History Main / CombatDiplomacyStealth

!!Examples:

[[folder:Action-Adventure]]
* ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' occasionally offers you the choice of talking, fighting, or sneaking around, especially when playing as Zoe (the other two protagonists are more action-oriented). However, the faulty implementation of the combat and stealth gameplay results in these options being generally harder to follow through.

[[folder:Action Game]]
* ''Videogame/EYEDivineCybermancy'' most storyline mission involving human characters can solved with either speech (often by bribing or accepting another sidequest), combat, or stealth/combat.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series, most missions/conflicts give you the options of run-and-gunning (at the risk of killing civilians), disguises (which sometimes let you access areas or talk to people whom you couldn't otherwise), or avoiding or evading conflict in the first place via stealth. However, as you are a ProfessionalKiller, you will be expected to kill people at some point.
* The ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' series generally encourages you to stay stealthy but the penalties for breaking stealth with guns blazing are not as high as in other stealth games, and at some points you are outright forced into open combat. All diplomacy is, however, delegated to cutscenes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* [[Franchise/TheDCU The DC Universe's]] three most notable heroes - Franchise/{{Superman}}, Franchise/WonderWoman and Franchise/{{Batman}}. Superman is the most powerful of the three, Wonder Woman while no stranger to combat is the ambassador of the Amazon people to the rest of the world and the most politically and socially active of the three and Batman is a StealthExpert.

[[folder:Immersive Sim]]
* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' (and its sequels) you have the option of sneaking past enemies or fighting them and can often bypass areas by saying the right thing to the right people.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' lets players choose between High Chaos and Low Chaos runs: the former means going into missions guns-blazing and sword-swinging and leaving a trail of corpses in Corvo's wake, while the latter is all about stealth and non-lethal takedowns. Diplomacy, however, is not an option, since Corvo is both a pariah/enemy of the state and a SilentProtagonist.

[[folder: LARP]]
* The FanConvention ''LARP/OtakonLARP'' allows any of the three styles, but due to the large shonen genre population, it is most commonly completed with Combat. The climax of the LARP has been ended with one or two players using Diplomacy on uncommon occasions.

[[folder:RPG -- Western]]
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series was among the first games to have offered all three paths in most quests. The playstyles are later referred to as Combat Boy, Science Boy, and Stealth Boy. The three pre-set characters in the first game also fit: you have a musclebound meathead, a Russian FemmeFatale who is good at spy stuff, and a charismatic smooth-talker who probably would have been a lawyer if he was born in the pre-War world.
* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Diplomacy is king, but Combat and Stealth are also available, because your starting class is always the Fighter but you can switch to Thief later on to bypass most of the fights. Notable for the possibility of finishing the entire game with only a handful of unavoidable combat scenarios.
* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' has the three playing styles mentioned above, plus Magick and Technology, which allows your character to either cast spells or build and maintain items that complement those playstyles.
* Most quests in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' offer just stealth and combat paths, but diplomatic skills (including seduction, subterfuge, intimidation and supernatural powers of Domination) earn you a lot of other nifty bonuses, as do hacking and security skills. [[DisappointingLastLevel Right up until the last levels]] where all your fancy skills become useless in endless dungeon crawls filled to the brim with enemies.
* Present but Downplayed in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series. Mechanically, the series offers these options, with "Diplomacy" skills (the Speechcraft and Mercantile) rolled into Stealth. In practice, resolving most quests requires someone dying with the option of sometimes sneaking past. As such, pure Diplomacy isn't really a viable option. Stealth is more useful, but still tends toward Combat (using sneak attacks to get {{Critical Hit}}s and {{Backstab}}s for bonus damage). Diplomacy is also present in Mage builds via the [[MasterOfIllusion Illusion school of magic]], such as using spells to turn you into a temporary CharmPerson. However, these spells are generally ineffective against targets which lack a mind (constructs, many forms of undead), so tend to be less useful than pure offensive spells.
* ''VideoGame/ADanceWithRogues'' usually offers all three paths, though stealth is preferred to combat (because you can only play as a rogue) and attempts at diplomacy more often than not [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex inevitably]] [[OptionalSexualEncounter lead to]] SexForServices.
* One quest in ''VideoGame/{{Drakensang}}: The River of Time'' has you deal with a group of not-completely-evil pirates who plan to raid the local elven village. The Elves ask you to find a way to get rid of them--non-lethally if possible. Your three companions offer three solutions: kill the pirates (you get to loot all their stuff but the elves won't speak with you anymore), deceive them (the fastest and easiest way, requires a lot of charisma) and finally, negotiate with the elves (the longest but ultimately the most advantageous alternative).
* Comes up in the ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' series quite often. The diplomacy and stealth options often blur together and usually include use of the Mechanics skill to disable or subvert devices and pick locks, but there is almost always a way around combat for plotline quests and many sidequests.
* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSin'' often offers the choice of sneaking past enemies who don't let you talk your way out of fighting them. However, combat is still the biggest source of XP in the game, and you ''will'' need those character levels for the endgame bosses.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' literally applies this trope in the form of the Inquisitor's War Table Advisers. The ex-Templar Commander Cullen Rutherford serves as Commander of the Inquisition, Lady Josephine Montilyet serves as Ambassador of the Inquisition, and the Left Hand of the Divine, Leliana, serves as the Inquisition's Spymaster. You can complete missions on the War Table by choosing an adviser to handle each one.
* ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol'' usually allows either stealth or combat-oriented playstyles. Diplomacy can help with either, but TalkingTheMonsterToDeath is rarely an option; good social skills are much more useful for getting help with missions.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Especially when discussing 5th Edition, Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast defines the "three pillars" of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' as Combat, Exploration and Interaction.
* ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark'' explicitly supports all three types of play, in both its crew types and its playbooks. The Bravos crew, the Cutter, and the Hound represent the combat-heavy play; the Hawkers and, to a lesser extent, the Cult crews, the Slide, and the Spider cover the diplomacy side; while the Assassins, the Shadows, the Smugglers, and the Lurk playbook are largely about stealth. It also avoids UselessUsefulNonCombatAbilities because, mechanically, all action checks work the same way, so the usefulness of each rating depends mainly on the type of the campaign a group is playing, rather than on the system itself.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has two different groups that fall into this.
** Agatha and her companions: Zeetha is TheBigGirl who is incredibly strong, Agatha uses her role as the Heterodyne to get through bad situations and is much more personable than the others, and Violetta is a [[ImpossibleThief Smoke Knight]].
** Agatha and her love interests are this in a more political and social sense: Gil is very agressive and strong and usually resorts to threats or violence in a pinch, Agatha is friendly and personable, and Tavrek is sly and resorts to underhanded methods to get what he wants.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Oceanfalls}}'', whenever the main character Nino enters a RandomEncounter, he is offered a choice between these [[https://mspfa.com/?s=14456&p=22 three options]].

* [[Franchise/TheDCU The DC Universe's]] three most notable heroes - Franchise/Superman, Franchise/WonderWoman and Franchise/Batman. Superman is the most powerful of the three, Wonder Woman while no stranger to combat is the ambassador of the Amazon people to the rest of the world and the most politically and socially active of the three and Batman is a StealthExpert.

This trope is about having to ''choose'' between these three approaches, not about having a specialist for each in the PlayerParty -- for that, see CastSpeciation.

->''* 1. Smash the door down.''
->''* 2. Try and lick the lock.''
->''* 3. Knock.''

->''* 1. Smash the door down.
->* 2. Try and lick the lock.
->* 3. Knock.''

->''"There is a locked door and your goal lies on the other side. What do you do?
* 1. Smash the door down.
* 2. Try and lick the lock.
* 3. Knock."''

Compare FighterMageThief. Contrast RPGsEqualCombat and UselessUsefulNonCombatAbilities, where non-combat paths are available in theory but rendered useless by the game design.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series was among the first games to have offered all three paths in most quests. The playstyles are later referred to as Combat Boy, Science Boy, and Stealth Boy.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]

* Similarly to ''NOLF'', ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' lets players choose between High Chaos and Low Chaos runs: the former means going into missions guns-blazing and sword-swinging and leaving a trail of corpses in Corvo's wake, while the latter is all about stealth and non-lethal takedowns. Diplomacy, however, is not an option, since Corvo is both a pariah/enemy of the state and a SilentProtagonist.

* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' (and its sequels) you have the option of sneaking past enemies or fighting them and can often bypass areas by saying the right thing to the right people.

* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' (and its sequels) you have the option of sneaking past enemies or fighting them and can often bypass areas by saying the right thing to the right people.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series was among the first games to have offered all three paths in most quests. The playstyles are later refereed to Combat Boy, Science boy, and Stealth Boy.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' expands this to Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth, Hacking, and Magic. Diplomacy is usually done by [[TheSocialExpert the face]], stealth done by [[StealthExpert the infiltrator]], hacking by either [[TheCracker the decker]] or [[{{Technopath}} the technomancer]], the expansive area of magic by the magicians of every stripe, and everything else does combat. The only exception is the rigger, whose drones do combat, stealth, a bit of electronic warfare (which just dips its toes into hacking), and driving. Because Shadowrun uses a PointBuySystem, characters can easily "multiclass," but characters are expected to be competent in at least one area.

* ''TabletopGame/Shadowrun'' expands this to Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth, Hacking, and Magic. Diplomacy is usually done by [[TheSocialExpert the face]], stealth done by [[StealthExpert the infiltrator]], hacking by either [[TheCracker the decker]] or [[{{Technopath}} the technomancer]], the expansive area of magic by the magicians of every stripe, and everything else does combat. The only exception is the rigger, whose drones do combat, stealth, a bit of electronic warfare (which just dips its toes into hacking), and driving. Because Shadowrun uses a PointBuySystem, characters can easily "multiclass," but characters are expected to be competent in at least one area.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' mechanically offers [[FighterMageThief Stealth and Two Flavors Of Combat]]. Diplomacy skills (the Speechcraft and Mercantile skills) are rolled into Stealth. While high Speechcraft can bypass some parts of some quests, most of the game will require that enemies end up dead or dodged. Speaking purely technically, it is possible for ''almost'' all combat to be replaced with "diplomacy" in the form of various spells (e.g. Calm, Charm, Command, etc.). In practice, any mage capable of usefully employing these on most opponents is likely capable of chain-nuking the entire building into ash anyway, as they are far more expensive and high-level than plain combat abilities, while also being more restrictive on targets until much later on. (Such diplomacy spells tend to fall within the Illusion school of magic, which is ineffective against those without a mind like constructs or undeads.)

* In ''Webcomic/Oceanfalls'', whenever the main character Nino enters a RandomEncounter, he is offered a choice between these [[https://mspfa.com/?s=14456&p=22 three options]].

* In ''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Webcomic/Oceanfalls Oceanfalls]]'', whenever the main character Nino enters a RandomEncounter, he is offered a choice between these [[https://mspfa.com/?s=14456&p=22 three options]].

* ''Webcomic/Oceanfalls'' whenever the main character Nino enters a RandomEncounter, he is offered a choice between these [[https://mspfa.com/?s=14456&p=22 three options]].

* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', Diplomacy is king, but Combat and Stealth are also available, because your starting class is always the Fighter but you can switch to Thief later on to bypass most of the fights. Notable for the possibility of finishing the entire game with only one unavoidable combat (which is the zombie in the very beginning providing the combat tutorial).

%% Old image replaced per single troper's utterly arbitrary opinion.
%%
%%[[quoteright:316:[[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0985a4a2a86c52bd7598478ac43140a7.png]]]]
%%[[caption-width-right:316:Examples from ''Fallout''. There is always a chick, isn't there?]]

[[quoteright:316:[[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0985a4a2a86c52bd7598478ac43140a7.png]]]]

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' mechanically offers [[FighterMageThief Stealth and Two Flavors Of Combat]]. Diplomacy skills (the Speechcraft and Mercantile skills) are rolled into Stealth. While high Speechcraft can bypass some parts of some quests, most of the game will require that enemies end up dead or dodged. Speaking purely technically, it is possible for ''almost'' all combat to be replaced with "diplomacy" in the form of various spells (e.g. Calm, Charm, Command, etc.). In practice, any mage capable of usefully employing these on most opponents is likely capable of chain-nuking the entire building into ash anyway, as they are far more expensive and high-level than plain combat abilities.