterfinalist, after two months of physical therapy in a sparring match, only losing because [[DamnYouMuscleMemory he tried to activate a Sword Skill in real life]]. This is especially prominent in ''[[Anime/SwordArtOnlineTheMovieOrdinalScale Ordinal Scale]]'' where the Augmented Reality game requires players to use their real bodies. Kirito initially struggles against early bosses, even tripping over during battle which results in a FacePlant.
* [[MonsterKnight Viral]] from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. It's a stated impossibility for him to create Spiral Energy, but he can still stand up to Kamina and Simon through [[VillainousValour sheer piloting skill and courage]].
* The [[HunterOfMonsters Ghoul Investigators]] in ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'' operate on this principle. Ghouls are physically superior to humans in every manner, with CombatTentacles or RazorWings, a HealingFactor, and resistance to conventional weaponry. To have any hope of winning against them, humans have to be incredibly skilled and willing to resort to [[CombatPragmatist whatever methods]] can score a victory.
* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' has Shuu, who uses a [[RazorSharpHand knife]] skill similar to the main character's. However, while Shuu's "Petty Knife" lacks the raw, destructive power of Toriko's, he more than makes up for it with ludicrous precision, capable of using it to slice an individual's blood vessels open in the blink of an eye.
* ''Manga/VinlandSaga'': Thorfinn fights like this when he's got his head on straight. When he doesn't, he turns into a ScreamingWarrior and proceeds to lose rather spectacularly. Askeladd fights like this as well, all the time, but with him there's a slight subversion. Despite the tactics he employs physically he's still one of the strongest characters in the series.
* ''Manga/WorldTrigger'':
** Having low trion causes low powered weapons and brittle shields. Despite this, Kitora and Yoneya managed to bring their teams to A-rank. To make up for their low attack and defense, Kitora supplements her skillset with traping skill, while Yoneya opts for higher reach by mounting his spear. Series protagonist Osamu also has the problem. And being a rookie at the start of the series, he has to work on that "skilled" part, too.
** Border as a whole effectively ends up as weaker but just as skilled as the alien invaders in the Invasion arc. The vast majority of Border members can't match the raw power and advanced triggers of the Aftokratorian invasion team, and have to beat them though tactics, skill, numbers, and outright trickery.
* ''Manga/YuGiOh'':
** Yugi Mutou seems an ineffectual wimp who, in spite of being a gutsy little mite, would be about as much use in a fistfight as a squashed watermelon. But in a universe where Card Games are SeriousBusiness, Yugi reigns supreme. (Regular Yugi fits this trope better since the Other Yugi has HardWorkHardlyWorks going for him, whereas Yugi slowly but surely develops his abilities to the point at which he [[spoiler:can and ''does'' actually defeat the pharaoh]].
** The Pharaoh is a prime example of this trope regarding the games. In Capsule Monster Chess, he defeated Mokuba's strong monsters with a single weakling. And in the card game Duel Monsters, he's so good that he defeated Obelisk the Tormentor with his three Magnet Warriors. And in the 10th Anniversary movie, his deck is actually very old and weak in comparison to his two partners Judai and Yusei and the opponent Paradox, yet he manages to destroy the Malefic Paradox Dragon (4000 ATK) with his freaking Dark Magician, who doesn't have even an effect.
** Haga/Weevil likes to affect this image, as he plays a deck of mostly weak Insects supplanted with powerful cards and abilities, and tends to make more tactical plays than other Duelist Kingdom players. However, this is subverted later on, as it turns out he's actually in many ways just as reckless as his fellows; whenever he gets his hands on something powerful, he blunders right into a trap. [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught He also cheats, which he considers skill.]]
* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Jun Manjoume conquers the North Academy with a mix of random weak cards. Later, his brothers challenged him to a duel where Manjoume must only use monsters with maximum 500 ATK. He wins anyway (in fact, he took the challenge further by using 0-ATK cards). Also, Manjoume's final deck has the [[LethalJokeCharacter Ojama trio]] as his core cards besides his Armed Dragons.
* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'':
** Yusei Fudo has a deck full with weak monster cards. However, since his deck is built for Synchro Summoning and is [[CrazyPrepared prepared for almost every situation]], he never loses on-screen. This goes away later on as he displays more and more Synchros, though.
** Team Taiyou is probably the biggest example in the franchise. "Budget" doesn't begin to describe their decks, which are mostly made up of ComMons, random Speed Spells, and Traps that would have been subpar in Duelist Kingdom. They're [[StoneWall so lacking on offense]] that their main source of damage is a Field Spell exclusive to the tournament they played in. Even their D-Wheel is basically TheAllegedCar. In spite of all this, they managed to reach the WRGP quarterfinals, give Team 5Ds an incredibly close match, and bring out a card so AwesomeButImpractical that it was thought to be unsummonable, all by playing to their strengths and eking out a near-unbreakable stall.
* ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'':
** After [[InsistentTerminology The Beautiful Suzuka]] was humiliated by the super strong Younger Toguro, he became obsessed with proving that skill is superior to strength, so he spent all his time working on special techniques instead of his strength. However, Genkai pointed out strength and skill are equally important and mocked him for not building up his strength before beating the shit out of him.
** Sniper more or less fits the trope. Physically, he's a normal human who could easily be knocked out from a mere tap by any of the main characters, yet he's dangerous enough of a psychic and marksman to give ''Genkai'' the chills. And sure enough, Yusuke stood no real chance against him during their "fight." [[spoiler:Fortunately for Yusuke, Hiei was lurking about.]]
** Kuwabara also fits this trope to an extent. He's the weakest of the main cast by a fair margin, and his overall skill isn't as great as the others. Despite this, he is incredibly gifted in energy manipulation, winning or coming close in a great many of his fights [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer through his many impromptu variations of his Spirit Sword]], even managing to defeat somebody roughly two spirit classes above him.
** In a surprising moment, [[spoiler:Shinobu Sensui, the BigBad of the Chapter Black story arc]]. He admits that Yusuke is every bit his physical superior in almost every way, but he has him completely outclassed when it comes to skill in real combat, and though they both use the same tactics of analyzing their opponents fighting style he's done it for far longer and can predict his every move, and finally concludes with the fact he's far more skilled and powerful with his spirit energy.
--->[[spoiler:'''Sensui:''']]: If your spirit energy could fill a fishbowl, then mine could fill the ocean.
[[/folder]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movies, Puss in Boots is an excellent fencer, but when he loses his sword he can easily be manhandled by humans or ogres. ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs this]] when he's on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle by the ''much bigger and stronger'' [[KnightOfCerebus Wolf]], traumatizing him enough to run away every time he sees him

* Puppetmon from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' is one of the physically weakest Mega levels of all, but his special skills means he's able to keep pace with the physical powerhouse Wargreymon and even take control of him. Note, that he's only weak for his level, he'd beat most ultimates physically.
** Other ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' series have had humans who regularly engaged hands-on with Digimon. ''Anime/DigimonFusion''[='=]s Zenjirou used his kendo skills combined with a digimon-made sword, while ''Anime/DigimonDataSquad''[='=]s Masaru went barehanded against other digimon.

* Until he TookALevelInBadass, Yuki of ''Manga/FutureDiary'' usually just let his {{Yandere}} ActionGirlfriend do the fighting for him. However, he is the most skilled at utilizing the power of his Diary and anticipates moves in combat or finds very specific information from the future.
** Said girlfriend is the polar opposite of Yukki, but still manages to fit this trope. She is very strong and skilled, but her Diary is the weakest, only able to predict one persons actions and her own Dead End.

** Ricardo Fellini and his Wing Gundam Fenice from ''[[Anime/GundamBuildFighters Build Fighters]]''. It's been pointed out that his gunpla is of an old make, one he's had since he was a kid, so his kit could be considered inferior from the outset, but he's introduced as the Italian Champion. As well, it has no Plavsky Particle manipulation gimmicks whatsoever, [[spoiler:but that didn't stop him from fighting the Star Build Strike to a draw ''after'' the latter went SuperMode in episode 15, or trouncing them before then]].
*** To note, he's the first person we see to cause Team Nemesis to worry and overclock [[spoiler:Aila's Embody System]] and, unlike [[spoiler:Sei and Reiji with the Star Build Strike's RG Mode]], he didn't have anything to help even the odds after that happened.

** Also Miu, as pointed out to Kenichi at the beginning of his training.
* Kuroko of ''Manga/KurokosBasketball''. He doesn't have the talent or the build for basketball, but because of his highly refined and practiced skill at Misdirection (which requires [[spoiler:enhanced tactical acuity and play-reading, foresight, and an iron-clad rationale dedicated to performing his specific role)]], he was able to be considered the "Phantom Sixth Player" of the legendary Generation of Miracles, his middle school team which took the national championship three years in a row.
** Serin's Izuki Shun is this as well. Among the point guards of the national-level teams, he's physically the weakest by a sizeable margin. However, his Eagle Eye, polished fundamentals (particularly passing and stealing), and his ability to read plays and predict upwards of three to four moves ahead allows him to go toe-to-toe with players like [[spoiler:the expert Kasuga Ryuuhei of Seihou, BadassNormal Kasamatsu Yukio of Kaijou, and even Uncrowned King "Thunder Beast" Hayama Koutaro]]. Hayama in particular recognizes him as a "first-rate player", and admits he can't beat him unless he plays at his absolute best ''and'' plans his attack first.

** Shamal is in the same position as Yuuno, only she does have a powerful Device backing her up. She debatably has the most impressive record in the series at standoff combat, nearly paralyzing Nanoha from at least a half-mile away, and in every battle she's had a part in her opponents did not know she was there until attacked. Her skills with barrier, portal, and teleportation magic have endless tactical application that the series never explores, from making people run into instant magical walls at several times the speed of sound to portaling them off somewhere unpleasant. Yuuno would be capable of the same tricks if he had a copy of her Device.

** Kakashi Hatake is this as well. Though he lacks in stamina compared to other top-level ninja, he's considered the equal of the unbelievably powerful Might Guy by virtue of having learned literal hundreds of jutsu and being a master tactician who rarely fights his enemies head-on until he's ready to destroy them. Despite still being ''way'' more powerful than the average Jounin, he's also ''way'' outclassed in strength by most of the Kage-level fighters he's compared to as an equal. It's perhaps no surprise that Kakashi was a student of the aforementioned Fourth Hokage.

*** There are also some clear example of Zoans like this, because the inherent combat potential varies greatly depending on which specific animal the Zoan can transform into. Being able to become a leopard or a king cobra or a ''[[UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex T. rex]]'' provides very obvious strength, but transforming into a giraffe? Not so much. But after eating that Devil Fruit, Kaku is able to use both his assassin training and his innate creativity to come up with an amazing variety of deadly attacks using his giraffe transformation, and does so ''on the fly'' in the middle of battle.

* ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'': [[TheHero Kirito]] is this in real life. While he retains the muscle memory of sword skills he picked up in SAO, his real body, having spent two years in a coma, isn't very athletic. Nonetheless, he was able to hold his own against Suguha, a kendo quarterfinalist, after two months of physical therapy in a sparring match, only losing because [[DamnYouMuscleMemory he tried to activate a Sword Skill in real life]].
** This is especially prominent in ''[[Anime/SwordArtOnlineTheMovieOrdinalScale Ordinal Scale]]'' where the Augmented Reality game requires players to use their real bodies. Kirito initially struggles against early bosses, even tripping over during battle which results in a FacePlant.

* Having low trion causes low powered weapons and brittle shields in ''Manga/WorldTrigger''. Despite this, Kitora and Yoneya managed to bring their teams to A-rank. To make up for their low attack and defense, Kitora supplements her skillset with traping skill, while Yoneya opts for higher reach by mounting his spear. Series protagonist Osamu also has the problem. And being a rookie at the start of the series, he has to work on that "skilled" part, too.
** Border as a whole effectively ends up as this in the Invasion arc. The vast majority of Border members can't match the raw power and advanced triggers of the Aftokratorian invasion team, and have to beat them though tactics, skill, numbers, and outright trickery.
* Yugi Mutou, from ''Manga/YuGiOh'', seems an ineffectual wimp who, in spite of being a gutsy little mite, would be about as much use in a fistfight as a squashed watermelon. But in a universe where Card Games are SeriousBusiness, Yugi reigns supreme. (Regular Yugi fits this trope better since the Other Yugi has HardWorkHardlyWorks going for him, whereas Yugi slowly but surely develops his abilities to the point at which he [[spoiler:can and ''does'' actually defeat the pharaoh]].

* Yusei Fudo from ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has a deck full with weak monster cards. However, since his deck is built for Synchro Summoning and is [[CrazyPrepared prepared for almost every situation]], he never loses on-screen. This goes away later on as he displays more and more Synchros, though.

* On paper, [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] isn't all that impressive. He's listed as the height of human potential, but a good chunk of his enemies are ''way'' beyond that. Unfortunately for most villains, he's more than skilled enough to make him one of the top A-list heroes in Marvel. On at least one occasion, he's actually beaten [[Characters/MarvelComicsBruceBanner the Hulk]]. He's also [[CrazyPrepared made a point of reading up on just about every major villain and threat the Avengers and U.S. government have gathered data on]], so he often starts fights with villains knowing what to look out for and what their {{Logical Weakness}}es are.

** [[Characters/BlackCatMarvelComics The Black Cat]] has been both a BadassNormal and an EmpoweredBadassNormal depending what direction a writer wants to take her in. Specifically, she has had the ability to [[WindsOfDestinyChange affect probability]] and has also possessed [[AnimalisticAbilities cat-like strength, speed, agility, claws and senses]]; the former still leaves her with the regular physical stats of a normal human and the latter isn't all that impressive compared to even Spider-Man. What is consistent is that the Black Cat is an excellent martial artist and cunning thief who can defeat or hold her own against deadly opponents by fighting smart.
*** This was deconstructed earlier into her and Spider-Man's relationship as she felt that her lack of powers made her a liability. This is what led to her undergoing the procedure that granted her superpowers, not knowing it was actually a scheme set up by the Kingpin until it was too late.

* Tavi from ''Literature/CodexAlera'' has no access to fury power, while everyone else in Aleran society does. It forces him to become very skilled at kicking people's butts all on his own power. The teacher even has him deliberately pretend to be horrible at it so he can serve as a counterexample for the other students in fight training. [[spoiler:''Then'' he starts developing his furycraft powers...]]

* In ''Literature/DarkRendezvous'', Scout is a Jedi Padawan. The Force is weak with her; she makes up for it with determination, quick thinking, and endless training. She's got HeroicResolve in spades and bloody-minded determination, and in a book full of concern about almost every other character maybe one day turning to the Dark Side, no one believes Scout will, not even herself, because she fights so hard to be the best Jedi she can be. Just to drive home the point of how good she was: she survived ThePurge that killed most of the full Knights and Masters of the Jedi order. In her non-Dark Rendezvous appearance the author had other Jedi look down on her for having weak powers, but it only takes one line to see that that author was just not doing the research.
-->'''Yoda:''' "Too few Jedi have I already. But even had I a crop of thousands, small one, I would not let you go without a fight. Spirit and determination you have. Between the stars, so much darkness there is. Why would I throw away one who burns so bright?"

** In "The Sea And Little Fishes" Mrs Earwig, saying Granny Weatherwax shouldn't enter the Witch Trials because she always wins, suggests Granny should be grateful for her [[TheGift natural talent]]. Nanny Ogg quickly replies, "I'm the one with natural talent, Esme just works bloody hard."
*** Granny ''doesn't'' enter the Witch Trials. Of course, everyone else (except ''maybe'' Nanny Ogg) is so widdling-in-their-knickers scared by Granny acting ''nice'' that they can't manage to do their own tricks right, and at the end of the day it's just silently acknowledged by everyone that Esme won by using the most subtle Headology trick ever: [[ParanoiaGambit doing absolutely nothing]].

*** However in terms of magical power, Ivy has both skill ''and'' power; the Denarians trap her in a circle that cut her off from using more than a tiny fraction of her power and she still held her own against several of them without apparent difficulty. The only way they beat her is by taking advantage of the fact that her small size makes her more vulnerable to things like [[spoiler:poison gas]].

* In the ''Literature/MythAdventures'' series, Skeeve is just an apprentice magician and his mentor Aahz has been completely BroughtDownToNormal. Nevertheless, thanks to each being quite the GuileHero, they regularly trounce or otherwise deal with vastly superior foes, leading to Skeeve enjoying a public reputation as a sorcerer with an almost godlike power level.

*** Handily demonstrated in the duel between Gregor Clegane, a giant of a man strong enough to wield a greatsword in one hand, and Oberyn Martell, a regular sized man. Oberyn, while severely outclassed in the strength department, is quick and agile, and uses a spear (coated with poison) to keep out of reach of Clegane's {{BFS}}.
** {{Subverted|Trope}}, however, by Syrio Forel, who gives a very impressive account of himself when he is outnumbered six to one and armed with a wooden sword while his opponents have live steel. He defeats and possibly maims or kills five of them, but falls to the sixth, who has (as the Hound memorably puts it in [[Series/GameOfThrones the TV adaptation]]), "armor and a big fucking sword."

* Certain ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' [[ThatOneBoss bosses]] display the ability to kick your ass despite using statistically weaker planes (such as Espada Team using a ''starting'' fighter and a "multirole" fighter-bomber in a pure air-to-air mission)... to an extent that might be considered the computer CherryTapping ''you''.

* Certain guns such as the Mozambique and Wingman in ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'' have become [[ButtMonkey memes]] overtime, for being supposedly inferior to other weapons of their class. True their damage outputs aren't entirely game-breaking, but don't laugh too hard, for in the hands of a skilled player. It will be they who will laugh last.
** The same can be said for [[DarkActionGirl Wraith]] and [[TheCutie Wattson]]. One can [[TheSneakyGuy catch you from behind]], the other will catch you in it's [[{{Pun}} web...uh...fences]].

That said, Vortex can be far more brutal than either if not handled correctly; its periodic tornados blow away projectiles, it has a slipstream that makes bloons behind it move at unholy speeds, it's by far the fastest moving boss in the game, and every 25% of its health (12.5% for its [[HarderThanHard Elite mode]]), it shocks and disables all nearby towers in its radius, including the normally resistant [[AllYourPowersCombined Paragons]], and gains a far more powerful projectile shield that lets it block nearly all non-hitscan projectiles. Combined with its blisteringly fast speed and the duration of the stun, if you aren't properly prepared for Vortex, it is capable of absolutely crushing your defense and leaving you vulnerable to a fast death by either the regular bloons or the boss.
** Worse, because of how the game severly punishes you for attempting to sell stronger towers by forcing you to lose atleast 5% of the money you spent and removing any buffs (or paragon levels), a badly prepared defense can be absolutely unsalvageable, compared to the other bosses which give you some leeway.

* You are (or rather, [[NintendoHard will become]]) this in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' from the very beginning to the end. You can level up your abilities and adapt to stronger armor, but your opponents in terms of sheer strength and power will almost always outclass you. Fortunately, as you are an Undead, you basically learn from each death you suffer, and grow more knowledgeable on [[CombatPragmatist utilizing certain tactics]] to win against these foes.

* In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' Loid is first found hiding from bullies in a trash can. He is extremely skilled with weaponry however, and is able to use beams, flamethrowers, and many other tools in to aid in combat. When R7038 defeats the party on Mt. Itoi, Loid comes in with a ''tank'' to rescue them.
** Likewise, in ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' Jeff Andonuts is to Ness and his party. He used the Bad Key Machine to free Ness and Paula from underneath the Threed graveyard. Despite his lack of PSI, he proves himself invaluable with his heavy bazooka, neutralizer, and especially with his bottle rockets which is an insane GameBreaker (Even crazier is when you equip with the Rabbit's Foot).

* In the first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, it's possible to take an at-creation trait called Skilled, that makes your character into one of these. You gain perks (miscellaneous, but potent benefits) less often but get a bonus to all your skills (medicine, gun skills, etc). It's generally considered inferior to its counterpart trait since skills are easy to raise and specialize in, but perks come only with level gains.
** It makes a comeback in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' where it instead means that you get 10% less experience points, but instead gain 5 experience points in every skill. Here it becomes a trait to cherish, as while it takes more time level up, a low level character with Skilled can be more effective than a high level character.
** ''New Vegas'' actually has another example, in unarmed combat. Since (excepting the ballistic fist) most unarmed weapons only require 2 strength to be used properly, a character can have only 2 strength (pitifully low) but still have vast unarmed combat abilities, capable of punching people across rooms. The learnable combat moves take this up to eleven, allowing enemies to be knocked down, disarmed, and countered without "strength" factoring into it at all. Possibly averted in that unarmed combat is based off of "endurance", a measure of how resistant you are to attacks, which could be thought of as "strong"

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', the player character Gordon Freeman is a scientist who theoretically isn't cut out for the kind of mayhem caused by the resonance cascade. He has to make do without any firearms at first, and, given a skilled player controlling him, could be said to either take a quick, practical [[TookALevelInBadAss level in badass]] or just discover that he's naturally skilled as a fighter.
** The second game {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it with a speech by Breen to the troops:

* This is how the titular hunters of ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' prevail against the many, many large and life-threatening monsters they face. Even the strongest weapons still take dozens or hundreds of hits to kill one such target, while the monsters can easily kill hunters in one or two hits, but through skilled evasive maneuvers, exploitation of all the right weak points, and management of the items they carry in their pouches, hunters regularly come back in one piece with the bits and pieces of monsters that are tens of meters long as their victory trophies.

* In ''VideoGame/Payday2'', the Ghost class can be this. They have fewer damage dealing skills then their Enforcer or Technician allies, they will typically wear less armor in order to be faster and harder to see, and will also use smaller guns/silenced guns to increase their concealment. But a good Ghost can open every door, slip in and out undetected, and steal every single loot bag on the map without any guards knowing what the fuck is going on.

*** This of course, leaves one interesting implication that the game teases at, but never answers. [[spoiler:If this is what Sans can do, then how powerful is his brother, Papyrus, who has ''way'' better stats than Sans, actually? You might fight Papyrus earlier in the game, but is made blatantly clear that he is holding back against you in this battle, because he is an extremely good-natured guy who doesn't actually want to seriously harm the player. When you face Sans, however, he is giving you absolutely no quarter whatsoever and applying himself to his fullest, because he sees no reason to hold back against a genocidal monster like you.]]

* ''Webcomic/KeychainOfCreation'': Ten Winds (an [[TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} air-aspect Terrestrial]]) is, in terms of raw power (or in Secret's case, potential power), the weakest of the group. But he's also a former member of what's essentially an Exalted Seal Team 6; an extremely skilled fighter, frequently shown taking on Exalted who should (in theory) be able to steamroll him.

* Quentyn of ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'' scored very low on everything he tried out, in particular those based on physical or magical strength. But because he tried and trained for practically everything he is practically a JackOfAllTrades, incidentally very useful for a Questor.

** [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderAvatarAang Aang]] could be considered this, especially before he learns the other Bending skills. Airbending itself mostly relies on evading. Bumi taunts him with this;

*** Though "weak" is a relative term, and applies more to the Air Nomad philosophy of [[TechnicalPacifist (technical) pacifism]] than their power. The Fire Nation waited until [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent Sozin's Comet]] to move on them for a reason. Season Three of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' showed how [[StoryBreakerPower broken]] Airbending truly is, in the hands of an aggressor.

* Hockey:
** UsefulNotes/WayneGretzky. To quote the other wiki: "Gretzky's basic athletic abilities were not considered impressive. He was 6 ft (1.83 m) tall, weighing only 160 pounds (73 kg) as an 18-year-old NHL rookie in 1979, and 185 pounds (84 kg) at the end of his career in 1999. At the beginning of Gretzky's NHL career, many critics opined that Gretzky was "too small, too wiry, and too slow to be a force in the NHL". On the other hand, his intelligence and reading of the game were unrivaled, and he could consistently anticipate where the puck was going to be and execute the right move at the right time. It was said that he "seems to have eyes in the back of his head" and had a knack of "rolling with a check".

* Football:
** Steve Largent, a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, was small (under 6 feet tall and 180 lbs) and not particularly strong or fast. His strengths were his incredibly sure hands and his ability to read defensive coverage like a book. By the time he retired, he'd set almost every receiving record in the book. Unfortunately for him, Jerry Rice came along a few years later to break most of them.

* While [[Characters/TheOwlHouseLilithClawthorne Lilith Clawthorne]] in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is far from weak, she lacks the raw magical power of her sister, instead being far more familiar with the theory and basics of magic that her BrilliantButLazy sister doesn't bother with. This becomes useful in season 2, when [[spoiler:she and Eda lose their magical power and have to rely on glyphs. Lilith quickly takes to the more skill-based system]].

** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'': V lacks highly-damaging attacks to stagger the stronger enemies on his own, and on higher difficulties, his summons can get stalemated fast. However, being able to mix ranged and melee attacks while recovering Devil Trigger gauge at the same time makes it very easy to get style points as V and he offers better crowd control than Nero and Dante. This puts him in contrast with [[UnskilledButStrong Urizen]] and [[spoiler: [[StrongAndSkilled Vergil himself. In fact, V has all of his skills and Urizen has all of his raw strength.]]

** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3'': Lady, despite being a fully human [[DemonSlaying demon hunter]] with no supernatural powers, is still a BadassNormal that is able to pull a good fight with her [[WalkingArmory rich weapon arsenal]], and against [[StrongAndSkilled Dante himself]] too.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsWildPack Silver Sable]] has no superpowers, but is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant trained in use of various close range and long range weaponry.

Curiously, it is not uncommon for these characters to be the [[ColdSniper Cold Sniper]] or an [[ArcherArchetype Archer]]. Since they mostly succeed, at taking out their opponents by mere distance alone. Those with [[MoreDakka More Dakka]] or {{BFS}} would be wise to take cover, less they risk getting [[BoomHeadshot savagely shot down]].

** For Sokka, InAWorld where most of the main characters can [[ElementalPowers control the various elements,]] he's still the most Normal of the BadassNormal characters. To deal with that, Sokka often uses [[CombatPragmatist strategies]] and his weapons to bring down his enemies. He's also very resourceful and a fast learner -- see 'Sokka's Master' and how quickly he picks up swordsmanship despite having not been shown to have any prior experience in that particular weapon. He has, also, grown up in a tribe which relied on non-bending forms of combat for decades and picked up a lot on his own before being formally trained. That would have helped a lot when he met Piandao.
** Aang could be considered this, especially before he learns the other Bending skills. Airbending itself mostly relies on evading. Bumi taunts him with this;

** This is eventually Azula's undoing against Zuko: at first, ''she'' appears more powerful thanks to her raw talent at Firebending, but once he matches her in their final fight, she's a fourteen-year-old against an opponent who's sixteen, more used to physical strain, and that has recently learned a style that employs very little movement, and she gets tired much faster. Her recent spectacular VillainousBreakdown isn't helping her any, either.

* Bruce Wayne in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is like this considering that he's [[OldMaster older and more physically frail]]; he still knows how to fight but his stamina is seriously limited. Terry too; the batsuit might enhance his strength compared to a normal human, but considering the sort of opponents he tends to go toe-to-toe with, he still is usually outmatched in terms of sheer physical force. One episode even has Terry take down the new Batsuit, which has been taken over by a malevolent AI, using nothing more than his skills, Batman's old utility belt, and Nightwing's old mask.

** Ben in general. Whenever he picks the wrong alien to turn into, gets stuck with one other than what he wanted, has to go without turning for a while, or is otherwise ends up in a disadvantage in raw power he uses his head to win.

* While Lilith Clawthorne in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is far from weak, she lacks the raw magical power of her sister, instead being far more familiar with the theory and basics of magic that her BrilliantButLazy sister doesn't bother with. This becomes useful in season 2, when [[spoiler:she and Eda lose their magical power and have to rely on glyphs. Lilith quickly takes to the more skill-based system]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': The eponymous protagonist of the show isn't very large or physically powerful, but he's one of the most badass warriors in the entire world because of his mastery of swordsmanship and martial arts from all over the world. One example is the episode where he meets the Scotsman's clan and is forced into a stone-throwing contest to test his worth. Unfamiliar with the sport, he did poorly in the first attempt, but after noting that his mocking opponent was much heavier than the stone, he used a martial arts move of redirecting balance and energy to fling him an equal distance.

* WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}. The guy is so weak he can't even lift a barbell with stuffed toys, yet he is an expert in karate, and one training session with Sandy Cheeks had the park cut in half from the practice they had.

** Pearl admits that she wasn't built for fighting. She is not as scrappy as Amethyst and can't touch Garnet on the power scale, but will still hold her own alongside them or against them with her spear thanks to technique and practice, and a Homeworld gem calls her a "terrifying renegade" thousands of years after her rebellion. The fusions that include her [[StrongAndSkilled add her finesse to the power of her partner(s)]], making them very impressive in battle.
** Likewise, her student Connie is a human child, far weaker and more fragile than even the least combat worthy gem. She's made up for this for being extremely fast and agile, and with Rose's Sword (which is a OneHitKill weapon on Gems) her lack of strength doesn't matter. Again like Pearl the fusion she's involved with (Stevonnie) is the physically weakest one so far, yet humiliated the very powerful Jasper with far superior skill and tactics.
** Peridot joins the Crystal Gems after a HeelFaceTurn and admits that, due to Homeworld's dwindling resource supply, she (like all the other Peridots of her generation) has to be given bionic "limb enhancers" to give her the ability to fight. However, Steven and Amethyst help her discover that she has the ability to [[ExtraOreDinary psychically control metal]]. Though it takes Peridot a while to master the art, and she never quite reaches the raw power of the other Gems, her skills quickly grow to the point where she's able to stand alongside the Crystal Gems in battle armed with nothing but a trash can lid and cans of soda. Even in her first proper fight with ferrokinesis, she was able to defeat the [[spoiler:Corrupted Jasper]] using nothing but a large jagged piece of steel.

** Then you have the Characters/{{Black Knight|MarvelComics}} (Dane Whitman). Compared not just to the team powerhouses but even to guys like Black Panther and [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] he seems underpowered, being a completely normal human with a sword and a grab-bag assortment of gadgets and enchanted weapons to fight bad guys with. He is, however, a MasterSwordsman who has bested the likes of Captain America and Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} with his blade, a skilled martial artist, and a gifted scientist who started out as a physicist and has since acquired a wide range of scientific disciplines. He is also fairly familiar with magic, giving him a leg up on [[DoesNotLikeMagic most of Marvel's scientific community]].

* On paper, [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] isn't all that impressive. He's listed as the height of human potential, but a good chunk of his enemies are ''way'' beyond that. Unfortunately for most villains, he's more than skilled enough to make him one of the top A-list heroes in Marvel. On at least one occasion, he's actually beaten [[Characters/IncredibleHulkBruceBanner the Hulk]]. He's also [[CrazyPrepared made a point of reading up on just about every major villain and threat the Avengers and U.S. government have gathered data on]], so he often starts fights with villains knowing what to look out for and what their {{Logical Weakness}}es are.

* Characters/{{Daredevil|MattMurdock}}'s only powers are his of SuperSenses of smell, hearing, touch and taste [[DisabilitySuperpower which compensate for his blindness]]. Other than that, he relies on his athleticism and combat training . That said, it's often all Daredevil needs, as he's very creative in figuring out ways to use his powers to defeat enemies that otherwise outclass him in sheer power. He's even defeated villains like [[GeniusBruiser Mr.]] [[TheBerserker Hyde]] and [[MaterialMimicry the Absorbing Man]], guys who regularly give ''[[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]]'' and ''Characters/{{Incredible Hulk|BruceBanner}}'' trouble, this way.

** [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] himself qualifies. Sure his powers are pretty impressive to a normal person, but he's a lightweight compared to the some of the guys he normally hangs out with. However, by using his brains, all his powers, and [[{{Determinator}} absolute refusal to give up]] he can, and often does, take down even literal {{Physical God}}s. Most of his villains are stronger than him, making it necessary for him to rely on his brains over brawn much of the time. One of his favorite tricks is to hit an enemy with a strand of web, even though said villain is physically stronger and heavier so Spider-Man cannot throw him. When the enemy tries to yank Spider-Man towards them, he uses the momentum to deliver a nasty kick or punch.

** Originally Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}} was one of these, being a minor telepathic talent compared to [[Characters/MarvelComicsProfessorX Professor X]] who nevertheless matched him in skill. As time went on and Frost graduated from her villainous White Queen persona, she began to acquire power along with her skill. Now, thanks to this PowerCreep and some CharacterShilling she's one of the top telepaths in the X-Men universe.

** [[Characters/X23LauraKinney X-23]] is a short and slight teenage girl [[DependingOnTheArtist usually depicted]] as even smaller than ''Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}}''. She shares his mutation but only her claws are laced with adamantium, so though she heals faster she's [[GlassCannon less resistant to injury in the first place]]. She's ''still'' one of the most dangerous fighters in the Marvel Universe because of her extensive combat training (and not just hand-to-hand, either. "Target X" shows her sniping the pilot of a ''maneuvering helicopter'' with a perfect headshot). In fact she's ''such'' a dangerous fighter despite her physical shortcomings that ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' actually classifies her as a ''[[MightyGlacier Bruiser]]''.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movies, Puss in Boots is an excellent fencer, but when he loses his sword he can easily be manhandled by humans or ogres. ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs this]] when he's on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle by the ''much bigger and stronger'' [[KnightOfCerebus Wolf]], traumating him enough to run away every time he sees him

** Mirio Togata, AKA Lemillion, possesses the quirk "Permeation" that makes him intangible at will. This came with a laundry list of drawbacks (complete loss of sense and an ability to breath due to all light and matter slipping through him, his clothes falling off, his body mass weighing him down and causing him to fall through the floor, etc.) that made him fall behind the rest of his peers, but with extensive training in both physical combat and practice with his Quirk under Sir Nighteye's supervision, Mirio became one of UA's most promising students. Sir Nighteye chose Lemillion as a potential candidate for One-For-All and Aizawa (famous for his high-standards) claims that he is good enough to become the next No. 1 hero even among active pros.

* The title character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' is a teenage girl serving in the last remnant of the Japanese army. She gets the better of the Huns by applying small amounts of force where it will get a much larger return (like using a cannon on an unstable mountain slope to trigger an avalanche).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' movies, Puss in Boots is an excellent fencer, but when he loses his sword he can easily be manhandled by humans or ogres. ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs this]] when he's on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle by the ''much bigger and stronger'' [[KnightOfCerebrus Wolf]], traumating him enough to run away every time he sees him

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', Jay Garrick is not as fast as Barry Allen and eventually loses his powers, but he's a lot more experienced and had several tricks with speed that Barry had never thought of. Jay teaches Barry his tricks, making him much more effective.

** [[CombatPragmatist Mandalorians]] as well, especially when compared to their ancient archenemies the Jedi. Facing off against a group of powerful and trained space monks, requires alot more tools and preparation, than one would think after all. But even away from battling Jedi, Mandalorians have proven on many occasions, to take down even giant vicious alien creatures on their lonesome. Making them [[TheDreaded widely feared]], as the best hunters in the galaxy.