Basic Trope: The Laws and Customs of War as applied to the technology of a sci-fi/fantasy setting.
- Straight: Wizards are forbidden to use fire spells in warfare because they cause unnecessary pain and scarring to enemy combatants and ravage the countryside with out of control infernos.
- Exaggerated: Fire spells are banned worldwide, forbidden to be taught or used by magic users anywhere for fear they might be used destructively.
- Downplayed: Fire spells are not officially banned, but wizards don't use them because they don't want to give their enemies justification to retaliate in kind.
- Justified: The first time fire spells were used in war, they ended up causing more harm than good for both sides. It quickly became obvious that they benefit no one, so they were unanimously banned.
- Subverted: Fire spells are banned by international law, but wizards still use them anyway because they're so effective.
- Double Subverted: Despite the fire spell ban, wizards still use them, so the soldiers on both sides of the war kill their own wizards to spare each other a terrifying holocaust.
- Parodied: A wizard uses magic to help his soldiers light a fire on a cold night in camp. "Hey!" the shivering enemy army shouts from across the field, "That's not fair!"
- Deconstructed: The fire spell ban gives less scrupulous nations an advantage in war, since they don't care about humanitarian concerns. History is Written by the Winners, after all.
- Reconstructed: The fire spell ban gives less scrupulous nations an advantage in war, until the neutral powers see the horror it causes and are convinced to unite against the perpetrators.
- Averted: There are no special laws governing the use of magic in warfare.
- Enforced: Wizards are forbidden to use fire spells because all those special effects are expensive.
- Implied: Wizards are reminded not to use fire spells during their upcoming battle.
- Lampshaded: "After the First Magic War, it became clear that fire spells are hugely destructive, so the nations of the world signed a treaty outlawing them."
- Invoked: The inventor of the fire spell stages a demonstration of their destructiveness, hoping to convince people to take steps to control their use.
- Defied: A strategist, knowing fire spells may be banned in the coming years, instructs his wizards to use them in a controlled and humane manner to forestall any public outcry that might hasten such a ban.
- Exploited: A strategist, knowing fire spells may be banned in the coming years, instructs his wizards to focus their offensive training on lightning spells instead to get a head start on the competition.
- Discussed: "As amazing as this new magic is, I shudder to think what will happen the first time it's used as a weapon of war."
- Played for Laughs:
- The item banned by conventions is the military use of jokes.
- The conventions are enforced by Lawful Stupid representatives who will sentence a wizard to a hundred years in a dungeon for the dire crime of lighting up his cigarrette with a flame (which is not even a billionth of the strength of a fireball) spell and can't do the necessary procedures right.
- Played for Drama:
- The item banned by conventions can cause tremendous calamity if it is not sanctioned (such as a Fireball spell with the explosive capacity of a nuclear weapon). Which more often than not will lead to some jackass on both sides to seek out a secret way to manufacture, stockpile and deploy said spells for the sake of maintaining superiority.
- The conventions are enforced by Obstructive Bureaucrat-type representatives who have hindered lives and overall progress for the mere suspicion of the development of fire spells, regardless of their use in warfare.
- Played for Horror:
- The item banned by conventions is flat-out inhumane (such as zombification spells). Which will more often than not lead to true-blue psychos violating the conventions because there are rules begging them not to.
- The conventions are enforced by Knight Templar-type representatives who casually murder anybody suspected of violating them in any way, shape or form.
- The lack of an endgame tactic that is not "go over there and slaughter every single enemy by hand" because of the treaties banning them turns the conflict into a Forever War with all other (un-banned) atrocities turned up to eleven.
- Because both sides of the conflict fear being the one who ends up losing because they broke the rules and gave the other side a justification to unleash everything that was banned in a Final Solution, they allow the conflict to turn into a quagmire that runs for far longer that it should and kills much more people in worthless tactics to keep the status quo.
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