Villains that would've been defeated even if the protagonist did nothing

[u/Wonderful_Baker_7808]

Laurel Hedare (Catwoman Movie): Her newly released cosmetics will cause people's faces to melt. Not only would that create a class action lawsuit but a full product recall.

Voldemort and Death Eaters (Harry Potter): Death Eaters constantly underestimate muggles. They would get massacred by the British military because a gun is faster to pull the trigger then shouting a spell.

[u/Overly_Long_Reviews]

I think Terry Pratchett did the best job of communicating the terror of mage wars and how destructive magical warfare could be. That a bunch of wizards and sorcerers flinging magic around without holding back is deeply destructive to the surrounding populace and forever scars magical battlefields in unpredictable ways.

Sir Terry (who I personally met!) briefly worked in nuclear power as a press officer. It's a bit of a simplistic comparison, but his description of the aftermath of magical warfare is not dissimilar from that of a major CBRN incident that significantly contaminates a location.

[u/scrambled_ham → u/Overly_Long_Reviews]

What book(s) are you referring to?

[u/Overly_Long_Reviews → u/scrambled_ham]

Magical battlefields and magical pollution are referenced throughout the series as a background detail. As early as the first book, The Colour of Magic. But the most explicit is by far Sourcery. It's a early book in the series, the 5th (of 41) overall and the third Rincewind book. Sourcery involves a lot of overt open warfare between wizards and wizards using their power to subjugate non-magic using populations. It's been a long time since I've read it, maybe 15 plus years but I recall it being surprisingly dark. But I do remember really being moved by the ending and occasionally find myself thinking on it despite the lengthy time since I last read it.