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File:ArcaneKnight.jpg

50% Mage, 50% Fighter,
100% awesome.


Most wizards are of the Squishy Wizard variety, able to work eldritch wonders but not take a punch. But not every wizard is squishy, as is proven by the Magic Knight. Whether he's a wizard who picked up a melee weapon and some spiffy armor, or a warrior who learned to cast a few spells, he is every bit as deadly with both spell and sword.

For the purposes of game balance, he'll either be weaker at spell and sword than a pure fighter or mage, generally slower, somehow otherwise limited to being defensive, or he'll be The Hero, who is expected to be the most powerful character anyway. Usually, the Magic Knight will specialize in a particular class of magic (attack or healing, for instance), effectively making him a hybrid of only two "classes", rather than being an out-and-out "Jack" of all trades. However, being a total Jack of All Stats is also possible, depending on the game.

Another form of balance may be found in their spell loadout. Instead of the wide variety of spells a normal spellcaster can use, they tend to focus on Status Buffs and direct attack spells. Other typical abilities for this class may include infusing their bodies or weapons with elemental powers. Doing the same with Standard Status Effects is not unknown either.

Older Than Print, as the Norse god Odin (who also made the Robe and Wizard Hat convention), was both an accomplished wizard and a powerful warrior.

If a Magic Knight is specialized in healing or defensive magic, anti-undead or anti-demonic powers or otherwise associated with a deity or "The Light", he is typically a form of Church Militant known as The Paladin. The Combat Medic is a similar concept, but tends to be a healer first and a warrior second.

Similarly, an opposite variety, which gains a different kind of magical prowess from being in league with, commanding or subjugating powers of darkness, undeath, or chaos, is called the Black/Dark/Death/Doom Knight. Prone to either being corrupted by their powers or starting off as villains and redeeming themselves but generally retaining their powers because Dark Is Not Evil.

For wizards that learn martial arts rather than using weapons and armor, see Kung Fu Wizard. Not to be confused with the genre-specific Magical Girl Warrior. Compare Tin Tyrant.

Examples of Magic Knight include:


Anime and Manga[]

  • Lina Inverse from The Slayers is primarily a wizard, but also has prowess with a sword. Most of the time, though, she relies on her spells to attack. Zelgadis is an even straighter example, being a far better and stronger swordsman than her, and a highly powerful shaman in his own right. Even Amelia gets in on the act being able to cast some quite potent shamanistic spells and a mean hand to hand fighter. Lina's sister is also implied to be this, being both the vessel for the fragment of a god and said to be capable of defeating a plasma dragon with just a kitchen knife.
    • Lina, Zelgadis and Amelia also all have spells that take advantage of their dual skills. Lina has Ragna Blade, a powerful spell that takes the form of a sword, Zel has Astral Vine that temporarily imbues his sword with powerful magic and Amelia has Vizfarank that has a similar effect to Astral Vine on her fists.
  • Almost all mages in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha are capable of some form of close combat or other. Fate and her weapon's Scythe form being a prominent early example. Later, the practitioners of the Belka style of magic are literal Magic Knights (and are even called such), focusing mostly on physical power boosted by magic.
    • The only exceptions (so far) are Hayate (Glass Cannon) & Shamal, both of them followed Squishy Wizard rule not having defensive and melee skills whatsoever (except in the game).
  • CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth is a possible Trope Namer, since the party there is entirely composed of this type.
  • Fay of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, also by CLAMP, looks the part of a Squishy Wizard but is a capable fighter even when he swears off using magic.
    • Later in the same series, the replacement Syaoran is a strong melee fighter, and then turns out to be a very powerful mage as well (the other Syaoran had no magic.) Turns out he was hiding his magical ability from Fai so as not to trigger Fai's hidden time-bomb curse.
  • Rune Soldier Louie - suposedly pure mage with pathetic magical abilities but great strength.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima the magic knight is a magical brawler who makes use of quick melee attacks, or quick magic attacks. Negi becomes this after learning martial arts from Ku Fei, and learns better magic attacks from Evangeline, and Rakan. Nagi is the best Magic Knight around.
    • Kotarou despises mages because of their squishiness, so he encourages Negi to choose the Magic Knight path instead.
    • Kamo calls Setsuna by the trope name here after he sees her using spell tags to form a defense.
    • Ariadne Knight Yue is somewhere along the lines of Magic Cavalryman, since her training is based on broom riding for combat. Her sword and armor is also of more textbook appearance of this class compared to Mage Samurai Setsuna and Mage Brawler Negi.
    • Evangeline A.K. McDowell is an odd case. During her initial appearance, she is described as a typical western mage and requires Chachamaru to cover her while she prepares the big spells. Recent appearance however shows her to be a terrifying magic brawler, capable of executing deadly magically powered up melee skills to complement her bombardment ones. She did say early on that as you improved the differences between magic knights and mages grew insignificant, after all.
  • Wales/Magic Knights from Zero no Tsukaima.
  • Uranus From Sailor Moon. Despite being a senshi, she is strong physically and often prefers to bash rather then magically attack, the enemies. Has a magical sword as add-on weapon.
    • To a degree, also Jupiter (a martial artist in "real life").
    • The manga makes Venus one: with the others she's prone to physically attack the enemy with melee weapons (usually her chain, but has been shown summoning an energy sword and actually killed Beryl with a stone sword) or just kick it into oblivion, and as Sailor V she regularly bashed the Monster of the Week before finishing it with a magical attack, or, in one exception, just beheaded it with a katana.
  • A great lot of the cast in Prism Ark.
  • Kaori of To Aru Majutsu no Index was really the only person to beat Touma because she didn't actually rely on her powers as a Saint and instead just used a sword. Granted, it's not actually magic. It's implied to actually be better than magic.
    • Acqua of the Back and the Knight Leader are highly skilled warriors and supreme mages.
  • Erza from Fairy Tail, big time. Her type of magic is actually called "the knight" and is specifically about summoning swords and armor with various magical effects (though she abuses it and also uses her powers to change into pajamas, construction uniforms, a few dresses, and a bunny suit). Although it's not clear if she actually owns any other clothes than the Exquip ones.
    • A flashback showed that her powers still work on non-magical items, so it's entirely possible that she's simply using Exquip to change into regular clothes.
    • EVERYBODY in Fairy Tail is a fighter/mage, its just too hard to make a shonen action manga without heavy fighter element. Erza is more of a fighter than a mage. She's basically just a fighter who summons magical equipment; just about every fighter in fiction uses magical equipments anyways.
  • Sieg Hart, in Rave Master manages to take out 1000+ mages by taking advantage of their preference for long range fights and beating the crap out of them with a magic absorbing sword rather than waste his own magic abilities on them.
  • Code Geass: Lelouch Lamperouge, despite being a bona fide Squishy Wizard outside a mecha, is sometimes capable of holding his own against many of the knightmare frame aces throughout the series while piloting his own custom frame, the Shinkiro.
    • Lelouch isn't really a good pilot either, and still relies on strategy on a personal scale, so in mecha combat he's more a case of Weak but Skilled.
      • It probably helps that his mech is designed specifically for defensive/strategy purposes, and that he himself had piloting experience previous to the rebellion via the giant pizza-making attempts of years past (using his mother's old frame, the Ganymede). He seems to be a case of an average-to-decent pilot going up against aces on a regular basis, making his very survival rather impressive, considering how close to death he's come at times.
      • Once he gets Shinkiro, he also benefits from its non-standard control scheme, which seems to work far better for Lelouch than standard Knightmare Frame controls.
  • Ashram in Record of Lodoss War.
    • Not always. Most of the time (OVA and TV series) he's just a normal (if Badass) knight, but in "Legend of Crystania", he gets possessed by an evil god...
  • While not magic in the conventional sense the use of swords and kido in Bleach could make any shinigami count as a magic knight.
    • With the exception of people like Ichigo and Kenpachi, who have no knowledge of kido use and no desire to learn it.
  • This seems to be the standard for the Magical Girls of Puella Magi Madoka Magica; the loadout seems to be the ability to materialize weapons, boosted physical attributes, a unique ability, and rarely-used energy blasts.
  • Yuusha of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha. He's quite the swordsman, and famed as such, but he has a handy-dandy teleport spell, is a good enough magical healer that their party didn't need a dedicated one, and is shown in one of the manga adaptations blasting through multiple squads of demons at once with lightning.


Comic Books[]

  • The eponymous Spawn has a vast array of magical powers in addition to his superhuman strength and endurance. These include teleportation, necromancy, and firing blasts of necroplasmic energy.
  • Doctor Fate not only wields sorcery of a power and diversity that rivals his nearest Marvel Universe counterpart — he also has the classic power suite of a Flying Brick, above and beyond those magical abilities.
  • Really, in a way the entire superhero genre is a modernization of this trope. (Or this trope is superheroes reverse engineered), with exceptions being a pedigree of their own
  • Grimjack is primarily a warrior, but he knows somethings about magic. He's better with guns and swords though. It's stated while he has a great deal of magical power, he doesn't have a great deal of control over the power.
  • Loki of The Mighty Thor is more this than Squishy Wizard in mordern stories. While he is much more mage than fighter, if he has to fight physically he will. Against The Dreaded "eat the souls of the dead" Disir, he beat a whole pack of them into submission. From the snips of the battle shown, he did so almost entirely without magic.
    • Then again, there's a sort of Power Dissonance between Asgard and Earth anyway. Loki is/was somewhat physically weak there. he's considered super-strong on Earth, like any other Asgardian or Frost Giant would be.
  • Ghost Rider might not be duking it out with The Hulk or The Mighty Thor but he usually fights his demonic foes physically. But also posesses Hellfire, can reconstitute himself and heal others, and his most powerful weapon is the the Penance stare.


Films[]

  • In Star Wars, Jedi use the Force to give them a number of magical powers as well as swordfight effectively with their lightsabers.
  • Believe it or not, Merlin, the Ur Example of the old wizard, once got up to this in the 1998 Merlin film, where he wielded Excalibur before Arthur did, and used it to great effect. After all, he wasn't always old and frail.
  • In the recent film of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The White Witch Jadis went into battle with a sword and a wand of petrification. A pretty nasty combination by anyone's standards, and she put both to pretty good use.
  • Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, holding his own against an enraged Thor, until he makes a mistake with his illusions, and Thor puts Mjolnir on top of him. Bear in mind that Thor went through an entire army of Frost Giants, all of which were bigger than him, with every sign of enjoyment and ease at the beginning of the film, when Brought Down to Normal beat up many highly trained SHIELD agents with barely a bruise to show for it, defeated the Destroyer in under a minute once he had regained his powers, and is probably even stronger than before by that point.
    • In The Avengers, he fights Iron Man, gradually overpowering him until Captain America comes in to help.


Fan Works[]

  • The dwarven noble protagonist in Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns harbors a tear in the Veil that enables him to become a Barrier Warrior and use Razor Wind sword attacks, plus augment his physical abilities (though it takes an active effort). Unfortunately, it also comes with a wild magic effect that makes healing spells mostly useless on him and can cause spells to have unpredictable effects. Friendly fire included.


Gamebooks[]

  • In the Fighting Fantasy gamebook The Citadel of Chaos, the player is a master wizard with some additional swordsmanship skills. His (or her) spell selection doesn't include anything for destroying his enemies, though: Just stab your blade to their gut and be done with it.
    • The fire spell could, probably, be used to this purpose, but the book won't allow it.
  • Lone Wolf and the rest of the Kai are an order of divinely empowered Magic Knights, although most of their powers are psychic in nature. The Vakeros of Dessi are also an example, being warriors who use Old Kingdom Magic. In the Grand Master books, Lone Wolf can learn Old Kingdom Magic and Left Handed Magic (called Kai Alchemy in the books) making him a true Magic Knight. At higher skill levels these two disciplines even provide spells that can actually be used in combat.


LARP[]


Literature[]

  • This goes back to 12th century chansons de geste with Maugis, Charlemagne's Wizard in Shining Armor.
  • The Elric Saga Elric of Melnibone. An Albino Wizard whose sword is cursed, giving him part of the Life Energy of the people he kills. He's specifically too weak to use most of the magic he knows, but after killing dozens of men in combat and feeding on their souls that can change. BTW he's the hero.
  • Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings (the movies in particular) is skilled at swinging a sword (and carries a glowing Elvish longsword, Glamdring) along with his Simple Staff and actual magic abilities.
    • Finrod (Galadriel's brother) too. A warrior who died killing a venomous werewolf with his bare hands, he also fought Sauron in a magical singing duel. He was the most powerful known telepath among all elves, ever.
  • Morrolan and Aliera from the Dragaera series. Canonically, Morrolan is a better swordsman and Aliera is a better sorcerer, but Vlad notes that this is usually irrelevant because they're both so good at either. Most Dragaeran warriors qualify, because they are naturally strong, sorcery is readily available, and they have extremely long lifespans to master both skills.
  • The Abhorsens in the Old Kingdom series, and possibly the Clayr Librarians.
    • Also the Royal Guard.
    • Pretty much any magic user in fact: even the Ancelstierran's NPRD hedge-mages scrape together some basic enchanted weapons to complement their even more basic spellcasting.
  • The Pandion Knights (and the other three Elene orders of Holy Knights) of David Eddings' Elenium. Magic is technically considered heresy in their Church Militant, since it involves calling on foreign gods, but the Knights get a special dispensation.
  • Garion from the Belgariad series (by the same author as above) also qualifies, being both a skilled (eventually) sorcerer and wielder of a BFS with the MacGuffin stuck on its pommel.
  • Rand al'Thor in The Wheel of Time qualifies. Not only is he an accomplished swordsman (being able to hold his own, and later completely on his own, against people who are considered swordmasters), but also extremely powerful magically. Later on, all of the Asha'man go down the same route.
    • Heck, Rand goes even further, creating a magic sword made of fire in many instances, bringing new meaning to the word "Spellsword"
      • This particular bit of work was openly mocked by one of the Forsaken who pointed out that conjuring a sword from the air was possibly the weakest and most inconvenient way in which Rand could use his enormous power to inflict damage.
  • Shades, Elves, and Dragon Riders tend to specialize this way in the Inheritance Cycle. Magic and swordplay are often listed as "the essential skills of a Dragon Rider."
  • Lots of these throughout the Deryni works, including:
    • The Orders of the Michaelines and the Anvillers are full of these types, specifically trained to be both warriors and mages.
    • Alaric Morgan, Duke of Corwyn is Lord General of the Armies, King's Champion, and a Deryni sorcerer. His magic has the usual limits of all Deryni powers (requiring concentration to use it, for starters), and his arcane education is limited thanks to the persecutions.
    • To a lesser extent, Duncan McLain, Bishop-Duke of Cassan has both military and magical training. In addition to the limitations of Deryni magic, Duncan is a cleric who spent many years at university and in The Church, but he is shown both practising sword fighting and engaging in actual combat.
    • Younger men coming into their own as warrior mages include King Kelson Haldane, Dhugal MacArdry McLain, and King Liam-Lajos II Furstán.
  • In Nick Perumov's "Sword Guardian" series, there is and order of Battle Mages, who are strong magically, but also can fight with regular weapons, or with magically augmented weapons. One member of it, Klara Huemmel, "Preferred to rely on steel rather than magic. And she outlived many who had different preferences."
    • Also young Sylvia, who is not very strong, but quite skilled with weapons. She also gets a big magic sword for most of series.
  • Richard of the Sword of Truth series qualifies in later books; though he never quite gets a handle on just how to use his magic, he's still able to use it to devastating effect, and he's an almost unbeatable swordsman, partially thanks to magic.
    • D'Hara tries to avert this with the Lord Rahl. He's the magic against magic, they're the steel against steel. Some Lords Rahl don't like rules.
    • Mord-Sith. They're anti-magic knights. With a magic torture stick.
    • A Confessor in the Con Dar is this. And creepy as all getup.
    • Nathan Rahl wears a sword through much of the series. Many of his friends ask him why he needs a sword when he's a hilariously-powerful wizard. Then the Pristinely Ungifted show up. The Pristinely Ungifted aren't even immune to magic, they have no connection to it whatsoever. To them, magic might as well not exist except when it does something like hold someone off the ground (where they see the person in the air even if they don't understand) and some poorly-defined subset of Subtractive Magic, which they have some connection to because they're mortal.
  • Pretty much all the Wardens in The Dresden Files qualify, and use both magic and melee to devastating effect.
    • And, uh, revolvers, semiautomatics, the occasional shotgun, a grenade or two every once in awhile (or was that a low-level bad guy?), probably some other things I'm forgetting.
    • Ramirez had the grenades.
    • A one-trick wizard who could call up hordes of mooks also carried a web of concussion grenades.
    • There has also been at least one instance of a nuke.
    • This is Justified by the Laws of Magic, which, among other things, forbids wizards from killing Humans, and only humans, with magic, including using a gust of wind to push someone off of a cliff. Thus, all killing blows must be done with a sword or by some other means. Unless they're in self defense. But when the swords are spelled to cut through enemy enchantments, why wouldn't you use them?
  • Almost all Heralds, and many of the Tayledras, in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series are skilled in both magic (and/or Mind-Magic) and physical combat. While the more powerful mages tend to rely much more on their magic than they do on their physical skills, a good many of them still maintain and make use of those skills, and all Heralds up to and including the royal family are expected to develop as much combat ability as they can. In particular, every one of them is required to be a competent archer.
  • Lord Ariakas in Dragonlance. Bonus points for also being the most powerful man on Krynn until Raistlin's rise.
  • A very reluctant Milla becomes this in The Seventh Tower.
    • Crow is capable of low-level combat-related sunstone magic (Red Rays of Destruction) and is deadly with the throwing knife.
  • The Tortall Universe has its Gifted knights, particularly Alanna. She's one of the most powerful mages (if not tied for first) in that time, and the best swordsman...er, woman. Ever.
    • It's possible that Numair rarely uses his whole power, albeit not too far off, as he is pretty much stated to be strong enough to take on a dragon. Also, Alanna is something of a Fragile Speedster, and admits that Duke Gareth the Elder is the better swordsman, winning every 2 out of 3 bouts despite being in his mid to late 40's-50's.
    • Duke Gareth also qualifies, as does King Jonathan.
  • Basically the hat of the Patryns from The Death Gate Cycle- as their magic is primarily physical in nature, easy to activate because it stems from the runes tattooed onto their bodies, and absolutely necessary to survive in the Death World they're trapped in, they're the undisputed masters of combining it with more traditional combat skills. Even Lord Xar, leader of the Patryns, despite looking like the stereotypical "robed and beared old wizard" and relying primarily on magic alone is explicitly noted to be a deadly swordsman and in incredible condition for a man his age.
  • Anomander Rake from the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson is not only the Archmage of his 10,000+ kin the Tiste Andii, but also the only living man with both the skill and resolve to wield the Elder-God-forged sword Dragnipur. He also holds the rank of seventh following an afternoon stroll, uninvited, down the main street of a nation where social status/rank is determined by martial proficiency (normally involving duals to the death). Did I mention he only magically left the nation to slow down his heart rate from all the fighting, and in the first book of the series fends off four+ High Mages singlehandedly?
  • Serroi, of Jo Clayton's Duel of Sorcery and Dancer trilogies, develops a rather powerful innate magical ability over the course of the first series, but never seems to lose her formidable (especially considering she's tiny) martial skills. (In the hands of an author less skilled than Clayton, Serroi would probably have been a God Mode Sue.)
  • The Stormlight Archive, has the Knights Radiant in the backstory, as well as Szeth son son Vallano, although he's more of a magic ninja. Also Kaladin is a Magic Knight in training as of the end of the first book.
    • Brandon Sanderson's magic systems in general lend themselves to Magic Knights, as most of them can be used to enhance the wielder's body in some way (no Squishy Wizards here!). The only real exceptions are Awakeners from Warbreaker (powerful Awakeners, though they live a long time and don't get sick, aren't neccessarily any tougher than ordinary people) and Soulcasters from Way of Kings (since their power is entirely focused on affecting things outside of themselves).
  • The Warrior Druids from Shannara, as exemplified by Risca in First King of Shannara. Unlike the rest of the Druids, they channel their magic through their weapons for exceptionally destructive results.
  • Pretty much all Citizens from Codex Alera, as half the elements greatly bolster ability at swordfighting. Depending on the individual, they'll depend on swords or manifested furies to varying extents.
    • It's also taken literally, in that the most powerful mages are usually recruited as royal knights. This is most obvious with the Knights Aeris.
  • The eponymous group of John Ringo's Special Circumstances group is composed almost entirely of these, from a wide range of religious beliefs.
  • In Vitaliy Zykov's Way Home (Дорога домой, Виталий Зыков):
  • In Valentin Ivashchenko's Warrior and Mage and Dancing Flame (Воин и маг, Танцующее Пламя, Валентин Иващенко):
    • Male mages born into noble families learn magic by the imperial decree, and aquire decent melee skills due to common requirements for boys in noble families, e.g. Yan and Valle. Depending on species, family, country and culture, this may also include noble girls.
    • Mages born from commoners may choose a military career as an effective but appropriately risky way to fame, fortune and possibly nobility. Those willing to become front-line mages receive excessive soldier training to yield valuable combat specialists for the army.
    • Those willing to trade their future and their very possibility to bear children for revenge can become "night huntresses", gaining both magic and combat skill from a possible Deal with the Devil. As a part of his quest to prove that Dark Is Not Evil, Valle makes a habit to find, hire or pardon and redeem them.
    • With the discovery of the power of the Signswhich works without requiring magic skill every skilled warrior might be instantly promoted to Magic Knight upon mastering the Signs. Valle, already a very powerful mage to begin with, pulls a badly described gambit for immortality and god status with the Signs.
  • Alien by Igor' Dravin (Чужак, Игорь Дравин):
    • All mages of the Hunters' Guild are MagicKnights by necessity. Non-mages compensate either by being werebeasts or using Implausible Fencing Powers.
    • While the Rangers' Guild employs a few non-combat mages, e.g. for interrogation, those on the front-line also fit this trope.
    • The Clan of the Lynx has few mages, but those combine their clan's undisputed martial skill with battle-honed magic.
    • Vlad takes his pupils through Training From Hell, as their primary magic is mostly siege-grade Ritual Magic, and later develops a style to use that school of magic for quick close combat spells.
    • Death mages fuel their magic with the very "power of death" spilled in the area where sentients die. They are necessarily skilled in providing said power by killing the first opponents by mundane means, although prefer to leave the dirty work to their companions.
  • Mustrum Ridcully from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. Oh, all of the Wizard like to get the occasional whack in with their staff, but Ridcully is definitely the best at it (aside from the librarian, an orangutan), and is pretty good in a boxing match (not common amongst wizards), and who also owns a pretty good crossbow (ie, can take out two people with a single shot, and still keep going).
  • Some could interpret various characters in the Darkover series this way, as many Comyn lords were both trained as warriors and also possessed psionics.
  • The Aurënfaie from the Nightrunner series, being the resident flavor of elves, produce a fair number of these due to the ease with which their race can develop magical ability. However, most such Fighter/Sorcerers or Ranger/Sorcerers do not have the range or scope of power possessed by those who devote themselves more exclusively to magical pursuits. Orëska wizards and the Rhui'auros attain greater magical powers, but are usually pretty squishy.
  • Demons in Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony are divided into two castes: ordinary demons develop no magical power, but metamorphosise into monstrous forms when they come of age, while warlocks develop magical talent instead of muscle. Demon warlord Leon Abbott managed to steal some magical power from a warlock when he interrupted a spellcasting ritual and caused a freak accident, and uses the stolen magic to secretly bewitch the rest of demonkind into serving him.


Live Action TV[]

  • Many characters from Power Rangers and Super Sentai slot into this whenever their power source is based on magic rather than technology. Most notable are Power Rangers Mystic Force and Mahou Sentai Magiranger, which made the biggest emphasis on Magic.
  • Merlin and Morgana from Merlin. They're the opposite way around, with Morgana learning to use swords first and then discovering she has magic and Merlin having had magic and now having become decent enough with a sword.


Tabletop Games[]

  • It should be noted that in any series that allows multi-classing (such as the later editions of Dungeons and Dragons), it is possible to create characters of this type, though their effectiveness may vary. (A common complaint about the multiclassing rules of D&D's third edition was how they "hosed" multiclassed primary casters if you didn't also take a suitable prestige class to fix things — a result of Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards and spellcasters' power depending solely on their class level.)
    • This is probably why Prestige Classes were created in the first place. Considering that many in the core books are just zero frills combinations and all.
  • A number of fighter-mage classes from Dungeons and Dragons qualify.
    • Both the original and second edition AD&D games took things so far as to allow for triple-class options, notably for half-elves who could take take Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User(!), albeit with level limits.
    • The Eldritch Knight was the original Magic Knight Prestige Class, but later editions introduced base classes such as the Hexblade and Duskblade, other Prestige Classes such as the elven Bladesinger and even house-ruled variants such as the Battle Sorcerer. The fighter-mage archetype has come to be nicknamed "Gish" in the Dungeons and Dragons community, after the Githyanki term for multiclass fighter-mages.
    • The Duskblade bears special mention for being the most "nearly-perfect" of any of the examples given, or indeed any class in the 3.5 game (coming in at the end of the edition helped). They have the same BAB as a Fighter, but they don't get the bonus feats. Their spells hit just as hard as a Wizard's, but they don't get the big nuclear-y ones. One of the "problems" about the class listed in their entry was that "You may find in any given round that you have too many choices available to you."
    • On the divine magic side of the spectrum, we have the Paladin, and even the Cleric itself, which can keep up with (and surpass, in some cases) dedicated fighters in close combat if built correctly.
      • Elven Clerics, with their proficiency in Composite Long Bows and a splatbook elf-only domain, surpass every other class in (physical) ranged combat.
    • Complete Arcana introduced the War Mage, who is allowed to cast spells and wear up to medium armor without the percent chance that spells would fail.
    • Complete Arcana also introduces the Spellsword prestige class. By sacrificing one level to fighter (or another martial based class), you could get all the nuke spells as well as a -30% to your spellcasting failure chance while wearing any armor. With the right enchantments on your armor, you could wear full plate armor and holding a heavy steel shield and have a 0% chance of spellcasting failure.
    • Races of Stone had Dwarf Runemages who used a form of runic magic allowing them to cast magic in full plate-armor with no penalty.
    • In the Basic/Expert/Companion/Master non-AD&D branch of D&D, Elves were treated as a fighter-mage class.
    • In AD&D2, Bards could also qualify, though they were more of a Jack class. Of course, Complete-s added not only Bard variants, but Bladesinger, War Wizard, Amazon Sorceress, Militant Wizard...
    • Though not available in the initial release of Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition, a true arcane Magic Knight, the Swordmage, was soon introduced with the new version of Forgotten Realms. Before that, the Wizard Of The Spiral Tower paragon path let Wizards use swords and could (with some multiclassing) make an effective "gish" class.
      • The divine healer Magic Knights in 4th Edition are Clerics (who specialize more in healing) and the Paladins (who specialize more in tanking). Additionally the Runepriest, a Magic Knight focused on buffs, was introduced in the third Player's Handbook as another option for divine characters.
      • And now with the Hybrid classes, it's possible to make a combination of Fighter/Wizard, Paladin/Sorcerer or even a Swordmage/Wizard.
      • In yet another expansion on available classes, we're introduced to the Hexblades, Warlocks whose pacts carry decidedly front-line ability sets, but who still retain the class' significant damage potential and continual damage buildup over the course of each battle.
    • Dragonlance gives us an interesting situation. There's a semi-religious organization of Wizards of High Sorcery that actually try to avert this trope. They've made all sorts of laws and social stigma against a wizard wearing armor or carrying martial weapons. Wizards who do so anyway are looked down upon, such as...
    • Forgotten Realms got mentions of elven spell-archers and bladesingers from early on, and of course in elf-related sourcebooks such references are mandatory.
      • Maztica has two magical traditions — feathermagic and talonmagic. Accordingly, there are two magic-using, Shapeshifting military orders: Eagle Knights and Jaguar Knights, with respective kits [1].
      • Al-Qadim has Mystics of Nog — hermit battle-monk wizards.
    • Pathfinder introduced the Magus, which is probably the purest example of a Magic Knight base class. It focuses on Full-Contact Magic, Dual-Wielding spell and weapon, and channeling spells into weapon bonuses.
  • Warhammer 40000 is full of them — Grey Knights, Space Marine Librarians, Chaos Space Marine Sorceres, Eldar Warlocks and Farseers, Inquisitors, Ork Wierdboyz, Hive Tyrants, etc..
    • Warrior Priests, many Vampires, Chaos Lords of Tzeench in Warhammer.
  • Mage heroes in Warhammer Fantasy tend towards this due to their relatively good statline and magic item budget. Special mention, however, must go to the plate-armored Sorcerers of Chaos, the Dragon Mages of the three elven armies, and the Vampire Counts of Sylvania.
  • GURPS, being a classless, skills-based system, alows for a character to very easily fit this mold from character creation, and in higher magic worlds this WILL be much more common.
    • In addition the Holy Warrior template from Dungeon Fantasy fits a Paladin type. Latter supplements explain how to mix and match any of the various professions, inevitably resulting in multiple kinds of Magic Knight, as well as many other character.
    • The Mystic Knight template, introduced in Pyramid, is a dedicated Magic Knight template using Imbuements (magic channeled through weapons and armor). It excels as either a heavy armor wearing tank with magically-empowered attacks, or as a lightly armored highly mobile artillery monster (fire one arrow, watch it multiply into [[Rain of Arrows 20] Magic Knight/SuperPersistentMissile heat-seeking exploding lightning arrows). In both cases, the Mystic Knight's magical abilities are limited to attack and defense, with no utility functions at all.
  • Notwithstanding the earlier SNES adaptation, Shadowrun's blend of cyberpunk and magic meant that it's entirely feasible for the mage of the party to carry around a machinegun while wearing heavy armour. Granted, trying anything 'cyber-' with a mage tended to make him less mage-like in a game mechanics sense.
    • Mystic Adepts in the latest edition combines more traditional spellcasting of the Mage and the more Ki-like magic-boost of the (traditionally more physical combat focused) Adept.
    • You could theoretically build a thoroughly cybered-up character who was still a fully effective mage through the use of geasa, creating a character that is simultaneously bulletproof, possesses superhuman strength and speed, and can blow up a car with a thought.
    • But you don't even need cybers to make a good Magic Knight; many shaman builds can match front-line street samurai with a combination of buffs and a good gun, then exceed them with street spirit summons and direct damage magic.
  • In Exalted, all Exalted player characters are like this to some degree. It's one of the many benefits of playing demigods (often mightier than a lot of actual gods) in a world that runs on Rule of Cool. All Exalted have charms and can use sorcery, while each kind specializes in specific types of magic and ass-kicking: Sidereals are the best martial artists (in a world where martial arts are themselves magical and can, for example, detrimentally rearrange the fate of an opponent), Lunars can shapeshift into bestial killing machines, Dragon-Blooded were designed to be the ultimate soldiers, and Solars and Abyssals are generally the pinnacle of good old weaponized ass-kicking. Exalted have classes called castes or aspects, but all castes include both fighting and magic.
    • Many Solar charms are actually a matter of enhancing weapons and archery with magic. Solars are also the best sorcerers, while Abyssals have equally powerful Necromancy.
    • Even heroic mortals and god-blooded can learn minor magic called Thaumaturgy, and can be initiated into the most basic supernatural martial arts. Mortals have no caste restrictions at all.
    • Meanwhile Dragon King characters, on top of being dinosaurs with opposable thumbs, can use both martial arts and Thaumaturgy, and get their own magic Paths as well.
  • In Legend of the Five Rings, the system explicitly forbids this to a degree-while a shugenja (caster) can learn martial skills and be quite effective in combat, they can't gain the School Techniques that make actual bushi much more powerful fighters, and shugenja are explictly forbidden from learning bushi techniques. The only exception is the Kuni Witch Hunters, an offshoot of the Kuni Shugenja school which uses quasi-magical powers to detect and destroy evil.
    • You're forgetting the Dragon Clan's Tamori Shugenja School. Tamori shugenja are fully trained in kenjutsu, carry katana as well as wakizashi, and their special school technique gives them some bonuses in standard skirmish combat. They're no match for a proper bushi, still, but they're no pushovers.
  • In the Yu-Gi-Oh card game, Dark Paladin epitomizes this trope, serving as a fusion of a Spellcaster (Dark Magician) & Warrior (Buster Blader). For bonus points, Dark Paladin also has its very own BFS.
    • Dark Flare Knight is also an example for the same reasons, but this time as a fusion of the Dark Magician & Flame Swordsman.
    • Dark Magician Knight is another example, basically a Warrior-type effect monster of the Dark Magician that requires tributing the Dark Magician through Knight's Title before it can be summoned to the field.
  • Both Mage: The Ascension and its Spiritual Successor Mage: The Awakening have variants; as the more flashy, combat-intensive magic tends to ping the Weirdness Censor, it's usual that most mages will learn how to work a knife, sword, or gun, or at least take a kung-fu class at the Y. But there are mages dedicated mainly to the balance. Mage: The Ascension has the Akashic Brotherhood, an order that balances mental magic with martial arts, whereas Mage: The Awakening has the Adamantine Arrow, an order of soldiers dedicated to mastering both martial and mystical combat.
  • In Rifts there are a number of classes of this type, most notably Mystic Knights and Psi-Warriors.


Video Games[]

  • Trinity Souls of Zill Oll: Areus
  • The basis of the Nintendo Hard Neo-Geo game Magician Lord.
  • Tactics Ogre the Knight of Lodis has the Warlock.It can be unlocked by having a character gain the medal: Pen and the Sword. Valkyrie, female counterpart, can also count.
  • Many characters and classes from the Final Fantasy series qualify, starting with the Red Mage from the original game (and future iterations of the class in the sequels).
    • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is notable for letting your characters learn abilities from any "job" they can switch to- thus giving you the ability to have a character that has both high-level physical skills and magical skills.
      • The Gladiator class has 'Spellblade Tech' for giving physical attacks magical properties.
      • The Ultima attacks could also come under this trope, as they use magic to super-charge weapon attacks.
      • The Red Mage class. Seriously, just read their description.
    • Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 has a class explicitly designed for this trope; Scholars have an ability that combines mid-level magic with physical attacks.
    • The Knight and Ninja class changes from Final Fantasy I qualify as well, since they gain minor white and Black Magic abilities, respectively. They still focus primarily on physical attacks, though.
    • Future Knight and Paladin classes, such as Cecil from Final Fantasy IV, also had minor ability in magic.
      • Also, Edge the Ninja from Final Fantasy IV had access to a special form of black magic called Ninjutsu.
    • Final Fantasy V had a Mystic Knight/Sorcerer (the name depends on the translation you're using) class which had the ability to infuse his sword with magic.
      • Also, using the job system, it is possible to give any physical class a secondary job as a black or white mage. However most jobs have sufficiently low magic stats, rendering the use of magic all but useless.
        • Or so it seems, until you realize that your magic is boosted up to a certain level (if below) when equipping those abilities. A fully-maxed Black Magic command will make the bearer's magic stat equal to what it would be if he was a Black Mage, even in a non-magical class. But lower levels of Black Magic will not boost the character's magic as much...
        • And each class you "MASTER" grants its stat bonuses to your "BARE" or "FREELANCE" class
      • Big Bad Exdeath himself is a Magic Knight. Not only is he a powerful wizard, he also wears full body armor and wields a sword.
        • Actually he only looks like he's a Magic Knight wearing armor; he's actually a tree. Not a treant-a tree.
    • Terra and Celes from Final Fantasy VI also qualify. While being the only two characters to learn magic naturally, both were far from squishy, and could equip swords and armor, including some of the most powerful equipment in the game.
      • Although once magicite started showing up you could make anyone into a Magic Knight.
    • Final Fantasy VII had a very modular (read: Materia) system of setting up abilities. Thus, there was nothing stopping you from loading The Big Guy down with enough magic-things to stop a truck by their sheer mass, while trying to groom the White Magician Girl to do more with the staff than focus healing through it.
    • Blue Mages are also often a Magic Knight class, particularly in Final Fantasy XI.
      • Red Mages often try to be a Jack version of this, but the trope gets subverted: their physical capabilities tend to fall behind quickly. (In some games so does their magic, but that's another trope...)
        • In Final Fantasy XI, the above comment on Red Mages is is true offensively; however, Red Mages can be considered the 'Defensive Limitation' version of this trope, as they are one of the few jobs that can likely take hits from nearly any defeatable monster in the game (the true tanks being Paladin and Ninja). Not to mention that they've been known to take on Gods one-on-one and win... provided you have several hours to kill, spend gil on items to use, maximum skill in the job, and they only use magic to do so.
        • Red Mages don't actually fall behind when properly equipped. They have access to the best one handed weapons in the game, better armor than most melee, and spells that augment their offenses and defenses. Their only real weak point is the below average skill levels with weapons and defense, but can negate everything except their below average accuracy with debuffs. Realistically, if you know what you are doing, a level 50+ Red Mage (without Ninja and Utsusemi spam) is effectively invincible against anything that isn't Incredibly Tough (8+ levels higher than you) designated. The reason they don't melee in most situations is because many high level enemies spam Area of Effect attacks and debuffs and it is far easier to play a full mage in parties that doesn't need to be constantly healed like melee who have no choice.
    • Beowulf from Final Fantasy Tactics.
      • Can't forget Orlandu, Agrias, Meliadoul, and a slew of other characters that you hire/fight against. Unlike Beowulf, their powers differ a bit from regular magic...but that's a good thing because it means they don't consume MP. You can have Orlandu and Agrias use either Lightning Stab or Holy Explosion (or Night Sword in Orlandu's case) every turn, and there's little reason not to.
    • Also using sword-oriented magic effects (mostly elemental in nature) are characters given the Warrior dressphere in Final Fantasy X 2.
    • Tidus and Wakka are physical fighters capable of buffing their allies or debuffing their enemies, respectively. And if you grind enough, you can customize them into having any sort of magic you want.
    • It's a cinch to create a party of Magic Knights in Final Fantasy XII thanks to the License Board system.
    • The main character of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, who eventually gets every spell in the game in addition to his arsenal of weapons. Kaeli may also qualify (as a subversion of the typical White Magician Girl), since she uses an axe as her Weapon of Choice.
    • Genesis from Crisis Core infuses his sword with magic in an attempt to counter Sephiroth's Implausible Fencing Powers. It works until the White-Haired Pretty Boy shows that he was holding back.
      • Unrelatedly, the above link should technically be "I am not Right handed", since Sephy is a lefty.
      • Everyone in Final Fantasy VIII is a Magic Knight, although the game takes a certain level of introspection in Seifer's case. All of his Special Attacks involve burning you with fire magic and then using his gunblade to throw some other non-descript magic at you, and he specifically hooks up with the Big Bad to enhance his magical abilities to kill his rival and protect his mother.
    • Given the nature of Dissidia Final Fantasy (namely, being a massive crossover brawler between Final Fantasy characters), there are several who qualify as this. The Warrior of Light and the Onion Knight can even be considered sort of original, being vague amalgams of the generic roles from their respective games.
      • The Onion Knight is probably the purest example of this trope in the game, since his moveset is split perfectly between physical and magic attacks (in order to cater to his Job Class-based EX-Mode, with which he changes class to Ninja with physical attacks, and to Sage with magic attacks.).
  • Dragon Quest loves this trope:
    • For starters, the hero in most games. They could use a balance of healing and offensive magic, usually being fire-based, although heroes are usually the only characters in the game that can use the stronger lightning-based magic. Heroes are also capable of using the strongest weapons and armor in the game. This originates from the very first game, where the Hero was the only playable character, and as such needed to be able to do everything.
    • Dragon Quest II featured an exception: the prince of Cannock was a magic knight, while the hero was more of a Lightning Bruiser and was the only party member who had no magic at all.
    • The sage class in Dragon Quest III. Also to a lesser extent, the pilgrim/cleric class.
    • Kiryl/Cristo and Meena/Nara from Dragon Quest IV are modeled after the third game's cleric class, and could use both healing magic and had access to a handful of strong equipment. Kiryl was focused more on healing magic, while Meena had more offensive magic.
    • Dragon Quest VI had a Magic Knight class which could be accessed after gaining levels in the Soldier and Wizard classes. The Hero class from that game also qualified as both this and Jack of All Trades.
    • The ranger and paladin in Dragon Quest VII. This game was also an interesting case as equipment choices were based on the character, rather than their class.
    • The armamentalist in Dragon Quest IX.
    • Potentially any mon in Dragon Quest Monsters.
  • Stocke from Radiant Historia can chop, dice, throw fire and heal you in a pinch
  • Some characters in the Suikoden series wielded swords in the front row, and were still very proficient in using rune spells.
    • The main character of each game is almost always an example, starting out as an excellent physical fighter and later gaining access to one of the incredibly powerful True Runes. The sole exception is Chris Lightfellow from the third game, whose magic stats are so low that she can't even use her Rune's fourth-level spell without excessive power-leveling (or farming lots of stat-increase items for her).
      • This isn't much of an issue if she gets the True Water Rune, since that Rune's most useful spell is first-level, and as a healing spell, isn't much affected by a low magic stat. She is therefore a very useful paladin-type Magic Knight. She makes an awful Flame Champion, though.
        • While it is true that Chris is a poor rune caster, giving her the True Fire rune has the side effect of granting Hugo the True Water rune. Hugo, mounted on Fubar, with access to almost unlimited healing, can solo (well, duo) the final boss. Not bad for an RPG with six (6) party slots.
  • The Druid and Paladin classes from the Ultima series - with the Druid leaning more toward magic and the Paladin more toward physical combat. (And in the later games, the "Avatar" class that only the protagonist gets.)
    • Actually, let's break this down by game a little. In Ultima IV, there are 8 classes, and 3 of them are entirely one or the other- Mage, Warrior, and Shepherd. The other three are all hybrids. Ultima V is where this trope really comes into its own, though- there are only three classes for NPCs now- Mage, Warrior, and Bard, where the Bard is a Magic Knight. Then the protagonist is of class "The Avatar", which can get as good at magic or fighting as anyone else and is The Hero.
  • The Priest class from Hexen.
  • World of Warcraft is full of such hybrids. The Shaman is a Nuker/Healer who can wield hefty weapons and upgrade to mail armor, and on top of that he's a Device-type Mezzer with his Totems. The Paladin is a Healer/Tank with the most impressive and complex Mezzing ability in the game, and one of only two classes able to equip shields and plate armor.
    • There are also several NPCs that casts damaging spells while wearing heavy armour, or can both melee and cast spells quite well.
    • Druids also muck around in Magic Knight territory to a degree-they normally have to change forms in order to cast spells or tank, but a talent in their offensive spellcasting tree nets them a substantial armor boost-potentially allowing them to have warrior-level armor. That this talent also results in them turning into a giant owl-chicken-demon thing is regarded as a bonus by druids.
    • The Wrath of the Lich King expansion adds Death Knights, fallen warriors who augment their martial abilities with necromancy.
    • Thrall, Warchief of the Horde, started out as a gladiatorial warrior, but later learned shamanistic magic, which he uses in combination with his full plate armor and warhammer.
    • The dragon species and probably most other "higher beings." Kalecgos, a blue dragonflight, is describe as having "the powers of a sorcerer and the strength of a warrior."
    • Despite being considered the greatest warrior among the Titans, the current ultimate Big Bad of the Warcraft Universe is more than capable of casting extremely powerful magic.
    • In the novels, the mage Rhonin is also a decent enough fighter. The later novels show his hand-to-hand combat skills increasing, but his magic powers increase more rapidly, so he is not entirely 50/50.
  • The Lord of the Rings Online MMORG allows Lore-masters (otherwise you classical stuff-and-spell wizards) to wield a sword on higher levels, making them much closer to that trope. Ministrels from the same game, who use songs with magical effects along with shields, medium armor and variety of weapons, are even closer to this trope.
    • The highest level Lore-Masters can dual wield a sword and a staff at the same time, when using the proper optional, unlockable "legendary trait". Since a staff is supposed to be a two handed weapon, this is a bit of a Game Breaker.
  • The Magic Knight class in the Disgaea series. They were actually the best spellcasters in Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories, capable of both outdamaging and outlasting the others.
    • Mao from Disgaea 3 has equal base stats and aptitudes in strength and intellect, and is also proficient with a variety of melee weapons and learns ice magic normally.
    • Characters in other Nippon Ichi games can also be built this way. Alouette and Papillon and Salome and Valvoga are named characters who naturally fall into the trope.
  • The heroes of the Golden Sun series qualify, since everyone is capable of using offensive magic psynergy, even 'fighter-types' like Isaac, Garret or Felix.
  • The Elder Scrolls series has a few of these classes available as standard, such as the Battlemage. The nature of the custom skill system means that the player can create their own classes fitting this basic template.
    • Healers, Sorcerers, and Pilgrims also have elements of this.
      • Rather confusingly, the series has three separate sorts of Battlemages - the Battlemage class (seen, for example, in the Imperial Legion Battlemages in Oblivion), which is this trope, the Imperial Legion Battlemages organisation who are the official corps of magic-users in the Legion, and the Imperial Battlemage position, who can be, but more often isn't, a Magic Knight, and is more like the Chancellor to the Emperor.
    • The Dragonborn in Skyrim is another example of this, as even a starting character has some basic magic skills, and mixing magic and melee/archery is a good combination regardless. The Dragonborn also has access to the Thu'um, which are reality warping shouts in the dragon language and one of the more potent tools at the Dragonborn's command, so even a Dragonborn who isn't using any traditional spells will likely still be using magic in some form.
  • Diablo 2 has a few classes of this type. The Paladin (who can use both defensive and offensive magical auras) and the Assassin (with her magical martial arts) are the closest fits. The Druid can specialize in either magic or physical combat (with his shapeshifting tree), but doesn't really count since it's hard for him to do both at once.
    • The Monk class from Hellfire, the unofficial expansion for the original Diablo. In the original game, the starting class mostly just affected the starting stats and character art, so it was possible to build any class into at least a partial spell caster by spending your level-ups right.
      • Not really, since every class had a limit on certain stats.
    • The Necromancer's skills allow for a 'Meleemancer' build, which relies on primarily on curses to allow the Necro to cherrytap monsters to death without much risk.
    • Do not forget the sorceress herself, being fully capable of holding two handed weapons and heavy armor given enough strength, and with the enchantment spell and some specialisation talentpoints can surpass any other class in single hit melee damage.
  • Fire Emblem has a few classes fitting this trope, though comparatively they're rather rare. Although they disappeared completely after the jump to the GBA, necessitated by its handling of the Strength and Magic stats, a couple of Magic Knight classes cropped up in post-GBA games.
    • Gaiden: Cellica (Priest -> Princess) can wield both swords and magic.
    • The Jugdral duology sports far more instances of this than the rest of the franchise. The Mage KnightCite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content is a mounted class appearing in both games which wields swords and the three types of nature magic. The Mage Fighter is much the same aside from being a footsoldier class, but it only appears in Genealogy (Thracia does however reuses its sprites for the dismounted Mage Knight). Being that both of these classes promote from straight Mages, they're certainly not built equal in this respect and are much more proficient at magic use. Additionally, Troubadours are capable of wielding swords and healing staves; they promote to a female-exclusive Paladin variation which can use staves in addition to swords and lances, whereas male Paladins cannot use staves. Falcon Knights, promoted Pegasus Knights, also gain the use of staves. The Master Knight class, an impossibly broken class exclusive to Leaf and Rackesis, wields everything except Dark magic; before promotion, Rackesis wields both swords and staves. There are also a handful of boss-exclusive classes which can use varying combinations of magic and physical weapons, including the Baron and Emperor (everything except Light and Dark magic).
    • The Tellius duology reintroduced the concept on a much smaller scale, exclusive to two characters. Mist, a Cleric who promotes to Valkyrie, wields both swords and staves (whether she does so before promotion depnds on the game); unlike in past games, these classes are exclusive to her. Princess/Queen Elincia has a Falcon Knight/Seraph Knight variant class which also wields swords and staves.
    • Fire Emblem Awakening has so far been shown to feature the Strategist class, exclusive to a player-created character, which wields both swords and an as-yet-undefined magic type.
  • Kratos and Zelos in Tales of Symphonia. Though they had significant stats for both, they have less techs for magic and fighting.
    • In the sequel, Marta starts out more of a 'white mage,' but is competent in physical combat, and later learns damaging spells as well. Possibly just because Tales' real-time combat makes a pure mage irritating to keep around, and a pure healer has mixed usefulness in a game where using an item doesn't cost you a 'turn.'
    • Most characters in Tales of Destiny were a Mage Knight of a specific element to one degree or another, some more physical (Stan) and some castier (Philia). Ditto Tales of Innocence. In Tales of Hearts' Kohak and Kunzite are both close-range fighters with a spell list, and Hisui is a Mage Archer.
    • Everyone in Tales of Destiny 2 has physical and magical skill sets, although it was clear who was meant to be frontliners (Kyle and Loni), nukers (Reala and Harold), or do a little bit of both (Judas and Nanaly).
    • Raven from Tales of Vesperia qualifies, but he also has many unique abilities to compensate for his averageness.
      • Flynn from the PlayStation 3 port of Vesperia also applies, if possible only slightly. He's the only character apart from Estelle who can use Light-element spells(on purpose, anyways. Patty can cast them as well but it's a random chance in her case), plus he's a very capable swordsman. He's more of the "Knight first, Mage second" type considering his physical skills outnumber his spells.
    • Virtually everyone in Tales of Graces qualifies to an extent. Aside from Asbel, who is a physical attacker only, every other character is capable of both casting spells and being used as a melee attacker. However, it's obvious some characters have more prowess at one or the other and Lightning Bruiser Sophie's magic is limited to healing and support artes making her more Combat Medic than magic knight. Among the party, Richard is the most textbook example of a magic knight, with his skills evenly divided between short-range melee attacks and long-range spells.
      • Technically, everyone in Graces is a magic knight from a meta perspective, as Assualt Arte damage is calculated using the physical attack stat, and Burst Arte damage is calculated using the magic attack stat.
    • Tales of the Abyss has Anise, a Squishy Wizard who rides around on a giant stuffed puppet with impressive physical skills, and Jade "the Necromancer" Curtiss, who specialises in fonic artes, yet has impressive skills with a spear as well (including using a fonic arte to store his spear in the skin of his arm when he's not using it). He also invented fomicry.
  • Most of the Servants in Fate/stay night have such capability, between their physical combat prowess, magical weaponry, and varying ranges of actual sorcerous ability. Notable exceptions are melee-only Berserker, magic-only Caster, and Badass Normal Assassin.
    • Fate Nuovo Guerra features Celestina Barbieri, who uses her wind magecraft to boost her sword's effectiveness, along with reinforcing her body. There's also Kosviel von Einzbern, who uses her family's alchemic expertise to craft superior bladed weapons for her personal use.
    • Though Servents uses mana to strengthen themselves (though mana is more like an energy source than the traditional "magic points" required to cast spells) and uses magical equipments, they would still generally be classified as fighters. Their equipments are capable of releasing magical bursts of energy but they do not cast it in the way mages do; these attacks are probably more analogous to Ki Attacks. There are exceptions, like Lancer, who knew some magic when he was alive but prefers fighting head on; being summoned as the "Lancer" class limits his magic even more.
    • A more straightforward example would probably be Shirou and Archer. While technically mages as well, they rely almost solely fighting head on. They don't know any magic except for one particular type, which basically stresses specialization in head on combat. In a sense, they're fighters rather mages and only use magic to bring out their weapons.
  • Ness from Earthbound. As his party specializes in PSI powers or items, Ness qualifies as its definitive tank. To say nothing of the fact that after Magicant and the destruction of Ness' Nightmare he gets a significant boost in power anyway, making his stats much higher anyone else in your party.
    • Ninten in the prequel. Of course, his tank status is not as pronounced because of Teddy and a leveled up Pippi, but considering that Pippi never fights directly alongside your party again after you talk to the Podunk mayor and Teddy can be lost permanently to heavy injuries fighting off a powerful robot, and has to be if you haven't reactivated EVE before getting him to join you, so he's not around for long, he can take the most punishment for most of the game.
    • Lucas in Mother 3 is basically this. He is The Medic, and has lots of defensive stuff and is the only character who can buff parties, but at the end of the day, he generally has the highest damage output by just attacking. He is quite slow, which makes it so that you can't rely on him to save your characters from getting KO'ed.
  • Sora in Kingdom Hearts is a Magic Knight, Jack of All Stats, and the most powerful playable character. In fact most keyblade wielders are some form of Magic Knight with varying levels of knight and mage with characters like Riku, Terra and Eraqus specializing in swordfighting, Xehanort and Aqua prefer magic while Sora, Roxas, Xion, Vanitas and Ventus are somewhere in between.
    • Most of Organization XIII count as well, since each one has their one Weapon of Choice and Elemental Powers, though some specialize in one or the other to various degrees.
  • Age of Conan has the Herald of Xotli, a mage which uses big weaponry and fireto put on the pain, as well as the Dark Templar, a defensive melee class which can also transfer hitpoints to their allies, and drain their enemies'. The Conqueror class is also an offensive melee class that uses 'auras', 'orders', 'formations', and 'commands' to aid themselves and their allies, though these abilities are not stated to be magical.
  • Crono from Chrono Trigger can both slice enemies with his katana and zap them with powerful lightning magic, which includes the almighty Luminaire spell. Frog is more of the 'paladin' type with healing spells, but (being an amphibian) also learns a few water-elemental attack spells.
    • From the same game, Magus, despite being an awesome magician, is a hell of a physical beefcake as well-dealing out a lot of damage with his scythes and generally having some of the highest stats in the game, be it physical OR magical. He IS an optional character, however. The only field he's lacking in when it comes to combining techs, as he's only capable of being part of two unlockable Triple Techs.
  • Chrono Cross characters have to make physical attacks before they can use their spells, and they can all cast spells, making everyone a Magic Knight.
  • Dungeon Siege uses a classless system; as a result fighter-mage builds are very easy to develop.
  • In Nethack, the Knight role has both the capacity to gain proficiency in many useful weapon skills and a high innate ability to cast spells reliably. They can also acquire an artifact (not usable by any other role) which doubles the damage dealt by most of their spells. This is balanced somewhat by their low HP growth and code of conduct discouraging them from attacking fleeing monsters.
  • Every single character in the Persona series, but specifically in Persona 3 and Persona 4 where every character specializes in a specific type of spell. The only person who can't use spells in either game is a temp character, and even then, he has magic-like skills.
  • Theres a few people from the Breath of Fire series that could count, such as Momo and Ryu (As something of a paladin) from 3.
  • Link from Zelda also qualifies in certain games where he's given spells, which includes all of the Zelda games produced by Nintendo except the original and The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Though even those two Links could still use Magic Wands at least. Particularly in Zelda II the Adventure of Link. Though a lot of the time, he's more of a gadget user, channeling raw magic into canes, medallions, and other types of magic-powered tools.
    • The Twilight Princess incarnation of Zelda would also qualify, to a degree. She's shown wielding a sword in a cutscene, and also has quite considerable magical power.
    • Also, Ganondorf is exceptional at both physical combat and magic, and actually being better than most dedicated fighters or mages. Being a giant demon pig capable of casting spells that rip open dimensions can do that. He's also skilled in two handed weapons, dual wielding, and strong enough to ruin entire islands...while having most of his power still sealed.
  • The Sage and the Professor/Scholar of Ragnarok Online is capable of being a Magic Knight. Unfortunately, he/she suffers from being a melee type now... (shift from attack speed to faster casting times), a Glass Cannon for his magical roots, slower casting time and luck (Auto Spell has a 25% chance of automatically casting while attacking physically).
  • Guild Wars, with it's primary/secondary class setup, allows for countless varieties of Magic Knights, who can choose to focus on any type of spellcasting or melee fighting they choose. Essentially pick one of Warrior/Ranger/Assassin/Dervish/Paragon, and one of Monk/Elementalist/Mesmer/Necromancer/Ritualist/Paragon, and you have yourself a Magic Knight.
    • Hell, the Dervish and Paragon do a pretty good job being Magic Knights regardless of their secondary.
      • Assassins aren't exactly bad at it either. Though, it should be noted that it's generally a good idea not to try to be a Magic Knight unless you're one of those three classes anyway. Warrior/Monks are an excellent example. Sure, you could put points into healing as well as your physical attack abilities, but really you're just tearing up a perfectly good build; indeed, this specific example gets ruined so badly that there's even a specific derogatory word for them: Wammo.
      • Note that "Wammo" took on its derogatory tone later. In pre-release and shortly after retail, Wammos were extremely overpowered.
  • In Guild Wars 2, the Guardian fills this role, using holy magic, being able to use both magical and melee weapons, and having heavy armor. Thieves also have a few abilities along these lines as well, though not nearly as much as original Guild Wars assassins did.
  • Older RPG-style adventure games can take elements from this, too. Castle of the Winds, for example, lets you clank around in heavy plate armour, swing a two-handed sword... and when you meet a dragon, chuck a ball of lightning at it.
  • The SNES version of Shadowrun had an odd variant of this. You could run around, and cast magic, and even throw a little cyberware into your flesh. Sounds fine... but the Tabletop RPG it's based on tends to have a rather strict separation between magic and cyberware — namely, the more you slap metal into you, the less able you are to toss magic missiles. This also happens in the Genesis version, where spellcasters are better off not installing any cyberware.
    • The xBox 360 shooter version is the same way, allowing deportation and cybercrap in the same character.
  • In Mass Effect, biotic users are the equivalent of magic users. The Soldier class is a warrior, the Adept is a mage, and the Vanguard is a mix of the two therefore it's a Magic Knight. Also by unlocking certain achievements, the player can choose a single skill as a "bonus talent" on any class. So a soldier or infiltrator can pick up a biotic skill, or an adept might learn to wield sniper rifles or shotguns.
  • Shanoa from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is a bit of a variation. She mostly uses magic to materialize her weapon and is pretty handy with them. She can also cast several spells on her disposal.
    • Juste Belmont from Harmony of Dissonance also counts, being that he uses both the whip and his magic a lot, considering that a lot of the genes from Sypha Belnades run in his body.
    • Though he mainly uses melee weapons, Alucard from Symphony of the Night also has a number of moderately powerful spells at his disposal. All you need is sufficient Mana to cast it if you know the combo/sequence.
  • Most Hero characters in Warcraft III fit into this role as their abilities usually can be used both for magical and non-magical attack.
  • Archers and Paladins do this for Elemental and Self magic respectively in Might and Magic 6.
  • Faize Sheifa Beleth from Star Ocean the Last Hope. He casts attack symbology from the get-go, he can wear the same armor as Edge, and his weapon is a rapier.
  • Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura allows the player to develop such a character; it's a pretty good build as no penalties come from wearing heavy armor if you don't get encumbered by it (and your strength should be high anyways in this build).
  • Dakkon in Planescape: Torment. The Karach sings true!
    • The Nameless One can inadvertently become one of these due to his unique leveling system and equipment selection. If you level him as a fighter, then switch to mage later, you keep all the physical stats you earned from a fighter, but you are functionally still a full mage in terms of casting.
  • The main hero of Light Crusader uses a sword but can also use spells when an element is equipped on him.
  • Neku Sakuraba can use all the Pins in the Games, Like Pyrokinesis, Shockwave, Cure Drink, Force Rounds, Psychokinesis, Thunderbolt and More.
  • Notable subversion: the main character of the old ZX Spectrum Magic Knight series (actually named Magic Knight) suffers greatly in the actual knight department, although she can cast lightning bolts strong enough to weld golden sundials back together in Knight Tyme.
  • In Cabal Online there are six playable classes. All of them are MagicKnights, the Wizard being the least "knight".
  • Arthur from the original Shining Force definitely fits this trope. Even though at first he's really weak, he becomes significantly stronger than almost any other knight, magic or not. At this point his magic pretty much sucks, but he's still the only useful fighter that can use magic besides the Bare-Fisted Monk.
    • Max, the main character, who, on top of being a good fighter, has some use in magic. Mainly it's for the "he who fights and runs away..." spell Egress, though he can cast the spell called Supernova.
    • Also, from Shining Force II onwards, most the main characters in the series could learn Bolt magic. The heroes in Shining Force III take it up a notch in their final promotion forms by learning the super powerful Inferno spell.
  • Langrisser II for the Genesis takes this one a bit too far. ALL playable classes except Fighter and Pirate (which we can only assume is Lester's starting class) get magic, and most kind of knights end up having a good mix of buffing magic and offensive spells. However, the difference with mages is that their MP and magic power/range stay rather low and there's not much they can do about it (they can equip wands, which are not worth giving up a real weapon for, and they can't equip orbs). In fact, out of the 10 playable characters, 9 can potentially choose the actual "Magic Knight" class after their second class change.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic, as the name implies, allows the Heroes to specialize in either form or a mix between the two. The only exception being the Orc Warlords in V, which can't learn any spells at all.
    • Might and Magic has a few classes like this (exactly which depend on what game it is). Most had Paladins (Priestly-Fighters, some had Archers (Wizardly Fighters who also are Exactly What It Says on the Tin), but VIII had Dark Elves (replacing Archers) and Vampires (replacing Paladins) instead.
  • Dark Messiah actively encourages builds like these, since pure fighters and pure mages both have weaknesses early on which can be cheaply addressed by putting a few points into magic (to keep a fighter healed up) or combat (for when a mage is out of mana)
  • The main knight characters from Castle Crashers also qualify, being able to use elemental attacks in addition to their arsenal of weapons. Especially true if you upgrade your magic and melee attacks at an equal pace.
  • The Geneforge has the Servile and Agent classes, capable of both high-end magic and melee combat at the expense of Shaping skills. The servile is inclined more towards physical combat and enhancement magic, while Agents tend towards battle magic.
  • The main character of Summoner, Joseph, plays this fairly straight. He's a competent swordsman and can wear decent armor, he buffs and heals very well (and slings damage magic not-quite-so-well, especially if you're playing him as a front-liner), and as the titular Summoner he can conjure spirits, golems, and other monsters of great power.
  • The Shake King in Wario Land Shake It. He's physically imposing, has the same brute force based attacks as Wario, mainly for the first half of the battle... and can shoot both massive laser beams and lightning bolts all over the arena.
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, there is a specialization of the basic Mage class called "Arcane Warrior" that fits this trope perfectly. It allows the character to both cast spells and melee people to death, all while wearing heavy armor. A proper Arcane Warrior build is actually more durable than anyone else in the game, being able to solo dragons. They win simply by outlasting their enemies. On the other hand, of the possible Tanks they are the worst, as they have a hard time holding the enemies on them. They lack the warrior skills for that, the magical spells are extremely expensive because all their weapons and enchantments, the Ao E spells have friendly fire. The best route would be blood magic (stuns, does a ton of damage which translates to aggro and has no friendly fire) which almost prohibits healing and is Cast From Hit Points. The benefit of having a severely stunted damage dealer who can take a beating but can't get the enemies to target him (mages and rogues will do more damage, so they will pull more aggro) is questionable.
    • Two of the Warrior specializations, Templars (Anti Magic Knights) and Reavers (Warriors empowered by Dragon's blood) also fit the bill. The Awakening expansion introduces the "Spirit Warrior" (Warrior that taps into the Fade itself) specialization of the Warrior class. Needless to say, all three specializations can be stacked with each other.
  • Wild Arms 3 lets any of the 4 characters learn magic through equipping Guardians. However only two characters can get close to Magic Knight, Clive and Gallows. The other two,Virgina and Jet, have poor physical stats and poor magic stats respectively.
  • Luminous Arc 2 have the protagonist, Roland, becoming a Rune Knight to use one of six elemental magic in battle if the Witch he's Engaged to was deployed as well. The effects of Engagement gives Roland use of magic, give a nice boost to one of his stats and an elemental Flash Drive. The game also have Master Mattias, Bharva and late in the game, the Stinger Squad via vastly improved Runic Engines.
    • Luminous Arc 3 basically have an academy for Magi Knights, which Refi attends.
  • Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard has the War Magus, described in-game as a hybrid of The Medic and the Landsknecht. Their War Lore gives them access to healing spells and buffs, while their War Edge lets them learn specialized sword slashes which have extra effects on enemies under certain status effects... including Cursecut, which can be combined with their unique Transfer skill to become a bit of a Game Breaker when used properly.
  • The player has shades of this in both Bioshock games. In addition to your standard array of FPS guns, you also have access to magic-like powers known as Plasmids. There's also the Drill Specialist ability in Bioshock 2, which greatly reduces Plasmid cost but limits you to the drill. Lastly, the Big Sister NPCs use Plasmid powers as well as quick melee attacks to rip you apart.
  • Touhou's Youmu Konpaku. Explicitly stated to be quite good at both using her swords and magic. Things get especially hairy when she starts using both at the same time (Asura Sword, Hell God Sword, Hungry King Sword, and her Last Word...heck, all of her spellcards to some degree, even if some are supposed to be her using her swords to fling danmaku or cut bullets). Using her in the fighting games demands this of the player as well.
  • The (now defunct) online game Tabula Rasa all-but based the game on the concept, with general logos that everyone could use, and other ones related to job specialty.
  • Sacred and its sequel had several characters (i.e. classes) with this sort of potential, most notably the Wood Elf in the first game, the Inquisitor in the second, and the Seraphim in both. Oddly enough, though there is a character called a Battlemage in the first game, and who claims at creation to be good at combat too, he's very squishy and is best played as a pure magic user.
  • The protagonists of each primary Phantasy Star game — Alis, Rolf, Chaz, and the third-generation characters of PSIII (especially Sean) — are all Magic Knights.
    • The games generally avert this in-universe; true Magic is something that can only be used by members of a race of psychics called Espers, with "techniques" being usable by almost anyone and generally treated as something of a martial arts trick. Kyra, being the only known Esper who can equip heavy-type armors and use a weapon that isn't a staff, fits the Magic Knight trope best.
  • Alex, the protagonist of the first Lunar, fit this bill, particularly in the Sega CD version of the game. In every version, he gains access to the extremely powerful Dragon spells, in addition to being the strongest fighter in the game (eventually outstripping even Kyle, the team's main tank). In the Sega CD version of the game, he had access to a wide variety of Fire spells, as well as Healing magic and the occasional "Kill Every Enemy on Screen" spell.
  • A good number of Pokémon fall under this category. Their defensive stats and speed vary, but they can all deal decent physical and special damage and often have a large enough move pool to take advantage of both. They find their place on the team in the form of "mixed sweepers" (unless their user raises them to specialize in one offensive type or the other.) Examples of these Pokemon include Infernape, Azelf, Deoxys (particularly Deoxys-A,) Giratina in both forms, Lucario, Jirachi, and Celebi.
  • Your daughter can become one in second Princess Maker.
  • Maxim and Selan in Lufia II. Selan is more of a mage that can use swords, while Maxim is balanced all around. Similar to Selan is Artea, the resident Archer Elf. Only he can use higher-level holy magic such as zap and fry.
  • The titular Dragoons in The Legend of Dragoon, who are able to use magic and armor infused with the powers of dragons according to element.
  • Want to be one of these in Kingdom of Loathing? Go ahead; just keep a different spell every time you ascend and you can use it as a non-mysticality class. Hell, everyone keeps Entangling Noodles since it's so useful (2-3 free turns of whiacking your foe).
    • A successful basement dive requires this, as the road to level 500 is paved with tests of endurance and magical energy, and populated with opponents immune to physical or spell damage. The post-ascension stat gains make it feasible to employ a wider range of magical knightliness.
  • In Fable you can become this, and be named a "Spellwarrior", which, according to Yahtzee, "felt like the game was calling me an indecisive prick"
    • Depending on how you play it, this can be a very effective build. Good spells to use with this build include Multi Strike, Slow Time, and Assassin Rush.
  • The main character of Warriors of Might and Magic, Alleron, is probably one, since he can use any kind of weapons, armors and shields and can still cast spells.
  • In Mitsumete Knight R: Daibouken Hen, all six main characters are basically this, with some of them more skilled at magic than physical weapons, and vice-versa. The sliding scale of the characters, from more skilled at magic, to more skilled at weapons, is the following: Sophia - Linda - MacLeod - Raizze - Lesley - Hanna.
  • The very popular and very broken Kensai/Mage class combo in Baldur's Gate, utilizing the unmatched raw damage of the Kensai and the broken protection magic and haste buff of the mage. There other Magic Knight class combos but this is by far the most popular one.
  • Geralt (and all witcher) from The Witcheris a lightly armored swordsman with a small array of magical abilities. He's also a bit of an engineer and am alchemist, able to make things like bombs, traps, and healing potions.
  • Meta Knight has no problem summoning huge tornadoes and shooting Sword Beams in between slashing at Kirby with Galaxia. And Galacta Knight is an even more powerful Magic Knight, summoning a Storm of Blades, shooting a laser from his lance, and causing several bolts of lightning to appear.
  • Frantz and Angela from Rusty Hearts.
  • In Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, a player who chooses not to focus on any of the three main skill trees of Might, Sorcery and Finesse and instead spread their skill points between two of those disciplines will develop into a hybrid class. Might/Sorcery is a tank built to withstand both physical and elemental damage, and convert a portion of it into mana. Finesse/Sorcery is more of a Fragile Speedster who's dodge maneuver is replaced with a short-range teleport that also poisons nearby enemies. Spreading skill points equally between all three disciplines unlocks the Universalist who lacks any class-specific techniques and takes longer to get access to mid- and top-tier skills, but makes up for it by being better than other classes at what they do have access to.
  • This is extremely common in Dark Souls because of classes being nothing more than starting status. Some weapon upgrade paths even allow you to base weapon damage off intelligence or faith instead of strength and dexterity. Pyromancy in particular is practically made for this. It doesn't have any stat requirements, and damage increases simply by upgrading the Pyromancy Catalyst. There isn't a single build in the game that doesn't benefit from having some pyromancy available because it doesn't have a downside like increasing your soul level.

Web Comics[]

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  • In El Goonish Shive, Raven and Abraham are this which means their battle consisted of swordfighting and spellcasting. Halfway through the battle Abraham forgets that Raven is this and suffers for it.
  • Roza wants to be one.


Web Original[]

  • The Black Lion, a mystic villain from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, is a literal Magic Knight. Once an armored medieval knight, he is now been kept alive for nine hundred years through dark and sinister magic. In addition to his skills with a sword, he is also a powerful sorcerer in his own right.
  • Derek the Bard, of Warning! Readers Advisory is both a wizard and a swordsman.
  • In the Whateley Universe, Fey is currently turning herself from a Squishy Wizard into this. She's learning Tai Chi and swordfighting. Considering who she's up against, this is a good thing.


Western Animation[]

  • Danny Phantom has the Fright Knight, wielder of that bigass sword, asskicker of nightmarish magic powers.
  • From Gargoyles both Demona and Macbeth count, though Macbeth is more solidly a fighter who uses magic when he has too, while Demona is a more even split between the two abilities.
  • The Visionaries were an entire collection of these. They all had the power to transform into their totem forms, and they also had their own individual power staffs and magical abilities, when they didn't have the power to charge and control Magitek vehicles.
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Prince Zuko demonstrates proficiency in both Firebending and swordsmanship, allowing him to beat Jet in a swordfight where he cannot reveal his Firebending, as well as beating his own father Ozai on the Day of Black Sun.
    • Azula is also shown to be just as proficient in combat without bending.
  • Twilight Sparkle of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic is surprisingly physical despite being the most powerful mortal magic user shown yet.
  1. effectively proto- Prestige Classes, since up to 5-6 level apprentices are only "proving themselves" without extra-special training
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