In Tag Team battles, it is typically only the characters on the battlefield that are able to damage each other while those who are not tagged in yet do not face any risk. However, there are certain attacks or abilities that damage characters not participating in battle yet.
What constitutes a backbench can vary, but it generally is a members of a team or force who are currently in reserves behind the active party member. In card games this can take the form of a backrow, while in other games it can be your off-field party members.
Not to be confused with Herd-Hitting Attack, which is about being able to attack all opponents on the field rather than those in reserve. Any game where a Total Party Kill means Game Over instead of switching with the reserves is a form of this—the implication is that the reserves were knocked out or killed as well. See also Switch-Out Move for moves that will force a tag out, You Will Not Evade Me for moves or abilities that prevent tag outs, and Ten Paces and Turn for where someone might cheat by attacking someone who's not ready to fight yet. Compare with Long-Range Fighter and Out-of-Turn Interaction for cases where someone can attack from the backbench.
Examples:
Tabletop Games- Pokémon: Some moves are able to deal damage to Pokemon that are on the Bench, which sometimes affect multiple Pokemon at once. Dealing damage to a Pokemon on the Bench that exceeds its max HP causes them to be Knocked Out and allows the Attacking Pokemon's player to take 1-3 Prize cards the same way Knocking Out an Active Pokemon would.
- BIONICLE: In Maze of Shadows, Nuju's Avalanche can damage all enemies in the current battle instead of just his opponent on the field.
- Coromon: Voodoo magic can hit members of the party that aren't participating in battle.
- Dragon Ball Legends is a 3-on-3 fighting game that normally has one fighter out at a time, but some attacks, such as Majin Vegeta's Final Explosion or Full Power Jiren's Burst Impact, are capably of dealing splash damage to the entire enemy team. Keep in mind that those in tag-out cannot be KO'd, but they can be weakened just enough for you to take them out with a single Quick Step attack.
- In some Dragon Quest games, monsters will sometimes attack the party's wagon to prevent the backup from intervening/prevent active party members from retreating.
- Epic Battle Fantasy 5: A variety of enemies and bosses have attacks that can damage backup party members. On the other hand, you can freely switch characters in and out of backup, and some support spells also affect backup party members.
- Genshin Impact:
- The Corrosion status effect can drains HP from the entire party, even when they are off feild. It also bypasses any shield effects on characters. Non-active party members will at least never die from it, because it stops draining them at 15% HP remaining.
- In-universe the Genius Invocation TCG also has backbench characters, who can take various forms of splash damage from many opponents. Wanderer's for example can enhance his Normal Attack to directly hit the opponents backbenched character.
- Hearthstone: When you play Gunslinger Kurtrus, he can deal damage to minions in your opponent's hand instead of minions in the battlefield.
- Inscryption: In the card game, you can do this to your opponents backrow via overflow damage, sometimes killing the card before it even becomes active. This is the only way to damage queued cards, not even the scissors will work on them.
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: If Bowser inhales the Sea Pipe Statue, then he will swallow the Blooper statue and control will switch over to Mario and Luigi, who are inside of Bowser. However, the Blooper can drill itself into Bowser's insides while fighting them, hurting Bowser.
- Skullgirls Mobile:
- The Neuromancer variant of Painwheel has a signature ability of damaging her opponent's teammates with a percentage of her Blockbuster damage.
- The Trigger Happy variant of Black Dahlia signature abilities focus on her shots being able to damage her opponent's teammates and gaining Enrage buffs when said teammates take damage.
- The Bio-Exorcist variant of Squigly has an inverted example where her signature ability will drain a certain percentage of health from her teammates should she suffer a fatal hit while having at least one Dragon Charge.
