History CripplingOverspecialization / NonVideoGameExamples

** 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". She also insists on spending all her experience on learning new party tricks when she levels up instead of adding anything to make her combat abilities more flexible, since she likes getting attention for them instead of actually useful attacks... and her stats are maxed out anyway, so she's not able to improve the water magic she has.

** 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.

** 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.

** The [[SpaceElves Eldar]] have this as their Hat. Each Eldar going down the Path of the Warrior dedicate themselves to one Aspect of war at a time; Dark Reapers deal long-ranged death to enemy heavy infantry, Striking Scorpions can unleash enough close combat attacks to cut through hordes of light infantry, and so on. But while each type of Aspect Warrior may excel in its battlefield role, they're usually screwed if put up against a different type of threat, so those Dark Reapers won't last long in close combat, while hostile heavy infantry can shrug off the Striking Scorpions' flurry of attacks. The saying goes that if you pit five Space Marines against five Eldar, four of the Eldar will die while the survivor single-handedly cuts down the Space Marines, because that's what she was trained for.

** The Tau have some of the best guns in the game, and its military focuses on getting the most out of them, but the race is just pathetic in close combat. The Tau have recognized this at least and can bring in allied alien auxiliaries that are better-suited for melee, but even so, those close combat "specialists" would be considered mediocre at best in any other army and are better at counter-charging and delaying actions than leading an assault.

* In ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' you will see some decks that would be Overpowered...only if played against a specific deck. For instance, The Allies of Justice mean certain death to Light Decks but are powerless against anything that isn't Light. In newer Generation, The Heraldic and Heraldry ace monsters (used by Tron in the anime) are the embodiment of Xyz monsters' nightmares, being able to drain their Attack, Effects, and even names. Unfortunately, many players still use Synchros and don't rely on Xyz, making these cards laughably useless against them. (Though the OneWingedAngel form of Number 69 might still be able to put a dent in anything the opponent might summon).

** 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 in the setting. This is also the ''only'' spell she knows, and she's only capable of casting it once ''per day'' 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, a common destination for adventurers). 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, instead of smaller spells that won't leave her helpless after a single cast. She's perfectly happy to be this way and any attempts to get her to do otherwise get ignored. It's justified in that she hails from the Crimson Demon/Mage Clan, a HumanSubspecies who are all naturally great at magic at the cost of being raging {{Chuunibyou}}s -- and even by ''their'' standards, Megumin is kind of nuts.
** Kazuma meanwhile suffers from the opposite problem by being ''under''specialized. All of his stats are average except for his exceptionally high luck stat, which is the least useful stat. This forces him to take the generic Adventurer class, which does not learn abilities on its own and instead allows him to copy other classes' abilities. He helps balance out the team and he manages to find clever ways to use his teammates' abilities strategically, making his party far more effective than one would expect given their serious weaknesses.

* 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.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13259409/1/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.

** Adam Taurus is one of the deadliest fighters in the world... as long as he has a sword to fight with. Adam's [[OnePersonOnePower Semblance]] allows him to use any energy absorbed from impacts on his sword, store it up, and release it at will, which can come in the form of lethal energy blasts or boosting his already strength levels to superhuman and allow him to move so fast that he appears to be leaving multiple afterimages behind him as he goes in for an attack. Without a weapon to use to absorb and then channel that energy, however, all of his super powers are rendered null and void, and while he's not a slouch without them, he's not nearly as much of a threat.