History Main / MasterOfNone

* [[CityOfHeroes Tri-Form Kheldians]] can easily fall into this trap if the player spreads their enhancement slots too thin rather than choosing to make certain powers better at the price of others.

*** There are several Pokemon that aren't useful as their stats are often too rounded, but Glalie is a good one. Apart from awful typing, all of it's stats are an average 80.

** T34, considered the best tank of WWII, was extremely reliable and had excellent off-road capability. Unfortunately it's armor and main gun were even worse than the Shermans, requiring the tanks to get extremely close to the German tanks to score a penetrating hit, while the Germans could engage from long range with ease. The later versions and the 85 remodel with thicker armour and an 85mm anti-tank cannon even the playing field, but at a cost of speed and off-road handling.
** Even the Germans had one with the Panzer-III, a medium tank later classified as a light/scout tank. Fast and with a powerful 50mm AT gun, it's tracks were too narrow and impaired it's all terrain performance, and the cannon fired too small a HE shell for dealing with field guns and infantry. The Panzer-IV could also count, with superior armor and weaponry over their rivals, but with major performance issues at first as well as being more expensive and time consuming to produce.

One of the classic and most common character types is the generalist, a jack-of-all-trades with capabilities in all fields and no particular weaknesses.

It is the inevitable side-effect of any game that has either multiple playable characters or a character customization system that such games will enable specialization in one field or another. Maybe they're a MightyGlacier who is slow but powerful as opposed to the FragileSpeedster who gives up power for mobility, or they're a GlassCannon or SquishyWizard whose massive power comes at the cost of needing to hide behind a friendly MeatShield. It follows that if you can choose to specialize in and master any of these fields that you can generally also choose to just spread your points around as evenly as possible, either because you want to avoid the drawbacks of one choice, or because the player is simply too indecisive to simply make one choice and stick with it.

Here, however, is where the genre of game you are playing and the game philosophies of the developers significantly diverge.

In many fighting games, or other games where a single character is expected to be equal to any other character, the generalist becomes TheMario, the character who can excell because they have no weaknesses even if they have no particular strengths, and as such, their versatility is their strength. This is because they adhere to the philosophy of CripplingOverspecialization, where any power gained from specialization is offset by a proportionate weakness.

In many RPG or strategy games, however, where you are expected to either make a specialized solo adventurer or have a team of party members whose individual strengths cover for other's individual weaknesses, there is nothing crippling about specialization, and the game may even outright make success impossible without specialization.

For example, consider if you are playing a game where you need to pick locks to open treasure chests to get better equipment. Only one character needs to be able to pick locks, as you can simply pick the best lock-picker to always pick those locks, but that character needs some arbitrary number of character points spent on, or levels gained in some particular class or job to be able to do that task. If you have a dozen characters, all with half as many points as it takes to open the chests, tough, you still fail. [[EigenPlot Someone has to have that specific specialization to succeed, and the other characters must depend upon that specialized character when that situation arises]].

In games that are all about customizing a single hero, meanwhile, you may face challenges where you can only succeed if you are very gifted in stealth and can sneak around a threat, very gifted in diplomacy, and can CunningLinguist your way out of trouble, or if you are simply focused enough on combat that you can overcome a martial threat that a generalist couldn't. If you aren't focused on one of these acceptable specializations, however, the game becomes {{Unwinnable}} until you can try to tackle the challenge again with an actual specialization.

In games with significant character customization, this often becomes a matter of both MinMaxing and WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer. Essentially, the game is made so that if you pick one certain path (such as, say, being a SquishyWizard,) the game is built in such a way that your one chosen specialization will always be applicable, even when you should be facing your WeaksauceWeakness. If your SquishyWizard faces a horde of melee enemies, you can use your superior magic power to just set up impenetrable walls that shield you from combat, or summon monsters that act as your meatshield. If you had built a SpoonyBard character who tries to mix-and-match powers, however, none of your powers will be sufficient to overcome any one particular challenge.

In games where you cannot significantly customize, but have a large repetoire of characters with various powers to make up your team to accomplish your missions, and the ability to change those party members out, the master of none is the character who can never fulfill any role better than a specialist can, '''AND''' there is no particular penalty for taking a more specialized character, meaning they will always be a worse choice than a specialized character, even if that specialized character is facing their own weakness, or if their weakness can be fairly easily compensated for.

Compare TheMario, a generalist done usefully, and TheRedMage, a magic generalist. Contrast CripplingOverspecialization, which goes too far in the opposite direction, and the RenaissanceMan and LightningBruiser, who are excellent at everything.

** Actually, the Multicam only performed well in jungle environments. Of course, it might be more logical to use several different patterns, but you know, the trials were to find a "universal camouflage pattern", [[SunkenCostFallacy so...]]

Compare TheMario, a generalist done usefully, and TheRedMage, a magic generalist. Contrast CripplingOverspecialization, which goes too far in the opposite direction, and the LightningBruiser, who is excellent at everything.

** Mystic Theurges are another example, suffering from stunted casting in a game where casters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards grow exponentially]], loss of the benefits of each casting type (divine mages can cast in armor with no problems, but arcane mages have a decent chance their spells will fail, meaning a MT shouldn't wear armor like a pure divine caster), and unless the build is Wizard/Archivist/Mystic Theurge or Sorcerer/Shugenja/Mystic Theurge, they need to buff two attributes to be able to cast high level spells.

** Mystic Theurges are another example, suffering from stunted casting in a game where casters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards grow exponentially]], loss of the benefits of each casting type (divine mages can cast in armor with no problems, but arcane mages have a decent chance their spells will fail with armor, meaning a MT shouldn't wear armor like a pure divine caster), and unless the build is Wizard/Archivist/Mystic Theurge or Sorcerer/Shugenja/Mystic Theurge, they need to buff two attributes to be able to cast high level spells.

** Mystic Theurges are another example, suffering from stunted casting in a game where casters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards grow exponentially]], loss of the benefits of each casting type (divine spell casters can cast in armor, but arcane mage can't, meaning a MT can't wear armor as a pure divine caster can), and unless the build is Wizard/Archivist/Mystic Theurge or Sorcerer/Shugenja/Mystic Theurge, they need to buff two attributes to be able to cast high level spells.

One of the classic and most common character types is the generalist, a jack-of-all-trades with capabilities in all fields and no particular weaknesses.

Sometimes [[TheMario this is executed well]]. The character is not spectacular at anything, but at least competent in every field. The game allows for this lack of specialization to be rewarded, by presenting opportunities for the generalist to attack a specialist at its weak points. The synergy between specialists of different varieties are offset enough that choosing an A specialist and a B specialist is not much more powerful than two generalists. Sometimes they even have their own unique abilities to facilitate their status as a good character in any situation.

Sometimes...not so much. They may not be useless at anything, but they're bad enough that they might as well be. They have no particular weakness, but this is only because everything is equally good at killing them. The specialists always have the opportunity to attack on their own terms. So much needs to be devoted to being useful at one thing that it's not possible to develop any other area very well. Or perhaps every specialist's weakness can be covered by another character with no ill effects.

The MasterOfNone is a character in the latter category.

Basically, MasterOfNone is a type of TheMario, where their weakness is the fact that they have no strengths.

* The US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern. It was designed to provide equal concealment in jungle, urban and desert terrain. It only succeeded in [[http://defensetech.org/2007/07/06/when-you-dont-want-to-take-out-the-trash/ being equally sucky in all terrains]]. The kicker? After spending millions issuing it, the Army is now spending millions more replacing it with Multicam, [[DarthWiki/WallBanger the pattern that actually performed best at the UCP trials but was ignored]].

* The US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern. It was designed to provide equal concealment in jungle, urban and desert terrain. It only succeeded in being equally sucky in all terrains. The kicker? After spending millions issuing it, the Army is now spending millions more replacing it with Multicam, [[DarthWiki/WallBanger the pattern that actually performed best at the UCP trials but was ignored]].

-> "A Jack of All Trades, who is incompetent in all of them."
-->-- '''Black Mage''', on [[TheRedMage Red Mage]], ''{{Eight Bit Theater}}''

-> "I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once. But I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times."
-->-BruceLee

'''''For the novel, [[{{Literature/MasterOfNone}} see here]].'''''

*** In the first Disgaea game, Majins are the best class in the game at practically everything. Their only "drawback" being that they take an awful lot of LevelGrinding to unlock, making them the character class equivalent of the InfinityPlusOneSword. The sequels {{Nerf}}ed them somewhat, giving the player a reason to use other character classes alongside them.

* Back in the day, this was a huge problem for hybrids in WorldOfWarcraft, especially in PVE. Druids made for completely awful tanks, physical dps, magic dps and were also slightly subpar in healing. Shaman could heal okay, but again, didn't deal much damage. Paladins also had an unimpressive damage output, and weren't good at soaking up damage, but they had the best buffs in the game, didn't need to use totems, and were arguably the best healers. The Burning Crusade expansion took care of most of the deficiencies until basically they became specialized and differentiated from the basic healer, the priest. Now, the 'pure' classes like the Mage, Warlock and Rogue are frustrated that they do not add much versatility, and they do not excel over the supposed 'jack of all trades, MasterOfNone' classes.

* Jedi Sentinels in the first KnightsOfTheOldRepublic have the combat abilities of a consular (pure caster), and only slightly better force powers than a Guardian in exchange for skill points... completely worthless in the first game and immunities to various force powers (that many items can negate, and only bosses use anyways). Fixed entirely in the second game.

**** While Red Mage has the highest natural Enhancing Magic skill in the game, other jobs are far better at enhancing the party than a Red Mage, and its own skill does not matter much. The two most common spells that a Red Mage uses on other jobs are not at all affected by the Red Mage's enhancing magic skill. (Phalanx II being the notable exception, and your Enhancing Magic skill plays less in the power of the spell than the number of merits that you have in it.) White Mages naturally have multi-target versions of the defense, magical defense, and elemental resistance spells that Red Mages can only cast on themselves, and have merits and armor that will make the spells much more effective. Scholars can sub Red Mage and access every useful enhancing spell that Red Mages have (and most of the less-than useful ones) and have the ability to make those normally single-target spells multi-target. While the jump to level 80 has allowed Red Mages to access the Scholar's ability to make its own spells multi-target, it can use this ability less often than a main job Scholar. Then there are Corsairs and Bards who enhance parties in ways that make Red Mages cry. (As they are the specialist enhancers of the game.)
**** The other specification that Red Mages have in FinalFantasyXI is Enfeebling Magic. Since Black Mages have multi-target versions of the sleep spells, they are the go-to for crowd control in events with hordes of mobs such as Dynamis. (Bards also have a multi-target sleep spell, but it is much weaker than the sleep spell that Black Mages can use at end-game, although it is still incredibly useful.) White Mages now have a single target sleep spell that is light-based (so it will land on certain mobs that Red Mages and Black Mages cannot sleep) that has one of the highest base magical accuracies in the game. (Meaning that it is more likely to land with a lower skill than the equivalent spell by a Red Mage or Black Mage.) Bards also learn a spell that slows down the enemy attack rate by 50% at level 59, the best that Red Mages can do is 39% slow by spending 220,000 limit points to unlock and fully upgrade it once they reach level 75 and having godly gear to ensure that the spell lands effectively. The single worst problem with Enfeebling Magic is that in end game, most important monsters are highly resistant if not outright immune to any enfeebling magic spell, meaning that all of the your time and gil put into acquiring amazing gear and all of the time put into merits to raise your spells and skills are rendered fairly ineffective. Although to be fair this affects Bards, Black Mages, White Mages, and Scholars as much as it affects Red Mages.

** [[WaifFu Lyn]] is more of a standard GlassCannon, befitting her {{Fanon}} status as an improved Myrmidon. More competent [[TheMario Mario]]s areCavaliers (fast movement, decent armor, can wield swords and lances) and Mercenaries (average, but solid stats, upgrades to the nigh-godlike Hero)
* Kimahri Ronso of {{Final Fantasy X}} suffers from this. He's pretty average, not good or bad at anything. He can often hit fast and airborne opponents, deals decent damage, can pierce like Auron but lacks his strength, and aside from magic, is just generally all-round. He falls down because {{Final Fantasy X}} is, at least in the beginning, a game where you will rely almost wholly on your specialists, which means that by the time you get into the middle game where all-rounders become a bit more useful, Kimahri is badly underlevelled.

* Smeargle from ''{{Pokemon}}'' can learn any move in the game, but his poor stats mean that there's no point in teaching him 96 percent of them unless you're using him for breeding purposes. Granted, there are a few combinations of moves he can get that no other Pokemon can, but outside of those combinations, you're better off just using a more specialized Pokémon.
** Meditite is a moderate example - as a psychic/fighting, it has the potential to learn both good attack and special attack moves, so rather than having one kind of attack stat higher than the other, they're both about the same. YourMileageMayVary regarding how well that worked out, but generally a team of one fighting type and one psychic type can do anything a Meditite can do, only better.

* {{Final Fantasy Tactics Advance}}'s Montblanc is a character who, like any unit in the game, can go into any job that his race is capable of. However, his stats are so abysmal that there's really no point in using him at all, as even later units that join your clan have better stats. What's really crippling is the fact that the game will not even let you remove him from your party (short of killing him in a Jagd) so you'll have to endure his subparness for the whole game. {{Your Mileage May Vary}}, though, as he's likable enough that most people put up with him.
* [[MassEffect Kaidan Alenko]] avoids being TheLoad only by lieu of his RomanceSidequest and interesting backstory. He has biotics, but [[SquishyWizard Liara]] has better ones. He has tech abilities, but so do [[CowboyCop Garrus]] and [[TheEngineer Tali]]. His weapon skills are the worst in the game, and he can only wear light armor. It's possible to make him decent if you manually control his stat allocations, but he'll never be as good as your other companions. He does have the advantage of being the most most versatile party member and being the only companion with the neural shock ability, for those rare encounters with organic enemies.

* The balance (sorcerer) class in Wizard101 is this, having buffs and traps for every other school and some multi-purpose ones, as well as having a few spells that mimic those of other school's such as their unique healing spell.

* The Bradly Fighting Vehicle was originally a combination of too many ideas at once, with the result that it couldn't function as either. The story of this is detailed in the book and TV movie ''ThePentagonWars''.
* Most medium tanks of WorldWar2 fall into this category- designed to be simple and cheap to build, while capable of being effective in any tactical environment. End result- less speed than scout tanks, less armour than heavies, less AT power than destroyers, less AP/demolition power than assault guns.
** M4 Sherman tank. Not a master of anything, but certainly a jack in all trades. When introduced in 1942, it was a spectacular failure. The children's diseases were ironed out quickly, and in 1944 it was a completely different vehicle. Shermans were mediocrities on both armour, armament and performance, but they were far more reliable than the German tanks. And once the up-armoured Easy-Eight and upgunned -76W and Firefly refits arrived, they proved to be more than a match in one-on-one fights.
** T34, considered the best tank of WW2, was extremely reliable and had excellent off-road capability. Unfortunately it's armour and main gun were even worse than the Shermans, requiring the tanks to get extremely close to the German tanks to score a penetrating hit, while the Germans could engage from long range with ease. The later versions and the /85 remodel with thicker armour and an 85mm anti-tank cannon even the playing field, but at a cost of speed and off-road handling.
** Even the Germans had one with the Panzer-III, a medium tank later classified as a light/scout tank. Fast and with a powerful 50mm AT gun, it's tracks were too narrow and impaired it's all terrain performance, and the cannon fired too small a HE shell for dealing with field guns and infantry. The Panzer-IV could also count, with superior armour and weaponry over their rivals, but with major performance issues at first as well as being more expensive and time consuming to produce.

* The US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern. It was designed to provide equal concealment in jungle, urban and desert terrain. It only succeeded in being equally sucky in all terrains The kicker? After spending millions issuing it, the Army is now spending millions more replacing it with Multicam, [[{{Wallbanger}} the pattern that actually performed best at the UCP trials but was ignored]].

* Smeargle from {{Pokémon}} can learn any move in the game, but his poor stats mean that there's no point in teaching him 96 percent of them unless you're using him for breeding purposes. Granted, there are a few combinations of moves he can get that no other Pokemon can, but outside of those combinations, you're better off just using a more specialized Pokémon.

* Medium armor in TheElderScrolls Morrowind doesn't get any of the goodies that light and heavy get and without the expansions (where it is still weak) doesn't get a set comparable to last tiers of light/heavy armor.

* [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Montblanc]] is a character who, like any unit in the game, can go into any job that his race is capable of. However, his stats are so abysmal that there's really no point in using him at all, as even later units that join your clan have better stats. What's really crippling is the fact that the game will not even let you remove him from your party (short of killing him in a jagd) so you'll have to endure his subparness for the whole game. {{Your Mileage May Vary}}, though, as he's likable enough that most people put up with him.

* [[SpoonyBard Bards]] in ''DungeonsAndDragons'' edition 3.5 have medium BAB (without the cleric's Divine Power spell, the druid's wild shape, or the rogue's sneak attack to augment it) and lower than full casting progression, neither really meshing with the other (as opposed to, for example, the assassin PrestigeClass, who gains spells like invisibility, that allows it to land its sneak attack ability constantly). This is only true in the core however, as Bards get great support in supplements that makes them hit tier 3 (considered the ideal balance point), oddly by specializing. The first edition bard was oddly MagikarpPower.
** Mystic Theurges are another example, suffering from stunted casting in a game where casters [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards grow exponentially]], loss of the benefits of each casting type (divine casting's ability to cast in armor doesn't apply to arcane spells cast by one, meaning they can't wear armor as a pure divine caster can), and unless the build is Wizard/Archivist/Mystic Theurge or Sorcerer/Shugenja/Mystic Theurge, they need to buff two attributes to be able to cast high level spells.

** An even less powerful MasterOfNone is the 3E monk, mainly because it gets a mishmesh of abilities that don't synergize - notably, high speed combined with attacks that only work while standing still. Among others, it gets many attacks with a moderate chance to hit and low damage, decent defenses but no ability to wear armor, good damage while grappling but poor ability to actually grapple, and a good list of skills but lack of points to actually improve them with. They also has a ''severe'' case of M.A.D. - they need almost all stats in the game to work properly.

* Kratos/Zelos in TalesOfSymphonia remain somewhat competent melee combatants throughout the game thanks to having the stats for it and ability to pull off a full combo, but they quickly lose in spell casting because they stop at level 2 spells (opposed to the exponentially more powerful level 3 spells Genis has) and casting does not synergise well with melee due to the rather lengthy start up times. They have decent supplemental healing though, thanks to it being based on percentage instead of fixed numbers.
** They both have a special ability that lets them insta-cast Level 1 spells while they're doing an aerial combo though. And then there's [[GameBreaker spell cancelling]].

** Ken's uselessness is arguable however. He's on par with, or even surpasses Yukari as a healer, thanks to higher defense stat (plus like Koromaru, when his weakness is covered, he is immune to both types of instant-kill spells) and no tedious status healing skills or break skills (which Yukari's AI prioritizes over regular healing). Thanks to his high agility (leading to plenty of critical hits and dodging) and being one of only two characters that gain a skill that doubles his regular attack, he is particularly handy on harder difficulties and especially against one of the ultimate {{P3P}} bosses,[[spoiler: Margaret]]. Also, in the remake with Persona 4's battle system, his physical skill with the attack bonus on downed shadows is handy when it's difficult to knock down all enemies, as they stay down and can be smacked on repeatedly.

* Similar to the above example, the druid class in the MightAndMagic games, as well as other hibrid classes, such as paladins, rangers, archers (from VII) or minotaurs and vampires (from VIII). They can use a mix of healing magic, elemental magic and melee combat; however, only mages (from VII) and Necromancers (from VIII) can master elemental and dark magic to the higher level and acquire all the spells, same goes for the cleric (imn every game) for white magic, and practically no class beats the knight in physical damage ''and'' thoughness.

* Back in the day, this was a huge problem for hybrids in WorldOfWarcraft, especially in PVE. For example, druids made for completely awful tanks, physical dps, magic dps and were also slightly subpar in healing. Shaman could also heal okay, but again, terrible damage. ...Paladins too, plus the bad tanking again. But they had the best buffs in the game and didn't need to use totems, and were arguably the best healers. BC took care of most of the deficiencies until basically they became specialized and differentiated from the basic healer, the priest. Now, it's a bit of the opposite in that 'pure' classes such as mage, warlock and rogue are frustrated that they do not add much versatility nor do they excel over supposed 'jack of all trades, MasterOfNone' classes.

* Jedi Sentinels in the first KnightsOfTheOldRepublic have the combat abilities of a consular (pure caster), and only slightly better force powers than a Guardian in exchange for skill points... completely worthless in the first game and immunites to various force powers (that many items can negate, and only bosses use anyways). Fixed entirely in the second game.

* Not a character, the Bradly Fighting Vehicle was originally a combination of too many ideas at once, with the result that it couldn't function as either. The story of this is detailed in the book and TV movie ''ThePentagonWars''.

* The Assassin Class in ''RagnarokOnline''. He sucks at PvP, isn't that useful in WoE, can hardly beat any boss monster and pretty much his only specialty is grinding alone in PvE. Only that other classes such as the Hunter are ''much'' better at that, too. At least it used to be that way. With newer updates, the Assassin gained effectivity. His rebirth class, the Assassin Cross, is the complete opposite and has been accused of being overpowered quite often.

* Smeargle from {{Pokemon}} can learn any move in the game, but his poor stats mean that there's no point in teaching him 96 percent of them unless you're using him for breeding purposes. Granted, there are a few combinations of moves he can get that no other Pokemon can, but outside of those combinations, you're better off just using a more specialized pokemon.

*** Farfetch'd is another MasterOfNone, perhaps intentionally; its only defining feature besides a unique item that boosts its crit chances is that all of its stats are at about the same, godawful level.
* Most medium tanks of WorldWar2 fall into this category- designed to be simple and cheap to build, while capable of being effective in any tactical environment. End result- less spped than scout tanks, less armour than heavies, less AT power than destroyers, less AP/demolition power than assault guns.

** T34, considered the best tank of WW2, was extremely reliable and had excellent off-road capability. Unfortunetly it's armour and main gun were even worse than the Shermans, requiring the tanks to get extremely close to the German tanks to score a penetrating hit, while the Germans could engage from long range with ease. The later versions and the /85 remodel with thicker armour and an 85mm anti-tank cannon even the playing field, but at a cost of speed and off-road handling.

* [[MassEffect Kaidan Alenko]] avoids being TheLoad only by lieu of his RomanceSidequest and interesting backstory. He has biotics, but [[SquishyWizard Liara]] has better ones. He has tech abilities, but so do [[CowboyCop Garrus]] and [[TheEngineer Tali]]. His weapon skills are the worst in the game, and he can only wear light armor. It's possible to make him decent if you manually control his stat allocations, but he'll never be as good as your other companions. He does have the advantage of being the most most versatil party member and being the only companion with the neural shock ability, for those rare encounters with organic enemies.
* Halflings in ''{{Bloodbowl}}'' follow this to a T.
* The balance (sorcerer) class in Wizard101 is this, having buffs and traps for every other school and some multi-purpose ones, as well as having a few spells that mimic those of other school's such as their unique healing spell.
* Another non-videogame military example is the US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern. It was designed to provide equal concealment in jungle, urban and desert terrain, which it does-''horrible'' concealment. The kicker? After spending millions issuing it, the Army is now spening millions more replacing it with Multicam, [[{{Wallbanger}} the pattern that actually performed best at the UCP trials but was ignored]].

** Ken's uselessness is arguable however. His healing is on par with, or even surpasses Yukari as a healer, thanks to higher defense stat (plus like Koromaru, when his weakness is covered, he is immune to both types of instant-kill spells) and no tedious status healing skills or break skills (which Yukari's AI prioritizes over regular healing). Thanks to his high agility (leading to plenty of critical hits and dodging) and one of only two characters that gain a skill that doubles his regular attack, he is particularly handy on harder difficulties and especially against one of the ultimate bosses in (P3P),[[spoiler: Margaret]]. Also, in the remake with Persona 4's battle system, the physical skill with the downed attack bonus is handy when it's difficult to knock down all enemies, as they stay down and can be smacked on repeatedly.