History Main / LordBritishPostulate

** Theoretically also doable with any random Chaos Sorcerer, who can acquire the Gift of Chaos power which does almost the same thing.

*** The D&D Planescape setting had the same rule for the Lady of Pain. As the inscrutable ruler of Sigil who can flay an opponent with her ''shadow'' and keeps major gods at bay, she's not supposed to be taken down by a bunch of munchkins.

** The ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' entity known as the Lady of Pain has no stats for this very reason. The fans wouldn't have it any other way, to the degree that when the 3rd edition Planar Handbook statted her CharacterAlignment and nothing else it was met with disapproval.

** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' however, while children remain invulnerable any other NPC can be killed no matter how important they are with the exception of Victor and Yes Man, the excuse being that as [=AIs=] they can simply BodySurf to another Securitron unit. Companions are also immortal unless Hardcore Mode is activated.

** The module "Harlequin" refuses to stat the title elf, and explicitly calls this out as the reason. (Great Dragons, meanwhile, avert the Postulate not by not having stats, but by having a mechanic in their stats that allows them to say TheBattleDidntCount, to appear dead but actually survive, and then destroy the PC party via manipulation from a place of complete safety).

--> "So I can kill Lord British and make the game unwinnable, but killing the bad guys and winning the game instantly (which is logical and would make sense) I can't do... because."

The name references the fact that there is a way to murder Lord British in nearly every ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' game, famously including ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'', where Lord British was killed by a fire spell because his invulnerability flags hadn't been set properly. That said, the Lord British Postulate has less grounding in reality than one would assume. A great deal of [=NPCs=] are free to walk around unmolested, safe in their invulnerability. However, the more important the NPC is the more likely it will be the target of a creative assassination attempt. A king is a bigger target than the common baker and much more satisfying to dispatch.

* Lord British, of course, from the ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' series, who just happens to be one of Richard Garriott's two in-game {{Author Avatar}}s. The postulate itself stems from [[http://www.gamestooge.com/2009/01/02/feature-the-day-lord-british-died/ a time]] during the ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'' beta test where, following a crash, Lord British forgot to set his invulnerability flag when he signed back on, and a player killed him with a hastily-stolen firefield spell on the spur of the moment during a public gathering. The guards moved in, the players fought back, and the whole thing turned into an in-game riot.

** There was an event during the early weeks of ''TabulaRasa'' that was about killing General British. Well, clones of him, actually, there were dozens of them.
* Most [=NPCs=] in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' are actually killable to players of the opposing faction, including racial leaders such as Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, and the like. However, most [=NPCs=] in the neutral city of Shattrath ''should'' be invulnerable, as combat from players is forbidden there... unless, of course, one pulls an enemy from ''outside'' of the city ''into'' it and lets them run loose on the population. The main NPC of the city, a massive naaru named A'dal, was killed in this way several times until it was buffed to nigh-unkillable levels. It seems that the original A'dal had very few HP.

Or more generally, if you as a game designer want an invulnerable {{NPC}}, make sure that it actually ''is''.

The Lord British Postulate was coined in [[http://wow.joystiq.com/2007/03/28/wow-moviewatch-adal-downed/ this]] ''[=WoW=] Insider'' post, and is the cornerstone of the creativity and ingenuity of the more cunning player. In short, if a {{NPC}} cannot be killed through normal means, then there ''must'' be some ''abnormal'' way to do the job. Quite often, if a character's weapons fail to do the duty, then the task falls upon other [=NPCs=], world objects, or the environment itself to assassinate the relevant target, with some prodding from the player characters. The Lord British Postulate is not restricted to {{MMORPG}}s, but can be applied elsewhere: C{{RPG}}s, {{FPS}}es, even {{Tabletop RPG}}s.

The name references the fact that there is a way to murder Lord British in nearly every ''Franchise/{{Ultima}}'' game, famously including ''VideoGame/UltimaOnline'', where Lord British was killed by a fire spell because his invulnerability flags hadn't been set properly.

That said, the Lord British Postulate has less grounding in reality than one would assume. A great deal of [=NPCs=] are free to walk around unmolested, safe in their invulnerability. However, the more important the NPC is, the more likely it will be the target of a creative assassination attempt. A king is a bigger target than the common baker, and much more satisfying to dispatch.

GenreSavvy developers will actually [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything code in what happens]] if you ''do'' manage to defeat them.

** One of the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' developers used to recount an incident when a fan described how his party had setoff a Briefcase Nuke the moment they met Harlequin, sacrificing themselves to [[BeyondTheImpossible kill the unkillable]]. Their GM had let it work because "there was no way even Harlequin would be walking around with a custom anti-nuke protection spell". The developer responded that he would have ruled that knowing humanity the way he did & being the kind of guy he was, Harlequin would have dropped everything to [[CrazyPrepared create an anti-nuke protection spell about 10 min after the first test in 1945 & would not have let it lapse since then]].

* In ''EVEOnline'', CONCORD serves as the police force in high security systems and will attack players who perform certain illegal acts, such as attacking other players without provocation, [[TooDumbToLive attacking a CONCORD ship]], entering highsec space with a low security rating, etc. If a player commits such an act, an endless stream of CONCORD ships will very quickly enter the system and destroy the player's ship. Due to their weapons and equipment, most Concordokkened players don't even have a chance to fire a shot at them. There was one case, however, called the Yulai Incident, where a well-organized and well-prepared gang was actually able to hold off CONCORD for over ''two hours'', killing over a hundred people in a supposedly safe system. [[hottip:Note:For the interested, they were able to pull this off because their shield and armor boosting ships didn't get flagged by CONCORD. That was considered a bug and was quickly fixed.]] CONCORD has since been upgraded (and is so every time anybody tries to tank them) and everyone involved was banned (tanking CONCORD is considered an exploit and bannable offense), but the Yulai Incident lives on in legend.

* In ''VideoGame/{{MARDEK}} Chapter 3'', when you go through the [[CoolGate Warport]] you get barraged with security questions from thinly disguised TSA guys. If you give the wrong answer [[hottip:*:("Do you have your ticket?" "No, I burned it, like I'm gonna burn you!")]], you get to fight a Security Demon, which is immune to your best attacks, has 50000 health plus regen, all of its attacks are {{one hit kill}}s, and can't be summoned by the time you're strong enough to take something like that in a fair fight[[hottip:*: After five uses of the Warport, you get a Gold Warport Pass, which lets you bypass the security questions. That tends to happen before you reach any of the [[PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling best grinding grounds]]. However, by having the right party members, spamming the right skills and being crazy lucky, it's possible to kill it. It gives massive amounts of XP, and [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the security guy grants you the Gold Warport Pass early]] since obviously they can't stop you even if you are a terrorist.

* One of the missions of [[DarkIsNotEvil Necropolis]] scenario in ''HeroesOfMightAndMagic V: Tribes of the East'' features a fortified Orc town with a '''huge''' army[[hottip:*:and "huge" means "at least several hundred cyclops, and according number of other creatures"]]. This army never leaves the town, and the game specifically warns you that you don't have to and shouldn't attack it. However, it is possible to destroy it, by prudent use of Dark magic (specifically, [[UnstoppableRage Berserk]] and [[MindControlDevice Puppet Master]] spells).

The name references the fact that there is a way to murder Lord British in nearly every {{Ultima}} game, famously including Ultima Online, where Lord British was killed by a fire spell because his invulnerability flags hadn't been set properly.

* In ''VideoGame/{{MARDEK}} Chapter 3'', when you go through the [[CoolGate Warport]] you get barraged with security questions from thinly disguised TSA guys. If you give the wrong answer [[hottip:*:("Do you have your ticket?" "No, I burned it, like I'm gonna burn you!")]], you get to fight a Security Demon, which is immune to your best attacks, has 50000 health plus regen, and can't be summoned by the time you're strong enough to take something like that in a fair fight[[hottip:*: After five uses of the Warport, you get a Gold Warport Pass, which lets you bypass the security questions. That tends to happen before you reach any of the [[PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling best grinding grounds]]. However, by having the right party members, spamming the right skills and being crazy lucky, it's possible to kill it. It gives massive amounts of XP, and the security guy grants you the Gold Warport Pass early since obviously they can't stop you even if you are a terrorist.

* In ''VideoGame/MardekRPG Chapter 3'', when you go through the [[CoolGate Warport]] you get barraged with security questions from thinly disguised TSA guys. If you give the wrong answer [[note:("Do you have your ticket?" "No, I burned it, like I'm gonna burn you!")]], you get to fight a Security Demon, which is immune to your best attacks, has 50000 health plus regen, and can't be summoned by the time you're strong enough to take something like that in a fair fight[[note: After five uses of the Warport, you get a Gold Warport Pass, which lets you bypass the security questions. That tends to happen before you reach any of the [[PlateauOfPowerLeveling best grinding grounds]]. However, by having the right party members, spamming the right skills and being crazy lucky, it's possible to kill it. It gives massive amounts of XP, and the security guy grants you the Gold Warport Pass early since obviously they can't stop you even if you are a terrorist.

* Dragons in ''TabletopGame/IronKingdoms'' which are closer to EldritchAbomination have such insanely high stas and powers that most parties wouldn't last a turn in a fight. However they still can be defeated (but not killed, only another dragon can [[KilledOffForReal kill one off for real]].)

** The character Stone has no stats for this exact reason. In ''Deadlands Reloaded'', he has stats, but takes no damage from anything other than a gun he fires himself, or the bullets that killed him the first time. Neitehr of which is going to happen.

** Most creatures can be killed by crushing them under a drawbridge. Large enough creatures however will instead [[{{InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou}} crush the drawbridge]]. Still these creatures can be killed using drawbridges - by putting them in a cage first.

* ''DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' has a number of "invincible" monsters, usually seen but not directly encounted in inaccessible areas of dungeons. Most of them have enormous HP reserves and full health regeneration. This hasn't stopped players from using high-level characters with powerful ranged weapons/attacks to attack Aussircaex, a level 32 dragon (player cap is 25 currently). However, this is usually true only in the first dungeon they're encountered in - most are quest-end bosses in separate adventures, since Turbine is aware that players are going to attack anything targetable.

* Killing Da Vinci in Assassin's Creed II is possible by having the guards hit him. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=U9t8KRG1CS8#t=165s Poor Leo]].

* Killing Da Vinci in Assassin's Creed II is possible by having the guards hit him. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=U9t8KRG1CS8#t=165s Poor Leo]].

* Cap'n Hector from the EscapeVelocity games was an NPC who would remind players to register (pay for) the shareware game. After the 30 day trial period ended, the Cap'n would start warping in to attack your starship every chance she got, usually resulting in a very quick death. However, while Hector was invincible to conventional attack, it was possible to kill or disable her with splash damage in the original game.
* EpicMickey is set in a world where everything, including innocent bystanders, are made of paint. [[MickeyMouse The protagonist]] can spray [[ArtAttacker jets of paint thinner]]. Naturally, this trope applies. Thinning a non-enemy character won't kill them, but it does [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything turn them into a flailing irritated blob]] which can be restored by a blast of paint.