History Main / NoStatAtrophy

* In the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' games, vocations grant skills that can be used from one job to another (such as increasing your dodging ability or lowering the chances of monster encounters), even if the character's physical stats (HP, MP, speed...) change. No matter how long you spend in one vocation, you can pick up from where you left off (and in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'', you even keep the spells you learned across classes, so you can field 4 Gladiators who can fully heal and resurrect each other after maxing out the Priest class.)

* ''Fight Night Round 3'' not only had your training let your off-stats atrophy a little, but as your boxer aged, they'd decline faster. And faster. Retirement was suggesting itself ...
* ''Punch Club'' reduces your stats by a set amount each day based on how much experience you've earned in that particular stat. It is possible to lose levels due to stat decay, but certain perks can prevent you from dropping below a minimum level.

* Some tabletop RPG systems, such as ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Characters can age, decreasing their physical stats while increasing their mental ones, and there are many spells and monster abilities that can permanently drain statistics or even levels.
** ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' lampshaded an odd side-effect of this: since Wisdom is undeniably a mental stat, and therefore increases when you age, and since perception-type skills use your Wisdom stat, your vision and hearing actually get ''better'' with age, as opposed to real life.
** However, skills rarely decay so if you keep training at a faster rate than you're losing stat points you can still be the best swordfighter in the universe even if you can barely stand up.
*** At least until you die of old age.

* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'' averts this big time - aging and its effects are a major part of any long term game, and concocting your longevity potion or ritual is a goal for most magi.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', where a very old man has ''better'' hearing than the [=PCs=] because wisdom score always increases. The [=PCs=] [[SkepticismFailure are as surprised as the audience]].

* In ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'', all your stats (but swordfighting and dancing in particular) decay as your pirate ages. Choosing Medicine as your preferred skill at the start of the game reduces the effect somewhat.

* ''VideoGame/IdolManager'': Averted in that stats associated with things that are expected to decay as a person ages, such as appearance and physical fitness, will take a hit on an idol's birthday. Some idols have a trait called "Live fast" that causes those losses to be more consequential.

[[folder:Turn Based Strategy]]
* As far as aging goes, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' kept track of the ages of characters by how many calendar years had passed since the game began. If you spend a lot of time traveling and battling, the three-year-old Prince Orinas may be 20 by chapter 2, but he's still an infant as far as the story (and his appearance) is concerned.
** A similar situation in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles''. You may have played the game to year 157, but your character's appearance- that of a 12-15 year-old- doesn't change at all.
[[/folder]]

* Franchise/DocSavage, in contrast to most pulp adventure heroes, does an intensive training ritual every day, even in the middle of an adventure, to keep his amazing stats as high as they are.

* ''MLB The Show'': In the "Road to the Show" mode, if you don't work on something every two months, your ability will begin to decrease.

[[folder:MMORPGs]]

* In the original version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', building up magic would reduce your weapon abilities and vice versa, but this was removed in the GBA version.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'', some Blitzball players would actually ''lose'' stats on some level-ups. Extremely minor and rare, however.
** Also in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', where increasing your affinity with a Guardian Force to summon it faster came at the expense of losing affinity with others.

* In earlier versions of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', Strength could decrease if you frequently used White Magic (which boosts Spirit), Stamina could decrease if you frequently used Black Magic (which boosts Intelligence), and Intelligence could decrease if you frequently attacked (which boosts Strength).
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', you can lose experience points (and levels if you lose enough XP) through death. Crafting also has skill decay: you can level all crafting skills to 60, but you can only level 4 crafting skills to 100 (i.e. you have 160 more skill levels available). If you try to take a crafting skill beyond 60 after using up all your 60+ skill levels, one crafting skill would lose a level for every level you gained.
** Combat and magic skills also "decay" when switching to lower level jobs: every job level has a cap for a particular skill, so even if you have a level 90 Warrior with maxed sword skill at 325, switching to a level 1 Paladin will limit your sword skill to 5.
*** This is only temporary, however. The game keeps track of your actual skill level, and merely caps the "effective" level until the job you're using get high enough. To use the above example -- Paladins actually have better 1-handed sword skill that Warriors do, so they will regain access to those 325 points in the skill at some point before they reach Paladin level 90. As a bonus, up until that point, it also means that they instantly jump to the next level's cap as soon as they gain a level in the "new" class (here, Paladin); thus, they don't have to worry about having sub-par skill in 1-handed sword for their level for a long, long time.

** Pathfinder 2nd Edition has no rules for aging written as of September 2020, and states that age does not change a character's stats. Some loose guidance for considering what your age should mean is given, but no mechanics are given. Additionally, the above-mentioned Lich is due to come back when the adventure path he is in is re-released.
[[note]]This was initially planned for a 10th Anniversary Edition, but the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed production.[[/note]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' doesn't have stat atrophy as a written rule, but a unique case appears in the ''Kingmaker'' adventure path. One of the boss monsters is a cyclops lich, who after spending 10,000 years in torpor in a sealed tomb has lost a considerable portion of his former knowledge-- while he was originally a 20th-level wizard, only nine of those levels remain in the present day. In addition to severely cutting down his selection of spells, the fact that he's now below the normal minimum level for a lich (11th) means his [[SoulJar phylactery]] is nonfunctional-- when the [=PCs=] kill him, he stays dead.

* While ''Videogame/MightAndMagic'' VII and VIII does not decrease skills if they are not used, the age has an impact on your stats. In the case of Intellect and Personality, this can even ''increase'' the values for characters that are 50 - 99 years old, but otherwise they decrease with the age and may be reduced up to by 90% of the true value in the case of really old PCs. This is why magic aging is really dangerous in this game.

* ''Realmz'' always had character aging, but it didn't used to have any effect. In version 5, each race was given age groups (youth, young, prime, adult, senior) which alter stats when a character enters that age group. In order to avert whining from players, characters past their race's maximum age didn't die, but instead merely got a large penalty on XP gains as a hint that the character should be retired.

* In ''{{Cataclysm}}'', skills that go unused will first drop to 0% of advancement towards the next skill level, then degrade until they hit -100%, when they do degrade a level, which must be relearned. As having to relearn it as if you never had that level is quite harsh, there are options to disallow skills from going down levels or degrading in any way.

* ''VideoGame/{{Realmz}}'' always had character aging, but it didn't used to have any effect. In version 5, each race was given age groups (youth, young, prime, adult, senior) which alter stats when a character enters that age group. In order to avert whining from players, characters past their race's maximum age didn't die, but instead merely got a large penalty on XP gains as a hint that the character should be retired.