Cosmic

Enhancements: Cosmic | Power Modifiers: Cosmic

Cosmic

Variable

Your ability operates on a "higher level" than is usual in your game world. This allows it to work under all circumstances, and possibly even ignore opposing powers! The value of the enhancement depends on the underlying trait:

Ability other than an attack or a defense:

Your ability is not subject to the usual built-in restrictions. For instance, your Healing might cure otherwise "incurable" diseases, your Insubstantiality might allow you to penetrate barriers that would block other insubstantial beings, or your Shapeshifting might be immune to negation by external forces. +50%.

Defense or countermeasure:

Your defensive trait provides its usual benefits against offensive abilities modified with the Cosmic enhancement. +50%.

Attack with a lingering special effect

Your attack has an enduring effect that only another Cosmic power can counteract; e.g., a burning Innate Attack that sets fires that water cannot extinguish, or a toxic Innate Attack that inflicts Cyclic (below) damage that medical technology cannot halt. This does not negate the target's protection! DR still affects Innate Attack, a HT roll is still allowed for a Resistible attack, etc. +100%.

Irresistible attack:

Your attack does negate the target's protection; e.g., an Innate Attack that ignores DR, or Mind Control that ignores Mind Shield. The target may still attempt an active defense against the attack, if applicable. You cannot combine this enhancement with other "penetration modifiers," such as Follow-Up. +300%.

See Also:

• Power Modifiers: Cosmic

Powers: Cosmic

   ?

The following new options are powerful, and not suitable for every campaign:

No die roll required:

Only for abilities that require a success roll. Your advantage works if you have any chance of success. Apply all the usual modifiers to your base skill. If your effective skill is 3 or more, you succeed – don't bother to roll. The only way you can fail is if your effective skill falls below 3. You can add this enhancement to attacks, but not to abilities with effects based entirely on margin of success. This excludes such resisted abilities as Mind Control and Maledictions. +100%.

No active defense allowed. Only for attacks that the target can dodge, block, or parry. Your target gets no active defense against your attack, no matter how fast or skilled he is. If your attack roll succeeds, you hit. The victim's DR and other purely passive protection works normally, and this enhancement doesn't prevent resistance rolls. +300%.

Cosmic options are cumulative.

For instance, an Innate Attack that requires no roll to hit (+100%), allows no active defense (+300%), and ignores DR (+300%) is +700%. An Attack maneuver lets you immediately apply your damage roll to your target's HP!

No version of Cosmic bypasses the resistance roll against Affliction, Mind Control, Maledictions, and similar abilities. Despite its name, "irresistible attack" simply negates protection such as DR and Mind Shield – it doesn't deny the target his chance to resist. On a carrier attack, all forms of Cosmic raise the cost of Follow-Up on the follow-up attack.

Cosmic as a Power Modifier:

At the +50% level, Cosmic is often a power modifier. 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. When using Powers, Great and Small, each tier has an enhancement cost, and pays a premium equal to that cost for a lingering attack, or five times that cost for an irresistible attack. "No die roll" and "no active defense" are at full cost, less the value of the tier enhancement.

Cosmic vs. Cosmic:

When Cosmic abilities conflict, handle it as if neither side had Cosmic. For instance, DR with Cosmic subtracts from "irresistible" attacks with Cosmic. The not quite-cosmic powers of Powers, Great and Small only count as Cosmic against lower tiers – and only top-tier powers count as Cosmic against wild abilities. Powers on the same tier interact as if neither were Cosmic.

Power Ups 4: Enhancements: Cosmic

Cosmic is one of the broadest enhancements in GURPS, and arguably the most abusable. After all, the whole point of Cosmic is to let its underlying advantage break the rules! For this reason, even in a campaign where the GM allows players to build their own powers freely, the Cosmic enhancement always requires GM approval on a case-by-case basis. Still, Cosmic has limits.

• Cosmic cannot alter the fundamental nature of an advantage. No version of Cosmic will let you use Mind Reading to project your thoughts or Invisibility to walk through walls. For this, buy the various advantages you wish to emulate as alternative abilities (see Powers).
• Cosmic cannot change the intended subject of an advantage. You cannot add Cosmic to Metabolism Control and use it to put your enemies in a coma. To use a self-only advantage on others, see Affects Others and Affliction.
• Cosmic cannot remove a target's resistance roll. It can overcome active defenses and advantages which aid resistance (e.g., DR, Mind Shield, and Resistant), but if the victim gets a Contest or unopposed roll to avoid an advantage's effect, Cosmic cannot take it away. To better overcome your target's resistance in a Quick Contest, raise your own activation roll using Reliable, or a power Talent or power skill (see Powers) – and consider Cosmic, No Rule of 16. Alternatively, if you're using Affliction, simply raise its level; the higher your level, the worse your subject's roll, and the Rule of 16 is unlikely to be an issue!
• Cosmic offense cannot overcome Cosmic defense. Some versions of Cosmic allow the advantage to ignore non-Cosmic defenses against it. When such an offense comes up against Cosmic defense, however, handle it as if neither side had Cosmic; the defense protects normally . The "one-upmanship" stops here; e.g., you cannot make an attack that ignores Cosmic DR. To overcome Cosmic DR, buy an attack that does more damage – even Cosmic DR has a finite amount of protection.

Cosmic options are cumulative. For instance, an Innate Attack that requires no roll to hit (+100%), allows no active defense (+300%), and ignores DR (+300%) is +700%. An Attack maneuver lets you immediately apply your damage roll to your target's HP! Because of the effect this can have on game balance, even if the GM allows Cosmic to be used freely, he may wish to disallow certain combinations of Cosmic.

On a carrier attack, all forms of Cosmic raise the cost of Follow-Up on the follow-up attack.

Cosmic Active Defenses

Cosmic, Defensive, is most commonly applied to passive protection (e.g., DR), negating the effects of Cosmic, Irresistible attack. However, this suggests that characters should be able to add Cosmic, Defensive, to their active defenses as well, to counter Cosmic, No active defense. This is possible, using the cost of Enhanced Defenses as a guideline, and treating all defenses as being bought up from the base of 3.

Dodge: Round Basic Speed down to the nearest whole number, then multiply it by 7.5 and round up, to find the point cost.

Parry, One Skill: Halve the skill and round down, then multiply it by 2.5 and round up, to find the point cost. For untrained, unarmed attacks, use DX as your skill level.

Parry, All: Halve DX and round down, then multiply it by 5 to find the point cost.

Block: Halve Shield skill and round down, then multiply it by 2.5 and round up, to find the point cost.

A Cosmic active defense can be used even when the rules state that such a defense isn't possible against a particular type of attack – not just to stop Cosmic attacks! Thus, Cosmic Dodge lets you attempt to dodge a surprise attack, Cosmic Parry (Rapier) makes it possible to parry a flail, Cosmic Block allows you to try blocking a bullet, and so on. This never applies to Maledictions, area-effect attacks, etc. – only to attacks for which the active defense would normally be appropriate, were it not for a rule or circumstance disallowing it in this particular situation.

These rules should not be generalized to other forms of Cosmic (or other enhancements). In particular, Cosmic, No die roll required, is strictly forbidden!

If you enhance an active defense, you must also enhance any levels of Enhanced Defenses you add to that defense.

Cosmic Levels

There are three established levels of Cosmic, each with several preexisting examples. This doesn't mean the GM can't add more! Use the guidelines below to determine what the cost of a new Cosmic enhancement should be.

All "flavors" of Cosmic can be found below, with the exception of Cosmic as a power modifier. Power modifiers are beyond the scope of this book; see Power Modifiers for details. See Caution for explanation of the eye symbols.

Adding Utility (+50%)

The lowest level of Cosmic is generally used for either removing an inherent restriction or countering a higher level of Cosmic. These improvements are limited in scope and should still feel "fair." For example, this level of Cosmic could allow an Innate Attack to emanate from any point on the user's body (e.g., eyes, hands, shoulder – making it impossible for enemies to negate its use by binding his hands, blindfolding him, and so on), but could not make the attack hit automatically or bypass defenses.

Avoiding drawbacks

?

Your ability is not subject to some type of built-in restriction. For example, you could buy Cosmic for Snatcher to avoid the "cannot get items that use different natural laws" drawback, or for Serendipity to avoid the "coincidences must be plausible" limitation. (In the latter case, you would still need Wishing to dictate a coincidence.) Don't write this down as Cosmic, Avoiding drawbacks; list the actual reason it's being purchased – e.g., Snatcher (Cosmic, Items need not obey local laws of physics). In some cases, it makes sense to buy this multiple times, to avoid unrelated restrictions on an ability; see Cosmic in Action: Enhanced Move for an example.

Defensive

?

Your defense or countermeasure is proof against Cosmic effects. See the final bullet point under the intro- duction to Cosmic for details. This is most commonly used to counter Cosmic, Irresistible attack (below), but a single application covers all Cosmic offense.

Example: Chris has Corrosion Attack 2d (Cosmic, Irresistible attack, +300%; Cosmic, Lingering effect, DR does not heal, +100%). When he hits someone, they take full damage regardless of DR, their DR is reduced by 1 for every 5 points of damage, and natural DR does not heal normally from this attack! (Normally, DR heals at the same rate as HP; in this case, the DR will need Cosmic treatment to recover.) However, Chris attacks Ben, who has DR 10 (Cosmic, Defensive, +50%). His DR blocks up to 10 points of damage from Chris' attack (countering the "irresistible attack" aspect) and if damaged, it heals normally (countering the "lingering effect" aspect as well). It is still reduced by 1 for every 5 points of basic damage, however, as that's part of how corrosion damage works, not a Cosmic effect.

No Rule of 16

?

Your supernatural ability ignores the Rule of 16. When rolling a Quick Contest against a subject, you may always use your full (modified) skill. If you are highly skilled, this may make resistance nearly impossible! The subject may always try to resist, even if his effective resistance is less than 3 (due to penalties from high levels of Affliction, previous attacks, etc.). In such a case, only a roll of 3-4 succeeds; treat this as success by 0, not as automatic resistance! If your margin of success is 1 or better, you still overcome his resistance.

Privileged attack

?

Your attack or activation roll, and the subject's defense or resistance roll (if any), cannot be rerolled by anyone else's non-Cosmic meta-game abilities – unless you want it to be. This includes advantages like Destiny, Luck, and Super Luck, and spells like Bless, Lesser Wish, and Wish. As well, no one can buy success or use player guidance, non-Cosmic Serendipity, or similar tricks to interfere with or mitigate the use of your ability. This does not affect your target's ability to defend or resist – it just prevents anyone from using meta-gaming abilities to dictate or retroactively alter the result.

Cheating (+100%)

These variants of Cosmic break the rules in a significant, noticeable way. Instead of just removing inherent restrictions, they can ignore or overrule something important to game balance. Cosmic applications at this level are less concerned with fairness, but still cannot casually overwhelm a target's defenses.

Lingering effect

?

Your ability has an enduring effect that standard powers or methods cannot counteract; only another Cosmic ability can stop it. For example, this could be combined with Cyclic if there is no normal way to stop the repeating damage – though Healing (Cosmic, +50%) could still do so. This never applies to the ability to heal the damage afterward, but see Unhealing damage (below).

No die roll required

?

Only for abilities that require a success roll: Your advantage works if you have any chance of success. Apply all the usual modifiers to your base skill. If your effective skill is 3 or more, you succeed – don't bother to roll. The only way you can fail is if your effective skill falls below 3. If your ability's effectiveness is based on your margin of success (e.g., Maledictions, Mind Reading), roll anyway to determine that margin; if you fail, treat it as success with a margin of 0.

Unhealing damage

?

The damage from your attack does not heal normally – whether via internal means (e.g., rest and recovery, Regeneration) or external ones (e.g., medical aid, magical healing, or the Healing advantage). There are two exceptions. First, any advantage with Cosmic has full effectiveness against it. Second, you must specify a category of treatment that works normally. This type of treatment must exist in the campaign setting, and cannot be rare or unique; "requires natural herbal preparations to heal" is fine, but "requires the leaves of a flower that only grows in Tibet" is not. This is a variant of Lingering effect (above), broadening the effect, but also the countermeasure.

Examples of valid treatment categories include:

• Treatment from one specific power source (e.g., magical, psionic, or divine).
• Potions (in a fantasy game) or drugs (in a modern one).
• Natural healing – that is, the wound will heal normally, but nothing else (except Very Rapid Healing) can accelerate the recovery.
• Surgery (even for a surface wound).
• Any external treatment, but only if administered by a specific type of person (e.g., only a member of a certain religion).

Godlike Tricks (+300%)

At this level, Cosmic doesn't just allow cheating, it lets the ability do something completely unfair: ignoring a target's defenses, affecting subjects it should not be able to, and so on. New forms of Cosmic, at this level, can have powerful and far-reaching effects on the underlying advantage – but still subject to the limits described under the introduction to Cosmic.

Irresistible attack

   ?

Added to any sort of offensive ability, this allows it to bypass non-Cosmic passive protection: DR (for Afflictions and Innate Attacks), Mind Shield (for mental intrusion), Fearlessness and Unfazeable (for Terror), Resistant and Immunity (for any resisted attack), and so on. It does not affect the target's active defenses; see No active defense allowed (below) for that. It also does not affect resistance rolls; see the introduction to Cosmic for more details. If this enhancement is combined with the Multiple Projectile variant of Rapid Fire, the rules for extremely close range shots (Shotguns and Multiple Projectiles) no longer apply; roll such attacks normally.

No active defense allowed

   ?

Only for attacks that the target can dodge, block, or parry. Your target gets no active defense against your attack, no matter how fast or skilled he is. If your attack roll succeeds, you hit. The victim's DR and other purely passive protection work normally; see Irresistible attack (above) to fix that. This enhancement doesn't prevent resistance rolls; see the introduction to Cosmic for more details.

Unrestricted powers

?

When bought for an ability that interacts with any one power source – like Neutralize, Psi Static, or Static (from Powers) – this allows it to work with, on, or against any power. The user can decide when using it, as a free action, which power to affect.

Anything In-Between

When coming up with new forms of Cosmic, the GM is not limited to just these three levels! If a new ability seems too powerful for +100%, but not quite up to the +300% level, don't hesitate to call it +200%. Removing two unrelated restrictions on an ability is normally a net +100% (two separate +50% Cosmic enhancements) – but if the GM feels that doing so makes the ability too potent, he's free to call that a new +150% Cosmic. Because Cosmic is so wide-ranging in its applicability, pricing it can often be as much an art as a science.

Cosmic in Action: Enhanced Move

Enhanced Move increases the user's top speed, which is not the same thing as increasing his Basic Move, Air Move, etc.; see High-Speed Movement for details. But what would it take to change that?

The top speed granted by Enhanced Move differs from Basic Move in a few ways:

1. You have to make control rolls when turning quickly or encountering hazards.
2. You have to accelerate to reach top speed.
3. You have to take a Move or Move and Attack maneuver in combat.

This implies that three forms of specialized Cosmic exist to avoid these drawbacks. With all three enhancements, Enhanced Move replaces Basic Move (or Air Move, Water Move, etc.) for all purposes. In a supers game, the GM may wish to bundle all three together into a new enhancement (Second-Nature, +150%) to enable the quick and easy creation of super-speedsters.

Cosmic, Complete maneuverability:

You are exempt from control rolls and can turn on a dime, without concern for acceleration. Because this affects even non-enhanced Move, you must take this on both Enhanced Move and the underlying movement ability (e.g., Amphibious or Flight). +50%.

Cosmic, Instantaneous acceleration:

You can go from a standing start to top speed, or vice-versa, in a single Move maneuver. This does not allow you tomake hairpin turns at full speed (use Cosmic, Complete maneuverability for that), but you can approach a point at full speed, stop and change facing, then zoom away on your next turn. +50%.

Cosmic, Retained speed:

You can use your Enhanced Move with any combat maneuver. Calculate your Step using your current Move. You may also All-Out Attack or All-Out Defend when using high-speed movement – and may accelerate or decelerate by up to half your Basic Move when doing so. Note that combat usually requires sudden turns and has many hazards; unless you also have Cosmic, Complete maneuverability, you may be making a lot of control rolls! +50%.