Dominate
DOMINATE

   This Discipline involves influencing the very thoughts and actions of others through the vampire's own force of will. Use of Dominate requires eye contact, thus it can be used only against one subject at a time.
   While truly potent, Dominate powers can be exacting to perform. Commands must be issued verbally; after all, mind-to-mind contact is the purview of Auspex. Still, some simple orders may be made by signs - a pointed finger and a forceful expreccion may indicate "Go!"If the subject doesn't understand the vampire, he won't compile with the directive.
   Not surprisingly, Kindred who use Dominate were often willful, controlling individuals in mortal life. Due to this tendency towards control, vampires with high Dominate scores may be unable to spend XPs to increase Abilities such as Empathy.

Most victims cannot stand against the effects of Dominate. Still, there are situations where this Discipline is powerless to sway the subject.
Mortals: Few mortals can hope to resist Dominate, their strength of will is nothing compared to the supernatural magnetism of a vampire. Still, there are extremely rare individuals who, due to strong religious faith, unique psychic talent or simple mental resolve, can shrug off this Discipline's effects. Beyond these scattered few, a select number of organizations like the Inquisition know certain rituals to render a mortal immune. Only a foolish vampire ignores the potential threat such human beings represent.
Vampires: It is impossible to Dominate another Kindred who is of stronger Blood - the vampire must be of an equal or higher generation than the target for the powers to be effective.
Nature: A vampire's Nature can have a distinct impact on how easily Dominate influences her. A vampire might control subjects with inherently empathic Natures more easily, while those whose Nature denote a great degree of inner strength can be more of a challenge. According to the target's Nature, therefore the difficulties might decrease or raise. On the other hand, "strong" Natures might be more easily influenced to take aggressive actions.
Botches: If a Dominate roll botches, the target is rendered immune to future attempts by the same vampire for the rest of the story.

Level 1
Command
   The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command which must be obeyed instantly. The order must be clear and straighforward. If the command is confusing, the subject may react slowly or perform the task poorly. The subject cannot be ordered to do something directly harmful to himself.
   The command can be hidden in a sentence, concealing the power's use from others. This requires the eye contacct at the proper moment and and stress the key word slightly. An alert bystander (or the victim himself) may notice the emphasis; but unless he is familiar with supernatural power, he'll just simply consider it as a bizare coincidence.
   System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation (Willpower). More successes force the subject to act with a greater vigor or for a longer duration.

Level 2
Mesmerize
   With this power, a vampire can verbally implant a false thought or hypnotic suggestion in the subject's subconscious mind. Both Kindred and target must be free from distraction, since Mesmerize requres intense concentration and precise wording to be effective. The vampire may activate the effect immediately or set up a stimulus that would trigger it later.The victim must be able to understand the vampire.
   Mesmerise allows everything from simple, precise directives to complex, highly involved ones. A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at a time.
   System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership (Willpower). The successes determine how well the suggestion takes hold in the victim's subconscious. With 1 or 2 successes the subject cannot be forced to do anything that seems strange to her. With 4 or 5 successes the command is effective, unless it endangers the subject. With 5+ successes the vampire may implant nearly any sort of command.
   No matter how strong the Kindred's will, her command cannot force the subject to harm herself directly or defy her innate Nature.
   If a vampire tries to Mesmerise a subject before the target fulfills a previously implanted directive, the suggestion with the more successes will take effect. If they are equal, then the newer supplants the old one.

Level 3
The Forgetful Mind
   After capturing the subject's gaze, the vampire delves into the subject's memories, stealing or recreating them at his whim. The Forgetful Mind doesn't allow for telepathic contact; the Kindred operates much like a hypnotist, asking directed questions and drawing out answers from the subject. The degre of memory alternation depends on what the vampire desires.
   The degree of detail used has a direct bearing on how strong the new memories take hold, since the victim's subconscious mind resists the alteration the vampire imposes. A simplistic or incomplete false memory crumbles much more quickly than does one with more attention to detail.
   The Forgetful Mind requires tremendious skill and finesse. It's a relatively simple matter to rifle through the victim's psyche and rip out the memories of the previous night, without even knowing what the subject did that evening. Doing so leaves a gap in the victim's mind, though, a hole that can give rise to further problems down the road. The Kindred may describe new memories, but these recollections seldom have the same degree of realism that the subject's true thoughts held.
   As such, this power isn't always completely effective. Even so, months or years may pass before the subject regains enough of her lost memories to make sense of the fragments.
   A vampire can also sense when a subject's memories were altered through use of this power, and even restore them. However, the Kindred cannot resore her own memories if they were stolen this way.
   System: The vampire decides what kind of alteration she wants to perform, then rolls Wits + Subterfudge (Willpower). The table below indigates the degree of modification possible, depending on the successes gained.
1 success May remove a single memory; lasts one day.
2 successes May remove, but not alter, memory permanently.
3 successes May make slight changes to memory.
4 successes May alter or remove an entire scene from the subject's memory.
5+ successes May reconstruct entire periods of the subject's life.
   If the successes don't allow for the extent of change the character desired, then the impact on the victim's mind is reduced.
   To restore removed memories or sense false ones in the subject, the vampire's Dominate rating must be equakl to or higher than that of the vampire who made the alteration. If so, Wits + Empathy (other vampire's Willpower) must be rolled, and more successes are needed that he had.

Level 4
Conditioning
    Through sustained manipulation, the vampire can make a subject more pliant to the Kindred's will. Over time, the victim becomes increasingly susceptible to the vampire's influence while simultaneously growing more resistant to the corrupting efforts of other immortals. Gaining complete control over a subject's mind is no small task, taking weeks or even moths to accomplish.
   Kindred often fill their retainers' heads with subtle whispers and veiled urges, thereby ensuring these mortals' loyalty. Yet vampires must pay a high price for the minds they ensnare. Servants Dominated in this way lose much of their passion and individuality. They follow the vampire's orders quite literally, seldom taking initiative or showing any imagination. In the end, such retainers become like automatons or the walking dead.
   System: Roll Charisma + Leadership (Willpower). Conditioning is an extended action. It typically requires 5-10 times more successes than the subject's Self-Control. Targets with more empathetic Natures may require less successes, while those with willful Natures require a higher total. Only through roleplaying may a vampire discern whether his subject is conditioned successfully.
   A target may become more tractable even before becoming fully conditioned. Once the vampire accumulates half of the required successes, lower difficulties may be applied. After being conditioned, the Kindred need not make eye contact or even be present to retain absolute control. The subject does exactly as he is told as long as his master is able to communicate with her verbally. No command roll is necessary unless the subject is totally isolated from the vampire. Even if a command roll fails, the target will still likely carry out part of the orders given.
   After the subject is fully conditioned, other Kindred find him more difficult to Dominate. Such conditioning changes their difficulties by +2.
   It is possible, though difficult, to shake conditioning. The subject must be separated entirely from the vampire to whom he was in thrall. This period of separation varies depending on the individual. (It could be determined by taking 6 months minus the weeks equal to the subject's Willpower.) The subject regains her personality slowly during this time, although she may still lapse into brief spells of listlessness. If the vampire encounters the target before that time passes, a successfull Charisma + Leadership (Willpower) roll completely reasserts the dominance.
   If the subject makes it through the time period without intervention by his master, the target regains his former individuality. Even so, the vampire may reestablish conditioning more easily than the first time, since the subject is forever after predisposed to falling under the Kindred's mental control. New attempts require half the total successes that the last conditioning did.

Level 5
Possession
    At this level of Dominate, the force of the Kindred's psyche is suh that it can utterly supplant the mind of a mortal subject. Speaking isn't required, although the vampire must capture the victim's gaze.
   Once the Kindred crushes the subject's mind, the vampire moves her own consciousness into the victim's body and controls it as easily as she uses her own. The mortal falls into a mental fugue while under possession. She is aware of events only in a distorted, dreamlike fashion. In turn, the vampire's mind focuses entirely on focusing her mortal subject. His immortal body lies in a torpid state, defenseless against any actions made toward it.
   Vampires cannot possess one another in this fashion. Only through a Blood Bond can one vampire control another to this degree.
   System: The vampire may completely strip away the target's Willpower prior to possessing him. The vampire spends 1 WP, then rolls Charisma + Intimidation (7), while the target rolls Willpower (7) in a resisted action. For each success the vampire obtains over the victim's total, the target loses a WP. Each success the subject gains over the vampire's total equals another die he adds to his roll on the next turn. It's often only a matter of time before the victim falls under the vampire's power. Only if the attacker botches can the subject escape her fate, since this makes the target immune to any further Dominate attempts by that vampire.
   Once the target loses all his WPs, her mind is open to the vampire. The vampire rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (7) to determine how fully he assumes control of the mortal shell.
1 success Cannot use Disciplines.
2 successes Can use Auspex..
3 successes Can also use Dominate and Presence
4 successes Can also use Chimerstry and Dementation.
5+ successes Can also use Necromancy and Thaumaturgy.
   The vampire may travel as far from her body as she is physically able while possessing the mortal. The vampire may also venture out during the day, albeit in the mortal form. However, the vampire's own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake. If the vampire leaves the mortal shell her consciousness returns to her physical form in an instant.
   Once freed from possession, the mortal regains mental control over herself. This can happen in an instant, or the victim may lie comatose for days while his psyche copes with the violation.
   The vampire experiences everything the mortal body feels during possession, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the victim's body sustains is also applied to the vampire's body (although the Kindred may soak as normal). If the mortal dies before the vampire's soul can flee the body, the vampire body falls into torpor. Presumably this is a sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, although some Kindred believe that the vampire's soul is cast adrift during this time and must find its way back to the body.
   The Kindred can remain in the mortal's body even if his own torpid form is destroyed, though such a pathetic creature is not likely to exist for long. At each sunrise, the vampire must roll Courage (8) or be expelled from the body. If forced from the mortal body, the vampire tumbles into the astral plane, his soul permanently lost in the spirit world. Nor may a vampire trapped in a mortal body be "re-Embraced;" if the Embrace happens to such a creature, he simply meets Final Death.

Level 6
Autonomic Mastery (Dark Ages Companion)
   Start, stop, or otherwise control a target's bodily functions.

Chain the Psyche (Guide to the Camarilla)
   Not content with merely commanding their subjects, some elders apply this power to ensure obedience from recalcitrant victims. Chain the Psyche is a Dominate technique that inflicts incapacitating pain on a target who attempts to break the vampire's commands.
   System: Spend a BP when applying Dominate to a subject. Any attempt that the subject makes to go against the vampire's implanted commands or to recover stolen memories causes intense pain. When such an attempt is made, roll Manipulation + Intimidation (Sramina + Empathy). Each success equals one turn that the victim is unable to act, as he is wracked with agony. Each application of Chain the Psyche crushes a number of resistance attempts equal to the vampire's Mamipulation rating, after which the effect fades.

Command Obedience (Players' Guide to High Clans)

Fealty (Dark Ages)
   Enforce oaths a target makes to you so they cannot be broken.

Loyalty
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.), Guide to the Camarilla)
   With this power in effect, the elder's Dominate is so strong that other vampires find it almost impossible to break with their own commands. Despite the name, Loyalty instills no special feeliongs in the victim - the vampire's commands are simply implanted far more deeply than normal.
   System: Any other vampire attempting to employ Dominate on a subject who has been Dominated by a vampire with Loyalty must spend an additionaly WP and make all rolls to do so at +3 difficulty.

Obedience
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.), Guide to the Camarilla)
   While most Kindred must employ Dominate through eye contact, some powerful elders may command loyalty with the lightest brush of a hand.
   Syetem: The vampire can employ all Dominate powers through touch instead of eye contact (although eye contact still works). Skin contact is necessary - simply touching the target's clothing or something he is holding will not suffice. The touch does not have to be maintained for the full time it takes to issue a Dominate command, though repeated attempts to Dominate a single target require the vampire to touch the target again.

Oberon's Grail (Tremere Clanbook (Revised))
   Memory manipulation gives effective options for influence, protection of secrets or intimidation. Employed carefully, such methods can change motives and perform subtle alterations to a subject's personality. Sometimes, though, a few subtle changes aren't enough, and when entire nights of memory lead to trouble, a mere 15-minute alteration won't do. Tremere elders may be beguiling schemers, but sometimes even they must resort to brute force. Recalcitrant memories wiped away, whole evenings lost to mystery - rumor holds that some Tremere can do this and more. But who would ever remember?
   Oberon's Grail serves as a very final and dramatic cure to problem witnesses. The Forgetful Mind can only remove or alter small sections of memory at a time, but Oberon's Grail has no such limitation. A single application can wash away an entire night. The Tremere need only to touch the subject while making eye contact (even light clothing will not stop this). Everything from sundown up to the Tremere's touch vanishes from the victim's memory. With effort, the Tremere can even fog the victim's mind so that he remembers nothing from the point of the touch to sunup, once the victim has slept. In effect, the victim seems to function normally (except, of course, for the loss of everything from sunset to the touch) until he wakes up the next day or night, at which point he realizesthat he has no recollection whatsoever of the whole previous night.
   Those elders who master Oberon's Grail use it only rarely. The touch can't remove expertise - someone who learns a skill cannot be made to forget how to do it - but it can make the victim unable to recall how or when he learned something, or to realize that he knows about it. Most often, the Grail helps to guard the Masquerade, protect clan secrets and punish those who would violate Kindred custom. Because the Grail's effects are so profound and so obvious, it's a good way to make enemies, and it's thus rarely used, but it is perhaps more effective for its threat than its practice.
   System: The Tremere must make eye contact, as usual for Dominate and touch the victim. (An elder who also has the power of Obedience can use Oberon's Grail without eye contact.) Roll Manipulation + Subterfudge (Willpower). One success causes the victim's memories from sunset to the point of the touch to become hazy; two successes completely wipe out all memory in that time period. With three or more successes, the Tremere can erase the entirety of the night, with everything from the touch until sunrise disappearing from memory once the victim falls asleep, but this costs a WP.
   Oberon's Grail has no effect if administered during the day (that's day for the body making the touch - a Tremere cannot leave her body in some part of the world at night and use the Grail through a Possessed vessel in some other, daylit part of the world). Although Oberon's Grail destroys memories, it cannot remove Attributes, Abilities, Disciplines or other Traits. This power works against victims with Eidetic Memory normally; against victims who do not sleep, its ability to suppress memory functions only from the period from sundown to the point of the touch, though the user will not be aware of this. A vampire who enters torpor counts as falling asleep.

Rationalize
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.))
   The vampire can make a victim of Dominate believe that she is acting of her own accord.
   System: Roll Manipulation + Subterfudge (Wits + Self-Control). How much the target is convinced is based on the successes:
1 success The target won't suspect he has been dominated... at first.
2 successes The target will suspect something... eventually.
3 successes The target can only be convinced by others that the action was not his idea.
4 successes The target will only suspect something if shown hard evidence.
5+ successes The target will ignore all evidence, and may become angry if the point is pressed.

Tranquility (Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.))
   The vampire may bring another vampire out of frenzy.
   System: First the target rolls Humanity (7). Then the vampire rolls her Willpower (9 - target's successes). At least three successes are needed for totally bringing the other out of frenzy, otherwise the calmness will only last for a short while. If the roll botches, the target will attcak the vampire.

Level 7
Chain of Command (Archons & Templars)
   Sometimes a single thrall isn't sufficient to accomplish a given task. Chain of Command allows the vampire to implant a suggestion (much like those allowed by Mesmerize, except even more complex). For instance, the subject could be commanded to follow an individual and report who she speaks to, or to travel from Mexico City to Houston and deliver intelligence from an undercover archon to the prince there. Chain of Command does more than  this, however. Should the thrall prove unable to complete his assigned task, Chain of Command grants him the power to pass the compulsion along to someone else. This person could, in turn, pass the compulsion along to a third agent, and even a fourth, until the objective is completed.
   System: Spend one BP, one WP and roll Manipulation + Leadership (Willpower) when implanting the suggestion in the first thrall. Keep track of the total successes. Should the thrall encounter an impediment or circumstance that he honestly believes will prevent him from fulfilling the objective - perhaps she is injured and unable to leave the hospital, is recognized by the individual he's tailing, cannot afford travel to her destination, or the like - he will attempt to pass the compulsion on to another individual whom he judges capable of continuing the assignment . Should the thrall believe herself to be dying, she will choose whoever is most convenient . If the vampire who implanted the original suggestion possesses the power of Obedience, the compulsion can be passed by touch; otherwise it requires eye contact. The compulsion can be passed only to an individual with a Willpower equal to or less than that of the current thrall (and only to Kindred of higher generation if he is a vampire) . The thrall does not make a roll to determine success; rather, take the original vampire's successes and subtract one. Subtract two if the second thrall passes along the compulsion, three if the third thrall passes it along, and so forth. Chain of Command lasts either until the task is complete, a thrall is killed without the chance to pass the compulsion on, the vampire chooses to end it or the number of successes drops to zero.

Mass Manipulation (Guide to the Camarilla)
    A truly skilled elder may command small crowds through the use of this power. By manipulating the strongest minds within a given group, a gathering may be directed to the vampire's will.
   System: The vampire declares that she is using this power before rolling for the use of another Dominate power. The difficulty of the roll is that which would be required to Dominate the most resistant member of the target group - if he cannot be Dominated, no one in his immediate vicinity can. For every success past that needed to inflict the desired result on the first target, the player may choose one additional target to receive the same effect in its entirety. The vampire needs to make eye contact only with the initial target.

Mob Rule
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.))
   The vampire may dominate more that one victims.
   System: Each success in a given roll above the required number represents another person who can be Dominated. The roll is determined using the most difficult target; if she is unaffected, the rest of the targets are unaffected as well. Eye contact is only required for the first target.

Repression of the Obvious (Malkavian Clanbook)
   The vampire can learn what thought, emotion, or urge is being most rigorously repressed.
   System: Roll Perception + Empathy (Willpower). Three successes cause the victim to blurt out the thought being repressed.

Still the Mortal Flesh (Guide to the Camarilla)
   Despite its name, this power may be employed on vampires as well as mortals, and it has left more than one unfortunate victim writhing in agony - or unable to do even that. A vampire who has developed this power is able to override her victim's body as easily as his mind in order to cut off his senses or even stop his heart. It is rumored that this power once came more easily to the Kindred, but modern medicine has made the bodies and spirits of mortals more resistant to such manipulation.
   System: Roll Manipulation + Medicine (Willpower + 2; a difficulty above 10 means that this power cannot affect the target at all). The effect lasts for one turn per success. The vampire must choose what function of the target's body is being cut off before rolling. She may affect any of the body's involuntary functions; breathing, circulation, perspiration, sight and hearing are all viable targets. While Still the Mortal Flesh is in effect, a vampire can either stop any one of those functions entirely or cause them to fluctuate erratically.
   Most mortals panic if suddenly struck blind, but only the shutdown of the heart will kill a target instantly. Vampires are unaffected by loss of heartbeat or breathing, but may be rendered deaf and blind as easily as mortals.


Strings of the Marionette (Archons & Templars)
   With this power, the Kindred's ability to command the minds of others is so great that she may even overcome the paralysis imposed by staking, or the languor of torpor. The subject cannot move as swiftly as normal, has reduced mental capacity, and cannot access any Disciplines that require conscious effort to activate. Within these parameters, however, the subject can be forced to take any actions the vampire desires.
   System: The vampire must first physically touch the subject; then roll Manipulation + Leadership, (Willpower + 1) (the added difficulty is to overcome the paralysis or torpor). The vampire maintains control for a number of scenes equal to the successes rolled.
   The subject of this power is limited in the actions he can perform while staked or torpid. In addition to the restriction on Disciplines, the subject loses one from all dice pools involving physical actions; all other dice pools halfed (round down).


Tyrant's Gaze (Players' Guide to High Clans)
   Reduce the Attributes of a target with a look.

Level 8
Carry the Master's Voice (Players' Guide to High Clans)
   Make it so you can issue Dominate commands through a thrall.

Far Mastery
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.), Guide to the Camarilla)
   This refinement of Obediance (though the vampire need not have learned Obedience first) allows the use of Dominate on any subject that the vampire is familiar with, at any time, over any distance. If the elder knows where his target is, she may issue commands as if he were standing face-to-face with her intended victim.
   System: Spend a WP and roll Perception + Empathy (Wits + Stealth) to establish contact. If this roll succeeds, Dominate may be used as if the vampire had established eye contact with the target. A second WP must be spent in order for a vampire to use this power on another vampire or other supernatural being.

Level 9
Best Intentions
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.))
   The vampire can make a victim act in her interests, without further command, and the victim will automatically know what constitutes the vampire’s interests.
   System: Roll Charisma + Intimidation (Willpower). This bond is broken when the victim gains Willpower or Humanity.

Dominate the Descendants (Players' Guide to High Clans)

Speak Through the Blood
(Guide to the Camarilla)
   The power structures of Methuselahs extend across continents and centuries. This power is a powerful tool by which such ancients wield control over their descendants, even far outside their geographic sphere of influence. Speak Through the Blood allows an elder to issue commands to every vampire whose lineage returns to her - even if the two have never met. Thus, entire broods act to further the goals of sleeping ancients whose existences they are completely unaware of. The vampires affected by this power rarely act directly to pursue the command they were given, but over 10 or so years, their priorities slowly shift until the fulfillment of the Methuselah's command is among their long-term goals. Speak Through the Blood, because it takes effect so slowly, is rarely recognised as an outside influence, and its victims rationalize their behavior as "growing and changing," or something to that effect.
   System: Spend a permanent Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Leadership.The difficulty of this roll is equal to 4 + the number of generations to which the command is to be passed. Unless the vampire is aware of the location and present agenda of every descendant of hers - a highly unlikely event - she may only issue general commands, such as "work for the greater glory of Clan Malkavian" or "destroy all those who seek to extinguish the light of knowledge." Speak Through the Blood can be used by a vampire in torpor. Commands issued through this power last for one decade per success on the roll. Difficulties over 10 require one additional success for each point past 10, making it that much more difficult to issue long-lasting commands stretching down to the ends of one's lineage.
   A vampire who has reached Golconda is not affected by this power, and is completely unaware that it has been used. Her childer, however, are affected normally unless they are also enlightened. Ghould of the victims of this power are also affected, but to a lesser extent than vampires.

Level 10
Puppet Master
(Players' Guide, Players' Guide (2nd Ed.))
   The vampire can make the victim act as if she was the vampire. This includes all the details of Best Intentions, as described above.
   System: Roll Charisma + Empathy (Willpower + 2). This power may only be attempted once per year on a given victim.

1 success The victim occasionally acts as the vampire would.
2 successes The victim feels both her mind and the other in her head, and is appropriately confused.
3 successes The victim usually acts as the vampire would.
4 successes The victim almost always acts as the vampire would.
5+ successes The victim may be roleplayed by the vampire.
 
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