Power at a Price - Television Tropes & Idioms

You mean magic isn't for free?

"All power demands sacrifice."

— Sindri Myr, Dawn of War

Power. The ability to influence, create, change, and even destroy. Things, places, people. It is by nature highly contentious: Some want it and would kill for it, others do not want it, or would gladly give away such a burden. Therein lies the rub. For all its force, blessings, or ability to change, power is not free... of responsibility, consequence, or cost. Some people think the exchange has to be "fair."

Drama derives vigor from the quandary of how power, seemingly free of any strings, has inherent costs. Whether they are hideous mutations, social alienation, or even death varies by story, genre, and kind of power. But the underlying basis is the same: Power at a Price.

Tropes:

General

Necessary Drawback — For every advantage, there's a disadvantage.
- Crippling Overspecialization — Inverse of Jack of All Stats - really good at one thing, no good at everything else.
- Fragile Speedster — Speed without power.
- Glass Cannon — Offense without defense.
- Jack of All Stats — No weaknesses, no strengths.
- Mighty Glacier — Power without speed.
- Paper Ram — Offense and Speed without Defence.
- Quantity Vs Quality — The two are always inversely proportional.
- Stone Wall — Defense without offense.
- Titanium Peashooter — Defense and speed without offense.

Artifacts

Artifact of Attraction — You'll be compelled to kill for it and be killed over it.
Artifact of Doom — Use it at risk of becoming evil.
Artifact of Death — Use it at risk of death.
Clingy Macguffin — Throw it away, and it will come back.
Empathic Weapon / Loyal Phlebotinum — Then again, maybe it won't let you use it.
Insert Payment To Use — It'll let you use it, but you have to pay with lifeforce, money, or some other form of currency.
Situational Sword — You can use it, just not all of the time.
Unholy Holy Sword — It's The Mole of artifacts.

Magic

Equivalent Exchange — Everything does not come free; it has a (sometimes terrible) cost.
- Black Magic — Very powerful magic, at a moral and material price.
  - Deal with the Devil — Never obtain magic from malevolent/mysterious entities or tricksters.
- Eye of Newt — Magic requires magical components.
- Fantastic Fragility — Building in weaknesses to boost power.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards — Wizards take longer to gain power, but gain more power in the end.
- Magic Knight — Can fight well physically, but usually isn't as powerful at magic as a pure wizard.
  - The Paladin — Good in a battle (especially against The Undead) and has plenty of White Magic power, but lacks offensive magic skills and is often constrained by a code.
- The Red Mage — Can use all kinds of magic, but isn't the best at any of them.
- Squishy Wizard — Can cast powerful spells, but can't take a punch. Basically, magical power at a physical price.
  - Armor and Magic Don't Mix — Mages can't wear armor.
- Cast from Hit Points — Magic fueled by sacrificing your current health (i.e., causing your body damage), your life force or your lifespan, which brings us to...
- Cast From Lifespan — Magic which shortens the user's lifespan.
- White Magic — Not as powerful as Black Magic, but less noxious.
Magic Is a Monster Magnet — Using magic draws the wrong sort of attention.

Martial

Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training — Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
Bare-Fisted Monk — Does not need weapons, but, therefore, does not benefit much from better gear.
Magic Knight — Again, a fighter who can cast, but usually isn't as good at melee as a pure warrior.

Political

Ambition Is Evil — Trying to climb the social ladder tends to knock everyone else down a rung; therefore, it is evil and shouldn't be done.
Drunk with Power: It's addictive.
Lonely at the Top — The more powerful you are, the more isolated and lonelier you'll be.
Pride

Psychic Powers

Psychic Nosebleed — Overuse or misuse of psychic powers results in physical injury.

Super Powers

The Dark Arts — The skill is deemed forbidden for any of a number of reasons.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child — It requires an ethically repulsive component to function.
- Soul Powered Engine.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility — No inherent price except using it responsibly.
- Samaritan Syndrome — Then again, responsibility and guilt are costs, which leads to...
  - Heroic Fatigue
- Can't Stay Normal
- God Job — Get the power of a god, but you've got a job to do.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity — Power causes madness.
- A God Am I — Power will make you think that you're invincible. Regardless of whether or not it's true, you're gonna have a lot of enemies.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul — Upgrading your hardware downgrades your humanity.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique — A powerful ability, with a powerful cost.
- The Dark Side — applies mostly to Comes Great Responsibility, but branches into physical/madness.
- Mad Oracle
- Power Born of Madness — Madness causes power.
  - Super-Powered Evil Side — Your power comes with an alternate, nasty, side.
  - Crazy Awesome — You're insane, but in a cool way.
- Psycho Serum — Potion causes Madness.
- Unhappy Medium — You're powerful, but really unhappy.
  - A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read — You can read minds, but it's very disturbing.
  - Dirty Mind Reading — You can read minds, but it's very disturbing in that way.
Disability Super Power — Power at the price of one or more faculties.
- Power Incontinence — Limited control over destructive or inconvenient powers.
- Blessed with Suck — You'll think it's worth it, but it isn't.
- Curse That Cures — A sick or injured character is cured as a side effect of a Curse.
- Cursed with Awesome — You'll think it isn't worth it, but it is.
- Blind Seer
- Mad Oracle — Again.
- Age Without Youth
- Invisible Streaker — You can't be seen, but you have to be naked.
- Time Dissonance — You aren't in sync with the rest of causality.
- Disability Immunity — Rather than granting you powers to compensate, you are protected from something that would harm more able individuals.
- Power Strain Blackout — You faint after using your powers
Everything but the Girl — You can do anything you like, except win over your True Love.
One-Winged Angel — Physical power at the cost of your physical form.
- Clipped Wing Angel — Eventually, the "new form" turns out to be a bust.
- Deadly Upgrade — Eventually, your new form will make you die.
  - Explosive Overclocking — Or it will make your stuff explode.
- Lovecraftian Superpower — It looks really weird.
- Power Degeneration — Having superpowers will accelerate your aging and kill you.
- Power Upgrading Deformation — You get loads of power, but it's because you got ugly add-ons.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock — Inability to regain one's normal form.
- The Corruption — Uncanny powers are just a symptom of a malignant infection.
Power Loss Makes You Strong — The flip side. By losing a superpower, you gain something. Namely, extreme badassery.
Power Source — They may need to be refilled frequently.
- Fuel Meter Of Power — Limited usage of superpowers. Using them all up may cause death.
- I'm Having Soul Pains — Too painful to use this power for long.
Reality Warping Is Not a Toy — When Reality Warping proves hard to control.
Superpowers for a Day — Powers for the price of time. Powers can never be gained again.
Superpower Lottery — Extreme superpowers at no cost, or at least not proportional ones.
- Heart Is An Awesome Power — Powers that require extreme out-of-the-box thinking in order to get any use out of it.
- Required Secondary Powers — For all those extra powers you have (or don't have) to deal with your "main" power.
  - Too Fast to Stop — For when you have that Super Speed thing, but not that Super Stopping thing...
  - Does Not Know His Own Strength — When you can't judge how much power you're using.
Weaksauce Weakness — Competitive Balance taken to extremes to offset for winning the lottery, likewise leads to ...
- Deus Exit Machina
Logical Weakness — A weakness because of a power that actually makes logical sense.
Multiform Balance — When each of your forms has a power set suited for particular tactics and situations.
Conditional Powers — When the power comes with something you must (or must not) do
- Virgin Power — You must remain a virgin to use your powers
Sensory Overload — The drawback to certain Super Senses.
Beneficial Disease - When a disease provides you from superpowers/immunity
The Assimilator/Power Parasite — You can absorb others and/or their abilities.
- Assimilation Backfire — And sometimes you absorb something harmful or gives you a weakness.

Scientific

Science Is Bad — The Luddites' view that not everything scientific is good.
- Aesoptinum
- For Science!
- Psycho Serum — In the "Gone Horribly Wrong" sense.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know
Living Battery — the living power supply pays the cost. Can also power magical devices.

Video Games and Tabletop Games

Bribing Your Way to Victory: How much in Real Life dollars are you willing to pay for a Top Tier deck in a CCG, or for enhanced equipment in an MMO?
Cast From Money — These powerful powers requires in-game money to work.
Comeback Mechanic — Being ahead of the other players means you make the other players stronger.
Competitive Balance — In Video Games, characters have strengths and weaknesses.
Level Scaling — Power that comes at a price of increased difficulty.
- Empty Levels — When the power actually makes your character weaker or increases the difficulty disproportionately.
Magikarp Power — This character or ability can be very useful... if you bother to grind for it.