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Invisible forcefield, obvious awesome.

"Crossing your fingers is a barrier against harm! Even kids know that much! I ate the Barrier-Barrier Fruit... I'm a barrier-man!! BARRIER CRUSH!"
Bartolomeo, One Piece (Chapter 709)

The Barrier Warrior is a character with the Magic and Powers necessary to create Deflector Shields or Beehive Barriers to protect themselves and sometimes others. The Barrier Warrior fights enemies with an emphasis not on destruction, but on protecting, and their personalities will often reflect this by being kind and caring, with Actual Pacifist tendencies and sometimes Healing Hands to go with their defensive abilities. It should come as no surprise that characters with this ability as their main or only power are, you guessed it, heroes. Usually, they're a Squishy Wizard or The Smart Guy. In video games they specialize in protecting and aiding teammates, or "buffing", rather than damaging enemies.

The problem is that their transferable Nigh-Invulnerability and ease in resisting attacks that Could Have Been Messy makes them the perfect target for The Worf Effect. As soon as a new bad guy shows up, the Barrier Warrior's shields will pose all the resistance of wet tissue paper to their weakest Energy Blasts. With just one scene, the rest of The Team knows that this guy is a serious threat.

If the user of this power is a villain, however, expect them to be more arrogant and boastful, claiming that nobody could touch him and/or that he's invincible. Plus, a villainous Barrier Warrior tends to be tougher to break than the heroic ones, due to Rule of Drama. The same rule would also make it that it's more satisfying when the hero(es) finally find a way to go around, or even break, the villain's barriers.

Less commonly, it can occur that Heart Is an Awesome Power, and the Barrier Warrior will be a fierce fighter on an equal footing with other more aggressively powered cast members. This is done either by cleverly using his shield to trick or outmaneuver enemies, help teammates, or by using it in conjunction with other fighting skills and abilities to beat up enemies. A barrier could also be sent forward to attack enemies — if it can stop bullets, it's going to hurt if it runs into your face. The more deadly form of this would be to crush someone with the impenetrable shield and if you can control the shape of the barrier, you could hypothetically give it sharp edges as well. Another lethal possibility would be to make the barriers appear inside the opponent, potentially cutting them in half. It's potentially one of the most versatile abilities out there, given enough imagination. See Deadly Forcefield for more on this.

As a power, generating Deflector Shields is much like Flight (see Not Quite Flight). In theory it's an awesome power that anyone would like to have, but most supers already have some degree of Super-Toughness or are Made of Iron, so it becomes superfluous. Most shows give every character this ability as a secondary power/skillset from a character's main abilities (such as a geokinetic blocking attacks with boulders, or a cryokinetic making ice walls). It's made even more useless since it's often easy to deflect Ki Attacks with other Ki Attacks, and techniques like Deadly Dodging are around to avoid most attacks.

On the flip side, writers who notice this have used Repower to make these characters incredibly versatile and lethal as well, since it functions like an Imagination-Based Superpower, which often involves Spontaneous Weapon Creation and/or Shaping Your Attacks.

Frequently their barriers manifest depending on their morality (and may even change appearance if they change sides). It's either as beautiful (and deadly) Petal Power or gently glowing spheres, or black barriers that crackle ominously.

Not to be confused with Barrier Maiden, though the two can overlap if the Maiden's method of containment is via forcefield.

See also Attack Reflector, one of the many things they can do. Compare Stone Wall or Magic Knight. The Mundane Utility these characters can do is creating Improvised Platforms.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • After God: Yako holds Waka in place by invisible boxes, which also let her lift herself in air.
  • Beet the Vandel Buster's Cruss, a water using legendary hero whose shield protects the group as well as rebounding any attack back onto the attacker. Slightly subverted in the fact that said shield can transform into a giant flail.
  • Bleach:
    • Orihime Inoue. Her powers manifest as six fairies which combine in different ways to produce shields that have different powers. Three fairies combine to create an extremely powerful Deflector Shield. Two combine to create a healing shield. One lone fairy specialises in a shield that splits two substances apart and can therefore be used to attack and kill. This shield is extremely weak because it's linked to the strength of her Killing Intent, which she has very little of as a Technical Pacifist. She has, however, learned how to combine it with her Deflector Shield for a four-fairy Attack Reflector.
    • Hachigen "Hachi" Ushoda from the Vizards. As a shinigami, he was a kidou specialist. As a Vizard, he remains the group's Magic Knight and Barrier Warrior. He's so good and specialised at this that he can even use his barriers and shields to decapitate his enemies. With the aid of a captain (Sui-Feng), he was the only Vizard to beat an Espada.
    • Nanao Ise was revealed to be this, via creating kido barriers against Haschwalth so she could assist Shunsui.
  • Mage-type characters in CLAMP works are typically capable of this. Most notable:
    • The Shield Card in Cardcaptor Sakura, which can deflect anything.
    • Magic Knight Rayearth:
      • Fuu Hououji, whose Winds of Protection are capable of stopping any attack (as well as healing diverse injuries), if she's prepared for it. Otherwise, her shields eventually buckle and suffer The Worf Effect.
      • Master Clef who once threw up a shield around an entire castle to defend it from an interstellar warship's gigantic plasma beam.
    • Since he started using magic again, Fai Flourite from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- is also this. Notably, in a recent chapter of the manga he threw up a barrier and held it against an all-out onslaught of magic from two other characters.
  • The Shinkirou, Lelouch's Mid-Season Upgrade in Code Geass R2, is a strange case. It uses the Absolute Protection Territory, a battleship-class Beehive Barrier whose individual mini-shields can be coordinated by the pilot (but this requires an exceptionally quick-minded pilot, meaning Lelouch is the only one capable of using it properly). Defending is its primary purpose, but not allies; since Lelouch insists upon leading from the battlefield but is a mediocre-to-poor pilot, it was made to be super tough so he doesn't get One-Hit KO'd.
    • There is also a single instance of Lelouch finding a non-defensive use for the shield, near the end of the series: Holding open a hole in Damocles' own shield so that Suzaku and some Mooks can get inside and lead a direct attack.
  • In D.Gray-Man, Miranda Lotto is the only Exorcist with a purely defensive Innocence. However, it's really, really powerful; she can basically reverse and suspend time within an area around her. In practice, this means that within that area, anyone she wants will have wounds disappear as soon as they're made, and she can reverse damage to objects just as easily. The two big limitations are that it only lasts as long as she has the strength to keep it in place and that every bit of damage reappears as soon as she stops invoking.
  • Nozomi Daichi from The Daichis: Earth Defense Family uses an umbrella that generates force fields.
  • Taomon from Digimon Tamers. She has other attacks, but they see very little use compared to the forcefield. Her ultimate form, Sakuyamon, is similar, though goes on the offense a little more (her barrier is sometimes the only means of getting into the true enemy's territory without dying horribly.)
  • Although they don't do it often, high-level warriors in Dragon Ball Z can generate shields with their ki to deflect or nullify enemy attacks. Oddly, the one who makes the most frequent use of it is Broly.
    • In Dragon Ball Super, Android 17 seems to have adopted this as part of his fighting style as shown in the Tournament of Power. He's used multiple variations of his barrier technique (shown only once in the original manga and anime) for both offensive, defensive, and containment measures.
    • Another character that uses this kind of ability is Cocotte, one of the Pride Troopers from Team Universe 11. Unlike the above examples, though, the bubbles she creates actually contain alternate dimensions. Although these can be broken through with strong enough attacks, Android 18 found it easier to defeat her by just picking up the bubble she surrounded herself with and throwing it off the edge of the arena.
  • In Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor, the Mark Fünf has the Aegis equipment, which works like this. Surprisingly, Mamoru and Hiroto in The Movie, since Mamoru is dead by then is one of the more Hot-Blooded members, and fights using techniques inspired by the Gobain manga he reads (he even wears a mask that looks like it in battle).
  • Megumi Kurogane of Gate Keepers is of the versatile variety, creating giant walls to block enemy attacks, as well as using said walls to crush them. This power is inverted into a piercing ability after her Face–Heel Turn.
  • The UC Gundam series has the "I-Field", a barrier that deflects beam weapons. It requires a considerable amount of power to put up (and, earlier on, the generator itself is rather big and overheats in 20 mins), such that only large Mobile Armors are capable of using them to any useful degree. They're a defensive measure only until Zeta Gundam, when the Psyco Gundam Mk. II uses 'reflector bits' to generate a localized I-Field some distance away, with which it can deflect its own beam shots so they come at an unexpected angle.(Not quite correct, since in the settings in MSG, the I-Field was already used to deflect Mega Particle Cannon beams at different angles up to 20 degrees to reduce the need to turn the heavy gun around too much(Which is pretty slow to aim when you are in space and the reaction force turn your ship to the other direction)
    • However, despite this being an obviously useful tactic, about the only other Mobile Suit designed with this in mind is the Ex-S Gundam, and it's an overpowered Super Prototype that already has an indirectly firing weapon in addition to its 'reflector INCOMs'.
    • Later on, the Crossbone Gundam X3 is built with I-Field generators in its arms, and they're powerful enough to force the Divinidad's weaponry against itself at very close range - much like trying to shoot a blocked gun.
      • By this point decades of technological improvement have made it possible for a normal-sized mobile suit, rather than a giant like the Psyco & Ex-S Gundams, to operate an I-Field, but the power requirements are still a major limited factor. Especially since "normal sized" has become smaller by this time, with mobile suit design de-emphasizing armor in favor of speed, agility and presenting a smaller target profile. The I-Field generators also produce a lot of heat, requiring 2 minutes of cooldown for 1.75 minutes of operation, otherwise the generators will overheat to the point of destroying themselves.
      • 20 years into the future of X-3, the V2 Gundam with its assault pack has 2 I-Field generators installed and is protected by BOTH of them at the SAME time, withOUT a time limit.(But the addon armour itself is rather fragile to solid projectile weapons, and can be destroyed by ladies in bikini carrying bazookas.(It all makes sense in context, really.)
    • The Beam Shields should honour mention here as well. Although the proto-concept appeared first in UC0079 on the commander type Gelgoog's rotating hand with its beam naginata and again in UC0093 on the Fin Funnel creative use from Amuro, the shield shaped beam saber didn't appear until UC0120. And it is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, it is simply just a beam sword shaped into a shield, usually for defense against all weapons(to some extend even more practical than the I-Field Barrier since it also protect the mecha from missiles and solid rounds, but is less protective against high energy beam since it has less distance for defusing the beam), it can be used just like a beam saber, that is, cutting/burning through things with its high energy plasma goodness. In the manga, the V Gundam even forms a full spherical beam shield with two of these and rolled towards the enemy as an attack.
  • Heroman: Joey's gauntlet allows him to throw up small but apparently very strong force fields.
  • Juumonji Katsuto from The Irregular at Magic High School specializes in barrier magic. His barriers continually refresh themselves, and if one is destroyed, the one behind it would replace it, further fortifying his defenses. He can also use these for offensive purposes, the most common being sending a barrier flying forward at high speed to ram into an enemy. He can do this repeatedly to produce a continuous stream of rapid-fire barrier projectiles.
  • Acao from Jinki:Extend can crush metal with her fields.
  • Kekkaishi: It's worth pointing out that Kekkaishi translated literally means "barrier master"... making this example the prime epitome of the trope. It comes with the handy bonus that they can make the barriers implode, destroying whatever they made it surround. Depending on skill, a Kekkaishi can use their powers in many versaile ways.
    • A barrier that eats away at anything and everything except the user.
    • If an enemy is too fast to be captured by a full-sized barrier, simply make a smaller, faster one around a piece of their body or even their vitals (imploding that section is then an option; the main characters figure that out even when they're still rookiees).
  • Macross:
    • The SDF-1 of Super Dimension Fortress Macross was given a barrier early on: the only problem is that they didn't have the energy reserves to power it up enough to cover more than a tiny circle of the ship. The solution was to create a series of 'pinpoint barriers' controlled by trackballs handled by the Bridge Bunnies (not the principal Bridge team, but other three girls specially trained for this purpose). The Number Two then came up with the Daedalus Maneuver, which involved putting all the shields around the Daedalus (which was originally a sea-going carrier acting as both a fist and a docking bay) so it could punch through the enemy's hull, then open up and unload a large quantity of missiles inside the enemy's guts.
    • Halfway through the series, the SDF-1's engineers found a way to produce an omnidirectional barrier that could spread outwards, like a sphere, to cover the entire ship. Unfortunately, the feedback from enemy attacks caused it to overload and explode violently, destroying a sizable chunk of Ontario and resulting in the Macross being forbidden from entering Earth's atmosphere again. They use the system again to intentionally overload and blow up the enemy commander's flagship, but the omnidirectional barrier is never fixed, and later series have abandoned the technology entirely.
    • In subsequent series, the transforming fighter craft mecha also were given Pinpoint Barriers, and could execute a powerful punch in much the same manner. Likewise with later models of the Macross-class warships, with the original Daedalus Attack being thus renamed to "Macross Attack".
    • The Sigur Valens in Macross Delta has the ability to warp Fold Space around it to form an energy barrier, which is at least tough enough to withstand a nuclear blast. A shot from the Macross Cannon, not so much.
  • In the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series, barrier powers are a dime-a-dozen, but some mages are demonstrably better at them than others.
  • The Distortion Fields on Martian Successor Nadesico are also useful for offense (and like most Aestivalis weaponry, are an Homage to Neon Genesis Evangelion, albeit not as creepy). The most generally powerful attack the Humongous Mecha pilots use involves angling their Distortion Field to a point and ramming the enemy with it, a technique named "Gekigan Flare" as a reference to Nadesico's Show Within a Show. When Aestivalis appear in Super Robot Wars, the Gekigan Flare (or combination attacks involving it) is usually the Aestivalis's Limit Break. Gekiganger fanboys Akito and Gai usually have the Double Gekigan Flare as a Combination Attack. Given that Gai usually survives much longer in a Super Robot Wars game than he did in his own series, you have a surprising amount of opportunities to use it. (It never did get used by Akito and Gai in the series, because they hadn't seen the Short Film that introduced it yet.)
  • Mai from My-HiME can use her Element to create short-range forcefields for herself and her friends. Natsuki also gets this ability in the manga version (hers is ice in counterpart to Mai's fire). Though considering Mai's power mainly consists of pyrokinesis and summoning a giant dragon with its very own Wave-Motion Gun, her shield does not really make her an example. Sister Yukariko would be a better fit to the trope.
    • Generate long, narrow barriers that skewer enemies like spears.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Ala Alba has Asuna, who has the ability to cancel magic and a BFS that serves as a powerful shield.
    • The previous generation group Ala Rubra had Filius Zect, who acted as this for the group.
    • Haruna also sometimes uses her Art Initiates Life artifact to create shields.
    • Also, most mages have a personal shield active all the time. By Chapter 141, Asuna has learned to attack in teams: She blows the shield away right before Negi or Kuu Fei hits.
  • Taken to an extreme in Neon Genesis Evangelion with A.T. Fields. For an Evangelion to kill an attacking angel, its pilot will first have to penetrate its A.T. Field, a powerful shield all angels possess which deflects normal weaponry, necessitating the use of the mechas. Evas themselves have A.T. Fields as well, as strong as the Synchronization between the Eva and its pilot. Rather than being pacifistic team players, though, the Eva are frighteningly violent. But it doesn't end there. As the series goes on, it is revealed that all beings with souls possess these "Absolute Terror" Fields inside of them, and the Evas' and angels' fields are simply incredibly powerful ones. A person's A.T. Field is the only thing protecting their soul and individuality, which is exploited in the film finale The End of Evangelion.
  • One Piece: Bartolomeo ate the Barrier-Barrier Fruit, which allows him to generate seemingly indestructible barriers by crossing his fingers. Bartolomeo's character subverts much of the other stereotypical traits of this trope, in that his personality is extremely provocative and is generally an unpleasant guy to be around. He utilizes his barriers to viciously mock and provoke his opponents, while staying safe from their reprisals behind the safety of his barriers. He is, for all intents and purposes, an in-person personification of an internet troll. Despite this, he turns out to be a vaguely heroic character due to being a massive fanboy of the Straw Hat Pirates, and he does have some sense of decency. He can also shape his barriers into constructs to form things like staircases, spheres, walls, and a tennis racquet. His powers can also be used offensively, such as slamming them into people or to augment his attacks (such as forming a barrier orb around his fist to enhance his punches). They are however, not without limits:
    • He has to cross his fingers to create them, meaning at least one of his hands must be occupied in order to use his power.
    • He has an upper limit on the maximum surface area of barriers he can produce.
    • He can only sustain one barrier at a time.
    • His barriers are not soundproof, which means verbal and sound-based attacks can penetrate them.
    • His barriers, while indestructible, are not completely immovable by outside forces, and so they can be pushed back when enough force is applied.
    • His barriers seem to be invisible or at least transparent, which means that light can pass through them. This opens up the possibility of light-based attacks penetrating his defenses.
  • Phantom Quest Corp.: As Phantom Quest's staff exorcist, Rokkon specializes in creating powerful seals that immobilize ghosts and demons. Which allows him to either purge them from their hosts (in cases of demonic possession), or simply expunge them entirely.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • Komachi/Cure Mint in Yes! Pretty Cure 5. In theory, somewhat limited in usage compared to other forcefielders, since she can only produce Mint Protection and Mint Shield around herself rather than just anywhere. In practice, they're strong enough to make Mint the team Worf, can provide pathways for her teammates' powers, and have no apparent limit on range, and the Mint Shield in particular does damage on contact and has been used as a massive Kamehame Hadoken. In Season 2, though, she loses these abilities, which are replaced with the more traditional attack Emerald Saucer... which turns out to also work as a shield, making her still qualify in spirit if not in practice.
    • Before her, there were the Stone Wall Shiny Luminous and the Splash Star Pretty Cures.
    • Cures Sunshine (and her mascot Potpourri) and Moonlight in HeartCatch Pretty Cure! can also cast rather big shields. Sunshine in particular used her Sunflower Aegis to attack back when she made her first appearance.
    • Cure Beat and Cure Muse in Suite Pretty Cure ♪. While Beat creates her Beat Barrier with a her Lovely Guitar Rod, Muse creates barriers with her keyboard of light, an ability passed by her family.
    • Cure Rosetta from Doki Doki! PreCure. Rosetta's attack are only barriers. However, her second attack Rosetta Reflection has also offensive usages, such as Throwing Your Shield Always Works and Catch and Return-Kamehame Hadoken. When the Pretty Cures fight Melan, a dragon who has a barrier that is more powerful than their group finisher Lovely Force Arrow plus Ace Shot, Cure Heart, Cure Diamond and Cure Sword give their powers into Cure Rosetta's shield, creating their new group attack Lovely Force Reflection. This shield is so strong that it breaks through Melan's barrier. Yes, that's right, barrier vs barrier.
    • Cure Star in Star★Twinkle Pretty Cure is offensively capable, but she can summon Star Shields which block enemy attacks.
    • All three of the main trio in Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure have paw shields which come from their fairy partners, allowing them to dodge and deflect attacks. They also have their own methods of attacking as well.
    • In another nod to Cure Mint, Cure Coral of Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure is a strictly defensive based Cure (with one signature attack that isn't shown much) who is capable of making X-shaped barriers. Generally she's a victim of The Worf Effect as most of those barriers tend not to do much against stronger foes, but she can make excellent use of them (i.e. using them as stepping stones, using them to some offensive utility, making layers of them, and even deploying them simultaneously).
  • Kyle from Psyren can create dense pockets of air with his psy. Not only does he defend with them, but he uses the blocks to crush foes as well as a platforms for maneuvers. His future version vastly improves on the defensive capabilities of them and can block all but the strongest attacks from all directions.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Naofumi, the protagonist of The Rising of the Shield Hero, is the wielder of the legendary shield. This simple looking shield can transform into all kinds of different shields and gains new forms by being fed different materials. It also makes him resistant to poison and completely unaffected by weak attacks. But it also prevents him from wielding any other weapons and can't be taken off and its attack power is so weak that it takes him several minutes to kill a single balloon monster, so he has to rely on somebody else to attack for him, or at least until he unlocks the shield's Curse Series, which gives him some extremely powerful attacks at the cost of affecting his sanity and damaging his body.
  • Andromeda Shun from Saint Seiya is an unusual example. His personality matches the type, certainly, though his barrier is made from his chain weapons rather than an energy field.
  • Saiyuki: Hakkai can generate a shield with his chi; the Sharak Sanzou's sutra is implied to have some sort of barrier-like power as well.
  • Griamor from The Seven Deadly Sins uses Wall, a power to use force fields either for defense or offense.
  • While all of the Witches from Strike Witches can use magical barriers (though Eila prefers to rely on her dodging abilities), Yoshika has so far the biggest and most powerful barrier amongst them. She's also The Medic and, strangely, the main character.
  • In Taboo-Tattoo, Cal Shekar is able to use her Spell Crest to create barriers capable of repelling any attack or Spell Crest ability. Cal is also able to use her barriers to cut through anything they touch.
  • In Tales of Wedding Rings, Nefritis quickly develops a knack for using her newly obtained wind magic to protect herself and her allies. This reaches its zenith during the battle for the Sorcerer’s Spire, where Nefritis conjures a Vortex Barrier around the Spire to keep an entire army of the Abyss King's monsters at bay.
  • Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo! can generate force fields, and also can summon floating wooden blocks that encircle a person and restrain them. Ayeka uses her shields as an offensive weapon by flying towards the enemy. When properly motivated, her shields are large and powerful enough to shatter an entire corridor of one of the most powerful warships every built.
    • Her Evil Counterpart, Romio, uses this in Magical Project S.
    • Katsuhito — Tenchi's grandfather, has similar shields, but he only uses them for defense, preferring the Tenchi-ken for offense.
    • Tenchi has similar powers, but due to his lack of training he rarely uses them. The only time we see him use them in the original series was wrapped around a fist to attempt a killer blow against Kagato while parrying his sword. However, Tenchi's ultimate power — the Light Hawk Wings — are massive shields that can block nearly anything. After unleashing them he fights with the Light Hawk Sword, which is really just one of the shields shaped like a sword.
      • All of the Royal families Tree Ships also have the Light Hawk Wings. Ayeka's has three, but the Grand Ship Tsunami (who is also their goddess) can form a full 10 wings which is powerful enough to stop an Earth-Shattering Kaboom. Tenchi's wings differ from those of the tree ships, though, in that his can perform "material conversion", which is a fancy way of saying they can do anything. Among other things, Tenchi's Light Hawk Wings have been used to escape from inside the event horizon of a black hole...by sheer brute force, destroying the black hole in the process. Everything in that sentence should be physically impossible, even by the super-technology standards of Tenchi Muyo, which demonstrates just how special his wings are in-universe. Tenchi's LHW are directly related to Tsunami's, which is one of the three Goddesses(and the most powerful one) and are not limited by the Physical rules of the universe anyway.
  • Tiger & Bunny
    • Jake Martinez from the first season can create barriers and use them offensively, which is how they are used most of time.
    • Season 2 introduces Subaru Sengoku, AKA Mr. Black, a young hero that transfered to Sternbild. His NEXT power is to generate shield, though his Hot-Blooded attitude tends to interfere with how effective his shields are. In the second half of the season, he works on modifying his shields for more offensive purposes.
  • Jill in The Tower of Druaga, with various results. The force field extends from his shield. It tends to be quite weak in the beginning, but he gets better at it. He also depicted as more of a Mighty Glacier.
  • One of the powers of Ryujin's sword allows Yaiba to create an energy shield. Emerald is capable of summoning Barriers and healing people. Actually, she Is the Barrier Soldier.
  • In Zatch Bell!, Tio specializes in protective and healing spells (and has only a single weak offensive spell until Volume 20, anyway). In a competition where (the monsters' human partners notwithstanding) most battles are 1-on-1, this presents obvious problems. This doesn't last, as she quickly decides to team up with Zatch, and the two are an incredibly formidable team when working together.
    • There's also Danny, an early character whose only shown ability is to heal himself. Despite this, he comes awfully close to being a Badass Normal, taking out guys with guns without even using a spell. Eventually, he does get shot, but it only takes a first-level spell to get him up again, hinting that had he survived, he'd be nigh invincible. However, he gets his book burned not in battle, but in protecting a museum artifact. Fans speculate that had this not happened, Danny may have made it to the end, although this is somewhat balanced by having his book reader be a little old man. In the manga, when Gash's book first glows gold giving him the ability to use other demon's spells, it is Danny that saves him with his one and only spell, completely healing the thrashing that Gash received at the hands of Clear Note.

    Asian Animation 
  • Sweet S. of Happy Heroes often uses her Sweet Protection Bubbles to create shields and protect herself and others from incoming attacks.
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: In Marching to the New Wonderland, Jonie's train, the Rainbow Train, has the ability to create a shield dome around itself. In Mighty Little Defenders, Jonie herself gains the same ability.

    Comic Books 
  • Astro City:
    • Samaritan manipulates an "Empyrean field", which is strong enough to repulse a tidal wave.
    • Resistor is a free-floating memetic field that turns ordinary people into energy beings who cast protective energy barriers to shield innocents.
  • Subverted in Buffy Season 8. Giles fights a sorcerer with much greater proficiency in magic than him and is mocked for casting a basic barrier spell that any competent mage could tear through. Giles however, casts the barrier inside his opponent's head and as it expands, his skull explodes from the pressure. Brutal killing with a simple defensive spell.
  • Subverted with Captain America, whose sole weapon — his iconic indestructible shield — is, when thrown, a great offensive weapon against most people. During a period when his shield was lost or destroyed (around the fifth or sixth time... it happens to him a lot), Cap was given an energy shield which acted in this way. Being a traditionalist, he quickly went back to the old shield once it was found/rebuilt.
  • Zhantee in ElfQuest gains the power to shield his friends from danger after being exposed to the power of the Palace of the High Ones.
  • Susan Storm aka The Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four, who was given force fields because mere invisibility isn't all that super when your kid brother Johnny can lob fireballs. As a veteran superhero, she's gotten quite good at using her powers offensively, such as threatening to use them to create a brain embolism/aneurysm at one point.
    • The Invisible Woman has easily taken out the other members of her team with force fields, as well as knocking out both The Hulk and She-Hulk by cutting off their air. This was mocked in an issue of Exiles, implying she brags about the feat often.
    • Dr. Doom has stated, on a number of occasions, that Sue is easily the most powerful member of the team. This is backed up by a few of higher end feats, which include killing a Celestial, who are essentially space-roaming gods. She is, to date, the only Earth-based Marvel hero to accomplish this other than Thor — and even then, Thor needed Jarnbjorn, a magic axe which was specifically enchanted to be Celestial Kryptonite. And in fact, very few characters of any level of power have ever accomplished such a feat; even another Celestial would have great difficulty killing a Celestial. It's been theorized that her shields are particularly lethal to Celestials because the shields are composed of an energy similar to the energy that powers the Celestials themselves, making her a lethal anti-Celestial weapon.
    • Suffice to say, while her personality is still the mothering/nurturing type, and though the original stories featured her as a sometimes-invisible Damsel in Distress, Sue has gone a long way towards proving that this trope is awesome.
  • Booster Gold of the Justice League of America, is a huge subversion. He's a pompous dimwit with super strength and a one-track mind, and he rarely even thinks of using his force field in critical situations. He's been using it more recently and in more creative ways, such as wiring up his forcefield with his blasters to blast the area in a burst so he wouldn't get mindcontrolled. One of the reasons he didn't use it so often was because it might weaken his immune system.
  • In The DCU, Argent and the various Green Lanterns tend to fight like this, especially Hal Jordan and the Justice League Unlimited John Stewart. While their powers are effective Imagination Based Superpowers, respectively, a tendency to forget this leaves them as walking walls of light.
  • Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super-Heroes, who uses his force field and martial arts training to make up for no powers in the comics. In the cartoon, he's a Do-Anything Robot and a Telescoping Robot, whose Beehive Barrier is the least of what he can do.
  • Guardian Angel of PS238 is one, with her power being a semi-aware forcefield that protects her from all harm. This turns out to be Blessed with Suck when it turns out that she's had it since birth, and has protected her from everything including illnesses and the minor injuries induced when receiving medical injections, meaning that she has no immune system to speak of. This causes big problems for her when her powers get turned off.
  • Rampart in Sovereign Seven had this as his power.
  • Post-Crisis Superman's invincibility is explained by an invisible forcefield millimetres from his skin. It protects his skin-tight costume but not his cape. One of the New Powers as the Plot Demands Supes gets from The Power of the Sun in All-Star Superman is the ability to extend his bio-electric field around other people to protect them.
  • Theo Storm aka "Loser" in Supermen of America has a nearly impenetrable dermal force-field surrounding his body. This field can deflect bullets, withstand anti-matter, and allow him to jump off tall buildings (often leaving a large crater upon landing). The shield can't be turned off however making simple tasks like walking and eating difficult.
  • The Super Skrull, having all the powers of the Fantastic Four, naturally has this one too. However, he is generally more brutal with it than Sue is, not hesitating to create forcefield constructs and explode his enemies from the inside, for example.
  • Melissa Joan Gold aka Songbird from the Thunderbolts creates pink solid-sound energy constructs quite similar to Sue Storm. The resemblance was noted by Sue Storm's son Franklin Richards:
    Franklin: H-Huh? A bubble like mom's bubbles! Except — I can see it!
  • Spider-Man doesn't have any forcefield powers, but he sometimes uses his flexible and very durable webbing to create protective barriers and domes to shield himself and others from explosions, debris, energy blasts and various other dangers.
  • The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: Trailcutter is an Outlier with the ability to generate forcefields of varying size and strength. Later into the series, he demonstrates the ability to create a "panic bubble", a forcefield he doesn't need to concentrate to keep up that disappears after half an hour.
  • Ultimate X-Men: A large part of Bobby's utility to the X-Men in fights is his ability to throw up large ice walls on cue, though in time that's revealed to only be the start of what he can do.
  • Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen created a forcefield around himself and Laurie when his Mars base was collapsing around them. This was entirely for her benefit because he's indestructible and can regenerate in the rare chance he does get killed.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1: Osira zooms around in a pyramid shaped force field she is quite confident will protect her from the good guys.
  • X-Men:
    • In his very first appearance, Magneto created a forcefield around an entire military base to keep the X-Men away. Occasionally, writers still remember that he can do that, with later forcefields being able to tank blasts from Galactus and the Phoenix (albeit with great effort).
    • Unus the Untouchable is a villainous example, with the mutant power of being able to project an impenetrable force field around himself. Rather than being kind and caring, Unus acts like a Jerkass because he thinks his power prevents anyone from being able to stop him. He's generally right... until the superhero he's fighting finds some way to either circumvent the field's protection or comes up with a creative way of shutting it off, at which point he's easy prey. Turns into Blessed with Suck when he loses control of his field and suffocates to death when it grows so strong it repels air. One of Magneto's Acolytes, Unuscione (who, depending on the depiction, may or may not be Unus' daughter or other relation; the name Unus is in fact just short for the last name, which he shares), takes the power one better in that her force field takes the form of an exoskeleton, not only protecting her from harm but allowing her to be an active combatant. The young trainee and later full X-team member Armor's power works much the same way.
    • Sally Blevins, aka Skids from X-Factor, can a personal protective field that provides nearly total protection from all attacks. Her force field has unique frictionless properties that make it impossible for anyone to hold on to her. With enough concentration, she can extend her force field to protect others in her immediate vicinity.

    Fanfic 
  • The MTM from Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, being a Do-Anything Robot in a World of Weirdness setting.
  • In Fallout: Equestria, the three different varieties of Alicorns draw from a suite of spells that includes a powerful shield. Most can only use it on themselves, but green Alicorns, who possess telepathy, are able to work in unison to project forcefields to trap their targets.
  • Maribel in FREAKIN GENSOKYO, once equipped with the magic plant-hanger Porcelain Mirror.
  • The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: During battle, Page demonstrates that she's capable of using magical shields both to defend against and physically attack enemies.
  • In the Charmed (1998) fic “Charmed Alternate”, Paige is present when Phoebe casts the initial spell to active her, Prue and Piper’s powers. As a result, Paige has an Adaptational Superpower Change and manifests the ability to generate force shields that can deflect other magical attacks.
  • The Self-Insert from With This Ring often acts as this, protecting his teammates and innocents from harm.

    Films — Animated 
  • Barbie of Swan Lake: Odette wears a crown containing a magical crystal, which can project an impenetrable barrier around her to protect her. She exploits this to protect Prince Daniel when Rothbart tries to kill him with his magic by standing in between them, using the crystal's barrier to shield the former from harm.
  • The Incredibles: Shrinking Violet Violet Parr uses a more limited version of this. She uses it for trapping mooks, cutting off electrical circuits, and as a super-hamster ball (particularly when combined with her brother's Super-Speed). In the comic adaptation, her force fields become massively upgraded, complete with purple sparks resembling electricity, courtesy of a power-enhancing virus.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Matrix: This is one of Neo's powers when he becomes The One. When he first manifests it, every one of the Agents' bullets fired at him slow down and stop in midair.
  • Secret Headquarters: Jack's suit is able to produce hexagonal force fields that appear to be impenetrable. Maya finds a jacket that does something similar in the titular underground base.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: One of Apocalypse's many superpowers is to create a forcefield around himself which he basically uses as a more elaborate form of telekinesis. He escapes from his underground tomb by expanding it to lift up the pyramid that collapsed on top of him, and later uses it to ward off attacks from multiple opponents ganging up on him. He's so strong that they're actually losing the fight until Jean Grey unleashes her Phoenix powers.

    Gamebooks 
  • The Fighting Fantasy series have it's share of shielding spells:
    • The Sorcery! sub-series contains over 40 spells for wizard players, including two defense-based spells which creates a forcefield around yourself or an invisible wall, although both spells drains a huge chunk from your stamina. There's also a cheaper spell that costs only a single stamina point (and a gold piece) that creates a small invisible shield around your wrist and a magic nullifier spell.
    • Legend of Zagor has the Magic Barrier, which cancels enemy spells (fireballs, thunderbolts, etc.) casted against you and lasts for as long as until you're hit by a magic attack.

    Literature 
  • In The Barbarian and the Sorceress, Kira is able to create a mystical bubble capable of withstanding both the Black Magic of an Evil Sorcerer and an Eldritch Abomination, albeit only for a short time.
  • All of the members of the Nase family in Beyond the Boundary have the ability to create force fields, referred to as cages, with varying levels of skill.
  • In Brennus, Tartsche becomes Nigh-Invulnerable if he's standing still, and can choose to extend this defense to anything or anyone he's touching. By Word of God, even if you destroyed the ground beneath him (and he habitually extends his power over it anyway), he would just float in the air until he chose to move. He uses this to ignore the recoil and sound when fighting Guns Akimbo with machine guns.
  • Devils & Thieves: All locant users, such as Jemmie and her father Owen, have the innate ability to create invisible barriers. The strongest ones stay up until a locant user can undo them.
  • Digitesque: Those with the warrior gift have the ability to project energy shields, which are some of the only things that can block the laser swords warriors can also use, or the laser beams hunters use.
  • Derek Huntsman of the web-novel Domina has the power to create barriers. Quite fitting for someone with Chronic Hero Syndrome, though a little odd for someone in the position of The Hero.
  • The Dresden Files Harry Dresden makes frequent use of this trope. Other wizards do too, but we don't see it on screen as much. Because wizards aren't much more or less physically fit than muggles, but all of them are a much lower weight class than supernatural beings, this trope is life or death for them.
    • Harry starts the series with a simple focus designed to make a kinetic shield that he can shape at whim, though he usually uses sections of a sphere to protect himself. Eventually, someone cleverly uses a flamethrower to attack him — his shield catches the burning fuel, but the convection burns him badly, damaging his shield bracelet in the process. When he remakes it, he learns both the specific mistake and the meta mistake, and makes the new bracelet more powerful and flexible, at the cost of a larger power draw. It now blocks solid objects, heat, sunglight, sound, mental energy, and the kitchen sink.
      • One of the big points of the series is that almost everyone (including Harry himself) can dish out more than they can take, so the attention Harry puts into being the Determinator over the course of the series contributes at least as much to his Famed In-Story status as his raw power or his exploits. As he notes, the number of things that he's survived pissing off would look really scary to someone who doesn't know all the details of his story.
    • Carlos uses a shredding shield — instead of stopping attacks, it diverts and breaks them up. For example, it shreds bullets into something resembling sand. Harry notes that it's much more efficient than his own shield bracelet.
    • Shield magic is one of the most basic skills a teacher instills into the young wizard. It takes focus to block the oncoming attacks and failure provides ample motivation to not mess up again. Harry teaches Molly Carpenter shields with snowballs. He himself learned with baseballs. Luccio taught Morgan with rocks. Lea, Harry's fairy godmother, uses hard chunks of ice and warns her student if she doesn't improve, the next day they will move onto knives.
    • The Merlin, the current leader of Wizards, has two impressive barriers.
      • He raises a ward that stopped the entire Red Court cold, at the drop of a hat. He does this in NeverNever, a spirit-realm of sorts, with no threshold to ground the ward to. So, it is like building a giant wall to stop a flood but you don't secure the wall to the ground via a foundation. And it holds.
      • When an enemy releases a mist-like Eldritch Abomination whose touch will kill any it reaches, less than five feet from him he is able to contain it with the help of another Senior Council wizard known as the Gatekeeper. They reacted and contained it in five seconds of it being freed.
  • Dune:
    • The Atreides family specializes in shield-based combat, which is a detriment on Arrakis.
      • Duncan Idaho is also a master of Ginaz Swordmaster use of half-shields, which he trains Duke Leto to use in the prequels, and Miles Teg in Hunters.
    • Force fields may explode when struck by lasers, but what exactly determines the yield of the resulting explosion is unknown and the devices are too expensive to experiment to figure it out. You can fire an orbital-equivalent beam at a city-sized shield and just get a little spark that shorts out one or both systems, and you can fire a hand weapon that's basically an overvolted laser pointer at a personal shield and obliterate a thirty-mile radius of city. This unpredictability makes the effect almost impossible to use tactically, though terrorist-style organizations that don't really care about collateral damage, like the Fremen, have pulled it out against foes that otherwise overmatch them, like the imperials.
  • In Ex-Superheroes, the main character Hunter McNeil is a former US Army Ranger, who developed the ability to create and manipulate force fields after being given Ephemera. He's the only one who can see the force fields, to everyone else they're invisible. He can shape them any way he wants, from a tiny sphere to a large wall. He does, however, feel anything that impacts his force fields. Back when he was working for the US military and during his smuggling days, his power was strong enough to make him very dangerous (for example, he could hurl a force field sphere at an enemy skull at bone-crushing speeds or use two flat force fields to smash someone's head into pulp). But after spending a year in a prison for superpowered criminals with a power-dampening collar, he has to get his strength back, while suffering near-constant migraines from using his power.
  • Lydia in Forging Divinity is a specialist in the Dominion of Protection, which allows her to create barriers to shield herself and others. She uses this to compliment her formidable melee combat abilities, making her the tank of the party.
  • The LambdaDriver-equipped Arm Slaves in Full Metal Panic! are another example of mecha using force fields offensively, although they verge on variable-shape Energy Weapons.
  • Force-Sensitive Tash Arranda, in Galaxy of Fear, can sometimes, in emergencies, call on the Force to create a kind of shield around herself. Since she's untrained and has no idea what she's doing, it's not something she can control or really rely on during the series.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya: Yuki Nagato tends to fight by slamming people with force-fields, although this may be due to the fact that both times we see her fight, she's also protecting noncombatants. This is in contrast to her Evil Counterpart Ryouko Asakura, who prefers various means of stabbing the hell out of people (spears thrown with telekinesis, regular ol' knives, whatever.)
  • Journey to Chaos: This is a secondary skill all mages possess. It's basically the ability to project one's spirit as a barrier against physical and magical attack. It's so common even non-mages have it. Eric finds this out during A Mage's Power when he uses it during a magic show. The patrons are like "yawn, boring, we can do that too."
  • Kharl in The Saga of Recluce uses Order Barriers as his main ability often using them to not just protect himself but to suffocate enemies while deflecting firebolts at armies of soldiers.
  • Scrapped Princess: Raquel Casull's barrier spells demonstrate that sometimes the best offense is a good defense. Though she does employ standard offensive magic as well, both for attacking and cooking.
  • In Spirit Hunters Sura's primary combat spell creates shields between paper talismans placed on the ground, though she mostly uses it to pen in demons so she can banish them.
  • Trapped on Draconica: This is one of the many things Rana can do with Shock and Awe. Her fellow dragokin can only breathe their element.
  • Bella in The Twilight Saga book Breaking Dawn is able to protect herself and her allies from the mental powers of enemy vampires.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm: The protagonist Emily is able to summon shields from her pentacle amulet, and this turns out to be one of her most frequent (and most versatile) spells. She uses the shields to block enemy attacks as well as to hit her opponents and even to make platforms for herself.
  • Thanks to its massive cast, Worm has quite a few characters with this power or some variation. They include:
    • The most powerful Barrier Warrior in the series is Guild superhero Narwhal, whose forcefields are powerful enough to slice clean through people and stop tidal waves.
    • Dovetail has the power to make soft, somewhat easily breached force-fields. She however can make a lot of them very quickly.
    • Crucible can create singular, orb-shaped forcefields. They aren't very powerful, but he can superheat the air inside of them, up to and including Kill It with Fire levels.
    • On top of her other powers, Arbiter has the power to create a single powerful force field.
    • Vex, a supervillain member of the Teeth, can create miniature, weak forcefields. Individually, they aren't strong, but their defence adds up, the edges of the fields are razor sharp, and Vex can make them at an even more rapid rate than Dovetail above.
    • After it sides with the heroes against Scion, Khonsu starts using its time-stopping fields as makeshift barriers to protect itself and others.

     Live Action TV 
  • Roswell: Max was able to create psychically-driven barriers like this with his alien powers.
  • In Smallville, Wes Keenan is able to generate force fields that are said to be able to withstand anything less than a small nuke.
  • A few Ultra Series characters:
    • Zetton from Ultraman is able to project a powerful force field called the Zetton Shutter around itself to block off Ultraman's ranged attacks. However, it does have an opening at the top and doesn't fully encircle him immediately.
    • Gagi from Ultraman Tiga (whose Boss Subtitles is "Barrier Monster") is permanently surrounded by a dome-shaped force field. Unlike most examples, it's more physical in its properties, meaning it can be neutralized with extreme temperatures or broken by being as strong as Silvergon.
    • In Ultraman Dyna, all the monsters created by the Spheres possess one emanating from the Sphere embedded in their bodies, making them among Dyna's toughest enemies. Fortunately, the Sphere the force fields are generated from is the one unprotected location.
    • Ultrawoman Grigio from Ultraman R/B has mostly support powers, including shields. It's called the Grigio Barrier, and although her brothers do have shields of their own, hers is said to be five times stronger.
    • Ultraman Ribut heavily utilises his shield in battle. It starts off as the Arm Cover, a small shield built into his arm. This can then grow into the Ribut Blocker, a larger shield that can either be used as a normal shield or summon the Blocker Effect, a large Beehive Barrier.

    Podcasts 
  • Yuki from Sequinox can use her Snowflake Shield Surprise spell to summon an ice wall.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons unsurprisingly provides a few examples:
    • The abjurer in 2nd and 3rd edition is a specialist wizard who focuses on defensive magic, including spells that create magical force effects, such as mage armor and shield. A 3E Prestige Class, the abjurant champion from Complete Mage, combined the abjurer's protective magic with a warrior's skill at arms to make a literal Barrier Warrior who relies on magical force barriers rather than physical armor.
    • Another 3rd edition Prestige Class, the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, lets a wizard surround himself in multiple layers of different-coloured barriers, each of which blocks a different form of attack and has different effects on anyone who tries to pass through it. At higher levels they can shape the barriers into walls and bubbles.
    • With the right combination of feats it is possible to make a fairly effective fighter who wields dual shields.
    • Both the swordmage and the wizard classes from 4th edition have shielding capabilities. In addition to a swordmage's passive warding, a shielding swordmage effectively absorbs one enemy's dealt damage every turn. The staff wizard, on the other hand, can use shielding type spells to boost his defenses in order to make attacks straight up miss him.
    • The Magic Knight magus class in Pathfinder can gain an ability to immediately conjure a barrier in the face of an incoming attack. Their spell list also contains many personal defensive abilities.
    • Breachgnomes are a racial prestige class/kit specializing in standing in a small tunnel and single-handedly stopping the advance of enemies.
    • Any character with a tower shield becomes this trope pretty much by default. They provide a great amount of protection and even some cover, but they inhibit counterattacks.
    • In 5th Edition, Abjuration wizards gain the ability to generate protective wards to shield themselves from damage, and at higher levels are able to project these wards onto their allies to protect them as well.
    • Another 5th edition class, the Ancestral Guardian barbarian, can send its spectral warriors to shield an ally from harm, reducing the damage they just took. At higher levels, these warriors will dish out as much damage as they reduced to whoever attacked the ally.
    • The entire Abjuration school of magic, which focuses on spells devoted to protection and defense. Spells that conjure forcefields and cancel out the spells cast by enemies are common in this school. There are also almost no offensive abjurations, and the few that do exist are reliant on the enemy doing something to trigger it first, or are meant to neutralize a foe without hurting them. Some might deride this school as useless, prefering the "they can't hurt you if they're dead" school of thought, but they'll change their tune once you cancel out the Big Bad's ultimate spell of ultimate doom.
    • Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting: The Sorcerer sub-class Runechild can manifest magical runes on their bodies that can release magical energy to reduce the amount of damage a Runechild takes. The more runes they have, the more they damage they can reduce. At higher levels, Runechildren can transfer these runes onto others to protect them or use them to reduce the damage they take from all spells by half.
  • Mage: The Awakening has the obvious "protection from" style effects from most of the major arcana (death, mind, forces, etc), but a specialist in the "space" sphere really lives and breathes this trope. It is a common build to simply take three or four points (out of five) in spaces to get the ward and ban abilities, which allow you to simply forbid anything you can sense from a space, then take a single point in every other sphere (allowing you to detect basically anything). In a setting where a sleeping mage is an easier kill than most vanilla mortals, and much of the supernatural world wants to kill them, unsurprisingly the mage that carries his own impregnable fortress with him is a valuable ally. For bonus points, space also allows teleportation, so you get the obligatory offensive use of the barrier as well. "No one but me may enter or leave this circle" (with the enemy already in the circle), increase duration to several months, walk away.
  • In Magic: The Gathering, Teyo has been training to be one of these when he finds out he's a planeswalker and winds up in the War of the Spark. He's not very good at it, but he gets better. Way better.
  • Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution gives two examples:
    • Telekinetics of level 3 and higher can raise their defense by using TK Barrier and Improved TK Barrier. These talents can deflect any physical attack, if it raises your defense sufficiently.
    • Gust Shield allows a magnekinetic (a person who can control the weather with psionic powers) to create gusts of wind that function like TK Barrier, as long as the overall wind speed is at least 20 mph. Improved Gust Shield mimics the effects of Improved TK Barrier, but overall wind speed has to be at least 60 mph.

    Video Games 
  • Anarchy Online has this in the Soldier profession, who can not only create Deflector Shields around themselves, but also around others. However, the profession is focused around dealing ranged damage to an enemy.
  • Apex Legends has Gibraltar, with a personal barrier he can use while aiming down sights and a massive Shield Dome which he can use to provide impromptu cover for his squad (though unlike most examples of this trope, the barrier blocks all gunfire, friendly and hostile alike).
  • In Bastion the combat duty of Caelondian caste of Menders was to carry huge Bulkhead shields, which you can also use.
  • Champions Online has this as a major part of the Force powerset, with Force characters able to make shields to protect themselves and allies, as well as other shields that can contain enemies and prevent their movement. A few Mentalist (psionics) powers have similar effects, with the protective telepathy shield having the additional affect of being able to heal whoever it is protecting.
  • In City of Heroes the Defender archetype uses this type of powers, and shares weaker versions of them with the Controller; additionally villains get their own versions in Corruptors and Masterminds. Four of the power sets available work primarily by putting shields of some kind on other characters (or in the case of the Mastermind, a bunch of henchmen!), including Force Fields, Ice Shields, Sonic Barriers and Thermal Radiation Shields. The other Buff/Debuff sets vary widely but several include auxiliary barrier powers. All of these various powers are so potent that a team composed heavily of support characters can truly be Nigh-Invulnerable.
  • There are several variants of these kind of enemies in Copy Kitty. They are:
    • The Gehligrukai enemies, which are angelic-looking enemies that have barriers that surround them. Different variants do different things with their barriers, like protecting other enemies, sucks the player in so that they can slash you, or even burns the player.
    • The Mirror Leethe and its stronger variant, Darkshine Leethee. The former will simply close its shell to create a surface that reflects most projectiles, while the latter deploys an energy barrier that absorbs projectiles and returns them in the form of dark energy.
  • In Destiny, the Titan's Defender subclass can use its super ability, Ward of Dawn, to generate a bubble shield centered on themselves. The ward can be specced to give allies bonus damage resistance while inside the bubble, or either a temporary overshield or weapons damage buff when passing through it. It should be noted that Ward of Dawn is impenetrable to projectiles from both sides, and firing a rocket launcher while inside it is strongly discouraged.
  • Priests in Dragon Force use a spell called Holy Shield.
  • In Dragon Quest IX, a Paladin's Limit Break, Knight Watch, protects the entire party from physical attacks by making all enemies attack him AND making him immune to said attacks. It can be a major lifesaver in the late game.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Daggerfall has a "Shield" spell which works in this fashion, surrounding the caster and absorbing a certain amount of damage before dispelling.
    • Morrowind retains the "Shield" spell as "Barrier", which protects against physical damage. "Reflect" has a chance to reflect incoming magic damage back at the caster (with the spell's strength determining the percent chance) and also adds spell effects which protect against the various Fire, Ice, Lightning "elemental" magical attacks.
    • Skyrim adds Ward spells to the Restoration school of magic which function in this way. Rather than surrounding the caster like the aforementioned spells, they are cast on a spot and protect/damage those within.
  • EVE Online has a specific ship and module to do this. Force Auxiliary capital ships may enter Triage, a state that colossally upgrades their ability to heal themselves and others.
  • In Evolve, Hank is equipped with a shield projector that can soak up damage for a teammate as long as the battery lasts. Successful use depends on anticipating who the monster will go after and managing the battery to keep it charged. Assault characters have a simpler version, which makes them invulnerable for a short period or until the shield takes enough damage.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In nearly all of his incarnations, the Carbuncle summon is the magical counterpart to Golem, projecting a reflect shield over your party to deflect most magic spells.
    • Speaking of Golems, the Summoned Monster Golem from Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, and Final Fantasy Tactics will stop any incoming physical attack with its huge rock (or metal, in VI) hands for a little while after being summoned. Similarly, Shadow's dog Interceptor will randomly shield him from damage, only to come back and savage the enemy in return. And in Final Fantasy IX, the primary duty of the great Eidolon Alexander is protect the castle, and city of Alexandria, with its gigantic angel wings.
    • The Shield Dragon from Final Fantasy V is an enemy with a permanent reflect spell. It attacks by casting spells on itself, because in this game a spell can be reflected only once.
      • At various times in several games of the series, it's beneficial for the player to utilize the Reflect spell in non-traditional ways. For example, you're very unlikely to win the battle against Asura in Final Fantasy IV unless you cast Reflect on her, since unless you're at an absurdly high level she'll heal faster than you can inflict damage, and also has very strong physical attacks of her own.
      • Against the Shield Dragon itself, if you want to hit it with magic, you'll have to duplicate its own strategy and bounce spells off your own Reflect-shielded party members.
    • In Final Fantasy XI, Red Mages, White Mages, Scholars, Paladins, and Rune Fencers frequently utilize defensive buffs, but only Red Mages and Scholars truly specialize in them, having access to all five tiers of Protect and Shell, all elemental and status-effect Barspells, Aquaveil, Stoneskin, Blink, and all three elemental Spikes (two of which have a chance to debilitate any enemy that hits them with a melee attack). In addition, Red Mages learn the spell Phalanx at level 33—35 levels before the next job that can learn it—which further bolsters their defenses, reducing damage by a fixed amount based on Enhancing Magic skill — and they have the highest natural aptitude for Enhancing Magic of any job in the game. Endgame-level Red Mages also learn Shield Mastery, which prevents spellcasting from being interrupted by attacks they block with a shield, and they can use many of the best shields in the game. In short, Red Mages are far tougher than any mage has a right to be — planting them firmly in this trope.
    • The Synergist role in Final Fantasy XIII, but particularly Sazh and Hope. As the two characters with Synergist as a primary role, they learn almost all of the barrier spells, both offensive and defensive, in addition to other buffs like increasing elemental resistance or imbuing the group's weapons with an element for added damage.
    • Final Fantasy XIV features the Scholar, a healing job who specializes in using magical barriers to shield party members from harm. Their main shielding spells, Adloquium and Succor, don't heal as much as their basic healing spell, Physick, but in addition to restoring HP, they also provide a shield that absorbs the same amount of damage as what was healed, with Succor shielding everyone around the caster. In addition, they also have access to Sacred Soil, which creates a huge magical dome that blocks a fraction of all damage for anyone inside of it. Eos, one of the two faeries you can summon to help you in healing, also has a barrier that increases the party's magical defenses. These abilities, paired with Deployment Tactics, which lets you spread a more potent, single-target shield to other party members, makes Scholar the master of damage mitigation and preemptive healing.
      • Astrologian, another healer job introduced in the Heavensward expansion, has the choice of using Diurnal or Nocturnal Sect as a stance, which affect certain spells. While Diurnal Sect focuses on regeneration, Nocturnal focuses on shielding allies from harm using "Nocturnal Fields" that act as barriers for the party, though they don't offer as much protection and don't have as much utility as the Scholar's do.
      • As of the Stormblood expansion, The Paladin and The Dark Knight, two of the tank jobs, have excellent mitigation skills for protecting themselves from harm. Paladins have a multitude of abilities that improve their personal defenses, such as Sheltron, Bulwark, Sentinel, and Rampart. In addition, they also have Divine Veil, which provides a barrier for everyone except themselves, and Passage of Arms, where the Paladin blocks a huge chunk of damage dealt to himself and anyone behind him. Dark Knight, in addition to Rampart, Reprisal (which actually debuffs the enemy's attack power), Dark Mind, and Shadow Wall, also has an ability called The Blackest Night, where they erect a powerful barrier around themselves or a party member that lasts only 5 seconds. If the barrier is completely destroyed within those 5 seconds, the Dark Knight gets a huge increase in Blackblood, which can be spent on a multitude of special attacks and abilities.
    • A skilled Exdeath player in Dissidia Final Fantasy will suffer many attacks and actually be hit by none of them, on account of his excessive amount of guard, reflect and counterattack skillsnote . He has six different blocks in total, five magical ones in addition to his default physical block. A player match between Exdeaths is... silly.
  • In The Finals, Heavy players have access to the Mesh Shield, an ability which produces a large holographic shield in front of the user at the cost of their ability to attack, and the Bubble Shield, a throwable which produces a spherical barrier.
  • In Gotcha Force, the most notable ability of a Barrier Girl is, of course, a spherical barrier that will nullify all damage. It's not an absolute perfect defense, as several attacks (such as a Wave-Motion Gun or a literal ICBM landing on you) will break it immediately, and several melee attacks can wear it down fast, and it takes a while to recharge, but it's extremely durable under fire, and Barrier Girl is one of the more mobile characters. A player good at dodging with one can use her to solo pretty much the entire first half of the game, and do solid damage against the second.
  • Guardian Heroes (on the Saturn and XBOX LIVE) has Nicole. While she fills a variety of roles such as White Mage, Luck Stat, Lightning Bruiser, among others, one of her more prominent spells creates a giant barrier dome that gives your party a chance to regroup or set up ranged attacks. Being a shield maiden isn't all defense; an offensive use of Barrier is running up to enemies and activating it like a battering ram, crushing them against walls or the screen edge (which hurts even if they try to block).
  • In Guild Wars, the Monk has a substantial number of shielding powers, ranging from damage limiters (some of which reduce the max damage any one can take; others lower the damage each consecutive attack deals) to blocking powers (giving the subject an increased chance to block attacks completely) to converting all incoming damage to healing. The Ritualist has a few abilities with similar, but less effective, effects.
  • Halo:
    • In Halo: Reach, a barrier armor ability is available called Armor Lock that protects the user from all harm at the cost of being unable to move when in use. It also bursts outwards in an EMP when it drops. Note: All harm means just that. Unlike Halo 3's Bubble Shield (or its Reach counterpart Drop Shield), Armor Lock can stop a speeding warthog like... Well, Superman, really. Going from a sitting duck to the Man of Steel in a split second really makes your day, as the jeep that was about to crush you explodes and goes tumbling away.
    • Promethean Watchers can project powerful Hard Light shields in front of their allies. In Halo 4, there's an armor ability which allows the player to project the same type of shield in front of themselves.
  • Unusually for a Bullet Hell shmup, Hellsinker heavily uses a suppression shield as a gameplay mechanic. The shield, which looks like a blue circle surrounding the player's craft, can damage enemies and slow bullets down. Some attacks are almost impossible to avoid without it, but other times using it will land you in a world of hurt.
    • Fossilmaiden also has an extra shield attached to the hilt of her Laser Blade.
  • In Heroes of the Storm, Tassadar and Tyrael have abilities that create shields. Other heroes can learn a generic talent that gives a shield to an ally or a late-game group shield.
  • Cole from inFAMOUS eventually gains an impenetrable shield ability, and can even get an upgrade that lets him absorb energy from deflected attacks.
  • Kirby has three of these powers that he can absorb. The Stone power allows him to change into an invincible rock that can fall onto people, the Mirror power can spray harmful crystals that reflect enemies' attacks back on them, and the Parasol power shields against Death from Above and has a hefty swat. Note that Mirror is unique in this regard: while blocking with it active, Kirby does contact damage while being invincible. It's actually possible to beat a few bosses this way.
  • In The Lost Vikings you control three viking warriors, one with the power to jump, and to smash through things with his head. One with a sword and a bow. And one with a shield to protect himself and the others from enemy attacks. (Although he can also use it to glide, and for the incredibly useful task of providing a platform for the others to stand on.)
  • Mass Effect:
    • In Mass Effect, all combat armor uses "kinetic barriers" known colloquially as "shields" to intercept bullets. Most characters get the Shield Boost ability, which rapidly recharges shields in combat. Tech based characters get omni-tools and the Electronics talent, which add to shields (especially Electronics). But the biotic characters get the Barrier talent, which generates temporary shields from their own bodies. Maxed out, Barrier grants nearly twice the shielding as any other character and lasts nearly as long as it takes to cast it again. However, the three biotic classes can also get an ability Barrier Specilization, which dramatically lengthens the ability's duration and shields, while providing constant regeneration. The end result is that a Squishy Wizard style character can take as much dakka as the game cares to throw at him, with only a handful of attacks posing any kind of threat even at the highest difficulty levels.
    • In Mass Effect 2, the Sentinel class has access to the 'tech armor' ability, which projects a form of holographic armor over your character's normal combat armor, providing a tremendous boost to your shields. Unless your (buffed) shields are depleted, it will never go down. When it does go down, an explosion is triggered, which is great for gaining some breathing room when surrounded by melee enemies. As you put more skill points into it, it becomes far stronger, eventually to the point where it doubles your shields. The thing that makes it really gamebreaking is that when you do cast it, it restores your shields up to their buffed maximum, even from entirely depleted shields. Even better, it can usually be cast again as soon as your shields go down, providing you with virtually limitless shield power (only if you're willing to mostly forego the Sentinel's other tech and biotic abilities, which also trigger global cooldown). Essentially, if used right, it makes you invincible. Fun stuff.
    • One segment of Mass Effect 2's final mission requires a biotic character to cast a barrier bubble big enough for the whole party to shelter in, for several minutes. Choose the wrong biotic for the job, and one of your party members will die as a result when the barrier fails prematurely.
    • Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 also gives us the vanguard, with the biotic charge ability. Essentially, when Shepard uses this ability, s/he turns into a miniature mass relay (those big things that hurl the Normandy across the galaxy) and slams into enemies at incredibly high speed, powering the biotic barrier in addition to damaging the target. (and tossing unprotected foes)
    • Mass Effect 3 multiplayer also includes the asari Justicar and volus characters, as well as the Geth Juggernaut the former of which possesses the Biotic Sphere ability, a biotic bubble shield. For added benefit, it can also be upgraded to damage enemies that enter the sphere, though choosing that upgrade lessens the defensive benefits of the ability. The volus characters have a personal heavy melee that serves to offer temporary invulnerability followed by a large defensive boost, in addition to minor shield regeneration — but the most important aspect is their Shield Boost ability, making a comeback from the first game with a huge buff as the volus racial power. It allows the user to heavily restore the shielding (both biotic and tech) of both themselves and any nearby ally, while making the user temporarily invulnerable, and can also be upgraded to improve damage resistance further. The downside is that these characters have rather low shield/barrier and health values, especially the volus — who have both the lowest base health in the game at 150, and lots of useful powers that eat into Shield Boost's not inconsiderable cooldown times. The Juggernaut, while not as flashy or complex as the other examples can use the Hex Shield power to defend themselves and others — but Friendly Fireproof it ain't, don't put it in your team's line-of-fire.
    • On at least one occasion in Mass Effect 3, biotics can be seen rooting themselves in place while casting barriers as an ad-hoc patch in a broken fortification, until something solid can be dropped in place.
    • Mass Effect 3 also reworked the Reave power so that instead of draining health, it makes the user more resistant to damage, while retaining its offensive power. Having both Reave and the Barrier ability itself makes Kaidan the truest example of this trope in the series.
  • Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus: Max's special equipment is a forcefield generator that can take various forms, such as a sphere and a long rod. It's often used to protect yourself (you have a blaster for offense) or creatively utilize in puzzles to reach faraway places.
  • Mega Man:
    • Wood Man, Skull Man, Star Man, Plant Man, Junk Man, Jewel Man, Pump Man, Acid Man, and Enker from the Mega Man (Classic) series. Jewel Man's is the best. The Mirror Buster, as Mega Man uses it, is actually better than Enker's version, as it has a 180 degree angle of reflection and doesn't damage Mega Man when it's used. Fire Man himself is not one; however, Mega Man is briefly when he uses the Fire Storm in addition to firing a projectile.
    • Mega Man X also includes Armor Armadillo's abilities, which let X fire rolling barriers along the ground as projectiles. The special charged version creates a barrier over X that blocks attacks and can do damage to enemies when touched.
  • Stacking Arcane Shield, Fade Shroud, and Rock Armor onto a mage in Dragon Age makes them tougher than any warrior in the game. Yes, the Squishy Wizard just out-tanked the tank.
    • To say nothing of the absolute Game-Breaker that is Shimmering Shield, which, at the cost of a significant mana drain, makes the mage essentially Madeof Iron, with extra armor, 75% resist all magical damage, and 75 physical and mental resistance.
    • The third main game in the series, Dragon Age: Inquisition introduces the modernized evolution of the first game's Arcane Warrior: the Knight-Enchanter. All mages have some amount of barrier-casting powers, but Knight-Enchanter takes this and runs with it with a variety of expansions in order to overcome the Squishy Wizard problem.
      • The first DLC for Inquisition, Jaws of Hakkon, provides Inquisitors of any class with an ability called "Aegis of the Rift," which allows them to use their Anchor to create a temporary force field that deflects projectile attacks. It protects not only themselves but also any party members within reach of the aegis.
  • Kingdom Hearts :
    • Aqua in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has some useful Barrier powers. Her default guard is a magic barrier, her counter attack after blocking is to shatter the barrier, and she has the ability to rush enemies with a barrier up.
    • In Kingdom Hearts II Sora's most powerful spell is the Reflect line of spells, which, after successfully guarding, unleashes a spray of Light equal to the enemy's attack power. There is also a wizard nobody that falls into Demonic Spider territory due to the use of indestructible transparent blocks that it uses for both offense and defense.
    • 358/2 Days gives us the Barrier Master Heartless, whose sole reason for existing is protecting its allies and itself from damage until it is defeated.
  • Use of the Riot Shield in the Modern Warfare games, though care must be taken to avoid getting shot in the legs or back.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link will acquire this ability after conquering the divine beast Vah Rudania, named Daruk's Protection. If the shield button is pressed and held, a spherical protective barrier will form around Link, and will remain active so long as the button is held down. Any attacks that make contact with the barrier will be repelled, accompanied with an animation of the spirit of Daruk popping out. This barrier will only work on 3 individual attacks, after which it becomes inactive and must go into a cooldown.
    • Yunobo, Daruk's descendant, also has this ability, but he is much more passive with it; he uses it mostly to protect himself from any actual threats, but does little direct fighting. He does have an offensive use for the ability, as the barrier's ability to negate damage, coupled with the natural sturdiness of his Goron frame, make him the ideal cannonball to fire at Divine Beast Vah Rudania.
  • Invisible Woman shows up as a character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance, with a massive array of shields on shields on shields as both her passive and active abilities. Some other heroes like Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and the Scarlet Witch also have lesser shields available.
  • Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four has already been mentioned but in Marvel Ultimate Alliance she's at her best. Everyone gets a couple of status buffs or defensive moves (like, an energy-blasting character might add extra energy damage to each punch for ten seconds, or a super-strong character might take less damage for ten seconds, that sorta thing.) Well, Sue's is the Fantastic Shield, a bubble shield that is completely, totally, one-hundred-percently impenetrable. As in, completely No-Sell things that can One-Hit KO anyone under any other circumstances. It's sufficiently large enough that you'll be able to defend other team members too. Having her on your team can turn some otherwise nigh impossible stages into a piece of cake (never enter Murderworld without her.)
  • Mother:
    • In Earthbound Beginnings, Ninten and Ana can use PSI Shield to half the damage they take and Power Shield to reflect any attack. PSI Shield also has a beta variant that protects all party members at once.
    • Ness has the power set and is arguably an example who is also The Hero. Due to his party's ability setup, Ness is a case where this actually helps him shake off enemy attacks instead of receiving The Worf Effect.
    • Poo can also use a similar shield setup to Ness as well, and in fact a BETTER version which allows him to shield all his allies at once, whereas Ness's shields can only be added to one ally per turn.
    • Paula is furthermore the best example in Earthbound itself, as her personality seems to be similar to a barrier warrior even though she's also a mix of a Glass Cannon and Squishy Wizard. Also, Ness and Poo's shields affect physical damage, and only at best cut it in half (while sometimes deflecting the other half). Paula's shields, are meant to shield from PSI attacks, and they FULLY shield affected characters instead of just reducing damage, and they can also deflect PSI completely. Using PSI Shield Omega in the Starman DX battle plus the Starman DX using PSI Starstorm Alpha = scrapped Starman DX.
    • Lucas possesses half-damage reduction forms of both the Physical and PSI shields [both blocking and deflective] in Mother 3 and a lot of his use in combat relies on him using these shields in the later half of the game.
  • In ONRUSH, the Titan, one of two Big Badass Rigs that the player can drive, generates shields over nearby allies to protect them from big impacts, and its RUSH generates a trail of small walls behind it for opponents to crash into.
  • Overwatch's got the lot:
    • Reinhardt has a shield ability that offers protection for himself and those behind it. 2000 hitpoints (equivalent to about 10 squishy characters or 3-4 tank characters) of protection.
    • His fellow Tank hero Zarya has a skill that lets her apply a particle barrier to either herself or an ally. As a passive ability, any damage sustained by the barrier is absorbed and increases the damage of her Particle Cannon, which cuts through enemies in seconds when fully-charged.
    • Tanks overall have this as a mechanic. Winston can provide a spherical barrier on spot that protects those behind or inside the sphere. D.Va is able to create a temporary barrier that absorbs any projectiles shot at her, no matter how damaging the projectile is. Orisa shoots a projectile that deploys into a curved barrier. Sigma has a barrier that he can send out in front of himself, as well as an ability that absorbs incoming damage and converts them to personal shields (though with its range being considerably smaller than the aforementioned Defense Matrix, it really only protects Sigma himself). Roadhog openly defies the trope, making up for his lack of barriers with his ridiculous self-sustainability, whereas Wrecking Ball plays with it by allowing him to gain extra shields temporarily, with the amount increased the more enemies are in close proximity, but lacking a proper shield ability for his teammates.
    • Symmetra is a non-tank that fulfills this trope somewhat, as her Ultimate, Photon Barrier, deploys a massive, nearly-indestructible barrier that spans across the entire map for a short while.
    • Brigitte, a Support/Tank hybrid character, has a much smaller shield mostly used to protect herself, but she also has a Shield Bash that stuns whoever gets hit by it.
  • Paladins has Front Line champions who's role is to protect their teammates with their shield abilities.
    • Ash deploys a mobile shield that slowly moves forward at the cost of being smaller than the other Front Line shields.
    • Barik can deploy a stationary barricade that stops enemy projectiles in a wide area. His ultimate creates a dome barrier with a fire-spewing turret inside.
    • Fernando can hold a large mobile shield in front of him that stops projectiles and enemies, but leaves him unable to attack.
    • Inara doesn't deploy shields, opting to erect stone walls that block attacks that normally pierce shields and cannot be walked through.
    • Makoa can project a large dome barrier around himself, protecting anyone inside.
    • Ruckus & Bolt originally could both activate their own personal bubble shield and give all nearby allies their own bubble shields that reduce damage taken instead of acting as a second healthbar. However, In the OB 57 update, their ally shielding ability was removed and was given missile launchers to increases their damage output.
    • Torvald has a permanent personal bubble shield that can be recharged manually or by siphoning enemy shields. He can also project a bubble shield onto an ally.
  • Some Pokémon moves, such as Protect and Detect, work like this by making the user invincible for one turn. In addition, Light Screen and Reflect half all special and physical damage, respectively, for 5 turns. Some teams use one Pokémon dedicated to setting up those two moves so the rest of the team can go all-out offensively.
    • Pokémon X and Y introduced two new moves that are more offensive than before. Spiky Shield, Chesnaught's signature move, protects the user and damages the attacker if the move was physical. King's Shield, Aegislash's signature move, protects the user and lowers the physical attack of the attack if the move was physical.
    • There are also the moves Quick Guard, Wide Guard, and Mat Block, which function more as the traditional team-based barrier in that they protect teammates. However, Quick Guard and Wide Guard only work against certain moves, and Mat Block can only be used on the first turn the Pokémon is out (and doesn't have speed priority like the others).
    • Pokémon Sun and Moon:
      • Aurora Veil is Light Screen and Reflect combined but can only be used when the weather effect hail is present. It works well paired up with a Pokémon that has the Snow Warning ability.
      • Baneful Bunker, Toxapex's signature move, was introduced. It not only protects the user, but it also poisons any opponent that uses physical moves against it.
    • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduces the move Silk Trap, Spidops' Secret Art. Like the previous moves, it protects the user, but it lowers the speed of the physical attacker.
  • One of Alex's abilities in [PROTOTYPE] where he can summon a shield out of biomass that can deflect bullets. With the right aim you can kill an entire army with their own bullets. Or you can simply run through them as if you were a snow plow.
  • Puzzle & Dragons features several characters with skills that decrease incoming enemy monster damage, with Indra, Kushinada, Izanami, Awoken Isis, Crystal Defenders Thief, Monster Hunter Great Baggi Neko, and Attack on Titan Armin Arlert being popular choices. Other monsters have skills that null damage from a particular enemy element, such as the Elemental series, or all damage altogether, such as the cards Archangel Raphael, Ganesha, and Fist of the North Star Toki.
  • Ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank series gets a personal energy shield as a weapon in almost every game.
  • In the Samurai Warriors franchise, several characters have the ability to erect a protective barrier around them that lasts for a period of time. All attacks are repelled while the barrier is active, and the barrier has no cooldown, and can be refreshed at any time.
  • In Second Sight, just about every single psychic in the game has the ability to create force fields, from the bulletproof NSE shock troops to the Zener Children — who are all but invincible on top of being some of the most powerful psychics in the game. Depressingly enough, the main character doesn't get this ability.
  • Mori Motonari of Sengoku Basara combines this with Trap Master. One of his abilities includes creating light barriers that bounce people off of them. If done correctly, he can make trap enemies between two barriers, bouncing them off each other and killing bosses incredibly quick.
  • The Advent's Iconus Guardian from Sins of a Solar Empire is this trope in starship form.
  • Elh from Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, though the barrier spell is extremely draining and only used as a last-ditch resort (and only in cutscenes; you aren't given the option of asking for a little help during a fight).
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • StarCraft II is a curious example, since it doesn't involve a character but a unit — the Protoss Sentry, whose Force Field ability can be devastating in the hands of a skilled player, especially when used to cut off enemy units passing through a chokepoint.
  • Star Renegades features the Aegis hero, who uses her exceptionally durable Deflector Shields both to protect her allies and as an offensive weapon. Her defensive skills also allow her to reflect portions of incoming damage back at her attackers.
  • Star Trek Online has personal shields (invented late in the 24th century, common by the beginning of the 25th) to keep phasers and disruptors from being one-hit-kill (or stun) weapons as they are in the source material. Characters and some NPCs of the "engineer" type can also set up shield generators, "cover shields" (a Beehive Barrier that protects only one side) and force domes (which keep enemies from approaching, and may even push them back), as well as recharging the depleted shields of their allies or themselves.
  • Also in space, Star Wars: Empire at War, where the Rebellion's larger vessels may boost shield regeneration in exchange for speed and attack power.
  • Super Paper Mario has the Pixl named Barry, who gives this power to the player.
  • Guarlions (and similar machines) in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation can generate a forcefield when moving at high speeds. Naturally, one of their strongest attacks is to ram things hard. Similarly, the Super Robot Giganscudo will also use its fields to slam into the enemy, either when using its massive weight as a weapon, or by grabbing the enemy from a distance and slamming it into its field-shrouded mass.
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal has several classes that can be played this way, most notably archmages, who can use their mana pool as a shield — but it works in reverse, so the shield absorbs damage to restore mana until your MP pool fills, at which point the shield breaks. As the mage obviously casts spells a lot, emptying their MP pool quickly, this leads to a feedback loop just as broken as it sounds, especially when stacked with the mage's other toolbox of shields and buffs, leading archmage to be the popular choice for most powerful class in the game.
  • Tales Series:
    • Fairess, one-third of the Sylph summon from Tales of Symphonia uses a shield as her primary weapon.
    • In Tales of Vesperia, Estelle embodies this trope. While she is essentially the designated healer, she can conjure a force field spell to render allies immune to damage, as well as fights with a sword and shield, having the highest defense of all characters.
  • An update called the Two Cities Update in Team Fortress 2 has since given this as an upgradable power for the Medic in Mann Versus Machine mode. He can deploy a mobile barrier shield centered on him that negates projectiles and damages enemy robots if they touch it.
  • The Engineer class in Torchlight II has the Forcefield skill, which when activated, gives him and nearby allies a Deflector Shield for 30 seconds. It absorbs up to a certain amount of damage from almost any source. At higher levels, the shield can absorb ludicrous amounts of punishment before finally failing.
  • In the Touhou Project series, all of the characters have barrier shields in the fighting games, although some are made of physical materials such as ice, most of them are just magic energy.
    • Reimu Hakurei is a subversion. First, her barriers are extremely offensive in nature. Second, she's the main character.
  • The Feca from Wakfu subvert this: Feca who specialize in Water spells have little offensive capacity, but are able to create shields that half damage received or dealt, though if a Feca specializes in Fire they are restricted entirely to offensive spells, though they work in the same way as barriers. Earth Fecas are a mix of the two, but are only able to shield themselves.
  • Warhammer Online has several healer classes with barrier or damage reduction abilities, most notably the Chaos Zealot (and its stunty equivalent the Runepriest) — they have barriers to shield their entire party, single targets, or prevent damage to themselves; they can buff to reduce incoming magic damage; they have tactics to increase the armor of allied players or put up a barrier on themselves; finally, they have two separate morale abilities to absorb damage across the party.
  • The Golem Asgard from the Wild ARMs series specializes in barriers, and is supposedly the defensive, friendly golem. However, since its barriers disintegrate anything that touches them, they're primarily used offensively, sometimes leading to One-Hit Kill attacks in games where you fight Asgard. Barrier Fist! Barrier Storm!
  • World of Warcraft has several classes capable of becoming Barrier Warriors. Priests can make protective barriers out of an allies' soul, with some priests actually enabling these shields to reflect damage. Paladins go one step further into the defensive variety, able to make themselves invulnerable to damage, make an ally invulnerable to physical (but not magical) damage, or sacrifice themselves to make an ally immune to absolutely everything but removing them from combat. Finally, Warriors can turn their shields into fully offensive weapons.
    • Priests specializing in the Discipline tree have become a full embodiment of this trope. Discipline Priests specialize in creating shields to prevent damage rather than to heal it. When combined with their signature Atonement ability, which heals them for the damage done when their barrier is up, they become Nigh-Invulnerable.
    • Warriors also have an ability called "Shield Wall" which temporarily reduces all damage they receive by half. The animation looks like military shields dancing around their bodies. Similarly, a Paladin's "Divine Protection" spell halves all damage the paladin receives for several seconds; the reason a paladin would choose Divine Protection over their more powerful total-invulnerability spell is that the latter convinces monsters to attack their comrades instead.
    • Mages are probably the ones with the most buffs that act as shields, most of which also can be used outright offensively just by being there and getting hit by enemies. They have molten armor, which on top of lowering the attacker's crit chance on the mage actually does fire damage to the attacker. They have frost armor, which raises their armor value and, depending on how far down you go into the frost specialization of their magic, will slow any melee attacker to varying degrees and outright chance-on-hit freeze them in their tracks. THEN they have the literal stop-all-incoming-damage shields, Mana Shield (which eats through lots of mana and kinda sucks) and Ice Barrier which on top of being a very effective defense will also explode and freeze all enemies in range of the mage when it takes its max damage. Oh, and they have two "wards" that absorb any incoming fire or frost damage and, if glyphed, can actually convert part of said absorbed spell into their own mana.
  • In XCOM: Enemy Unknown one of the top-tier abilities available for your psionic soldiers is Telekinetic Field, which covers a very large area and gives all of your soldiers inside a defense bonus equivalent to full cover until the start of the next turn.
    • XCOM 2 has the Stasis and Stasis Shield abilities for Psi Operatives, which seal the target enemy or ally in a bubble until the next turn, leaving them invulnerable but unable to act.
  • Several rings in zOMG! are shield based, but the closest thing to an outright barrier warrior is the Chef (yes, chef) Ring Set. In addition to receiving a natural armor bonus, the Chef also has access to Teflon Spray (one of the most useful Armor Buffs in the game), Pot Lid (which can deflect ranged attacks with ease), and Meat (which can nearly double your maximum health). Due to the energy based nature of all zOMG! skills, it could be said that the Chef set is actually summoning G'hi Shields to protect his/herself and his/her allies. Or, you could pretend that he/she is really spraying Teflon all over themselves. It's that kind of game.
    • Unfortunately, a recent update that rebalanced the rings and ring sets removes some of this: the Chef set trades Teflon Spray for Hack (an attack ring), and its bonus is now to Dodge rather than Armor. However, apparently it is now considered the new "best" set to have. Plus Dodge controls whether you're hit in the first place, so that can be even better than the best defense.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 
  • Sydney/Halo from Grrl Power has the ability to project a translucent Beehive Barrier that can block everything we've seen thrown at it, including Auras, Slow Lasers, and a high-power attack from the settings most powerful known super. It appears to be the one power of hers that she has the most familiarity with, and is the one she uses the most, usually in conjunction with another of her powers.
  • Young Anja Donlan of Gunnerkrigg Court had the ability to create spherical purple shields. Later, she combines this power with an etheric computer (designed by her and her husband, Donald), expanding its usefulness: using it, Donald gains the ability to create shields, and Anja is able to bind demons.
  • Most unicorns in Hooves of Death are capable of a short-lived bubble shield to keep attackers at bay, which is quite useful to prevent zombies from swarming them. The Yellowstone camp's leader, Commander Sprinkles, can also cast a town-sized version and maintain it indefinitely, turning a ramshackle collection of tents and farmland into a Domed Hometown.
  • All espers in Mob Psycho 100 can project shields to protect themselves from damage. They aren't infallible, however — they can be broken, and sprays pass through them easily.
  • Bocce in Runners has an energy arm which shapeshifts and is frequently used for this purpose.
  • Arlo from unOrdinary can generate incredibly dense energy-based spherical barriers that are capable of completely blocking all but the strongest attacks. Even the strongest person in their school seriously hurt herself breaking through his barrier.
  • In True Villains, Bayn is a De Powered Archmage who's left with only two spells, one of which is Shield, forcing him to get very creative in how he casts barriers. The combination of practice, Heroic Willpower, and devotion to the God of Stability ultimately let him repel the First Vampire Sorcerous Overlord Malanor and his entire undead army.
  • Wayward Sons: Ipalyo. He can shape his barriers into secure platforms to carry allies around, and they withstood an explosion which caused tremors beyond visible range.
  • In the XRS prologue, Captain Grey survives a hard landing from supersonic flight, several missile impacts, a fall from a thousand feet in the air, large caliber heavy machine gun rounds all due to the protection from the electro-magnetic barriers.
  • In Zodiac, Virgo is able to protect herself like this. However, it isn't invincible, and doesn't completely protect her from heat.

    Web Original 
  • The Porcelain Doctor in Dead West has this ability in his basic skill set. Actually, it is mentioned to be two different aspects of his Psychic Powers, one being the equivalent of armor and one for a shield. After he manages to obtain and tame the chrystals, he is able to use his "shield" ability to protect even a group. Even before that, he can deflect bullets and/or slow them down, and sometimes things simply don't hurt him. Combines with his Nigh-Invulnerability from his Healing Factor, and his swordsmanship, this is definitely an instance of Heart Is an Awesome Power. His brother also uses a very strong psychic armor, even able to survive a direct shot from a cannon.
  • Dreamscape: Keela can create a black shield by spinning her scythe.
    • Melissa can surround herself or others in a white barrier, either to protect them or to contain them.
    • Drake can envelop himself in a shield by creating a rune underneath himself.
    • Kai can create walls of natural energy.
    • Keedran can put up a golden barrier.
    • Melinda can create a black barrier.
    • Dylan's Mechelly can create a bubble shield.
  • DSBT InsaniT: Cody can create huge crystal walls.
  • In Enter the Farside, Giles, known as Impetus, can make a shield of kinetic energy around himself that inverts all the colours it covers. With training, he's learned to use this to enhance his mobility as well as use it offensively by launching it as a projectile or enhancing his punches. Impetus can also enlarge the field on individual body parts to act as a regular barrier shield.
  • In Epithet Erased, Indus Tarbella has the power to create round, orange barriers of varying sizes. This is because his epithet is "barrier!"
  • Fire Emblem on Forums: The signature skills of the Ascetic, Mage, Monk, and Priest lines grant them access to barriers that allow them to protect themselves (Ascetic's Shield of Faith, Mage's Arcane Barrier) or others (Monk and Priest's Sanctuary).
  • In Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk, Season 1 Big Bad Zangdar is known for using an invulnerability sphere that's impervious to all damage as long as he doesn't try to attack. It's later revealed that it's his only spell that works reliably, as others go wild and cause more destruction than intended.
  • In Noob such powers seem to be part of both the paladin and druid arsenal, as demonstrated by Saphir and Ystos respectively. The novel and comics mention that Status Buff is also part of Saphir's role in her team.
  • North Dakota in Red vs. Blue has a Beehive Barrier as his special armor ability. His AI Theta helps him do some impressive tricks with it, including switching it on and off rapidly to allow him to fire out of it while still being protected... and using its usual two-sided impenetrability as an offensive weapon when erected around enemies.
    • Agent Carolina picks up North's Domed Energy Shield in Season 13. She's used it to deflect bullets and even a nuclear explosion.
  • Everyone in RWBY can use Aura to protect themselves from harm. Since Aura is manifestation of a soul everyone has it, even animals. Ozpin, however, is a truer example of this trope, since he can use his cane to create a spherical shield capable of withstanding and repelling the full power of the Fall Maiden and a significant amount of the energy stored in The Long Memory.
  • In the Strefa Mocy commercial Staszek has some sort of wrist-mounted energy buckler to deflect stuff.
  • Forcinor of Super Stories does force fields. He doesn't even have the traditional invisibility. But he can use them to reinforce doors and walk away.
  • Wallflower of the Whateley Universe: spherical shields, invisibility, and the psychic ability to 'see' when inside her 'invisibility' sphere.

    Western Animation 
  • Dr. Suzuki a.k.a. the Repeller from Batman Beyond, a scientist who invented a suit with an impenetrable force field that also allowed him to fly and shoot concussive blasts.
  • Prior to the Time Skip, Gwen of Ben 10 had luck powers and various Elemental Powers over water and wind that often didn't work very well. Post-Time Skip, Gwen stops using all of those and instead just creates forcefields for shields and bludgeoning. And then, in later seasons, she started using all of her powers in concert.
  • BIONICLE. Toa Tahu wears the Mask of Shielding, which protects him against attacks by creating a bubble shield (which is covered in Instant Runes in the Flash animations but not in the movies) capable of protecting him from a waterfall of lava. When he becomes a Toa Nuva, the mask gains the ability to protect others as well. However, it does not protect against attacks that the wearer is unaware of since it has to be activated manually, and sometimes you can get around it by doing something that would not be interpreted as an attack — for example, Nuhvok-Kal managed to reach through the shield with the power of his gravity weapon and cause Tahu to faceplant, bringing the shield down. Tahu's also a subversion as far as personality is concerned, as he's as Hot-Blooded as they come and not prone to running and hiding behind cover (though he's mellowed a bit in that regard).
  • In Challenge of the GoBots, Leader-1 had this ability. However, it took a lot of energy and was exhausting for him, so he could only maintain a forcefield for a couple of minutes at a time.
  • Eric the Cavalier from the animated Dungeons & Dragons (1983) is issued a shield that projects an invulnerable force field. He doesn't use it very often, though, because his usual reaction to danger is to run away and hide.
  • Jade Armor: The titular hero can summon a wind barrier to block attacks or throw enemies away who get too close.
  • Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny: How the Black Tortoise qi manifests for the notoriously self-interested Bao.
  • Nino Lahiffe of Miraculous Ladybug gets this twice over. When akumatized into The Bubbler, he creates bubbles that can trap things inside. And when given the turtle miraculous to become Carapace, his main power, Shell-ter, puts a protective Beehive Barrier around a target. Fu also used the same miraculous, as Jade Turtle, giving him the same ability.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
    • Shining Armor has this as his cutie mark. Not only can he set up a barrier around the entirety of Canterlot, but he can combine a force field with Cadence's power of love to expel Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army from the entire country with a single blow. His sister Twilight Sparkle can create Anti-Magic barriers and shield her library to keep undesirables out, but they are much smaller than her brother's. "The Crystalling" two-parter shows Shining Armor can also create smaller barriers that can only protect directly in front of him but are Attack Reflectors capable of redirecting even strong alicorn magic.
    • In Twilight's Kingdom Part 2, Twilight uses magic barriers to absorb some otherwise devastating hits from Tirek, including being thrown into and tackled through a mountain. Tirek, likewise, uses a magical barrier to defend himself against Twilight's massive beam attack.
    • The fourth Equestria Girls movie, Legend Of Everfree, gives Human Rarity the ability to create gem-like hexagonal barriers, which can be used to deflect attacks, push things away, or pick up people and things.
  • In Rollbots, Lance's only power is being able to create force-fields around himself, which he uses in more or less every fight he is in. It's ironic, because he has demonstrated on at least one occasion some fighting prowess.
  • In She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Netossa's ability to create magical nets is used most often in this way, creating shielding walls and domes to protect herself and allies or trap enemies.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Shocker's costume generates Deflector Shields as a secondary power, allowing him to survive a building's collapse.
  • Blockbuster in Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten can create building blocks, which he can use to climb and wall himself or others in when upset.
  • Though Steven Universe could hardly be called a warrior in most situations, his weapon and main ability are a shield and a defensive bubble which are eventually combined into a massive transparent shield that seems completely indestructible. He's occasionally expanded the bubble to push an opponent away, and eventually learns to protrude spikes from it. His mother was similar in this regard; even though she was a skilled swordswoman and could wield a wide array of weapons, her defensive powers (and leadership) were much more important than her offensive capabilities.
  • Maguro of Sushi Pack can use her psychic powers to create a force field that's large enough to shield the whole group, and strong enough to keep anyone under it from being crushed, even by beings much, much larger than she is.
  • Transformers
    • Ratchet from Transformers: Animated. His main ability comes from his wrist-mounted magnetic field generators, which he often uses to create shields against enemy attacks. They're a bit more malleable than the average Deflector Shields, though, and they can just as easily toss enemies around or push objects into them.
    • In The Transformers, Trailbreaker also had force field powers.
  • In Wakfu, sufficiently powerful magic users generate shields at a whim. Both the villain Nox and the benevolent dragon Grougaloragran project force shields during their duel. There's also the whole class of Fecas whose gimmick is having cool shields.
  • Tecna in Winx Club frequently uses shields and barriers for defense, and the other fairies use them as well sometimes.
  • Yin from Yin Yang Yo! who makes use of Deflector Shields often in her fighting along with other magical abilities.


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Cure Wonderful

Cure Wonderful's first attack is a pawprint barrier.

How well does it match the trope?

4.8 (5 votes)

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Main / BarrierWarrior

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