[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Rapier Wit

[Plane]

Originally Posted by edk926

Rapier Wit should probably also only allow one attempt per person.

Taking "Increased Immunity" as a limitation for it would probably make a lot of sense.

Originally Posted by Tinman

Making it an attack action brought it under control. The problem then became it's AOE ability.
It was still overpowered (at 5 points) but it was significantly more in line with most abilities.

I'm confused at how this would even work in combat. If I'm busy swinging a mace at someone's head I'm probably not even going to listen to whatever witty observations they have about my awful hairstyle and bathing habits.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Plane

I'm confused at how this would even work in combat

It works in an utterly cinematic manner rather like swashbuckling movies or even comic books. If you don't think it could work at all in realistic combats you've identified a Trait that shouldn't be allowed in such games.

Not all parts of Gurps are meant to be used at all times and/or in all places.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by edk926

You could potentially still insult other things about the same person though. Look at roasts.

Yes, but then you would need to know that many things.

[Pursuivant]

Rather than increasing point cost to improve play balance, the GM can add extra limitations to the stock Rapier Wit advantage. The following assumptions might all need to be true for RW to be fully effective:

* Your foe must be sapient.
* They must be able to hear you (bonuses to Will equal to the usual penalties for background noise, hearing impairment, or distance from the speaker).
* They must share a common language with you (If your foe has less than Native fluency with the language being used they get a bonus to Will equal to their usual IQ penalty to understand the language).
* You must be familiar with your target's culture, species, and time period. (The usual penalties due to lack of Cultural Familiarity, psychological differences, and/or temporal distance (as applied to the Area Knowledge skill) apply to the attacker’s Public Speaking roll.)
* You must be able to speak clearly (penalties to Public Speaking if you have Stuttering or you're wearing headgear which interferes with communication).

In themselves, those are hefty limitations.

Other potential house rules:

* If the defender wins a Quick Contest to defend himself against Rapier Wit with a success by 4+ or a Critical Success he is immune to all further attempts to use Rapier Wit against him, by the same character, during that combat and for 24 hours thereafter.
* It takes more than one second to deliver an effective repartee. Rather than being usable once per second, the ability might only be usable once before combat begins, and once per 1d + 6 seconds of combat, or once per (user’s 20 - Public speaking skill) x 3 seconds of combat.
* The usual bonuses to Public Speaking skill due to advantages other than Talent or Voice don’t apply to the attacker’s roll.
* Particularly stupid foes, who might not understand certain sorts of wit, get a bonus equal to (10-target’s IQ), up to a maximum bonus of +3.

If two opponents both have Rapier Wit, it might be fun to allow repeated use with cumulative skill penalties, as each opponent "one ups" the other. In a Martial Arts campaign, skills like Acrobatics, Karate or melee weapon skills might be substituted to awe foes with sheer skill. Since Kromm has effectively said that RW is a "special cinematic rule," it might be fair to let any cinematic character use the advantage in special situations as a Perk.

There is also a famous example of silly cinematic characters who are able to use the equivalent of Rapier Wit with the Power Word and Cosmic (Can be used repeatedly, and on strangers) enhancements, and possibly the Cosmic (No Skill Roll Required) enhancement.

Their power is balanced by the fact that they have a (heavily modified) Dread of a common pronoun spoken in their presence, which is the disadvantageous version of Rapier Wit.

A minor Dread which makes you react to a particular rare word or phrase as if Rapier Wit had been used against you might decent, if silly, Quirk.

Easily Shocked
You are flabbergasted or otherwise shocked by a particular rare word or phrase. Whenever someone speaks the word loudly within your hearing, you react as if the Rapier Wit advantage had just been used against you. You get a +1 bonus to resist (+5 maximum) per previous hostile use of the word within the previous 24 hours.

The same concept can be used to characters who instinctively react to a particular command, regardless of who speaks it, in a non-combat situation if the "attacker" can make a successful skill roll (e.g., a dog that will "Sit" on command for anyone, or a soldier who instantly comes to attention when someone barks, "Ten-Hut!").