Editing Dominate (section)

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''â€œMiss Savona, I assume.â€ Talley bowed deeply to the Ventrue prodigy as she and her entourage entered the monument where their meeting was to take place.â€œCall me â€˜Miss,â€™ â€˜Madame,â€™ â€˜Ladyâ€™ or whatever you choose, Hound. Your actions carry more weight than your skill in etiquette.â€ Fiorenza Savona dismissed two of her bodyguards with a gesture, a flick of imaginary dust from her sleeve. â€œYou and your clanmates have done well. We witnessed the burning of four Sabbat Cardinals last month, thanks to yourâ€¦ sacrifice. We are ready to approach the Magisters with serious talks regarding your joining the fold.â€''

''Talley smiled, though his smiles were always false, and caught Savonaâ€™s eyes. â€œYou will dismiss your security immediately.â€ Te words cleaved through the Ventrueâ€™s mind like a broadsword, wielded without subtlety.''

''She grimaced and hissed at the Lasombra. â€œYou think to manipulate me so directly? I am not some thin-blood or ghoul to be commanded, Keeper!â€ Each member of her entourage went for their holstered weapons.''

''â€œWait, waitâ€¦â€ Talley was grinning now. â€œI just wanted to ensure you were not some weak envoy. I prefer diplomacy with strong characters, and clearly, you are that. I meant no offense.â€ Savonaâ€™s guards froze, awaiting her response. She ordered them to put their weapons away.''

''Talley bowed again, mentally noting that to get to this Ventrue, he would need to focus on crushing the wills of her servants instead.''

Dominate grants the vampire the ability to control the actions of others, manipulate their memories, and force living creatures into acts they would not perform of their own volition. At its most basic, Dominate enables a vampire to make a victim forget the feed they just endured or enjoyed. At its most dangerous, it allows Kindred to enslave entire crowds of kine. This is the Beast at its most cruel and controlling.

Dominate acts as a bludgeon to enforce the Masquerade, create submissive servants, and reinforce the self-assuredness of the vampire. When using this Discipline, Kindred feel omnipotent, although the wisest of them know that this too may be shackles of a kind, slipped upon them by the Blood.


===Characteristics===

Most Dominate powers require eye contact with the victim. Once they establish contact, Dominate holds the gaze of the victim until the user conveys their command or commands, barring interference. Catching the eyes of someone actively attempting to avoid the vampireâ€™s gaze requires a contest of the userâ€™s Resolve + Intimidation vs the targetâ€™s Wits + Awareness. It is of course impossible to catch the eyes of someone squeezing their eyes shut or wearing a blindfold, but that person should be easy prey to other tactics.

Using Dominate in combat or in other frantic situations is limited to people attacking or otherwise interacting with the user directly, as everyone elseâ€™s attention is firmly focused on their own peril.

Unless the user has supernatural means such as Telepathy (Auspex 5) at their disposal, they must command the victim verbally. The victim must be able to hear the user and understand their language.

Without Terminal Decree (Dominate 5), commands resulting in obvious death or serious injury fail automatically. Subjects roll to resist commands resulting in other social or physical harm, such as undressing in public. (See individual powers for details.) Vampires cannot use Dominate to extract information, as the victim becomes a mindless puppet while under its influence. For example, the Compel command â€œSpeakâ€ results in blabbering word salad, while someone Mesmerized to â€œtell what you know about the assassinâ€ responds â€œwhat you know about the assassin.â€ Dominate cannot make subjects do something they could not do on command, such as â€œSleep.â€ Ultimately, the Storyteller determines what the Discipline can accomplish, but they should take care that Dominate remains one Discipline of many, rather than the catch-all solution to every problem.

Dominate cuts to the core of vampiric mastery and predation. Thus, vampires must resist attempts to Dominate them. A vampire of lower (stronger) generation can resist Dominate attempts from higher generation vampires by spending a Willpower point, negating the effect completely.

On a total failure on the roll of any Dominate power, that vampire can no longer Dominate that target for the rest of the story.

Dominate threatens Humanity, especially if the vampire has any Principles involving personal freedom or forbidding violations of human integrity. Using it may incur Stains (p. 239).

'''Type: 
Mental<br> 
'''Masquerade threat: 
Low. Barring someone Dominating an entire auditorium to jump off the cliffs of Dover, it remains one of the more subtle vampiric powers.<br> 
'''Blood Resonance: 
Phlegmatic. The blood of the submissive or the dominant, masters and slaves, captains of industry, power trippers, cult leaders and followers.


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==Level 1==

{{Disc_Template|Cloud Memory|By uttering the phrase â€œForget!â€ the user can make the Dominated victim forget the current moment as well as the last few minutes, enough to mask a superficial feeding or a chance meeting. No new memories are formed and if pressed the victim realizes they have a few minutes missing.|Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve|Free|Indefinitely|No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Clouding the memory of a resisting victim or another vampire requires a Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve roll.|1}}

{{Disc_Template|Compel|With eye contact, the vampire can issue the victim a single-action command, no longer than a short sentence, to be obeyed to the letter. It must be possible to complete the command in a single turn. The Storyteller decides whether to interpret ambiguous commands in an unexpected or unfavorable way; alternatively, the command simply confuses the victim and fails.|Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve|Free|No more than a single scene|No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim, a victim the vampire has previously Dominated in the same scene, or another vampire requires a contest of Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victimâ€™s nature also require such a contest.|1}}


==Level 2==

{{Disc_Template|Mesmerize|The vampire can issue complex commands to a victim, as long as they have the subjectâ€™s gaze and relative quiet in which to issue instructions. The instructions must be carried out immediately to the victimâ€™s best ability, and must not contain any conditional actions (â€œ...if you see Henry, give him the documentâ€), as this would require the victim to exercise cognition.|Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve|One Rouse Check|Until the command is carried out or the scene ends, whichever comes first.|No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim or another vampire requires a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victimâ€™s nature also require such a contest.|2}}

{{Disc_Template|Dementation (Amalgam: Obfuscate 2)|This subtle power requires nothing more than casual conversation, as the vampireâ€™s insidious influence hides between the lines and inflections employed. The victim finds themselves increasingly agitated as their inner demons bubble to the surface, eventually drowning out all rhyme and reason.|Manipulation + Dominate vs Composure + Intelligence|One Rouse Check per scene|One Scene.|After engaging in conversation with a victim, the user can activate this power. For the duration of the scene, the user may attack a single individual each turn in a Manipulation + Dominate vs Composure + Intelligence conflict, causing Superficial damage to Willpower. A mortal who becomes Impaired by this power experiences a nervous breakdown or psychotic break, the shape and nature of which depends on their personality (and perhaps their blood Resonance). A vampire that becomes Impaired by this power must immediately succumb to a Compulsion, as chosen by the powerâ€™s user. 

If the user wants to affect multiple victims, they need to make a separate Rouse Check for each one.|2}}


==Level 3==

{{Disc_Template|The Forgetful Mind|The vampire can rewrite whole swathes of the victimâ€™s memories, as long as they can keep the victimâ€™s gaze and full, uninterrupted attention. The vampire verbally describes the victimâ€™s new memories, which the victim then accepts as their own. This power does not allow the user to investigate the victimâ€™s true memories; it more resembles blindly painting over the old canvas.|Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve| One Rouse Check|Indefinitely|The user rolls a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Each point of margin allows the user to add or remove an additional memory. The victim recalls the edits vaguely, foggy ideations that can fall apart under close questioning. A critical win creates a flawless imprint, as real as any true memory.|3}}

{{Disc_Template|Submerged Directive|When using Mesmerize, the vampire can now implant a posthypnotic suggestion, allowing the command to remain dormant until a specific stimulus occurs. This trigger can be anything from a specific date, to a person (â€œWhen you meet Roland, tell him these wordsâ€), to hearing a specific phrase. The Submerged Directive never expires; people can conceivably walk around with an order buried in their mind for years. The user can only embed one suggestion per victim.||No additional cost|Passive|As Mesmerize, though the Storyteller might want to make any rolls in secret. Thereâ€™s no way of knowing if the submerged suggestion works until the conditions are met.|3}}


==Level 4==

{{Disc_Template|Rationalize|The vampireâ€™s victims now believe that anything they do under the influence of Dominate was a result of their own free will, and defend their actions, however absurd. Long-term exposure to this power can lead to severe mental trauma in the victim.||No additional cost|Indefinitely|If pressed on their belief, the victim can make a Wits+Awareness test (Difficulty 5). A win makes them question their own statement, and possibly their sanity.|4}}


==Level 5==

{{Disc_Template|Mass Manipulation|The vampire can now command entire gatherings of mortals, and in some cases even groups of vampires. The vampire can use this power both to issue instructions and to manipulate memories.|| One Rouse Check in addition to the cost of the power amplified|As per power amplified|The vampire can amplify any of their other powers to affect a group of people, mortal or vampire, at once. All of the victims need to see the eyes of the user. The user makes any needed roll against the strongest opponent in the group.|5}}

{{Disc_Template|Terminal Decree|No longer hampered by the self-preservation instincts of their victims, the vampire can now issue commands that directly lead to the harm or death of the victim. Mortals can be made to blow their brains out, jump from rooftops, or swallow poison. Vampires can, with a bit of effort, be made to walk into fire or sunlight.||No additional Hunger cost, but the Humanity cost is potentially severe|Passive|Terminal commands now must be resisted (see individual powers regarding rolls involved), rather than failing automatically.|5}}


{{Discipline_List}}

[[Category:Disciplines]]