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[[quoteright:250:[[Franchise/SpiderMan http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_razor_fist_william_scott_3750.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Good at combat. Very bad at feeding himself.]]

->''"It's simple: Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death."''
-->-- '''Major Motoko Kusanagi''', ''Anime/GhostInTheShell''

CompetitiveBalance exists so that there is some symmetry between specific advantages and the NecessaryDrawback. If someone can hit hard but not take any damage themselves, they are a GlassCannon. If they are [[NighInvulnerable unstoppable]] but slow moving they are a MightyGlacier. A crippling overspecialization occurs when one, obscenely powerful advantage makes a trade-off that limits how [[AwesomeButImpractical effective it is]].

In RealTimeStrategy games, unit types are often specialized beyond all reason. They often have only one weapon, effective against just one particular kind of enemy, and usually cannot defend themselves at all if their particular weapon is ineffective. The most prominent examples can be seen in this genre, causing absurd situations where humongous tanks with huge anti-armor guns can destroy an enemy vehicle in a single shot, but will barely scratch unarmored soldiers. This is typically justified by the assumption that each individual infantry unit counts as a company or battalion. Armor penetrating weapons can kill one or two people, but they're not terribly useful against formations of 20-100 or more (which is why tanks in RealLife tend to have machine guns and anti-infantry shells).

This is usually a result of game balance. After all, if tanks are effective enough against other tanks ''and'' infantry, then why build anything else? Additionally, until recently, most units in games were depicted with only one weapon. A few might've had a second gun used for attacking enemy fliers, but that was about it.

Can result from a TacticalRockPaperScissors design scheme, or from intensive MinMaxing in a character build.
People who do this for ElementalRockPaperScissors are suffering from PoorPredictableRock.

See also AntiAir and StrongFleshWeakSteel. Compare to AnAdventurerIsYou, where this is used to force players to work together. See also SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining for a characterization equivalent. SeverelySpecializedStore is a comedic variation.

Don't confuse "having a weakness" or "not being the best at everything" or even "not being quite good enough" as being this trope. Don't be tempted to list something because it failed in some way unless you can point a finger at its crippling specialty!

The opposites of this trope are the RedMage and the JackOfAllStats.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

!!Video Games

[[folder: Adventure Game ]]

* In the first and fourth ''{{Gobliiins}}'' games, the player controls three [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]] whose specializations border on the ridiculous. One can only pick up and place objects (only one at a time), another can only punch things, and the third can only cast spells. Apparently, the other two goblins haven't grasped the concept of, well, [[IncrediblyLamePun grasping]].
* In ''{{Solatorobo}}'', this is what Merveille says is wrong with [[spoiler:Nero and Blanck]], as though they live for [[spoiler:The Order]] and can perfectly perform their one duty of [[spoiler:controlling Lares and Lemures]], once that duty is fulfilled, they have no reason to exist. Those who are imperfect, like [[spoiler:their brother Red]], are free to grow and develop in any way they choose, not bound to any one destiny.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fighting Game ]]


* Poor, poor VideoGame/{{F|inalFantasyII}}irion of ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''. On the ground, Firion is a ''monster'': a MightyGlacier with deadly mid to close range moves that chain into HP hits--''three'' of them--a projectile, one of the hardest HP attacks in the game to dodge (that doesn't belong to a {{Boss|Battle}} character), a [[CounterAttack defense and counter]] move that is a practically guaranteed HP hit, and the ability to ground dash, which handily helps remedy the speed problem. ...Once he ''leaves'' the ground, though, he has none of that. Once he is in the air, he is a bad way. This overspecialization happens to be crippling because in his game, most everyone else is at least competent in the air (with at least three explicit specialists in air fighting), and many of the stages are fragmented enough that staying on the ground exclusively is not possible and the game flow tends to naturally take fighting to the air. Poor Firion.
** They went so far in the sequel as to design stages that punish people for jumping into the air to give Firion a chance, as well as minor overhauls of the game making ground-fighting more viable and interesting for more characters (e.g. giving Terra players incentive to stay on the ground with a Blizzara nerf and a new Fire-Firaga chain, adding new ground-only HP attacks for Warrior of Light and Cecil, heck, even ''Zidane'' has fun on the ground with Booster 8), adding new characters with an eye to making them more balanced for ground vs airplay, and removing the 'infinite air jumps' oversight of the first game with the result that now staying in the air is much harder.
*** Interestingly, they decided the answer to Firion's overspecialization was to overspecialize even more in his niche, they added a highly powerful and dangerous new attack to his ground arsenal in the sequel, which, combined with better functionality on his air game (he can chain his weak air attacks together more easily, and aerial swordslash will now floor-crash the opponent back into Firion's turf) makes him a monstrously tough opponent except on stages where ground combat is just hopeless period.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: First Person Shooter ]]

* In ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany 2'' you have a choice of 4 specializations. It is possible to be crippled by the Medic's lack of explosives, or by the Recon's lack of ammo. Just as much as it is to be crippled by the Assault's [[MasterOfNone lack of specialization]].
* While all the classes in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' are very specialized, they do have an item or two to make them a bit more versatile. However, the Demoman holds onto this trope with a deathgrip. Both his primary and secondary weapons are explosive (which can cause self-damage if he's near the projectiles when they detonate), inaccurate over long ranges and don't directly hit enemies (unless aimed and timed specifically). While this forces some players to get creative with strategies, more often than not a Demoman player will resort to wildly firing both weapons in the general direction of the target.
** During the WAR! update, the Demoman was given the Chargin' Targe, a shield that replaces his stickybomb launcher with a charging rush that turns his melee attacks into guaranteed [[CriticalHit criticals]]. This has given rise to a new way to play the class; the "Demoknight". It involves using the Targe (or another shield) alongside one of the many sword and axe-like melee weapons he's received since then. Rather than make him more of a generalist, this has actually just given him the ability to overspecialize in melee. (especially if you equip the boots that replace the grenade launcher) So, one has a choice when playing Demoman; overspecialize in long-range? Or overspecialize in melee?
*** His overspecialization is actually at mid range, which pretty much no other character than the Huntsman Sniper is any good at, and so nobody will engage the Demoman at his preferred range. Soldier is technically okay at mid range, but suffers from being easy to predict at that range, and is better at close (berserker) or long range (bombardment) attacks. The Demoknight style is still definitely a case of this.
** The Pyro's flamethrower is, as one might imagine, a short ranged weapon. What's his long range alternative? A shotgun. Averted with the introduction of the Flare Gun, which gives him a proper long ranged attack, albiet one which has significant travel time, a firing arc, and can only load one shot at a time.
** Contrary to what how [[LeeroyJenkins some players may act]], the Heavy is also over-specialized for damage at short range. Few of his weapons are accurate at long range or do enough damage to justify 'suppressing fire' if opponents are a distance away, since the primary weapon reduces the Heavy's already slow speed [[DoNotRunWithAGun to an absolute crawl]] and the secondary shotguns spread a great deal.
** And pretty much no matter how you load your spy, you're almost entirely limited to stabbing people in the back. In a fair fight, between equally skilled players, the spy will pretty much always lose. Fortunately, the spy's cloak allows him to avoid fair fights as much as possible.
** As might be expected, Snipers are generally not strong in a close-range situation. The main weapon unlock that helps them at that range, the Huntsman, lacks the ability to zoom in or to hold a [[ChargedAttack charged shot]] for very long, inverting their threat ranges somewhat, but not making up for [[GlassCannon their squishiness]] at close range.
** Scouts put the 'agile' into FragileSpeedster, possessing a powerful SawnOffShotgun but lacking sufficient power and health to hold an area for long. They are also handicapped by enclosed areas that don't allow them to take advantage of their superior speed and maneuverability.
** The Soldier is unusual in a game this diverse for managing to avert the trope: he is considered the JackOfAllStats and a workhorse 'bread and butter assault unit,' meaning that there are few situations where one is not at least somewhat useful. Certain loadouts make him less useful in specific situations, but the basic Soldier is designed to be at least moderately effective in most potential situations. This can be noted by the fact that the class is not often listed in common counter cycles (IE, Sniper > Heavy > Pyro > Spy > Sniper, or Demoman > Engineer > Scout> Demoman).
** Many weapons provide a bonus so situational as to become useless, such as the scout's Wrap Assassin, which launches a ball that makes targets bleed but does barely any damage and is difficult to hit with, the Engineer's Short Circuit, which destroys projectiles but makes you run out of metal, your primary resource as Engineer, very quickly, or the Pyro's Neon Annihilator, which deals crit damage to players who are, or have recently been, underwater, although most maps don't feature water.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mecha Game ]]

* Common in the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' franchise due to it spawning from the ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' game. Several 'Mechs are dedicated long or short range specialists, or focus on one tactic in particular, and suffer significantly when not fighting in their preferred range bracket. The [[GlassCannon lack of foot speed or defensive armor]] on these models tends to compound their difficulties. Notable examples include the ''Hollander'' sniper 'Mech and the ''Hunchback'' close-combat 'Mech, both of which are powerful at their respective range brackets, but quickly and readily countered by one another's ranges.
* Relatedly, the ''TabletopGame/HeavyGear'' video games occasionally do this, with one of the worst offenders being the Mammoth strider, an enormous, heavily armored machine with the ability to carry frankly absurd amounts of firepower...which [[MightyGlacier was slow as dirt]] and steered like a cow. It had no ability to dodge enemy shots, and relied solely on thick armor to survive extended fights.
* In ''VideoGame/SDGundamCapsuleFighter'', many units are designed to be this way and usually suffer for it, thanks to its ElementalRockPaperScissors gameplay: Rock-type units excel in fighting in close range and are able to get in close quickly, but suffer by not having the quickness to shoot back in long range, if they have guns at all. Scissor-type units is more of a JackOfAllTrades and tend to be easily pounced on by Rock-types. Paper-types excel in long range attacks, even going so far as to be able to shoot from across a stage. However, their swing is incredibly lacking, if they have blades at all.
** The S-Rank Gundams from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWingEndlessWaltz'' really suffer from overspecialization: Wing Zero Custom excels in shooting at long range, but crumples at close range; Altron specializes in melee attacks, but doesn't have consistent range attacks aside from a grappling attack; Sandrock Custom specializes in stunning attacks but can easily lose that with a Vaccine item; Heavyarms Custom specializes in Tanking, but loses out in mobility and firepower; and Deathscythe Hell specializes in stealth attacks and BackStab, but crumples because of the lack of defense.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Platform Game ]]

* Done deliberately in ''VideoGame/TheLostVikings'' series to make it into a puzzle platformer: Erik the Swift can [[FragileSpeedster run fast, jump and charge]]; Baelog the Fierce can [[GlassCannon attack with his sword and bow]]; and Olaf [[StoneWall owns a]] [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe large shield]] (which has some nonstandard uses as well).
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' game on [[MegaDrive Sega Megadrive]] works the same way as the ''LostVikings'' example: Yakko can push crates and is the only one who can stun Ralph the Guard with his paddle; Wakko can activate switches and catapultes, light fuses, and destroy rocks blocking the way with his hammer; and Dot can seduce people for various useful purposes, and is the only one able to move when the sexy Nurse walks around.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Puzzle Game ]]

* ''VideoGame/PuzzleQuest'' and its sequel ''Galactrix'': Pumping all your [[PointBuySystem skill points]] into one or two types of mana/energy gives you near GameBreaker power with some of your spells/attacks[[note]]With the exception of PQ's Knight class, where pouring nearly everything into Battle and Morale turns you into a MightyGlacier.[[/note]] but at the cost of under-powering the rest of your arsenal. And that's assuming you don't run into an enemy who has high-resistance to or can counter that particular mana/energy type (and you will) leaving you to muddle through with weak attacks while it pounds you at full strength.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Time Strategy ]]

* In ''{{Cossacks}}: European Wars'', several kinds of units armed with firearms are completely incapable of defending themselves in close combat, and will simply retreat in face of such an attack. This is particularly ridiculous in the case of the Russian unit called a ''strelets'', which carries a large poleaxe (as is historical, and these poleaxes were of course used in close combat) which is solely used to ''rest their arquebuses on!''
* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' games, units '''usually''' have only one weapon, and are on their own extremely vulnerable to units impervious to their single weapon. A rifleman never has rockets or other explosives to use against vehicles, a grenadier has only grenades and no firearm for self-defense, a rocket soldier only carries rockets effective against vehicles and aircraft, tanks never have machine guns for close defense against infantry, and so on. This is sometimes in spite of the fact that the unit's sprite/model, or promotional images, will show it with additional anti-personnel weapons. The series also harbors one near constant aversion, however - the Mammoth Tank and its successors have almost always had a big pair of cannons for taking out buildings and vehicles, and ground-to-air missiles for dealing with airborne enemies. They can also run infantry over.
** Lampshaded as of ''Red Alert 3'' with the background information on the Allied Hydrofoil unit, which has a weapon jammer device. The background states that Allied tank crewmen and fighter pilots asked why their units could not also be equipped with jammers, but engineers the world over have encountered unspecified technical difficulties designing vehicles with multiple weapons. ''Red Alert 3'' actually changed the whole model on this one, given that all units in that game have a special ability of some type, and for about half those units that ability is a [[DualModeUnit second weapon]]. The hydrofoil's primary is an anti-aircraft gun.
** For Rocket Soldiers, this is mostly averted in ''Renegade''. Here they also have sidearms for self defense, and their rocket launchers do massive damage to anything. They are one of the DemonicSpiders in the game.
*** Those in the modding community for early games can attest that technical limitations make it impossible to mount more than two weapons on any given object and even then, the two are mutually exclusive when it comes to target selection.[[note]]Specifically, the primary weapon can force-fire at the ground, onto terrain objects and is normally used against enemies; the secondary can only attack stuff the primary either can't or where the primary would do less damage, PERIOD.[[/note]]
** One of the worst units in the series is the Tank Destroyer in ''Red Alert 2'', the unit itself can only do maximum damage to enemy vehicles, but it can barely hit infantry (though can still run over them) and can only do minor damage to buildings which can be easily repaired while it's still firing.
** Snipers in all games, can one hit kill most infantry, but useless against anything else. However, in C&C 3, they get a passive ability to spot for Juggernauts.
** Commandos somewhat avert this trope, since they all carry some form of explosives for buildings. However, only Tanya from Yuri's Revenge ever thought of using it against vehicles actively. All other Commandos would simply shoot at a tank with anti-infantry guns (although a few commandos possessed weapons powerful enough to utterly destroy tanks just as easily as infantry)..
** Mammoth Tanks is another aversion, in all installment are able to engage all targets effectively. It has dual cannons to engage vehicles and missiles for use against infantry and aircraft. Since C&C 3 however they are even more effective because they will fire both weapons against ground targets (though the missiles are now less effective against infantry), and the cannons can be upgraded to railguns, which will one hit kill most infantry and make it even more deadly to vehicles, in addition for the ability to crush smaller vehicles under their treads.
*** Boris from the expansion pack was allowed to call in an airstrike to whatever targets his AK-47 couldn't kill (namely, buildings and tanks) which made him alot more effective than Tanya, as he did not need to close the distance. Yuri Prime, however, averts this trope to hell as his psychic power was able to affect anything other than airborne targets (and only while they stay airborne).
*** In Generals, all commandos had their way to fight vehicles, Colonel Burton could lay C4 on them (though he would be revealed doing that), Jarmen Kell could pilot snipe them for capture by friendly infantry and Black Lotus could at least shut them down and flee.
*** The series returns to this again in Tiberium Wars with the Commandos. They are devastatingly effective against buildings and infantry, and exactly ONE type of vehicles: Walkers. There are, prior to the expansion, exactly 3 units of this classification, and at least one was considered AwesomeButImpractical and another was an artillery unit. In the expansion they were made a bit more useful, with a few new variants of the walkers appearing and being genuine threats, while an entire faction focused on infantry.
*** In Red Alert 3, the aforementioned Tanya can destroy them with C4, Natasha can order a bomber to kill them or pilot snipe them similar to Jarmen Kell and Yuriko simply compresses them into tincan size with her powers.
*** Additionally, in ''Red Alert 3'', the Apocalypse Tank (a Mammoth Tank {{Expy}}) has lost its anti-aircraft missiles in favor of a big magnet that pulls enemy vehicles towards its circular saw. Basically, the tank has been redesigned to be more effective against vehicles, something it was already good at, while leaving it vulnerable against airstrikes.
** Hammer Tank also played with it, since its special ability is an absorption beam which in addition of draining the HP of the enemy while repairing itself, but is also able to steal the weapon of enemy vehicles destroyed while it is targetting them, effectively giving the Hammer Tank a second primary weapon, and possibly an ability to engage air targets.
** Two units introduced in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberium Kane's Wrath]]'' are dedicated anti air, however the AI doesn't seem to know this and often sends them in place of normal tanks, where they get torn apart due to their lack of ground weaponry.
* In ''GroundControl II'', helicopter-type units will just [[CurbStompBattle own armoured vehicles]], such as tanks, with impunity because the tanks have no defense from aircraft.
** In ''GroundControl 1'' anti-air Terradynes cannot target anything on the ground and rocket Terradynes cannot target infantry.
** Also, in the second game, most units armed with guided missiles can't attack infantry. The in-universe explanation is that individual soldiers are too small for missile tracking to work.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'''s human faction has a unit called the Steam Tank, which does fantastic damage to buildings... but can't attack ''any'' units. Its sole use is to damage enemy structures. ''The Frozen Throne'' expansion pack remedied this a bit by giving the player the option of buying an improvement that added a rapid-fire, multitarget (though weak) attack that can only be used against flying units.
** By equipping an orb of some kind, melee heroes get a ranged anti-air attack (the only way to attack otherwise is with a spell or item that brings the flyer down).
* The ''VideoGame/StarCraft: Brood War'' expansion introduced new units to all three factions (Terran Valkyrie, Protoss Corsair, Zerg Devourer) which have no function other than to attack air units, particularly masses of air units. If your opponent uses a strategy other than mass Mutalisks they were pretty much useless...but given how fond some players were of mass Mutalisks, one could see the reason for doing so.
** The original game's "Guardian Aspect" Mutalisk was this trope. A very powerful ground attack with incredible range (enough to take out stationary attackers before getting into their range), but slow as molasses and possessing no air attack whatsoever. If you failed to back them up with anti-air units, they'd get wiped out.
* Occurs to some degree in ''SinsOfASolarEmpire''. Light carrier-type cruisers have no onboard weapons, just their two fighter or bomber squadrons. Siege frigates and support cruisers have ship-to-ship weapons, but they're rather wimpy.
** Siege frigates and torpedo boats fall into this trope as well. Siege frigates are extremely weak against other ships/buildings, but are the only non-capital ships that can bombard a planet. Torpedo boats in the expansion packs make mincemeat out of buildings and starbases, but are unable to attack other ships/bombard planets.
* Combat in the second ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth'' game tends to consist of a desperate attempt to get the right type of unit fighting the right enemy, because if they're fighting the wrong type they get slaughtered. Well, unless they're fully upgraded elven archers, who can usually mow down an entire cavalry unit while they're charging. Or fully upgraded Rohirrim, which can trample right over pikes.
** Incidentally, these two units are the ones capable of both melee and ranged combat. The first game even allowed you to merge two infantry units into one. If one unit was melee fighters, while the other one was archers, then the archers would take the back rows and first while the infantry holds off the enemy. In the case of two joined elven archers battalions, the ones in the back would use their bows, while the front lines would switch to swords.
* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' did this about as naturally as possible. Every weapon in the game can fire at just about any target (and ''will'' try to if necessary), but only the anti-air units have the turning speed, range, or homing ability to actually ''catch'' air units 95 out of 100 times. While this meant that generally only anti-air units could take out aircraft, ever so often, you'd see a fighter or bomber shot down by an artillery cannon.
* Played straight ''and'' averted in ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'', most anti-air units are only able to fire at air units, but the Cybran T1 and Cruiser both have a switch to change their weapons from homing missiles to dumb-fire rockets for fighting surface targets. Spread means that it's more effective from the latter, which is fighting large ships, but in groups the former becomes remarkably dangerous.
** Then there's stuff like the UEF Anti-Tactical-Missile Defense, which is basically a Phalanx CIWS. It can only shoot down tactical missiles.
** While most naval units for the UEF and Cybrans have some AA guns mounted on them, the Aeon ships lack any AA, instead mounting them on small, cheap attack boats which are incapable of engaging anything OTHER than air. However their Frigate at least gets torpedo defenses in return and the Cruiser ships are better for AA overall.
** Averted by research in the second game, at least for the UEF; higher level techs can install defensive guns on certain installations, grant anti-air weapons to standard tanks and assault bots, and anti-ground guns to your anti-air unit. With enough research, a massed force of common tanks needs no anti-air support; they launch enough AA missiles to shred almost anything that would dare tangle with them.
* ''VideoGame/LittleKingsStory'' gives us the Chef. He can kill a [[DemonicSpiders Cock-a-Doodle]] in one hit. He's useless in almost any other task (well, about as useless as carefree adults), and he's expensive as hell. The only reason you'd buy more than one is if your first one got killed.
* One of the few notable RTS aversions is the ''SuddenStrike'' series. Most tanks have machine guns effective against infantry and one of the two most common types of infantry, submachine gunners, have grenades which work against tanks when you have enough of them.
** In fact, if tanks run out of ammunition, they can run over infantry.
* ''VideoGame/BattleRealms'' both uses and avoids this trope. All ranged units can also attack in melee (but most of them are horrible at it), while most tier 1 melee units have only a melee attack and nothing else. The tier 2 and 3 melee units of the Dragon and Serpent clans have a secondary ranged weapon, however, which is useful in a pinch. There are also 7 damage types (slashing, piercing, blunt, crushing, fire, explosion and magic) and all units have different resistances to each type -- any commander who tries to overspecialize by fielding an army of one unit type will quickly find that this is not a good idea since they can be quickly countered by a smaller number of units whose attacks screw them over.
* In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'', mortars are incredibly powerful against buildings and ships, but can't even be used at all against other units.
** Pikemen are good against all cavalry, but useless against infantry and artillery.
* In ''Frontline Attack: War over Europe'', the only armoured vehicles that have any effectiveness against infantry are the light armoured cars. You can send 20 Pershing tanks to attack an enemy base, but if there's just one team of anti-tank infantry, or grenadiers, or a flamethrower squad, not one of those Pershings will survive. Escort them with M8 Greyhounds, and watch them all die as the light anti-tank emplacements blow up the M8s, then the flamethrower squads do their work on the Pershings. And don't take your own infantry either, because enemy buildings have machine guns, and most infantry is actually crap at anti-infantry work.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalFatigue'', combots that dual-wield ranged weapons do twice as much damage in the same amount of time but absolutely suck at melee combat. Not only they do very little damage by bashing the opponent with the guns, such a build has much less HP and armor than a melee build which in turn is a real powerhouse that can close up into melee range and wreck the ranged combot before it can inflict any real damage. On the other hand, melee combots have two banes: hit-and-run attacks by missile cars and Nemesis trucks[[note]]whose only real function is paralyzing combots via a self-destruct EMP[[/note]] supported by bombers[[note]]since melee weapons can't attack air units[[/note]]. Both of these threats are cannon fodder to ranged combots who can easily OneHitKill the offenders without having to chase after them.
** Flying combots are excellent {{Lightning Bruiser}}s... as long as they have time to land since while flying, they have zero armor which means AA towers can really tear them up. Plus the part that makes the combot fly has absolutely laughable HP. If we take these two into count, a flying combot is actually a FragileSpeedster GlassCannon: it has firepower AND mobility but it sucks in defensive capabilities so it's only good if the target isn't surrounded by AA.
* The ''Galactic Armory'' mod for ''VideoGame/StarRuler'' has weapons [[ArmorPiercingAttack excellent at killing shields]] but don't hurt armour or the physical ship.
* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' averts this for most of the main units with upgrades. For example, a basic rifleman squadron can be upgraded to have [[SavingPrivateRyan sticky bombs]], which are highly effective against armored vehicles. Main battle tanks come equipped with a basic machine gun and can be upgraded for a more deadlier one. Even AT guns can make short work of infantry provided they don't get too close. With the upgrades, the game mangles with the TacticalRockPaperScissors.
* Most units in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' are this, the worst offenders offenders being the attack bomber (a fighter extremely lethal against warships but useless against fighters and corvettes. Most anti-fighter units are fighters or corvettes), the defender (a small fighter with a powerful and fast-firing weapon that will wreak havoc among enemy fighters but is too slow to avoid fire from enemy warships), the defense fighter (a fighter that defends friendly targets by shooting down enemy mass driver rounds with a laser but is otherwise useless), the mine-layer (lays mines to make an area impassable from warships but is useless against fighters), the ion frigate (thanks to its ion cannon has a powerful punch against warships, but can fire only in front of it and is slow turning, and a squadron of bombers will disintegrate it in a single passage), the defense field frigate (a frigate with a magnetic field shield that blocks enemy mass driver fire but does nothing against beam, plasma and missile weapons), the drone frigate (a frigate that houses a group of point-defense drones that will annihilate enemy fighters but does nothing against enemy ships), and the non-combat units (they do only their main function: the salvage corvette salvages ships and data, the collectors collect resources, etc.). All other units are overspecialized for one job, but the different load out of weapons allows them to do something else too (the Mothership and carriers serves mainly to build other ships and carry and repair fighters and corvettes but can also work as anti-fighter units, the assault frigate is good at fighting other frigates and fend off corvettes, etc.).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Role Playing Game ]]

* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games:
** Gyms, their Trainers, and their Gym Leaders all follow a type specialization that can be exploited by the player with counter-strategies [[PoorPredictableRock using their obvious weaknesses]]. It's slightly rectified in later versions, as their Pokémon know moves to compensate.
*** One gym surprisingly averts this. Koga's gym has always had 4 Psychic specialists in it. And the 2 remaining trainers who do use Poison types also have a Sandslash (Ground being strong against Poison). In fact, Koga's the only one in the Gym who uses all Poison types. Under his daughter's leadership in Gen 2, it plays the trope mostly straight (2 trainers have Nidoking and Nidoqueen, one each, which are Poison/Ground type).
*** Several later Gym Leaders and Elite Four members did avert this sort of, but usually in some strange ways. Candice in Generation IV specialized in Ice-types, but had a Medicham, which is a Psychic/Fighting type. The weirdest would be Volkner and Flint, at least in Diamond and Pearl. They specialized in Electric-types and Fire-types respectively, however Volkner's four-mon team consists of only two Electric-types, the other being Octillery, a Water-type, and Ambipom, a Normal-type. Even more damning, Flint, a member of the Elite Four, only has two Fire-types on his team of five, the rest being Drifblim (Ghost/Flying), Steelix (Steel/Ground), and Lopunny (Normal). This was because in Diamond and Pearl, there only ''were'' two evolved Fire-type Pokemon, Rapidash and the starter Infernape. [[note]]There is Magmortar, but it's only available in [[OldSaveBonus Dual-Slot Mode]].[[/note]] Platinum expanded the Pokedex, in part to give them teams that are closer to their specialized types.
** Many Pokémon fall into this as well. Rampardos is a GlassCannon with ridiculous Attack and decent HP, but its defenses and Speed are so low it falls in a couple of hits, and its pure Rock-typing does it no favors. Ninjask is ludicrously fast (one of the fastest in the game, and its ability makes it only go faster), but is not only easily walled with poor attacks and an average Attack stat, its bad defensive Bug/Flying typing and really low defenses make it really only useful for Baton Passing, as it learns a few good set-up moves. Too fragile to do much else though.
*** There's also Shedinja, which can only be hit by super effective attacks and passive damage but only has 1HP at any level. Not to mention five weaknesses. And there's a ''lot'' of passive damage attacks.
*** This can apply to many {{Mon}}s concerning [[{{Metagame}} their movesets and whatnot.]] Many of them can only learn a small type pool, effectively making them one trick ponies. Take the Dugtrio family, for example. Their attacks mostly consist of shaking the ground, shaking the ground harder, randomly shaking the ground at varying strength levels, and burrowing underground and then [[RunningGag shaking the ground as they come up]].
*** Smeargle is interesting as all of its attributes reflect MasterOfNone and its stats are completely poor. But it famously boasts being able to learn any move through Sketch.
*** Deoxys can take several different forms. The Attack and Normal forms have the highest attacks and special attacks in the series and a fantastic speed, but their defenses and HPs are so weak that they go down in one hit from about anything. Its defense form has superior defenses, but can't really dish anything out. Speed form however, is more of something between a LightningBruiser and a JackOfAllStats.
*** A Skitty with the ability Normalize will use all moves as if they were Normal-type. While this means constant STAB bonuses and being able to use moves against types that normally resist them, it also means anything the Skitty does will be resisted by Rock and Steel types, and it is ''completely'' useless against Ghosts. This is especially problematic in ''PokemonMysteryDungeon'' if you get a Skitty as your character; be thankful the game allows Normal moves to do slight damage against Ghosts.
*** Another good example is Shuckle. It's got ludicrously high Defense stats, but all of its other stats are practically non-existent. There are a few tricks to turn Shuckle into a powerhouse, but this usually leaves it very vulnerable.
*** For a non-legendary, Absol has an absurdly large movepool and great Attack, but a good chunk of it is wasted due to its average at best Special Attack. Especially so in Generation III, where the Dark-type is considered Special.
** [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Gen V]] Pokemon have significantly less type range overall in their movesets compared to previous generations. Generally, they get moves in their own type(s) and a few [[NonElemental Normal moves]], along with some Status-type moves. Moves outside their typing are rather difficult to come by.
*** Grass-types in general tend to have this kind of typing trouble.
** Speaking of type predictability, either your crime group comes from Orre or you assign very specific Pokemon species to your grunts. Teams Rocket and Galactic are reasonably safe from monotyping (even though their lineups are reasonably weak), but Aqua fears Grass/Electric and Magma loathes Water. Also on that note, Team Plasma does not take Fighting well (the grunts use Watchog and Dark types, N's only protection is Archeops and a Dragon, and even [[spoiler:Ghetsis]] can lose half his team to Fighting attacks).
*** [[spoiler: Ghetsis]] is also a storyline example: a little careful analysis of his team reveals that [[ArtificialBrilliance it is perfectly designed to counter N's]], such as [[spoiler: leading with Cofagrigus to bait for disguised Zoroark, and the moveset on his Hydreigon]]. He did not anticipate [[SpannerInTheWorks the player character's interference]], did not expect them to defeat (and befriend) N, and ''is not prepared to deal with them himself'', leading to his defeat and VillainousBreakdown.
** For the most part, Gen V champion Alder. While he has extremely powerful pokemon, all but one can be easily taken out by Emboar (though one of these requires using a TM). And the one that can't? Druddigon, a Dragon-type so slow that a powerful Dragon or Ice move will take it out before it does any damage.
*** Similarly, in the sequels [[spoiler:Iris]] also has very powerful mons, but all of them are weak to either Fighting or Ice (the very first mon she sends out is weak to ''both'' types). The best choices for taking them out? Basically any strong Water-type other than Magikarp or the Seismitoad evolutionary line that can also learn good Fighting-type moves. The most probable candidate among those? Samurott.
** The player can deliberately invoke this using the "Choice" items. Choice Band, Specs, and Scarf increase the Attack, Special Attack, or Speed, respectively, of the Pokemon holding them, allowing them to either throw around absolutely devastating attacks or outspeed just about anything that doesn't boast a similar advantage. However, a Pokemon holding any of these items can only use one move until they switch out or lose the item. Particularly savvy players sometimes use this drawback to their advantage by forcing a Choice item onto an opponent's SupportPartyMember, generally rendering it useless for the rest of the match.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' has the Sorcerer class that can use far fewer spells than ordinary Wizards, they cannot swap between spells on the fly either, but they have much greater magical reserves to draw upon, making them able to hit harder with the same spells and cast them for much longer. However, having few spells to choose from can quickly make a Sorcerer useless - specializing in only fire based spells will not help a player against opponents with fire immunity.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has this to a degree, but you have to ''try'' for it. You can make a Blaster with all the primary set attacks, as many tertiary/epic attacks as possible, and maybe a travel power, and dump a bajillion damage (and maybe some accuracy) enhancements in, that overall gives enough attacks to be able to blow nearly anything in the game away; unfortunately you'll have no defense, and draw so much aggro that the best tanks and healers in the game will look on helplessly as you get stepped on. Speaking of tanks and healers, you can dump so much into the stay alive/keep them alive sets that you're utterly useless soloing unless you like spending 30+ minutes per random mission. [[BrokenBase Controversially]] [=Cryptic/NCsoft=] implemented features like diminishing returns and power set restructuring that made these types of setups not only difficult to accomplish, but redundant and more-or-less pointless.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonForce'' on the Saturn, archers fit this trope. Their only strength is against harpy troops, but they're either weak against, or average against everything else.
* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' games, the versatile ClassAndLevelSystem and [[AwesomeButImpractical skewed casting system]] makes it easy to adjust [[MagicKnight warrior-type]] characters to do anything needed in combat, leaving the [[SquishyWizard caster-type]] characters in the dust [[MundaneUtility unless there's a rock that needs moving]].
** This gets even worse in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', where most of the player characters have healing abilities in their base classes, even when they're otherwise warrior-types. This means squishy pure-healer Rief is functionally useless, [[MundaneUtility unless there's a bucket you need to fill with water]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} II'', this is often done intentionally: your character may be completely unable to kill cold immune enemies, but that's okay if there are no cold immunes in your [[LevelGrinding favourite hunting grounds]] and you got rushed to said top level area without killing more than a handful of enemies on your way. There was a time when javazons were popular: they were only viable in ''one level'' but that just happened to be the farming hotspot.
** In the first ''Diablo'', the sorceror's spells are devastating against non-resistant enemies, and are even competent against resistant enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to ''all damage-based magic'' near the end of the hardest difficulty. Hope you brought Stone Curse and a good melee weapon (or a high-level Golem).
* Mint from ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' is the only purely supportive character in the ''Franchise/TalesSeries'', all of the healers falling into the CombatMedic archetype. While it's not an issue in her game of origin, it makes her rather obsolete in the crossover titles like ''Tales of VS'' and the ''[[TalesOfTheWorld Radiant Mythology]]'' series.
* Qunari in the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' franchise are divided into a FantasticCasteSystem where each qunari is expected to fulfill their assigned task and no other. When the Arishok's military force was stranded in Kirkwall, they had no priests or diplomats and therefore nobody capable or even willing to explain why they were there, [[spoiler:allowing radical elements of the Chantry to provoke them to go to war with the moderate Viscount]].
* The Hammer of Ironfist in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2''. You'd think it'd be an InfinityPlusOneSword from its stats, but only dwarves can wield it and you get it at about the same time that your dwarf party member completes his CharacterDevelopment arc which ends with him becoming a BareFistedMonk. Thus, the only way to actually use it is to have a dwarf PlayerCharacter (or a high Use Magic Device skill, which doesn't generally go hand-in-hand with Martial Weapons Proficiency).
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Simulation Games ]]

* [[MacrossMissileMassacre Missile frigates]] in ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' are normally just {{glass cannon}}s, weak on defense but able to level entire sectors from extreme range. However the Boron Kraken [[PointDefenseless eschews any form of point-defense]] in favor of more missile launchers. This essentially means they have no way to protect themselves from incoming missiles, save for spamming their own missiles at enemy missiles and hoping they hit.
** The OTAS Sirokos missile frigate is designed specifically for launching [[DropPod boarding pods]] at enemy craft, and can carry ten more [[BoardingParty marines]] than any other missile frigate (30 instead of 20) ... at the cost of having no method of attack other than {{ramming|AlwaysWorks}}. It works fine for boarding [=TLs=][[note]]giant freighters that can transport stations from shipyard to jobsite[[/note]], but it can't really do anything else.
* Chihaya Kisaragi from THE iDOLM@STER has an obscenely high vocal stat from the beginning. She will excel at anything vocal related but extra effort is going to have to be made to get her to do good at visual and dance. In the sequel, teammates can help.


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tower Defense ]]

* Happens to the ''enemies'' in the TowerDefense game ''TowerMadness''. The towers you build (save the fully upgraded Missile Launcher) do either [[PureEnergy energy]], [[StuffBlowingUp explosive]], or [[ShockAndAwe electrical]] damage. PoweredArmor aliens come in three varieties- Light, Heavy and Bionic, each of which is resistant to one type of damage, but weak against the other two (light resists energy, heavy resists explosives, and bionic resists electricity). If you place two turrets of different damage types, they're pretty much sunk.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Turn Based Strategy ]]

* Units in the ''AdvanceWars'' series can usually only (effectively) attack a few types of other units. For example, infantry can attack vehicles, copters and other infantry to varying degrees of effectiveness with their firearms, but cannot even engage ships or planes. Some units have a primary and secondary weapon however, which they use against different opponents. The most notorious example is the Missile unit, a devastating anti-air unit that is incapable of firing on anything that doesn't fly. It's also rather weak in the armor department. Woe to the player that accidentally deploys this one on a map without air units.
** The most recent game, ''Days of Ruin'', features a new unit called the seaplane which totally averts this trope and can attack every single unit with its main weapon. The downside? It has practically no fuel or ammo and so has to be restocked constantly by units with little or no attack capabilities. And it can only be produced by the expensive Carrier unit, which has little purpose beyond that and the ability to supply and repair up to two aircraft units at once.
** It also features the Anti-Tank, an expensive form of artillery with the ability to counterattack. Unlike other ranged units, it cannot attack sea units and is less effective than the basic artillery against anything but tanks, especially considering the price. It also has the Flare unit, which shoots Flares to light areas in FogOfWar and doesn't suffer from as many stiff penalties the recon does in forest terrain.
** Some [=COs=] (Commanding Officers) also fall victim to this trope. Max, for instance, has powerful melee units but incredibly weak ranged units. His opposite Grit is generally considered to be a GameBreaker. Other [=COs=] suffer from specialisation in units or circumstances not present on all maps at the cost of unit types that ''are'' present on nearly every map (for example, Sonja has attack penalties on ''all'' units but increased range in FogOfWar, which isn't present on every map).
* The ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series takes this to extremes, as not only are archers helpless in melee, but entire classes ([[WhiteMage cleric, troubadour]], etc.) have ''no'' combat skills whatsoever, leaving them doomed if the enemy catches them off-guard.
** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Radiant Dawn]]'' averts. Archers armed with crossbows or the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Bow]] can counterattack at melee range, and clerics can even retaliate with their staff, albeit generally for 0 damage.
** Also averted in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Fire Emblem Gaiden]]'', Archer can melee and shoot more than 2 squares away. They're GameBreaker in that game.
* Happens a lot in ''GalacticCivilizations 2''. Typically, when computer-controlled, a race focuses on one type of weapons and armour. Terrans, for example, tend to use armour (good vs. mass drivers - basically huge space guns) and lasers (which are blocked by shields), while Drengin tend to focus on mass driver cannons and armour plating. The player, on the other hand, has the option of focusing on areas the closest races are weak against. This then leads to a second example of this trope where your fleet of Terran-killing shielded missile cruisers runs into a squadron from another race with missile defences and heavy-duty mass driver guns who proceed to eat them alive. [[LensmanArmsRace So you have to go research]] armour and mass drivers to exploit ''their'' weaknesses and hope that you don't run into a third race who like armour and missiles.
** It's also ludicrously easy to capitalize on a ''potential'' enemy's specialization. In some cases, a race will develop a particular weapon (say, mass drivers), and also the defense against that weapon (armor). You can then trade money for ''their own defense research'', and send your now-fully protected ships against his helpless vessels. [[spoiler: On higher difficulty levels, you can do this exactly once, and then the AI will counter-research and murder you.]]
* In ''SwordOfTheStars'' there are ways to counter, weaken and negate pretty much every weapon type. Being overreliant on one weapon type often leads to this as the enemy researches and equips the appropriate counters.
** Drone carriers can fall into this. While dreadnought versions usually have enough mounted weaponry to act as TheBattlestar, those below the wall of battle have the majority of their firepower on their drones and become much less useful once PD works its way through said parasite craft.
** Interceptor missiles are even better than phasers against big PD targets like guided torpedoes and drones, but are completely unable to maneuver against other missiles.
** Shield Breakers [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin are excellent are killing shields]] but don't do anything against the ship proper.
** Polarized plasma weapons are an evolution of other plasma weapons you can research, whereby plasma bolts are shaped into thin discs for firing. They slice right through thick armor, but they're terribly weak against shielded targets, making more conventional weaponry the better option.
** Dreadnoughts fitted with Impactors (enormous [[MagneticWeapons railguns]]) can obliterate other capital ships, [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter often more quickly]] than with equivalent energy weapons. However good luck hitting smaller ships, since Impactors often miss anything smaller and faster than a similar sized ship as your own.
*** Likewise, the mighty siege driver can be fitted to a dreadnought and [[NoKillLikeOverkill fires literal asteroids]] for planetary bombardment. The unfortunate side effect is that it tends to miss anything ''smaller'' than a planet. Also, it's [[AwesomeButImpractical usually unnecessary]] to bring one to a planetary bombardment when a fleet of well-rounded ships can do the job equally well.
* ''TotalWar'' tends to avert this: While melee units still don't have ranged weapons, archers can, potentially, be used in melee. Because of their lighter armour and worse melee weapons, however, this is more of a last resort (or used to break wavering units with a flank attack) than anything else.
** The same it true for artillery crews, who can defend themselves with swords, but aren't even strong enough to fight off peasants with pitchforks.
* Averted in the first LuminousArc game, where units typically had one or two skills to cover glaring weaknesses. For instance, Theo, despite being the archer, had a [[LimitBreak Flash Drive]] that was only effective at point-blank range, perfect if your lines were breeched. [[LuminousArc2 Later]] [[LuminousArc3 titles]] play this trope straight.
* In the SpaceEmpires games the enemy tends to focus on just one type of weapon.
* [[GetterRobo Getter 3]] and [[GetterRobo Getter Poseidon]] in SuperRobotWars are pretty much built for underwater battles because they don't suffer from movement limitation. The main problem is the fact that most of the battles takes place in Air, Ground or Space which the other forms excells in. Add to the fact that most of its attacks cant hit Airborne units(inlucing the [[LimitBreak Daisetsuzan Oroshi]] and it become fairly apparent why its the least useful. To compensate for this, Musashi or Benkei posess some of the more useful Seishin amongst their teammates to use in their own Getter form.
** This frequently happened to the Getter Liger and Getter Two as well, for its ussual [[RunningGag inability to attack flying units]]. In fact, a sizable amount of players said that Getter-1 is the form that you will use 99 % of the time, and you should give it adapter anyway.
* Almost all air units in SidMeiersAlphaCentauri can't capture bases. You've got to use ground units (for bases on the ground) or sea units (for bases in the sea) for that.
** The Believers have only one way to win the game without a huge difference in player skill. Expand as quickly as possible and attack anyone nearby. The only way for them to win is to gain a huge advantage early game through expansion, so they can field enough of their undoubtedly weaker, poorly equipped forces to overwhelm the other factions. With a player skill difference, it is possible for the Believers to win in other ways, but they will not perform as well as other factions with any other strategy. This strategy is problematic because several factions can very easily stop the Believers in their tracks by exploiting their weaknesses. In the expansion, assuming equal player skill, it is effectively impossible for the Believers to go toe to toe with the Nautilus Pirates due to the fact Pirates will have centuries to build up their naval forces before the Believers could even hope to mount an attack capable of taking an unguarded sea base.
* ''{{Battle for Wesnoth}}'' gives us the Dark Adept, a low-level "black" magic-user with a couple of accurate and fairly powerful magical ranged attacks that has ''no melee capability whatsoever'' and is thus a helpless target for anything that attacks it with melee weapons, which basically means "any enemy unit that's not a Dark Adept itself". (If it manages to live to become a Dark Sorcerer, though, it gains a moderately effective staff attack.) On the other end of the spectrum, you can find the Dwarvish Ulfserker (a melee-only unit that when engaged in close combat always fights until either it or its opponent is dead) and the Horseman (also melee-only with its only attack being a charge for double damage both inflicted and received), as well as their level 2 Dwarvish Berserker and Lancer counterparts that do exactly the same, only with more powerful attacks and extra hit points.
* It's up to you if you want to do this in ''EndlessSpace'', since you get to design all your ships. However, while every pirate ship you encounter starts with just kinetic weaponry, if you overspecialized to deal with that, your ships will be cut apart when the pirates start mounting armor defenses, lasers and missiles.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Wide Open Sandbox ]]

* The entire US Military in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is this.
-->'''Colonel Taggart:''' We've been preparing to fight the wrong war, We can't beat this! We need to pull out and deal with it at a distance!
[[/folder]]

!!Non-Video Game Examples

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', members of most clans seem to suffer from this, as they tend to ''only'' use the clan's signature techniques even when they could learn others. Plus their specialization can be found out just by knowing their last name, which brings the question as why they don't learn a single non-clan related technique to catch your opponent off guard. Of course, in theory it's possible that they ''do'' know a wider range of justu- there certainly doesn't seem to be anything preventing them from learning- but the author Masasi Kishimoto just doesn't bother showing this stuff to make them more distinct.
** Subverted in the sense that teamwork is greatly stressed and teams typically consist of 4 people from different clans or backgrounds, so the "crippling" part is usually guarded against, though they tend to have a specialised theme (eg. Team Gai are all Taijustu types, but different types of Taijutsu; Team Kurenai / 8 specialize in tracking, but different types of tracking, etc.). It is also not uncommon for different teams to work together, or for members to join other teams temporarily.
** Averted, in theory, by the Uchiha clan. Their Sharingan allows them to copy other jutsu and taijutsu. In practice, the important Uchiha rely almost entirely on their eye techniques in Shippuden.
*** However, even that is shown not to be a world winner. The Sharingan can only go so far.
** Possibly also averted by the Aburame clan--while they indeed only have a handful of jutsu, the main jutsu is basically the ability to control a swarm of chakra-eating bugs, it's actually extremely versatile and effective, so a lot less crippling overall. Too bad Shino doesn't get more screentime.
** Most definitely subverted by the Senju Clan. Their very name is a reference to the clan supposedly possessing a "thousand skills". As descendants of the Sage of the Six Paths, they possess enormous physical vitality, which gives them more chakra to fuel their powers for longer. At least one of them possesses a highly versatile Elemental Power, the Wood Style, which was used to build the most powerful City State in the world, can create clones that only [[spoiler: Madara Uchiha]] could ever see through, and tame EldritchAbominations. Another is the greatest medic ever. Another was a necromancer and time/space warper. [[spoiler: And the Uzumaki clan appears to be a branch of the Senju, so you can add Nagato and Naruto to the list. And Karin, the sensor from Sasuke's team. See below.]]
** Subverted by The Uzumaki clan. First off, they are related to the Senju (see above). They primarily excelled in sealing arts, which themselves have a very wide range of powerful and possibly dangerous uses, but if [[spoiler: orphans Naruto and Nagato are of any example, they]] had no problem utilizing other techniques. Added to that, the clan was known for their ridiculous resilience and vitality, which is why Naruto is capable of fighting so long and hard without dipping into the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra. DoubleSubverted in that most of them are dead, so we can't really tell how much they qualify.
** Subverted by the Six Paths of Pain. Each one of the Paths has a very specific ability, which with advance knowledge, can be exploited. However, the 6 Paths tend to work in concert flawlessly to eliminate any weak points.
** [[BadAss A the Raikage is this in spades. He uses taijutsu and focuses on melee combat using his high speed and strength to overwhelm the enemy. We see that when he tosses Sasuke around like a ragdoll. However, he tries to do the same against the ''much'' stronger]] [[spoiler: Madara Uchiha...and it doesn't work too well.]] He has no long ranged jutsus at all, or even summoning, bunshins displayed, or anything to make up for his style's weaknesses. Thus, he's the only Kage [[spoiler: to under perform in the War. Especially against Madara, since he needs [[BadassGrandpa Onoki]]'s help to even breach Madara's Susano'o.]]
*** The no bunshins thing is a rather glaring defect of the author's writing creating the overspecialization. It seems clear that a VAST majority of the cast should be able to produce illusionary clones of themselves, and transform into anything as these are some the very first jutsu ninja learn and we know it's not limited to the leaf as Temari was preparing to use an illusion as a decoy. We also know that in the heat of battle a decent transformation into terrain can catch even skilled enemies off guard. However we virtually never see these abilities as characters stick to their main gimmick and little else.
** Hidan of the Akatsuki is immortal, which should make him powerful, but it doesn't. He only has one real power, which requires him to ingest someone's blood after cutting them, then create a ritual circle, stand in it, and he becomes a living voodoo doll for that person. He uses it to kill Asuma. Once this technique is analyzed, there are a few weaknesses. If Hidan is removed from the circle, the effect ends. Furthermore, while immortal, he can be chopped up to remove the threat he poses. Finally, he has to attack someone with melee in order for the technique to work. A user of long ranged combat who is powerful enough to disable him will have no problem doing so.
*** Made even worse by the fact that Hidan's speed is at best average (he even notes that he's the slowest member of Akatsuki).
* ''{{Kinnikuman}}'': Hawaii champion Jessie Mavia had this problem. He was absolutely unrivaled in his ability to counter and reverse attacks, but as a result had no original techniques of his own. Kinnikuman achieved victory in his fight by realizing this, [[IShallTauntYou goading Jessie into attacking him]], and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoisting him by his own petard]].
* ''CrossboneGundam'' has [[TheEmpire the Jupiter Empire]] try to counter the eponymous Gundams with a trio of [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] that excel in one area exactly: the Quavarze is a GlassCannon, the Abijo a FragileSpeedster, and the Tortuga a StoneWall. This comes back to bite them in one of [[TheHero Tobia]]'s [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]] when he manages to circumvent their advantages and exploit their weaknesses (grabbing the Abijo so it can't dodge his attacks, attacking the Tortuga in the joints where its thick armor and beam shield can't protect it).
** Earlier on, [[AcePilot Kincaid Nau]] bests the above trio in a similar manner (not dodging the weak attacks of the Abijo, closing range on the Quavarze, and flanking the Tortuga before it can deploy its shield). With a Gundam whose arms had already been sliced off.
* This probably would have been a factor for {{Gundam 00}} had the Gundams not been finished products. The Exia is almost entirely melee oriented but its rifle is perfectly capable of harming gundams, Setsuna just happens to have really bad aim... The Dynames is shown to be able to use its handguns as a proto-melee weapon due to its rapid rate of fire and it has beam sabers as per normal.[[note]]And Lockon didn't even want the sabers, but got overruled by the chief engineer, which is why he came up with the idea of pistols with axe-like blades under the barrel, implemented on Dynames' successor Cherudim.[[/note]] The Kyrios is good in both ranges and is only bad at taking hits (which it should not since it is a hit and run unit). The only problem is the Virtue's bulk which had no real supplement... until you find out it can purge the armor.
** This was of course not the case with the generation that preceded it. The Astraea and Plutone had no weakness for the sole reason because it was manufactured as a jack of all trades. The Sadalsuud's unwieldy nature made it useless for anything other than long range combat and even then only as a sensor. The Abul Hool literally HAD NO ARMS and had to make do with its quasi-jet mode. To a point even the 0 Gundam suffered from this because it quite literally had no strengths. (1 rifle, 1 beam saber, 1 shield, the worst efficiency of them all, yes it sucks balls)
*** Except that everything else in the 0 Gundam's era was far weaker, making it effectively a giant among midgets.
** The units used by the Innovades also have a habit of being like this. The Gadessa has no real ranged weapon other than the Mega-launcher. When it gets blown up, suddenly your opponent is a LOT harder to hit. The Garazzo is of no different in that it replaces the Mega launcher with beam claws, leaving it without any effective ranged weapon ''ever''. The Gaddess would have been a subject too except it has 7 GN bits so it alone would suffice as a balanced unit... Too bad its opponent was the Cherudim which had 9/15 bits, a rifle and 2 axe/guns.
* GundamSEED had examples of this. The Buster Gundam, for example, was a purely ranged suit with no close-range options. Interestingly, the Strike Gundam manages to be both this and JackOfAllStats since it can change its loadout. In Sword Strike mode the closest thing it has to a ranged weapon are beam boomerangs and rocket propelled anchors which can draw a target into closer range. In Launcher strike mode it has the same problem as the Buster, its only close-range weapons are a small pair of barely used daggers. Most other suits, despite having clear specialty, manage to avert this. [[TransformingMecha Aegis]] is a melee monster with four (!) beam sabers (with two of them in its feet, so all four can be used at once), but also has a WaveMotionGun in its mobile armor mode. Duel has beam sabers and a beam rifle with a grenade launcher, and gets upgraded with further ranged weapons. Blitz is stealth-oriented with a CloakingDevice, but also has a shield that is loaded with various weapons (a beam saber, a beam rifle and a trio of rocket darts) and a rocket anchor like Sword Strike's.
** Most of this can be explained by the fact that the five Gundams were meant to operate as a team. Buster stays back and defends the mothership, Aegis goes in for direct attacks, Blitz stealths around back, Duel stays between Aegis and Buster and supports them, and Strike fills whichever role is dictated by its pack (Sword = direct attack with Aegis, Aile = support with Duel, Launcher = sniper with Buster).
* This even happened in the original ''MobileSuitGundam'' -- at least, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the backstory]]. When Zeon was developing a machine to match the Gundam, their choices were the Gelgoog and the Gyan. The Gyan was melee-focused, armed with a beam sword and a shield full of mini-missiles and short-range bombs, and intended to work in concert with the Rick Dom (which was, surprise surprise, manufactured by the same company). This extreme focus caused it to lose out to the more self-sufficient Gelgoog, meaning only three Gyans were ever made, and one shows up as a MonsterOfTheWeek while Gelgoogs appear as {{Mooks}} from that point on.
* ''GundamAge'''s Age-1 Titus. It overspecializes in strong melee attacks, but it is dropped off just a few episode after its debut because its heavy armor and lack of range weapons makes it unable to hit any faster unit in space combat.
* ''GundamSentinel'' has the [=FAZZ=] units, a trio of Mobile Suits designed to test out the Full Armor pack for the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ Gundam]]. Had plenty of ammo, but lacked any means to defend itself in melee range, which gets all three suits destroyed when they go up against the Gundam Mk. V.
* [[RurouniKenshin Kenshin Himura]] is a master swordsman, but is hopeless at unarmed combat and often gets confused by enemy swordsmen that [[CombatPragmatist throw in punches or kicks between sword strikes]]. Less so in the anime. Averted by Saito Haijime, who fights entirely with varying types of stabbing, but is such an excellent swordsman that he doesn't need anything else. Saito is also an expert boxer and is willing to use other weapons like his ''belt''. In one of the last chapters of the manga Kenshin tells a member of the latest QuirkyMinibossSquad -- one who specialized in countering stabbing techniques but was defeated by Saito anyway -- that if defeating Saito's Gattotsu was enough to defeat Saito himself, Kenshin would have killed him years ago.
* Most ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' characters, but especially one shot practitioners of MartialArtsAndCrafts. There's really not THAT much call for the use of Martial Arts Chess, is there? The problem inherent in this is often demonstrated when Ranma casually trounces these people who then complain that he wasn't playing by the rules of whatever bit of martial madness they practice.
** Hilariously, Ranma often make a point of adhering to their rules and restrictions just so he can learn their style properly, and then incorporate their strengths into his "Anything-Goes" school. Not to mention the satisfaction of beating them at their own game. He only occasionally bend or break the rules after he learns what he's supposed to do. This caveat is to excuse his standard 'beat the crap out of them without regard for their crazy martial art' that starts most MartialArtsAndCrafts episodes.
*** The Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts is based off averting this trope entirely, most battles result in Ranma either learning new tactics or techniques altogether, or coming up with creative new ways to use his old tricks.
** Averted with Martial Arts Tea Ceremony. Despite having an unusual restriction (the combatants must be kneeling at all times, [[CharlesAtlasSuperPower even when running at incredible speeds]]), the Martial Tea Ceremony masters are actually capable of beating the crap out of Ranma. The actual story battle has him facing a younger opponent though.
* Early on in ''{{Negima}}'', the explanation for Negi's need to [[ShipTease kiss]] girls in his class is to give them artifacts. Because a traditional mage is useless in unarmed combat and it takes time to cast and activate offensive magics. So they need a partner to defend them and distract the opposing forces. After a few fights where this was a problem for Negi, he learned kenpo. Evangeline explains that eventually any magic practitioner will reach a point where [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards it no longer matters]].
* [[spoiler: Wonderwiess]] of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' was made for the purpose of using this trope. Giving up speech, intelligence, memory and reasoning so as to have the ability to seal [[spoiler:Ryujinjakka's flames]].
** Fortunately, his target does not fall into this trope, [[spoiler: having been around long enough to [[CombatPragmatist know]] [[OldMaster better]]. Yamamoto may have the strongest zanpakuto, but he ''didn't'' limit himself to it , choosing instead to fight the unfortunate Arrancar with his bare hands, and winning with ease.]]
** Several of his opponents thought this about [[BigBad Aizen,]] believing that if he didn't use his [[MasterofIllusion sword's powers]], he'd be easier to take down. [[CurbStompBattle He quickly proves them wrong.]]
* Monta, the Deimon wide receiver from ''{{Eyeshield 21}}'', is only good at catching. This makes him bad at his original favorite sport, baseball, but good at American football.
** That said, there are other characters that also suffers this. Sena is [[FragileSpeedster dazzlingly fast, but had no strength to push another in power games]]. Takami, thanks to his build and training, is a quarterback with precise and high- altitude pass, but thanks to injury in his legs, can't move quick enough to avoid sacking. Kurita is [[MightyGlacier obscenely strong and unmovable, but also can't run jack to save his live]]. And Yukimitsu, all that he had is [[AwesomenessByAnalysis ability to deduce possible pass route on the fly]] and [[{{Determinator}} sheer determination]], and [[WeakButSkilled that's all]].
* The Fang Regalia in ''Manga/AirGear'', a set of [[RollerBladeGood A-T]] wheels can be seen this way as it deprives the user the ability to jump. Instead, it allows the user to release ''RazorWind'' [[ArtMajorPhysics from their A-Ts]].
* All the characters in ''Manga/FairyTail'' have one type of magic that they use, and frequently run into opponents with powers custom tailored to trump that one specific magic, most notably one of the Vanish Brothers, whose power was to nullify fire magic, and he just happened to have been fighting the fire mage. Or Yuta, who can nullify magic, but only one type at a time. Only a few mages show spells outside the speciality, such as Ultear who possesses two schools of magic or the Thunder Good tribe who possess eye magic aside from their main magics, though several mages do make up for lack of magic variety with hand to hand skill or weapons like Lucy's whip.
** Erza is a subversion, since while she uses one type of magic, her magic involves changing her armor and weapons to suit the situation.
*** Jellal is an interesting case. He can use many types of magic (his Abyss Break combines many elements at once) however he mostly sticks to his Heavenly Body magic. However said magic both gives him strong non elemental magic blasts, and lets him empower himself to allow for high speed strong physical attacks, giving him a great all rounded technique.
* Double subverted in ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS''. First with Nanoha's training on the forwards, she aims the training to sharpening each member on their own unique abilities to the edge but avoided the "crippling" part by also reinforcing their teamwork tactics in order to cover each other's weaknesses. Then, by revealing that the "overspecialization" part of the training only covers phase 1-2, once they dominated their main abilities Nanoha proceeds to balance them by giving them experience and alt-modes for their [[EmpathicWeapon devices]] that allow them to face battle conditions outside of their main area of expertise by themselves.
** Hayate, meanwhile, plays this trope straight. She's the resident nuke-girl of the TSAB, evidenced by the fact that they send out evacuation warnings whenever she takes to the battlefield. The only problem with this is that she cannot use any spell other than nuke level ones and she needs assistance to aim said spells. She even admits that [[WhiteMage Caro]] would beat her in singles combat even without said girl's dragons because she was trained by Nanoha.
* Clare starts out as this in {{Claymore}}. She's ranked as the weakest warrior in the Organization because she neglected the standard youma fighting skills to specialize in fighting [[OneWingedAngel Awakened Beings.]] Initially, Awakened Beings are rare enough that the other Claymores consider her to be TheLoad. By the time the TimeSkip rolls around, Awakened Beings are coming out of the woodwork, and regular youma are little more than mooks.
* Happened to Ash in Anime/{{Pokemon}}. Even though Grotle still won at times, it became absolutely pitiful when it was Torterra, having never won a single battle. Ash's team in the Sinnoh sage was mainly based on small, [[LightningBruiser fast Pokémon who can deliver hard hits, as well as take some too]]. But a [[StoneWall damn near immobile tank]] like Torterra was just not his style, and never really adapted to it.
* Several examples in InfiniteStratos:
** Ichika's IS is a close-ranged fighter, so in a ranged fight he has to dodge or absorb shots thrown at him until he can get close enough. Unless another IS user allows him to use their ranged weapons. Averted with Rin, who has a weapon that has some medium range capabilities.
** Laura's A.I.C. (Active Inertial Canceler) seems to nullify any attack thrown at her, but she has to stay focused on the attacker for it to work. So if someone else shoots her from behind...
** Cecilia's IS is designed solely for long ranged combat, so if an attacker can close the distance before she can take them out, she usually seems screwed. Chifuyu also comments in one episode that she's also designed to take on multiple opponents, but in the anime at least, she only ever fights against one opponent at a time.
* Katsumi Morikawa, the resident ButtMonkey of ''Anime/CardfightVanguard''. He is a genuinely good player, but he is so obsessed with powerful Grade 3 monsters that his deck balance is ridiculously top-heavy.
* In ''Manga/{{The Lucifer And Biscuit Hammer}}'', several of the Beast Knights are somewhat overspecialized for their own good, usually on the scale and speed of the opponents they can fight. Yuki and Subaru need critical time to charge up and aim their CombinedEnergyAttack, and risk any enemy escaping or tearing into them before they can fire. Yuuhi's fighting style is highly mobile anti-personnel, limiting his ability to directly harm the golems [[spoiler:but making him perfect for taking down the other Knights]]. Hanako's [[AnIcePerson ice attacks]] rely on having a supply of water to hand, often only as much as she can carry. Fortunately, the other Knights cover for their limits and provide them the opportunities they need to bring their power into play.
* In [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]] it's eventually revealed that NERV headquarters was only designed to repel Angel attacks, leaving them extremely vulnerable when [[spoiler: SEELE sends the JSSDF to seize control of the base after they defeat the last angel (then again, that was the plan all along.)]]
** Although the 3 Evas were more than capable of resisting an attack [[spoiler:Unfortunately by the time the JSSDF shows up, Unit 0 has been destroyed, and the pilots of 1 and 2 are too shell shocked to help out, and comatose respectively. Asuka does regain conciousness and takes out the JSSDF, but Seele then sends in the MP Evas, and Asuka alone couldn't defeat them.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comicbooks ]]

* ''[[Comicbook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog]]'': The battle suit used by [[BigBad Eggman]] in issues 175-177 was designed specifically to outmatch Sonic, which it [[CurbStompBattle proceeded to do marvelously]]. However, this meant that when the ''other'' Freedom Fighters took it on, it went down in a matter of ''panels''.
* The page image depicts villain Razorfist from the MarvelUniverse. He had both hands removed and replaced with blades to maximize his combat ability. He now needs servants to feed him and attend to his basic personal hygiene.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fan Fic ]]

* It starts out looking like this will be the case for one of the Angels in ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K'', as it tries and fails to use Eva-focused attacks like venomous spikes on Magnos Tancred (which is basically a tank with feet, and has none of the squishy biological components that were being targeted). [[spoiler: Then it [[MookMaker disgorges an army of relatively tiny monsters]], which kill two-thirds of Magnos Tancred's crew and begin slaughtering their way through Tokyo-3.]]
* In ''[[FanFic/PoniesOfOlympus Atlas Strongest Tournament]]'', [[TheRival Ran Biao]] trained her flame breath to be strong enough to melt Rarity's metal acupuncture needles; however, her reliance on this leaves her vulnerable to Rarity's ''diamond'' backup needles.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]
* In ''TheGamers 2: Dorkness Rising'', Joanna creates a fighter character for DungeonsAndDragons with feats for winning initiative, making high-damage critical hits, and getting extra attacks every time she fells an enemy. As a result, her character is excellent at cleaning out hordes of minor enemies before anyone else can move. However, she has [[GlassCannon low armor class and hit points]], so tough enemies who can weather a critical hit or two, like bosses, can take her out easily.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Jokes ]]

* A man was working in an office overlooking a park. Over the course of a day he saw two city park workers - one would dig a hole, and then the other would fill it in. This went on all morning, so the man wandered down on his lunch break to ask about it. "Well," said one of the workers "I dig the holes, Charlie puts the tree in, and then Bob here fills them in. Thing is, Charlie's sick today."

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Used in Philip K. Dick's short story "The Variable Man": the eponymous man is a jack-of-all-trades tinker picked up from the past by scientists in a highly specialized future. They need him to fix something that no one has the specialization for.
* ''The BookOfSwords'' has three primary examples. The first being the sword of heroes, which if not used against dragons just acts like a very well crafted sword. The second is the sword of siege, which if not used against earth or stone, acts likewise. This is from a series of books where comparatively speaking, the most powerful of these swords had the power to kill deities. Of course, since every sword has a NecessaryDrawback, Overspecializing also seem like not to big a deal after a while...
** [[spoiler:...until the wielder of Swordbreaker needs to fight unarmed opponents.]]
* In ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' the overspecialised ships are frequently either laden down with defence shield generators ("I can't hurt you but you can't hurt me") or all weapon (frequently one ''big'' WaveMotionGun style weapon) and tend to accompany each other in large groups. The fleet flagship, ''Directrix'', is all combat-management and defence shields but never goes out and about without an englobing escort of [[MightyGlacier Maulers]].
* Happens to some [[WitchSpecies Insequent]] in ''The Last ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant''. They gain their powers through knowledge, so an Insequent who studies only one or two specific things may be powerless in situations not involving them. For example, [[EvilSorcerer the Harrow]] has made a study of [[TheUndead the Demondim]] and related creatures, meaning he can tear through them like wet tissue paper all day - but he [[BigBadWannabe goes down like a chump]] against [[spoiler:a Kastenessen-powered Roger Covenant]].
* In the sci-fi book ''Literature/{{Matched}}'' this is one of the main tenets of the Society. Nobody learns anything but what they have to know, including of the past. The Society chose 100 of the best of everything from the past for everyone to know about. They also even extended this to choice, in that nobody should have to choose anything that they don't know about.
* The cruiser ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' commanded in the first book of her series had been refitted as a testbed around a nigh-unstoppable weapon, however the reduction in normal weapons load and extreme short range of the prototype weapon meant the only way the ship was effective in combat against an equal or larger opponent was to either somehow to sneak in close enough to fire the weapon, or pray the ship could hold together long enough on an near-inevitable suicide run to get close enough to fire the weapon.
* Discussed in JeanAuel's ''EarthsChildren'' series. Woolly mammoths, by becoming so specialized and adapted to such a narrow climate range, ensured they'd survive and exploit a unique niche on the dry, cold ice age tundra, but such specialization also meant that warmer, wetter climates would be utterly devastating.
** Furthermore, the Neanderthal Clan was in danger of becoming extinct because the men could not learn how to gather and cook food and the women could not learn how to make weapons and hunt, which was why they had to live together in groups. A lone Neanderthal was a dead Neanderthal.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'' contains the opinion that specialization is sub-human:
-->'''Lazarus Long''': "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
* In ''WorldWarZ'', this is one of the reasons the initial outbreak wipes out human armies, shown with the US Army specifically. Modern military thinking is no good against an enemy that can be neither shocked nor awed.
** To be fair, the army was specialized to fight against ''living beings''. Targeting center of mass, dropping bombs, and setting targets on fire all work just fine if your target has functioning nervous and circulatory systems.
** The zombies happen to be coated in PlotArmor, and Brooks {{nerf}}s standard weapons against them. Also, he has the military hold off on weapons that can effectively turn most squishy targets to paste from miles away until the Zacks are in visual range. Not to mention the military suddenly forgetting everything it knew about the Zacks from the black ops they mentioned, and not learning about their resistance to explosives from the Israelis either. [[RuleOfDrama In reality]], the military would've rolled right over the Zacks.
* The ''Lancer''-class frigate from the StarWarsExpandedUniverse was specifically designed as a counter to the starfighter-heavy Rebel Alliance/New Republic fleet. It's a 250-meter ship [[BeamSpam bristling with laser cannons]], intended as a flak boat to protect other capital ships. Unfortunately, in addition to being [[AwesomeButImpractical too expensive and manpower-intensive]], it had no heavy weaponry for fending off capital ships, so most admirals eschewed it in favor of expendable TIE screens.
* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' this is Aginor/Osan'gar's main obstacle towards being an effective villain. As a [[FunctionalMagic channeler]] he's overwhelmingly powerful (among the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Forsaken]] he's behind only [[TheDragon Ishamael]] and maybe [[TheStarscream Lanfear]]), but he's really only good at doing one thing- using {{magitek}} to [[EvilutionaryBiologist make monsters]]. Problem is that while this made him essential to the Shadow in the Age of Legends, in the [[AfterTheEnd modern world]] the necessary magitek no longer exists, and every time he's in a straight fight he tends to [[UnskilledButStrong attack a lot]] ineffectively before getting [[CurbStompBattle curbstomped]]. He ends up dying having been one of the least effective Forsaken.
* In Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's ''Literature/TheLovers'', the main character is a professional Jack of all Trades (JOAT). His whole job is to make sure that medical research specialists know about advances in other fields that can be applied to their specialty.
* In ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Proven Guilty]]'', Daniel escapes from Hammerhands by climbing into the treehouse, figuring his handless pursuer can't follow him up a ladder.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* The fact that the ''{{Lexx}}'' has no other weapons or defenses apart from its planet-shattering WaveMotionGun have caused plenty of trouble to the protagonists over the course of the series.
** Could be justified, if his divine shadow wanted it easily re-taken if it ever fell into the wrong hands. (Which, in fact, it did.) Presumably it would've had escort ships along to defend it if it'd ever been used as intended.
* On GoodEats, Alton Brown refers to items with this issue as "unitaskers", stating that the only one he'll have in his kitchen is a fire extinguisher.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* All TabletopGame/{{Chess}} pieces are overspecialized, to some extent or another. The Queen's enormous power and value comes from being the least specialized, being able to move like any other piece except the Knight.
** Ironically the queen's mobility leads to it being the least useful piece for controlling territory. Opposing rooks, bishops, and knights can stand on the many squares threatened by a queen just so long as they're defended, since taking a knight only to lose your queen is generally bad. By contrast the two squares attacked by a pawn are effectively off-limits to any opposing piece besides another pawn.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' the [[OurElvesAreBetter Eldar]] have this as their Hat. Each Eldar going down the Path of the Warrior dedicates himself or herself to one Aspect at a time, each with its own strengths and weaknesses against specific types. The Tau also fit in this category, with their main military force focusing purely on firepower and having next to no close-range combat capabilities.
** To be fair, the Tau do what armies in the past did and brought in auxiliary units suited for melee.
*** The Tau Close combat specialists would be considered pathetically weak in any other army, and is largely there to counter-charge for the tau rather than go toe-to-toe with their chainsaw-wielding foes head on.
** It's said that if you match five Space Marines against five Eldar, the Marines will win four times out of five. The fifth Eldar will singlehandedly slaughter all five Marines, because that's what it's focused on doing.
** This is also a perfectly valid way to build a tournament winning army, as long as you can correctly guess the kind of army you need to cripplingly overspecialise against.
*** It's largely encouraged if you want to be competitive, as any unit not overspecialized in one particular aspect would be wasting half it's points every single turn (for example, a Space Marine Tactica Squad armed with a Lascannon and a Flamethrower. If you shoot at a horde the lascannon cant fire, as you'll probably have to move to get the flamethrower in range. If you fired the lascannon, chances are whatever you're trying to hit is both out of the range of the flamethrower, and is a vehicle that can't be harmed by it) whereas a unit dedicated in it's task would probably be doing the fullest until all viable targets are eliminated (which, given the points efficiency, would be insanely quick).
** This is the case with Tyranids when the new Dark Eldar came out. Focusing on the gimmick of having monstrous creatures with multiple wounds and high toughness but susceptible to [[ChunkySalsaRule Instant Death]], they were found to be utterly crippled when the Dark Eldar brought in Instant Death Weapons and Poison Weapons (Poison weapons ignore toughness altogether).
** Daemons take this to ludicrous extremes with deepstriking, being the only army that needs to do so. It has landed them anywhere between Gamebreaking (capping an objective from the get-go) to horribly underpowered (Annihilation, where you have to kill everyone else). Compounding the fact is if you tried to run anything but Tzeentch, as he possesses the only Daemons with guns (you can't move or charge after a deepstrike, but you can shoot or run away), effectively giving all non-Tzeentch units a one-turn handicap as they are left standing still while the enemy shoots first.
* In 4th Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', one has the option of using a significant number of their starting stat points to boost a single score to 18 (potentially a 20 if the character gets a bonus to that score from race). However, this costs such a prohibitive number of points that all the rest of that character's stats will be Below Par, at the very best. Since defenses and secondary abilities of powers are often based on scores not directly related to a class' primary attack stat, this usually leaves a character open to attack. And since many feats have ability score prerequisites, the choicest of these will often be out of reach of a character who has overspecialized a single stat.
** Note that this can be entirely nullified by having a well-balanced group. (ie. a bard with maxed Charisma and terrible defenses in a group with many tanks/strikers will never get attacked if the group remembers to keep her in the back/center)
** D&D in general, really. For every single ability in 3.5, there's at least one way to reduce or negate the damage. Fighters who specialise in the longsword will find themselves disadvantaged against an opponent who negates all damage that isn't piercing. A sorcerer that only chooses fire spells will not have a fun time against the monster with fire immunity. Rogues dread encounters against enemies that are immune to sneak attacks (which are many). At higher levels it's not uncommon for fighters to carry multiple weapons made of many different materials, just so they can be prepared for any situation. This is one reason why LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards is in full effect: spellcasters who prepare their spells from a list can avoid this trap by changing their spells in accordance with the situation.
*** D&D's unofficial Tier System reinforces this fact. The Top Tier classes can either learn every spell of their paradigm they come across, have access to their entire spell lists by default, or can replicate any spell in the game. (The Cleric and Druid can also function as melee on top of all that, hence the CoDzilla term in the metagame). The Tier Two classes are equal to the tier ones in raw power, but lack the versatility of their counterparts. As the tier thread puts it: "''If the Tier 1 classes are countries with 10,000 nuclear weapons in their arsenal, these guys are countries with 10 nukes. Still dangerous and world shattering, but not in quite so many ways.''"
** In 4e, the selection of attack powers available at each level - and this applies to several fighting and magic using classes - can differ between direct attacks that affect one opponent (the sin qua non of the "striker") and area of affect attacks (bursts and blasts) that can damage many targets. The latter tend to do less damage and may not have as good a hit chance as the former. Without a mix, a character can be vulnerable to either solo monsters or minions.
** Many powergamers in all TTRPGS, but especially D&D, who have their pet "broken" builds run into a serious problem when faced with [=GMs=] who throw unexpected challenges at them; by relying on shattering the game in one particular place, they are vulnerable when challenged out of their depth by the GM.
*** This was parodied in Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick, where Roy encountered a Half-Ogre with a spiked chain who had figured out the perfect melee build that involved jumping back while attacking on his turn every time, so that he would get free attacks when Roy tried to get close to him. While he's explaining that with this perfect combo he can't be beaten so there's no reason for him to vary it, he jumps over a cliff that suddenly appeared behind him. This is probably how a lot of [=DMs=] would handle such a player character. Of course, he was actually cheating; the Attack of Opportunity rules don't work the way he was using them, but Roy didn't understand them enough to call him on it.
* In the classic Metagaming Concepts game ''Rivets'', the premise is simple: all the people are dead, and the remaining Boppers (Battlefield Orientated Pre-Programmed Eradicator Robots) are fighting it out over the resources they need. The trouble is, these Boppers are pretty stupid, 'average IQ only slightly higher than that of most kitchen appliances'. Each player has to choose what type of unit each type of unit attacks. That's right. You don't program an individual unit, you program a type of unit to go after another type of unit. If you're attacked by a unit you're not programmed to attack, you're screwed. You can, however, reprogram them, but that means bringing every one of that unit type back to your base/factory.
* The [=BattleMechs=] of ''BattleTech'' are prone to this, as well as subverting this. You can either have a general jack-of-all-trades or a specialized 'Mech that's doomed once someone skips out of its range bracket. Also, under the latest rules, most (not all) 'Mech-scale weapons do only a small fraction of their regular damage to conventional infantry, which can become a problem at those distances where the infantry can actually shoot ''back''.
** {{Justified|Trope}} in that 'Mechs are designed for specific military roles, and meant to used in concert (IE, fire-support standing ''behind'' the close-assault mechs, scouts staying in cover and acting as spotters for long-distance artillery, high-speed mechs flanking while the main assault force holds the enemies' attentions, etc.). Individual 'Mechs are specialists; the military units they make up are intended to be balanced. And unlike the 40K examples, factions generally don't have built-in weaknesses beyond the differences in tech-level and societal taboos; you won't find [[ViolationOfCommonSense any sizable society that built it's entire army around being super-artillery and utterly useless at short ranges]], for example.
*** There are even 'Mechs whose specialisation is in protecting those 'Mechs whose CripplingOverspecialization could be a liability. The original Centurion was explicitly developed to be a responsive element of a support lance. Where 'Mechs like the [[MacrossMissileMassacre Archer]] or Rifleman team up, there's a Centurion along to protect them.
*** Most mechs are moving away from this trope, especially in the current era, where vehicles and infantry are becoming more prevalent, so even specialist mechs often mount secondary weaponry like machine guns, flamers, or short-range missiles to defend themselves against infantry and tanks.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', the Primordials, the transcendently powerful beings that created the setting, each have their own themes, and are absolutely all-powerful, invincible, and unassailable within those themes; Authochthon is the Craftsman, Malfeas is the King, She Who Lives In Her Name is the Organizer, the Ebon Dragon is the Corrupter, etc. The thing is, each Primordial is not only absolutely helpless outside of those themes, but absolutely incapable of even thinking outside of them. For example, Malfeas is incapable of any kind of subtlety, compromise, or anything else that requires him to act from a position of anything less than absolute power and authority, and She Who Lives In Her Name cannot be unpredictable or spontaneous in any way.
** Applying this and its relative MinMaxing in the ''Shards of the Exalted Dream'' spinoff Burn Legend will get you curbstomped on a regular basis. The guy with Strength 5 and lots of Grapples - say, a Mugen who invests heavily in Wrestling and the linked Mugen techniques - will get his ass handed to him by a simple Whistling Stone Atemi. Burn Legend is based very heavily on TacticalRockPaperScissors, meaning that showing up as Captain Scissors is begging for everyone else to pull out their cheap, low-ranked Rock technique and smash you into a pulp.
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' there's a branch of decks known as Combo decks that fall into this. They aim to do one specific thing using a certain combination of cards. When this thing happens [[TheEnemyGateIsDown they usually win instantly]]. If they can't get the cards in or one of them gets destroyed, they're usually left with a sub-par deck. Combo decks tend to be very good against 'raw power'/'aggro' decks because comboed cards will dismantle an equal number of individual cards without synergy (even though said cards tend to be stronger individually), and are vulnerable to control decks that systematically block or remove the components of a combo. These are popular among some casual players, who don't care nearly as much about a reliable win/lose percentage as about the fact that its absolutely [[RuleOfFunny hilarious]] to use a finishing attack featuring an unblockable attacker whose power and toughness grow by a factor of 32 [[SerialEscalation every turn]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?db=comics&id=739#comic This guy]] in {{SMBC}}
** And [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=870#comic these boxers.]]
* [[spoiler:Zz'dtri]] in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has fine-tuned his build around countering Vaarsuvius' 'blaster-caster' approach to combat. When Vaarsuvius figures out that this leaves him with a weakness to more mundane tactics, and starts fighting smart, [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0800.html the tables quickly turn.]]
** Earlier, Roy encounters a half-ogre who has specialised in a very specific style of spiked chain fighting. Aside from being based on incorrect rules interpretations, it is also restricted to a very specific movement pattern, and the half-ogre eventually falls off a cliff because of this.
* In MoonCrest24: Art wise in the earlier chapters, characters are detailed and well drawn. Backgrounds, not so much, or at all.
* The Vespiary squad in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' are trained to efficiently destroy some of the most dangerous creatures in the series. Against anything else they can be considered noncombatants.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* [[Creator/StuartAshen Chef Excellence]]: [[MemeticBadass excellent at bags]], [[JokeCharacter useless at everything else]].
* Often a deciding factor in ''WebVideo/DeathBattle'', where often the two fighters are more or less evenly matched from a technical standpoint, but one has more variety to their abilities, particularly when the specialization of the overspecialized one happens to be something the generalist knows how to counter (such as in [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] vs. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]]) or the specialization is in something not particularly applicable to combat (such as in [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] vs. [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Peach]]). Special mention to [[VideoGame/MortalKombat Raiden]] versus [[TheMightyThor Thor]], where Raiden was overly specialized in electric attacks in a fight where both parties were more or less immune to electricity.
* In LetsPlay/SomethingAwfulDungeonsAndDragons Let's Play, Minerelle is a character who relies on her massive Arcana roll to accomplish as much as possible. As a result of this, she isn't particularly useful in situations where she can't just throw Arcana at it till something happens. She suffers a bit from overspecializing in combat as well, since most of her attacks target the enemy's Will defense (and the one that doesn't was a fairly recent addition). As a result, whenever the party goes up against anything with an above average Will, she pretty much has no way to contribute to the battle
* In ''{{To Boldly Flee}}'', each of Terl's [[FacelessGoons crew]] is responsible for exactly one aspect of flying his ship, and there is only one crewmember assigned to each task. Therefore, [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow Angry Joe]] is able to cripple Terl and Zod's offensive capabilit by shooting the one weapons officer.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers: Jefferson Twilight, Blacula Hunter.
--> And they haven't been taken by Blaculas. Though I'm not prepared to rule out Caucasian vampires.
** He's also got plenty of other, support skills, but YouDidntAsk.
* Combustion Man of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has the unique Firebending ability to focus his energy through an eye tattoo on his forehead, and release it as explosive blasts. While incredibly powerful, it lacks any kind of versatility, and he is apparently incapable of any other techniques. It also makes him quite vulnerable, as any form of disruption to his chi (such as by a blow to the head) can disable his ability to do it. [[spoiler: Or cause him to explode.]]
** He is also apparently unaware of it being disrupted.
* [[FictionalSport Pro-benders]] often suffer from this in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. While characters like Bolin and Tahno are among the top competitors in their chosen field, their sport's long-range fighting style is laughable when used in real combat. Pro-benders tend to fight as if they're still on the game field, and will sling fixed amounts of rock or water at an enemy. Get up close and a pro-bender's defense falls apart. In comparison, someone with Avatar Korra's comprehensive education in the traditional bending styles will move between long- and short-range fighting as necessary, and will use the whole environment against an enemy. Basically, pro-bending is competition fencing and traditional bending is back-alley brawling. [[hottip:*:Please ignore the fact that many fencers had ''absolutely no problem'' being a CombatPragmatist [[CombatPragmatist/RealLife in a real fight]].
** The reverse was true when Korra first joined the Fire Ferrets. She was literally a last-minute replacement when their previous waterbender no-showed, and started out by thrashing the opposing players with highly effective attacks...that were against the rules, resulting in fouls against Korra. Just like what's good in a pro-bending isn't necessarily good in a fight, what's good in a fight isn't necessarily good in pro-bending.
** The Metalbending Police of Republic City are shown to be this. The Equalists' tactics and gear were designed to counter the Metalbender's tactics and the police got routed in every open clash between the two and there weren't enough combat oriented benders of other nations to counter them (at least until the United Military shows up). Apparently, they've learned from this and season 2 will show a more diverse police force (including firebender Mako).
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' the town of Ogdenville makes nothing but barley, even their history is centered about barley. When the barley got tainted, this cause their entire business to go bust, and sent their town into a depression!
* In an episode of ''WaitTillYourFatherGetsHome'', Harry drops his car off at the service garage, then comes back later to find they're not finished. Perplexed that a mechanic is standing by his car doing nothing, Harry asks why the man isn't working on it. "I only do headlights," the mechanic explains. "''Left'' headlights."
* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' had an episode where the home was overrun with Scribbles (imaginary friends conjured up from infants), which as their name implied, were basically floating black line scribbles. Initially thought annoying and bothersome, they were shown as being very adept at doing chores, yet each Scribble could only do one task (such as washing the dishes, but not putting them away) or they "overload" and start shrieking until calmed down.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Unicorn ponies find their magical abilities quite limited outside their special talent, as illustrated by their Cutie Mark, such as Rarity mostly being good at magic related to tailoring and illusions. Twilight Sparkle on the other hand, by virtue of having her talent be magic in general, knows a vast variety of spells, to the point where she can levitate the top of a water tower, float it through a barn full of cows (''milking the cows in the process'') and make the water tower into a makeshift baby bottle, while also causing the wind to play a lullaby.
** Twilight is cripplingly overspecialized in other ways, however. In "Winter Wrap-up" she tries to [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows help clean up winter]] without her magic (because that's the traditional way), but because she's so used to using magic for everything, she screws up anything she tries to do physically (starting with putting on her saddle). [[spoiler: She eventually leans to non-magically contribute with her TRUE strength, that of an uber-delegating ScheduleFanatic.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Bender is a bending unit, meaning he's ''very'' good at bending things, but isn't very good at anything else. In one episode, when the Robot Mafia drops an unbendable girder on Flexo, the only solution that Bender can think of is to try to bend it off of him anyway. ("Well, I don't know anything about lifting, so we only have the one option!") Miraculously, he succeeds, but falls apart in the process.
** On the other hand, Bender manages to pull WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer moments from time to time, performing non-bending tasks by seeing them as being(in his words) "primitive, degenerate forms of bending".

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Cheetahs, specializing in ultimate sprinting, left them with a very light build and not much strength compared to other large African predators. Against lions, hyenas, leopards and hunting dogs, all a cheetah can do is run. When it comes to prey, anything larger than a Thompson's gazelle is off-limits to most cheetahs (some males can become large and robust enough to take down yearling wildebeests). However, it may be subverted, as some cheetahs have learned to bring down larger prey by hunting in groups.
** This is actually common among heavily endangered species--species with a strong degree of specialization are very, very sensitive to any disruptions in their environment, and any changes can be devastating for them. See the giant panda below.
* The people the world considers to be geniuses tend to suffer from this to varying degrees. History is rife with stories of great artists and intellectuals all suffering due to having a phenomenal grasp of the subjects they are gifted in, while having a weak grasp in areas that are essential to master for the sake of functioning normally from day-to-day.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis William James Sidis]] wasted his genius on ''streetcar transfers''.
* Perhaps one of the greatest failures in aviation history was the WorldWarOne-era Blackburn TB. It was a twin-fuselage long-range [[UsefulNotes/{{Airships}} anti-Zeppelin]] floatplane. [[TheAllegedCar Supposedly.]] The Blackburn TB, in addition to having the [[MadeOfExplodium unfortunate tendency to explode]], had a maximum speed of 85 mph, which is ''slower than some Zeppelins.'' Compounding the TB's difficulties was the sheer impracticality of its means of attack: it was unarmed, save a mere 60 pounds of ''[[FlechetteStorm exploding darts,]]'' and had to climb over the Zeppelin, somehow evading its [[MoreDakka dozens of anti-air guns]], and drop the flechettes on top of it. Which is somewhat difficult, considering that Zeppelins flew at nearly four times the TB's maximum altitude. Luckily- or unluckily- for the TB, the 9 fighters built never so much as CAUGHT a Zeppelin, much less destroyed one.
* WorldWarTwo German tank destroyers (Mainly the Elefant, the others had hull [=MGs=] or a roof MG) were highly effective as mobile artillery and killing tanks but had no turret and early versions had no machine guns... meaning (as Soviet infantry soon demonstrated) that if you could get close to one you could even climb on it perfectly safely and then plant explosives or do whatever you wanted, and they had no way of getting you off except popping out and trying to shoot you with personal weapons.
** German tank design in general was overspecialized. You had your Panthers, your Tigers, your Ferdinand artillery unit, which often meant complex mechanical systems and no compatibility between one type and another, so repairs were not efficient. The Soviet Union averted this by focusing primarily on the all-round T-34 tank, which was cheap to build and easy to maintain and operate, not to mention much more mobile in the Russian Winter than your average Panzer.
*** The Panther and T-34 were the two best medium tanks of the war, being [[LightningBruiser well-armed and armored yet also fast and agile]]. On a 1 to 1 basis, the Panther was somewhat better...except that it had an unnecessarily complicated drivetrain and was much slower and more expensive to built. Thus, Russia had far more T-34s than Germany had Panthers.
*** Russians do have assault guns too, the most infamous one is the ISU-152 which is a terror weapon for German tank commanders.
*** Overspecialisation was subverted, however, with the German 88mm Anti-aircraft Flak Cannon. It was discovered that by pointing them lower, they made equally devastating anti-tank weapons, allowing for flexibility of purpose that wasn't even intended in its design.
*** In a similar manner to how it was quickly discovered that the American Quad .50 anti-aircraft array did amazing damage to infantry when the four guns firing half-inch rounds at a combined rate of about 2000 rounds per minute were mounted to shoot things lower to the ground.
** Tank destroyers, and their sister class of assault guns, were all rather prone to this issue, but the designs were simpler than a full tanks, and thus cheaper and more reliable, and you could supply a sizable infantry accompaniment for the price difference.
** The Elefant does have its advantages though, being one of the few things that can survive a direct hit of the Russians' SU-152's guns (though the massive impact from the 152mm howitzers will almost always kill everyone inside on a direct hit). The Russians' solution for that problem? [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Shoot it again until it breaks apart]].
** In ''CompanyOfHeroes'', such a Tank exists for the Allies, but all other tanks have some way to defend themselves, while heavy weapons teams will have 1 guy to man the weapon and 2 guys to lay down covering fire, or man the gun when the first guy buys the farm.
** On the Allies' side, the French had the vast majority of their defensive capacity as part of the Maginot Line, defending against a direct assault by Germany. The line was quite good at repelling the German forces -- until the Germans simply went through Belgium instead, catching France defenseless.
*** Actually, they expected the Germans to pass through Belgium and along with the British send their army in Belgium to stop the German advance. The Maginot Line was mostly intended to force them to do just that. What they estimated wrongly was through ''which part'' of Belgium the Germans would come through - they never expected them to pass through the supposedly impassable Ardenes.
* The Germans also made the ultimate in crippling overspecialization during WW1 with the Paris Gun - a [[{{BFG}} mammoth gun]] that shot shells so high they had to compensate for the fact they left atmosphere. While the range of was impressive, it burned through barrels so quickly they needed to load progressively larger shells for each shot, could only shoot around 20 shots a day, and the accuracy was so poor it only stood a chance of hitting a large city.
** It made enough of a psychological impact though that the Versailles Treaty specifically banned it. In the 1930s, this led to the German Army looking into rockets as a replacement for it, and the rest is history.
* Specialized dive bombers like the Ju-87 or [=SBD=] Dauntless ([[NotSoDifferent very similar in general specification]]) had slow level speed, low ceilings and were sitting ducks for fighters, yet they had superb agility in dives near vertical and manoeuvers at very low altitudes and carried huge bombs. They could perform only a single task, precision attack over a small target, from a battleship to a tank, and were useless in any other kind of mission.
* With the discovery of guided missiles in the early years of the Cold War, the US thought machine guns on aircraft were obsolete, and so they lost many jet fighters in the Vietnam War. The F4 Phantom was armed with the then state-of-the-art AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, which were capable of locking on to a target far outside of visual range. However, the Rules of Engagement mandated that the pilots make visual contact before firing their missiles. The problem with this was that the missiles ''would not lock on'' at that range (not to mention that they required the pilot to keep the radar focused on the target, which is easy when it hasn't seen you yet, but becomes impossible to do when it's dodging and weaving all over the place), and the pilots got slaughtered by the [=MiG=]-21. Seeing this mistake, all jet fighters today are equipped with autocannons and all pilots receive training for dogfights.
* Dedicated interceptor aircraft, such as the F-106 Delta Dart and the [=MiG=]-25 [[ReportingNames Foxbat]]. Designed to accelerate fast (the [=MiG=]-25 could reach Mach 3.2, ''once'') and climb fast in order to shoot down enemy bombers, they were next to useless in any other combat role and eventually replaced (in most air forces; Russia still maintains [=MiG=]-31 interceptors due to the amount of area it has to defend) by all-around air superiority fighters such as the F-15 and Su-27.
* Frederick the Great's Prussian infantry could fire twice as fast as the Austrians' but couldn't hold their own in a drawn-out bayonet fight. They still kicked ass, though.
* The opposite extreme is the famous phrase ''"[[RenaissanceMan Jack of all trades]], MasterOfNone"'', typically used to deride [[JackOfAllStats characters with a "general" skill-set]], originally ended with ''"...though often better than a master of one"''. [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Now You Know]].
** [[Series/{{Mythbusters}} Adam Savage]] asserted and popularized that, but he's wrong. In fact, originally, the famous phrase was just "jack of all trades" and a compliment. Sometime later, people added on the derisive bit that made it "jack of all trades, master of none." Then Adam Savage stepped in and added that part.
** In general, this tends to be the case with some people who get a Masters degree in a field, and then make a career out of that skill. Unless they have hobbies and outside interests, if the field empties out due to something like Enron, they may be in a situation where they are "overqualified" (but underskilled) in other fields, and other businesses in that field already have the employees they need. As an added bonus, some managers can't really do the job they manage (this is sometimes the case in computer jobs, where the person managing has a degree in Business Management, and the people working have Computer Programming degrees), so if the company goes under, and jobs are filled for management...
* The Space Shuttle. Designed by committee, it is reusable, has capacity for massive payloads, can be launched into polar orbits, and basically was made to deliver what everyone involved (Congress, NASA, the military, etc) wanted it to be able to do. Problem is, the minimum level of ability needed to accomplish any of those tasks are so high that CripplingOverspecialization is the only way for LEO launches to be cost-effective.
* The giant panda, which evolved in a time when there were massive forests of bamboo and becoming one of the few large animals that could the eat the stuff seems like a good idea at the time... before the bamboo forests started shrinking and breaking up into smaller areas, with the panda's diet effectively holding them prisoner on rapidly sinking islands. Oops.
** It also doesn't help that the panda eats a vegetarian diet with what is essentially a carnivore's digestive tract. The panda in many ways represents a cascade failure of the evolutionary process, a series of "good enough" kludges that let it just barely hang on in its environment.
** They do have one very important evolutionary adaptation that will pretty much ensure their survival; being adorable. [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute First priority endangered animal!]]
* Most modern Aircraft Carriers are built for one thing: Launching planes. The ability to defend themselves without aircraft or escorts consists of a few point defense weapons. Which is exactly why Carriers always have escorts and some kind of air cover.
** The Russian carrier ''Admiral Kuznetsov'' avoids this to a certain degree, though not really in a good way. It carries a large complement of anti-ship missiles and anti-air weapons. However, this is to make up for the fact that it has a small number of aircraft compared to American carriers, and for the lack of support ships in the Russian Navy. While it is less specialized than other carriers, it is MORE vulnerable.
*** Additionally, this arrangement was ''not'' a choice for the Russians; a provision of some treaty or other was generally understood as forbidding aircraft carriers from passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles (i.e. the passage between the Black Sea and Mediterranean). This is a huge problem for Russia, since a very large portion of its fleet, including its major naval yard, is based on the Black Sea. There's no other way out of the Black Sea except through that passage, severely limiting the utility of carriers there (there are few places a carrier could go in the Black Sea that would get you much better range than just launching the planes from the ground in Russian territory). So Russia decided to just give its carriers some perfunctory cruiser-like armament and [[LoopholeAbuse pretend that the carriers are just]] "[[InsistentTerminology aviation cruisers]]"; nobody challenged them on this point, deciding it wasn't worth the trouble.
** Launching planes is a lot more flexible a schtick than 'try to engage enemy surface vessels in a single decisive battle' though, which was what the earlier battleships were built around. Equipping the planes differently can allow a variety of different missions to be carried out, from air defense to bombing to anti-submarine. And engaging the enemy before you're in his range.
* Paleoartists are freelance artists that have confined their entire portfolio and thus career prospects to the depiction of extinct animals(mostly dinosaurs). A combination of extremely low demand and competition from generalist freelance artists means that even highly skilled and firmly established paleoartist are struggling to find work and stay afloat.
* Bananas. Before the 1950s, the single largest banana cultivar by far was the Gros Michel, which was favoured since it could survive in temperate climates and was easily shipped without any special care. Because bananas were bred at the time of their original domestication to remove the seeds from their fruit, they [[CloningBlues can only reproduce parthogenically]], meaning that they are extremely slow to develop a resistance via natural mutation. This meant that the entire Gros Michel cultivar was vulnerable to, and ultimately nearly wiped out by, a single disease. The modern banana cultivar of choice is the Cavendish, which has precisely the same level of market penetration, and precisely the same potential for global collapse if the same disease mutates (as it already has) and goes global, or if a new pathogen emerges.
** Agricultural experts (at a couple of Australian universities, at least, haven't heard about the matter in an international context) have gone on record stating that almost all staple food crops -- corn, wheat, sugar, etc. -- are in roughly the same position. Since most large scale growers buy the cheapest seeds they can, the vast majority of growers end up using the same crops, leaving a serious risk of not only a virulent strain coming along and devastating crops, but also, should the GlobalWarming situation go as badly as people fear, the environmental conditions for growing these common strains becoming too precarious to support wide-scale growing. We could face a global-scale famine before a more resilient strain of seed is found, grown en-masse (after all, seeds don't just come out of thin air![[note]]Unless an enterprising company were to genetically engineer new varieties of GMO crops that can grow in harsher environments. Unfortunately, that course of action is expensive and limited to the developed world, so...[[/note]]) and distributed.
** Similarly, this trope is part of two different hypotheses explaining colony collapse disorder, i.e. the sudden die-off of honeybee colonies. According to the first hypothesis, centuries of selecting bees for useful traits (producing more honey, pollinating certain plants more efficiently) has reduced genetic diversity within commercial bee populations, leaving them vulnerable to pathogens. In the second one, feeding bees a diet of pollen from just one species of plant (i.e. one of the commercial food crops) leaves them with a less healthy immune system than feeding them pollen from several different plant species.
** The same thing occurs with any domesticated animal. In the wild, an animal may develop a specialized trait, like say, running to avoid predators, but there are a number of other factors that will determine its survival, like diseases. Under human care, it lives in a controlled environment and are usually bred for a single specific purpose, say, racing. They may develop genetic disorders or be susceptible to diseases and such.
* ''Mostly'' averted in the sport of UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts, where it's pretty much universal that you ''have'' to have ''some'' proficiency at wherever the fight goes, even if it's purely defensive. It's arguably MinMaxing if the fighter is really, ''really'' good at their one specialty, but if the fighter isn't that good at it or at ''keeping'' the fight there, then this trope applies.
** For example, Shinya Aoki and Demian Maia are considered extremely high-level grapplers, and Melvin Manhoef is a high-grade (offensive, anyway) kickboxer who's considered devastatingly potent in stand-up... unfortunately, this isn't pure grappling or kickboxing.
** The thing is, the "keep the fight where you want it" bit pretty much requires learning the opposite of the techniques useful in the situation you're trying to keep in. You're going to end up on the ground very quickly if you don't know much grappling (as most techniques to get a man to the ground where grappling is more useful are in themselves grappling based), and if you're no good at striking, chances are you'll be beaten to a bloody pulp before you can get anywhere near the ground where striking is less useful.
** UFC fighter Cody McKenzie has an absolutely lethal guillotine choke, one which has felled the vast majority of his opponents. When that fails, however, he's highly vulnerable on the ground, succumbing to rear-naked chokes against Yves Edwards and Vagner Rocha. Conversely, Bellator's Giva Santana, "The Arm Collector," specializes in armbars but has an impressive grappling game in addition.
** Rousimar Palhares fell victim to this trope. When his [[SignatureMove trademark leglocks]] didn't work on [[TheMario Alan Belcher]], he had no way to stop his opponent's ground and pound, and lost by TKO.
* While it's usually averted in the sport of roller derby (most blockers can also jam in a pinch, and most jammers can throw a good hit,) happens from time to time. Some jammers are fast and agile enough to get through the pack without any help at all, [[FragileSpeedster but if they get so much as a love tap,]] [[GlassCannon they go down hard.]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome Savant Syndrome]] basically, you're a genius in one specific area but otherwise you're mentally disabled.
* Many sole proprietorships and independent businesses - particularly those in retail.
* Pure gaming machines have gone extinct, with every current game console supporting other functions such as DVD or Blu-ray playback, internet browsing etc.
* The South during TheAmericanCivilWar. Not only were they so focused on cotton that they had exactly one factory that could produce cannon, they didn't have enough land left over to grow enough ''food''. Even with the Confederate government taking food from private farms for the war effort, the Confederate army was often severely underfed and it wasn't uncommon for soldiers to be malnourished.
** The problems of supply facing the Confederate army were so acute that [[http://civilwartalk.com/threads/soldiers-shoes.73013/ some historians have suggested that the Battle of Gettysburg was precipitated by a Confederate brigade's attempt to raid a shoe warehouse.]]
* True for almost all animals from an evolutionary standpoint. Many animals tend to specialize in adapting to their particular environment (e.g. Australia has an unusually high number of unique animals due to multiple habitats that are separated from each other - Costa Rica is similar), and if anything alters that environment, that animal could die off rapidly, while more generically adapted animals (scroungers in particular, such as rats) will make it through all but the most catastrophic environmental alterations. But after the change, the available animals will begin to fill the now abandoned niches, such as when mammals took over after the massive die-out of the dinosaurs.
* Rules in a survival situation are this trope. They are the first thing to go out the window in a survival situation. "There are no rules in love and war" is a popular saying for a reason - the victors get to live and pass on their genetic code. The losers ''die''.
** [[ScrewThisIndexIHaveTropes Note how many indexes we have that start off with "screw the rules..."]]
** Combat Rules are great in tournament martial arts, fencing, boxing, etc - however if you're jumped in an alley or your life is threatened on your way to your car, expecting to defend yourself while keeping to tournament/practice rules is foolhardy if not suicidal.
* OlderThanFeudalism: Roman Legionnaires were trained to fight as a cohesive unit, not as individuals. While this strategy worked for them quite well most of the time, it hit a massive snag during the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. The thick woods and rough terrain of the region forced the Romans to split into smaller groups, which enabled the Germanic tribesmen, who were better fighters individually, to overwhelm and defeat them. The defeat proved to be psychologically devastating for Rome, bringing an abrupt halt to its then-relentless expansion.
* Ancient Sparta had this problem on two fronts:
** Spartan soldiers had a reputation for being the most well-trained in Ancient Greece. However, they only trained one kind of troop - the heavy-infantry hoplite - and in fact trained their troops [[TheSpartanWay so hard]] that their army was relatively small. They had no cavalry, navy, or light infantry. The tactics they were able to execute were severely limited, and their army was too small to maintain extended conflicts.
** With every adult Spartan male devoted to military training and every adult Spartan female devoted to child-rearing, every other job was done by slaves. Sparta's economy and infrastructure was almost exclusively maintained by an enormous slave population. Whenever there was a revolt (which was often), the entire city-state ground to a halt and had to perform a brutal purge, and then go off and enslave some hapless nearby village as replacements.
* Toyota essentially initiated the third "industrial revolution" (first being the actual, second being assembly line thanks to Ford). One of the components? Have your workers know how to do more than one thing so you can be more efficient with less. Essentially something of an [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of traditional production line methods.
* Too many weapons to count have failed because they were to focused on one job, while the unpredictability of warfare often calls for any weapon to do all sorts of jobs in a pinch. That is why most modern Assault Rifles are JackOfAllTrades that are good in any situation, with mounts designed to place any attachment needed on a weapon.
* For food, there are kitchen gadgets specialized only in cooking, preparing, or cleaning only one kind of thing. For example, zesters can only obtain the zest of citrus fruits, butter knifes are too dull to do anything but serving soft butter, egg slicers are only great for people who want sliced eggs in their salad, etc. An entire list of near useless kitchen appliances can be found in this thread [[http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/340501]] here.
** Bread slicers used in small or supermarket bakeries do one thing ([[CaptainObvious slice bread]]) one way (often they are not adjustable), and take up approximately the same table space as a desktop PC.
* Some [[CoolCar 1960s show rods]] went this way. The [[http://www.mrgasser.com/surfite.htm Surfite]] was designed to carry the driver and a surfboard. No room for a passenger or groceries (or a wetsuit, for that matter); Mini-powered, no explanation as to why a theoretical owner wouldn't just buy a Mini wagon was ever offered.
* Supercomputers are built to do one task, and one task only.
** Not really. Most supercomputers can be turned to just about any problem that demands incredible computational power. Quite a few are ''built'' for one task, if that one task is so demanding it will need a whole supercomputer running 24/7: weather forecasting is the prime example since you'll always need updated forecasts. But they could still be turned to another job if needed (perhaps if the weather forecasters get an even newer computer and let someone else have the old one).
** From a certain point of view, this extends to ALL computers. They do exactly one thing: binary math. It's the instruction set, and layer upon layer of programming about that, that allow it to do something a human user would consider useful. Along these lines, most supercomputer clusters are capable of doing more than one thing, [[ZigZaggedTrope but if you need one anyway]], you get the most bang for your buck by programming it to do exactly one thing.
*** For highly specialized calculations, such as ones involving astrophysics, microprocessors specifically designed for that one type of task perform better than any multitasking computer, at the expense of being able to handle any other sort of computation easily, if at all.
** This has been inverted by graphics processing units. In the beginning, they were essentially designed to pump out pixels, with 3D geometry was done on the CPU. Then they were designed to handle both geometry and pixels, but on dedicated pipelines meaning that scenes could tax one pipeline but not the other, lowering practical performance. Finally, GPU designers said screw it and made the basic unit of [=GPUs=] not only handle geometry or pixel processing, but ''anything'' that essentially needs to be number crunched.
* Humanity has been at war with contagious disease since prehistory, yet we've succeeded in exterminating only ''one'' species of human pathogen from the globe: smallpox, which now exists only in a few preserved laboratory specimens. Why was it possible to wipe it out, while other infamous mass killers such as malaria or plague still exist despite our best efforts? Because smallpox could ''only'' be carried by or transmitted to humans, not mosquitoes or rodents or anything else. Once everyone at risk had been vaccinated, it had nothing to infect.
* Becoming more and more common in modern society as time marches on. Its simply not possible to be a master in a single life time ALL the fields of knowledge mankind now has. Knowledge that keeps growing as more discoveries are made. Fortunately, the "crippling" part is often aovided by cooperation so situations where brain surgeons have to plot a course to Mars or a rocket scientist needing to do brain surgery is rare.
* Workers who try to do "too much" or take everything on themselves may think they are averting this trope by doing so many things, but it is actually playing it straight when that worker who does everything needs to call off sick or leaves the company. It's overspecializing ''of a group'' when there is no cross training, and work may grind to a halt as other people are trained or try to work out the system the sick person was using.
[[/folder]]

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