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The embodiment of Sword and Sorcery.

"Able to resolve most conflicts with either spell or sword.
They are a deadly mix of scholar and soldier."
— In-game description of the Battlemage class, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Most mages are of the Squishy Wizard variety, able to work eldritch wonders but not take a punch. And most warriors are Magically Inept Fighters, able to deal and take devastating damage, but their range is limited to the length of their weapon and they'll have trouble with problems they can't bludgeon to death. But who said you can't have the best of both worlds? Whether they're wizards who picked up a melée weapon and some spiffy armor, or warriors who learned to cast a few spells, Magic Knights are every bit as deadly with both spell and sword.

For the purposes of game balance, the Magic Knight will either be weaker at sword and spell than a pure fighter or mage, generally slower, somehow otherwise limited to being defensive or offensive, or they'll be The Hero, who is expected to be the most powerful character anyway. Usually, the Magic Knights will specialize in a particular class of magic (attack or healing, for instance), effectively making them a hybrid of only two "classes", rather than being an out-and-out "Jack" of all trades. However, being a total Jack of All Stats is also possible, depending on the game.

Another form of balance may be found in their spell loadout. Instead of the wide variety of spells a normal spellcaster can use, they tend to focus on Status Buffs and direct attack spells. Other typical abilities for this class may include infusing their bodies or weapons with elemental powers. Doing the same with Status Effects is not unknown either.

Older Than Print, as the Norse god Odin (who also made the Robe and Wizard Hat convention), was both a powerful wizard and an accomplished warrior.

The Paladin is a Magic Knight who's centered around Holy powers and fighting the forces of darkness. The Black Knight or Tin Tyrant may be one of these, usually with a focus of Necromancy and spells of darkness. Wizards that use their fists and feet instead of swords and shields go under Kung-Fu Wizard, Knights who use a bow instead of magic apply for Bow and Sword in Accord, and those who favor firearms or a bow and arrow fall under Mage Marksman. Contrast Armor and Magic Don't Mix. A Magic Knight whose magic focuses on healing is a form of Combat Medic.

See also the Magical Girl Warrior sister trope/genre for magical girls who use magic, sparkly weapons, frilly armor, and The Power of Friendship and/or Love to kick evil's ass.


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    Blogs 
  • Codex Inversus: Hesiak is an orcish martial art that focuses on using extremely precise sword flourishes to scribe spells in midair. Its practitioners, known as Hesizainak, can do things like sword thrusts whose cutting edge "skips" a foot or so past the blade, a "defensive flourish" that briefly makes the air in front of it into an unbreakable barrier, blows that strike from a different direction than the one they're coming from, and a special flourish that sends the blade bursting out of its target's heart. A typical duel between Hesizainak resembles a windmill of blades, after which one of the duelists drops down dead or horribly maimed, usually without their ever coming close to each other.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Beastmaster: Arklon, while he has multiple magic powers, is also good with his sword or bare-handed (he's also large and strong, unlike many mages).
  • Conan the Barbarian (2011): Khalar Zym and Marique are both skilled with evil sorcery. They are good using blades to fight too though.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness: Akordia is a skilled sorceress, but also perfectly capable with a sword.
  • The wuxia film Finger of Doom has the main villainess Madam Kung Sun, who is both a dangerous fighter and a powerful sorceress whose skills in voodoo made her The Dreaded.
  • In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The White Witch Jadis went into battle with a sword and a wand of petrification. A pretty nasty combination by anyone's standards, and she put both to pretty good use.
  • Gandalf of The Lord of the Rings fame was never a Squishy Wizard, and the Peter Jackson films showcased this. When faced with a Balrog, a giant nightmarish demon about fifteen feet or more in height, Gandalf tries using his magic first, but when that fails, he engages it with his sword and defeats it. He's also seen fighting in many other scenes in the LOTR movies as well as in Jackson's The Hobbit. This is consistent with the books.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Loki is a talented sorcerer who frequently employs Master of Illusion spells during combat, and he's also proficient with daggers, throwing knives, and anything that can be used as a spear (like Gungnir or the Chitauri scepter). Being a Frost Giant makes him way physically superior to any human (even Captain America), and only slightly weaker than pure Asgardians.
    • Frigga also employs illusions in battle, and is very adept with a sword — Loki definitely takes after his adoptive mother in this regard (albeit with a preference for daggers).
    • The Masters of the Mystic Arts are effectively Kung Fu Wizards who wield weapons as well as sorcery. Karl Mordo has the Staff of the Living Tribunal, a polearm that can double as a whip and a flail. Wong has the Wand of Watoomb which is very durable and can channel music. Doctor Strange himself goes Master Swordsman against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War with a conjured sword... and does better than Drax.
  • This is almost a requirement in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It actually makes sense that every magic-user would also be adept in some sort of weapons or hand-to-hand training, as its specifically stated that the masquerade is to be kept up when possible, so it would make sense to be able to defend oneself without magic (and in the ages where Balthazar, Horvath and Sun Lok rose from, one needed to be able to defend oneself and others against a variety of mundane threats). This also explains why Drake and Dave aren't this trope and more of the Squishy Wizard variety; one's a celebrity who undoubtedly has excellent security, and the other's a high-level student/researcher who has no need to learn self-defense.
  • Star Wars:
    • The Jedi and the Sith use the Force to give them a number of magical powers as well as swordfight effectively with their lightsabers.
    • Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones may best exemplify this, as he first defeated two Jedi effortlessly (Anakin and Obi-Wan), then fought Yoda with the Force to a draw, then finally fought Yoda with a lightsaber before finally retreating. It is unclear whether he was losing or simply realizing that fighting Yoda to the death was counterproductive. The effect was much improved by Christopher Lee, Dooku's actor, being an expert fencer.
    • The fact that Spaceballs is an Affectionate Parody of Star Wars makes Dark Helmet and Lone Starr parodies of magic knights, at one point dueling with "Schwartzsabers" that they generate from their crotches.
  • X-Men: Apocalypse has a variant with Psylocke, demonstrated by her Dual Wielding of both an actual sword and a psionic one made with her powers.

    Gamebooks 
  • The Enchanter in Blood Sword becomes an excellent fighter at high levels (though still the worst out of all 4 classes in damage output and chance of hitting a foe) and he does more damage hitting enemies with his sword than using the weaker of his spells on them.
  • Fighting Fantasy: In the The Citadel of Chaos gamebook, the player is a master wizard with some additional swordsmanship skills. His (or her) spell selection doesn't include anything for destroying his enemies, though: Just stab your blade to their gut and be done with it. (The fire spell could, probably, be used to this purpose, but the book won't allow it.) The book's main antagonist is a Magic Knight as well, and even better at it: he always holds the upper hand in a Wizard Duel and he's as good of a swordsman as the mechanics allow (albeit with some help from a magic ring.)
  • Pip from the GrailQuest series uses both magic (being somewhat Merlin's disciple) and a sword (Excalibur Junior).
  • Lone Wolf:
    • Lone Wolf and the rest of the Kai are an order of divinely empowered Magic Knights, although most of their powers are psychic in nature.
    • The Vakeros of Dessi are also an example, being warriors who use Old Kingdom Magic.
    • In the Grand Master books, Lone Wolf can learn Old Kingdom Magic and Left-Handed Magic (called Kai-Alchemy in the books) making him a true Magic Knight. At higher skill levels these two disciplines even provide spells that can actually be used in combat.
    • On the villains' side, Lone Wolf can duel against a Ziran in Book 10, a Drakkar in full armor and fighting with a Magic Wand.
  • From the same writer as GrailQuest comes the Sagas of the Demonspawn series, where the Barbarian Hero Fire*Wolf learns he's actually from a magic-using race and his father is an aristocrat turned wizard. The father sends the Book Dumb Fire*Wolf on a magical ordeal which turns Fire*Wolf into at least a competent spellcaster in addition to being a mighty barbarian.
  • Sorcery! allows you to play either as a fighter or a wizard. Being a wizard, however, only result in a moderate Skill reduction. You have just as many Hit Points as the fighter (although magic being Cast from Hit Points, it's a necessity) and can use a sword or any weapon and item increasing you fighting skills.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Heroes from Celtic Mythology were often this, to the point where it was considered out of the norm for a prominent legendary figure to have only skill in the blade or only skill in magic. Because of this, however, they were more often than not monsters in the battlefield.
  • Athena from Classical Mythology zigzags this trope by having some magical powers (like turning people into spiders), and also being the Goddess of War. However, she's never seen fighting with both at once.
  • One of the most famous cases of this trope is Sun Wukong. Besides his trickery codified in Monkey King Lite, the Monkey King was acknowledged for being the most dangerous in combat and for being a master of the Taoist Arts and Miracles, which only made him even more dangerous considering his temper and his penchant for mischief.
  • Legends from Hindu Mythology also went into this trope more often than not, but in this case the fact that they were One-Man Armies was the most tame case scenario, in the most prominent, such as Arjuna, Karna, Rama, Hanuman and Indrajit they could very well destroy the universe if they weren't careful.

    Roleplay 
  • Jon Snow in A Dragon of the North. Due to the setting's Low Fantasy nature, this makes him a force to be reckoned with. Even though he doesn't use it openly.
  • Fate/Nuovo Guerra features Celestina Barbieri, who uses her wind magecraft to boost her sword's effectiveness, along with reinforcing her body. There's also Kosviel von Einzbern, who uses her family's alchemic expertise to craft superior bladed weapons for her personal use.
  • Fire Emblem on Forums: Any character who takes up a class that has a mix of physical and magical proficiencies falls into this trope, assuming they don't deliberately stunt their magical or physical growths. With regards to class lore, Tacticians Barons, and Crusaders fit this heavily.

    Toys 

    Visual Novels 
  • Fate/stay night:
    • Even though Servants use mana to strengthen themselves note  and use magical equipment, they would still generally be classified as fighters. Said magical equipment is generally capable of releasing magical bursts of energy, but they are not used in the same way that mages cast spells; these attacks are probably more analogous to Ki Manipulation. However, there are exceptions that include genuine examples: Lancer primarily relies on his lance and fighting skills but also knows Celtic rune magic and would have qualified for summoning in the Caster class as well (indeed, in Fate/Grand Order he can be summoned as Caster). Archer is a mage who uses his unique ability to make a Pocket Dimension that creates copies of legendary weapons of him to use, and while wielding any weapon he can also copy the skills of the original owner, essentially using his magic to make himself a knight. Because he is the protagonist's future self, Shirou also qualifies for the same reasons.
    • Because modern mages have taken steps to alleviate Squishy Wizard syndrome, many average and less gifted mages, such as Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Kirei Kotomine, Soichiro Kuzuki, and Kiritsugu Emiya have been incline to mixing magic spells in with hand-to-hand combat and other weaponry, thus becoming a form of Fighter Mages.
  • Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane:
    • Celeste starts out as a sword-wielding mercenary with one spell that sharpens it, but over the course of the game she learns many more.
    • Grand General Lucio Steelwind is proficient in axes and evocation magic.

    Web Animation 
  • Rinoa in Dead Fantasy is shown to be rather handy with her melee weapons, as well as capable of summoning tornadoes and freezing lava solid.
  • Dreamscape:
    • Vladmare has got several powers like creating portals and sending out waves of energy, and that sword isn't just for show.
    • Vampire Lord used to be one where he was known as Vampire Knight, as his flashback in 'Confronting the Dark' reveals. However, The Empire deemed knights as worthless because of the vampiric reflexes of their people. Vampire Knight, however, fell through the cracks. This was a good thing, because his armor protected him from the Fog of Doom that plagued the Underworld.
  • RWBY:
    • The Four Maidens are women who can wield Elemental Powers, most of them showing an affinity for one specific element even though they can use them all. Many of them have also been trained by the Huntsman Academies and are therefore both warriors and mages. The original Fall Maiden, Amber, fights with a quarterstaff and uses her magic to summon wind, fire, lightning, and freeze leaves into flachettes. Her successor, Cinder, fights with swords and arrows, and heavily favours fire in battle. The Spring Maiden can summon storms, and fights with real weapons, or swords made from elemental magic. Throughout Volume 8, the Winter Maiden fights with swords, but can also use hailstorms, lightning, wind and light in battle. The Winter Maiden dies at the end of Volume 8, passing her magic on to a successor who heavily favours fighting with ice and swords in battle.
    • Maidens were originally created by an Old Wizard, who gave the first four Maidens his magical power in gratitude for the kindness they showed him. He had a legacy as a warrior himself. That Old Wizard was a previous incarnation of the Huntsman prodigy, Professor Ozpin, leaving him with a fraction of the magical power he once had; in his original form as Ozma, he was a renowned knight and wizard, who fought in battle with a magical staff. However, this was an era when all humans possessed magic, until they lost the ability after a falling out with the gods. Oz, who is now Sharing a Body with Oscar, kept his magical power because the gods made him immortal to carry out the mission of redeeming humanity. With one exception, all true magic that still exists therefore comes from Oz in some fashion, and Maiden magic passes to successors in the same manner Ozma transfers to a new host body when his previous one dies.
    • Weiss and Winter Schnee are are subversions. They are both extremely talented warriors, having been trained at the elite Beacon and Atlas Academies, respectively. They have both mastered the family Glyphs Semblance, which allows them augment speed and strength, manipulate time and summon avatars of foes they've defeated in battle to fight for them. By combining her Glyphs with Dust, Weiss can shoot Ice, Fire or Wind Dust from her Royal Rapier, use Gravity Dust to defy the laws of Physics. Her swords therefore seems to act like a wand as much as sword. They reason they're subversions is that, while they look like they're fighting with sword and sorcery, Semblances are not magic. They therefore mimic Magic Knights. Double-subverted at the end of Volume 8; Winter gains true magic when she becomes the Winter Maiden after Cinder kills the previous one in battle; thereafter, she combines true magic with her Semblance, thus becoming a true Magic Knight who favours ice and swords in battle.

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Yami Sukehiro

Yami is a self-proclaimed "magic swordsman", fighting by using his dark magic through his katana.

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