Basic Trope: A Class and Level System where characters must actively fight and defeat enemies to gain experience points, potentially crippling support classes who aren't as good at killing opponents.
- Straight: The game Blade of Tropus uses a Class and Level System that rewards characters for fighting and killing enemies, but not for healing or casting buffs and other support spells.
- Exaggerated: Healers don't even get an EXP stat because the game flat-out refuses to let them attack — they can ONLY heal others, never take a life or even deal Scratch Damage. And since healing doesn't offer any experience either, they can't level up that way...
- Downplayed: Healers are only able to gain EXP when healing during a fight. Waiting in town and healing damaged characters doesn't give anything.
- Justified:
- Blade of Tropus explicitly presents EXP as a measure of combat expertise. Healers that don't fight will be weaker in straight combat, but can make up for it with their spells, which are tied to a different system.
- Blade of Tropus uses an achievement based magic and skill system, and an EXP based level system. Healers do progress, just not in levels.
- Inverted: Healers gain great rewards for keeping their allies alive, while said allies gain minimal EXP for defeating enemies, or are even penalized for dealing the killing blow.
- Subverted: Blade of Tropus allows characters to gain EXP for any action they take, including casting recovery spells.
- Double Subverted: ...However, the rewards for simply healing still aren't nearly as good as for actually slaying opponents, so medics and supporters still tend to lag behind.
- Parodied: It's not just a mechanic, it's a reason the healer always gets picked on. If they go to an Inn somebody always remarks along the lines of "well, maybe your healer could help you, they might get some EXP for it!"
- Zig Zagged: While most support classes in Blade of Tropus don't get any special rewards for using their skills, Bards get credit for singing, which can buff and/or heal allies, or inflict status effects on enemies. The heroine, White Magician Girl Maia, also gains EXP from casting her healing and support spells... but only because she flat-out can't attack enemies, period, making this the only way she can earn EXP in the first place. Kowalski and Carol are also effectively Combat Medics, allowing them to keep up with the warriors.
- Averted:
- Healing characters also gives experience as Non-Combat EXP.
- All classes benefit from Leaked Experience.
- Enforced: "Should we let them gain experience for healing?" "Nah, it'll be harder that way!"
- Lampshaded: "Why is it that you all would be dead without me but I'm treated as if I've done nothing useful for the party!?"
- Invoked: The gods of magic find that prolonging life is unnatural and yet humans continually find ways to do it, so they make it so healing magic does as little as possible.
- Exploited: Combat-oriented characters are ordered to capture enemies instead of killing them, so that support class characters can gain experience by executing or sacrificing prisoners.
- Defied: The healer in question studies hard so she can use leech magic, dealing damage and healing.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: The game uses a Point Build System that has the points spent on feats rather than stats. Points are earned from other ways rather than just fighting through the game. The healer has very few feats that increase their stats and instead just give them new spells, and those that do are always marked as being influenced by an outside power.
- Deconstructed: Blazer comes to look down upon healers since they aren't as strong as the rest of his followers — even the mages deal out more damage! By contrast, the healers appear to him to be just The Load... especially when they're too weak to even reach the front-liners who need their support the most.
- Reconstructed: Rather than cursing their weaknesses, Blazer learns how to compensate for them in order to better utilize their strengths, becoming a better strategist and commander in the process.
- Plotted A Good Waste: After much adventuring to get a healer to the peek of truths to learn something about the healing arts, spending a lot of time and effort simply getting up there hoping to get a new healing magic or protection, the healer is basically told that because they they don't practice combat, the gods consider them wimps and cowards and refuse to allow them to become more powerful. That's it.
- Played For Laughs: Healers are basically Butt-Monkey status. To the point where in game they have disturbingly high defense at low levels because the universe just tortures them continually for being low leveled.
- Played For Drama: Healers are rather few in number, because nobody respects them and their dedication. When a plague hits the small number of healers left leave a much of the world wiped out, despite healers easily being able to cure the infected, and a few even become exploiters, demanding money from those who looked down on them in order to prevent them from dying.
Go back to No Experience Points for Medic to kill some enemies for experience. Wait, you don't do that?
