Requires Reaction Roll and Influence Rolls

[Anthony]

Though if you want to have it somehow correlated with a trait, I'd note something like

Fickle (Requires Another Ability):
If Fickle requires rolling against another ability, that is normally just a limitation on the ability. If the ability actually serves no purpose other than making the fickleness work (for example, an expert skill), the ability should be free.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It is not unbalanced because you can use reaction modifiers (or just take a reaction roll). It is quite easy for even a 250 CP character to gain a +10 reaction modifier, which increases effective Influence skill level by +10. They would only have to take Appearance (Attractive; Universal, +25%) [5], Charisma 5 [25], and Reputation+4 (Spirits; All of the time) [10]. Not only will it help them with their patrons, it will also apply to a lot of other reaction rolls.

And you've just totally destroyed a perfectly valid character concept: The shaman or mage or super who isn't stunningly charismatic or personable, but who has decent social skills and a relationship with one or more spirits.

Also, your reasoning seems to me to go like this:

Player: I'd like to have powers granted by a spirit.
GM: Sure. That's a -20% modifier and I'll roll the spirit's reaction any time you want to use your powers.
Player: That's really unpredictable. I'd like to take the -5% RRR modifier and buy an Influence skill or two. I'm thinking Streetwise-14 for my main skill and have my character be a street shaman.
GM: You should bear in mind that any spirit that can grant you useful powers will have at least Will-20, so they're pretty much guaranteed to have a bad reaction to all your requests.
Player: Well, that makes my character concept totally useless. I guess I'll come up with something else.
GM: Hold on, it's not that bad. You can just buy Charisma 5 and then you'll have a much better chance of getting the spirit to work with you. . . .

So now the player has paid the extra cost of having the spirit be persuadable by their social skills, AND they have to pay a second extra cost to avoid those social skills being useless (and probably give up an ability or two), AND they have to play their character as being as charismatic as Alexander, Jesus, or Ninon de l'Enclos, when what they wanted was a nondescript, scruffy-looking streetcorner mage. . . .

I have to say that at the best, you're being just too damned clever and producing a character with too many special mechanisms compensating for the faults of other mechanisms. And I don't see any justification for the idea that spirits that can grant powers MUST be monsters of Will beyond any normal human limit.

[Shadlith]

I'm going to go with Will 10 modified by Reliable/Unreliable for actual play, since Fickle proper basically uses Reliable/Unreliable as a mod to the reaction roll, but I was hoping that there'd be an actual canon answer somewhere, since the line is in every single reference to that limitation (Powers, Power Ups 8, and Totems and Nature Spirits).

Either way, thank you all!

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I have to say that at the best, you're being just too damned clever and producing a character with too many special mechanisms compensating for the faults of other mechanisms. And I don't see any justification for the idea that spirits that can grant powers MUST be monsters of Will beyond any normal human limit.

Agreed. You can take Charisma with Aspected only for Spirits but even then I think the Will 20 spirit default is just the wrong path.
I went with

• Superior (Will 14)
• Major (Will 12)
• Greater (Will 11)
• Lesser (Will 10)
• Minor (Will 8)

For my basic templates, note GURPS InNomine Angels and Demons are Will 14 (Third Edition).
Of course some spirits will vary but I think Will 14 is good for a powerful spirit. Also a shaman should be able to rely on situational modifiers, in which case it might not even be resisted.

Edit: Also compare elementals DF9: Summoners Will 6 to 12 and DF 5: Allies has Divine Servitors at Will 12

[Anaraxes]

Most of the ancient deities weren't particularly immune to Influence skills anyway. Many of them were notorious for having favorites, negotiating deals, having sexual liaisons with the mortals, and so on. If you're emulating historical myths, there's no reason to pump up their Will just because they're gods. Gods can be quite fallible and quite human in this regard. And Influence skills aren't mind control. (If you have to give the gods high Will to avoid the psis and mind-mages, you might even consider giving them a limitation so that their bonus doesn't apply to Influence skiils.)

[AlexanderHowl]

Most of those behaviors are explained with combinations of Compulsive Behaviors, Lecherousness, Trickster, Xenophilia, etc. Disadvantages, not low Will, represent their failings, and outside of their particular failings, they often made steel seem weak compared to their Will. Within folklore, humans who thought that they tricked the gods usually ended up much worse off than before the attempt.

The personality of gods are often shaped by their disadvantages. Zeus possessed Bad Temper (6-), Lecherousness (6-), and Overconfidence (6-). Loki possessed Lecherousness (6-), Trickster (6-), and Xenophilia (6-). They are not entities that seemed to lack Will, as practically no one could convince them to change their behaviors, indicating that any Influence skills faced steep obstacles.

[roguebfl]

I use Requires Reaction Roll on Cleric's modular abilities to represent pray for spells, I use "Man Proposes, God Disposes" modifiers (GURPS Fantasy) along with nature of request to provide modifiers on the Influence roll