Cosmic Will?

[NorthSaber]

I was reading Powers and the description of Rapier Wit. It had a mention that if you had the enhancements Words of Power and Cosmic, you could stun any mortal automatically (or this was implied, in any case) - even if the mortal had Unfazeable.

Now my question is, what would it take to be able to resist that ability? I suspect Cosmic Unfazeable would do the trick, but how about Will? If I take one level of Cosmic Will, do I have normal Will of 10 and Cosmic Will of 1, or 11?

[MIB 1473]

Interesting question. My first thought was to buy it the same way as modified ST damage - essentially pay for the modifiers only. But for Will 11 (assuming IQ 10), that would be 170 points! Cosmic Unfazeable would be only 60 points, so obviously that's too much. Applying a Requires Will Roll limitation to Cosmic Unfazeable would mimic what you want, but is frankly a bit weird.

[NorthSaber]

I suppose if the situation arose in one of my games, I'd rule you'd have to pay as many points as you would if you wanted to add Cosmic to 10 levels of Will. Cosmic is only +50% for defensive traits such as will, and since Will costs 5 points normally, adding ten levels of 'cosmicness' would cost 25 points. That sounds pretty fair to me.

[zogo]

Originally Posted by NorthSaber

I was reading Powers and the description of Rapier Wit. It had a mention that if you had the enhancements Words of Power and Cosmic, you could stun any mortal automatically (or this was implied, in any case) - even if the mortal had Unfazeable.

Non-Cosmic Unfazeable wouldn't help but...

Originally Posted by GURPS Powers p101

No version of Cosmic bypasses the resistance roll against Affliction, Mind Control, Maledictions, and similar abilities

[Emphasis added]

Will doesn't need to be modified at all you can stil resist.

[NorthSaber]

Soooo... when Powers states "With Words of Power [which ignores Unfazeable] and Cosmic (+300%), it suits the cosmic powers of the gods, and would instantly stun any mortal!", what's the special effect of Cosmic? Words of Power already allows Unfazeable to be ignored, so what does Cosmic do?

[zogo]

Originally Posted by NorthSaber

what's the special effect of Cosmic? Words of Power already allows Unfazeable to be ignored, so what does Cosmic do?

Bypass Mind Shield, which Words of Power would let you add Mind Shield according to Powers exegesis on Mind Shield.

[Kromm]

Words of Power, +100% gives you the ability to affect those who don't normally react to witticisms (i.e., those with Clueless, No Sense of Humor, or Unfazeable) and lets you ignore the requirement for a common language. Each is more-or-less a typical application of Cosmic, +50%, whence the overall cost of +100%. However, Mind Shield still protects, as does any defense that provides total silence (e.g., ear plugs).

Cosmic, +300% lets you ignore even these things, speaking your Words of Power in the vacuum of space, through a zone with Obscure (Hearing) 20, etc., and piercing any Mind Shield. In essence, the only defense is high enough Will to avoid succumbing.

[NorthSaber]

So essentially, Will is already Cosmic (i.e., cannot be bypassed by any means)?

[Kromm]

Cosmic Will is simply illegal. You can't stick Cosmic on attributes or secondary characteristics. And as pointed out, there would be no point in doing so, since the only purpose would be to counter a form of "Cosmic, No resistance roll" that doesn't exist.

[PK]

It is explicitly stated in Powers that no version of Cosmic can bypass the resistance roll for an ability. There is absolutely to way to buy Rapier Wit in such a way that the target does not get a roll to resist.

Now, it's possible to make Rapier Wit the follow-up to a nice Will-reducing Affliction, of course. Get someone's Will down below 3 and they don't even get to roll (since it's not an active defense roll.)