History Main / LimitedUseMagicalDevice

* ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'' has the eponymous artifacts left behind by the precursor civilizations. The most common type of numenera, the cyphers, are one-shot items the game encourages you to expend as an AntiHoarding measure. Artifacts, on the other hand, are much more durable, although most have the "Depletion" stat, given in standard UsefulNotes/{{dice}} notation, which means that every time you use an artifact, you have to roll those dice and if the result is below the given threshold, the items go inert and useless.

* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' series:
** In the original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' all spells are available in one-use scroll form as well as in SpellBook form, which teaches the spell to the reader permanently. The scrolls have lower requirements, making them more usable for the non-mage classes.
** In ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', each class has a unique repertoire of skills, and only the universal utility spells of Identify and Town Portal are available as single-use, no-requirement scrolls. They can no longer be learned as spells. Up to twenty such scrolls can be bound into a book to take up less inventory space.
** {{Averted}} in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII''; as an AntiFrustrationFeature both spells are free to cast, and scrolls are obsolete. The game {{lampshade}}s this by having them fall out of bookcases in the early part of the game and lie unheeded on the floor.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'', ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'', and pretty much every other ''D&D'' video game adaptation in existence replicates the tabletop prototype faithfully, with an added option to copy the spell to a mage character's own spell book instead of casting it (which likewise uses up the scroll).

* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': Scrolls of various types (healing, armor, town portal...) can be bought in shops (higher-level spells or multiple buffs can be found as high-level loot) and are one-use, though it's relatively easy to make a stacking system in custom maps.
* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' follows the ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' model and has only two types of scrolls, Scroll of Wisdom (Identify) and Portal Scroll, but with a few twists. First, both types serve as PracticalCurrency, since in-game vendors don't accept gold as payment. Secondly, early-game enemies rarely drop whole Scrolls of Wisdom, so you'll have to put them together from five Scroll Fragments. Lastly, you can skip Portal Scrolls entirely if you find the colorless Portal gem, which takes up one active skill slot but frees up some inventory space.
** The game has a wide variety of orbs, stones, scraps that can be used to improve, adjust and customize your equipment; upgrading items to magic or rare status, rerolling enchantments, adding enchantments, adding/recoloring/linking skill gem slots, and more. Like the aforementioned scrolls, all are consumed on use, and the game refers to them colloquially as "currency" due to their importance in bartering.

* ''VideoGame/CryptOfTheNecrodancer'' has consumable scrolls, including a Freeze Enemies scroll and a Scroll of Need, which gives you an item that you need.
* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSin'' features one-use scrolls that can be used to cast spells not learned yet.
* In the text adventure trilogy ''VideoGame/{{Enchanter}}'', spells are learned from scrolls that are copied into one's Spellbook: Copying that spell causes it to vanish.
* In ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', you can purchase scrolls for your Neopet that have a magical effect on them or can be used in the Battledome. They are one-use only.
* ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'':
** The Sage/Professor class can make scrolls to do elemental works. This is used to mess with a target's element if the Sage/Professor or the party is focused in an element the odd mob isn't.
** Several monsters drop scrolls which allow anyone to use skills as long as the scrolls last. This has led to priests casting Lightning Bolt or Fire Wall in the fields just to mess with some people.
** The Rune Knight class (advanced form of Lord Knight) are able to make runestones, which they can then use to cast some unique spells, and they expire afterward.
* Thematic (i.e not exactly literal) example: in ''Videogame/ElSword'', Aisha's special gameplay mechanic "Memorize" lets her save up to 3 spells in her "memory slot" so she can instantly use them later. Every time she memorizes a spell, a scroll icon appears above her.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'':
** In most entries prior to ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', most spellbooks function like [[BreakableWeapons any other weapon]] in that they can only be used for a set amount of times before breaking. There are a few exceptions, though:
*** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden'' and its remake, ''Echoes'', exclude weapon durability for physical weapons, but both Black Magic (except Nosferatu) and White Magic drain the caster's HP. The HP drain can be somewhat mitigated through usable self-healing items, heal tiles, and another ally using White Magic on them, but can't be disabled by the player entirely. However, exclusive to ''Shadows of Valentia'', Jedah can cast magic without depleting his HP.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' brings back weapon durability, including low durability for spells (except for certain classes that have abilities to grant higher spell uses for specific magic types). Spells can't be replenished in the map once out of uses, but return to their original number of uses after the map is over.
* ''VideoGame/{{Gothic}}'' has single-use scrolls that can be used with minimal cost in mana and with no training, in contrast to the runes which can be used indefinitely, but use up mana and require having learned the appropriate level in magic. Most scrolls are just a single-use version of runes, but there is a handful of spells (like shapeshifting) that are only available on scrolls.
* ''VideoGame/PixelDungeon'' (and its mods) contain scrolls that allow you to cast a special non-wand spell once per scroll, allowing you to do everything from damaging your enemies to escaping from them.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dragonstomper}}'' had magic items you could gather from RandomEncounters, and more you could buy from shops. Each item cast one spell and then disappeared.
* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'': AGodIsYou, and you can cast miracles through the power of your villagers' [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly dedicated prayer]]. Alternatively, you can store and cast single-use miracles scattered across the land in bubble form: some are unique, some are generated at regular intervals from magical pedestals, and some spontaneously congeal out of fireflies. They have the advantage of not requiring prayer and not needing to be a miracle that you already know how to cast.

* Scrolls and pretty much every item in the fantasy board game ''VideoGame/{{Culdcept}}'' are single-use because they're cards. It's actually a special feature if an item doesn't disappear from your hand after use.
* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'' averts this by having every artifact in the game be infinitely reusable, with the only caveat being that you need to wait for its cooldown to expire before the item can be used again.