Barrier Warrior/Playing With

Basic Trope: A person who fights with (usually magical) barriers, often not just for defense.

• Straight: Bob, who can create mirror-like barriers to reflect his opponents' attacks both for himself and for his allies.
• Exaggerated: Awesomeness By Analysis allows Bob to do all sort of cool things using his barriers.
• Justified: In the story, each person has power that represents one's heart: Bob's power comes from his desire to protect others.
• Inverted: Bob is the only character unable to use barriers, and thus must rely on quick and deadly attack to fell the enemy before his enemy can attack him.
• Subverted: Bob can actually use more common, "sharp and pointy" attacks.
• Double Subverted: ...not that they are effective.
• Parodied: Bob's power is the ability to build brick walls very quickly.
• Deconstructed: Barriers aren't exactly effective weapons. Compared to other characters, Bob has very few combat maneuvers and they can only be used in very specific situations.
• Reconstructed:
  • Bob arrange for those very specific situations to happen in combat.
  • Or: Bob teams up with a warrior which offensive capabilities are complemented by his defensive abilities in order to increase their effectiveness.
  • One of those specific situations is when Bob runs into someone with his barrier. And having a nice solid magical barrier makes it very easy to charge the enemy.
  • While his barriers are not exactly conventional weapons, they can be lethal if used cleverly (e.g. splitting body in half by placing the shield in the middle of his body).
  • Bob trains in firearms, becoming nearly invincible as he hides behind a barrier and mows down enemies.
• Zig Zagged: Bob uses magical barriers in combat, except they're actually illusions and Your Mind Makes It Real, but he carriers a Protective Charm around that allows him to create magical barriers just in case of facing a mind control immune enemy.
• Averted:
  • No one is capable of making magical barriers, let alone being a Barrier Warrior.
  • Bob uses an actual shield instead.
• Enforced: "Swords are so yesterday, it's time for an unconventional hero that is on the other side of the equipments!"
• Lampshaded: "Why I won, you ask? Because I'm well-protected."
• Invoked: Bob knows that Emperor Evulz' attacks are mostly Frickin' Laser Beams, so he trains himself in the art of reflective barriers, hoping that it will work just like in anime and videogames.
• Exploited: Team's resident Squishy Wizard / Glass Cannon always takes cover behind Bob's shields in order to perform his attacks with relative impunity.
• Defied: Emperor Evulz decides to use an barrier piercing spell to bypass Bob's defense.
• Discussed: "I know we laughed when Bob joined the party, but man, between him and Healing Hands Harry have basically kept us all alive."
• Conversed: "So, why does Bob have barriers as a power and not some shield generator gizmo?" "You mean you'd rather there be another guy with vaguely defined energy beam powers or claw hands?"

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Reflect back to Barrier Warrior