History Main / NoSavingThrow

* Franchise/{{Superman}}'s weakness to magic is [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes]] this: Rather than outright weakening or hurting him, magic is able to completely bypass Superman's invulnerability and it affects him just as it would any other being.

Nope. Sorry. That's now how this works; there's [[TitleDrop No Saving Throw]] for this one.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has primal tempering, which affects the target with MindControl. There is no way to prevent, dodge, or block being affected by a primal's tempering, unless you have the Echo, and only a small handful of people do. Also, there is no known way to reverse the process. Tempered victims are routinely killed off by the good guys as a result of this. It's treated by the heroes as a MercyKill, because they view it as a FateWorseThanDeath. Plus, leaving the primal's thralls alive only serves to [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly potentially strengthen the primal that has them under control]]. [[spoiler:The in-universe creation of a cure for tempering in patch 5.4 is seen as something of a miracle, as it was thought to be impossible. However, a cure isn't the same as prevention; there's still no in-universe way to prevent a Primal's tempering besides the Echo, and it's still possible to be too far gone for the cure to save. So people still have to be careful, even after this cure is found.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has primal tempering, which affects the target with MindControl. There is no way to prevent, dodge, or block being affected by a primal's tempering, unless you have the Echo, and only a small handful of people do. Also, there is no known way to reverse the process. Tempered victims are routinely killed off by the good guys as a result of this. It's treated by the heroes as a MercyKill, because they view it as a FateWorseThanDeath. Plus, leaving the primal's thralls alive only serves to [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly potentially strengthen the primal that has them under control]].

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' and ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'', if someone bearing the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception hits you in your body's point of death, [[OneHitKill you die]]. It doesn't matter if you can reincarnate or bring yourself back from the dead. It doesn't matter if you are [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne a gestalt entity of 666 different beasts]] that ordinarily have to all be killed at the same moment. It doesn't matter if you can reverse time to instantly repair any damage done to your body. It doesn't matter if the world itself is actively working to sustain your continued existence. It doesn't even matter if you aren't technically alive to begin with. If you're hit in your point of death, ''you die. Period.'' You might be able to hold on for a few seconds if you've lived for a really long time, but that's about it; once you're struck in your point of death, your imminent demise is inevitable.

* In VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen, if you choose to [[spoiler:sacrifice Charlotte to the Kraken]] in Week 37, then in Week 38 [[spoiler:[[MamaBear Lucille]] will murder you without any opportunity to prevent it with a skill check, if you haven't had her executed yet.]]

Nope. Sorry. That's now how this works; there's No Saving Throw for this one.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', it's said that petrification magic is the one spell that can't be blocked, defended, or reversed. If someone gets turned to stone on the Boiling Isles, they're stuck that way. [[spoiler:BigBad Emperor Belos intends to do this to Eda to MakeAnExampleOfThem so that no one will dare oppose him. When Lilith finds this out, it prompts a MistreatmentInducedBetrayal, since Belos had previously promised to remove Eda's owl beast curse, only to reveal that [[ILied he was lying]].]]

* Reducing a mobile suit to 0 HP in ''VideoGame/GundamEvolution'' usually leaves them disabled but [[CombatResuscitation temporarily possible to revive]] if they don't take enough additional damage. However, if they were brought to 0 by Barbatos' Long Sword or [[LimitBreak G-Maneuver]], they are destroyed instantly and have to respawn. The former is specifically so Barbatos can use HitAndRunTactics effectively without its work being undone.

* In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', this trope is the reason the Magician Trent is considered so dangerous before his HeelFaceTurn. His BalefulPolymorph powers work on everyone, period. When he tries to use them against Bink, who has permanent AntiMagic, the only possible counters the antimagic can create are for Trent to miss or to hit something else, and it has to cause increasingly implausible events in order to block Trent's attacks. The transformation magic is that powerful, there's no defense against actually getting hit. Notably, this is the first time Bink's antimagic is ever forced to reveal its own existence in order to protect him from magical harm; for his entire life up to that point it had operated subtly enough that nobody even suspected Bink ''had'' a magical ability.

* ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'' second edition has No Saving Throw as a [[PointBuildSystem extra you can apply to one of your powers]]. When the power resolves, the target is treated as though they failed their saving throw by one point. For damage effects[[note]]Mutants & Masterminds doesn't use HitPoints. Characters make a saving throw to shrug off damage instead, with failed saves applying stacking penalties to future saves until someone passes the critical failure threshold and is knocked out.[[/note]] this results only in ScratchDamage. But for Save-Or-Lose effects like [[MindManipulation Mind Control]], [[BalefulPolymorph Transform]], or [[PowerNullifier Power Control]], this ability becomes a GameBreaker. It's typically reserved for NPC Villains.

** Turned UpToEleven with vortex weapons, normally only playable in Apocalypse. Any model (infantry, monster, vehicle, or otherwise) that so much is touched by the vortex template is immediately removed from play. No saves of any kind allowed, no equipment tomfoolery, no special rolls -- just straight-up dead. The only exceptions are Gargantuan Creatures and Super-Heavy Vehicles (I.E. things that are building-sized or larger) -- they take d6 wounds or d3 structure points of damage with absolutely no way to prevent them.

** A fully powered up Juggernaut [[UpToEleven kicks this up a notch]]. In addition to having basic night immunity, a level four Juggernaut will attack all visitors to his target, just like the Werewolf, and ignores all forms of defense, ''meaning not even a Guardian Angel's protection will save you''. This is on top of being able to attack every night, unlike the Werewolf.

** If you are level 4 or below in Rules Cyclopedia ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', if someone casts a Sleep spell upon you, you're as good as sleeping, as it doesn't give you a saving throw against it. If you don't have any friends to protect you or wake you up when you're under the spell's influence, you're at the mercy of whoever cast the spell on you, as anyone can use a bladed weapon to kill you instantly no matter how many HP you have.
*** Even in later editions which changed how ''Sleep'' spells work, the effect is dependent on a pool of HP that's genereated when the spell is cast. If the target has a low-enough HP threshold, they're going to sleep. The only way to block ''Sleep'' from working is to be an elf or a half-elf, since magic can't put them to sleep.

-->-- "Death Sentence" effect description, ''[[{{VideoGame/Sonny}} Sonny 2]]''

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': Enigma, the Stand of villain Terunosuke Miyamoto, can turn things into paper. He can attack people only if they act on the [[CharacterTic "tell" they display after a scare]], and only if Terunosuke is already 100% sure that's the correct "tell" (for ex. he might have to scare you, discover the "tell", then scare you ''again'' to activate the ability). However, if the condition is fulfilled, Enigma's attack [[AlwaysAccurateAttack cannot be evaded]], [[UnblockableAttack blocked]], or [[PowerNullifier affected by Stand powers]].

* ''{{Literature/Worm}}'' has several:

* ''[[VideoGame/Dota2 Dota 2]]'': Axe's ultimate ability Culling Blade will [[FinishingMove unconditionally kill any target whose HP is below a certain amount]], ignoring any and all buffs on the target. This includes Dazzle's Shallow Grave, a spell whose ''only purpose'' is to [[LastChanceHitPoint prevent the target from dying while it is active]].

* ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic]]'': The "Plague" Force power inflicts -1 attributes on its target every six seconds, and has a Difficulty Class (DC) of 100 making it impossible to avoid unless the target has an active poison immunity.

** In the ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' campaign setting, if the enigmatic ruler of Sigil, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Lady of Pain]], truly becomes annoyed with someone, she'll cast her shadow across them. The target is instantly killed as their body is flayed apart as if by dozens of knives. Not only is there no saving throw against this, no other form of defense works, either. She's even killed a god this way.

* In ''[[VideoGame/IWBTGFangames I Wanna Be The Love Trap]]'', [[https://youtu.be/kSiKrre01Ns?t=53 one boss]] will spend much of the battle facing away from The Kid, turning around every time the timer reaches completion. If the boss sees The Kid moving or facing him, he will freeze The Kid in place and drop a slow-moving Delicious Fruit onto him. The boss can only be defeated by never allowing him a chance to use this attack.

* In ''[[VideoGame/IWBTGFangames I Wanna Be The Love Trap]]'', [[https://youtu.be/kSiKrre01Ns?t=53 one boss]] will spend much of the battle facing away from The Kid, turning around every time the timer reaches completion. If the boss sees The Kid moving or facing him, he will freeze The Kid in place and drop a slow-moving Delicious Fruit onto him. The boss can only be defeated by never allowing him a chance to use this attack.

* In ''[[VideoGame/VideoGame/IWBTGFangames I Wanna Be The Love Trap]]'', [[https://youtu.be/kSiKrre01Ns?t=53 one boss]] will spend much of the battle facing away from The Kid, turning around every time the timer reaches completion. If the boss sees The Kid moving or facing him, he will freeze The Kid in place and drop a slow-moving Delicious Fruit onto him. The boss can only be defeated by never allowing him a chance to use this attack.

* In ''VideoGame/VideoGame/IWBTGFangames I Wanna Be The Love Trap'', [[https://youtu.be/kSiKrre01Ns?t=53 one boss]] will spend much of the battle facing away from The Kid, turning around every time the timer reaches completion. If the boss sees The Kid moving or facing him, he will freeze The Kid in place and drop a slow-moving Delicious Fruit onto him. The boss can only be defeated by never allowing him a chance to use this attack.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': A new Mementos target added in [[UpdatedRerelease Royal]] is Hikaru Arikawa, a womanizer who uses his looks to manipulate women, and has even made them fight amongst each other for his own amusement. His Shadow in Mementos, a Tam Lin, has the "Womanizing" skill that will brainwash any ladies in your party; even having a "Null Brainwash" skill or accessory item cannot block it! Thankfully, you can cure it with skills or items. You have to attack him with a party of all men, at which point [[CripplingOverspecialization his skill fails him.]]