Many villains avoid getting their hands dirty but are not necessarily less dangerous, as they frequently compensate. They may accomplish their goals via strategy, trickery, deception, and manipulation, count on henchpeople to do the dirty work, rely on threats and intimidation, or just frighten others with their very presence.

They may have reasons for this, such as being imprisoned, physically incapacitated, cowardly, too busy with other important matters, or just not trained in physical combat. Often more than one of these reasons are in play.

Some of these villains may still fight in non-direct or non-physical ways, such as by possessing other people, piloting a robot or vehicle, or shooting with a gun or bow. Likewise, if a character comes in different versions, they can be both "non-action" and "action". Therefore, Non-Action does not preclude being a fighter.

Other times, they are merely assisting in evil (or believe that they are doing what is right), not fighting or harming others, but are part of the reason why their boss is causing harm, they may not even want to cause harm and are simply doing their job, rather they're forced to or not. They sometimes have no actual hard feeling towards the hero.