High op tricks in Fiction

[Lans]

For example the character Contessa in Worm has what could be considered at will COP+other divininations who uses them to the point of decribing her power as "I win"

[Aharon]

For example the character Contessa in Worm has what could be considered at will COP+other divininations who uses them to the point of decribing her power as "I win"

Funnily enough, her power also suffers similar restrictions as COP, as there are things her divinations are completely barred from (equivalent to "don't know/lie", I guess).

Coil has the psionic save game trick.

Since you started with one of Wildbow's works, Pact has chronomancy, which almost by definition is overpowered (although I don#t remember specific spells that do the things chronomancy does in that serial).

[Flickerdart]

There's an amusing exploit performed by a character in the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. In that universe (an urban fantasy style setup with wizards and magical creatures running around modern-day cities) vampires are very weak on the overall power scale, but are able to rise to incredible power by consuming the blood of many victims in quick succession. One of the characters abuses this by mixing together small doses of blood from many donors, which has a similar effect on his power without requiring him to put in very much effort.

Another cheap tactic was used by the Lord Ruler in Sanderson's Mistborn books. He controlled two schools of magic. One of those let you store an attribute of yourself inside a focus to be used later (so you're worse at something for a while, and then you can use that to be better at that same thing for the same length of time). The other let you greatly amplify the power stored inside metal, but for a short time. By combining these two abilities, the Lord Ruler was able to become immortal and really powerful - he stored his youth and abilities inside a focus, then consumed the focus to maximize those things, then stored it again so that he could use it up more slowly.

[Falcon X]

Speaking of Brandon Sanderson, anyone read "Steelheart". Most of the High Epics were considered OP, by anyone's standards.
For example:
Fortuity: While not even considered a high-epic, he had the OP combination of powers of Future/danger sense and superhuman reflexes. Not only did he know what was coming at him, he could dodge almost without error. Very hard to kill, even if you don't know his weakness.
Nightwielder: Is invisible, invulnerable, and can pass through walls unless he is in sunlight. His secondary power is that he can create perpetual darkness in a many-mile radius.
Mitosis: Can split himself into clones that have a hive mind. Having multiple of yourselves out there lets you learn things faster, survive by always having a self somewhere else, and even do things like suicide bombing without committing suicide. Kind've like Naruto


The following aren't tricks, but are seriously OPd"
Speaking of Naruto:
Naruto - This guy only has only a few powers, but they are incredible. To summarize, he can learn things at 100x speed, be many places at once, channel almost limitless energy, summon titanic allies, teleport, release city-sized balls of death, toss instant death bombs, and has a will that cannot be dominated. Here's a run-down:
Shadow Clones: He can create hundreds and they all share knowledge. Meaning that he can learn new skills 100x as fast as other people. He can send messages to hundreds of places at once and converse knowledgably with people. He can flank himself and spar with himself, and much more!
Sage Mode: Can gather energy and chakra reserves, multiplying his mana pool exponentially. He can throw a punch in one place and it hit in another.
Summoning: He can summon titanic allies to help. He can also have someone (or a shadow clone) summon his meat body into a new place for instant long-distance travel.
Rasengan: Pure death energy that he can metamagic to no ends. At it's basic level, it can shred a person's insides. Metamagiced, it can be thrown at instant-death levels, changed to dark energy for city-sized explosions, magnetize it, and manycast using the many limbs he can grow.
2nd Mind: He totally has a guy living inside him who can take intelligent action, lend ridiculous amounts of mana/chakra, and produce extra arms for more shenanigans.
Will of Fire: While not considered a super power. In light of the show, it's his most powerful tool. He has an unwavering will to live and help the world. His mind cannot be overtaken.

How about Bean from Ender's Game?
This isn't a universe with superpowers, so Bean has to be judged by normal human potential.
- Bean is smarter than anyone who ever lived. Period. He is a monster. He has eidetic memory and a logical brain that can instantly connect the dots on complex issues.
- What's more, the books imply that he might be retarded. That is to say, his level of malnourishment from life on the streets was enough to give anyone permanent brain damage. If he was raised in a healthy home, who knows how smart he would have been. His brain-damaged intellect is still massively greater than anything we have seen before.

[Story]

Is this thread supposed to be about using powers in clever ways, or just characters that are massively OP to begin with? Because Worm has examples of both, but Contessa is the later. I think the second is less interesting because it's far more common (see Superman, or most comics for that matter) and less creative.

[dascarletm]

Dune has got to have at least a few. Muad'Dib especially.

[Jormengand]

In The Black Magician, it's impossible to affect the inside of a person's body using any magic except for healing magic, but anyone who knows anything about healing magic can stop you using it on them (for example, you would be able to alter someone's body in such a way as to stop it functioning, but they can prevent you doing that), so it's basically impossible to kill people with it...

...but Sonea kills an Ichani by stopping his heart with healing magic, because the Ichani don't know about healing magic, so they don't how to stop her.

In Inheritance, Eragon keeps stealing energy from animals which were going to be slaughtered anyway, and sticking it in his sword.

Neither of these is really High OP, but they're both kinda abuses of the way their magic system works.

[HammeredWharf]

Dune has got to have at least a few. Muad'Dib especially.

Or the God Emperor. Even epic D&D casters don't reach that level of hax.

[Angelalex242]

Speaking of High Op Eragon, eegads, the Eldunari. Those things are concentrated HAX in that world.

[A_S]

Kvothe's attempt to mimic naming magic by sympathetically binding the air in his lung to the air in the sky is sort of an attempt at this kind of trick that doesn't work.

I'm sure Sethra Lavode is rocking a few of these, but hasn't bothered to explain them to Vlad.

[Prime32]

Mahou Sensei Negima has one character with a book that displays peoples' thoughts if she calls their names. It's big, awkward to carry around, and obvious when she's using it...

So in the second half of the story when the characters travel to a stereotypical fantasy world, she joins a stereotypical adventuring party as their trapfinder (she already had experience; don't ask). They're confused about why she'd want such a small cut of the treasure - after all, what use is a magic item that tells you the name of anything you point at? Or a magic earpiece that can read books from a distance? Also why would she want to learn physical buff spells when she has no combat skills and so little mana that they'll only last for moments?
We find out when her friends are being threatened by a guy with a brokenly powerful magic staff. She predicts and dodges all his attacks, asks him how another person could use the staff to defeat him (so that he'll start thinking about it), then uses her temporarily-boosted strength and speed to steal it from him.



Then there's Log Horizon. The premise: the players of an Everquest-style MMO are transported to a fantasy world where they have the abilities of their characters, with no way to return. How is medieval society affected by the appearance of large numbers of immortal billionaire superhumans with modern education and values?

It's written by an old-school tabletop gamer and it shows. Not only does he go into specific abuses and cheesy builds that people pulled off in the MMO itself, but the characters start discovering whole new tricks by exploiting how abilities from a videogame interact with real-world physics. It's not long before shamans are turning defensive barriers sideways to use them as platforms, summoners are building salamander-powered steam engines, and even crazier stuff.




Another cheap tactic was used by the Lord Ruler in Sanderson's Mistborn books. He controlled two schools of magic. One of those let you store an attribute of yourself inside a focus to be used later (so you're worse at something for a while, and then you can use that to be better at that same thing for the same length of time). The other let you greatly amplify the power stored inside metal, but for a short time. By combining these two abilities, the Lord Ruler was able to become immortal and really powerful - he stored his youth and abilities inside a focus, then consumed the focus to maximize those things, then stored it again so that he could use it up more slowly.Reminds me of that trick in Eight-Bit Theater where Lich found one of the objects holding reality together, that would end the universe if destroyed... and used it as his phylactery.

[Story]

Or the God Emperor. Even epic D&D casters don't reach that level of hax.

Combat wise, he was strong but not that strong. I think most high level D&D characters could take him, even the mundanes, as long as he's not using foresight on himself, which he deliberately didn't.

[pwykersotz]

Is this thread supposed to be about using powers in clever ways, or just characters that are massively OP to begin with? Because Worm has examples of both, but Contessa is the later. I think the second is less interesting because it's far more common (see Superman, or most comics for that matter) and less creative.

Shots at Supes? Oh now it's on. :smallmad: / :smallwink:

Do battle tactics count as high op, because if so Thrawn takes the gold medal.

[ArqArturo]

In Storm Front, both the BBEG and Harry Dresden power up their magic thanks to lightning in thunderstorms.

Also, in the Marvel Comics, Deadpool -I don't know who, how, or why- suddenly has a copy of Thor's Hammer, making him an equal to him, and decides to...

http://img349.imageshack.us/img349/5168/deadpool37p11smaller3pn4go.jpg

[HammeredWharf]

Combat wise, he was strong but not that strong. I think most high level D&D characters could take him, even the mundanes, as long as he's not using foresight on himself, which he deliberately didn't.

Sure, you can beat him momentarily. Then, a thousand years later, someone will find out you basically lost and everything still went according to his plan.

[Gildedragon]

There is the classic of: make a disk with unbreakableness magic (riverine, lotsa hardening, etc) cast on it, and then an acceleration spell with no upper bound, and triggering it to deplete an area of magic. Fairly high Op.
Or using perfect knowledge prestigitation-like tricks to lower a room's temp below freezing.

[No brains]

I seem to recall some of the in-game Elder Scrolls books detailing people attempting to cheese out with magic, but it backfires more often than not.

[Story]

From what I've heard about how hilariously broken magic is in the Elder Scroll games, that's surprisingly faithful of them.

[A_S]

From what I've heard about how hilariously broken magic is in the Elder Scroll games, that's surprisingly faithful of them.
What have you heard?

My experience was that it was straight-up underpowered (for combat...great for utility) in Morrowind, and then it was only situationally broken in Oblivion and Skyrim because the AI in both was pretty bad at dealing with ranged attacks of any kind.

Except use-activated enchantments. Those were broken.

[thethird]

Well in oblivion you could get chameleon over a 100% making you not only invisible, all the time, but creatures forgot you the instant you attacked them, as far as they new you did not exist.

And skyrim enchantment system is broken, even without using the restoration bug, to the point that one shooting dragons (and everything else in game) with an arrow is possible.

[Qwertystop]

Wheel of Time has a few unusual uses of magic, mostly related to Gateways (teleportation holes-in-the-air).


Mostly cutting things by rapidly opening and closing them (there's eventually a variant of the weave that moves the gateway, designed specifically for this), but there's also using them as shields to redirect enemy magic, artillery "transport" (no need to cart the cannons around, just keep them in a safe place and open gateways), live battlefield maps by putting one end high in the air, and
a horizontal lava spray that takes out a large portion of an army, because there's a lot of pressure underground.

[malonkey1]

Speaking of High Op Eragon, eegads, the Eldunari. Those things are concentrated HAX in that world.

Hell, all the mages are damn Truenamers, and their magic is powerful. That must have taken some extreme optimization.

[Slipperychicken]

There was the arm-guy from FMA. The way Armstrong describes his shtick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BdQunJnrEw#t=1m11s), it sounds pretty munchkin-y. It helps that the guy is OP as all hell too.

Goku just seems like a munchkin. Plays an obscure overpowered race that was supposed to be extinct? Dumped mental stats? No useful skills besides fighting? Hogs the spotlight? Uses the same handful of tricks to defeat every foe ever? GM is forced to use the exact same race and tricks just to challenge him? Abusing homebrew infinite wish items? It's like the campaign was completely derailed by his munchkinry.

Voldemort gets a mention for having seven phylacteries.

[Story]

What have you heard?

My experience was that it was straight-up underpowered (for combat...great for utility) in Morrowind, and then it was only situationally broken in Oblivion and Skyrim because the AI in both was pretty bad at dealing with ranged attacks of any kind.

Except use-activated enchantments. Those were broken.

I don't know the details or which game each one comes from, but here are some of the tricks I've heard about

1. 100% invisibility for complete immunity to attacks
2. boost jump skill so high you can jump across the continent with a single leap
3. combine magic immunity and auto repeating self AOE nukes to instantly kill anything that even comes near you while walking around
4. combine exponentially stacking vulnerabilities on a fast striking weapon to do absurd amounts of damage
5. use magic to boost magic skill, creating an infinite loop and raising all skills arbitrarily high

[Gnaeus]

For abuse of Plane Shift/Genesis+immortality+superhuman intelligence, see Amber. From going to an uninhabited land and scooping up the diamonds with a rake for seed money to build your army of riflemen to fight people using swords, to watching the same battle dozens of times in parallel worlds with tiny deviations to see how small variables will change outcomes. I think the guy who crafted the unbreakable suit of armor was the low-op brother who thought that being a tank would help his party.

[avr]

Voldemort gets a mention for having seven phylacteries.
Not for convincing a few thousand wizards that he could and would find anyone who dared speak his name? Whether he actually could or not (I can't remember), that's a good trick.

For hilariously OP, try Gaius Octavius (Tavi) by the end of Jim Butcher's Alera series. World shaking power to the point of being able to relocate a civilisation via giant icebergs, probably the best fighter in the world, useful precognition and his elven girlfriend who is irrevocably bound to him has nearly as much power herself.

[Telonius]

For abuse of Diplomacy rules, it's hard to beat Sauron's captivity in Numenor. (Really, never listen to a captured Diplomancer. It's just asking for trouble).

[Jormengand]

Not for convincing a few thousand wizards that he could and would find anyone who dared speak his name? Whether he actually could or not (I can't remember), that's a good trick.

This just in: Voldemort is a 20th-level truenamer. :smalltongue:

[Durkoala]

Not for convincing a few thousand wizards that he could and would find anyone who dared speak his name? Whether he actually could or not (I can't remember), that's a good trick.

He could. Some of his underlings' underlings teleport to the heroes in the middle of nowhere five seconds after they say his name.

Harry himself might count, with all the anti-Voldemort features Dumbledore managed to give him. Off the top of my head he's got a Voldy warning scar, a house that no threatening magic can get at, a wand that repels Voldemort's attacks and upgrades to smashing unworthy wands, a mental link to Voldemort (though this is treated as a downside at first), a one-of-a-kind super invisibility cloak (I'm not a roleplayer, but I believe the term is Artefact), a mind that Voldemort can't possess (though this is arguably a bug of Voldemort), some of Voldemort's abilities, some companions to keep him on the straight and narrow, a knowledge of Voldemort's weaknesses and history, as well as a good amount of combat experience.

Shouldn't this thread go in the media discussions? I only found it because it was in the last post section, and I think it's a shame it's so hidden away.

[pwykersotz]

I propose Telemain from the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. (Wow, this takes me back.) In that world, Fire Witches are some of the most powerful, sadistic, evil, magic immune creatures imaginable. In the book Talking to Dragons, he took a fire witch castle soaked with black magic, simply moved it because it was in his way, and then left (in his words) a few surprises for anyone unfortunate enough to go back inside.

When I first read that, it made me VERY glad Telemain was on the side of the good guys. And his power comes from pure research and nerdery. Love that guy.

[Story]

Shouldn't this thread go in the media discussions? I only found it because it was in the last post section, and I think it's a shame it's so hidden away.

Agreed. It doesn't have much if anything to do with D&D or even optimization for that matter.

[Thiyr]

In Storm Front, both the BBEG and Harry Dresden power up their magic thanks to lightning in thunderstorms.


Better example is probably in Dead Beat. Need to be surrounded by undeath to survive massive ritual storm-thinggie, at the center of which is the means to stop it. Can't make zombies, as Da Rules say you can't do that to people. Remember that the older a corpse is, the harder it is to raise, but the most powerful it is once done. Realize you're at the Field Museum (http://www.fieldmuseum.org/happening/exhibits/sue-t-rex).

(Similar revelations/power grabs include: remembering that magic is fueled on emotion, remembering that lust is an emotion, start making out with a succubus to power one last extra-potent spell. Realizing that magic still plays by the laws of physics once it gets started, thus meaning that heat in that fire has to come from somewhere, meaning firing blasts of fire can freeze water in a pinch.)

[Slipperychicken]

one-of-a-kind super invisibility cloak (I'm not a roleplayer, but I believe the term is Artefact)

In D&D at least, it's only like 224k for a cloak of at-will/continuous greater invisibility. Harry's player probably forgot about his WBL (explaining his massive hoard in gringotts), then later blew it all on broomsticks and that freaking cloak.

[Thealtruistorc]

Two words: Uchiha Madara. Read the guy's wiki entry and tell me if it does not scream "Pun-Pun."

[malonkey1]

In D&D at least, it's only like 224k for a cloak of at-will/continuous greater invisibility. Harry's player probably forgot about his WBL (explaining his massive hoard in gringotts), then later blew it all on broomsticks and that freaking cloak.

I dunno. A lot of people would have access to true seeing, and if I recall, he was never seen under that cloak despite that, so it may be that that cloak has even better invisibility than greater invisibility.

[Prime32]

I dunno. A lot of people would have access to true seeing, and if I recall, he was never seen under that cloak despite that, so it may be that that cloak has even better invisibility than greater invisibility.Moody's eye could see through the cloak IIRC.

[Irk]

I tried looking everywhere for references to the optimization in Log Horizon (which I have not read or watched) but I really could not find any. It sounds fascinating, and I was curious if anyone could direct me towards some examples, other than reading the actual books or watching the show.

[Eaglejarl]

In the Codex Alera series, Tavi has a pretty cool exploit for the local 'farsight' spell.


Air mages in that world use a carefully-shaped lens of air as a telescope to see long distances. Tavi gets a large number of air mages to make a gigantic lens, a mile or so wide and very high in the sky. It functions like a magnifying glass, creating a laser-like point source of heat on the ground below. They raster this back and forth over an enemy army, wiping them out.



<shameless_plug>
In "The Two Year Emperor (http://tinyurl.com/two-year-emperor)" written by, (*cough, cough*) yours truly, the protagonist uses Shrink Item to create cannon, Polymorph Any Object to create antimatter bombs, and Greater Teleportation to generate Rods from God, and tries (but fails) to use bards to start the Industrial Revolution.. </shameless_plug>

[Gavinfoxx]

Better example is probably in Dead Beat. ...Realize you're at the Field Museum (http://www.fieldmuseum.org/happening/exhibits/sue-t-rex).


Oh god. To this day, that was my favorite part of the entire series. SO GOOD. So very very good. It's such a D&D-er move. Hahahahahah!

[Prime32]

I tried looking everywhere for references to the optimization in Log Horizon (which I have not read or watched) but I really could not find any. It sounds fascinating, and I was curious if anyone could direct me towards some examples, other than reading the actual books or watching the show.Well a lot of the examples are so plot-central that it's hard to explain them without spoiling everything, leaving them without the context that makes them impressive, or both.

But basically the protagonist of LH solves things through cleverness more often than through force (to the point where his avatar is a battlefield control caster with zero offensive ability).

[Story]

The protagonist of Worm is pretty good at creatively exploiting her powers, to the point where by the end she's casually beating people specifically chosen to counter her.

[JBarca]

<shameless_plug>
In "The Two Year Emperor (http://tinyurl.com/two-year-emperor)" written by, (*cough, cough*) yours truly, the protagonist uses Shrink Item to create cannon, Polymorph Any Object to create antimatter bombs, and Greater Teleportation to generate Rods from God, and tries (but fails) to use bards to start the Industrial Revolution.. </shameless_plug>

Just going to throw out there that this is a fantastic read. I've been keeping up with it for a while now and am greatly enjoying it.

Anyway, on topic, what about Toph, from A:TLA? She kinda epitomizes TO style play: She min/maxes (Several Flaws (Blind, Abrasive Personality, Overbearing Parents, etc) and turns them into strengths, ish), and, most importantly, she exploits what is very likely a huge loophole in the system

when she invents Metalbending because she's able to bend the impurities in all metal.

[malonkey1]

Just going to throw out there that this is a fantastic read. I've been keeping up with it for a while now and am greatly enjoying it.

Anyway, on topic, what about Toph, from A:TLA? She kinda epitomizes TO style play: She min/maxes (Several Flaws (Blind, Abrasive Personality, Overbearing Parents, etc) and turns them into strengths, ish), and, most importantly, she exploits what is very likely a huge loophole in the system

when she invents Metalbending because she's able to bend the impurities in all metal.

That always struck me as a loophole along the lines of "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising"

"Backstab [the book]!"
"You can't! It has no discernible anatomy."
"It has a spine!"

[Renen]

Id like to nominate Kylar Stern the protagonist in the Night Angel books.
Not only is he the best assassin in the world, he has an artifact that can make him totally invisible, immortal, resuerect him for a small small cost of a dead loved one (which Kylar does not figure out for a few deaths), oh and it Om Nom Noms any magic directed at him.

[Baron Malkar]

It is science fiction as opposed to fantasy but I thing The Neutronium Alchemist from the book of the same name. It is a bomb that can blow up a star that is so easy to make that the knowledge of its creation is actually more dangerous than the bomb itself. When the book finally describes how it works I couldn't help but think, "this is what happens when you let players into your narrative".

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Moody's eye could see through the cloak IIRC.

Also, the maurader's map show'd his location. This shows iisn't something more powerful than D&D invis that hides him from divination. Also in the films at least; Lucian Malfoy and Snape both seem to have an inkling that something is there and look in his direction. Lucian even reaches toward him, but doesn't reach far enough. This implies to me that their magic works on an opposed checks system and they got near misses or ties.

[JBarca]

Also, the maurader's map show'd his location. This shows iisn't something more powerful than D&D invis that hides him from divination. Also in the films at least; Lucian Malfoy and Snape both seem to have an inkling that something is there and look in his direction. Lucian even reaches toward him, but doesn't reach far enough. This implies to me that their magic works on an opposed checks system and they got near misses or ties.

I haven't read the books, so if I'm wrong here, my apologies.

But I had always assumed that the glances/reaches/etc. were a result of Harry being a noisy mouthbreather? He stands three feet from someone and gasps and wheezes like he's suffocating.

[Qwertystop]

I haven't read the books, so if I'm wrong here, my apologies.

But I had always assumed that the glances/reaches/etc. were a result of Harry being a noisy mouthbreather? He stands three feet from someone and gasps and wheezes like he's suffocating.

Every time in the books, it's because of him making noise. Usually specific gasps at what he's overhearing, or bumping into things - books don't tend to mention general breathing volume. I don't think it's ever been about someone just getting a feeling - either Harry's made a noise, or they can explicitly see through it (like Moody... don't think there was another, but Dumbledore might have pulled it once).

[Slipperychicken]

I dunno. A lot of people would have access to true seeing, and if I recall, he was never seen under that cloak despite that, so it may be that that cloak has even better invisibility than greater invisibility.

The wiki (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Alastor_Moody#Possessions) says his magical eye lets him see through anything, including invisibility cloaks. Also, there were a number of invisibility cloaks in harry potter canon (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Invisibility_cloak). Although harry's cloak is apparently better than the others because it never wears out or gets dispelled.

[Lans]

Is this thread supposed to be about using powers in clever ways, or just characters that are massively OP to begin with? Because Worm has examples of both, but Contessa is the later. I think the second is less interesting because it's far more common (see Superman, or most comics for that matter) and less creative.

I was thinking more on the lines of characters who when translated into DND involve a high op trick. Like Jack Rackan from negima being a gish with chained telekineses

[Techwarrior]

Id like to nominate Kylar Stern the protagonist in the Night Angel books.
Not only is he the best assassin in the world, he has an artifact that can make him totally invisible, immortal, resuerect him for a small small cost of a dead loved one (which Kylar does not figure out for a few deaths), oh and it Om Nom Noms any magic directed at him.

Please Spoiler that, as those are pretty major revelations in the series with a lot of effort on the author's part to make them very dramatic.

[Irk]

Well a lot of the examples are so plot-central that it's hard to explain them without spoiling everything, leaving them without the context that makes them impressive, or both.

But basically the protagonist of LH solves things through cleverness more often than through force (to the point where his avatar is a battlefield control caster with zero offensive ability).

Well, I suppose you have convinced me, I'm gonna check it out.

[Alleine]

For abuse of Plane Shift/Genesis+immortality+superhuman intelligence, see Amber.

Don't forget abusing planar time difference. Walk to a reality where time flows X many times faster than at home. They used it primarily to rest and recover in a vastly shortened time span. And then Merlin goes and abuses knowledge gained on Earth in programming, engineering, and maybe some other things to build a sentient computer that has powers only Princes of Amber and denizens of the Courts of Chaos can use. Naturally the only reason this works is because all you need to do is find a place where the laws of physics work the way you want them to.

[Prime32]

I was thinking more on the lines of characters who when translated into DND involve a high op trick. Like Jack Rackan from negima being a gish with chained telekinesesHe's more like a high-level gestalt warblade//factotum with insane physical stats. I mean he's picked up a wide variety of spells and can put plenty of power into them, but he doesn't rely on them much - it's well within the range of what Arcane Dilettante can do. Also, IRON. HEART. SURGE.

[Aharon]

I think Granny Weatherwax from the Discworld series qualifies as a Diplomancer.

[molten_dragon]

For example the character Contessa in Worm has what could be considered at will COP+other divininations who uses them to the point of decribing her power as "I win"

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera has some tippyverse style tricks. For example, using earthcrafting to grow crops to harvestable size in just a few weeks to feed refugees during a war.

A lot of tavi's tricks probably fall under this too, considering he had no crafting most of his life and had to get by with his wits alone, so when he did get the ability to craft, he came up with stuff no one had ever thought of before.

[Alleran]

Wheel of Time has a few unusual uses of magic, mostly related to Gateways (teleportation holes-in-the-air).


Mostly cutting things by rapidly opening and closing them (there's eventually a variant of the weave that moves the gateway, designed specifically for this), but there's also using them as shields to redirect enemy magic, artillery "transport" (no need to cart the cannons around, just keep them in a safe place and open gateways), live battlefield maps by putting one end high in the air, and
a horizontal lava spray that takes out a large portion of an army, because there's a lot of pressure underground.
Rand also learned to abuse gateways (Traveling) for transportation purposes, IIRC. It's been a while, but it went something like this:

See, you can only Travel from a place you know well, and it takes at least several hours to "learn" a location. You can't Travel from a place you don't know well. It's one of the major limiters, and why Skimming is used instead (since you can Skim from somewhere you don't know well to somewhere you do know well, but not vice versa - Skimming takes longer than the instantaneous Traveling). However, you can gate from a place you don't know well to another place you don't know well as long as it's within line of sight. Gating to that place automatically counts as "learning" the location for the purpose of gating from it.

So Rand would just Travel from where he was to about fifty metres back down the path, and from there he could Travel to wherever he wanted. As I recall, Nynaeve hadn't even considered it as a possibility when he demonstrated it. Nobody seemed to have tried it before then for some reason.

[Aharon]

Dios, the villain from Pratchett's novel "Pyramids" does time shenanigans (it's a bit since I've read it, so I don't remember the details). I'm not sure which DnD spells he reproduces, but when reading, I saw some similarities.