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Man, the yahoos I scrap with never seem to anticipate [being punched in the face]. They all assume that what with me being a wizard and all, I'm going to stand back and chuck Magic Missiles at them or something, then scream and run away the second they get close enough to let me see the whites of their eyes.
Okay, granted, so that is how a lot of wizards operate. But all the same, you'd think they would remember that there's no particular reason why a wizard can't be as comfortable with physical mayhem as the next guy.
Harry Dresden, using some Combat Pragmatism against an Outsider

In one corner, you have the Squishy Wizard, supernaturally adept, but physically an utter weakling. In the other stands the Kung-Fu Wizard, who not only has supernatural powers but is also a skilled martial artist. In fact, their martial arts practice facilitates the use of their powers, and may actually be the source of them. This character can use both hand-to-hand combat and Functional Magic, magically augmented martial arts or blending them together until they're indistinguishable. The Kung-Fu Wizard is most often found in Chinese folklore, wuxia books and films, manga, and anime.

Sometimes they may overlap with Combat Medic. Because in reality, some religious figures such as monks were associated with supernatural powers but also (especially in the Far East) had a reputation for knowing or developing Martial Arts. Thus, someone who practices Martial Arts may also know a few things about exorcism, healing, or dealing holy damage. Or Buffs.

See also Magic Knight and Mage Marksman, where the wizard is trained in weapon-based combat rather than martial arts, Supernatural Martial Arts, where the kung fu is itself magic, and Full-Contact Magic, where the wizard doesn't actually know kung fu, but still needs to move around a lot to use magic. May be augmented via Meditation Powerup. If the setting states that Religion is Magic, then this may also be a case of All Monks Know Kung-Fu.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Ayakashi Triangle:
    • At full power, Shirogane is a nonhumanoid example: He knows a large quantity of magic spells that we barely see a fraction of, including telekinesis and the sex-changed curse Matsuri was subject to. But Shirogane's true form is a monstrous cat the size of an car that's as strong as it looks and incredible durable.
    • The ayakashi mediums Suzu and Mei are/were Squishy Wizards, as their incredible spiritual power is limited by their human bodies, and neither was physically trained for combat. Mei's omokage, on the other hand, has similar powers with a purely-spiritual body that can covert it into raw physical force and instantly regenerate from extreme injury.
  • Mereoleona Vermillion from Black Clover is very skilled at hand-to-hand combat, incorporating her flame magic into her physical blows to unleash Elemental Punches that completely burn through other spells. One character even notes that she's more of a fighter than any mage that he's ever seen.
  • Bleach: Yoruichi Shihoin developed a technique that fuses Kidou (the magic arts practiced by Shinigami) with Hakuda (Shinigami unarmed combat) and allows her to generate and fire electricity. Her student and successor as 2nd Division captain, Sui-Feng also learned this technique though her variant grants her wind powers instead, and her younger brother Yushiro uses another variant that gives him fire powers.
  • Justified with Hei in Darker than Black — the reason he's both a powerful Contractor and amazing martial artist is that he started out as a Badass Normal and had to be strong enough to take on Contractors. Additionally, while he has the ability to discharge electricity, he has to either be able to touch his target or have some sort of connection that will conduct electricity. (In other words, no lightning bolts) And "something that conducts electricity" includes the knives and choke wires he used anyway.
  • Delicious in Dungeon: The Badass Crew's captain Mithrun is a deadly martial artist whose mastery of teleportation magic elevates him to a One-Man Army. Not only can he be anywhere in an instant, he can teleport enemies with a touch or just Tele-Frag them with whatever objects are nearby.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • Natsu Dragneel is just as capable of beating you up as he is burning you to a crisp. Sometimes he'll do both at once.
    • This seems to be the standard fighting style for Dragon Slayers, who mix up their magic with physical combat. Even Wendy gets in on it once she starts getting comfortable with combat, and Cobra is notable for being able to equal Natsu in hand-to-hand before using his Dragon Slayer Magic thanks to his Combat Clairvoyance.
    • Early in the series, a pair of professed Badass Normal mercenaries assume that all magic users are Squishy Wizards, recounting a story of a wizard who spent years mastering a curse that could break bones; they just broke his bones with a punch. As such, they were completely unprepared for Natsu's strength.
    • Gray Fullbuster as well. He gets a pretty moment where an enemy lures him into a trap that prevents Gray from using his ice magic without hampering the enemies' style of magic. The enemy gets a nasty surprise when Gray kicks him off his perch twenty feet in the air.
    • Zeref is revealed to be this once he stops holding back and fighting for keeps. He is able to match Natsu blow for blow.
    • When going through the ranks the Fairy Tail guild is over-supplied with members who fit in this category or Magic Knight. Makarov uses size-changing magic to unleash devastating punches, Lucy's Star Dress enhances her physical abilities, especially in Leo and Taurus modes, pretty much every Dragon Slayer is capable of this and Fairy Tail has four of them, all three Strauss siblings have at least one alternate form best suited for close combat and the list goes on.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • The Elric brothers are skilled martial artists as well as alchemists and this is also true of most State Alchemists. Edward is also able to transmute his arm to aid himself in combat.
    • And the brothers' trainer Izumi. Ed and Al are still scared of her.
      • Funnily enough, both this and her Training from Hell were explained in an omake to have originated with her seeking an alchemist teacher who turned out to be the brother of the (deceased) man she was looking for, and he actually gave her a hand-to-hand combat training course.
    • Alex Louis Armstrong as well, who uses old-school pugilism to augment his alchemical attacks.
    • A non-Amestrian example would be Xingese princess May Chang, a tiny girl who is nevertheless adept at both martial arts and alkahestry (Xing's version of alchemy).
  • The magic system of Jujutsu Kaisen naturally lends itself to this, since the most common application of Cursed Energy is reinforcing yourself or another physical object to both resist damage, increase power and affect Cursed Spirits. Therefore, even with an apparently weak Cursed Technique, many sorcerers are able to get by through physical strength and speed alone, and pretty much every character is some form of Kung-Fu Wizard or Magic Knight. Even so, a couple of examples stand out:
    • Yuji Itadori was actually a Muggle until very recently, and thus has no Cursed Techniques of his own even after becoming a host for the most powerful Cursed Spirit in history. Despite this, Yuji was always inexplicably and unnaturally strong, fast and agile, which means once he learns the basics of Cursed Energy control he can take on even the strongest of Curses with his fists alone. He also uses actual martial arts techniques and parkour to his advantage and sometimes goes for knives or other tools on hand.
    • Satoru Gojo, apart from being the World's Strongest Man due to his ridiculously overpowered Technique, also might qualify more literally due to his massive reserves of Cursed Energy, allowing him to break bones and concrete with his bare hands. Despite technically being able to solve most battles with Teleportation Spam and Hand Blast barrages, Gojo seems to prefer fighting enemies from up close, usually to minimize collateral damage, and when he does few opponents can hope to match his speed, strength and precision.
    • Aoi Todo is a Blood Knight whose Technique, Boogie Woogie is a deceptively simple Teleportation Spam, which means he has to rely on other things for offense. Fortunately, Todo is also an absurdly huge and muscled man who makes a habit of picking fights with anyone he sees (usually half-naked) and during a major battle he is recorded to have had the highest kill count out of all sorcerers present, despite only using his Technique once.
    • Panda, being an autonomous Cursed Corpse in the shape of a panda bear, tends not to use any weapons, instead preferring to utilize his massive natural strength to brawl, sometimes with a pair of padded knuckles. This is emphasized even more whenever he switches to his “Gorilla Mode”, gaining larger, stronger hands and several devastating attacks capable of shattering metal and stone.
    • Even ancient Sorcerers, including the ones who were strapped with swords in their previous lifetime, will usually default to fighting with their bare hands. Enter Ryu Ishigori, an Edo-period Samurai fridge of a man with a Technique that turns his hair into a Breath Weapon Wave-Motion Gun that he fluently combines with his insane physical firepower, due to his Cursed Energy Output always being at 100%, allowing him to ragdoll even a powerhouse like Yuta.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, Vivio's fighting style is a combination of martial arts and magic. She has former Numbers Cyborg Nove as her martial arts trainer, while Nanoha-mama watches over her magic training.
    • In fact, most of the characters introduced here all fight with a combination of magic and martial arts.
  • Magi: Labyrinth of Magic: Professor Myers a magician as well as a martial artist. She trained Aladdin in hand-to-hand combat.
  • Played with in Mashle: Magic and Muscles. Mash enters a Wizarding School claiming to be a specialist in "Muscle Magic", and gets through fights with other students by punching his way through them. In actual fact he's a Muggle Born of Mages and is just freakishly strong from training really hard.
  • Many ninja in Naruto use a combination of taijutsu and less physical ninjutsu (some of which is more a case of Full-Contact Magic), with some exceptions that focus on use of weapons or physical ability. One good example is Chiyo who has both puppets and good hand-to-hand combat abilities.
  • Nasuverse:
    • The fast-moving nature of combat in the 'verse demands that mages have some basic physical combat training if they want any of their hard-learned spells to hit anything. Tohsaka Rin of Fate/stay night and Kokuto Azaka of The Garden of Sinners are equal parts deadly as magicians and warriors in their respective universes. Of note though is that while they are fairly skilled in martial arts, they stand no chance in close combat with the more straightforward fighter-type characters.
    • Most mages in the setting tend towards Squishy Wizard, but that's more because they tend to be scholars and researchers than fighters. Enforcers like Bazett and freelancers like Aoko are generally quite skilled in physical combat.
    • Due to being from an older era, Caster is an impossibly better mage than Rin; she mentions that the mere fact that Rin managed to get her into a Wizard Duel is proof that Rin is a genius, but Rin never actually had a chance. Then Rin reveals the reason she was so confident: She has physical reinforcement magic and Caster doesn't. Once she gets into melee range Rin takes her apart.
  • The titular character of Negima! Magister Negi Magi starts using just magic, but later on is told to make a choice between training for sheer magical power while lacking in straight-up fighting (thus needing a partner to protect while casting), or to balance magic and physical strength. He picks the latter, but instead of using weapons and magic like that person suggested, he instead learns martial arts from Ku Fei.
    • Really, at this point, this trope is practically the series' calling card.
    • In the festival arc Negi even shows up to fight in a tournament in a Wizard Robe with a martial arts gi underneath.
  • Overlord (2012):
    • Main character Ainz is a lich specializing in insta-death attacks, so he should be a Squishy Wizard. But this never shows up, because a) he has a spell that makes him a better melee combatant at the cost of disabling his magic (and although it does nothing for his lack of physical technique, that still doesn't change the physical parameters advantage) and b) he's so absurdly overleveled in the new world that a hit from trolls and ogres five times his size doesn't even budge him (and this is while in his wizard form). In fact, while Emperor Jircniv was well aware there was no way to beat Ainz through magic, he at least had hopes to beat him through physical power... and along comes Ainz in Willfully Weak mode to challenge the Empire's biggest and toughest soldier (a giant war troll) and it's still a Curb-Stomp Battle. Jircniv recognizes the futility of fighting Ainz and immediately submits the empire to Ainz.
    • Clementine discovers to her horror that a pissed-off lich is both immune to the ol' knife-to-the-eye trick and quite capable of crushing her to death with one arm.
  • Almost all of the main characters from Pretty Cure especially when they're transformed where they used martial arts abilities to subdue their enemies and sending them into oblivion by using a finishing attack.
  • Louie of Rune Soldier Louie. Despite being the hero, he's terrible at both magic and swordsmanship, even though he was raised by the head of the mages guild, attended the mage academy for most of his life, and has trained in swordsmanship considerably with Genie. His only saving grace is that he is a very skilled brawler.
  • Sailor Moon:
    • Not only can Sailor Jupiter manipulate lightning and plants well enough to dispatch a few youma on her own, she also is a skilled and very strong kung-fu practitioner.
    • In the manga, Sailor Venus is not only second only to Sailor Moon as the most magically powerful of the Sailor Soldiers but can (and has) kicked Sailor Jupiter's ass in a physical confrontation (Jupiter was brainwashed at the time).
  • 3×3 Eyes:
    • Benares normally looks like an imposing, very muscular human but is also the creator of countless spells and enchantments that are used among demons and sorcerers. He's such a Blood Knight that he usually goes for the hand-to-hand approach, but he has not forgotten all his amazing sorceries and his hundreds of Juuma (Summonable battle monsters).
    • Spazug, one of the Nine-Headed Dragon Generals, is a sorcerer with mastery over many spells and can also fight up close if he has to, though it worked against him when he attacked Yakumo when the latter had just fought against an extremely though Muay Thay master and thus is able to easily overcome the demon's attack.
    • Subverted when Connery is attacked by Galga and, after miracolously recovering from his sucker punch, proceeds to kick him across the place with a combo of spell attacks and kung fu: it's actually an illusion cast by the real Connery, who's near death because of the sneak attack.
  • Princess Amelia from Slayers, proficient in martial arts, healing, and astral magic. Her father as well.
  • Orphen/Krylancelo Finrandi from the 2020 Sorcerer Stabber Orphen anime. In the first show, he was a Magic Knight trained with knives and whose fighting style was better suited for long-range magic attacks and assassinations than hand-to-hand combat. In the second anime, however, his unarmed fighting abilities are that much better to the point he's no longer purely a Magic Knight. If you're one of his opponents and Orphen gets in close, you're just as likely to get maimed by his bare fists as you are devastating magic attacks.
  • SPY×FAMILY: During a party for Anya, Yor roleplays as an evil witch who serves as the penultimate obstacle for Loid, who's playing the hero. However, being completely wasted, she ends up using her actual assassin skills in the fight instead of casting pretend spells.
    Loid: Why is she using physical attacks when she's a witch?
  • Fai D Flourite of CLAMP's Massive Multi Player Crossover Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- is not only a very powerful mage - when he chooses to use his magic, anyways - but also as flexible as a cat and pretty damn capable of holding his own in a fight. Shura Arc showed that he and his partner, resident badass Kurogane, are at least on par in their fighting abilities as they hold top ranks in Yasha-ou's army. (The anime also hinted that he could, indeed, beat Kurogane with ease. If this is canon is debatable.)

    Comic Books 
  • The Black Mage: Near everyone in the comic fights with wizardry, magical constructs and head on physical attacks.
  • Alley-Kat-Abra of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!, being something of a cross-company Doctor Strange spoof, is a wizard who's a judo instructor in her civilian identity. Despite an apparent streak of belligerence when the subject comes up, she rarely demonstrates her skill unless directly grabbed.
  • Doctor Strange:
    • Stephen Strange is master of the mystic — and martial — arts. On more than one occasion he has surprised enemies who expected him to be physically helpless without his magic.
    • One What If? Story had Doctor Strange learning his skills from Daredevil and Elektra's main universe ninjutsu mentors, The Chaste.
  • The various Immortal Weapons from Iron Fist are good Western examples of this.
  • Zatanna: ' While Zatanna is mostly an extremely powerful magician, she's also a decently trained martial artist who can still defeat some Mooks by herself with just hand-to-hand combat, since she knows she can't always rely on her magic for self-defense. This is especially evident in issue #15 of Zatanna (2010), where she has to fight off the witch hunters with only her martial arts, and she even has a flashback showing her dad trained her for just such occasions.

    Fan Works 
  • The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan and The Archmage's Last Bow: Downplayed. Most spellcasters don't fight with their bare hooves when magic is available, but Nova Shine does see the value of training his body. Come the sequel, we learn that he is mostly training himself for physical fitness to be able to either fight for longer periods or flee when he is outmatched. However, Twilight Sparkle also relies on magic, yet isn't afraid to overwhelm an opponent with physical strength if needs must.
  • In brilliant lights will cease to burn, Izuku primarily relies on his magic to see him through fights. That doesn't mean he won't use the Sealing Staff as a melee weapon with his baton training, nor will he hesitate to pull out Sword and cut a swathe through obstacles in his path.
  • In Child of the Storm, Harry is being trained to be one of these. So are, as it happens, Hermione, Ron, and quite a large amount of the Hogwarts student body, by Sean Cassidy, though Harry is a couple of steps ahead since he's also being taught touches of everything from basic brawling to Krav Maga to Pankration by Clint, Steve, Natasha, and Diana, in exchange for some of the tricks he's learned on Earth on much the same rationale as the above example, as Cassidy explicitly points out that without his powers, he's physically as vulnerable as anyone else. Wizards are usually even worse off since they're much easier to disarm if you get in close.
    • That said, Harry is a slight subversion since he's also going to be a Physical God when he grows up and for most opponents, isn't really going to need such training. However, since quite a large number of people want him dead or alive (preferably dead), he's going to need the assorted skills he's picking up just to stay alive until then.
    • Doctor Strange is a little less obvious about it than his canon counterpart, but tends to pick his moments - such as shutting up freaking Chthon in the midst of his Evil Gloating with a well-timed magic-powered right hook that he remarks he learned in K'un L'un.
    • And then, of course, there's Harry Dresden, whose canon counterpart provides the page quote and in a flashback, at the age of 20, beat Joe Chill to a pulp. Yes, that Joe Chill.
  • The Big Bad of A Different Lesson, Heian Chao, is most definitely one of these. On the one hand, he has Elemental Powers over shadow and ice; Black Magic (including raising the dead, summoning of demons, Body Snatching, and Demonic Possession); and astral projection and Shadow Walking. All of this is implied or outright stated, however, to be due to his study and mastery of Ki Manipulation, and he is in fact a master of the Eagle Claw style of kung fu as well as weapons combat with both claw bracers and Emei piercers.
  • Fate/Starry Night: In addition to summoning Shadow Servants, Ritsuka fends off Medea's Dragon Tooth Warriors largely through the hand-to-hand combat he received from the various Servants he summoned at Chaldea, pulverizing them with his bare fists. He also challenges Shinji to a fistfight while his Shadow Ushiwakamaru takes on Rider, knocking him out cold with a well-timed Diving Kick. That said, he's much better at the "kung fu" part than the "wizard" part, as Ritsuka is an Inept Mage with only one Magic Circuit and needs Mystic Codes to help him cast basic spells.
  • Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a 6th dan and (arguably) only second to Dumbledore in magical ability. Goyle is also trained in martial arts.
    "Most wizards," Professor Quirrell said, "do not bother much with what a Muggle would term martial arts. Is not a wand stronger than a fist? This attitude is stupid. Wands are held in fists.
  • In The Hill of Swords, Shirou tries to turn Louise into one. He says something along the lines of "Most mages in this world seemed incapable of moving while chanting. Most mages had not ordered their familiars to beat on them mercilessly until they had no choice but to learn that very skill."
  • Not only does the J-WITCH Series have the canonical Jackie Chan Adventures examples, but Jackie is tasked with teaching the new Guardians Kung Fu so that the Magical Girl Warriors can get by when they can't use magic. Will in particular makes use of Jackie's lessons because she doesn't have access to her elemental magic yet. When Jade becomes the sixth Guardian, she gains shadow magic to use along with Kung Fu.
  • As a kickboxer in Luz Noceda, The Fighter, the titular character uses gloves with her glyphs on them for combat-based spellcasting.
  • Bryce Lawson from Mass Effect: Human Revolution is both a powerful biotic and skilled enough in Krav Maga to hold his own against Adam friggin' Jensen.
  • My Hero Playthrough: Izuku is learning unarmed combat through The Gamer, and also longer ranged attacks and personal enhancements via Ki and Psionic powers.
  • Queen of All Oni: Blankman is skilled at both magic and martial arts, and will use the first to amp up the second if necessary.
  • Scar's Samsara has all the magic-users being able to fight in melee as well, and especially Rafiki combines elemental magic with kung fu skills to deadly effect.
  • A Shadow of the Titans: Jade's new villain outfit is designed to reflect this, showing that she's skilled at both marital arts and magic. She also mentally comments at one point that if she has to choose between either of those or the powers of the Talismans now fused to her body, she'd pick all three.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In A Chinese Ghost Story, Yin and at least one other character. They show both martial arts and magic usually cast by throwing spells written on paper. This gets quite mixed, coming to a climax of fight choreography, flying around from tree to tree, and spellcasting.
  • Doctor Strange (2016): The sorcerers use martial arts in addition to their magical abilities.
  • Many Jedi in Star Wars qualify as Kung Fu Wizards, as their use of lightsabers corresponds to kendo and other East-Asian sword-fighting styles. In Star Wars, the Force works as a substitute for magic. Another thing is that Jedi are warrior-monks, very similar to various Buddhist monks throughout history.
  • The Korean film Wooshi (also known as Woochi the Demon Slayer) features several of these, most notably the titular character.
  • In Yamato Takeru, Oto Tachibana is a martially adept priestess of Amaterasu whose devotion to the goddess gives her the ability to shoot fireballs.

    Literature 
  • Beast Tamer: Dragonoids are number two when it comes to magical power, second only to the Fairy race. Unlike the squishier Fairies, however, Dragonoids are just as capable physically. When Tania fights Rein and Kanade, she and Kanade are a match despite physical power being the Cat Peoples' specialty, and takes the advantage by having magic on top of that. She is only defeated by Kanade and Rein working together.
  • This is something close to the default setting for magic users in The Black Company. The setting is home to very few Squishy Wizards, with magic making its users Made of Iron by default (it is explicitly stated that the only way to be sure a mage is dead is to burn the body and scatter the ashes over a wide area. One villain even lays waste to half a continent despite being reduced to a severed head). That said, most of the characters shown in the books fall a little short of this trope. The straight examples are The Lady, whose martial prowess is significant enough that she can get by on it alone after she's depowered at the end of the third book, The Limper, and One-Scene Wonder Bonegnasher, an eight-foot-tall pile of muscle who also knows enough magic for The Dominator to consider him one of the ten most powerful wizards in the world and enslave him.
  • The Brightest Shadow: Since there is no distinction between magic and ki, this is the most common state for trained combatants.
  • Just about everyone in Codex Alera with any kind of martial ability would qualify. All humans in the setting well, eventually have command of at least one "fury," an elemental spirit with a portfolio of powers that can be drawn upon. The more powerful furycrafters form the upper echelons of Aleran society. Metalcraft in particular lends itself to this trope, with its primary application in combat being to make swords impossibly sharp and armor supernaturally tough. This trope is best demonstrated by the High Lords, whose command over a majority of the elements gives them wizard-like powers, while their metalcraft also makes them supernatural swordsmen.
  • In the Commonweal books, the Wizard Block (a vet who became an immortal wizard accidentally, as an alternative to dying of exhaustion) considers it his life's ambition to punch dragons.
  • Constance Verity Destroys the Universe: While Hiro's ninja skills seem to be all stealth, his sister Sayuri on the other hand knows magic, being able to transform into smoke, redirect lightning with her sword and even offers to turn Tia's mother into a cat as a favor to Connie.
  • The titular character of Skulduggery Pleasant is both a sorcerer trained in elemental magic and a highly-skilled martial artist. Valkyrie Cain, Ghastly Bespoke, and Tanith Low are also trained sorcerers and martial artists.
  • Discworld:
    • Mustrum Ridcully is effectively Ankh-Morpork's nuclear deterrent, and keeps a pond specifically for people who annoy him. He is also a crack crossbow marksman, skilled quarterstaff fighter, and vocal fitness enthusiast. He also at one point went three rounds, bare-knuckle, against Detritus (who is a troll, essentially a sentient, mobile rock formation, and big and strong even by troll standards) and came out none the worse for wear, and on another occasion arm-wrestled the Librarian (who is an orang-utan) and was still able to use his arm afterwards. He single-handedly ended the Unseen University's tradition of Klingon Promotion by being effectively unkillable.
    • Granny Weatherwax prefers "headology" and intimidation to physical fighting, but can still stop a sword blow with one bare hand. (Granny's also demonstrated the ability to make a wooden spoon as sharp as a sword.)
    • Lu-Tze is a more conventional user of this trope; between martial arts and the ability to slice time finely enough to nearly outrun lightning, there's a reason for Rule One: "Never act incautiously when confronted by a little bald wrinkly smiling man!"
  • Briar Moss, in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic series, wasn't exactly trained in martial arts, but he knows how to fight anyway from his life as a street rat.
    • Similarly, his foster sister Daja has metal magic. While this is good for long-distance spell casting, it turns out muscles from working in forges all day, and staff training, means you do not want to take her on at close quarters.
  • In The Dresden Files, Harry (while not a full-blown Kung Fu Wizard) does take occasional lessons from his badass police officer friend Karrin Murphy. This combined with his great height (and thus reach), sprinter's build, long staff, and willingness to fight dirty makes him pretty badass with what little martial art he knows. Not to mention the .38 Special (later a .44 Magnum) under that duster of his. Of course, he has a very good reason for doing this: The White Council's laws prohibit killing Muggles with magic, and Harry's already on thin ice with themnote , so understandably the last thing he wants to do is give them motivation to introduce their swords to his soft, supple neck.
  • It can't get any more literal than Kirei Kotomine's fighting style in Fate/Zero, which Word of God claims is Bai Ji Quan, combined with Kotomine's Magecraft and generally self-destructive personality. With his fists alone, he can split trees, instinctively track people manipulating time, and pulverize Kiritsugu's chest with one punch before he could even react. This is before he starts using his Black Keys.
  • I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level: Justified by the RPG Mechanics 'Verse. Azusa is relatively a Squishy Wizard, but, as a Level 99 character, her physical stats still make her a nigh-unstoppable Lightning Bruiser and Flying Brick compared to almost everyone else. She can deal a Curb-Stomp Battle to dragons even without her magic.
  • Though the eponymous magic-users of Mistborn don't draw their magic from their fighting skills, said magic allows sufficient strengthening and controlling of body and mind to invoke the spirit of this trope, and per Word of God creating elaborate, martial arts-inspired fights was one of the author's goals in creating and using this power.
  • Reign of the Seven Spellblades: "Magicombat", introduced in volume 8, is regarded as a sort of counterargument to sword arts that mixes unarmed combat with spatial magic instead. Alvin Godfrey demonstrates this in the senior-level combat leagues with magic-enhanced wrestling, defeating his opponent Efler by choking him out. Alvin's second-in-command Lesedi Ingwe meanwhile is a magic-enhanced kickboxer, and resident Combat Pragmatist Tullio Rossi once sought her out for new unarmed techniques to incorporate into his personal fighting style.
  • Allanon from Terry Brooks' Shannara series is a seven-foot-tall giant, and a capable brawler, as well as the most powerful Druid featured in the series, and can both take a beating, and deliver one. His successor, Walker Boh, while a less talented fighter, is every bit as tough.
  • Incueling in the Tough Magic universe involves both spellcasting and martial arts, making every incuelist a literal kung-fu wizard.
  • The Witch of Knightcharm: Both Knightcharm and the Scholomance teach this skill, which comes in handy when their students fight each other. Ceranna, one of the Scholomance elites who attacks Emily's team in the first chapter, has an enchanted sword which is capable of sundering Emily’s shields. On the Knightcharm side, Emily's teammate Hannah channels magic through her tattoos to make herself stronger, faster, and otherwise a better brawler.

    Live Action TV 
  • Ahsoka: At the end of Star Wars Rebels, Ezra Bridger gave his lightsaber to Sabine Wren before he launched himself, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Thrawn's fleet all the way to another galaxy. In the ten years since then, Ezra developed his own fighting style that doesn't require a lightsaber, which can largely be described as brawling heavily supplemented by Force pushes and throws. He's good enough at this to be able to hold his own in a lightsaber duel simply by Barehanded Blade Blocking the enemy's lightsaber strikes with Force telekinesis.
  • Damien Darhk from Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow is an Evil Sorcerer who was once part of the League of Assassins. Due to his League training and the magical powers he got from the Khushu idol, he's skilled in both hand-to-hand fighting and using his magic to overwhelm opponents.
  • Phoebe from Charmed is a Kung-Fu witch. Initially she's the only one with no active powers (her sisters can move objects and freeze things while she can see visions of the past and future) and took to learning martial arts. She eventually develops an active power, levitation, that is of great use in combination with her martial arts skills. To a far lesser extent, all the other Halliwell sisters learn and hone their hand-to-hand combat and a bunch of other witches, warlocks, and demons have varying level of skill in unarmed.
  • Kamen Rider Wizard, pretty much by definition. His fighting style is a mixture of magic, acrobatic sweeping kicks, and a gun-sword.
  • Also the Mahou Sentai Magiranger and Power Rangers Mystic Force, who all have the standard Ranger martial arts skills in addition to being magic-users; case in point, magic armoured boxing gloves.
  • Motherland: Fort Salem: Abigail is ambushed by the Camarilla. Just before they slice out her voice box, Tally and M stop them, and M proceeds to beat up Abigail's attackers. Any witch trained at Fort Salem is highly competent in hand-to-hand combat.
  • In Smallville season four, Isobel/Lana.
  • Ultraman Z Gamma Future combines Summon Magic (his Gamma Illusion, which summons Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, and Ultraman Gaia), telekinesis, and various magic powers.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Enlightened martial artists from Deadlands have the ability to tap into the energies of the Hunting Grounds, enabling them to leap tall buildings in a single bound and pluck bullets from the air, among other things.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons, it's possible to create a multiclassed monk/wizard character. Horribly unoptimized like most builds involving multiclassing spell casters and taking levels in monk, but possible.
    • It is worth noting that Monk itself invokes a similar trope, its Ki Abilities eventually including teleportation and intangibility. Unfortunately these come far later than the wizard equivalents and have more limitations, besides not synergising with anything else.
      • In gestalt settings, Monk//Cleric and Monk//Psychic Warrior can be excellent choices, the first benefiting from the sheer number of offensive cleric spells that are in "touch" range.
      • Even without multiclassing, it is possible to play this kind of character with the Monk subclass "Fist of the Four Elements", which has ki abilities that emulate the functionality of various spells, including (but not limited to): Fist of Four Thunders (Thunderwave), Wave of Rolling Earth (Wall of Stone), and Flames of the Phoenix (Fireball).
    • The Tome of Battle supplement adds a few options which support this trope, most of which involve the Swordsage.
      • A Swordsage who focuses on the disciplines of Desert Wind (fiery magical effects), Setting Sun (aikido-style trips, throws, and counters), and Shadow Hand (shadowy magical effects) blurs the lines between this trope and Magic Knight.
      • The unarmed variant Swordsage gives up light armor proficiency to gain unarmed attacks like a Monk. With the aforementioned disciplines of Desert Wind, Setting Sun, and Shadow Hand, it blurs the lines between this trope and Supernatural Martial Arts.
      • The arcane variant Swordsage gives up light armor proficiency to use spells instead of maneuvers. It mixes this trope with both Magic Knight and Supernatural Martial Arts.
      • The Jade Phoenix Mage prestige class lets a Crusader or Swordsage multiclass with an arcane spellcasting class more easily. Combined with the aforementioned unarmed variant Swordsage, it would fit this trope to a T.
    • There are also feats that make certain class combinations more viable. Ascetic Mage lets a Sorcerer/Monk (or Monk/Ex-Bard or Bard/Ex-Monk) add his spellcasting ability score to his armor class, Carmendine Monk lets a monk use his Intelligence instead of Wisdom for a lot of Monk abilities, including armor class (good for Wizards or Psions), and Tashalatora lets a character determine the power of certain Monk class features with the sum of his Monk levels and one psionic class (particularly good for Psychic Warriors and Ardents).
    • Prestige classes supporting this include the aforementioned Jade Phoenix Mage (swordsage/wizard specializing in fire), as well as Psionic Fist (monk/psionics), Enlightened Fist (monk/wizard users of Elemental Punch), and Sacred Fist (monk/cleric). Anything which could be used to create a Magic Knight can also be applied to unarmed strikes.
    • Even if multiclassed or gestalt spellcasters aren't your thing, you can still make a single-classed spellcaster with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, such as a grapplemancer-build wizard (Octopus familiar, enlarge spells), a Cleric (with magic weapon/greater magic weapon piled on a pair of gauntlets, and optionally the War domain), or a Druid (and magic fang/greater magic fang, although your Tiger's Claw technique may be quickly replaced with turning into an actual Tiger).
    • 4e specifically has the classes "Swordmage", "Spellsinger" (effectively a melee class with wizard-based abilities), and "Hexblade" (as Spellsinger, only with warlocks). There's also making a hybrid Sorcerer/monk, and designing sorcerer powers around using daggers as the implements; though not optimized, sorcerer builds can use Charisma as a main stat and Dex as the off stat, while newer Monk builds have the opposite, still allowing you to be fairly combat-effective.
    • 5e has the Tavern Brawler Feat, which lets the player use a d4 plus strength modifier for unarmed strikes instead of the usual 1 plus strength modifier. Not to mention the fact that this feat grants proficiency in improvised weapons. Likewise, a number of races have their own innate unarmed attacks, like claws, teeth, hooves, and horns. With the release of Tasha's, it's possible that, if one has proficiency with a Martial Weapon of some sort, to grab the Fighting Initiate feat, which lets one grab a Fighting Style from the fighter list, in this case, Unarmed Fighting, which lets one use a d6 plus strength modifier for a one-handed punch, or a d8 plus strength modifier for a two-handed punch, and lets them do d4 damage to anyone they've grappled.
  • In Exalted, virtually any sorcerer character will be either this or a Magic Knight. It's technically possible to make a Squishy Wizard, but since the game world assumes a certain amount of combat ability for all characters, you're just making life difficult for yourself if you do, and the core rules themselves warn against this. And that's not even going into the various Supernatural Martial Arts And Crafts...
  • Anyone who can use magic in Hong Kong Action Theatre is probably going to be this, thanks to every character being proficient in both Gun Fu and some form of Kung Fu as well.
  • Ironclaw: "Book of Jade" has martial arts styles including "Volcano Style" specifically for elemental wizards.
  • The Akashic Brothers in Mage: The Ascension are this trope all over. They represent the tradition of bringing about enlightenment through the harmonizing of the body and mind. A side effect of this is that pretty much every single Akashic knows how to perform amazing stunts and kick serious ass before they even whip out their reality-warping powers.
  • The Adamantine Arrow in Mage: The Awakening assumes this sort of person, being the security experts of the Awakened. The Perfected Adept takes it a step further.
  • Pathfinder has the same basic options in this area as Dungeons & Dragons above, with different feats and prestige classes. In particular, a series of feats exists which allow a character to cast a specific spell/magical ability after hitting with an unarmed strike.
    • It also has the Qinggong Monk class archetype, which swaps some of the standard monk abilities for ki-powered spell-like abilities.
    • The Warpriest, a Fighter/Cleric hybrid, leans more towards Magic Knight due to its proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor, but can easily be built as an unarmed brawler who also happens to be endowed with divinely-granted magic powers. The class's Sacred Fist archetype is explicitly devoted to this trope, exchanging the Warpriest's Fighter elements for Monk abilities, with the result being a character with equal strengths in divine magic and unarmed combat.
    • Going into third-party material, the Meditant archetype for the Psychic Warrior is a psionic monk, combining the Psy-Warrior's powerset and the monk's hand-to-hand fighting ability.
  • Physical Magicians (as distinct from Physical Adepts) in Shadowrun.
  • Warhammer has them in the form of Skaven's Clan Eshin sorcerers who are ninjas as well. While their sorcerers aren't up to the magical prowess of Grey Seers or Skryre Warlock-Engineers, they make up for the weaker powers with some pretty vicious hitting power and knife work. Dark Elves count as well with their Doomfire Warlocks who are melee cavalry with some spellcasting ability.
  • There are several examples in Warhammer 40,000:
    • Dark Heresy mostly keeps its Psykers fairly squishy, making it harder for them to improve physical stats or learn combat skills. But then there's the Templar Calix career option, which lets you turn your wimpy freak into a mind-raping ninja assassin, dual-wielding psionically charged swords and specialising in hand-to-hand combat.
    • More generally, Imperial Space Marine Librarians are powerful psykers and also still Space Marines, i.e., genetically and surgically modified seven-foot-tall Super Soldiers. Inverted with the Grey Knights chapter (where every Marine is a psyker) who are demon-hunting Magic Knights instead (using their magic to boost their physical attacks). Zig-zagged with Grey Knights Librarians, who do both at the same time.
    • As are their Chaos Space Marine counterparts, Sorcerors.
    • Eldar Farseers and Warlocks are also very tough in physical combat.
    • And you wouldn't want to have to fight a Tyranid psyker hand-to-claw either.
    • Rarely, human Psykers proved to be a step above in mental discipline than the rest, and become Primaris Psykers. While Psykers are commonly subject to Fantastic Racism from the Imperial Guards, Primaris are a whole different level, viewed with a mixture of awe and fear. Those who master the Maelstrom of Destruction path could not wield weapons while using their powers, but they won't need to as they can rip apart armors barehanded.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Neo the Magic Swordsman is a spellcaster-type whose card text describes him as a practitioner of swordfighting and martial arts.

    Video Games 
  • Himika the red spirit in Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword is unique for her class time because rather than being a Squishy Wizard, she's a straight-up brawler who does best in melee. While she can work as a caster, her effectiveness declines quickly due to dropping Mind values.
  • Maria Renard, best known for her powerful Summon Magic, can punch and kick monsters into submission in the Sega Saturn re-release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
  • Conviction (SRPG): Emperor Abyss fights with his fists in combat animations despite wielding axes and swords in his status screen. In chapter 20A, he'll have the Meteorite spell, allowing him to deal AOE damage at a distance.
  • The Elf of Dragon's Crown has this as one of her potential builds. Investing in both Elemental Lore and Deadly Boots allows the Elf to rain Fire Balls upon her enemies when the surroundings works to her favor and kick enemies to death when they don't.
  • Dragon Quest:
    • Dragon Quest III: Zoma uses no weapon; He's just as fond as trying to crush you with those huge arms of his as he is to hurl deathly cold at you. That said, his physical combat skills seem to fall under Unskilled, but Strong in that he generally just applies big, heavy swipes.
    • Dragon Quest XI: Rab is a skilled martial artist who can use a variety of offensive and healing spells. Jade definitely learned her martial arts abilities from him, and her form closely mimics his.
  • Dual Blades and Slashers: The Power Battle: Two such characters on the rosters of the games are named Rungard and Nagasapa. The former is an Evil Sorcerer who is devoted to bringing about chaos for his own twisted amusement while the latter is a Kazakh Necromancer, but a more benevolent example, who fights for the spirits of nature.
  • In Dungeon Crawl, transmuters start with skill in unarmed combat and better physical stats than most other spellcasting classes. This becomes especially useful when you get access to their shapeshifting spells.
  • Dungeonmans: Fully possible with many builds. The Psychomanser skills (for the Kung Fu half) mixed with any set of Wizardmans skills (Foominology, Cryoscience, Tricksonometry). Even the Psychomanser skills dip into it by having an entire branch dedicated to applied telekinesis, so you see Bare Fisted Monks sometimes stopping to levitate weapons and pelt enemies with them, or create explosive barricades out of otherwise useless armor.
  • In the Dynasty Warriors series, many characters such as Sima Yi, Pang Tong, Zhang Jiao, etc. are literally squishy wizards who back up their magical attacks with martial arts prowess.
  • EarthBound (1994) has a cast of colorful psychic magic-wielding kids. Any of them can be unarmed, invoking this trope. Poo is definitely an example, however, as he's constantly wearing a Gi and doesn't even HAVE a weapon. Except for one really rare one, the Sword Of Kings, but even with it equipped the command is still "bash" as if he doesn't actually use it, and sticks to his bare hands. His psychic powers also rival Ness'.
  • Xavier Pendragon from Eternal Champions might count as one, since he uses a combination of Hapkido Cane and alchemy in his fighting style.
  • Familia: Unlike most of her other family members, Marlene has a high MP pool and can use ice magic. She's also skilled in martial arts, hence her moniker, the Legendary Blizzard Fist.
  • Every Final Fantasy that allows one to customize the characters with magic can do this with the martial artist. Sabin, Tifa, and Zell can all punch and cast spells as need be. Sabin is particularly notable because with the exception of his two weakest attacks, every one his blitzes is based on his magic stat.
    • Final Fantasy V gives a monk magic commands for a very underbalanced version. You could also give the "Barehanded" ability to mages, allowing them to deal heavy damage with both attacks and magic.
    • Final Fantasy XII: The Big Bad Vayne surprisingly fights this way beating you with his bare hands, throwing Ki Manipulation, unblockable Last Disc Magic, and a horde of magical swords at you.
    • Final Fantasy XIII gives us Cid Raines fighting with high-speed martial arts and high-powered Ruin spells. Snow Villiers can fulfill this trope as well when set as a Ravager, do to being able to attack both physically and magically with bare fists and ice-covered punches.
    • In Final Fantasy Tactics, it's possible to have a party member as a Monk that can also use magic from other jobs like White Mage and Summoner.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Byleth-exclusive Enlightened One class, as well as DLC-only War Monk/War Cleric classes all have proficiencies with both magic and brawling. The latter two are somewhat skewed towards physical side, as their magic growths are low, and they can use magic only at half normal uses.
    • Fire Emblem Engage has Martial Monk and Martial Artist classes, both of which can use both body arts and healing/supportive staves. High Priest class can use these, as well as attacking tomes, in exchange for weaker brawling proficiency.
  • Shikanoin Heizou of Genshin Impact is an Anemo catalyst user who, rather than fighting with magical projectiles like other catalyst-wielding characters, uses his Vision-granted powers to augment his existing martial arts skills, delivering powerful wind-infused punches and kicks.
  • Sveta in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a beast-girl who fights with a martial-arts style, casts powerful wind and lightning Psynergy, and turns into a giant werewolf... who can still use martial arts and Psynergy.
    • Having been trained as a martial artist before becoming an Adept, it's reasonable to assume Feizhi grew up into one of these after Golden Sun.
    • Ivan's sister Hama trains the people of Xian in kung-fu, and Ivan and the aforementioned Feizhi in Psynergy, so this can be assumed of her, too.
    • For a villainous (maybe) example, Agatio in The Lost Age prefers bare fists to a weapon but has the largest variety of Psynergy attacks among the Fire Clan antagonists. His two signature attacks are Rising Dragon, which normally requires a specific sword and a high Luck Stat, and Meteor Drop... which is to say, he casts the Meteor summon spell as a regular Psynergy attack.
  • I=MGCM: Unlike the rest of Magical Girl Warrior dresses, only Iroha's Ultimate Magica dress fits this trope. There are 3 skills available (the first two are enhanced melee attacks): "Heroic Blaze" (the moveset is referenced from Kamen Rider's Rider Kick), "Saint Anger", and "Flare Justice".
  • Bioware's wuxia Action/RPG game Jade Empire includes lots of examples. Many NPCs employ chi-based magical attacks, and so may the player-character. Two characters, Scholar Ling and Monk Zeng, are predefined to specialise in magic, but you can customise any character with this emphasis, and by the end of the game you too will be a Kung-Fu Wizard.
  • On the Dark Side ending of Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy you'll have to face your former Jedi Master, Kyle Katarn as the final boss. In addition to attacking you with his lightsaber and sorcery, he'll also beat you with his bare hands.
  • Thonolan, the protagonist of the NES game Kick Master, is a martial artist who learns spells he discovers along the way, such as healing, flight, and lightning.
  • Many Kingdom Hearts characters are Magic Knights, but the series' best example of this particular trope is No Heart, an Optional Boss of Master Xehanort's armor in Birth by Sleep: Final Mix. He could just hit you with his Keyblade, but why settle for that when he can morph it into a piece of armour and punch / kick you with it?
  • Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: Thanks to the newly-introduced Unarmed Combat feat tree (the first game favored characters being armed), your player character (who learns this feat tree naturally) can mix a genuine martial arts style with their Force powers. In fact, almost all characters in Force-based classes can learn the Unarmed Combat feat.
  • Kung Fu Master: The Magician, although he uses stage magic and not real magic.
  • The Legend of Zelda's Ganondorf is frequently described as a "master wizard," but in the games themselves this power seems to be relegated specifically to fireballs, punching and kicking people to death while using dark energy to power up, swordplay, or turning into a beast to bite and claw victims.
    • Most of Ganon's magic isn't related to combat: he uses fireballs/energy blasts, he occasionally flies, but that's about it. He is very well-versed in large-scale barrier magic, summoning Phantoms, and cursing entire societies (freezing Zora's Domain seems to be a favorite).
    • Zelda. As a princess, she is mostly a Lady of Black Magic but can deliver powerful magical blows; while as a ninja... You get the idea.
    • Vaati. In The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, he wins a sword fighting contest of people from around the world. In the Japanese version, it was martial arts.
  • Mass Effect:
    • When she doesn't have a gun on hand, Jack's preferred mode of combat is to deliver biotic charges by punching people.
    • Thane, while lacking Jack's raw power, also combines hand-to-hand and biotics to lethal effect. His Shadow Broker dossier in Mass Effect 2 details examples of this technique, such as his standard method for neutralizing asari targets. Said dossier also reveals that he's capable of killing krogan in hand-to-hand combat, though all things considered he thinks it's easier to just use a bomb against them.
    • Vanguard Shepard definitely qualifies in Mass Effect 3 with their heavy melee attack, which is a very Thane-esque biotic punch. With the right armors and talent build, it can even One-Hit Kill unprotected Mooks.
  • In Mortal Kombat, every character is some form of martial artist, so it's only naturally the magic-users fall into this trope:
    • Shang Tsung is a legendary martial arts champion who betrayed Earthrealm to become an Evil Sorcerer in the service of The Emperor Shao Kahn, who himself is a powerful warrior well versed in the dark arts, although he mostly uses brute force while his servant more on magic and cunning. Both use their soul-stealing magic to empower themselves and others, with Tsung in particular preferring to steal the souls of powerful warriors to improve his already impressive martial arts skills further still.
    • Another Evil Sorcerer in MK is Quan Chi, a denizen of The Netherrealm who plots with his master Shinnok, both of whom are primarily spellcasters who happen to be excellent fighters. Quan Chi deserves a special mention as it is established that his fighting prowess actually comes from using his magic to become an Instant Expert in fighting styles like Escrima and Tang Soo Do, and when he loses access to his powers at one point his true native skill level turns out to be almost novice.
    • There is also Tanya, who is a skilled martial artist and expert in the dark arts.
  • Nethack: The Monk. Uniquely among the playable classes, they're restricted from using weapons but are much more capable in unarmed combat than everyone else combined. They're also the second-best caster in the game, being the only class aside from the Wizard that can gain proficiency in every school of magic- heck, Monks even start equipped with a Robe, which boosts their casting abilities even further.
  • Neverwinter Nights lets players mix and match multiple character classes, but the original campaign has a fine example of an Elvish Kung-Fu Wizard Pirate who shows up as an Elite Mook in Chapter 1, with very little explanation.
  • Ninja Gaiden: The Ninja characters are trained in martial arts, Ki Manipulation and, in the case of the heroic ninja, elemental magic.
  • Persona: Most Persona-users would qualify as Magic Knights, but there's always one party member in each game who prefers using their fists or feet instead of a weapon (that said, you can equip them with special gloves, boots, etc.):
    • The original Persona has Reiji Kido, whose melee weapon is listed simply as "Fists".
    • Persona 2: In Innocent Sin, Lisa Silverman is a literal Kung Fu Wizard, while Eternal Punishment's Ulala Serizawa is very much a boxer.
    • Persona 3's Akihiko Sanada is the captain of the school boxing team and puts those skills to good use in battle.
    • Chie Satonaka of Persona 4 is another literal example; she's obsessed with kung fu and her sole non-Persona-based method of attack is kicking things.
    • In Persona 5, Makoto Niijima is a rather brutal fistfighter.
  • Phantasy Star Online 2 allows players to make a Kung-Fu Wizard character by combining a Knuckle-wielding Fighter main class with a magic-using subclass like Force, Techer, or Bouncer. Bouncers, themselves, can also use a variety of kicking techniques in conjunction with magic using Jet Boots.
  • In Psychonauts, Razputin's biggest asset isn't his unusually strong Psychic Block Defense or learning capabilities, but his lifelong training in acrobatics, making him a Dance Battler with Full-Contact Magic in a field primarily composed of Squishy Wizards.
  • Rune Factory 4 makes it possible to be a Kung-Fu Wizard along with a Magic Knight with the introduction of Glove weapons that can, of course, be used in conjunction with magic skills.
  • Kyogoku Maria in Sengoku Basara 4. She is an immensely powerful sorceress who can fight physically as a Dance Battler and magically with her sleeves, and she can even conjure up enormous veils.
  • An example of a Combat Medic meets the Kung-Fu Wizard are the monks and master monks in the Shining franchise. Shining Force gives us Gong, a monk who knows how to cast healing spells and can stand his own in combat. Then in Shining Force II, monks can be made even more powerful to near Game-Breaker levels. Sarah and Karna gain the Blast spell, so they can not only send someone packing with their fists but can also inflict a little magic damage. The Remake of Shining Force also allows Gong to attack with a wave of energy.
  • Rose from Street Fighter, a mystic who fights with Soul Power and her enchanted scarf. Her apprentice Menat uses a crystal ball instead.
    • Oro is a master of Senjutsu from which ninjitsu is descended from.
  • Super Mario Bros.: Bowser prefers to rely on pure physical strength and his Breath Weapon the majority of the time, and leave the magic to his Magikoopas, but some games show he is also quite adept at using magic himself. Multiple games involve him stealing some kind of magical artifact, which he is able to wield like a pro immediately.
  • Super Smash Bros. has a few examples.
    • Zelda and Ganondorf are both known as wizards in their home series. The former fights completely barehanded, though accentuated by magic, and the latter is a clone of Captain Falcon, except replace fire powers with dark powers (that the game still registers as fire).
    • Ness and Lucas also both stick to barehanded fighting accentuated by their psychic powers. Ness only uses weapons for his Smash attacks, Lucas only does it for his Forward Smash. Everything else are unarmed strikes, with or without magical effects, or their PK attacks which are clear spell casts. And even then PK Thunder's main use is to direct it into themselves for flying headbutts.
  • Hermana Larmo from Tales of Innocence can utilize magic of every element, but is more adept at punching out her enemies. The Vita remake narrows her magic down to a few buffing spells, further emphasizing her fists.
  • Dhaos from Tales of Phantasia is primarily a spellcaster, but will readily dish out a bare-handed beatdown to anyone who gets too close to him with his Tetra Assault arte. He gets an extremely powerful upgraded version of it called Million Assault in Tales Of VS.
  • Sync the Tempest from Tales of the Abyss is capable of casting several high-level spells and Daathic fonic artes but spends most of the time pummeling you with his fists.
  • Tekken 7 features a man named "Claudio Serafino" who fights using an arcane artform known as "Sirius-styled Black Magic". His main gameplay gimmick is, with certain attacks, he can store magical energy in his right arm (the one covered by black wrappings) that allow him to cash in later to tack on an extra hit for some of his attacks (his Rage Art also involves constructing a magical bow and arrow from his power and harpooning the foe). However, Tekken being as it is he is still predominantly a fist-to-fist martial artist.
  • Byakuren Hijiri from Touhou Project is said to be an example - while she is a proficient wielder of both holy and arcane magic, her specialty is said to be powerful body-manipulation she casts on herself to augment her physical prowess. Even in the games, where she is limited by the strict rules of spellcard duels and the realities of the genre, she shows a bit of this with her spellcard "Superhuman: Byakuren Hijiri", which allows her to zip around the screen about as fast as Aya. Helps that she's a monk of the Kung Fu variety.
    • The fighting game Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade gives a far better show of her abilities, which include super strength aside of her already known extremely high speed.
    • The MUGEN fan-made character known as "Previous Hakurei Miko", who is supposed to be the protagonist's predecessor, also relies on divinely augmented bare-fisted brawling.
  • Several of the classes in World of Warcraft could qualify for this. While some are purer Squishy Wizards, there are others: Shamans that enchant their mace with fire and then punch you in the face with it, Paladins who blast things with holy power while chopping them up with swords, et cetera.
    • The latest expansion pack introduced Monks, an example of a quite literal Kung-Fu Wizard.
    • All three of the above examples are also healing classes, making this overlap with Combat Medic. For monks and paladins, the combat part is emphasized; they literally have to land a blow on enemies to gather charges for their healing spells.

    Webcomics 
  • Richard of Looking for Group has unbelievably destructive magics at his command, but is also a very capable melee fighter who can even pull off a flawless Vulcan Nerve Pinch through armor. As he puts it: "I drained the soul of a monk once. It tasted like chocolate."
  • The Order of the Stick: Xykon is a surprisingly talented brawler who doesn't seem to mind finishing a fight with a good old-fashioned neck snap. Of course, to him, this is merely Cherry Tapping as a side-effect of being an immortal undead and a high-level sorcerer (which gives him a Base Attack on par with a mid-level fighter).
    • His being a lich means that his touch can inflict paralysis, which is a bit of a cheat as far as the Kung-Fu portion of this trope is concerned since an enemy that can't move and defend itself probably doesn't require a lot of finesse to defeat. He does have to get close enough to the foe and succeed at touching them though.

    Web Original 
  • Several of the fighters in Dead Fantasy, but Tifa is definitely the best example.
  • Desolate Era: Some characters can fight as wizards, others can only fight with their body, but some can do both.
  • It’s not unusual for villains and heroes in Nocte Yin to use both magic and martial arts.
  • In the Whateley Universe, Bladedancer is not only becoming a fearsome martial artist and user of chi, but is also taking lessons in magic, and has used spell slips in fights.

    Western Animation 
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Elemental bending can be best described as magically augmented martial arts, though in the very first episode it's made clear that bending itself is NOT magic (later episodes and the sequel series The Legend of Korra go into detail about how humans first learned bending from animals and semi-divine nature spirits). While the ability to bend has become an inborn talent by the time the series takes place, becoming competent typically requires years of study, and all bending techniques are done through martial arts. Each element corresponds to a real martial art form, and the competitive sport of pro-bending in The Legend of Korra serves as the Avatar equivalent to real-life MMA fighting, albeit with teams.
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Dr. Fate learned martial arts in the event his magic is taken. Even so, he's not shy about telling Batman that he would rather use magic.
  • Castlevania: Nocturne: At first, Richter cannot use magic due to a Psychosomatic Superpower Outage. Once he regains his command over magic, however, he weaves spells into his fighting style, encasing his fists in ice when fighting barehanded, channelling blue flames or lightning through his whip, and unleashing blasts of fire from his hands at point-blank range.
  • The Dragon Prince
    • Sky mages tend to be this; they can magically enhance their movement, allowing bursts of speed and leaps of great length. They are also known for being incredibly agile, making them excellent acrobats and even thieves.
    • When fighting against the guards sent by the High Council, Viren uses his staff in a combination of magic and physical attacks, displaying some rather impressive skills in martial arts. Even without magic, his skills are impressive; he manages to hold his own against two members of the Dragonguard at th
  • Jackie Chan Adventures
    • Uncle, due in part to his status as a chi wizard, with martial arts being very good for strengthening one's chi.
    • Tohru qualifies, having learned some chi magic from Uncle after his Heel–Face Turn, also making him a Genius Bruiser.
    • Big Bad Shendu, but to a much lesser extent. His son Drago, however, is a very capable Kung-Fu Wizard, able to hold his own against Jackie Chan. Several of Shendu's siblings also show traits of this trope when they are forced to fight Chan, but it's barely seen, and any potential they have is held back.
    • Tarakudo, the Arc Villain of Season 4, is this when he's in his physical body.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Glimmer levels up into this. At first, she relies heavily on her teleportation and magical sparkles in combat, to mixed success, but toward the end of the first season, she delivers a teleporting aerial punch that lays out Shadow Weaver in a single blow. In the second, she's mixing teleportation, her father's magical blasting staff, and some pretty solid unarmed strikes, allowing her to go up against both Catra and Scorpia and manage at least a reasonable level of success.
  • Star Wars: Clone Wars: After being disarmed of his lightsaber during the Battle of Dantooine, Mace Windu takes on the Separatist Droid Army with just his fists and the Force alone.
  • Storm Hawks: Piper is a crystal mage who is also a staff fighter and the team's best martial artist, being a practitioner of "Sky Fu." Master Cyclonis, although she prefers the "magic" side in battle, is also no slouch in using her staff or hand-to-hand either.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): The incarnation of Usagi Yojimbo's Jei the black wolf is a very talented sorcerer that hypnotizes the Turtles to try to kill Miyamoto Usagi for him. He's also very capable of fighting Usagi in physical combat himself, and in a dream, faces Leo and owns his shell.
  • Winx Club: Nabu supplements his magic skills with martial arts.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Kung Fu Magic

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Mereoleona Vermillion

Mereoleona Vermillion is an incredibly powerful mage, fighting by concentrating an immense amount of mana in her arm and moving at superhuman speed.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (16 votes)

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