Changing CP total in play

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

the GM can simply make this a fact of the setting

This is a perfectly reasonable and fair thing to do when the ability is available to all of the characters that matter. (That is, it could be a trait of all Immortals where the mundane humans never benefit -- in which case the mundanes are just cannon fodder and backdrop. Or it could be a trait everyone has, in which case the mundane humans in the know may be keen to knock off an Immortal so they can ascend to kewl Immortal powers, too.)

Since it's a campaign Advantage, the GM is giving it away for free, and so you don't really have to stat it out to give it a point value. You could if you wanted to (start with Neutralize + Power Theft, for instance), and sometimes that's useful for calculating point costs for Allies and similar traits. You can't really compare the supposedly N-point characters on a scale with other N-point characters that don't also have the hugely expensive trait, but that's okay, because you don't have to balance that number across different games. It's for generating a sense of fairness among players in a single game, not an absolute global number you need to know exactly to look up precise Challenge Ratings.

Any CP-farming trait is probably going to lead to social problems in the group when the Immortal sits around farming his CP on top of his 3-5 xp per session and becoming exponentially more powerful while the other characters just get their 3-5 xp per session. There's not really any amount you can charge to balance out this situation, since it's just a matter of play time until the farming payoff exceeds the initial cost. It's possible you have a group that truly doesn't care about relative character importance / spotlight time / influence on the game, and are content to play supporting characters. But that's pretty rare. (Ask yourself how many people in your group would play Xander in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game, absent any meta-mechanisms like hero points or luck. Ask yourself if you'd really be happy being Xander when everyone else is being Buffy, Oz, Willow, and Angel.)

So, giving power-absorbing to everyone, or no one, are the most likely ways to keep the group intact and the campaign continuing. If the whole table knows about the ability and wants to give it a try, then have fun with it.