History Main / ArmoredButFrail

* Skull Eaters from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' have a grand total of [[OneHitPointWonder one hit point]], but have extremely high defenses, and are almost impossible to take out when they're first encountered.

* ''VideoGame/SlayTheSpire'' has an event that takes away a large percentage of Max HP and adds Apparition cards to the player's deck. These cards reduce ''all'' damage to ScratchDamage, while they last.

* In ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'', Ghost and its advancements have great resistance against every damage type except for arcane and fire and have good evasion everywhere, but they have relatively low HP compared to units at the same level. This makes them particularly vulnurable to wizard units like Mage and Dark Adept who have fire and arcane attacks whose chance-to-hit don't depend on enemy's evasion.

* The Iron Golem from ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'' has a mere 50 HP, but its defense is so absurdly high that any and all attacks against it deal a whopping 1 point of ScratchDamage, making lots of rapid-fire attacks the optimal strategy against it.
* In ''VideoGame/Crysis2'' and ''VideoGame/Crysis3'', the nanosuit soldier you play as actually dies after only a handful of assault rifle hits, being not that much tougher than an average ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' protagonist. However, you have an Armor Mode that hardens your nanosuit and lets you shrug off a couple dozen assault rifle hits before taking any real damage, though this drains your suit's energy reserves.
* The Sea Maggot from ''VideoGame/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.

* Anti-Mage from ''VideoGame/Dota2'' boasts a high Agility growth, giving him lots of armor in the late game, and a passive ability that heavily increases his magic resistance, letting him shrug off both physical and magical damage easily. However, his actual health pool is fairly poor, making him vulnerable to [[ArmorPiercingAttack Pure damage]] which isn't affected by either armor or magic resistance.

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'': [[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 laughably low hit points. After that, a few hits will kill them, even if your attacks don't land a CriticalHit on their [[BoomHeadShot small heads]]. In fact, there are ways to bypass the shields, such as Mordecai's [[ArmorPiercingAttack Trespasser skill]]. They still have this weakness in ''[[VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel The Pre-Sequel]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Borderlands3 3]]'', and it's even worse in the latter, as the Guardians gain a new weakness: radiation. While it's not to the degree of damage of shock, it's still enough to wreak havoc on shields.

** [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Shuckle]] is an extreme example, with the highest Defense and Special Defense of any usable Pokemon (230 for both) protecting a mere 20 base HP, one of the worst in the game[[note]]Shuckle is tied for second lowest HP of any Pokémon that isn't [[OneHitPointWonder Shedinja]][[/note]]. In fact, the phenomenon of high defenses and low HP is common enough (as seen below) that it's sometimes referred to as "Shuckle syndrome."

* 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 -- it only stops things moving above a certain speed) to the leg is enough to cause a complete mental breakdown and take him out of the fight.

* In ''VideoGame/Crysis2'' and ''VideoGame/Crysis3'', the nanosuit soldier you play as actually dies after only a handful of assault rifle hits, being not that much tougher than an average ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' protagonist. However, you have an Armor Mode that hardens your nanosuit and lets you shrug off a couple dozen assault rifle hits before taking any real damage, though this drains your suit energy reserves.

* In ''Crysis 2'' and ''Crysis 3'', the nanosuit soldier you play as actually dies after only a handful of assault rifle hits, being not that much tougher than an average ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' protagonist. However, you have an Armor Mode that hardens your nanosuit and lets you shrug off a couple dozen assault rifle hits before taking any real damage, though this drains your suit energy reserves.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Accelerator is the [[WorldsStrongestMan world's strongest esper]], with his control over direction allowing him to wrap himself in an automatic [[AttackReflector reflection field]] that renders him immune to conventional attack. However, due to growing up protected even from things like muscle tearing and ultraviolet light, his body is scrawny and underdeveloped - if anyone finds a way around his defences (such as Touma's AntiMagic right fist) he goes down like a chump.

* Metools from the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series have [[NighInvulnerability Nigh-Invulnerable]] helmets that they hide under to block attacks. When they expose themselves to attack, they usually fall in a few basic buster shots.

* The titular Radd from ''Webcomic/KidRadd'', being a platform game character who's mechanics followed him out into the comic's setting, has a measly 4 points of health. However, ''anything'', from a light poke from a character with CollisionDamage to a nuclear bomb, only does a single point of damage, and his MercyInvincibility prevents enemies from chaining together attacks against him.

* The titular ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' is a OneHitPointWonder, but his partner Sparx will take the hit for him if he's damaged. Sparx can take 3 hits before disappearing, leaving Spyro alone unless he can find butterflies for Sparx to eat.

* The heroine of ''LightNovel/BofuriIDontWantToGetHurtSoIllMaxOutMyDefense'' was a novice to [=VRMMORPGs=], so when creating her character, she... Well, you read the title, right? But since she was more concerned about the physical pain of getting hurt, she ''only'' maxed out her Defense, but not her Hit Points. Fortunately for her, she also quickly gained an immunity to the usual video game weakness to such a build: poison.

* The Iron Golem from ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'' has a mere 50 HP, but its defense is so absurdly high that any and all attacks against it deal a whopping 1 point of ScratchDamage, making lots of rapid-fire attacks the optimal strategy against it.

* Elites in the ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'' series typically have strong energy shields, but relatively low health (in most games their health is usually 1/2th their shield strength, with ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', ''Halo: Reach'', and ''Halo: Infinite'' being the only games where they can withstand a decent amount of firepower even without shields). Unshielded Elites do benefit from resistance to plasma weaponry, but bullets mow them down quite quickly.

* The ''TabletopGame/PokemonTradingCardGame'' has a few examples, most of which are based off of Pokémon which are this in the video games.

* Smartphones are this while equipped with a protective case. The case helps defend against things that would otherwise heavily damage or outright brick the very fragile slab of plastic and glass, like being dropped, liquids, dirt, and other problems that would otherwise easily cripple something that's often designed with the screen taking up the entire front side.

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': Crystallians have the most extreme armor values in the game, with everything other than smashing weapons doing ScratchDamage, and even those not doing much better. However, once they've been staggered, their armored bodies crack and become extremely vulnerable to all kinds of damage, which is compounded by the low amount of health each possesses for a boss.

** In a similar vein, Hildryn is a Warframe that relies on her shields for protection and to power her abilities. As a result, her shield pool is enormous compared to other Warframes, but her health is pitifully low by comparison. This forces her to micromanage her shields and constantly replenish them by stealing it from her opponents.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': any mage can be this, by casting defensive spells like stoneskin, mirror images, deflect spells, fireshield, globe of invulnerability, invulnerability to X-type weapons, resistance to Y-type damage etc. even if (s)he has awful constitution and health points comparable to a kitten. In the sequel this goes to such an extent that it is the main cause of why characters end up in a LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards situation (if it were just by simple damage output, warriors would still prevail). Many hard opponents are in-fact wizards that can in all comfort destroy you in a thousand different ways just because you can't damage them... unless you bring your spell-piercing abilities. What makes the trope become blatant is the cheap GameBreaker tactic of leaving the wizard if possible (e.g. by going to another room) and simply wait for the defensive spells to expire, since all magic is time-limited.

* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has Soul Hearts and other similar hearts that act as temporary HP, and there are various items and characters that revolve around a play-style of shielding your low or even outright non-existent pool of normal health with a plethora of Soul Hearts.
* ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'': [[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 laughably low hit points. After that, a few hits will kill them instantly, even if your attacks don't land a CriticalHit on their [[BoomHeadShot small heads]]. In fact, there are ways to bypass the shields, such as [[FriendlySniper Mordecai's]] [[ArmorPiercingAttack Trespasser ability]] They still have this weakness in ''[[VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel The Pre-Sequel]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Borderlands3 3]]''. It's far worse in the latter as the Guardians gain a new weakness: radiation. While it's not to the degree of damage of shock, it's still enough to wreak havoc on shields.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': any mage can be this, by casting defensive spells like stoneskin, mirror images, deflect spells, fireshield, globe of invulnerability, invulnerability to X-type weapons, resistance to Y-type damage etc. even if (s)he has awful constitution and health points comparable to a kitten. In the sequel this goes to such an extent that it is the main cause of why characters end up in a LinearWarriorQuadraticWizard situation (if it were just by simple damage output, warriors would still prevail). Many hard opponents are in-fact wizards that can in all comfort destroy you in a thousand different ways just because you can't damage them... unless you bring your spell-piercing abilities. What makes the trope become blatant is the cheap GameBreaker tactic of leaving the wizard if possible (e.g. by going to another room) and simply wait for the defensive spells to expire, since all magic is time-limited.

* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'': any mage can be this, by casting defensive spells like stoneskin, mirror images, deflect spells, fireshield, globe of invulnerability, invulnerability to X-type weapons, resistance to Y-type damage etc. even if (s)he has awful constitution and health points comparable to a kitten. In the sequel this goes to such an extent that it is the main cause of why characters end up in a LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizard situation (if it were just by simple damage output, warriors would still prevail). Many hard opponents are in-fact wizards that can in all comfort destroy you in a thousand different ways just because you can't damage them... unless you bring your spell-piercing abilities. What makes the trope become blatant is the cheap GameBreaker tactic of leaving the wizard if possible (e.g. by going to another room) and simply wait for the defensive spells to expire, since all magic is time-limited.