So how does True Faith break down?
True Faith as Pieces Parts
So exactly what does this trait do and how does it do it?
- You have access to skills (such as Exorcism) or other traits that require the character be considered “holy.”
- You can cause creatures opposed to your deity’s ethics/morality to flee your presence as if they had Dread (p. B132).
- You must adhere to the tenants of your religion or beliefs – you cannot gain extra points for adding a Pact limitation to this and usually have a self-imposed mental disadvantage to represent this
Canon True Faith Special Modifiers
There are very few modifiers for this trait – as can be seen below.
- Chosen (Limitation; GURPS Powers, p. 84): Your advantage doesn’t require you have faith in a particular belief or god to work – but non-supernatural followers of it don’t like you
- Turning (Enhancement; GURPS Powers, p. 84): Your advantage is enhanced to work against hordes of creatures as well as giving you a larger turning radius.
New Modifier for True Faith
A new modifier I’ve posted on the forums or use in my own game:
- Banish: Instead of keeping a target at bay, you can attempt to banish them. This only works on creatures who are susceptible to being banished in the first place. Make a Quick Contest of your Will (plus Power Investiture, if you have it) vs. the higher of its Will or HT plus Magic Resistance. If you succeed, you automatically banish the entity back to its home. If you fail, you cannot attempt to banish that particular entity for one full day. (+165%)
- Destructive Turning: You can destroy some of those that you successfully repel. Those that fail by 5 or more are immediately reduced to -1 HP and are treated as having the Fragile (Unnatural) disadvantage (p. B137); e.g., they are killed. This only affects creatures that are within (Will x 0.25 plus Power Investiture, if you have it) yards. (+120%).
True Faith as an Affliction
Over on Gaming Ballistic, Doug talked about a few ways to tone down the “I win!” button that is turning undead in GURPS. This got me to thinking – could turning be created using other advantages piecemail instead of the whole cloth that is True Faith? Here’s one possible build:
Affliction 1 (Accessibility, Malign Supernatural Creatures Only, -50%; Accessibility, Must obviously assert faith, -10%; Area Effect, 1 yard, +25%; Based on Will, +20%; Disadvantage, Dread of afflictor, +5%; Emanation, -20% Malediction 1, +100%; PM, -10%) [16].
Example Build: The Turninator
Your faith can move mountains.
Turninatoring: True Faith (PM, -10%; Reliable 10, +50%; Turning, +65%) [31], By making a Will+10 roll against malign supernatural beings you can force them to flee your presence.
Powering It Up:
- For 25 points you can add Banish to your ability allowing you to get rid of hostile demons, spirits, etc. and force them back to whatever dimension they hail from.
- For 19 points you add add Destructive Turning to your trait – if the target fails by 5 or more they die. This only works on creatures within quarter your Will in yards of distance from you.
I’ve been thinking a lot about “I Win!” buttons and Doug’s post inspired this one. Except I went in an opposite direction. I made the button bigger. Destructive Turning and Banish are priced using an Affliction as an Alternate Ability of True Faith with Turning. I don’t remember the exact builds, but I do remember balancing the price a bit afterward – if I find my notes (somewhere on a napkin) I’ll extract them and put them here.
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