Ways for non-combat advantages to benefit from Cosmic

[Michael Thayne]

Discussions of Cosmic give a lot of attention to modifiers for attacks and defenses. But if you're using Cosmic as a power modifier, you'll have it on everything, not just your combat abilities. So what else does Cosmic (particularly the lowly +50% version) do? Here's my attempt to aggregate answers from across Powers, Power-Ups 4, and other sources:

• Create: Create "essential" elements (Powers p. 94).
• Destiny, Luck, Serendipity, and Super Luck: Can counter attacks with Cosmic, Privileged Attack. Can also be used to evade the "coincidences must be plausible" restriction on Serendipity (both of these are from PU4, p. 7).
• Detect: Implied by Kromm to penetrate non-Cosmic Obscure here.
• Enhanced Move: Many uses, see Supers pp. 26-27 and 53, and PU4 p. 9.
• Healing: Counters the "lingering effect" and "unhealing damage" versions of Cosmic (PU4, p. 8).
• Insubstantiality: Can only be blocked by Cosmic barrier (Powers p. 21). And only harmed by Cosmic attacks?
• Invisibility: Can only be seen by cosmic vision (Powers p. 21).
• Modular Abilities: Arguably should give freebie Cosmic, +50% to advantages bought with Modular Abilities points ("Apply the power modifier to the Modular Abilities themselves but not the traits they’re rearranged into (doing both is double-counting" - Powers p. 64).
• Morph: With Improvised Forms, you can get traits that don't even exist in your game world! (Powers p. 75)
• Payload: Hammerspace! (Powers p. 76)
• Regeneration: Regeneration (Cosmic) is part of the resurrection build introduced in Powers (p. 151), and also used in Divine Favor. Cosmic Regeneration also works against Cosmic unhealing damage (PU4, p. 8).
• See Invisible: Defeats all power-based invisibility (Powers p. 73).
• Snatcher: Items don't have to obey local laws of physics (PU4, p. 7).
• Unkillable: Unkillable 1 (Cosmic) is part of the resurrection build introduced in Powers (p. 151), and also used in Divine Favor.

This is a pretty decent list, but it's still only a fraction of what's out there. It's enough to extrapolate, though. Cosmic senses penetrate things that would block them. Cosmic Warp can be inferred to block barriers to normal Warp, just like Insubstantiality. Any other healing ability out there (Regrowth? Leech?) can help you heal from things you wouldn't otherwise be able to heal from. Would be fun to think up answers to the less obvious cases, but I'm tired, so I'll leave that to the forum, or to myself tomorrow...

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Discussions of Cosmic give a lot of attention to modifiers for attacks and defenses. But if you're using Cosmic as a power modifier, you'll have it on everything, not just your combat abilities.

They aren't the same thing. That is while you could take the Cosmic enhancement for an ability with the Cosmic power source, you don't have to, and certainly don't get it for free. The enhancement is badly named, call it Rules Modification instead if it bothers you.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by malloyd

They aren't the same thing. That is while you could take the Cosmic enhancement for an ability with the Cosmic power source, you don't have to, and certainly don't get it for free. The enhancement is badly named, call it Rules Modification instead if it bothers you.

The OP's point is that GURPS Powers refer to the fact that some worlds have "tiered" powers, with some power types simply being of a higher tier than others, this being represented by widespread use of the Cosmic Power Enhancement instead of (or in addition to) the traditional (-10% or so) Power Limitation.

Both Ars Magica's Mythic Europe setting, and my somewhat similar Ärth setting, have this, with the Divine type of magic trumping lesser forms of magic, such as Magic/Arcane, Infernal/Satanic and Faerie/Pagan.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by malloyd

They aren't the same thing. That is while you could take the Cosmic enhancement for an ability with the Cosmic power source, you don't have to, and certainly don't get it for free. The enhancement is badly named, call it Rules Modification instead if it bothers you.

The rules-as-written disagree. You can take a Cosmic Enhancement without also taking the Cosmic Power Modifier, but taking the Cosmic Power Modifier is effectively free if you are also taking a Cosmic enhancement valued at +50% or higher.

Originally Posted by GURPS Powers, pg 101

Cosmic as a Power Modifier: At the +50% level, Cosmic is often a power modifier (see p. 26). On abilities with this modifier, reduce the total cost of all Cosmic options by +50%. In effect, the first +50% of Cosmic is built in.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by malloyd

They aren't the same thing. That is while you could take the Cosmic enhancement for an ability with the Cosmic power source, you don't have to, and certainly don't get it for free. The enhancement is badly named, call it Rules Modification instead if it bothers you.

Not exactly. According to RAW, if you have a +50% Cosmic Power modifier the first 50% Cosmic enhancement on that power is already paid for. However, I would prefer to be able to easily separate Cosmic beings from those beings with a few powers that break the rules.

In my setting there are beings with Cosmic power modifiers. These can be called Cosmic Beings. Just having a power with Cosmic on it is usually used for bending the rules. I would rather have two names for the enhancement, but I know the difference.

I also use several tiers:

1. Cosmic - The true power behind the universe.
2. Divine - This is the power modifier for gods and their highest minions.
3. Spirit - This is the power modifier for spirits and the lesser servants of the gods.
4. Mundane - This is an unwritten power modifier for raw advantages.

Magic, Chi, and Psionic (in my setting they are three words for the same thing) are considered Mundane powers.

There is only one PC in my current game who is a Cosmic Being, but she's young and doesn't really understand her full abilities.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

So what else does Cosmic (particularly the lowly +50% version) do?

Act as a power modifier, for the most part, which allows the traits to trump non-Cosmic powers, ignore non-Cosmic countermeasures and be always available (even ignoring other Cosmic powers that attempt to neutralize it).

Otherwise, I'd try to slot in one of the following (from GURPS Power-Ups 4): Avoiding Drawbacks, Defensive, No Rule of 16 or Privileged Attack.
... assuming any of them are appropriate ...

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Act as a power modifier, for the most part, which allows the traits to trump non-Cosmic powers, ignore non-Cosmic countermeasures and be always available (even ignoring other Cosmic powers that attempt to neutralize it).

So what are other examples of "countermeasures"?

Otherwise, I'd try to slot in one of the following (from GURPS Power-Ups 4): Avoiding Drawbacks, Defensive, No Rule of 16 or Privileged Attack.
... assuming any of them are appropriate ...

Yes. The thing is, the latter three are straightforward. But what are other things to do with "Avoiding Drawbacks"?

[Anders]

Clairvoyance without the need to Concentrate and make an IQ roll to change viewpoint? Not sure that's worth 50 points, though.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Anders

Clairvoyance without the need to Concentrate and make an IQ roll to change viewpoint? Not sure that's worth 50 points, though.

That seems too much to do with a +50% modifier, given that it's +100% just to automatically succeed on the IQ roll, and a lot of levels of Reduced Time to forgo a whole minute of concentration.

[Michael Thayne]

On other idea: it makes sense that normally "telepathic" abilities (Mind Reading, Mind Probe, etc.) would work Digital Minds and things that would normally be the wrong "type" to be affected by them. This would include being able to use Empathy on animals, demons, etc. This would be like a slightly better version of Cybernetic, and the rationale for protecting Digital Minds from telepathy has as much to do with the lore around "telepathy" as anything—it makes sense that Cosmic powers wouldn't recognize distinctions between types of minds. Of course, to overcome explicit defenses like Mind Shield or Resistant, you still need the +300% version of Cosmic.