History CripplingOverspecialization / NonVideoGameExamples

* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', while preparing to fight Cell, Trunks comes up with a variation of the [[GoldenSuperMode Super Saiyan]] transformation that involves large, bulky musculature. He hides it from his father, Vegeta, fearing that it would cause him shame to see that his son has surpassed him. It's not until he brings it out in battle against Cell that he realizes his mistake: [[MightyGlacier in focusing on raw strength, he has neglected to develop his speed]]. All the punchy-punchy in the world doesn't make a difference if he can't land a hit, and as he is handily defeated he reflects that his father, a seasoned warrior who would know better, likely considered developing himself along the same lines and decided against it for exactly that reason. Ironically, Cell forgets this when Super Saiyan 2 Gohan pushes him into a VillainousBreakdown and he ends up bulking up.

** Hit is an extremely good ProfessionalKiller and a formidable opponent even for Goku - However, since he focuses solely on killing, he is hindered during tournaments that have a "No Killing" rule.

** {{Subverted|Trope}} by the minor character Androl Genhald. His talent at magic is very weak, with one exception: he can create larger [[TeleportersAndTransporters gateways]] than much stronger channelers could with ease. Many of the other magic-users mockingly name him "Pageboy" since all he's good for (that they know of) is carrying messages over long distances. However, this turns out to be an ''incredibly'' versatile skill with [[PortalCombat many offensive applications]]. Besides {{Tele Frag}}ging and {{Portal Cut}}ting enemies, being able to open a portal leading to a subterranean reservoir of pressurized magma with a thought is at least as useful as being able to cast {{Fireballs}}.

* Mito of ''Manga/ShokugekiNoSoma'' is cripplingly overspecialised towards cooking meat. When compelled by cooking contest rules to present a ''don'' (rice bowl) her dish, while technically well executed, is disharmonious and overemphasises the expensive cut of meat used.
** Nene, on the other hand, can cook her recipes to perfection, but is incapable of tweaking them on the fly.
** Completely averted by Satou Soumei. He openly mocks the idea that his focus on sushi has made him incapable of cooking other dishes, and proves that his mastery of sushi has made him expert at combining the flavor profiles of rice, fish and accents in other contexts too. Even Soma, whose ability to cook by the seat of his pants is rapidly becoming the stuff of legend, is disconcerted at the quality of the dish he produces when asked to cook a Japanese-style seafood dish with ''butter'' as the key ingredient.

* Not exactly 'crippling', but the ''Series/StargateSG1'' fic "Bless the Children"- both the [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3070319/39/Bless-the-Children-Gen-Version Gen]] and [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3070316/47/Bless-the-Children-Ship-Version Ship]] version- see Daniel Jackson learn that he may actually have a better potential for science than he thought when Danny, a clone of Daniel when he was eight, shows a greater interest in science than he ever did thanks to Sam Carter inspiring an interest, suggesting that Danny could be a MasterOfAll with the right training.

* The Pacific island nation of UsefulNotes/{{Nauru}} is one of the most egregious cases of this. The country's economy was based entirely on phosphate production, as the island essentially had no other exploitable natural resources, so when the phosphate ran out, so did the cash. Once one of the richest countries on Earth in terms of income per capita, Nauru was instantly bankrupted.

** In one of the Tales of Interest shorts, Fry says that he's good at video games and bad at everything else. This is actually good because of the premise of the Tale of Interest, being that real life was (quite literally) like a game.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "Dear John", when Rocko's kitchen needs to be worked on [[ItMakesSenseInContext due to a random satellite crashing into it]], he and Heffer purchase a Do-It-Yourself kit by home repairman Bucky Barnes. Unfortunately, it seems that Bucky's only specialty is bathrooms, and Rocko and Heffer don't realize this until they end up turning Rocko's kitchen into a bathroom. To make matters worse, when Rocko calls Bucky to fix the kitchen, he instead turns ''the rest of the rooms'' in Rocko's house into bathrooms.

'''Bucky:''' ''Too many'' bathrooms? You can never have too many bathrooms!

*** Ming Hua has what most refer to as Psychic Waterbending because she doesn't have arms, which the water functions as instead. This gives her greater control over water than most other benders and she is far more dextrous with her water-arms than a normal person is with theirs (for example she can quickly scale the side of a cliff with her water arms alone). [[spoiler:Ming Hua is later killed because her water arms made a direct conduit to her heart so that any electric attack against her would be instantly fatal. Prior to this, she was completely vulnerable to firebenders who
specifically targeted the water around her as she has no combat ability when she can't bend.]]

* Also subverted by the human immune system. While each individual cell has a few jobs and are really, really good at doing those specific jobs, they are horrible at performing other tasks. For example Eosinophils are rather poor at hitting bacteria and viruses, which are really common threats on that scale, they can't be beat at dealing with parasitic invaders like nematodes. The way that the immune system compensates for this? More overspecialized cells. However, it actually works out in the end, as the sheer number of overspecialized cells ends up resulting in there being a cell type usable for any conceivable threat due purely to just how many types of cells the immune system works with. It's not just cells that are overspecialized, either; the two protein systems that the immune system uses suffer from this, too. the Complement System is specialized to kill bacteria, and that's about it. At the same time, the Antibody System is specialized to mark pathogens, and basically nothing else aside from minor things. On top of that, neither are self-replenishing. But that's where the other cells come in, as they can replenish both protein systems and benefit from their actions as a result.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Zenitsu Agatsuma is a demon hunter who fights under the Breath of Thunder discipline; the art has 6 forms but Zenitsu only managed to learn one, the very first and basic form, but this very one he learned got honed by him to absolute master level, to the point he developed phases for it: Thunderclap Flash --> Six-Fold --> Eight-Fold --> God Speed.

** Also in ''Literature/SkinGame'', Harry explicitly calls [[spoiler:Binder]] a one-trick pony. He has the ability to to summon a number of identical demons referred to as "Suits" from the Nevernever. They're smart enough to follow orders and use firearms, so they're very handy when you need some backup, but it's the only thing he has in his arsenal, magically speaking, so he's not much of a match for a proper Wizard in a fight.

* ''Film/BirdBox'': The creatures can drive anyone who looks upon them to suicide, but despite seemingly being physical beings, they can't so much as break a normal glass window to get to their prey.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Monkey D. Luffy is basically unstoppable in a physcal battle, since he combines SuperStrength and SuperToughness with inventively used RubberMan powers and [[{{Determinator}} being too determined to quit or die]]. But despite all this power, he's also [[DumbMuscle a complete idiot]], and in particular his fighting style is based on all-out offense. Correspondingly, he does very well against hordes of mooks or against single opponents who fail to measure up to him in the all-out brawling department... but he also does poorly against opponents who rely on trickery or who have powers that work in a way that Luffy can't just bull his way through. Prior to the time skip, Luffy was at his absolute worst when facing off against Devil Fruit users of the [[ElementalShapeshifter Logia]] type, since they were impervious to his basic attacks and he was forced to try and innovate his way around their defenses. This stopped being the case once Luffy learned to use [[BattleAura Armament Haki]], which enables him to hit through Devil Fruit defenses.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':
** Jefferson Twilight, Blacula Hunter. He's also got plenty of other, support skills, but YouDidntAsk.
--->And they haven't been taken by Blaculas. Though I'm not prepared to rule out Caucasian vampires.
** O.S.I. agent Headshot is a good sniper...and that's it. A rather minuscule skill-set for a secret agent.

*** Ming Hua has what most refer to as Psychic Waterbending because she doesn't have arms, which the water functions as instead. This gives her greater control over water than most other benders and she is far more dextrous with her water-arms than a normal person is with theirs (for example she can quickly scale the side of a cliff with her water arms alone). [[spoiler:Ming Hua is later killed because her water arms made a direct conduit to her heart so that any electric attack against her would be instantly fatal. Prior to this, she was completely vulnerable to firebenders who specifically targeted the water around her as she has no combat ability when she can't bend.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** The town of Ogdenville makes nothing but barley; even their history is centered about barley. When the barley got tainted, this caused their entire business to go bust, and sent their town into a depression.
** When Milhouse tries to get the role of a boy who points in a play, he fails because the direction he's asked to point isn't the same he trained for.
** In a ''WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror'' episode, Homer is standing in a bunker when France launches a 6-megaton nuclear missile at Springfield. Homer is lucky that it was a 6-megatonner because the shelter was designed for exactly 6 megatons, "no more, no less."
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WaitTillYourFatherGetsHome'', Harry drops his car off at the service garage, then comes back later to find they're not finished. Perplexed that a mechanic is standing by his car doing nothing, Harry asks why the man isn't working on it. "I only do headlights," the mechanic explains. "''Left'' headlights."

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** Unicorn ponies find their magical abilities quite limited outside their special talent, as illustrated by their Cutie Mark, such as Rarity mostly being good at magic related to tailoring and illusions. Twilight Sparkle on the other hand, by virtue of having her talent be magic in general, knows a vast variety of spells, to the point where she can levitate the top of a water tower, float it through a barn full of cows (''milking the cows in the process'') and make the water tower into a makeshift baby bottle, while also causing the wind to play a lullaby.
** Twilight is cripplingly overspecialized in other ways, however. In "Winter Wrap-up" she tries to [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows help clean up winter]] without her magic (because that's the traditional way), but because she's so used to using magic for everything, she screws up anything she tries to do physically (starting with putting on her saddle). [[spoiler:She eventually leans to non-magically contribute with her TRUE strength, that of an uber-delegating ScheduleFanatic.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In the episode "Betty", Bella Noche is a being of AntiMagic capable of neutralizing the magic of all of the wizards in Wizard City, who have no non-magical defenses and are virtually helpless. It works the other way too, however; when Betty, a normal woman, managed to get to his true form, Bella Noche is taken down with little more than a punch.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', Big Time assaulted the Money Bin wearing an armored assault suit. Upon breaking into the vault, he's greeted by Scrooge in a tank, but isn't worried since his armor can withstand a 60-millimeter shell...only for Scrooge to reveal his tank fires ''61'' millimeter shells.
-->'''Big Time''': Whoa! That's one millimeter too many! ''(Gets blasted out of the Money Bin)''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
** In one of the ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' shorts, "The Temp", when Cosmo and Wanda are away and Timmy needs a temporary fairy godparent, he finds that the temp is good at making toys. Unfortunately, toys are all he can make, which doesn't help when a fire breaks out in Timmy's room and it can't be wished away. In the end, the reason for this is because the temp turns out to be one of {{Santa Claus}}'s elves.
** In one episode, Cosmo and Wanda give Timmy a shrink suit so he can do a school project. When he tries to return to normal size, he finds the suit can only shrink.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
** [[MakingASplash Lapis Lazuli]] is powerful enough to take control of ''all'' the world's ocean water and control it to her advantage, as well as [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower fashion it into various forms for combat]]...but she's pathetically weak physically-wise (by Gem standards), so in a place where there's little water to use, even a Gem like [[WeakButSkilled Pearl]] could take her down quickly since she's shown no offensive abilities that don't relate to water.
** Homeworld's [[KillerRobot shattering]] [[AttackDrone Robinoids]] possess a powerful [[WaveMotionGun laser]] that can easily destroy stone and [[OneHitKill shatter Gems]], but they only attack if they detect an actual [[HeartDrive gemstone]]. Creatures that lack gems, like humans, are invisible to them, and they can't fight back if one attacks them because they can't detect them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'', Ripjaws is a form that is incredibly powerful underwater, being able to move incredibly quickly and having good strength, which means he can quickly turn the tide of the battle in his favor. The problem? He's almost completely useless on dry land; while he's still got incredibly powerful jaws, he needs water to ''breathe'', which makes for quite a bit of suffering when he's nowhere near a body of water.
* One episode had the titular ''WesternAnimation/SuperDuperSumos'' each facing an opponent who was especially tailor-made to face him, with abilities designed to specifically counter and defeat that one specific sumo. They're getting utterly {{Curb Stomp|Battle}}ed until they decide to switch opponents... and effortlessly win the battles in mere seconds. How does having one extra butt-cheek made one able to effectively defeat one specific sumo and nobody else? [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext It's just that kind of show, silly]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', Hordak relies on long-range attacks such as hurling objects and firing his arm cannon. He's a powerhouse when attacking opponents from a distance, or besieging large stationary targets [[spoiler:such as the Sea Elf Village and the Salineas Sea Gate]]. However, his lack of agility puts him at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat, [[spoiler:allowing the much more maneuverable Catra to subdue him ''twice'' in season 4]].

* The fact that the ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' has no other weapons or defenses apart from its planet-shattering WaveMotionGun have caused plenty of trouble to the protagonists over the course of the series. Could be justified, if His Divine Shadow wanted it easily re-taken if it ever fell into the wrong hands. (Which, in fact, it did.) Presumably it would've had escort ships along to defend it if it'd ever been used as intended.

* In the 2019 adaptation of ''Literature/TheDemonHeadmaster'', the idea of Crippling Overspecialisation is used against the Headmaster during a school inspection; as the Headmaster has created a system where the students don't 'learn', but are just programmed to go along with their designated 'specialities', [[spoiler:Lizzie Warren and her allies are able to disrupt the Headmaster's planned presentation by switching the students' relevant material, such as essentially arranging for the rugby team to perform Swan Lake and a Shakespearean 'expert' to recite an insulting poem]].
* In ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'', Thunderbird 3 is the only one that can go into space and Thunderbird 4 is the only one that can go underwater, but that's ''all'' they can do, and while underwater rescues [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman happen far more often than they really should]] space rescues only happen two or three times in the entire series. In most rescues this leaves Scott and Virgil in Thunderbirds 1 and 2 to do almost all of the work while Alan and Gordon mostly just assist them.
** Somewhat downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo''; Thunderbirds 3 and 4 are still the only ships normally capable of going into space or underwater, but key episodes feature Thunderbird 4 being modified to carry out non-aquatic rescues due to it being the only vehicle capable of enduring high-pressure environments (with "Deep Search" seeing it modified to be taken into space in Thunderbird 3 for a rescue on Europa), and the rescue in "Long Haul" required Thunderbird 2 to be augmented to travel into space when Thunderbird 3 was occupied with another part of the rescue.
* On ''Series/TheSingOff'', after the least technically proficient groups have been weeded out, the groups that are very skilled in one particular style of music and have a hard time adapting that style to incorporate other influences are usually the next eliminated, as versatility is something the judges value very highly.

* In ''Series/VanHelsing'': Axel has rigged up numerous defenses for the hospital. The final one is a corridor filled with UV lamps, something no vampire can pass. [[spoiler:A human, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard specifically a former vampire turned human by Vanessa]], however can easily walk down the hall and smash the lights, allowing the vampires to safely advance behind him.]]
* ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'' has a quite literal example with the Terabytes, termite-like insects. They're divided into separate castes which are very good at what they do (gum-spitters trap the [[{{Planimal}} Garden Worms]] the Terabytes harvest algae from, water-carriers store water, rock-borers do the burrowing, transporters carry stuff, queens lay eggs), but almost all of them save the transporter caste either have ''no legs at all'' or vestigal legs, and require the transporters to carry them around. Transporters have it less overspecialized since they're also capable of cutting off the algae appendages of Garden Worms.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}}, the French Open a.k.a. Roland Garros takes place on clay courts that favor defenders due to their slowness and high bounce giving players more time to reach the ball and return it in ways difficult for their opponent to hit. Because of this, it was historically considered to be the hardest Grand Slam to win with many great players' tactics being ill-suited for the clay surface... and many French Open champions are clay-court specialists who have performed ''poorly'' at other Slams, until more recent times. A good example is UsefulNotes/RafaelNadal, who has won Roland Garros ''12'' times (as of 2019) but has had far more irregular performances in other courts.

* In gridiron football, the sharp transition between college and pro schemes has led to a large number of draft busts, and many can't-miss prospects flaking out. In short, college offensive and to a lesser extent defensive schemes rely on wider hashmarks (these are where the ball is spotted if the ball carrier is tackled outside of them; with wider hashmarks, the entire team is much closer to one sideline than the other, leaving much more open field on the opposite side) and exploiting much larger mismatches (the gap between the best and worst pro player in any position is much, much narrower than the gap between the best and worst FBS-level player). Arguably, the most humiliating example would be Florida coach Steve Spurrier trying to bring his "Fun n' Gun" passing offense to the Washington Redskins; veteran defenses would consistently shut his teams down, sending Spurrier back to the college ranks once and for all.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
** D&D in general, really. For every single ability in 3.5, there's at least one way to reduce or negate the damage. Fighters who specialise in the longsword will find themselves disadvantaged against an opponent who negates all damage that isn't piercing. A sorcerer that only chooses fire spells will not have a fun time against the monster with fire immunity. Rogues dread encounters against enemies that are immune to sneak attacks (which are many). At higher levels, it's not uncommon for fighters to carry multiple weapons made of many different materials, just so they can be prepared for any situation. This is one reason why LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards is in full effect: spellcasters who prepare their spells from a list can avoid this trap by changing their spells in accordance with the situation.
*** D&D's unofficial Tier System reinforces this fact. The Top Tier classes can either learn every spell of their paradigm they come across, have access to their entire spell lists by default, or can replicate any spell in the game. (The Cleric and Druid can also function as melee on top of all that, hence the [[GameBreaker CoDzilla]] term in the metagame). The Tier Two classes are equal to the tier ones in raw power but lack the versatility of their counterparts. As the tier thread puts it: "''If the Tier 1 classes are countries with 10,000 nuclear weapons in their arsenal, these guys are countries with 10 nukes. Still dangerous and world-shattering, but not in quite so many ways.''"
*** Many prestige classes and non-core standard classes in 3.5 edition tended to be extremely specialized, as writers struggled to create new content that wasn't redundant with existing materials. For example, the War Mage and Healer classes were primary spellcasters who could only cast damage-dealing offensive spells and HP healing cure spells, respectively. Considering that flexibility has always been one of the primary advantages of spellcasters, both were ridiculed as being woefully underpowered. Prestige classes that were focused on specific goals, like fighting dragons or undead, also tended to have this issue. Playing a Dragon Hunter was great when fighting dragons, but given that nearly all of its abilities only worked against dragons, it was quite underpowered against anything that did not include the word "dragon" in its name.
** Many powergamers in all TTRPGS, but especially ''D&D'', who have their pet "broken" builds run into a serious problem when faced with [=GMs=] who throw unexpected challenges at them; by relying on shattering the game in one particular place, they are vulnerable when challenged out of their depth by the GM. Unfortunately, this often leads to the player not having much fun with the game, since if the character is so specialized that they effectively can't contribute (for instance, a melee-focused warrior who keeps being attacked by ranged and flying enemies, forcing him to rely on his untrained archery skills, or a pyromancer with [[DumpStat dumped Charisma]] being constantly shoved into social situations that they don't have any spells or skills for), then they might as well just spend the session on their phone. Skilled [=GMs=] avoid this by [[PlotTailoredToTheParty deliberately creating situations where the overspecialized character can shine]], without breaking the game in the process.
* In the classic Metagaming Concepts game ''Rivets'', the premise is simple: all the people are dead, and the remaining Boppers (Battlefield Orientated Pre-Programmed Eradicator Robots) are fighting it out over the resources they need. The trouble is, these Boppers are pretty stupid, 'average IQ only slightly higher than that of most kitchen appliances'. Each player has to choose what type of unit each type of unit attacks. That's right. You don't program an individual unit, you program a type of unit to go after another type of unit. If you're attacked by a unit you're not programmed to attack, you're screwed. You can, however, reprogram them, but that means bringing every one of that unit type back to your base/factory.
* In the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' mythos, one legend says the wizard Magius fell in battle as the Orders of High Sorcery prohibited mages from carrying ''any'' weapon at the time leaving them to rely solely on magic making them defenseless if their spells and items became exhausted. Since his death mages have been permitted to carry a dagger (or staff) for defending themselves.
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'':
** The [=BattleMechs=] are prone to this, as well as subverting this. You can either have a general jack-of-all-trades or a specialized 'Mech that's doomed once someone skips out of its range bracket. Also, under the latest rules, most (not all) 'Mech-scale weapons do only a small fraction of their regular damage to conventional infantry, which can become a problem at those distances where the infantry can actually shoot ''back''. {{Justified|Trope}} in that 'Mechs are meant to used in concert (IE, fire-support standing ''behind'' the close-assault mechs, scouts staying in cover and acting as spotters for long-distance artillery, high-speed mechs flanking while the main assault force holds the enemies' attentions, etc.). Individual 'Mechs are specialists; the military units they make up are intended to be balanced. Then the Clans showed up with their versatile [=OmniMech=] designs and the Inner Sphere soon caught up and started reverse-engineering captured Clan [=BattleMechs=] in order to compete with their advanced technology. Though [=OmniMechs=] themselves also do have their limitations as well, one being that they are not fully modular, which can hamper potential configurable designs for a would-be creative pilot.
** One of the earliest Subversions of this is the Stalker-class Assault Battlemech, which carries both large and medium lasers, as well as both Long and Short-range missiles, giving it the ability to fight at ''every'' range. Ironically, it's the most well-rounded mech of its time despite having ''no ballistic weapons'' and relying entirely on energy and missile ones.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
** Specifically warned against in the character creation chapter of the core rulebook. Creation has a lot of different challenges to overcome, and you'll be lucky if you're just bored if you don't have a charm that's useful to the situation. Also, it's kinda frustrating having to start a new charm tree from the relatively weak and boring prerequisite charms when you've reached the "total powerhouse" stage of your career. (Other advice: buy the "increase your hit points" charm at least once.)
** In second edition, the Primordials, the transcendently powerful beings that created the setting, each have their own themes, and are absolutely all-powerful, invincible, and unassailable within those themes; Authochthon is the Craftsman, Malfeas is the King, She Who Lives In Her Name is the Organizer, the Ebon Dragon is the Corrupter, etc. The thing is, each Primordial is not only absolutely helpless outside of those themes, but absolutely incapable of even thinking outside of them. For example, Malfeas is incapable of any kind of subtlety, compromise, or anything else that requires him to act from a position of anything less than absolute power and authority, and She Who Lives In Her Name cannot be unpredictable or spontaneous in any way.
** Applying this and its relative MinMaxing in the ''Shards of the Exalted Dream'' spinoff Burn Legend will get you curb-stomped on a regular basis. The guy with Strength 5 and lots of Grapples - say, a Mugen who invests heavily in Wrestling and the linked Mugen techniques - will get his ass handed to him by a simple Whistling Stone Atemi. Burn Legend is based very heavily on TacticalRockPaperScissors, meaning that showing up as Captain Scissors is begging for everyone else to pull out their cheap, low-ranked Rock technique and smash you into a pulp.
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' there's a branch of decks known as Combo decks that fall into this. They aim to do one specific thing using a certain combination of cards. When this thing happens [[InstantWinCondition they usually win instantly]]. If they can't get the cards in or one of them gets destroyed, they're usually left with a sub-par deck. Combo decks tend to be very good against 'raw power'/'aggro' decks because comboed cards will dismantle an equal number of individual cards without synergy (even though said cards tend to be stronger individually), and are vulnerable to control decks that systematically block or remove the components of a combo. These are popular among some casual players, who don't care nearly as much about a reliable win/lose percentage as about the fact that it's absolutely [[RuleOfFunny hilarious]] to use a finishing attack featuring an unblockable attacker whose power and toughness grow by a factor of 32 [[SerialEscalation every turn]].

* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'''s character creation mechanics have always favoured focused characters by rewarding specialization. It's generally held that a good shadowrunning team consists entirely of specialists who throw nine or more dice at a non-overlapping set of very specific skills instead of made entirely of what usually becomes {{Master Of None}}s.
** However, with minimal system mastery, it is trivial to create characters who are very good at their desired specialty, and also have decent competence in some secondary skillset, averting the trope.
* BDSM decks in the erotic card game ''Furoticon''. Sadists inflict pain counters on opponents that debuff most characters but masochists treat them as buffs.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' has [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?db=comics&id=739#comic Bulletproof Man]], who is only invulnerable to bullets, and [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=870#comic these boxers]], who try to solve all problems by punching it. Subverted by [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=457#comic this witch]] who surprises an opponent relying on AntiMagic.

* The Vespiary squad in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' are trained to efficiently destroy some of the most dangerous creatures in the series. Against anything else, they can be considered noncombatants.
* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'':
** Pete, a {{Munchkin}} who maxed all the skills he thought that would be useful in a space RPG campaign. As a result, he generated R2-D2, "a short, squat robot with no arms", and in {{Alternate Universe}}s he generated a bunch of other, equally useless characters.
** Pete's overspecializing comes back to bite him hard during the ''Rogue One'' campaign when he plays Chirrut, a blind monk whose defenses are based entirely around dodging attacks. [[spoiler:He ends up in a situation where he ''can't'' dodge the threat (a point-blank explosion caused by an enemy's CriticalFailure), and completely screwed over by his own character build; he has no armor (it would've slowed Chirrut down), too few hit points to tank the blast (thanks to being a FragileSpeedster), and all the [[MinMaxing minor flaws he took to get his special abilities]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard ruin all his chances to survive]] (his hemophilia makes him take even more damage, he can't be revived, Baze dies with him because of their PsychicLink, etc.).]]

* Often a deciding factor in ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', where often the two fighters are more or less evenly matched from a technical standpoint, but one has more variety to their abilities, particularly when the specialization of the overspecialized one happens to be something the generalist knows how to counter (such as in [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] vs. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle]] vs. ComicBook/{{Raven}}) or the specialization is in something not particularly applicable to combat (such as in [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] vs. [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Peach]] and ComicBook/BlackWidow vs. [[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} Widowmaker]]). Special mention to [[VideoGame/MortalKombat Raiden]] versus [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Gaara]] versus [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Toph Beifong]], [[Manga/FairyTail Natsu Dragneel]] versus [[Manga/OnePiece Portgas D. Ace]], and [[WebAnimation/{{RWBY}} Weiss Schnee]] versus [[VideoGame/Persona3 Mitsuru Kirijo]], where Raiden, Gaara, Ace and Weiss were overly specialized in respectively electric, sand (earth), fire, and ice attacks in fights where both parties were more or less immune to their respective elements (and Raiden had a severe strength and durability disadvantage otherwise on top of it).

* In ''LetsPlay/SomethingAwfulDungeonsAndDragons'' Let's Play, Minerelle is a character who relies on her massive Arcana roll to accomplish as much as possible. As a result of this, she isn't particularly useful in situations where she can't just throw Arcana at a problem until something happens. She suffers a bit from overspecializing in combat as well, since most of her attacks target the enemy's Will defense (only getting the one that doesn't relatively late into the LP). As a result, whenever the party goes up against anything with an above average Will, she pretty much has no way to contribute to the battle.

* When the WebVideo/GameGrumps play ''[[Franchise/{{Gundam}} Gundam: Battle Assault 2]]'', Danny spends the whole game playing as Big Zam, a titanic mobile suit who Arin admits right from the start is overpowered ("Guess what your main attack is. ''Walking''.") He spends the whole video [[CurbStompBattle literally walking all over Arin]] when he's not also playing an overpowered boss-level mobile suit, until he finally gets behind Big Zam and makes short work of him while Danny's still trying to figure out how to ''turn around''.
* ''LetsPlay/{{Mahu}}'': In "Second Chance", that becomes one of the growing fears of the Galactic Commonwealth, as many of their planets focus only on one thing, needing the supplies and resources from the rest of the nation to properly function.

* Discussed in Jean Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series. Woolly mammoths, by becoming so specialized and adapted to such a narrow climate range, ensured they'd survive and exploit a unique niche on the dry, cold ice age tundra, but such specialization also meant that warmer, wetter climates would be utterly devastating. Furthermore, the Neanderthal Clan was in danger of becoming extinct because the men could not learn how to gather and cook food and the women could not learn how to make weapons and hunt, which was why they had to live together in groups. A lone Neanderthal was a dead Neanderthal.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' novel ''Literature/ProvenGuilty'', Daniel escapes from Hammerhands by climbing into the treehouse, figuring his handless pursuer can't follow him up a ladder.
** This is one of the reasons why Harry was able to defeat [[spoiler:Hannah Ascher]] in ''Literature/SkinGame'' even though [[spoiler:she is far better than Harry with fire magic. While she is strong and having her magic capabilities buffed by Lasciel she is both inexperienced and is, most importantly, only thinking [[AttackAttackAttack offensively]]]]. This is in [[{{Foil}} contrast]] to Harry, who is both experienced in magical combat ''and'' experienced in fighting both offensively and defensively which means he is able to [[spoiler:block and redirect Hannah's magic towards the roof of the cave, resulting in several tons of rock falling on top of her]]. This is partially subverted in that Harry is explicitly stated to have more raw power than Hannah Ascher, her inexperience and overspecialization creates a problem for her only because they're fighting indoors and she's throwing around crazy amounts of fire. Harry beats her by taking advantage of that but he also demonstrates that he can just blast her out of his way with magical brute force.
** Also in ''Literature/SkinGame'', Harry explicitly calls [[spoiler:Binder]] a one-trick pony. He has the ability to to summon a number of identical demons referred to as "Suits" from the Nevernever. They're smart enough to follow orders and use firearms, so they're very handy when you need some backup, but it's the only thing he has in his arsenal, magically speaking, so he's not much of a match for a proper Wizard in a fight.
* In ''The Book of Five Rings'', UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi criticizes at great length schools who teach only one weapon, or whose style relies on the use of a specific weapon. This overemphasis leaves the fighter unable to use the most advantageous weapon(s) available for the circumstances. He even discouraged over-reliance on the [[DualWielding nitouken]] form, which he had formulated.
* In ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'', the eponymous character goes up against an opponent with ridiculously overdeveloped fire magic. After that opponent fell into a river during the fight and ''literally dissolved'' due to an extreme weakness to water, Pleasant explains to the protagonist that becoming strong in one area of magic necessitates a corresponding weakness to its opposite. Could also count as a case of ElementalRockPaperScissors.
* The Tanith First-And-Only of ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'' are '''scarily''' effective in their specialties of stealth, scouting, and infiltration, with the events of ''Traitor General'' being the most comprehensive example of their skill. Unfortunately the Imperial Guard mostly just [[WeHaveReserves throws people in the meat grinder]] and hope they come out with fewer casualties than the enemy, with the Ghosts frequently getting slaughtered. This is most apparent in the trench warfare in ''Straight Silver'', and the siege battle in ''Only In Death''.
* Three examples from ''Literature/TheElenium'' and ''Literature/TheTamuli'' by David Eddings:
** When the Zemochs first encountered The Church Knights and their heavy armor in combat, they didn't understand that the purpose of it was protection; they simply knew it made the enemy look fearsome, so they made their own armors with serrated blades and other imposing-looking additions. This caused two problems: it still didn't provide any protection, and all the protrusions served to help ''guide'' weapons to vulnerable spots.
** In ''Literature/TheSapphireRose'' when the hero's party are approaching the villain's stronghold, they come across a rank of warriors in armor in formation. Upon engaging them, they figure out that they're actually animated suits of armor and are scarily effective at combat, but never break formation, leading them to figure out that they've been enchanted to guard ''the flagstone they're standing on''. One careful trip through and one errant shove to send the armors into each other and the way was clear.
** In ''The Tamuli'', the Cyrgai were a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy proud warrior race]] that pretty much stomped everyone they came across until they ran into [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards the Styrics]], who soundly defeated them and then cursed their land so that any Cyrgai who left their borders would die. The Cyrgai had access to half-breeds that got around this limitation, and the leaders ordered their soldiers to focus on producing more of them, which they did...to the exclusion of producing more of their own. Their women were too old to bear children by the time this was figured out, leading to them having ''bred themselves out of existence'' if not for divine intervention.
* A number of the superpowers in ''Literature/WildCards'' count. Even aces and jokers who get really useful powers often find that there's only so many situations they actually use them.
** Veronica, who has the power to induce crippling fear and weakness in men... but ''only'' in men. Cue her getting the shit kicked out of her by a female supervillain who's also a trained fighter.
** Sewer Jack is a shapeshifter. A shapeshifter who only has one other form. Said form is the form of a big alligator. He doesn't find many uses for his power beyond swimming and biting things.
* A North-Going Zax and a South-Going Zax meet head-on in the story "The Zax" from "Sneetches and Other Stories" by Creator/DrSeuss. Since both stubbornly refuse to take even a single step to the East or West, both are still stuck in place at the end of the story, which is at least long enough for a highway overpass to be built over them.
* Benedikt of ''[[Literature/{{Quarters}} The Quartered Sea]]'' is the best damn [[MagicMusic Singer]] of [[ElementalPowers water]] in all of Shkoder, but he can't sing any other quarter at all, which has severely hampered his career and left him socially isolated from his fellow bards. But it makes him a natural choice as a crew member for a seagoing exploration ship.
* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'':
** Every individual Order of the Knights Radiant had its own role, and stepping too far outside that role could cause them to lose their powers. In ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'', Kaladin wants to punish Amaram (and to a lesser extent Sadeas), but Syl repeatedly points out that Windrunners protect the innocent--punishing the guilty is a job for a Skybreaker. Unfortunately, there aren't any Skybreakers around, so Kaladin keeps trying to find ways to justify striking back, both to himself and to Syl. This limitation comes from the fact that Radiant powers are directly tied to maintaining oaths made when powering up. The Windrunner oath to "Protect even those I hate" is directly at odds with punishing those who deserve it.
** When the world was still fighting [[OurDemonsAreDifferent the Voidbringers]] on a regular basis, every nation had a specific role it played in the conflict. The Voidbringers have been gone for over four thousand years now, and the nations have stopped cooperating with each other, but they have still largely retained their historical roles, even though this causes them problems without the support of other countries. Alethkar is the nation of soldiers, so their first thought is always war and combat. When Dalinar discovers that he has a Knight Radiant with HealingHands, it takes him a while to realize that he can be used to heal the sick and injured. He had assumed that ability was only useful for helping soldiers get back on their feet in the middle of a fight.
** On an even larger level, Roshar's entire ecosystem and architectural culture is built around the [[WeirdWeather Highstorms]] that regularly blow through the land, east-to-west; most structures are triangle-shaped with a point aimed east to reduce wind drag. When [[HostileWeather the Everstorm]] is summoned, it blows ''the opposite way'', west-to-east, and a world designed with the idea of storms coming from the east gets utterly eviscerated.
* Ronnie Cheung of ''Literature/TheGoneAwayWorld'' stops ''just'' short of this trope:
-->Ronnie had made a choice about how far down the road of becoming a human killing machine he was prepared to go, and allowing his training to warp his body to the point where he was in some measure ''only'' suited to that task was exactly where he drew the line.
** The narrator notes this when he discovers that [[spoiler:Humbert Pestle]] did ''not'' stop short of this trope. Unfortunately, he discovers this when [[spoiler:Pestle]] attacks him, so it's not as helpful as it might be.
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', Katniss notes that while Careers are bred and trained for the actual combat, which is why they have a disproportionate number of victories, their FatalFlaw is that they are completely incapable of surviving without supplies, almost always losing when the supplies at Cornucopia are destroyed. [[spoiler:Naturally, Katniss decides to use this fact to her advantage and does the same.]]
* In Creator/SimonRGreen's ''Literature/DownAmongTheDeadMen'', Giles Dancer is a Blademaster: a warrior so incredibly skilled with a broadsword as to be nigh-unbeatable in melee combat. He's also incapable of laying out his own bedroll, saddling his own horse, or cooking anything more complex than cheese on crackers.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheDeadPast": Nimmo used to give his nephew, Foster, lectures on how studying one specific field of science has made for a culture of narrow focus, praising the idea of being a science writer (like him), because it means you must [[JackOfAllTrades learn a bit of everything]]. Foster's counter to this idea is that such specialization is needed to advance in a field since there's too much to learn. The climax reveals that this overspecialization was a deliberate effort on the part of the [[OneWorldOrder world government]] to make suppressing certain fields easier.
* ''Literature/{{Domina}}'': The [=McDowell=] gun company is known for absolutely ''bizarre'' design decisions, such as a collapsible sniper rifle with the stopping power of a BB gun, a pistol with enough recoil to break the shooter's arms, and a shotgun designed for firing rockets. The original owners are referred to as crazy by absolutely everyone, even their surviving heirs. However, their weapons have apparently found popularity among monster slayers, who often find a niche where they are useful.
* The old Franchise/StarWars [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends expanded universe]] featured several styles of lightsaber combat that tended to overspecialize in one area at the expense of others. For example, the lightsaber form Soresu was purely defensive, with virtually no built-in attacking or offensive moves. While this gave the Soresu user a nearly unbreakable defense, it also gave them no real means of actually winning a fight and in some cases, it was "merely delaying the inevitable" as one character described it. Other forms are similarly overspecialized, like the Makashi form, which focused on finesse, precision, and speed at the expense of strength and power, as well as focusing on dueling at the expense of defence against blasters. Or the Djem So and Juyo forms, both of which focus on strength, offense and raw power at the expense of defense.
* Shalsha of ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesForThreeHundredYearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' learns a spell than can utterly destroy the ''grossly'' overpowered protagonist, Azusa, the Witch of the Plateu. Problem is, [[spoiler:it only works on Azusa specifically, is useless against any other target, and she hasn't had the time nor the skill to learn any ''other'' spells]].
* ''Literature/CradleSeries'':
** The Sacred Valley tests children to determine their affinity for sacred arts, and then they train only in those types of arts their entire lives. Yerin says she'd like to kill all the elders in the Valley for that garbage. In the outside world, you're considered a child if you haven't mastered techniques from all the types.
** The Blackflame royal family cultivated Iron bodies that would improve the already incredible offensive power of the Blackflame Path. This backfired as the flames ate away at their minds and bodies; in a world where a sacred artist can still be in fighting shape at age one hundred, they were practically paralyzed at age sixty. [[spoiler:Part of the reason Eithan gave Lindon an Iron body with such an overpowered HealingFactor was to handle the black flames]].
** Pure madra, the kind everyone is born with, is highly effective at disrupting other forms of madra… but can't be used for anything else, which is why almost everyone aligns their madra to a Path almost as soon as they can walk.
* This is a point in the central premise of the Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote franchise. The main cast were sent to a special class in their CramSchool for learning issues, with three of them falling into this trope: Aya is good in languages, but she can't go much further (especially math), while Uesugi and Kozaka are TeenGenius-level good in math and biology respectively, but are bad in Japanese.

* Multiple ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' fanfics, most notably ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5166693/1/Scorpion-s-Disciple Scorpion's Disciple]]'', have pointed out Sasori's reliance on poisoned weapons as this by having him fight someone completely immune to poisons (generally Orochimaru or Naruto). Whether he lives to learn from such a weakness however varies from story to story.

* In ''FanFic/{{Horseshoes and Hand Grenades}}'', Sonada's fight against Ohsugi had her use her ponytail (which acted like a poisonous scorpion stinger) to attack. However, Ohsugi's weapons--a finned glove and slippers glued to craft foam) was upgraded by Nadeshiko and SOLU and once he uses them to remove the ponytail, it was all too easy for Ohsugi to punch her lights out.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13259409/6/Once-More-Unto-the-Sky-Dear-Friends Once More Unto the Sky, Dear Friends]]'', when Hiccup and the other Dragon Riders find themselves back in their teenage bodies at the beginning of the first film, Hiccup muses that Berk at this time is so focused on defending themselves against dragons that it’s embarrassingly easy for humans to get to the dragon training arena without being spotted.

* You know how Hayate's mentioned about in Anime and Manga? This comes back to bite her in the ass in ''FanFic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'': since she's no good in close quarters single combat, [[Anime/SailorMoon Queen Beryl]] easily [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] her and steals the Jewel Seeds Hayate was holding.

* Invoked in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' fic ''Fanfic/BonneFoi'' when [[spoiler:Edward kills Jane in the final confrontation; with Bella protecting Edward from Jane’s powers, Jane is revealed to have virtually no experience at hand-to-hand combat, being totally dependent on her abilities to stop other vampires]].

* The Italian remake of ''FanFic/BattleFantasiaProject'' has the Invaders, powerful aliens whose physiology makes using explosions and fire against them worse than useless, as they ''multiply'' ([[AllThereInTheManual production notes]] state it's the reason nobody just [[NukeEm nuked them]]: many would die due the overpressure, but the multiplication would end with them being more numerous than before). On the other hand, their physiology offers no protection against magical attacks or even simple kinetic energy, meaning that, when fighting a competent human army, they are [[CurbStompBattle massacred by bullets, frag grenades, high-explosive shells detonated high enough they are hit only by the high-speed fragments, canister shots, and]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill thermobaric weapons detonated high enough they are only hit by the overpressure]], and a competent magical girl can take on large numbers of them (in fact their first attack was defeated by ''one single magical girl'').





















* In ''Fanfic/AmbitionOfTheRedPrincess'', WordOfGod states that Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Ren are hampered by both having just enough knowledge of the world they're summoned to that they don't seek out more information but also how they gained said knowledge. They all dismiss the idea of a tank like Naofumi being useful because of the games they played in their own worlds[[note]]Ren played an Action RPG that encourages stealth, Itsuki only played single-player games and thus doesn't understand group raids, and Motoyasu was a casual who used gaming to have online dates.[[/note]].

* In ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'', the Jor-El hologram describes Zod as suffering from this, as Zod is automatically thinking of the repopulation of Krypton in terms of a military operation where he has to conquer territory and defeat an ‘enemy’ because he’s psychologically incapable of considering alternative diplomatic methods.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12290311/9/The-Black-Emperor The Black Emperor]]'' Nina lampshades that the Guren Mk. II relies so heavily on it's Radiant Wave Surger that said weapon getting damaged would cripple the machine.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/16267331/chapters/38238377#workskin Black Hole Heart]]'', like all Inuzuka, Kiba relies heavily on his partner as part of his fighting style with some of his techniques being outright impossible to do alone. When Naruto scares Akamaru into submission, Kiba's left fighting at less than half strength.

* Ash eventually realizes his team is too specialized in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11803928/23/Challenger Challenger]]'' on both a whole and individual basis. On the whole, while he has a Pokémon of almost every type, he also doesn't have more than one of pretty much any of them, even though some might not be suited for certain situations. For example, his Charizard is a great flyer but much clumsier on land while also being his only fire type. On an individual basis, almost all of Ash's Pokémon are either UnskilledButStrong or WeakButSkilled and he's learned the hard way that neither cuts it once a trainer reaches a certain point.


* ''Fanfic/CodeGeassThePreparedRebellion'':
** Lelouch notes that Rakshata's Knightmares tend to be focused on close-quarters combat with little ranged weaponry.
** Desmond's Geass, rendering everyone in a given area asleep (or even comatose), is almost perfect for assassination missions with its only real drawbacks being that he can only affect one area at a time and sometimes it leaves him blind in one eye or deaf in one ear. But because it's so perfect for assassinations, unlike Rolo, Desmond never developed his skills and his over-reliance on it causes him to struggle when dealing with any significant resistance.

* ''Fanfic/DekiruTheFusionHero'': This trope is actually discussed by Aizawa after Izuku goes through the Quirk Assessment Test without using Human Fusion and explains why to him (he regards it as a DangerousForbiddenTechnique and prefers not to use it unless absolutely necessary). Aizawa praises him for this because it shows he can be versatile with his Quirk, rather than a "one-trick pony" who could get potentially killed if there was no one around to fuse with. He further elaborates that if Izuku had used the technique in the middle of the test, Aizawa would've dispelled it and given him the same explanation (just not as nicely); if he had ''started out'' with using it, he would've been expelled on the spot, along with whichever friend that enabled him.

* The Hyuga clan in ''Fanfic/DestinyIsAHazyThing'' are completely incapable of using anything but their signature Gentle Fist style due to centuries of inbreeding (according to Daiki, except Hinata's maternal grandmother, no one in the clan has had children with anyone but another Hyuga in at least 300 years), leaving them vulnerable to anyone who can counter their style.


* Adrastia Zabini in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13034223/4/A-Discordant-Note A Discordant Note]]'' admits that after centuries of specializing, her magic is too geared towards sex and manipulation for her to be comfortable with anything else. Though part of it is her own choosing as she ''can'' spend the effort expanding her abilities but she's comfortable with her role and simply doesn't want to. The upside is that, when using her original wand which she'd wielded for centuries, her spells had become almost undetectable even when specifically checking with magic detection spells.
** The Dothraki are remarked as being near unmatched as light cavalry but have focused so heavily on it that on a battlefield unsuited for cavalry, such as mountain steppes, they're completely crippled as a fighting force.

* Torhu and Mineta in ''Fanfic/TheEmeraldPhoenix'' do the worst of everyone during the physical tests due to relying too heavily on their Quirks. Except for Mineta using his balls for the side-hop challenges, the two are among the worst performances on every test. Contrast, some like Camie also have Quirks useless for the tests but still do well through physical conditioning to make up for it.

* In ''Fanfic/ForLoveOfMagic'', the Unforgivables are useful against a single enemy (provided you hit them) but each one can only hit a single target and both the Cruciatus and Imperius curses require the caster maintain them and thus prevents them from casting other spells. Against more than a single enemy, only the Killing Curse has any actual use but only a little.

* [[OriginalCharacter Arjuna Belaji]] in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/12805206/chapters/30454362 Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce]]'' is established early on as TheAce when it comes to magical cooking. However, when challenges in the [=MagicChef=] competition forbid the use of magic, she struggles mightily. Likewise, Hermione has far more difficulty in any course where simply memorizing the textbook won't suffice. She has an OhCrap moment when Professor Ramsay states that when it comes to NEWT level potions, textbooks are merely a crutch.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13175310/12/Hella-Potter-and-the-Reincarnated-OC Hella Potter and the Reincarnated OC]]'', Treowe leaves Hella tied up in the Room of Requirement with her wand apparently nearby to drive home how much she and other wizards overly rely on their wand. The wand was a fake, but she could have asked the room for any number of bladed instruments to cut herself free or a golem to do it for her. Likewise Hella could have used her Metamorphmagus abilities to shrink out of her bonds or called for Dobby to free her. But because she thought her wand was nearby, she wasted her entire hour trying to get to it, only to realize it was merely a stick shaped like her wand.

* Lampshaded in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5985329/3/I-Still-Say-it-Looks-like-a-Nail I Still Say it Looks like a Nail]]'' when [[Franchise/StargateVerse Anise]] claims to be invulnerable to physical damage while using a Goa'uld personal force field. Jack knows full well they only stop energy-based attacks or fast-moving objects; he once got around such a shield by walking through it and stabbing the Goa'uld using it.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Infinity}}'', Yuuno's defenses prove completely impenetrable to anything Tsukuyomi can throw at him (much like as against Vita, in the series), but his offensive abilities are too limited and weak to threaten her, either.
** [[spoiler:Lindy]], as you might have gathered from the fact that she [[spoiler:sealed the Garden of Time in the original anime]], specializes in sealing and energy manipulation, and can do very little with normal combat. [[spoiler:Chapter 25 demonstrates how little this matters when you have a plan and you are [[MamaBear very, very, angry at someone]].]]
** Hayate as well, [[UnskilledButStrong just like in the series]].

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12290211/14/Jaden-s-Harem-Return-of-the-Supreme-King Jaden's Harem: Return of the Supreme King]]'', [[GenderFlip Zana's]] deck revolves entirely around using Power Bond to summon Cyber End Dragon then winning before Power Bond's secondary effect activates[[note]]Power Bond allows a player to summon a Machine type fusion monster and double its original attack but during the end phase, inflicts damage equal to the summoned monster's original attack[[/note]]. If someone manages to prevent said combo, such as removing Power Bond from play, her deck is completely crippled.

* When the League of Shadows comes to kidnap the SelfInsert in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13064230/23/And-Now-Yet-Again-Still-Even-More-Fragments Legal Crimes]]'' because he knows the formula for SuperSpeed, their gear is specifically tailored for dealing with speedsters and he's recently given up his SuperSpeed for strength and durability. While they do catch him, they're stuck afterwards as he's now glued to a cement floor and they have no heavy machinery to move him.

* The biggest weakness of the [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Pangea Alliance]] in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' story ''FanFic/MesozoicEffect''. Their technology is several years beyond what the Council has, but all of their ships and defenses are designed to fight Reapers. They have serious problems trying to adjust their weapons and tactics for conventional battles.

* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13189446/1/More-than-Meets-the-Eye More than Meets the Eye]]'' invokes this as the reason [[spoiler:Misty defeats her ex-fiancé in the Whirl Cup; while he specifically prepared to fight Mega Gyarados with a Totem Araquanid that could take most of Gyarados's attacks and counter them, he was unprepared for her to borrow Ash's Greninja, who is able to evade the larger Pokémon's attacks and strike back with more evasive methods]].










* Izuku in ''[[http://www.hentai-foundry.com/stories/user/EvilFuzzy9/30241/A-Parable-of-Talents/93068/Chapter-1/Putting-D-in-Diligence A Parable of Talents]]'' is a fairly good fighter but focuses entirely on striking, leaving him vulnerable to grappling. Mina lampshades how ridiculous it is that Izuku would have to increase his SuperStrength to throw off the likes of Toga and Camie when both are girls who weigh less than he does.


* Jaune in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12854072/1/The-ProfessionARC The Profession ARC]]'' spent years as a Huntsman's apprentice, learning pretty much all there is to know about killing Grimm. Besides [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining having little real-world knowledge that doesn't revolve around killing Grimm]], Jaune struggles to fight human opponents. His teammates note times when he falls back to defend from a coming attack when it'd be smarter to push through, all because Jaune is used to fighting the far stronger but dumber Grimm.


* It starts out looking like this will be the case for one of the Angels in ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K'', as it tries and fails to use Eva-focused attacks like venomous spikes on Magnos Tancred (which is basically a tank with feet, and has none of the squishy biological components that were being targeted). [[spoiler:Then it [[MookMaker disgorges an army of relatively tiny monsters]], which kill two-thirds of Magnos Tancred's crew and begin slaughtering their way through Tokyo-3.]]

* Actively averted by the Genin teams in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin''. While each of the graduated teams in the Konoha Ninja Academy specializes in a specific area for missions, none of the teams fall into this when it comes to actual combat. Case in point, [[spoiler: Sasuke]] is placed in a team where every other member is a medic-nin.

* In ''FanFic/ATeachersGlory'' the Third Hokage's FatalFlaw is that he is better with jutsu and war than policy - a bad flaw for a political leader. Similarly, Hiashi and Neji both suffer during the invasion due to flaws in their fighting styles and mindsets.

* The emotions of ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' are great at making Riley express the emotions they represent... but are incapable of making her express other emotions. That's what the other four emotions are for. This becomes a problem when Joy and Sadness are away. The other three emotions attempt to cover for them but are completely incapable. On a larger note, the whole movie is about the ramifications of this. Joy is generally Riley's dominant emotion, to the point where she often [[InnocentlyInsensitive naively shoves the other emotions]], and especially Sadness, aside. Because she can only manifest one emotion, she tries to keep Riley happy even in upsetting situations, which doesn't allow Riley to process things like disappointment and loss. Joy's CharacterDevelopment across the movie involves realizing that the other emotions are equally important and allowing them to perform their proper roles, which in turn allows Riley to become more honest and function in a mentally healthy way.

* ''Film/BirdBox'': The creatures can drive anyone who looks upon them to suicide, but despite seemingly being physical beings, they can't so much as break a normal glass window to get to their prey.
* ''Film/TheReplacements2000'': Clifford Franklin has this problem. He has amazing speed, but terrible hands.

* In Creator/LewisCarroll's ''Literature/ThroughTheLookingGlass'', Humpty Dumpty is an expert on words and definitions, so much that he claims to be able to assign definitions to words and make them mean anything he pleases (literally). However, he seems to be very bad at math; when Alice tells him that 365 minus one equals 364, he asks her to do that out on paper so he can be sure. (Contrariwise, it could be Alice and the readers are ''wrong'' about the sum's total in a world running on dream logic. We don't get to find out.)
* Used in Creator/PhilipKDick's short story "The Variable Man": the eponymous man is a jack-of-all-trades tinker picked up from the past by scientists in a highly specialized future. They need him to fix something that no one has the specialization for.

* In ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' the overspecialised ships are frequently either laden down with defence shield generators ("I can't hurt you but you can't hurt me") or all weapon (frequently one ''big'' WaveMotionGun style weapon) and tend to accompany each other in large groups. The fleet flagship, ''Directrix'', is all combat-management and defence shields but never goes out and about without an englobing escort of [[MightyGlacier Maulers]].

* In the sci-fi book ''Literature/{{Matched}}'' this is one of the main tenets of the Society. Nobody learns anything but what they have to know, including of the past. The Society chose 100 of the best of everything from the past for everyone to know about. They also even extended this to choice, in that nobody should have to choose anything that they don't know about.
* ''Literature/MyDarkAndFearsomeQueen'': Thalia is a goddess of unimaginable power. The only catch is, to use her power she has to chant an incantation, and the more precision required, the longer the chant becomes. In a rapidly changing battlefield situation, she's practically useless unless you want to crush everything in a mile radius.

* Discussed in Jean Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series. Woolly mammoths, by becoming so specialized and adapted to such a narrow climate range, ensured they'd survive and exploit a unique niche on the dry, cold ice age tundra, but such specialization also meant that warmer, wetter climates would be utterly devastating. Furthermore, the Neanderthal Clan was in danger of becoming extinct because the men could not learn how to gather and cook food and the women could not learn how to make weapons and hunt, which was why they had to live together in groups. A lone Neanderthal was a dead Neanderthal.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'' contains the opinion that specialization is sub-human:
-->'''Lazarus Long''': "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' this appears to be one of the reasons the initial outbreak wipes out human armies, shown with the US Army specifically. Modern military thinking is no good against an enemy that can be neither shocked nor awed, and their standard tactics like targeting center of mass, dropping bombs, and setting targets on fire betray them. However, more detailed analyses by readers with actual military knowledge reveals that the zombies happen to be coated in PlotArmor, and Brooks {{nerf}}s standard weapons against them. Also, he has the military hold off on weapons that can effectively turn most squishy targets to paste from miles away until the Zacks are in visual range. Not to mention the military suddenly forgetting everything it knew about the Zacks from the black ops they mentioned, and not learning about their resistance to explosives from the Israelis either. The military also does a number of things that just ''stupid'', like setting up their fire base without making any attempt to secure it (and sure enough the entire area is infested). [[RuleOfDrama In reality]], the military would've rolled right over the Zacks.
* The ''Lancer''-class frigate from the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' was specifically designed as a counter to the starfighter-heavy Rebel Alliance/New Republic fleet. It's a 250-meter ship [[BeamSpam bristling with laser cannons]], intended as a flak boat to protect other capital ships. Unfortunately, in addition to being [[AwesomeButImpractical too expensive and manpower-intensive]], it had no heavy weaponry for fending off capital ships, so most admirals eschewed it in favor of expendable TIE screens.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** This is Aginor/Osan'gar's main obstacle towards being an effective villain. As a [[FunctionalMagic channeler]] he's overwhelmingly powerful (among the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Forsaken]] he's behind only [[TheDragon Ishamael]] and maybe [[TheStarscream Lanfear]]), but he's really only good at doing one thing- using {{magitek}} to [[EvilutionaryBiologist make monsters]]. Problem is that while this made him essential to the Shadow in the Age of Legends, in the [[AfterTheEnd modern world]] the necessary magitek no longer exists, and every time he's in a straight fight he tends to [[UnskilledButStrong attack a lot]] ineffectively before getting [[CurbStompBattle curbstomped]]. He ends up dying having been one of the least effective Forsaken.
** {{Subverted|Trope}} by the minor character Androl Genhald. His talent at magic is very weak, with one exception: he can create larger [[TeleportersAndTransporters gateways]] than much stronger channelers could with ease. Many of the other magic-users mockingly name him "Pageboy" since all he's good for (that they know of) is carrying messages over long distances. However, this turns out to be an ''incredibly'' versatile skill with [[PortalCombat many offensive applications]]. Besides {{Tele Frag}}ging and {{Portal Cut}}ting enemies, being able to open a portal leading to a subterranean reservoir of pressurized magma with a thought is at least as useful as being able to cast {{Fireballs}}.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': Downplayed as the Nakano sisters' best subjects are still not great compared to Fuutarou's, revealed in Chapter 20, the girls individually passed:
** Ichika's strongest subject is Maths.
** Nino's strongest subject is English.
** Miku's strongest subject is Social Studies, due to her interest in historical generals from playing an online game.
** Yotsuba's strongest subject is Japanese, though she claims that she guessed some of the answers.
** Itsuki's strongest subject is Science.
* In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', this happens during a tournament arc when [[BigBad Hisoka]] fights an opponent who had a grudge against him, Kastro. Kastro had basically dedicated himself to mastering a nen technique that was so absurdly complex that it left him completely unable to use any other nen techniques, and even limited his ability to learn other non-nen based techniques, so that the opponent only had one (admittedly pretty strong) martial arts move. Worse, once this ability [[spoiler:Doppleganger]] was dispelled, Kastro is completely powerless.
** Kurapika is a victim of this as well. He mastered both the use of nen and special abilities insanely quickly, but tailored his offensive abilities towards fighting the Phantom Troupe and can't use them on anyone else. If he does he'll die. Fortunately, Kurapika has a mix of non-offensive skills and abilities to work around this limitation.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': Several [[{{Robeast}} Mechanical Beasts]] had a fighting style entirely based on the weapon or device they were equipped with, and when they lost it, the battle was finished shortly after (even though they usually tried to put up a good fight). Jinray S1 (episode 24) best weapon was its amazing flight speed (Match 5!) that it used to dive at its enemy, striking it with lightning bolts and missiles and fleeing away. Since it could hit him and and run away before he could even spot it, Kouji got a very hard time... until he blew up one of its rockets. Unable to perform its hit-and-run tactics, Jinray was helpless. Holzon V3 (Episode 17) was armed with huge [[ThisIsADrill drills]] to burrow underground and set off earthquakes, making it deadly... unless you forced it to return to surface, where it was a crappy fighter. Kajimofu T7 (episode 48) combined both its [[HandBlast palm blasts]] and its missile launcher to hit its adversary. It was a very efective, destructive tactic... but when [[ActionGirl Sayaka]] and [[ButtMonkey Boss]] ripped its arms off, the battle was over because its missile launcher was not strong enough on its own.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Members of most clans seem to suffer from this, as they tend to ''only'' use the clan's signature techniques even when they could learn others. Plus their specialization can be found out just by knowing their last name. Teamwork is greatly stressed and teams typically consist of 4 people from different clans or backgrounds, so the "crippling" part is usually guarded against, though they tend to have a specialised theme (eg. Team Gai are all Taijustu types, but different types of Taijutsu; Team Kurenai / 8 specialize in tracking, but different types of tracking, etc.). It is also not uncommon for different teams to work together, or for members to join other teams temporarily.
** Subverted by the Uchiha clan. Though played straight at beginning levels, where the abilities their Sharingan gives them (move copying, enhanced perception) can only go so far, once they reach a certain point and unlock its evolution, the Mangekyo Sharingan, they've basically won the SuperpowerLottery. And in the unlikely event that the Mangekyo doesn't get the job done there's a whole other level, [[spoiler:the Rinnegan]], which puts the user above basically everything else in the universe, up to and including various {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.
** The Senju deserve a special mention as a subversion, as according to [[AllThereInTheManual Sha no Sho]], they've received the [[RedBaron nickname]] "The clan with a thousand skills".
** Possibly also subverted by the Aburame clan--while they indeed only have a handful of jutsu, the main jutsu is basically the ability to control a swarm of chakra-eating bugs, which is actually extremely versatile and effective, so a lot less crippling overall. Too bad Shino doesn't get more screentime.
** The Raikage is this in spades. He uses taijutsu and focuses on melee combat using his high speed and strength to overwhelm the enemy. We see that when he tosses Sasuke around like a ragdoll. However, he tries to do the same against the ''much'' stronger [[spoiler:Madara Uchiha... and it doesn't work too well]]. He has no long ranged jutsus at all, or even summoning, bunshins displayed, or anything to make up for his style's weaknesses. Thus, he's the only Kage [[spoiler:to under perform in the War. Especially against Madara, since he needs Onoki's help to even breach Madara's Susano'o]].
** Similarly Rock Lee uses taijutsu but that's because he can't do anything else, to top it off he doesn't bring any weapon and so he relies exclusively on hand-to-hand combat. This is a world where some people can kill you by staring or can burn you if you touch them so it's kind of a problem for a ninja.
** Hidan of the Akatsuki is immortal, which should make him powerful, but it doesn't. He only has one real power, which requires him to ingest someone's blood after cutting them, then create a ritual circle, stand in it, and he becomes a living voodoo doll for that person. He uses it to kill Asuma. Once this technique is analyzed, there are a few weaknesses. If Hidan is removed from the circle, the effect ends. Furthermore, while immortal, he can be chopped up to remove the threat he poses. Finally, he has to attack someone with melee in order for the technique to work. A user of long ranged combat who is powerful enough to disable him will have no problem doing so.
** [[MusicalAssassin Tayuya's]] powers themselves were fairly versatile: creating illusions and controlling summoned demons with music. But she still suffered from this as she didn't carry a single tool (not even a kunai) besides her flute, which she needs to craft her illusions. So of course the moment her flute is lost or damaged she's pretty much screwed. It doesn't help that she ends up fighting against [[BlowYouAway Temari]], whose fan completely repels the sounds of her flute. Tayuya outright calls Temari her natural enemy for that reason.
** Doto and his snow ninjas, the villains of the first movie. They have special chakra-armor, small devices that deflect or negate chakra based attacks. This renders many of the team's attacks useless but in the finale Kakashi points out the big hole in the logic of the chakra-armor: it protects against chakra attacks but does to nothing to protect from normal ''physical attacks''. He then exploits this to defeat TheDragon by piledriving the guy off a small cliff headfirst. If his armor was better it might have protected him from the impact but because his armor was so specialized against chakra, [[RealityEnsues he gets killed by the fall]].
* ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'': Hawaii champion Jessie Mavia had this problem. He was absolutely unrivaled in his ability to counter and reverse attacks, but as a result had no original techniques of his own. Kinnikuman achieved victory in his fight by realizing this, [[IShallTauntYou goading Jessie into attacking him]], and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard hoisting him by his own petard]].
* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': [[TheHero Seiya's]] master, Marin, taught her disciple this "If you meet someone stronger than you, attacks his best weapon. If he punches hard, aim for his arms. If he kicks strong, aim for his legs. After you destroy it, you will be able to win with no trouble." Early on the series, Seiya met Bear Geki, a warrior had focused his training in reinforcing his arms to the point of he could easily throtle ''grizzly bears''. As soon as Seiya managed breaking his arms, Geki was defenseless and the battle was over.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'': [[AllThereInTheManual According to the backstory]], when Zeon was developing a machine to match the Gundam, their choices were the Gelgoog and the Gyan. The Gyan was melee-focused, armed with a beam sword and a shield full of mini-missiles and short-range bombs, and intended to work in concert with the Dom (which was, surprise surprise, manufactured by the same company). This extreme focus caused it to lose out to the more self-sufficient Gelgoog, which had both a melee weapon and a beam rifle as powerful as the Gundam's, meaning only three Gyans were ever made, and one shows up as a MonsterOfTheWeek while Gelgoogs appear as {{Mooks}} from that point on.
*** The Gelgoog, in turn, added its own overspecialization. It was designed to [[AcePilot Char Aznable's]] own standards, as Zeon's most influential ace. This meant that anyone who wasn't as skilled as Char couldn't make a Gelgoog work the way it should. A lot of pilots died to technically-inferior opponents as a result.
** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' the Buster Gundam was a purely ranged suit with no close-range options, while the Duel Gundam is almost pure melee with very little ranged options (ZAFT corrected that quickly with the "Assault Shroud" MechaExpansionPack). Interestingly, the Strike Gundam manages to be both this and JackOfAllStats since it can change its loadout; in Sword Strike mode, the closest thing it has to a ranged weapon are beam boomerangs and rocket-propelled anchors which can draw a target into closer range, while in Launcher Strike mode it has the same problem as the Buster, its only close-range weapons being a small pair of barely-used daggers. Most other suits, despite having clear specialty, manage to avert this, and the five Gundams were meant to operate as a team to cover for their individual weaknesses.
** ''[[Manga/MobileSuitCrossboneGundam Crossbone Gundam]]'' has [[TheEmpire the Jupiter Empire]] try to counter the eponymous Gundams with a trio of [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] that excel in one area exactly: the Quavarze is a GlassCannon, the Abijo a FragileSpeedster, and the Tortuga a StoneWall. This comes back to bite them when [[TheHero Tobia]] manages to circumvent their advantages and exploit their weaknesses (grabbing the Abijo so it can't dodge his attacks, attacking the Tortuga in the joints where its thick armor and beam shield can't protect it). Earlier on, [[AcePilot Kincaid Nau]] bests the trio in a similar manner (not dodging the weak attacks of the Abijo, closing range on the Quavarze, and flanking the Tortuga before it can deploy its shield). With a Gundam whose arms had already been sliced off.
** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' the Sadalsuud's unwieldy nature made it useless for anything other than long range combat and even then only as a sensor. The Abul Hool literally ''had no arms'' and had to make do with its quasi-jet mode.
*** The units used by the Innovades also have a habit of being like this. The Gadessa has no real ranged weapon other than the Mega-launcher. When it gets blown up, suddenly your opponent is a LOT harder to hit. The Garazzo is of no different in that it replaces the Mega Launcher with beam claws, leaving it without any effective ranged weapon ''ever''.
** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge Gundam AGE's]]'' Age-1 Titus. It overspecializes in strong melee attacks, but it is dropped off just a few episode after its debut because its heavy armor and lack of range weapons makes it unable to hit any faster unit in space combat.
** ''Manga/GundamSentinel'' has the [=FAZZ=] units, a trio of Mobile Suits designed to test out the Full Armor pack for the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ ZZ Gundam]]. Had plenty of ammo, but lacked any means to defend itself in melee range, which gets all three suits destroyed when they go up against the Gundam Mk. V.
** ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' meanwhile has the Correl. It's designed to be so fast that it can inflict DeathOfAThousandCuts on most enemy mobile suits it fights with a beam knife. On the other hand, it can't use any weapons ''other'' than said beam knife due to the speeds involved. Not to mention stripping off so much armor to achieve that maneuverability renders it very vulnerable to ''Vulcans.''
** ''Anime/GundamBuildFightersTry'' first gives us Team Angelfish, who is a team comprised of all marine Mobile Suits - a Z'Gok, a Gogg and an Zock. In the water, they're unstoppable. Yuuma wonders what they'd do if they went up against opponents in another terrain. [[spoiler:They'd self-destruct rather than get involved in a CurbStompBattle.]]
*** Then, there's Teams SRSC, who used three EZ-8s designed to combat the Build Burning, the Lightning and the Powered GM Cardigan. Their synergy is completely thrown off when Fumina brings out the Winning Gundam instead of the Cardigan as they had no information on it.
*** Ultimately Fumina's Winning Gundam and Yuuma's Lightning Gundam proved to be this. Winning Gundam is so focused on being the super-awesome support for the Lightning and Sekai's Build Burning that Fumina's never bothered to actively familiarize herself with her own weapons, making her crumble when forced to fight. The Lightning Gundam is a sniper unit, despite being based off of the [=Re-GZ=], and is also a manifestation of Yuuma's desire to keep others away from him, thus he crumples when others get close. The Star Winning and the Lightning Full Burnian fix these problems.
** ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'' has force Build Divers be the inversion as their team has a wide variety of Mobile Suits for any situation[[note]]00 Diver Ace/00 Sky as the melee unit, GM III Beam Master/Jegan Blast Master as long range support, Momokapool for underwater attacks, Galbaldy Rebake as the tank and heavy hitter and the RX-Zeromaru for stealth and random Newtype-y things[[/note]], which screams in defiance of other forces who uses themes. [[spoiler:The idea of basing a team around a theme is what ends team ''Le Chat Noir'', who was an all-SD Gundam team who had early success but lost it big time when people started learning their techniques and started crushing them.]]
** Subverted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing''. The Epyon is the only mobile suit without ''any'' ranged option whatsoever, perhaps the only one across the whole franchise. [[note]]It even lacks the machine guns used to shoot down incoming missiles, which is standard issue even for Mook Mobile Suits.[[/note]] This doesn't stop it from being the most powerful Mobile Suit of the series (tied with Wing Zero) thanks to [[CombatClairvoyance the Zero System]].
* ''Anime/RurouniKenshin'': Kenshin Himura is a master swordsman, but is hopeless at unarmed combat and often gets confused by enemy swordsmen that [[CombatPragmatist throw in punches or kicks between sword strikes]]. Less so in the anime. Averted by Saito Haijime, who fights entirely with varying types of stabbing, but is such an excellent swordsman that he doesn't need anything else. Saito is also an expert boxer and is willing to use other weapons like his ''belt''. In one of the last chapters of the manga Kenshin tells a member of the latest QuirkyMinibossSquad -- one who specialized in countering stabbing techniques but was defeated by Saito anyway -- that if defeating Saito's Gattotsu was enough to defeat Saito himself, Kenshin would have killed him years ago.
* Most ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' characters, but especially one shot practitioners of MartialArtsAndCrafts. There's really not THAT much call for the use of Martial Arts Chess, is there? Hilariously, Ranma often makes a point of adhering to their rules and restrictions just so he can learn their style properly, and then incorporate their strengths into his "Anything-Goes" school (based off averting this trope entirely), as well as the satisfaction of beating them at their own game. He only occasionally bends or breaks the rules after he learns what he's supposed to do.
* Early on in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', the explanation for Negi's need to [[ShipTease kiss]] girls in his class is to give them artifacts. Because a traditional mage is useless in unarmed combat and it takes time to cast and activate offensive magics. So they need a partner to defend them and distract the opposing forces. After a few fights where this was a problem for Negi, he learned kenpo. Evangeline explains that eventually any magic practitioner will reach a point where [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards it no longer matters]].
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** [[spoiler:Wonderwiess]] was made for the purpose of using this trope. Giving up speech, intelligence, memory and reasoning so as to have the ability to seal [[spoiler:Ryujinjakka's flames]].
** Several of his opponents thought this about [[BigBad Aizen]], believing that if he didn't use his [[MasterOfIllusion sword's powers]], he'd be easier to take down. [[CurbStompBattle He quickly proves them wrong.]]
** Soifon is a downplayed example in the second FillerArc. The inexperienced Ichigo manages to hold her off without too much trouble until she drops her sword and switches to hand-to-hand combat and utterly schools him.
* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', Zenitsu Agatsuma is a demon hunter who fights under the Breath of Thunder discipline; the art has 6 forms but Zenitsu only managed to learn one, the very first and basic form, but this very one he learned got honed by him to absolute master level, to the point he developed phases for it: Thunderclap Flash --> Six-Fold --> Eight-Fold --> God Speed.
* ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'': Monta, the Deimon wide receiver, is only good at catching. This makes him bad at his original favorite sport, baseball, but good at American football. Sena is dazzlingly fast, but had no strength to push another in power games. Takami, thanks to his build and training, is a quarterback with precise and high- altitude pass, but thanks to injury in his legs, can't move quick enough to avoid sacking. Kurita is [[MightyGlacier obscenely strong and unmovable, but also can't run to save his life]]. And Yukimitsu, all that he had is [[AwesomenessByAnalysis ability to deduce possible pass route on the fly]] and [[{{Determinator}} sheer determination]], and [[WeakButSkilled that's all]]. Fortunately, the team is directed by a psychotic genius who knows exactly how to make all the specializations form a coherent, powerful whole.

* All the characters in ''Manga/FairyTail'' have one type of magic that they use, and frequently run into opponents with powers custom tailored to trump that one specific magic, most notably one of the Vanish Brothers, whose power was to nullify fire magic, and he just happened to have been fighting the fire mage. Or Yuta, who can nullify magic, but only one type at a time. Only a few mages show spells outside the speciality, such as Ultear who possesses two schools of magic or the Thunder God tribe who possess eye magic aside from their main magics, though many mages do make up for lack of magic variety with hand-to-hand skill, weapons like Lucy's whip, or [[MasterOfOneMagic using their magic in unorthodox ways]]. Erza is a subversion, since while she uses one type of magic, her magic involves changing her armor and weapons to suit the situation.
* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikerS'':
** Nanoha's training of the forwards doubly subverts this. First Nanoha aims the training to sharpen each member on their own unique abilities to the edge, but avoided the "crippling" part by also reinforcing their teamwork tactics in order to cover each other's weaknesses. Then, she reveals that the "overspecialization" part of the training only covers phase 1-2, and once they dominated their main abilities Nanoha proceeds to balance them by giving them experience and alt-modes for their [[EmpathicWeapon devices]] that allow them to face battle conditions outside of their main area of expertise by themselves.
** Hayate, meanwhile, plays this trope straight. She's the resident [[PersonOfMassDestruction nuke-girl]] of the TSAB, evidenced by the fact that they send out evacuation warnings whenever she takes to the battlefield. The only problem with this is that she cannot use any spell other than nuke level ones and she needs assistance to aim said spells. She even admits that [[WhiteMage Caro]] would beat her in singles combat even without said girl's dragons because she was trained by Nanoha.

* Happened to Ash in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''.
** Even though Grotle still won at times, it became absolutely pitiful when it was Torterra, having never won a single battle. Ash's team in the Sinnoh saga was mainly based on small, [[LightningBruiser fast Pokémon who can deliver hard hits, as well as take some too]]. But a [[StoneWall damn near immobile tank]] like Torterra was just not his style, and never really adapted to it.
** Ironically Kiawe of the ''Sun and Moon'' series was the other way round. When he was introduced, he had gained a comfort zone with his [[MightyGlacier Turtonator]] and Inferno Overdrive, leading to problems against opponents he couldn't just tank and use raw power on. He managed to rectify this as time went on however, learning Turtonator Shell Smash to give it a more nimble battle style and utilising other battlers like Marowak and his Ride Charizard to adapt to more head on tactics.
* ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos'':
** Ichika's IS is a close-ranged fighter, so in a ranged fight he has to dodge or absorb shots thrown at him until he can get close enough. Unless another IS user allows him to use their ranged weapons. Averted with Rin, who has a weapon that has some medium range capabilities.
** Laura's A.I.C. (Active Inertial Canceler) seems to nullify any attack thrown at her, but she has to stay focused on the attacker for it to work. So if someone else shoots her from behind...
** Cecilia's IS is designed solely for long ranged combat, so if an attacker can close the distance before she can take them out, she usually seems screwed. Chifuyu also comments in one episode that she's also designed to take on multiple opponents, but in the anime at least, she only ever fights against one opponent at a time.
* Katsumi Morikawa, the resident ButtMonkey of ''Anime/CardfightVanguard''. He is a genuinely good player, but he is so obsessed with powerful Grade 3 monsters that his deck balance is ridiculously top-heavy.
* In ''Manga/{{The Lucifer And Biscuit Hammer}}'', several of the Beast Knights are somewhat overspecialized for their own good, usually on the scale and speed of the opponents they can fight. Yuki and Subaru need critical time to charge up and aim their CombinedEnergyAttack, and risk any enemy escaping or tearing into them before they can fire. Yuuhi's fighting style is highly mobile anti-personnel, limiting his ability to directly harm the golems [[spoiler:but making him perfect for taking down the other Knights]]. Hanako's [[AnIcePerson ice attacks]] rely on having a supply of water to hand, often only as much as she can carry. Fortunately, the other Knights cover for their limits and provide them the opportunities they need to bring their power into play.
* Sylphiel of ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' is an extremely skilled WhiteMagicianGirl, but has absolutely ''no'' talent for offensive magic. Her attempt to cast Flare Arrow produced a weak and PainfullySlowProjectile that was [[EpicFail shaped like a carrot]]. Later subverted when [[spoiler:she learns to cast ''[[UnholyNuke Dragon Slave]]'' of all things]].
* This is the premise of ''LightNovel/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob''. Raul was training to be a heroic knight to fight the demon lord. However, somebody else killed the demon lord before he had a chance. Raul's combat skills are impressive, but they can't pay the bills when the world is at peace, so he has to settle for an entry-level job as a store clerk.
* In ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'', angel weapons can only kill ghosts, demons, and angels. Against humans and zombies, they are about as effective as BB Guns or Nerf swords. They ''can'' kill humans and zombies if used indirectly, like when Panty shot a propane tank next to some zombies to make it explode.
* ''Manga/SilverSpoon'': Most of the students of Yezo High agricultural school have severely specialized knowledge relating to the jobs they wish to take as adults or the work their family does, on par with college students in their field. Just don't expect much with other subjects. Hachiken, as an academic JackOfAllTrades, often ends up having to tutor his friends but can also organize their disparate skill sets into a cohesive team. (When it comes to pizza, anyway.)
* Early in ''Manga/BakusouKyoudaiLetsAndGo'', the main characters' machines suffer from this on the competitive level: Magnum Saber is too fast and too light it can't take corners properly; Sonic Saber is good at tackling curves, but loses time on straights and zig-zagged roads; Spin Axe is only superior at chicanes; finally, Tridagger X dominates the straights, but it is too aggressive on cornering it slows down greatly.

* Mito of ''Manga/ShokugekiNoSoma'' is cripplingly overspecialised towards cooking meat. When compelled by cooking contest rules to present a ''don'' (rice bowl) her dish, while technically well executed, is disharmonious and overemphasises the expensive cut of meat used.
** Nene, on the other hand, can cook her recipes to perfection, but is incapable of tweaking them on the fly.
** Completely averted by Satou Soumei. He openly mocks the idea that his focus on sushi has made him incapable of cooking other dishes, and proves that his mastery of sushi has made him expert at combining the flavor profiles of rice, fish and accents in other contexts too. Even Soma, whose ability to cook by the seat of his pants is rapidly becoming the stuff of legend, is disconcerted at the quality of the dish he produces when asked to cook a Japanese-style seafood dish with ''butter'' as the key ingredient.
* ''Manga/{{Parasyte}}'': The parasite who killed [[spoiler:Shinichi's mother]] always goes for a OneHitKill by stabbing its enemies in the heart. When Jaw realizes this, he's quick to protect his host's heart in prevision and behead the enemy parasite from behind after playing dead.
* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'' has quite a lot of this, going in hand with AssassinOutclassin and ItOnlyWorksOnce. Once someone's full plan or main skills are revealed, it's easier for Koro-sensei and others to guard against them.
** Irina is a infiltration-assassin who seduces people to get close and then kill them. Once she's found out she's in trouble, as her combat skills aren't so good. Her former teacher even tries to have her removed from assignment in Class E once her cover is blown and she only managed to stay by subverting the trope at the last second, using her seduction on someone she knew it wouldn't work on to get his guard down about her trying something else. [[spoiler:Averted in the Island arc, as the kids were so used to her they did not expect a betrayal.]]
** Ritsu is an AI inside a terminal that has gun ports. She can reshape the guns and change their ammo and targeting as much as she wants, and her programming is good enough so that she gets better with each try at assassinating Koro-sensei, who is not allowed to impede her. She is defeated by the students wrapping duct tape around her terminal, forcing the gun ports to stay closed, because she was interrupting their studies.
** Itona is a human boy with tentacles that can match Koro-sensei's. But they take up so much brainpower that he cannot even compensate or an alteration in a plan on his own, requiring the aid of Shiro both in fully plotting an assassination and ordering him on what to do when his target does something unpredictable.
** Takaoka. From what's seen of him, it's clear he's a soldier, not an assassin. This makes him a poor teacher for Class 3-E, because their task is to assassinate Koro-sensei, not just kill him. Takaoka's TrainingFromHell would not just be ethically wrong but would also be pointlessly detrimental in the long-run, since assassination relies more on timing and wit than it does on skill and overall physical abilites (though the latter certainly is still important). This is perfectly displayed during his [[spoiler:first]] duel with Nagisa -- he views it as a fight, and thus is completely caught off-guard when Nagisa treats it as an assassination instead, which leads to his defeat. [[spoiler:This also helped Karasuma and Koro-sensei identify him as the mastermind of the Assassination Island arc: he had the assassins he hired work as lookouts and guards, hampering their effectiveness significantly as well as indicating to the former two that he wasn't an assassin]].
* Tokyo-3 and NERV HQ from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is a gigantic city with an even more gigantic and extensive bunker underneath it designed specifically for defending against attacks from Angels. However, ''The End Of Evangelion'' shows the one thing that NERV headquarters is utterly defenseless against: [[spoiler:Other humans. More specifically, a JSSDF invasion, who overtake the facility almost effortlessly]].
* ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'': The archangel Sariel has the power to [[AntiMagic nullify Sacred Energy]], making him quite a dangerous opponent to users of sacred power (i.e. Emi Yusa). Of course, it's ''only'' Sacred Energy he can nullify, meaning he's completely powerless against demons like Maou.
* In ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' Elites have specialized training and genetic modification so they can pilot Objects, but the regimen is designed for a specific Object. They cannot pilot any other type of Object which means if they are defeated in battle it could be years before an appropriate replacement becomes available. Milinda in particular has concerns early on due to being trained for the increasingly out-dated First Generation Objects.
** Second Generation Objects are designed to dominate a theater of action. Within that theater they have a massive advantage, but outside of it they are likely to be at a disadvantage to even a First Generation Object.
** The enemy support unit in the first Alaskan campaign relied almost entirely on their Object and radar installations. The entire unit consisted of armed technicians, lacking any tanks, planes, or even actual infantry. When their Object was destroyed the survivors were wiped out by Froleytia's tanks and infantry.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Yami Marik's deck is tailor-made for fighting Yugi and no one else, so duelists like Mai and Joey give him more trouble.
** Also invoked when Yugi faces the Rare Hunter who possesses Exodia; as Yugi observed, the Hunter's reliance on Exodia meant that he hadn't collected many other cards to use if Exodia wasn't an option, allowing Yugi to prevent his opponent playing certain cards so that the Hunter would only be able to use pieces of Exodia rather than the full set, allowing Yugi to take Exodia out by rendering certain cards useless. There's also the issue of having multiple copies of each Exodia piece in his deck; he can very easily end up with duplicate pieces in his hand.
** Odion uses a deck of almost entirely Trap cards that generally works very well for him. Its glaring weakness is trap removal and more specifically Jinzo, a monster that destroys any and all Trap cards. Unluckily for him, Joey happens to own Jinzo, as he finds out during their duel.
* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report'', Kuwabara is faced with a demon capable of copying opponents' KiManipulation, including his own [[LaserBlade reiki sword]]. Kuwabara pumps all his spirit energy into his sword so that the demon will do the same, then once they've both expended all their energy, the more physically capable Kuwabara puts him down with a simple haymaker.
* In ''LightNovel/LordMarksmanAndVanadis'', Tigre is one of the greatest archers in existence. With a bow and arrows, he's almost unstoppable. However, he ''only'' trained with a bow and has no skill in other weapons like swords.
* ''Manga/{{Nanbaka}}'' has its protagonist Jyugo, whose only real specialty is breaking out of prison, get a OneHitKO when facing Hajime early on. However, at that point in time he's already demonstrated this specialty includes breaking out of handcuffs, so [[{{Foreshadowing}} it seems odd]] that he still has some very obvious black shackles on. [[spoiler:The shackles in question turn him into a mindless murdering machine [[BladeBelowTheShoulder with blade arms]] once he's angered sufficiently, and Hajime can't stop him once he starts to rampage.]]

* Overcoming this is the main premise of ''Manga/WeNeverLearn''. Rizu Ogata, Fumino Furuhashi and Uruka Takemoto are all unrivaled geniuses in certain fields (maths and science for Rizu; literature and the arts for Fumino; and athletics, especially swimming, for Uruka). However, Rizu and Fumino have average to poor grades in their other subjects (ironically, their worst subjects are the other's best subjects), while Uruka has poor grades in ''all'' of her academic subjects. Additionally, Rizu and Fumino want to pursue careers in the fields that they're worst at (psychology and astronomy, respectively), while Uruka won't be able to get the athletics scholarship she wants due to her poor grades. This leaves the protagonist Nariyuki Yuiga in the position of tutoring them so they can attain their goals.
* All of the three female leads in ''LightNovel/KonoSuba'' suffer from this to some degree. Aqua is a goddess whose exorcism abilities make her a DiscOneNuke against undead, and ''only'' undead. She also has water magic at her disposal, but it only comes in two flavors: "Harmless party trick" and "Massive collateral damage." Darkness is strong enough to shatter rock and can tank pretty much any attack, but her swordsmanship is awful to the point of being incapable of hitting ''anything''. Megumin has it worst of all: She's a low-level wizard who's [[MinMaxing Min-Maxed]] to the point of being able to cast Explosion, one of the most powerful offensive spells. This is also the ''only'' spell she knows, and she's only capable of casting it once before collapsing in a defenseless heap due to it completely draining her energy. Explosion is also equally dangerous to both friend and foe and can't be cast underground or else it'll cause a cave-in (meaning she's completely useless in dungeons.) Unlike the others, Megumin's problem isn't that she can't expand her repertory of spells, she just doesn't ''want'' to. Whenever she has more skill points to spend, she just uses them to make her explosion even stronger. She's perfectly happy to be this way and any attempts to get her to do otherwise would get ignored.
* The Versian Kataphrakts in ''Anime/AldnoahZero'' are infinitely more advanced than the Earth's [[PunyEarthlings mechas]] and tend to appear completely unstoppable at first glance. However, they are {{Ace Custom}}s with very specific ability sets, so a crafty, analytic tactician can find and ruthlessly exploit [[AchillesHeel holes]] in their defenses and their combat style, which the Versians can't adapt their strategies in consequence because their mechs can't do anything but the very specific combat strategy they're built for.
* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'':
** Hitoshi Shinso's Quirk allows him to brainwash anyone who answers his question into following his every command. While this would obviously be a powerful ability for hero work (think hostage rescue, capturing enemies alive by making them surrender, etc.), the practical portion of the entrance exam involves fighting giant robots, something that Shinso's Quirk does jack shit against. This cost Shinso his shot at the hero course, something he is understandably bitter about.
** Lampshaded and defied by Gran Torino in his training of Midoriya. Torino started off his training by fighting against Midoriya, but stopped the fights after a few rounds, noting that if Midoriya only fought Torino, he could pick up tactics that work only against Torino, leaving Midoriya unprepared for fighting anyone else.
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', [[spoiler: the country of Marley]] is revealed to rely extensively on its use of Titans in military warfare. However, [[spoiler: the rest of world]] is now adapting to the Titans and developing weapons capable of defeating Titans. And when they go against [[spoiler: the improved Survey Corps]], they were quickly and utterly wrecked.
* Eosinophils in ''Manga/CellsAtWork'' excels at slaying parasites, but is completely incapable of slaying even a single bacterium (which appear in the body much more frequently). This is to the point that she's given AllOfTheOtherReindeer treatment by other body cells.
** This actually is TruthInTelevision for much of how cells in the body's immune system work. Most types of immune system cells are specialized for one or only a few specific tasks that they are very good at. Together they are very effective at protecting the body, but taking just one away can make the body extremely vulnerable, such as in people with AIDS. A few of the main examples:
*** Neutrophils are the body's equivalent of {{Mooks}} or RedShirtArmy as they have short lifespans but are the most numerous type of white blood cell. Their job is to clean up the remains of dead cells and kill bacteria and other small microbes by engulfing and digesting them.
*** Eosinophils are the heavy gunners that protect the body from things like parasites that are too large for other cells to effectively fight.
*** As part of the adaptive immune system, Killer T Cells and B Cells are actually produced for killing only one thing and being very good at it. They respond to one specific antigen and nothing else, so T and B cells produced to fight one disease won't affect a different disease. Killer T cells protect the body from viruses and cancer by destroying the body's own cells when it detects that antigen on them, while B cells produce antibodies that stick to the specific antigen in order to disable it, kill it, or simply mark it so other kinds of white blood cells can target it.
*** Natural Killer Cells also protect the body from viruses and cancer by destroying the body's own cells like Killer T Cells, but they use a different method of detecting bad cells. Instead of being created to only target one antigen, they look for cells that are missing antigens that healthy cells are supposed to have. So Killer T Cells and Natural Killer Cells complement each other by each detecting something the other can't

* A running theme in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has the protagonists being given extremely basic and thus highly adaptable Stand powers that can be adapted to almost any situation, whereas (minor) antagonists have powerful but specialized Stand powers and have no defense whatsoever if the heroes figure out how to avoid said powers. One notable example is Steely Dan from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', whose microscopic Stand 'Lovers' was capable of infiltrating Joseph's brain matter and slowly consuming his nervous system while also replicating any injury Dan suffered in Joseph, essentially holding him hostage and preventing the others from fighting. However, when Kakyoin and Polnareff manage to get Lovers out of Joseph's brain, Dan has pretty much no fighting ability whatsoever and folds like tissue paper before Star Platinum.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Monkey D. Luffy is basically unstoppable in a physical battle, since he combines SuperStrength and SuperToughness with inventively used RubberMan powers and [[{{Determinator}} being too determined to quit or die]]. But despite all this power, he's also [[DumbMuscle a complete idiot]], and in particular his fighting style is based on all-out offense. Correspondingly, he does very well against hordes of mooks or against single opponents who fail to measure up to him in the all-out brawling department... but he also does poorly against opponents who rely on trickery or who have powers that work in a way that Luffy can't just bull his way through. Prior to the time skip, Luffy was at his absolute worst when facing off against Devil Fruit users of the [[ElementalShapeshifter Logia]] type, since they were impervious to his basic attacks and he was forced to try and innovate his way around their defenses. This stopped being the case once Luffy learned to use [[BattleAura Armament Haki]], which enables him to hit through Devil Fruit defenses.

** The page image depicts villain Razorfist. He had both hands removed and replaced with blades to maximize his combat ability. He now needs servants to feed him and attend to his basic personal hygiene. Plus, every time he's arrested, the blades are replaced with prosthetic hands to which he's unable to adjust, as shown in an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Toxin}}''.

* Franchise/TheDCU:
** ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes villain Nemesis Kid has the power to [[ManOfKryptonite develop a power capable of countering any other person]]: for instance, if he were fighting Superman, he'd gain the ability to create Kryptonite radiation. However, he can only counter one person at a time, meaning if he fights two people at once, he either gains only one power, [[PhlebotinumBreakdown short-circuits]], or has to run for it. He also can't change the power he's chosen on the fly, which was what killed him: he was fighting the illusionist Princess Projectra and gave himself the power to see through illusions, at which she simply [[FightsLikeANormal used martial arts skills to beat him to death.]]
** The Brain suffered from this in ''JLA: Year One'', during a storyline that saw the post-''Crisis'' early Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} - consisting of Franchise/TheFlash, Franchise/GreenLantern, ComicBook/BlackCanary, ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and the ComicBook/MartianManhunter - and the ComicBook/DoomPatrol join forces to fight the Brotherhood of Evil after the Brain used advanced technology to take the Flash's legs, Black Canary's voice, the Manhunter's eyes and Green Lantern's right arm (and hence his ring) and graft them onto a body for himself; as Aquaman noted, despite having access to all those powers, the Brain still relied exclusively on the ring, which Aquaman noted was a key weakness as the Brain was unaware of the ring's time limitation and its vulnerability to yellow, to say nothing of his opponents' ability to work as a team.
** Ultra Boy, also of the Legion, has all of Superman's abilities, but can only use them one at a time. This puts him on par with Big Blue, but unless his chosen power is invulnerability, [[GlassCannon he's no tougher than an ordinary human]] (and if it is, then [[StoneWall he's got another problem]]).
** [[ComicBook/Batgirl2000 Cassandra Cain]], the second Batgirl, SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining; the language centers of her brain are dedicated to reading and processing human body language. This means she's [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower a phenomenal martial artist]], capable of reading a person's moves before they make them, but it leaves her brain wired wrong for any other kind of language, meaning she can barely speak and is even worse at reading. Several stories involve her roping civilians or less-skilled crimefighters into her cases simply because they involved reading at some point.
** ''ComicBook/RedRobin'' villain Recluse has replaced his fingers with implanted knife blades. While this makes it easy for him to cut people it does explain his lack of shirt: he literally can't put one on.

* It starts out looking like this will be the case for one of the Angels in ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K'', as it tries and fails to use Eva-focused attacks like venomous spikes on Magnos Tancred (which is basically a tank with feet, and has none of the squishy biological components that were being targeted). [[spoiler:Then it [[MookMaker disgorges an army of relatively tiny monsters]], which kill two-thirds of Magnos Tancred's crew and begin slaughtering their way through Tokyo-3.]]

* In ''FanFic/ATeachersGlory'' the Third Hokage's FatalFlaw is that he is better with jutsu and war than policy - a bad flaw for a political leader. Similarly, Hiashi and Neji both suffer during the invasion due to flaws in their fighting styles and mindsets.
* The biggest weakness of the [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Pangea Alliance]] in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' story ''FanFic/MesozoicEffect''. Their technology is several years beyond what the Council has, but all of their ships and defenses are designed to fight Reapers. They have serious problems trying to adjust their weapons and tactics for conventional battles.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Infinity}}'', Yuuno's defenses prove completely impenetrable to anything Tsukuyomi can throw at him (much like as against Vita, in the series), but his offensive abilities are too limited and weak to threaten her, either.
** [[spoiler:Lindy]], as you might have gathered from the fact that she [[spoiler:sealed the Garden of Time in the original anime]], specializes in sealing and energy manipulation, and can do very little with normal combat. [[spoiler:Chapter 25 demonstrates how little this matters when you have a plan and you are [[MamaBear very, very, angry at someone]].]]
** Hayate as well, [[UnskilledButStrong just like in the series]].
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2422891/10/The-Way-of-the-Apartment-Manager The Way of the Apartment Manager]]'', [[OriginalCharacter OC]] Yukiko is highly skilled with genjutsu for a mere genin, more so than most chuunin. However, she's so pathetic with ninjutsu that she can't even manage the easiest fire jutsu which is designed to function like a match. The best she usually manages is blowing unusually dry air. Meanwhile her temporary teammate Naga is a powerful taijutsu user who utterly demolishes a chuunin specializing in taijutsu but has no real skill in ninjutsu, genjutsu, weapon use, or strategy.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12290211/14/Jaden-s-Harem-Return-of-the-Supreme-King Jaden's Harem: Return of the Supreme King]]'', [[GenderFlip Zana's]] deck revolves entirely around using Power Bond to summon Cyber End Dragon then winning before Power Bond's secondary effect activates[[note]]Power Bond allows a player to summon a Machine type fusion monster and double its original attack but during the end phase, inflicts damage equal to the summoned monster's original attack[[/note]]. If someone manages to prevent said combo, such as removing Power Bond from play, her deck is completely crippled.
* In ''Fanfic/ForLoveOfMagic'', the Unforgivables are useful against a single enemy (provided you hit them) but each one can only hit a single target and both the Cruciatus and Imperius curses require the caster maintain them and thus prevents them from casting other spells. Against more than a single enemy, only the Killing Curse has any actual use but only a little.
* Actively averted by the Genin teams in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin''. While each of the graduated teams in the Konoha Ninja Academy specializes in a specific area for missions, none of the teams fall into this when it comes to actual combat. Case in point, [[spoiler: Sasuke]] is placed in a team where every other member is a medic-nin.
* Lampshaded in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5985329/3/I-Still-Say-it-Looks-like-a-Nail I Still Say it Looks like a Nail]]'' when [[Franchise/StargateVerse Anise]] claims to be invulnerable to physical damage while using a Goa'uld personal force field. Jack knows full well they only stop energy-based attacks or fast-moving objects; he once got around such a shield by walking through it and stabbing the Goa'uld using it.

* [[OriginalCharacter Arjuna Belaji]] in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/12805206/chapters/30454362 Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce]]'' is established early on as TheAce when it comes to magical cooking. However, when challenges in the [=MagicChef=] competition forbid the use of magic, she struggles mightily. Likewise, Hermione has far more difficulty in any course where simply memorizing the textbook won't suffice. She has an OhCrap moment when Professor Ramsay states that when it comes to NEWT level potions, textbooks are merely a crutch.
* Torhu and Mineta in ''Fanfic/TheEmeraldPhoenix'' do the worst of everyone during the physical tests due to relying too heavily on their Quirks. Except for Mineta using his balls for the side-hop challenges, the two are among the worst performances on every test. Contrast, some like Camie also have Quirks useless for the tests but still do well through physical conditioning to make up for it.
* Adrastia Zabini in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13034223/4/A-Discordant-Note A Discordant Note]]'' admits that after centuries of specializing, her magic is too geared towards sex and manipulation for her to be comfortable with anything else. Though part of it is her own choosing as she ''can'' spend the effort expanding her abilities but she's comfortable with her role and simply doesn't want to. The upside is that, when using her original wand which she'd wielded for centuries, her spells had become almost undetectable even when specifically checking with magic detection spells.
** The Dothraki are remarked as being near unmatched as light cavalry but have focused so heavily on it that on a battlefield unsuited for cavalry, such as mountain steppes, they're completely crippled as a fighting force.
* The Hyuga clan in ''Fanfic/DestinyIsAHazyThing'' are completely incapable of using anything but their signature Gentle Fist style due to centuries of inbreeding (according to Daiki, except Hinata's maternal grandmother, no one in the clan has had children with anyone but another Hyuga in at least 300 years), leaving them vulnerable to anyone who can counter their style.
* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13189446/1/More-than-Meets-the-Eye More than Meets the Eye]]'' invokes this as the reason [[spoiler:Misty defeats her ex-fiancé in the Whirl Cup; while he specifically prepared to fight Mega Gyarados with a Totem Araquanid that could take most of Gyarados's attacks and counter them, he was unprepared for her to borrow Ash's Greninja, who is able to evade the larger Pokémon's attacks and strike back with more evasive methods]].
* In ''Fanfic/ValkyrieOnFire'', it is often noted that Katniss relies so much on her archery skills that she's basically useless when she has to rely on hand-to-hand combat, although she learns enough from Glimmer in particular that she can at least hold her own for a few minutes so long as she has allies.
* In ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'', the Jor-El hologram describes Zod as suffering from this, as Zod is automatically thinking of the repopulation of Krypton in terms of a military operation where he has to conquer territory and defeat an ‘enemy’ because he’s psychologically incapable of considering alternative diplomatic methods.
* When the League of Shadows comes to kidnap the SelfInsert in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13064230/23/And-Now-Yet-Again-Still-Even-More-Fragments Legal Crimes]]'' because he knows the formula for SuperSpeed, their gear is specifically tailored for dealing with speedsters and he's recently given up his SuperSpeed for strength and durability. While they do catch him, they're stuck afterwards as he's now glued to a cement floor and they have no heavy machinery to move him.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12290311/9/The-Black-Emperor The Black Emperor]]'' Nina lampshades that the Guren Mk. II relies so heavily on it's Radiant Wave Surger that said weapon getting damaged would cripple the machine.

* Izuku in ''[[http://www.hentai-foundry.com/stories/user/EvilFuzzy9/30241/A-Parable-of-Talents/93068/Chapter-1/Putting-D-in-Diligence A Parable of Talents]]'' is a fairly good fighter but focuses entirely on striking, leaving him vulnerable to grappling. Mina lampshades how ridiculous it is that Izuku would have to increase his SuperStrength to throw off the likes of Toga and Camie when both are girls who weigh less than he does.
* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/16267331/chapters/38238377#workskin Black Hole Heart]]'', like all Inuzuka, Kiba relies heavily on his partner as part of his fighting style with some of his techniques being outright impossible to do alone. When Naruto scares Akamaru into submission, Kiba's left fighting at less than half strength.

* Jaune in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12854072/1/The-ProfessionARC The Profession ARC]]'' spent years as a Huntsman's apprentice, learning pretty much all there is to know about killing Grimm. Besides [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining having little real-world knowledge that doesn't revolve around killing Grimm]], Jaune struggles to fight human opponents. His teammates note times when he falls back to defend from a coming attack when it'd be smarter to push through, all because Jaune is used to fighting the far stronger but dumber Grimm.
* In ''Fanfic/AmbitionOfTheRedPrincess'', WordOfGod states that Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Ren are hampered by both having just enough knowledge of the world they're summoned to that they don't seek out more information but also how they gained said knowledge. They all dismiss the idea of a tank like Naofumi being useful because of the games they played in their own worlds[[note]]Ren played an Action RPG that encourages stealth, Itsuki only played single-player games and thus doesn't understand group raids, and Motoyasu was a casual who used gaming to have online dates.[[/note]].

* In one ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' short, "The Temp", when Cosmo and Wanda are away and Timmy needs a temporary fairy godparent, he finds that the temp is good at making toys. Unfortunately, toys are all he can make, which doesn't help when a fire breaks out in Timmy's room and it can't be wished away. In the end, the reason for this is because the temp turns out to be one of {{Santa Claus}}'s elves.

* Multiple ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' fanfics, most notably ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5166693/1/Scorpion-s-Disciple Scorpion's Disciple]]'', have pointed out [[PuppetMaster Sasori's]] reliance on poisoned weapons as this by having him fight someone completely immune to poisons (generally Orochimaru or Naruto). Whether he lives to learn from such a weakness however varies from story to story.