[Psionic Powers] Do inanimate targets resist Malediction with HT or Will?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Gurps Fan

It's true that Psionic Powers has specific rules, but if some game effects work advantageously or disadvantageously, they should be reflected on point cost. GURPS adopts a point-based system.

Certainly.

What is the point cost for multiple feat penalties, for repeated attempt penalties, for additional contact bonuses, for situational modifiers, for extra effort, for the ability to create/use psi techniques, for power defenses, for forming gestalts, for ...? I'm not seeing any point costs for those (GURPS Psionic Power -version) Psionic advantages and disadvantages. Why do we get those for "free" but not this for "free" as part of the power modifier?

[PK]

Originally Posted by Gurps Fan

Sorry, but I don't see what benefits and what drawbacks balance out to zero-cost here.

That's because you're only looking at this one rule. See Powers and Options (p. 6) for a rundown of some of the features that psi has. It has benefits and drawbacks, and these things roughly cancel out. You have to look at the forest, not each individual tree.

[Gurps Fan]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

That's because you're only looking at this one rule. See Powers and Options (p. 6) for a rundown of some of the features that psi has. It has benefits and drawbacks, and these things roughly cancel out. You have to look at the forest, not each individual tree.

The box on p. 6 of Psionic Powers lists optional rules applied to every abilities that belong to psionic powers equally, such as extra effort, gestalts, psi techniques, penalties on repeated attempts, crippling on critical failures, etc. That's not what I'm trying to discuss.

Not all psionic abilities have the "Will by sentients / HT by non-sentients"-type resistance score. Some work on sentients and nonsentients equally, some work only on sentients, and some work on non-sentients too but are resisted with HT if the target is non-sentient. I'm not looking at "the forest" but I'm looking to an "individual tree" (Pyrokinesis ability), but it's because "this one rule" is the what I'm trying to discuss.

Unless otherwise modified, Malediction added on an Innate Attack is resisted with Will (p. B102) by any target, sentient or non-sentient. If it's to be changed to HT, there must be an appropriate modifier. It's effectively a kind of disadvantageous variant of Based On HT. Pyrokinesis should have a limitation like "Nuisance Effect, Inanimate targets resist this attack with HT instead of Will 0, -10%" in its writeup.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

In GURPS, many abilities (powers, spells, etc.) that are resisted by Will succeed automatically vs. a Will 0 rock. But many other abilities resisted by Will don't work at all against inanimate objects. So I decided that this book would split the difference with a reasonable ruling: If an inanimate object is targeted with a resisted-by-Will effect, it resists with HT.

"More" reasonable, I would have said ;)
My own preference is that such attacks, targeting a stat the target does not have, do nothing. This avoids interpretations that seem nonsensical, NOI to those who think otherwise. I suppose a lot of the problems I have with the official ruling go away if I can make sense of how a particular attack is working, but explanations on the weird ones often fly right by me :/

[Anthony]

I generally don't permit contests vs Will for anything other than mind-affecting powers, which makes rocks immune, but there's no real evidence for rocks having Will 0 anyway; they have IQ 0, Will n/a.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I generally don't permit contests vs Will for anything other than mind-affecting powers, which makes rocks immune, but there's no real evidence for rocks having Will 0 anyway; they have IQ 0, Will n/a.

Actually, there is evidence.

[Gurps Fan]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I generally don't permit contests vs Will for anything other than mind-affecting powers, which makes rocks immune, but there's no real evidence for rocks having Will 0 anyway; they have IQ 0, Will n/a.

I'm not discussing "mind-affecting" abilities. Pyrokinesis is an example of Burning Attack enhanced with Malediction, which is not a "mind-affecting" ability.

A common misconception is to confuse (a) "mind-affecting" abilities with (b) abilities resisted by Will. Many hostile abilities that allow the targets to resist with Will are mind-affecting, but not all. Burning Attack enhanced with Malediction is an example of abilities that fall into the category (b) and not the category (a).

Malediction-enhanced Burning Attack is resisted with Will. When an inanimate object are targeted, it resists the attack by rolling a Quick Contest using its Will 0 (our Line Editor assured). It neither uses its HT as the resisting score nor automatically wins the Quick Contest! If either is true, it's clearly disadvantageous -- it should be a limitation on the attacker's ability.