- "By casting away all other abilities and focus their strength, their potential exclusively on a single special power, one can challenge even the strongest."
- ― Sosuke Aizen (Bleach)
The power to make certain traits or powers far stronger at the cost of making others far weaker. Variation of Mode Switching. Variation of Balanced Specialization.
Also Called[]
- Jack-Of-One-Stat
- Min-Maxing
- Overspecialization
Capabilities[]
The user can either strengthen certain skills or powers that they have at the cost of making unaffected skills weaker, or are naturally inclined to overspecialization in certain aspects of their skills. Essentially, they are minimizing certain abilities to maximize others.
For example, if a character wants to enhance themselves to gain Supernatural Speed, they would often trade for this in the form of their Supernatural Durability, turning them from a wall into a glass cannon.
Applications (General)[]
- Combat Specialism
- Downgrading
- Greater Effectiveness
- Lesser Effectiveness
- Power Compensation
- Power Specialism
- Power Sacrifice
- Self-Power Augmentation
- Selective Omniscience/Personal Domain (Varies)
- Selective Invincibility (Varies)
- Specialized Personalities
- Skill Compensation
- Supernatural Arts Specialist
- Upgrading
Examples[]
- Exchange durability for speed.
- Exchange the broad Fire Manipulation for a more controlled and focused Fire-Based Ability, for example Fire Attacks.
- Replace Maximum Brain Capacity with 100 Percent Muscle Usage.
Associations[]
Limitations[]
- An equal trade-off must always occur.
- To enhance an ability further, users may need to downgrade multiple other traits they have at once.
- Weaknesses gained in exchange for specializing in a certain field are often far more severe than they would be, and thus more likely to be exploited.
Known Users[]
See Also: Crippling Overspecialization and Min-Maxing.
- Kenpachi Zaraki (Bleach)
- Various RPG characters
- Arashiyama Jurota (Kengan Omega)
- Various Pokémon (Pokémon Series)
- Shuckle; (Highest defensive stats, poorest speed)
- Happiny, Chansey, and Blissey; (High HP, poor attack and defense; poorest in the case of Happiny and Chansey)
- Ninjask (Second-highest speed, extremely poor defense)
- Deoxys; (Varies depending on its form)
- Arc (Rising of the Shield Hero)
- Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles)
- Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)
- Razorfist (Marvel Comics)
- Nen Users (Hunter x Hunter)
- Ka Ryo Ten (Kingdom)
- F.A.N.G. (Street Fighter V)
Known Objects[]
- Hulkbuster (Marvel Comics)
Gallery[]
.gif "Kenpachi Zaraki of the Name (Bleach).gif (942 KB)")
Having no formal training in Shunpo, Hakuda and Kido, Kenpachi Zaraki (Bleach) focused all his prowess solely on Zanjutsu…
…to the point he eventually surpassed Yachiru Unohana as the most powerful Zanjutsu Master of all time.
By entering a Power Stressed state, Future Trunks (Dragon Ball series) maximizes his strength and power at the cost of speed and stamina.
Razorfist (Marvel Comics) had his hands replaced with blades to maximize his fighting ability, but needs external help to feed himself and tend to his personal hygiene.
Iron Man's (Marvel Comics) Hulkbuster armor is designed for maximum strength amplification at the cost of reduced versatility and mobility.
Deoxys (Pokémon) can manipulate its own stats by entering different forms, specializing in high attack (far left), no particular stat (second from the left), high defense (second from the right), or high speed (far right), while causing other stats to become weaker.
While an excellent swordsman, Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin) has no talent in unarmed combat.
F.A.N.G.'s (Street Fighter V) fighting style revolves entirely around the use of poison.
_Monado.jpg "Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles) Monado.jpg (33 KB)")
Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles) possesses the ability to capitalize on particular stats while making others weaker through the Monado.