Thousands of spells exist in the wizarding world, and some of them feel downright unfair or too powerful for most wizards to cast.
Magical spells are the order of the day in the Harry Potter universe, with wizards around the world casting spells in everyday life for all kinds of reasons. Most spells have minor and safe effects, often used to modify objects or make things easier to do in daily life. Wizards can even automate some objects with magic, such as making the dishes clean themselves. Molly Weasley often uses domestic magic like that as a homemaker, for example.
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Meanwhile, other spells in the Harry Potter wizarding world are scarily powerful, and they can cause great harm if it's a Dark wizard or a criminal who's casting them. Some spells are dangerous or powerful by nature, while other spells are more moderate but can still be considered OP by some measures. Certain spells are so effective and easy to use, it's a wonder they aren't being cast constantly.
On its own, the Vanishing spell doesn't seem that impressive, and it won't knock out an enemy wizard or blow a hole in the wall. Still, spells can be overpowered in other ways, such as having a highly useful effect in exchange for very little cost or effort.
The Vanishing spell, a type of Transfiguration, is a great example of that. The caster can make an item or substance disappear just like that, which makes the Vanishing spell a great way to instantly clean up a mess or get rid of a troublesome object that's not protected by enchantments.
The opposite of Vanishing is the act of conjuring, which is also a type of Transfiguration, meaning professor Minerva McGongall teaches conjuring at Hogwarts to N.E.W.T.-level students. Conjuring is difficult to master, but an experienced caster can soon use some truly OP magic.
Conjuring breaks the laws of physics, allowing a wizard to create matter out of absolutely nothing, which is pretty overpowered by most fantasy standards. Wizards can conjure living and non-living things alike to make everyday life or wizard duels easier, though there can be consequences for getting sloppy with it.
The actual incantation for the overpowered Horcrux spell is unknown, and author J.K. Rowling seems highly reluctant to officially make one, either. It's just as well, since very few Harry Potter characters would even consider casting this incredibly dark, disturbing spell anyway.
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The exact details are obscure, but when a wizard casts this spell, they can hex an object to become a Horcrux, a vessel for a piece of their very soul. This is a route to true immortality, and everyone knows how overpowered immortality is. Lord Voldemort, meanwhile, cast this spell not once, but several times.
Many fictional characters have a tough time because their enemies or rivals know something that they shouldn't, and a character would do anything to take that information back and hide it again. Fortunately, there's an effective spell to break the "once said, it can't be unsaid" rule of life.
A cunning wizard can cast Obliviate and erase a victim's memories, often specific memories that the caster doesn't want the victim to retain. This can be overpowered in all kinds of ways, and the most proficient is the villainous ex-Ravenclaw Gilderoy Lockhart. In fact, it's his signature spell.
Telepathy is a rare superpower in fiction, with characters like X-Men's Professor X being highly valued in their worlds for being telepaths. Meanwhile, telepathy is relatively common in Harry Potter's universe since it's not a talent someone must be born with. Instead, it can be learned.
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Legilimens is a mind-reading spell, and the caster can view a montage of the victim's memories to find certain information in a matter of seconds. That is outrageously powerful in most cases, and only the obscure art of Occlumency can block it. Still, Occlumency must be practiced to be effective, too.
The incantation for the Fidelius Charm is unknown, but it's clear that this is one of the wizarding world's most powerful, even unfairly powerful, charms of all. When cast, the Fidelius Charm allows the user to perfectly conceal the location of a specified person/s, object, or even location, such as someone's house.
The Fidelius Charm requires a Secret Keeper, the living container of the charm's knowledge. Unless the charm is broken, the concealed party will never be found by any magical or mundane means. That is how Sirius Black's family house was hidden from Voldemort and the Death Eaters for so long.
Severus Snape invented this Dark spell all on his own, and it's one of the most dangerous and frighteningly effective spells in the entire wizarding world. When cast, Sectumsempra will slash the opponent like a sword, as the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince novel described it, and cut deeply.
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The effect takes place quickly, and the caster's opponent/victim will have a very narrow window of opportunity to cast a defensive spell in time. Once Sectumsempra takes effect, the other party will be too badly injured to keep fighting, and the caster might even aim to kill. It's truly a scary spell.
The three Unforgivable Curses are all notoriously overpowered, and that, combined with their inherently Dark Arts nature, means casting them is a serious crime in the wizarding world. Anyone who casts curses like Imperio will end up in the dreaded prison Azkaban for the rest of their lives.
Imperio won't physically harm a person. Instead, this mega-curse will take control of them and allow the caster to give them commands. In fact, a victim might remain under the Imperius Curse's effects for weeks, months, or even years, acting as the caster's unwitting puppet to do all kinds of things. The Death Eater Bartemius Crouch Jr. demonstrated this curse to his class while disguised as Mad-Eye Moody.
Torture can be carried out in all kinds of ways, but most fictional characters don't carry around torture devices with them. That is where the horribly overpowered spell Crucio comes in, the second of the three Unforgivable Curses. The caster just has to say "Crucio!" and intend harm to apply its effects in full.
The victim will feel like they're being stabbed by hot knives from head to toe, a surefire way to torture information or compliance out of them. This curse doesn't usually cause physical harm, either, so the caster can use Crucio as much as they like on a victim without accidentally killing them. Only extensive overuse of Crucio will cause legitimate mental damage, but that's not much of a drawback.
The Killing Curse is exactly that, an outrageously overpowered spell that will instantly kill any living thing that the caster targets. Not only is it OP to just kill something so easily, but Avada Kedavra cannot be blocked or deflected by spells such as the Shield Charm. Only love itself, the strongest magic of all, can block the Killing Curse.
Lord Voldemort cast this spell constantly in his lifetime, and it's the spell that killed Harry's parents in particular. Harry became an overnight celebrity for doing the impossible and surviving this curse as a baby boy, and he did the same in 1998, which is what destroyed Harry as an accidental Horcrux. Horcruxes are extremely difficult to destroy, but the Killing Curse can manage it.
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Louis Kemner has been a fan of Japanese animation since 1997, when he discovered Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z in elementary school. Now he's a bigger anime/manga fan than ever, and is ready to share what he knows with readers worldwide. He graduated high school in 2009 and received his Bachelor's in creative writing from UMKC in 2013, then put his skills to work in 2019 with CBR.com. He's always looking for a wonderful new anime to watch or manga series to read.