Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards/Playing With

Basic Trope: Early on, physically-oriented classes dominate. Later on, magic rules the day.

• Straight: Early on in the RPG Legends of Troperia, the heroic knight Bob is a much better character than the Squishy Wizard Dave, but later on, he outclasses him in damage potential.
• Exaggerated: Bob starts the game as a virtual One-Man Army, whose relatively high defense and attack stats mean he can take out just about anything until mid-game. Dave, meanwhile, is practically a One-Hit-Point Wonder who falls to all but the weakest enemies. In the later parts of the game, Bob pretty much only exists as window dressing while Dave nukes the crap out of everything they encounter.
• Justified:
  • Physically-oriented classes only have a relatively limited repertoire of attacks - while this works for the early game, the enemies later on require more versatility in the player's approach - a versatility that is offered by magic.
  • Its much harder to use spells the a sword. But once you are good with magic, you are unbeatable.
• Inverted: Early on, Dave's magic will win the day for you; later on, Bob's sword will kill anything.
• Subverted:
  • About two-thirds of the way through the game, Dave seems to be vastly outclassing Bob in damage potential - but then you get the Infinity+1 Sword, and Bob yet again regains his status as "party Badass".
  • Equipping Bob with the Legendary Shield allows him to catch up again.
• Double Subverted:
  • Then Alice learns the spell "Destructo", which makes her much more effective.
  • Equipping Edgar with the Legendary Sword, Dave with the Legendary Rod, Carol with the Legendary Staff, or Alice with the Legendary Nunchuks allows them to catch up again.
• Parodied:
  • Dave has been a Butt Monkey for most of the game from being so weak. Once he upgrades his job his spells get much stronger and his calm chanting turns into shouting lines like "DIE!" or "PERISH BEFORE MY MAGIC!"
  • After becoming weaker, Dave is mocked for being the token herbivore.
• Deconstructed: The process of Alice outclassing Bob throws most players for a loop; they spend most of their time and energy training up the (in their minds) more useful character of the pair, neglecting Alice's development in the late game...so when they encounter enemies against whom physical attacks are ineffective, they're pretty much screwed.
• Reconstructed: Alice has enough power already, being balanced under the assumption that the player will give most of the power ups to Bob.
• Zig Zagged: The last two-thirds of the game are a Lensman Arms Race in power increases for Bob and Alice. You'll gain an awesome new sword for Bob, who'll rule the day for a bit - until Alice gets an awesome new spell. But then Bob gets a new armor upgrade...
• Averted:
  • Both characters remain fairly useful throughout the entirety of the game.
  • Carol, Alice, and Edgar are also party members. The Five Man Band add much more depth: Bob and Alice are physical characters, Dave and Carol are magical characters, Bob and Carol are defencive, Dave and Alice are offencive, and Edgar balances them out. If you don't have all 5 characters, the game becomes unbalanced, like it was with those Guest Star Party Members.
• Enforced: The game is based off a Tabletop RPG which had that particularity.
• Lampshaded: Dave: I'm telling you Bob, while you might come out ahead fresh out of training I'll surpass you when things really start to matter.
• Invoked: Dave, a puny mage, studies long and hard every night in hopes to turn into a massive badass.
• Exploited: The story revolves around Bob protecting Dave, a totally useless mage, on a quest to get Alice a game-breaking power.
• Defied: The game makes sure to reward players who develop the characters evenly.
• Discussed: "Dave, are you ever going to catch up?" "Don't worry. I might be a liability right now, but once I get my Disc One Nuke, we'll see who has to catch up."
• Conversed: Two Gamers on a Couch argue about how unfair it is that Bob's character totally beats out Dave's. Come back later and see Bob's player bashing away at the controller just to keep up with Dave's player, who calmly handles the game.

---

Back to Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards.