History Main / ArmoredButFrail

** Protoss Immortals in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' were the first game's Dragoons, retrofitted with special plasma shields that reduce all damage to 10 or less as long as they have shields. While this lets them counter hard-hitting units like siege tanks (and weak to ZergRush, which relies on lots of weak attacks) and they aren't nearly as vulnerable as Archons without shields, their actual hull isn't well armored against scratch damage. Immortals invert this trope completely in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfTheVoid'' where they lose the hardened shields in exchange for a 3-second barrier that simply absorbs 100 damage and had no armor bonuses at all.

** Protoss Immortals in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' were the first game's Dragoons, retrofitted with special plasma shields that reduce all damage to 10 or less as long as they have shields. While this lets them counter hard-hitting units like siege tanks (and weak to ZergRush, which relies on lots of weak attacks) and they aren't nearly as vulnerable as Archons without shields, their actual hull isn't well armored even against scratch damage. Immortals invert this trope completely in ''VideoGame/LegacyOfTheVoid'' where they lose the hardened shields in exchange for a 3-second barrier that simply absorbs 100 damage with no armor bonuses.

** The Terran Thor and Protoss Colossus are an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]: They're well protected with hit points, and have powerful weaponry, but have minimal armor values. This means that even hits from ScratchDamage will be absorbed with almost full effect, making them vulnerable to swarming unless supported. The Colossus is even more vulnerable thanks to being tall enough for anti-air weapons to makes huge dents in their hit points. They're [[MightyGlacier mighty glaciers]] with less emphasis on survival and more on damage throughput and decent mobility.

** The Terran Thor and Protoss Colossus are an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]: They're well protected with hit points, and have powerful weaponry, but have minimal armor values. This means that even hits from ScratchDamage will be absorbed with almost full effect, making them vulnerable to swarming unless supported. The Colossus is even more vulnerable thanks to being tall enough for anti-air weapons to makes huge dents in their hit points. They're [[MightGlacier mighty glaciers]] with less emphasis on survival and more on damage throughput and decent mobility.

** The Terran Thor and Protoss Colossus are an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]: They're well protected with hit points, and have powerful weaponry, but have minimal armor values. This means that even hits from ScratchDamage will be absorbed with almost full effect, making them vulnerable to swarming unless supported. The Colossus is even more vulnerable thanks to being tall enough for anti-air weapons to makes huge dents in their hit points. They're MightGlaciers with less emphasis on survival and more on damage throughput and decent mobility.

** The Terran Thor and Protoss Colossus are an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]: They're well protected with hit points, and have powerful weaponry, but have minimal armor values. This means that even hits from ScratchDamage will be absorbed with almost full effect, making them vulnerable to swarming unless supported. The Colossus is even more vulnerable thanks to being tall enough for anti-air weapons to makes huge dents in their hit points.

** Protoss Immortals in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' were the first game's Dragoons, retrofitted with special plasma shields that reduce all damage to 10 or less as long as they have shields. While this lets them counter hard-hitting units like siege tanks (and weak to ZergRush, which relies on lots of weak attacks) and they aren't quite as vulnerable as Archons without shields, suddenly becoming a GlassCannon is not good for their health.

** The Terran Thor and Protoss Colossus are an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]: They're well protected with hit points, and have powerful weaponry, but have minimal armor values. This means that even hits from ScratchDamage will be absorbed with almost full effect, making them vulnerable to swarming without support.

** Zerg Larva have the highest armor value of all units in the game outside of custom maps (along with their sibling, the egg) but have a mere 25 HitPoints. Also, this armor provides relatively less protection from attacks that emphasize quality over quantity. Notably, Siege Tanks and Reavers can kill them in one hit and can even make short work of eggs (200 [=HP=].

* Several ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' enemies have some kind of (often completely invincible) armor that can be removed with the right item (usually a grappling hook or its analogue), exposing or stunning them so they can be taken out with a single sword slash.

* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' game, [[spoiler: [[EliteMook Eridian Guardians]]]] have very powerful shields that can take almost every attack like a champ... Unless you're using a [[ShockAndAwe Shock-elemented]] weapon/attack to quickly wear down their shields and expose their fragile frames, killing them instantly. In fact, there are ways to bypass the shields, such as [[FriendlySniper Mordecai's]] [[ArmorPiercingAttack Trespasser ability]].

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has mechanics like Regenerate (now deprecated) and keywords like Totem Armor which are in this vein if they are applied to creatures with 1 life. These creatures would typically be destroyed by an attack from ''anything'', even the [[CherryTapping cherriest of taps]], but these abilities allow them to survive a hit from almost anything, even the game's ultra powerful {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series plays with this trope throughout. In most cases, heavily armored [=NPCs=] have relatively high amounts of health as well, averting the trope. However, unless armor is specifically enchanted to Resist or Absorb magic (both rare and powerful enchantments), armor does ''nothing'' to protect from magic. Blast a heavily armored foe with powerful spells and you can kill them with relative ease. Additionally, you can choose to invoke this trope by equipping a low-health PlayerCharacter with elite armor.

** Zerg Larva have the highest armor value of all units in the game outside of custom maps (along with their sibling, the egg) but have a mere 25 HitPoints. Also, this armor provides relatively less protection from attacks that emphasize quality of quantity. Notably, Siege Tanks and Reavers can kill them in one hit and can even make short work of eggs (200 [=HP=].

** Zerg Larva have the highest possible armor value of all units in the game (along with their sibling, the egg) but have a mere 25 HitPoints. Also, this armor provides relatively less protection from attacks that emphasize quality of quantity. Notably, Siege Tanks and Reavers can kill them in one hit and can even make short work of eggs (200 [=HP=].

** Zerg Larva have the highest possible armor value of all units in the game (along with their sibling, the egg) but have a mere 25 HitPoints, and this armor provides relatively little protection from attacks that emphasize quality of quantity. Notably, Siege Tanks and Reavers can kill them in one hit and can even make short work of eggs (200 [=HP=].

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': Archons are Protoss heavy-assault EnergyBeings with a tremendously powerful {{Deflector Shield|s}} (more than twice as strong as a human Siege Tank) and an absolute pittance in Hit Points (one quarter those of a puny zergling). This lets them recover easily between fights, but makes them tremendously vulnerable to {{EMP}}s, which strip the shields in an instant.

* Mad Pierrot from ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' is a highly powerful assassin equipped with a personal force field that deflects bullets and other high-speed projectiles, rendering him invincible for most of his fight against Spike. He's also a PsychopathicManchild with no pain tolerance, so a single throwing knife (moving slow enough to not be stopped by the shield) to the leg is enough to cause a complete mental breakdown and take him out of the fight.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'': Fenix has the lowest maximum health of all Ranged Assassins in the game. However, his trait grants him a permanent shield that takes damage before his health and rapidly regenerates while out of combat. Combined, he actually has the highest total health for a Ranged Assassin, but a large chunk of it can't be recovered in the middle of a fight.

** Protoss Immortals in StarcraftII were the first game's Dragoons, retrofitted with special plasma shields that reduce all damage to 10 or less as long as they have shields. While this lets them counter hard-hitting units like siege tanks (and weak to ZergRush, which relies on lots of weak attacks) and they aren't quite as vulnerable as Archons without shields, suddenly becoming a GlassCannon is not good for their health.

* In ''VideoGame/ShiningForceII'', you can recruit a character named Kiwi. Kiwi has by far the worst HP growth in the game, but his defense is so high that very few enemies will ever do more than a single point of damage to him. However, he has no defense against magic or FixedDamageAttacks, meaning his usefulness decreases by the end game, when these types of attacks are very common.

* In ''VideoGame/ShiningForce2'', you can recruit a character named Kiwi. Kiwi has by far the worst HP growth in the game, but his defense is so high that very few enemies will ever do more than a single point of damage to him. However, he has no defense against magic or FixedDamageAttacks, meaning his usefulness decreases by the end game, when these types of attacks are very common.

* The Sea Maggot from ''DarkestDungeon'' has enough Protection to cause attacks against to be reduced to a fourth of their damage but even the toughest variant just barely scrapes double digits in hit points.

A character or enemy in a video game who has a high defensive stat or ability would be expected to have at least a decently-sized pool of HP to go with it, but this isn't always the case. Some characters instead have a dangerously low pool of health, and use their high defense to balance it out, much like how a FragileSpeedster would use their superior evasive skills for the same effect. Common tactics against such an opponent include [[DeathOfAThousandCuts wearing them down with lots of quick-but-weak attacks since they'll often do the same amount of damage as a single hard-hitting attack,]] or utilizing some kind of AntiArmor technique or ArmorPiercingAttack.

** Shedinja is a (literal) OneHitPointWonder, whose Wonder Guard ability prevents any damage from an attack type that it isn't weak to. However, Wonder Guard also does ''not'' protect it from DamageOverTime like [[UniversalPoison poison]] and [[ManOnFire burns]], from damage inflicted by [[WeatherManipulation weather]] or [[{{Caltrops}} entry hazards]], or from Pokémon with abilities like Mold Breaker (which makes the user's attacks [[AntiMagic bypass other abilities]]).

** Then there's Eviolite, a held item for not-fully-evolved Pokémon (most of which have relatively low hp) which causes them to take 33% less damage from attacks. Or the Fur Coat ability possessed by Furfrou and Alolan Persian, which halves damage from physical attacks.