History Main / LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards

** More importantly to this trope, while certain Stands could be "on the level" of a master of Ripple, the two cannot usually engage each other. This is because Stands can only be seen by other stand users, and can only be hurt by other Stands. A Stand user can still usually be killed by attacking them directly, but many Stands function in such a way as to allow the user to hide, or to kill/incapacitate their opponent too quickly or easily. Only once in the series does Ripple power go up against Stand power, and it's laughed off as useless. It's no wonder the Ripple as a power is [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness largely forgotten]] in Jojos.

* ''{{JoJo's Bizarre Adventure}}'', having started as a clone of the above mentioned Fist Of The North Star, has a bit of this when comparing its styles of power. Early installments had the Ripple, a Charles Atlas Superpower similar to Hokuto Shinken, allowing the user to generate energy close to that of the sun, which had many applications. But nonetheless it was a mostly physical discipline. But then the series introduced the Stands, allowing users to become minor (or major) reality warpers, limited mostly by the specific effect of the Stand. So on the one hand, a Ripple user could conceivably use their power for more kinds of things than a single Stand user. On the other hand, Stands have near infinite possibilities when it comes to effects, whereas Ripple power has a diverse but limited scope.
** More importantly to this trope, while certain Stands could be "on the level" of a master of Ripple, the two cannot usually engage each other. This is because Stands can only be seen by other stand users, and can only be hurt by other Stands. A Stand user can still usually be killed by attacking them directly, but many Stands function in such a way as to allow the user to hide, or to kill/incapacitate their opponent too quickly or easily. Only once in the series does Ripple power go up against Stand power, and it's laughed off as useless. It's no wonder the Ripple as a power is largely forgotten in JoJo's.

Attempts to keep warriors' capabilities "normal" are far less prevalent in works of Eastern origin, and so the trope has weakened slightly in the minds of the younger generation. The common result is CharlesAtlasSuperpower.

*** Cut to HarryPotter throwing away his wand in exasperation. [[FunnyMoments "Bugger all this, then. I'm off to pinch a pack of smokes and sleep the rest of the day."]]

* ''MassEffect'': A tip from Bioware staff:

* In "MassEffect2" it depends on the difficulty.

** Buffy finally caught up in Season Eight [[spoiler:by becoming a FlyingBrick.]]

** Some bruisers are considered to be the "hardest scaling" champions in the game: Jax does moderately well early-mid game and utterly dominates the lategame due to gap-close, aoe stun, and most of all his absurd damage output and tankiness due to a combination of items and natural passives from his ultimate ability. Singed seems almost cute, as his only real damage output is a poison trail that he can activate, however, this seems a lot less funny in the lategame when he buys items that cause the entire poison trail to slow while applying magical, percentage based burn damage. Added to the fact that his health scales with mana as well as health items, you get someone who can basically walk around a teamfight, doing huge damage through aoe, while being essentially untargetable due to extreme tankiness (targeting singed causes you to lose).

** Some bruisers are considered to be the "hardest scaling" champions in the game: Jax, who does moderately well early-mid game and utterly dominates the lategame due to gap-close, aoe stun, and most of all his absurd damage output and tankiness due to a combination of items and natural passives from his ultimate ability.

** This is also zig-zagged with a couple cases. Veigar isn't very strong early and mid-game...but once he gets his AP up and gets a lot of good items, he's unstoppable to compensate for a weak early game dependent on farming. [=LeBlanc=] meanwhile can take people out before they can even blink in the early-mid game; but once people get more health, she starts to lag behind a bit. Basically; if you have Veigar, you're going to want the match to last longer and if you have [=LeBlanc=], you want push them so hard they surrender. Another example of a late-game mage is Malzahar, who goes from being a good lane pusher to being someone capable of killing any other character in a 1 v 1 fight in an incredibly short period of time. If Malzahar wins the middle lane team fights can rapidly become extremely lopsided thanks to his power curve and the area of effect, damage over time nature of his spells. Perhaps the most extreme example is Ryze, a mage whose early game is among the weakest of any champion (even ad carries can beat him) and whose mid game is quite mediocre. However, because his damage scales with mana instead of ability power, he gets a combination of what are (effectively for him) the most absurdly undercosted/power-concentrated items in the game,this combined with an inherently spam-based spell repertoire and an ultimate ability that makes all of it AOE makes late-game ryze the scariest AP carry in the game.

** This is also zig-zagged with a couple cases. Veigar isn't very strong early and mid-game...but once he gets his AP up and gets a lot of good items, he's unstoppable to compensate for a weak early game dependent on farming. [=LeBlanc=] meanwhile can take people out before they can even blink in the early-mid game; but once people get more health, she starts to lag behind a bit. Basically; if you have Veigar, you're going to want the match to last longer and if you have [=LeBlanc=], you want push them so hard they surrender. Another example of a late-game mage is Malzahar, who goes from being a good lane pusher to being someone capable of killing any other character in a 1 v 1 fight in an incredibly short period of time. If Malzahar wins the middle lane team fights can rapidly become extremely lopsided thanks to his power curve and the area of effect, damage over time nature of his spells.

* Zigzagged in ''{{Diablo}} II'' during its lifetime.

*** Its actually an inversion more than anything. Mages were useful for utility early on but by endgame, you get access to ridiculously powerful physical abilities like X-attack (which attacks 8 times with dual wield), making mages near useless as all needed buffs can be gained through equipment. Even in the superboss fights, it becomes more of a damage race, rendering the need to heal or use magic useless.

** In terms of raw damage, mages can't even come close to competing with hasted fighters. What made mages powerful, and a pain as enemies in modded games, were their self-buff protection spells and ability to dispel said protection spells. This is exactly why the Kensai/Mage class combo was arguably the most popular combo, as it combined the best offense with the best defense in the game, leading to brokenness even with the challenge mods.

** Depends on whether you define anyone who uses "mana" as automatically a mage, which would make just about every battle character a mage. In fact, EVERYONE is a mage, as "prana" is essentially internal "mana" and everyone has and use "prana." "Mana" in the Natsuverse is an energy source rather than exclusively a mage's resource and is more analogous to "[[KiAttacks ki]];" the most powerful beings (such as Arcueid and ORT) are not identified as mages and rely almost solely on mana-augmented brute physical force.

** Depends on whether you define anyone who uses "mana" as automatically a mage, which would make just about every battle character a mage. In fact, EVERYONE is a mage, as "prana" is essentially internal "mana" and everyone has and use "prana." "Mana" in the Natsuverse is an energy source rather than exclusively a mage's resource and is more analogous to "[[KiAttacks ki]];" the most powerful beings (such as Arcueid and ORT) are not identified as mages and uses mana for brute physical force.

** Newer games, notably ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', seem to either [[SubvertedTrope subvert this]] or [[InvertedTrope invert it completely]]. Sure, magic is useful at the start to get some extra turns, and can be ''brutally'' powerful when dealing raw damage, but later on physical-based Skills and normal attacks can be greatly improved by passive Skills, ending up on skills that hits ''hard'' all enemies multiple times, debuffing them with many StandardStatusEffects, breaking the ElementalRockPaperScissors with extremely high Critical chance while not consuming your precious MP.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is a near-perfect demonstration of this trope in action. In the early seasons, the focus was firmly on Buffy, the warrior; Willow, the wizard, was limited to the occasional ritual spell cast from the safety of her own home. In a fight she was no more help than [[SpoonyBard Xander]], and sometimes less. As the seasons progressed, however, the balance of power began to shift. This shift became clear at the end of season five, when Buffy described Willow as her "big gun" -- pointing out that while she, Buffy, had been unable to even slow Glory down, Willow had actually managed to inflict some damage. In season six, their relative status was no longer in question; Willow was the stronger of the two, and when it came to a showdown between Willow and Buffy in the season finale, Willow threw Buffy around like a rag doll. (The writers made her [[HoldingBackThePhlebotnium less willing to use her power]] for season seven, bringing her back to the point where Buffy was at least relevant; but Willow was still solidly in the Quadratic camp.)

* Inverted in the ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' series. Psyenergy (the magic equivalent of the series) is great to crush {{mook}}s early on, but later in the game physical attacks are just stronger overall thanks to the super-powerful [[CriticalHit Unleashes]]. The only good attack Psynergies are the ones that factor the caster's attack into the damage. It's also literally inverted in that Psyenergy doesn't get stronger with level-ups, while physical damage does grow with level-ups. Yes, you get stronger Psyenergies, but more powerful weapons outweigh them. (The developers went even more physical-friendly in the sequels.)

*** The importance of 1-2 Range attack is relatively higher than every other game in the series, thanks to the relative lack of common and reliable 1~2 range weapons outside of tomes, with magic swords being extremely rare (there are only about 7 of them in the entire game - and one of them is exclusive to Lief), Javelins - though somewhat common - are impractical to use indoors due to the extremely limited number of indoor lance users (and many of the chapters are indoors), and lastly - the inaccurate and relatively rare Hand Axe. Low ranked tomes can be acquired by stealing it from enemy mages or taking it from captured enemy mages, and is relatively easier to steal with your thieves.

*** Staves are [[GameBreaker poorly balanced]]. Status Staves has infinite range, are very accurate, and lasts throughout the entire stage(or until it is cured with a Restore Staff), Physic can heal any allied unit in the map, Fortify heals every allied unit in the map, and the flexibility of Warp, Rewarp, and Rescue more than makes up for the fact that they can miss. There was a saying that "there are only two kinds of units in FE5 lategame: those that can use staves and have high magic, and those that can't".

* The ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series averts this, because ''everyone's'' growth is technically linear. Because magic works almost identically to the way weapons work, the variety that any particular class has partially depends on what weapons it's allowed to use (along with stat caps, movement, and class skills). The advantage of Mages is they're versatile in that they can attack from close-up or at range. However, most are standard {{Glass Cannon}}s, especially females (as males are more often the JackOfAllStats). This is even more notable on later games where both enemies and allies get decent resistance. For example...

*** In this game, Magic stats is used for both Magical Offense and Defense, in a game where most physical units has a little amount of Magic. Although most opponent in the game is Physical, this change also affect items such as M Up Staff and Holy Water, which increases Magic by 7.
*** The importance of 1-2 Range attack is relatively higher than every other game in the series, thanks to the relative lack of common and reliable 1-2 ranges for other weapon types, with the rare magic swords, Lance being mostly unable to be used indoors, and innacurate and relatively rare Hand Axe. Low level tomes can be acquired by stealing it from enemy mages or taking it from captured enemy mages, and is relatively easier to steal with your thieves.
*** Sages has a ridiculous Promotion Bonus that increased Magic by 5, and Skill by 5, Speed by 6, and Defense by 4.
*** Staves are poorly ballanced. Status Staves has infinite range, accurate, and lasts throughout the entire stage(or until it is cured with a Restore Staff), Physic can heal any allied unit in the map, Fortify heals every allied unit in the map, and the flexibility of Warp, Rewarp, and Rescue more than makes up for the fact that they can miss. There was a saying that "there are only two kinds of units in FE5 lategame: those that can use staves and have high magic, and those that can't".