History Main / LethalHarmlessPowers

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' also makes constant use of this trope.
** The most famous example of this is Hisoka, who usually [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill overkills]] his opponents using the power of chewing gum. That's not using chewing gum as a weapon, his ability is making his energy stretchy and sticky.
** The main character, Gon, [[CallingYourAttacks calls out his signature moves]] before doing them. Unlike most shonen series, this is a liability in ''Hunter X Hunter'', as it telegraphs what the user is going to do. But Gon is fully aware of this drawback, and takes advantage of it by not only deliberately ''miscalling'' his attacks so his opponents expect one thing but get attacked with another, but also by exploiting the general rules of Nen regarding conditions and vows making Nen abilities stronger. Calling (or miscalling) his attacks and subsequently telegraphing his attacks to the enemy actually does make his Janken attacks more powerful due to the higher risk involved.

** Similar to Josuke, ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'''s Giorno Giovanna possesses the Stand Gold Experience, which has the power to "[[CreatingLife imbue life]]" into an object by touching it (such as turning a brick into a snake, for example). While this seems useless in direct combat and he generally uses it to heal his teammates, if Gold Experience punches a person, the overload of life energy makes their mind accelerate to such a speed that their body can't even keep up, leaving them helpless as their face gets punched in for what feels like an infinity.

*** Arguably, the entire team of heroes in ''Diamond is Unbreakable'' is full of this trope. Josuke's Crazy Diamond has [[HealingHands the aforementioned restoration powers]], Koichi's Echoes can generate the sound of any object, Okuyasu's The Hand can remove segments of space but has very short range, Mikitaka's Earth Wind and Fire allows him to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transform into inanimate objects]], and Rohan's Heaven's Door allows him to learn about people's life stories and give rules for them to follow. Even Jotaro, the hero of the previous story, uses Star Platinum mainly to [[TimeStandsStill stop time]]. They all sound like powers best reserved for backing up direct fighters, but they all battle on the front lines, making creative use of their skills to overcome numerous foes who ''do'' have highly destructive, damaging powers.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': One of the primary goals of the school is to teach students to use their powers effectively, no matter how powerful or how limited. Even a few Underdogs eventually learn that powers that seem worthless can still be used to devastating effect with enough cunning and ruthlessness.
** Generator (Jade Sinclair) starts out with the power to cast a copy of her mind into an object and animate it for a little while. This is considered extremely lame by the standards of SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy with its powerful mages and {{Flying Brick}}s. Then she nails a werewolf to a tree. ''With railroad spikes.''
*** She's actually got one of the most terrifying powers, period. She could animate some wire- hey presto, instant flying strangling cords. By herself, she'd be a brilliant information broker... or assassin... or anything. Early on one of her teammates imagines what would happen if Jade projected herself into a pile of sand or a pool of water, before quickly resolving to never mention this to Jade and hope she didn't think of it herself. A later story includes her projecting herself into her own body to hold things in place and keep things functioning after being stabbed through the heart, doing the same to animate a handful of mook corpses, and then slaughtering her way through a secure facility as a "vampire princess" with a zombie army.
** If [[{{Intangibility}} Phase]] goes back to solid when within an object, he disintegrates its mass. He can vary his levels of mass, causing devastating effects. The only other known character with the same variation of density warping is Tinsnip, a virtually unstoppable professional assassin.
** While no one would argue that super-martial-arts is a wimpy power, Chaka doesn't really have anything else except some slightly improved Exemplar strength and intelligence. That intelligence has proved the critical factor, as she has [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands found uses for her Ki powers]] that no one would have thought possible, letting her fight one-to-one against far more dangerous opponents.
** Gateway can create portals, and summon creatures through them. It's also been suggested that she could use them to TeleFrag opponents.
** The Siren powerset - being able to control your voice - sounds quite limited, until you see someone like Vox use it to make an {{Elite Mook|s}} shoot his commanding officer, or Screech use it to [[SuperScream completely liquefy a combat cyborg]].
** Aquerna was considered a joke - and ridiculed as a [[Characters/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl Squirrel Girl]] wannabe - until she took a page out of that Marvel character's playbook and proved that a swarm of squirrels can indeed by quite effective. She also managed to outwit the Good Ol' Boys, something which they have yet to live down.

* ''ComicBook/TheAtom'': ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' first showed how potentially deadly the Atom's ability to shrink and re-grow to normal size was when Jean Loring accidentally killed Sue Dibny by shrinking into the latter's brain and then growing. This caused Sue to suffer a fatal aneurysm. In an infamous moment from ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'', Ray Palmer tortures a criminal using this method.

* ''LetsPlay/AfterlifeSMP'': The Vampire origin's ability to [[SwapTeleportation swap places with other entities]] at first seems like a fun gimmick, but by combining that with another ability of the origin, the high jump, [[spoiler:Scott set a couple of his fellow players up to fall to their deaths as part of his FaceHeelTurn]].

** When faced with a horde of goblins in a castle, Goblin Slayer used a Sleep spell to simply put everyone in the castle to sleep, then easily killed them when they couldn't fight back.

* Another "healer uses his power to harm" example is found in ''Anime/RedoOfHealer'', an adult LN adapted into a manga, with its VillainProtagonist Keyaru, the "Healer Hero". Because his only ability is to heal (and that causes him extreme pain), he is used as a drugged-up slave by the rest of his party. Eventually it turns out that "healing" in this setting, [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules at least when used by a Hero-level healer]], amounts to {{biomanipulation}} (with a side-order of {{telepathy}}). So debuts the aptly named [Corruption] Heal, a technique in which Keyaru uses the same power that would normally allow him to restore someone to peak shape to wreak havoc on the target's organism instead, killing them instantly and often '''[[PopGoesTheHuman messily]]'''.

* ''Creator/MarvelComics'':
** [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]]:
*** He has mentioned many times that he could use his teleport power to TeleFrag people but he has never done it... at least not in the main continuity.

*** In the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' storyline, that universe's Nightcrawler teleported Wade's, [[spoiler:aka ''[=AoA=]'' timeline Deadpool]] head off.
*** There was one in-continuity story where he removed a [[PowerFist hi-tech glove]] off the [[Characters/MarvelComicsRedSkull Red Skull]] by holding onto it and teleporting...and took all the flesh off the Skull's hand with it leaving nothing but bone.
*** A much simpler, but effective strategy allowed Nightcrawler to defeat Omega Red, who was giving both Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} and [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]] a hard time. He simply teleported Omega Red ''really'' high up and let him fall to the ground. Omega Red is functionally MadeOfIron; if Nightcrawler did it to someone any less durable...
*** Also since 'porting is usually uncomfortable and nauseating to those not used to it he'll also grab someone and quickly and repeatedly port them until they pass out.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Shadowcat]]:

*** In a 2010 WhatIf One-Shot comic, Kitty does exactly that, stopping a possessed Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}} [[https://i.imgur.com/tMNfpXn.jpg by pulling out her heart while the latter is halfway through transforming into her invincible diamond form]].
*** In another WhatIf issue, Kitty sorrowfully {{Mercy Kill}}ed a BrainwashedAndCrazy Characters/{{Wolverine|JamesLoganHowlett}} by leaving her severed hand lodged in his brain.

*** In the Magik miniseries, the alternate version of Shadowcat defeats the alternate version of Nightcrawler in a sword fight... by ''leaving her sword in his leg''.
*** An alternate Kitty Pryde in ''Exiles'' killed an evil, alternate Wolverine by pulling his claws from his body, then removing other parts [[SoundOnlyDeath offscreen]].
*** Later in the arc she did much the same to an evil alternate Sue Richards, phasing through her and pulling what appeared to be her aorta or some other large major artery out of her chest, causing death by internal bleeding.
*** Shinobi Shaw is a rare example of a villain with such powers - his powers are identical to Kitty's and squeezing people's hearts while still in their chest is his signature move.
** ''ComicBook/NewXMenAcademyX'':
*** Elixir has the ability to control the biological structures of organic matter. Normally this power manifests as HealingHands, but he is also capable of using them to deliberately infect people with diseases. He's used this power to outright kill one villain, and gave another an inoperable brain tumor - in the shape of an X. Using his powers in this way [[PaintItBlack turns his normally gold skin metallic black]]. In an alternate continuity story he teamed up with a mutant with TouchOfDeath, which when combined with his HealingHands caused parts of the victim to [[FateWorseThanDeath continually die and regenerate]]; a process said to be "quite painful".
*** In the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' Marvel Continuity, fellow teleporter Blink demonstrates what happens if she closes one of her portals while somebody is halfway through. A fairly powerful (and ugly) villain gets turned to dust. When this version of Blink is brought back in ''ComicBook/{{Exiles}}'', she (temporarily) dispatches a ''{{Superman|Substitute}} {{Expy}}'' by teleporting a few tons of sand inside him.
** [[Characters/XMen90sMembers Jubilee]]:
*** She could make pretty little fireworks in the air. She often used it to blind flying enemies, causing them to crash. However, there was a lot of foreshadowing indicating that she was actually an inversion - she functionally had ThePowerOfTheSun (indicated as a potential omega class) but a mental block kept her abilities at a relatively harmless level. This has actually been demonstrated on one occasion; when she thought Wolverine had been killed by the Mandarin, she absolutely lost her shit and let out a burst of energy so massive it ''leveled the Mandarin's castle''. The place was so thoroughly wrecked that the Mandarin was never able to use it again.
*** In one issue, she used her powers to run a fusion reactor by channeling her powers directly inside it.
*** Even with the mental block restraining her powers to a mostly-harmless level, when Jubilee caught her parents' murderers, she noted that by putting her fingers to their ears and using her powers she'd be able to fry their brains. Though very tempted, she refrained from doing so.
** Characters/{{Dazzler}}:

*** In her old solo series, she once channeled the ocean's roar into a beam [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu strong enough to stun]] [[Characters/MarvelComicsGalactus Galactus]].

*** There's also the fact that the word "light" can be interpreted fairly loosely, and technically refers to any form of electromagnetic radiation... including gamma rays and micro waves.
** [[Characters/XMenTheOriginalTeam Iceman]]:
*** He usually slides around on ice slides, turns into ice, and throws ice spikes at people. When Emma Frost took over his mind, she was able to get him to turn his entire body into water, enter a river, and come out downstream perfectly fine. She also used moisture to make weapons more effectively, and turned Iceman into a gas as well as a liquid. The entire X-Men Gold team wasn't able to stop him. If he gets hurt as ice and turns back to normal, it heals. Bobby has been confirmed as an "Omega-level" mutant, which, while never defined, seems to amount to "demigod". If only he wasn't so lazy. One enduring effect of this revelation is that Bobby has become even more of a go-to candidate than Wolverine to [[GoodThingYouCanHeal not-quite-kill]] to show how dangerous a villain is, since he can be vaporized and still reassemble himself back into water, then ice, then flesh.
*** In the story in which he's a teacher at Wolverine's school, Logan asked him to start being serious. He soon delivers - in the form of ''multiple ice clones''.
** ''X-men'' ally Sage's power revolved around helping other mutants control their and strengthen their powers. ''X-men'' enemy Fabian Cortez had the same ability, but would push a mutant's power out of control, killing them. Cortez once did this to '''Characters/{{Ma|rvelComicsMagneto}}gneto''', and almost succeeded in killing him. Unfortunately for all involved, [[CameBackStrong this made Magneto even more powerful when he recovered]].

** The Morlock Masque has the ability to change anyone's appearance by touch. Doesn't sound so scary--until you consider what happens if he decides your appearance doesn't need to include a mouth or a nose.
** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'':
*** Minor villain Mr. Brownstone aka Garrison Klum has the ability to teleport matter...but only a few grams at a time. Since he works as a drug dealer, a few grams of heroin teleported straight to the heart is all he needs to incapacitate or kill someone. On a more mundane but equally criminal front, it can be used to immediately get a customer high by teleporting a smaller dose of heroin directly into their bloodstream.
*** Francis Klum, the third [[Characters/SpiderManCentralRoguesGallery Mysterio]] and the younger brother of the aforementioned Mr Brownstone. Francis has teleportation abilities far stronger than that of his brother and can use them to far deadlier effect as he isn't limited to teleporting a few grams of matter. His feats include teleporting Characters/{{Black Cat|MarvelComics}}'s mask into Spider-Man's neck and killing his brother Garrison by ''[[TeleFrag teleporting into his body and blowing him up]]''.
*** Many people think that the villain Shocker is a loser ButtMonkey and that his sonic gauntlets are useless. These people are unaware that the gauntlets can kill or deafen people and cause buildings to collapse if he cranks them up high-enough. He's canonically used them to take out ''the Punisher'' in a single hit. The only reason Shocker isn't an a-list, city-wrecking bad guy is because he's also a ConsummateProfessional and prefers to keep his head low. Blowing up buildings doesn't pay, and while murder ''[[ProfessionalKiller can]]'' pay it also draws a lot more hero attention than mere theft.
** Spider-Man himself usually uses his sticky powers on inanimate objects to WallCrawl, but he absolutely ''can'' stick to people's skin and use his super strength to rip it off. His clone Kaine was the first one to demonstrate this, using it to leave hand-shaped scars on his enemies (the 'Mark of Kaine'), but the regular Peter is perfectly capable of doing it too if you piss him off enough.
** Invisible Woman (a.k.a. Sue Storm) of the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'':
*** She has the ability to turn invisible and [[BarrierWarrior create force-fields]]. Simple as these abilities appear, Sue is regarded as the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four. She has developed some brilliant applications of her force fields ranging from creating steps to walk on air to massive battering rams. She can, as she stated in the [[Film/FantasticFour2005 movie]], create a force field inside a body and expand it with lethal - and messy - results.
*** In the ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' comics, she demonstrated that you kill a zombie by destroying its brain by going MamaBear on a zombie She-Hulk.
*** Her invisibility extends to those around her as well. And while not lethal, she was able to blind a pack of zombies by making their optic nerves invisible. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking She also once threatened a classroom full of teenagers that she could make their clothes invisible.]]
*** Also she could make the skin, flesh and skull of a person's head become invisible, allowing ordinary sunlight to directly reach a person's vulnerable brain, rapidly causing heat stroke and slowly lobotomizing them.
*** Invisibility could also make a section of the Earth's Ozone Layer become invisible (as in it does not distort or deflect solar radiation), allowing the full might of the Sun to burn whatever she wanted.
*** In Four, at one point she creates a forcefield surrounding herself and her family, protecting them from the villain. Then she creates another forcefield encompassing her and the villain. Then she starts extending the first forcefield, crushing the villain into the second one until he surrendered.
*** The various lethal uses of her powers can be frequently be seen being used by the Super-Skrull (he has all the powers of the F4). He doesn't have Sue's good nature, so he doesn't hold back as much as she does. Also, in ''ComicBook/{{Exiles}}'' (a book about a reality hopping super hero team), they once visited a reality where Sue was the leader of Hydra and showed how horrifying her powers can be.
*** Sue (while evil) also once threatened to kill a man by creating a tiny force field in his carotid artery, which would cause a massive and probably fatal stroke.
*** Lastly, Sue's force fields are hyperspace-sourced. Hyperspace is, in the Marvel Universe, the source of all energy. This allowed her to destroy a ''Celestial's'' physical form. The Celestials are a race of PhysicalGod EldritchAbomination Precursors. Their antibodies are strong enough to hurt Thor. Sue obliterated one of them effortlessly. She is the only mortal who has ever accomplished such a feat.
** ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'':
*** Most of them have pretty useful powers, but the most dangerous/powerful member of the team is canonically ''Door Man'', a living portal whose powers have a fairly short range. He's capable of sending attacks right back at enemies and has also used his powers to help break into maximum security areas. In one infamous incident, his powers actually killed one of his own teammates ''by accident''; a villain tossed a sai at Door Man who instinctively activated his powers, unaware that Grasshopper was standing right behind him. The weapon proceeded to fly harmlessly through Door Man and impale Grasshopper through the skull, an event so traumatic it sent Door Man into a deep depression where he refused to use his powers and tried to drive Squirrel Girl off the team because he was terrified of accidentally hurting her.
*** Door Man's powers have been revealed to work by tapping into [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Darkforce Dimension]], the same dimension that turn Marcus Daniels into the insane supervillain Blackout. That means that he essentially sends objects and people that pass through him to a nightmarish world of pure energy and yanks them back. This means that he could theoretically ''leave'' people there if he wanted to (though Door Man would never do so; he's far to much of a NiceGuy).
*** [[Characters/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl Squirrel Girl]]'s powers are simply defined as possessing various squirrel-like abilities, including the ability to communicate with other squirrels. Yet she manages to [[ParodySue canonically]] be the ''most powerful being'' in the Marvel universe.

* [[AC:''Creator/DCComics'':]]
** Ya know ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'s power to control fish? Well, it's a stretch, but he can apparently ''shut down the more basic parts of your brain'', causing you to become braindead, since that power is actually telepathy. Writers love doing this with Aquaman (there is a reason he is the image for HeartIsAnAwesomePower).
** ''ComicBook/TheAtom'': ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' first showed how potentially deadly the Atom's ability to shrink and re-grow to normal size was when Jean Loring accidentally killed Sue Dibny by shrinking into the latter's brain and then growing. This caused Sue to suffer a fatal aneurysm. In an infamous moment from ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'', Ray Palmer tortures a criminal using this method.
** Characters/{{Batman|TheCharacter}}'s love interest Shondra Kinsolving had a low-level healing ability. [[spoiler:She once used it to kill her abusive father by healing him to ''death''; her brother, while manipulating her to do something similar to a village, explains that she makes people so fit that their hearts explode. He plans to turn Shondra into a WMD, that can kill people from anywhere in the world, and nearly succeeds.]]
** You wouldn't think that superspeed and vibration would have many lethal effects unless you crashed into things. However as [[Characters/TheFlashEobardThawne the Reverse-Flash]] has shown, that power can be horrifyingly deadly if used right. One famous issue had him kill [[Characters/TheFlashBarryAllen Barry Allen]]'s wife Iris by vibrating his hand to insane speeds that allowed him to [[NightmareFuel phase his fist into her skull]]. He also regularly exploits a not-often mentioned potential side effect of going [[FasterThanLightTravel faster than light]]; ''TimeTravel''. The only reason he hasn't just erased the Flash from history is because doing so would erase himself too thanks to a StableTimeLoop and GrandfatherParadox.
** Gates from ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' has the power to [[ThinkingUpPortals create portals]] that he and his teammates could use to travel long distances. They also have sharp edges that can [[PortalCut destroy anything they open inside of]], such as [[spoiler:Ra's al Ghul arm]].
** ''ComicBook/NewGods'': Glorious Godfrey's power is to be handsome and be manipulative. He's actually [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]]'s vanguard when conquering planets, using him and his army of "Justifiers" to rid planets of their superheroes through pure rhetoric and persuasion, as seen in the ''ComicBook/{{Legends|DCComics}}'' event and the Reach invasion in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''.
** ComicBook/PlasticMan is generally considered the funny stretchy guy, but this is a vast understatement of his capabilities:
*** Mentioned in Frank Miller's ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightStrikesAgain''. Batman launches a series of strikes to free superheroes who have been imprisoned by Lex Luthor's rogue government. During one of the missions, Batman's narration reads "he could kill us all; for him, it would be easy." The panels then reveal who he's talking about... and it's [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hvBsDbuV_Ng/S8QdNeuqMpI/AAAAAAAAB18/0yKV9Pb36O8/s1600/DK2Plas.jpg Plastic Man]].
*** One time, ComicBook/PlasticMan lost his cool after Rama Khan grievously injured Martian Manhunter. The result was Plastic Man turning into a giant snake and viciously crushing the guy like a boa constrictor. The attack was so brutal it ended up giving Khan brain damage and rendering him catatonic. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Don't fuck with Plastic Man]].
*** Batman famously (or infamously given how often they fall into villainous hands) has contingency plans for how to take down every other hero in the event of them turning evil. When Martian Manhunter went insane and became the nearly unstoppable Fernus the Burning (as the name implies he no longer has the Martian vulnerability to fire, and is still as strong and fast as Superman while also having psychic powers), Batman's contingency plan was Plastic Man. Incidentally, Batman's contingency against Plastic Man himself is even simpler: Don't let Plastic Man become evil in the first place. All of Plas's vulnerabilities come from him being a NiceGuy with a strict code of honor; otherwise, even Batman has no idea how to stop him.
** In ''ComicBook/Robin1993'' Tim briefly acknowledges that the non-lethal defensive tech he's developed for his cape could easily kill someone during a fight if he's not careful when he uses its ability to quickly detach and cling to whomever is grabbing it and it wraps itself tightly around a mook's head, which will suffocate the man if Tim doesn't disable the cape in time.
** ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'':
*** The Comedian at one point uses non-lethal rounds lethally -- tasers to the face, shooting someone in the chest with a tear-gas grenade from a few feet away.
*** And there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNfWlt69WKI Rorschach's famous usage of his grappling gun]].
** Characters/{{Wonder Woman|TheCharacter}}'s Lasso of Truth has always been a much more dangerous item than it's name implies:
*** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': During UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks the lasso had the additional ability of being able to make anyone wrapped in it obey the commands of the one wielding it, which made it far more dangerous in villain hands than it was when Wonder Woman was using it.
*** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': By this point the Lasso's powers had been streamlined and more clearly defined; it is indestructible and those in its power cannot lie and are forced to face the truth about whatever the wielder is questioning them on. In Wonder Woman's hands these life altering revelations usually lead to people reforming to an extent, but even then they lead several people to their deaths via sacrificing themselves for the greater good, and in more cruel hands can cause people to kill themselves in despair.
*** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': Diana is horrified when Genocide gets hold of her lasso, as she knows the being will use it to torture people with twisted cruel truths they cannot escape from until they're allowed to kill themselves.
*** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanOdyssey'': Nemesis uses the lasso to drive people insane and to their deaths.

* In the ''ComicBook/RisingStars'' comic, a girl whose power is to psychically manipulate small objects is later shown to have grown to be a traceless government assassin: she simply pinches the victim's carotid artery from a short distance away.
** In the ''Troy'' universe, Cixi learns to use her ability - water temperature control - to cause all blood in a body to boil instantly, described in-universe as lethal even to teleporters. Although prequel issues have shown her to manipulate other body fluids shortly after her powers manifested.

* Amelia Mintz from ''ComicBook/{{Chew}}'' can write or talk about food so vividly that it can cause people to actually taste it. While it definitely makes her a good restaurant critic, it doesn't look that harmful... until [[BrownNote she sends several armed terrorists to the hospital by loudly reciting an unabridged review of a particularly bad restaurant.]] Later her powers were revealed to be able [[spoiler:to induce fatal food poisoning]].
** Xocoscalpere has the power to sculpt chocolate with such incredible accuracy, that anything that he crafts can mimic properties of the real things. Naturally, this power is used almost exclusively for making weapons - like guns, for example.
** There also cibopassimy - which allows the user to telepathically broadcast something to all people in the world. While this power doesn't seem scary, it can broadcast a BrownNote, which [[PersonOfMassDestruction was exploited with a devastating effect.]]

* One ''ComicBook/{{Hitman|1993}}'' arc had a supervillainess whose only power was to make roses magically grow. She mostly used it to horribly kill people by making roses grow inside them.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Grendel}}'', [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] are each capable of [[{{Animorphism}} shifting into one specific animal]], that [[AnimalMotifs reflects their personality]]. One minor vampire has the ability to shift into an earthworm... which she uses to infiltrate a casino and turn off its security mechanism, causing it to be taken over by vampires.

* Another "healer uses his power to harm" example is found in ''Manga/RedoOfHealer'', an adult LN adapted into a manga, with its VillainProtagonist Keyaru, the "Healer Hero". Because his only ability is to heal (and that causes him extreme pain), he is used as a drugged-up slave by the rest of his party. Eventually it turns out that "healing" in this setting, [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules at least when used by a Hero-level healer]], amounts to {{biomanipulation}} (with a side-order of {{telepathy}}). So debuts the aptly named [Corruption] Heal, a technique in which Keyaru uses the same power that would normally allow him to restore someone to peak shape to wreak havoc on the target's organism instead, killing them instantly and often '''[[PopGoesTheHuman messily]]'''.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'':
** Harry's SignatureMove ''Expelliarmus'' betrays him because, as Harry points out later, using a stunning spell on somebody who's on a broomstick hundreds of feet up in the air would be just as lethal as the "unforgivable" killing curse.
** From the same book, the Stunning Spell (Stupefy) is, as the name indicates, a spell to stun the target. During her duel with Bellatrix Lestrange, Molly Weasley hits her with a Stupefy spell so strong it ''stops her heart'', killing her on the spot. This is because Bellatrix made the fatal mistake of trying to kill Ginny, and Molly is a MamaBear.

** From the same book, the Stunning Spell (Stupefy) is, as the name indicates, a spell to stun the target. During her duel with Bellatrix Lestrange, Molly Weasley hits her with a Stupefy spell so strong it ''stops her heart'', killing her on the spot.

** Present Mic's ability to [[MakeMeWannaShout amplify his voice]] mostly sees use to allow him to [[MundaneUtility address crowds without help from sound equipment]]. In a combat situation, though, his shouts can become powerful enough to stun entire crowds and completely nullify other sound-based quirks. His hero costume's primary piece of equipment is actually a ''sound dampener'', so he doesn't simply rupture everyone's eardrums in a mile radius every time he cuts loose.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has Sean Cassidy, a.k.a. Banshee, whose power is, at its most basic, a case of MakeMeWannaShout. Thanks to multiple decades of practise, he can use it for all sorts of delightful things, like liquefying granite and shattering wands to powder. And it also works on ''human bone''. And that's leaving aside his CompellingVoice, which he once used on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge that gave Nick Fury ''nightmares'', and his ability to dampen sound around him, meaning that he can pull a StealthHiBye that would impress Batman and, in one case, make sure a claymore mine goes off completely silently.

* ''Series/{{Alphas}}'' has Dr. Kerns, who has the DisabilitySuperpower of echolocation. [[spoiler:He can also modulate the frequency of it to such a degree to cause extreme and subtle structural damage to a building, and if given time he can enhance it into MakeMeWannaShout.]]

** The Siren powerset - being able to control your voice - sounds quite limited, until you see someone like Vox use it to make an {{Elite Mook|s}} shoot his commanding officer, or Screech use it to [[MakeMeWannaShout completely liquefy a combat cyborg]].

* All shield-type weapons in ''Franchise/MegaMan'' work this way, wherein contact with the shield damages enemies just as if you shot them, but it's usually an inefficient way to go about it. However, the Water Shield can deliver up to 8 hits this way.

* ''LightNovel/GarbageBrave'' has Tsukuru's stand out almost instantly. His [Cooking] class sub-skills [Ignition] and [Dismantle], used for preparing meals, have the short line that they can be used '''on anything'''. When Tsukuru finds himself dumped in Bolf forest, a ridiculously overpowered dungeon, and finds himself face-to-face with a large feline monster [[CatsAreMean that sees him as lunch]], he uses [Ignition] to set its face on fire, and [Dismantle] when it has him pinned to the ground, reducing it to LudicrousGibs.

[[caption-width-right:258:What part of "[[TeleFrag anywhere]]" did you not understand?]]

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', the AI Durandal is mostly in charge of menial tasks on-board the ''Marathon'', among which are opening and closing doors. This is because Durandal was [[AIIsACrapshoot Rampant]], which in-universe causes an AI to grow exponentially in size and intelligence. However, his handler was attempting to use the sheer boredom and meaninglessness of these tasks to delay the progress of rampancy. It was thought that Durandal would then be unable to cause serious damage with the systems he controls. The handler apparently overlooked that "control over opening and closing doors" includes ''[[ThrownOutTheAirlock airlocks]]''...

* ''Anime/DanganRonpa3'' occasionally explores some of the more harmful applications of the more mundane-looking Ultimate Talents of Hope's Peak. For instance, the Ultimate Animator admits to incorporating brainwashing techniques to invoke emotion in the viewers of his anime, [[spoiler:and the BigBad exploits this to create a brainwashing video to drive the world to despair]].

* In ''LightNovel/BeingAbleToEditSkillsInAnotherWorldIGainedOpWaifus'', several of Nagi's BattleHarem can, and if pressed, '''will''' do this.

* Raquell from ''LightNovel/ScrappedPrincess'' has plenty of offensive spells, but during one fight in a cave she couldn't use them because she had to use a shield to keep her allies safe. Just as her enemy started mocking her about it she expanded the shield to cover nearly the entire cave. The enemy surrendered just seconds before his head was crushed between the shield and the wall.

* The titular character of ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' once said that "creativity is a weapon. Those who fail to use it die first." He frequently utilizes things in ways that are NotTheIntendedUse, and has defeated hordes of opponents this way.

** It's repeatedly mentioned that [[BlowYouAway airbending]] is primarily defensive in nature, wielded by the pacifistic Air Nomads, but a few times, like during the discovery of Monk Gyatso's body [[note]][[AtopAMountainOfCorpses His body is on top of probably dozens of Firebenders']], implying that he [[DyingMomentOfAwesome killed them all]][[/note]], we see that it ''can'' be used to devastating effect. This leads to a lot of AscendedFridgeHorror in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' when a dangerous criminal named Zaheer gains airbending after [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent Harmonic Convergence]] and shows ''no'' qualms about using it on others [[spoiler:such as using it to asphyxiate the Earth Queen]].
** [[MakingASplash Waterbending]] can also be applied in a rather nasty fashion known as ''bloodbending'', essentially puppeteering someone through the liquids in their body. Hama used it to [[PsychicAssistedSuicide try to force Aang and Sokka to kill each other]], while Yakone appears to have attempted to ''crush Aang's organs''.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Harry's SignatureMove ''Expelliarmus'' betrays him because, as Harry points out later, using a stunning spell on somebody who's on a broomstick hundreds of feet up in the air would be just as lethal as the "unforgivable" killing curse.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Harry's SignatureMove ''Expelliarmus'' betrays him because, as Harry points out later, using a stunning spell on somebody who's on a broomstick hundreds of feet up in the air would be just as lethal as the "unforgivable" killing curse. Parodied in the ''[[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/080328 Giblets of Fiber]]'' storyline in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', where it is pointed out that there is no need to make the killing curse forbidden because, regardless of means, ''murder is already illegal''. Particularly since many basic spells are highly dangerous, if not lethal, with a little creativity.

*** Tamami Koboyashi's Stand, The Lock, can amplify feelings of guilt, getting heavier the guiltier one feels. The most he uses it for is guilt-tripping people into giving him money, but if it gets heavy enough, the victim will ''[[PsychicAssistedSuicide attempt to take their own life]]''.