History Main / PowerAtAPrice

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has this being one of the themes of Black cards. Often Black Cards will provide high power for their mana cost, but also require you to pay life, sacrifice creatures, or discard cards in order to use that power. For example, the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=25642 named "Greed"]] allows you to draw a card as many times as you can afford by paying only one mana... and two life, getting you more resources to fight with but putting yourself ever closer to the grave.

Sometimes this manifests in the form of [[SelfHarmInducedSuperpower requiring damage to be caused by oneself to be able to use these powers]].

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', The Mark, sometimes called Mark of the Sun or Demon Slayer Mark, are mysterious body marks that grow on demon slayers who have achieved their peak strength and are seemly under the body heat akin to someone with high fever and stress; the power of the Mark makes a slayer grow in strength, agility and perception to much greater superhuman heights, with said power now actually placing them on relatively equal grounds with Upper Rank demons. All of this however, drains the Mark user of all their stamina incredibly quickly, making the ability a dangerous choice against demons who simply have limitless regeneration, and further in the story the claim is made that [[spoiler:Mark users don't gain all that power for free, it is actually draining from their lifespan itself, the demon Kokushibo affirms that without question all Marked slayers will die before or when they grow to be 25 years old]].

** The Instrument of Desire supercharges your economy but also makes your citizens unruly and rebellions very likely to happen.

** The entity known as "[[EldritchAbomination The End of the Cycle]]" promises to grant your empire emmense power [[DealWithTheDevil if you agree to bring about "The End"]] (and ignore the tooltip warning you in big red letters, "'''[[SchmuckBait DO NOT DO THIS!]]'''"). It makes good on its promise and grants you [[GameBreaker Game Breaking]] advantages for the next fifty years. Then, when it comes to collect on its part of the bargain, [[spoiler:it ''utterly destroys your empire'': every planet ''rendered uninhabitable'', every settlement ''destroyed'', every citizen ''killed'', save for a handful of people who saw this was a bad idea and started a colony on the edge of the galaxy with what little resources they could scrounge together. Worse still, this is a price the ''entire galaxy'' will be expected to pay, as the souls of your slaughtered citizens form a fleet of nigh-indestructible terror that will set out to purge the cosmos of all life, with the aforementioned colony being ''[[ForcedToWatch saved]] [[ControllableHelplessness for]] [[CosmicHorrorStory last]]''. And even on the off chance that the fleet of the damned is routed and the galaxy saved, that lone colony will be slapped with a permanent diplomacy penalty so steep, that you can bet any other galactic power still around will want to wipe it out [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment as recompense for nearly destroying the galaxy for your own avarice.]]]]

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'': Aberrations take this path to magical power, starting as normal humans but slowly transforming into horrible monsters as they become more powerful. [[PuppeteerParasite Sirleck]] in particular has mutated into a horrific thing that would be perfectly comfortable in H.R. Giger's art.

* In ''Anime/PowerOfHopePreCureFullBloom'', this is what Natts finds out about the Time Flowers: [[spoiler:they're able to allow the Anime/YesPrettyCure5 and [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar Splash Star]] teams to transform into Pretty Cures by reverting them back to young teens, however, doing so takes a bit of their life force and the flower starts to wither. When the flower fully withers, then the user dies. Coco and Natts tell the girls to stop using the flowers and they agree... [[ChronicHeroSyndrome after they take care of the threat threatening their city]].]]

* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'': The premise of the whole show. SuperpowerLottery gives you a superpower but you must pay the price for using it. When it's something that you can do yourself, like breaking your fingers or smoking, it's compulsive. When it's aging forward or backward, it triggers after each use. Also, the show strongly implies that the main price which all Contractors must pay is losing your humanity and becoming an [[LackOfEmpathy absolutely rational]]... [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman being]]. There are at least two ways of using the power and not paying the price, though both aren't cheap either. [[spoiler: Losing your body is really a price to pay. Or gradually turning into walking plant. Hei subverts this because he [[SoulFragment inherited]] his abilities from his sister, who effectively paid the price for him (and depending on how her merger with him works, she may still be paying the price for every time he uses the power as her sleeping probably wouldn't impact Hei all that much).]]
* The Manga/DeathNote grants any human who obtains one the power to instantly end the lives of others, simply by writing their names within the notebook's pages. One of the [[RuleMagic myriad rules]] of the Death Note, however, stipulates that any human who uses one will not be allowed to enter Heaven nor Hell when they die, as their souls would be destined for "Mu". [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} by WordOfGod, however: in the world of ''Death Note'', there is no Heaven or Hell, and humans will go to "Mu" regardless of if they use a Death Note.]]

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', The Mark, sometimes called Mark of the Sun or Demon Slayer Mark, are mysterious body marks that grow on demon slayers who have achieved their peak strength and are seemly under the body heat akin to someone with high fever and stress; the power of the Mark makes a slayer grow in strength, agility and perception to much greater superhuman heights, with said power now actually placing them on relatively equal grounds with Upper Rank demons. All of this however, drains the Mark user of all their stamina incredibly quick, making the ability a dangerous choice against demons who simply have limitless regeneration, and further in the story the claim is made that [[spoiler:Mark users don't gain all that power for free, it is actually draining from their lifespan itself, the demon Kokushibo affirms that without question all Marked slayers will die before or when they grow to be 25 years old]].

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': [[LifeEnergy Nen powers]] can have self-imposed conditions that strengthens the ability, with the more convoluted ones giving greater powers, though greater punishments if broken:

** Chrollo's power stealing ability has multiple conditions. Actually using those powers also requires him to keep a book open at all times and forces him to fight with one hand. [[spoiler: Before he fights Hisoka, he changed the rules of the book so he could use one ability with his hands free or two while keeping the book open. But he gains new restrictions in exchange.]]
** To plant a bomb on people, Genthru needs to say a specific phrase while touching someone and the bomb is only armed when he explains it to people. The former condition makes it impossible for him to plant bombs on people that know what he actually is, but by the time he says the second condition, it's already too late for those he armed to do anything about it; him actually having decent fighting skills outside his primary bomb further dissuades resistance.

* ''“I… Don’t Want to Work Anymore” Literature/IQuitBeingAnAdventurer. Even if You Treat Me Better Now, I Won’t Do It. I Will Never Work Again.'' has mages be scarce because being able to use magic always requires a sacrifice of some sort. Aix himself had to sacrifice his ability to cast archmage level spells in exchange for getting the "extension" ability that allows him to cast the "basic" spells he has left and have them last ''a full month'' unless they're dispelled. It's only after he's been driven out of the adventurer's guild by the extremely corrupt and incompetent guild master that the town learns just how special Aix is, but by then, he no longer cares and absolute can't be convinced to come back to the guild, no matter how good the terms he's offered.

** Consuming a Devil Fruit grants the eater some a random and permanent power, but it always comes with one consistent weakness: you gain SuperDrowningSkills and will become paralyzed if even partly submerged in water. There is also a type of nearly indestructible material known as Seastone which gives off the same "energy" as the ocean and acts like kryptonite towards Devil Fruit users.

* The chemicals that ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} was exposed to as a child enhanced his senses of hearing, smell, taste and touch but cost him his sight.
* ''ComicBook/XFactor2006'': Quicksilver is able to restore Mutant powers with a touch. Unfortunately, the subjects either die or have their powers became too unstable for them to control.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Saga}}'', every spell that can be used by the people of Wreath requires ingredients, and more powerful spells often tax a person's body, potentially risking life and limb. Early on, Marko's father, Barr, uses a powerful spell to keep their rocketship from being destroyed, but the strain from using it caused his ailing heart to give out. [[spoiler:Later on, when Alana's second child becomes stillborn, she begins to inadvertedly project a possible future version of their now-deceased son. Such a spell, however, harms the caster's heart (figuratively ''and'' literally), and because she can't stop the spell, Alana's life is placed in peril.]]

* In ''Fanfic/WalkAMileinAnothersShoes'', a ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfic, Izuku obtains a navel laser quirk from All for One as a child. It causes severe strain to his body, making him constantly sick to the stomach. Later he develops a gas laser that poisons him. However the real price is that All for One expects Izuku's service in return.
* In ''Fanfic/NewBloodArtemisgirl‘’ After learning that a witch's raw magical power begins increasing massively upon their first period Hermione performs a ritual to start her menstrual cycle at the optimal time [[MoodSwinger this causes problems for her later on.]]

* ''Film/DraculaUntold'': Vlad's supernatural powers that he needs to defeat his enemies comes at the cost of his humanity.

* ''Film/WonderWoman1984'': In addition to BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor, every wish made upon the Dreamstone has a price to it; Barbara wishes to be "strong, confident, and sexy" like Diana but loses her empathy in the process, while Diana wishes for Steve Trevor back but [[spoiler:begins losing her powers in exchange]]. This is why Maxwell Lord wished to [[BecomingTheGenie become the Dreamstone]]; he can control the prices, stealing whatever he wants in exchange for a wish. Even better (for him), he can do this even if he tricks someone into making a wish ''he'' wants, basically getting two wishes at once. However he has to rely on granting the wishes just to maintain his health, which in part forms the latter half of the movie.

** Humans have insurmountable physical advantages over other species, but with some serious downsides. Earth's comparatively dense, warm and humid atmosphere means that humans can suffer from altitude sickness if they exert too hard in the thinner, cooler and drier atmosphere preferred by most species. Humans must eat and drink more to stay healthy, have a whole battery of dietary needs that, if not met, lead to malnutrition, scurvy or [=BeriBeri=]. The human nervous system, being efficiently fine-tuned for high performance relative to those of nonhumans, is vulnerable to things such as intoxicants or hallucinogens. While this may sound like a case of CursedWithAwesome - humans are the only species capable of getting drunk and enjoying recreational drug use - things like the standard fire suppressant foam found on all starships can drive a human into a paranoid frenzy before they go catatonic.
** Then there's the SOR, whose training consists of working themselves to and past the point where the human body tears itself apart. Then they use alien drugs that allow them to rapidly regenerate, their bodies all the stronger from having been pushed so hard. They're the closest thing to superhuman, and can die of malnutrition if they're active in their gear for too long, due to the sheer impossibility of eating enough calories to fulfill their bodies' energy needs during such activity.

* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': According to Archchancellor Ridcully, magic is actually very easy. The tricky part is getting wizards to ''not'' perform magic for every mundane purpose or using it to solve their problems, because the overuse of magic attracts things from the Dungeon Dimensions, and if they break through, the effect is described as the ocean trying to warm itself around a candle.

* The titular Literature/KnightsOfTheBorrowedDark suffer "the Cost" on using their powers: the slow transformation of their skin and body to black iron, beginning in their hands and creeping upwards. Letting the iron spread too far will eventually kill a Knight, which is why they tend to rely on [[MagicKnight weaponry]] and use their powers only as a last resort.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has had several variant magic systems over the years to evoke this trope, but the most famous is the defiling magic from the setting of Dark Sun. On the world of Athas casting spells of any sort drains life energy out of nearby vegetation and at stronger levels pulls life out of the caster or those nearby. As a result most beings of the setting have turned to psionics to perform supernatural feats.

** You have, effectively, six stats: weapon damage, power damage, running speed, jump height, health and energy. Many, many augments you can pick up increase some at the expense of others: Forcemetal Shell, for example, increases your health at the expense of speed, while Glass Cannon buffs your damage output but lowers your health. Your maximum health ''does not'' have a minimum level, so if you pick up too many health-reducing items, you will die.
** Prototype Augments are even worse. These have sizeable benefits, but potentially ''devastating'' drawbacks. You might, for example, pick up a cloud of minions (this can get [[https://i.imgur.com/vAuvMcg.png very silly]], especially if you have a Splintering Twinifier), but while those will be attacking anything that gets close to you, you'll lose the ability to attack or use powers. Another couple ''massively'' increase either your damage output or the effects of all future stat boosts you get, but doubles or triples the damage you take. Still others cause you to burn ''maximum'' energy instead of recoverable energy in exchange for significantly increased power damage, make bosses harder in exchange for more rewards, or let you use a SetBonus without the full set at the expense of a harsh reduction to your damage. (That said, if you get lucky, you can find a System Restore, which lets you wipe away the drawback of all the Prototypes you have when you pick it up.)

** Damocles gives you twice as many items, but as soon as you get hit once, at any moment there's a miniscule chance the sword falls and [[OneHitKill kills you instantly]]. You can circumvent this with an ExtraLife or a perfectly timed invincibility.

** The Geno class's core system lets your stealth squadrons enter stealth the instant they’re deployed instead of needing to wait, and increases the BackStab damage they inflict when they come out of stealth. In exchange, all your squadrons have 20% less maximum health.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'': The Haywire Neo-Generator locks Dante in Devil Trigger mode for the majority of Mission 12, but at the cost of [[CastFromHitPoints slowly depleting his HP]]

* ''Videogame/GrimDawn:'' Thematically, the Witch God Solael is all about this. He has overwhelming power greater than either of his two siblings (with [[UnskilledButStrong none of the foresight or planning]]), and he will gladly grant you a piece ''if'', and ''only if'', you are willing to make great sacrifices for it. One of his followers in the ''Forgotten Gods'' expansion is glad to go at length on it; if you say this seems like the work of a cruel god, he'll fire back saying the world and life itself is cruel, since both will keep taking things away from you and never stop, while Solael gives you something worthy for all the suffering and lets you take things into your own hands afterwards.

** Gul'dan is based around this concept. Instead of naturally regenerating mana, he [[CastFromHitPoints Life Taps]] to trade health for it. This gives players infinite mana to use... if they're careful. His talents also enforce this, with an option that increases his damage but reduces how much healing he receives, and another that boosts his health but increases his respawn timer.

* In ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' this a frequent theme of the "keystone" passive skills, which typically offer a powerful benefit at the cost of some major drawback, either inherent or additional. For example, Mind Over Matter causes a percentage of damage to be taken from [[ManaShield mana instead of life]] with the inherent drawback that taking too much damage leaves you out of mana and unable to use most abilities without additional workarounds, while Unwavering Stance makes you immune to being stunned but also prevents you from evading enemy attacks. Many builds revolve around minimizing or working around the drawbacks, like taking Elemental Equilibrium, which increases enemy resistance against the last element you hit them with while decreasing their resistance against other elements, then combining a damaging spell that deals damage over time and thus doesn't ''hit'' with a spell of a different element that's feeble but easy to hit enemies with.

** The entity known as "[[EldritchAbomination The End of the Cycle]]" promises to grant your empire emmense power [[DealWithTheDevil if you agree to bring about "The End"]] (and ignore the tooltip warning you in big red letters, "'''[[SchmuckBait DO NOT DO THIS!]]'''"). It makes good on its promise, and grants you [[GameBreaker Game Breaking]] advantages for the next fifty years. Then, when it comes to collect on its part of the bargain, [[spoiler:it ''utterly destroys your empire'': every planet ''rendered uninhabitable'', every settlement ''destroyed'', every citizen ''killed'', save for a handful of people who saw this was a bad idea and started a colony on the edge of the galaxy with what little resources they could scrounge together. Worse still, this is a price the ''entire galaxy'' will be expected to pay, as the souls of your slaughtered citizens form a fleet of nigh-indestructible terror that will set out to purge the cosmos of all life, with the afforementioned colony being ''[[ForcedToWatch saved]] [[ControllableHelplessness for]] [[CosmicHorrorStory last]]''. And even on the off chance that the fleet of the damned is routed and the galaxy saved, that lone colony will be slapped with a permanent diplomacy penalty so steep, that you can bet any other galactic power still around will want to wipe it out [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment as recompense for nearly destroying the galaxy for your own avarice.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/TheTiamatSacrament'': The titular Tiamat Sacrament is a ritual that can grant a dragon great power, but it requires the consent of six of the Great Seven, and most of them are reluctant to allow this ritual. [[spoiler:The ritual causes dragonkind's Blood Memory to be reset, preventing new dragons from accessing the wisdom of their oldest members.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'': This is pretty much a universal theme for the series. Draw power from the [[TheLegionsOfHell Burning Legion]]? You get a serious power boost, but enjoy being twisted into a hideous demon and serving the will of an OmnicidalManiac. Serve the [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]]? Sure you can wield shadows and control minds (if you don't go insane first), but BodyHorror and {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s are the ''best'' you can eventually hope for. Hear the call of the Lich King? You might be a great necromancer, but the [[TheNecrocracy Scourge]] only works with the undead... Even the relatively benign arcane magic is cripplingly [[AddictiveMagic addictive]], enough to destroy ancient night elven society and cause global misery for the high/blood elf population millennia later.
** In particular, playable Warlocks in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' embody this. They trade health for mana as a key mechanic, and can summon powerful demons for a price. Classic [=WoW=] was most harsh about this, with the Warlock's most powerful demon requiring the sacrifice of another player ''and'' a separate enslavement spell. If anything failed, that demon could turn on its master.

* ''Webcomic/TheDreadful'': Burke's ring was enchanted to make him ImmuneToBullets, but at the cost of his sanity.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'': This is how dark magic seems to work, requiring the lifeforce or essence of at least part of living being in order to cast a spell. Excessive amounts of usage also seems to take some kind of toll on the user, as evidenced by Viren draining the life of magical butterflies to keep himself looking like a middle-aged man.

* High level politicians face significant restrictions to their personal freedom in the name of security.
* The rank structure in the military works this way. A higher rank means more power, more authority, and even a pay raise, but it also means more responsibility, more work, and more consequences for screwing up. An old addage in the Canadian Armed Forces is "Corporal is the best rank" because you have the best balance of power and price -- so much so that some members volunteer to remain corporals for the remainder of their contracts.
* Any known Human who has either incredible strength, beauty or intellect would tell you. That getting as gifted as they were, often requires an undying, borderline-obsessive conviction to some sort of process. For example, true Body Builders (such as Arnold Schwarzeneggar) ate only the right portions and only nutritional meals. Constantly they frequented the Gym, wasting potential decades to get the size they were. But as time withers and weakens the human form, even Titan-level muscle can sag and take extra care to maintain.
* As anyone who is a connoisseur of vehicles, computers, video games, and the like will tell you, the more powerful your rig is the more money and time you'll need to put into it to buy and maintain it.

* Defied in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' by Lex Luthor when running for president. He eventually reveals to The Question that his entire bid to run for president was nothing more than a multi-million dollar campaign ''[[EvilIsPetty just to tick Superman off]]'', and that the power and authority he'd get from being president isn't worth how much power he'd actually have to give up in exchange.

** The entity known as "[[EldritchAbomination The End of the Cycle]]" promises to grant your empire emmense power [[DealWithTheDevil if you agree to bring about "The End"]] (and ignore the tooltip warning you in big red letters, "'''[[SchmuckBait DO NOT DO THIS!]]'''"). It makes good on its promise, and grants you [[GameBreaker Game Breaking]] advantages for the next fifty years. Then, when it comes to collect on its part of the bargain, [[spoiler:it ''utterly destroys your empire'': every planet ''rendered uninhabitable'', every settlement ''destroyed'', every citizen ''killed'', save for one person who saw this was a bad idea and started a colony on the edge of the galaxy with what little resources they could scrounge together. Worse still, this is a price the ''entire galaxy'' will be expected to pay, as the souls of your slaughtered citizens form a fleet of nigh-indestructible terror that will set out to purge the cosmos of all life, with the afforementioned colony being ''[[ForcedToWatch saved]] [[ControllableHelplessness for]] [[CosmicHorrorStory last]]''. And even on the off chance that the fleet of the damned is routed and the galaxy saved, that lone colony will be slapped with a permanent diplomacy penalty so steep, that you can bet any other galactic power still around will want to wipe it out [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment as recompense for nearly destroying the galaxy for your own avarice.]]]]

Power. The ability to influence, create, change, and even destroy. Things, places, ''people.'' It is by nature highly contentious: Some want it and would kill for it, others do not want it, or would gladly give away such a burden. Therein lies the rub. For all its force, blessings, or ability to change, power is not free... [[ComesGreatResponsibility of responsibility]], consequence, or cost. Some people think the exchange [[EquivalentExchange has to be "fair."]] BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor...

-->-- '''[[EvilSorcerer Sindri Myr]],''' ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar''