Basic Trope: A character who, despite lacking the magical enhancements of the main cast, still holds their own in a fight against those that DO possess magical enhancements.
- Straight: Bob is the only character on The Team who cannot use any sort of magic. Despite only having a sword, he is more than capable of contributing to the team's success.
- Exaggerated:
- Everyone, including animals, can use magic...except for Bob, but he doesn't let this get him down.
- Despite everyone else having reality-altering supermagic, Bob (who has no magic or fighting skills of any sort whatsoever) is a One-Man Army.
- Bob, the most ordinary average joe possible, can go toe to toe with God, Eldritch Abominations, Reality Warpers and Cosmic Entities and win.
- Downplayed:
- Bob can't use magic like the other characters, but the other characters' magic abilities are too situational or low-powered to be notable.
- Fights Like a Normal
- Justified:
- Muggles Do It Better and the superpowered beings haven't been able to adapt.
- Bob lacks The Gift that allows people to use magic, but trains really hard to make up for it.
- Anyone that uses Magic is a Squishy Wizard.
- Magicians are still human (or demihuman), so they are just as vulnerable as everyone else to bullet/swords/arrows. Bob is just a skilled sniper/sword fighter/archer.
- Bob's four friends, Alice the Noble Bird of Prey, Dave the King of Beasts, Charlie the Cool Horse, and Emily the Noble Wolf, are all Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals, and only animals can use magic. Bob, the Token Human, learns to imbue his sword with spells, creating physical elemental attacks.
- Bob is the director of an organization full of superhumans, and the rule is that the director has to be normal for plot reasons (acting as The Heart for the superhumans, The Face for the muggle population, The Strategist for the organization as a whole etc.)
- Bob is a Science Hero with lots of Magitek to produce similar effects as the mages.
- Bob is a Guile Hero; he can't outfight or overpower his enemies, but he can outsmart them.
- The lack of magical powers has forced Bob to excel in ways that most mages don't care about, like field medicine, which has made him more adaptable in an emergency (mages that don't have the juice or knowledge to cast healing spells tend to bleed out because they don't know what to do).
- Inverted:
- Bob is the only person on Earth who's capable of using magic, and he needs it to keep up with his teammates, who are all Strong and Skilled fighters.
- Bob, the one non-magical character, is completely useless and considered The Load.
- Subverted:
- 1. ) Bob can use magic - he just keeps it secret so he can bust it out unexpectedly during a fight.
- 2.) It's revealed Bob's proficiency at martial arts and other physical fighting has a magical origin.
- 3.) Bob is a Miles Gloriosus, Fake Ultimate Hero, or only Badass on Paper.
- 4.) It turns out that muggles in this world can create a belief-induced Anti-Magic field, which is a good trump card, when the enemy relies on magic.
- Double Subverted:
- 1.) Turns out that his magic is in the form of pre-made magical reagents that he can not make himself. Whenever tapping into said magic, he's an Empowered Badass Normal.
- 2.) The magical origin is Magitek that aids his training. He doesn't use it during battle.
- 3.) Bob Took a Level in Badass or was just pretending to be a wimp to fool his enemies with bravado that he can actually back up.
- 4.) While anyone can created the belief-induced Anti-Magic field, it takes Heroic Willpower to make one strong enough to matter, and any decently trained mage can power through it with their own belief in their own magic. Bob, however, is a hardcore Flat-Earth Atheist and this, alongside his large amounts of training, essentially turns him into an anti-magic juggernaut.
- Parodied: The people who use magic aren't good at it, and Bob is a world-class fighter capable of using several different martial arts. However, Bob moans about his lack of magic at any given opportunity.
- Zig Zagged: Bob can use magic, but he's not very good at it. At least, that's what he claims...
- Averted:
- Bob can use magic, or some other powerset as good as magic, and is not "normal" at all.
- Bob is an ordinary Muggle and can't hold his own in a fight against magic users.
- Enforced: "Well, crap - every other character on this show has some generic magic power, but I can't think of any new powers to give to Bob." "How about you just write it to where he's a really good martial artist?"
- Lampshaded:
- "Why haven't you used your magic yet?"
- "You have no powers, you took on an insanely powerful supervillain, and you won!? Damn Bob, you're hardcore."
- Invoked: Knowing that he doesn't have magical skills like everyone else, Bob trains harder and becomes a martial arts expert.
- Exploited:
- Knowing that their main villain and *all* of his henchmen are magic-users who rely heavily on magic, Bob's team (even though they are also mostly magic-users) all learn to cast anti-magic spells, to render everyone defenceless, except Bob, who can then mop the floor with the enemy using his superior mundane combat skills.
- Defied:
- Bob decides to learn magic.
- As a muggle, Bob is constantly teleported away or mindwiped by the wizards that enforce the masquerade whenever things get serious. Aside from this inconvenience, Bob's life is never truly affected by wizard shenanigans.
- Discussed: "Bob's martial arts skills must be incredible if he can't use magic and is still able to keep up with the rest of his team!"
- Conversed:
- "Have you ever wondered how this guy with no special abilities can still fight magically-empowered villains and win using nothing more than kung fu?" "This guy is The Protagonist, duh."
- "How can a guy with no powers be so overpowered in these shows?" "At least he's relatable."
- Deconstructed:
- Bob finds himself being completely outperformed by his allies who have access to magic.
- Bob's lack of magical prowess is viewed as a handicap by his magic-using peers, given what they face. Whether or not this actually restricts him depends on the degree of cynicism of the story.
- Magic users have a tendency to learn martial arts and tactical thinking as well, in order to give themselves an even greater advantage over others during a real battle. The natural result is that when Bob encounters an enemy who is both equally combat skilled and magically talented, Bob's magical handicap ultimately becomes his undoing and he is vaporized without fanfare.
- Bob's lack of magical abilities causes him to develop a very crippling inferiority complex, despite his impressive fighting skills. The 'Verse is split between people who view him as pathetic or underestimate him, and those who view him as a savior because of his skills, while Bob himself is unable to really appreciate his own contributions.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob is not outperformed by the mages because he can perform superhuman feats himself. This is not treated as superpowers but training really, really hard for a long time.
- Bob understands the limitations of magic, and can exploit them to his advantage, thereby becoming a Mage Killer.
- Bob recognizes this handicap and compensates by learning enough about magic to cancel out his opponents' magic skills, thereby evening the playing field.
- Bob's Love Interest, knowing that he feels inadequate for lacking magical powers, gives him a Smooch of Victory after every battle.
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