Last Chance Hit Point/Playing With

Basic Trope: Attack that should've KO'ed a character instead leaves them at 1 HP, giving the player one more turn.

• Straight: Alice has 21 HP (out of 50). Mook attacks Alice for 25 points damage! Alice survived with 1 HP.
• Exaggerated: Alice takes 9999 damage! Survives with 1 HP.
• Downplayed: If Alice isn't above 50% health before taking the hit, her Last Chance Hit Point won't activate.
• Justified: Alice is a One-Hit-Point Wonder protected by a Beehive Barrier, and the attack shattered only her barrier (Alice herself escaped harm). But without protection any hit will kill her.
• Subverted: Alice was instead hit by an HP to One attack; a different attack might've killed her.
  • An attack triggers a cut scene in which Alice is left with only 1 HP left, and it looks like she still has a chance, but it's just a setup for a brutal finishing move by the enemy. Game Over.
• Double Subverted: It turns out that in this RPG Mechanics Verse characters are allowed some last words before their HP inevitably slides from 1 to 0.
• Parodied: ???
• Deconstructed: Even though Alice's Last Chance Hit Point activated, she's still heavily injured, and dies when she gets to the her team's secret base.
• Reconstructed: Diane, the healer, has unsurpassed healing skills, and she manages to revive Alice. The latter decides to be more careful next time.
• Averted: Lethal damage actually defeats Alice as normal.
• Lampshaded: "My HP hit zero but I'm still standing?"
• Exploited: Now's a perfect time to unleash Alice's Desperation Attack.
• Invoked: Alice deliberately took the hit in order to enable her Desperation Attack.
  • Or, Alice knows that if she has more than 1 HP she'll survive anything (even a One-Hit Kill) on her Last Chance Hit Point -- so she casts a Regenerating Health spell on herself to keep her HP away from the last point.
• Defied: It's a multi-hit attack; Alice survived the first hit, but the next hit finishes her off.
  • Or, Alice survives with 1 HP but becomes Poisoned by the attack, and the poison finishes her off.
• Played for Drama: See Deconstructed.

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