Dominate

Dominate is a vampiric Discipline that enables its users to dominate the wills of other beings, forcing them to obey their commands.

Empathic Blindness
This derangement, comparable in many ways to what in modern times is called sociopathy, is found among frequent users of Dominate. The character becomes blind to the needs, wants and ideas of others. She is incapable of understanding why anyone would not agree with her, follow her commands or do whatever they can to serve her. She suffers a +3 difficulty on Social rolls with those who do not follow her every order and must check for frenzy (difficulty 4) if openly disobeyed.

Resisting Dominate
Not all are completely defenseless in the face of a vampire’s mind control. This list enumerates what other beings must do to defend themselves.

Mortals: Dominate is intended to prey upon the mortal mind by design. A mundane person must be extraordinarily strong of will, deeply faithful, or perhaps empowered beyond the norm to combat its effects.

Vampires: A vampire cannot use Dominate abilities on another vampire if the target’s Generation is lower than hers.

Nature: A target’s Nature can make controlling and manipulating him easier or harder, on a scale of +/- 1 to 3 difficulty. A character with a cowardly Nature is much harder to urge into an aggressive action, for example.

Command
The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command, which the subject must be obey instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward: run, agree, fall, yawn, jump, laugh, surrender, stop, scream, follow. If the command is at all confusing or ambiguous, the subject may respond slowly or perform the task poorly. The subject cannot be ordered to do something directly harmful to herself, so a command like “die” is ineffective. The command may be included in a sentence, thereby concealing the power’s use from others. This effort at subtlety still requires the Kindred to make eye contact at the proper moment and stress the key word slightly. An alert bystander — or even the victim — may notice the emphasis. Still, unless she’s conversant with supernatural powers, the individual is likely to attribute the utterance and the subsequent action to bizarre coincidence.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty equals the target’s current Willpower points). More successes force the subject to act with greater vigor or for a longer duration (continue running for a number of turns, go off on a laughing jag, scream uncontrollably). Remember, too, that being commanded to against one’s Nature confounds the use of this power. Being told to “sleep!” in a dangerous situation or “attack!” in police custody may not have the desired effect, or indeed, any effect at all.

Mesmerize/Subjugation
With this ability, the vampire may give a more complex command to her target by encoding it into the victim’s subconscious. To do this, the vampire must spend a period of time with her subject, during which she must maintain concentration and eye contact. If this mesmerizing session is interrupted, the vampire must find another time to try again. This period of time lasts as long as it takes to implant the suggestion. The wording of this suggestion must be specific (“place poison in the duke’s cup” or “dispose of the bodies”). The vampire may also choose whether or not her victim acts upon the suggestion immediately or if it will trigger at a later point in time. Subjugating alters the target’s subconscious processing and does not create false memories or illusions. A subject may only follow one set of Dominated instructions at a time.

System: Roll Manipulation + Leadership. The number of successes achieved indicates how well the instructions will hold. One success indicates a weak impression, while five or more successes indicate that your very words have been carved into the target’s thoughts. This ability still cannot be used to force a target to directly harm himself or to defy his Nature. Adding a new command using Subjugation before the old one expires requires a comparison of successes between new and old. The command with the higher number of successes wins. In the event of a tie, the new command overrides the old.

The Forgetful Mind
When the vampire learns this ability, she gains the power to reshape her victim’s memories. She may erase or recreate a memory entirely, but does so through subtle manipulation as opposed to direct, telepathic alteration of the brain itself. The more thorough the vampire is with the manipulation of her target’s mind, the more effective the changed memory will be. For example, “you returned home from Mass in the company of your wife, did your chores and retired to bed early” is more effective than “you went to bed early and saw nothing strange.” As an additional benefit, the vampire may also use this ability to discern whether a target’s memories have been altered.

System: Roll Wits + Subterfuge. Consult the table below to determine the result.

Successes Result

1 success Remove a single memory; lasts as long as one day.

2 successes Permanently remove, but not alter, one memory.

3 successes Make slight alterations to the subject’s memory.

4 successes Alter or remove entire scene from the subject’s memory.

5 successes Wholly reconstruct a period of the subject’s life.

Conditioning
Through application of subtle (or perhaps, very direct) mental pressure, a vampire wholly controls the mind of her target. This also strips the subject of his personality, rendering him into little more than a puppet. Fortunately, this indelibly ties the puppet to the vampire and makes it nigh-impossible for others to poach her mindless servant.

System: As an extended action, roll Charisma + Leadership. The total number of successes needed is equal to 5 times the target’s Self-Control or Instinct. A subject can shake off Conditioning if he is separated entirely from his master for weeks equal to the subject’s permanent Willpower. Any contact in the mean time reasserts her dominance instantly. Provided he avoids the vampire for the given period of time, the subject retains his former individuality. A Conditioned character can be Dominated without eye contact. The vampire can use other Dominate powers on him at -2 difficulty. Other characters attempting to Dominate him use his Willpower or his master’s, whichever is higher. He can spend a point of Willpower to reinterpret another’s Dominate command to be contrary to his Nature.

Possession
At this level of mastery, a vampire may supplant her consciousness into the body of another and assume direct control over her host. While she does this, her own body becomes an empty shell, left immobile and vulnerable where she stood. After the possession, the victim is dimly aware that his body is moving and functioning on its own, but has no power to stop it. This ability may not be used on another supernatural creature, nor on another vampire unless the two share a Blood Oath; it is always easiest to hurt those you hold close.

System: The vampire and the target have a clash of wills. The vampire rolls Charisma + Intimidation and the subject rolls Willpower, each at difficulty 7. The net successes reduce the target’s Willpower. When the target’s Willpower is reduced to 0, the vampire invades her target’s mind. Roll Manipulation + Intimidation and consult the chart below to determine the strength of her grip on the target’s body. If the Cainite’s original body is destroyed, she may stay in her host body indefinitely, though she remains trapped in the weak prison of flesh. At each sunrise, she must roll Courage at difficulty 8 or be forcefully ejected from the host. If she fails this roll, her soul falls into the astral plane and is permanently lost. While walking about in a mortal’s shell, the vampire cannot be “re-Embraced.” Any attempt to do so sends her directly to the Final Death.

Successes Result

1 success Cannot use Disciplines

2 successes Can use Auspex and other sensory powers

3 successes Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation

4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation

5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers

Chain the Psyche
With this ability, the vampire exacts obedience from her thralls with the currency of pain. At her command, a disobedient subject is wracked with terrible pain until they become compliant again.

System: Spend a blood point and roll Manipulation + Intimidation against a difficulty of the target’s Stamina + Empathy. Each success is a turn the target spends writhing, screaming, and weeping, mechanically unable to take any other action. Each such turn causes one level of unsoakable bashing damage.

Loyalty
The mind-pawns of the vampire become slavishly loyal, clinging to her every word as law and disregarding orders from any outsider.

System: Increase the difficulty of any attempt by another vampire to command, control, coerce, or apply Dominate abilities to those already in the character’s control by three. If the Difficulty is 10 or more, the action is simply impossible.

Obedience
As a permanent upgrade to her abilities, the vampire no longer needs to make eye contact with those she wishes to subjugate. All this requires is momentary physical contact wherein skin must touch skin.

Mass Manipulation
The scope of the vampire’s command over others transcends the immediately personal, allowing her to apply her Dominate abilities to small groups.

System: Declare the Dominate ability you wish to use and roll against the strongest person in the crowd (by difficulty). For each success achieved, the effect spreads to one additional person in the area. Eye contact is only required for the strongest target.

Still the Mortal Flesh
The elder vampire can reach with fingers of the mind, ensnare the functions of a victim’s body, and temporarily disable them, up to and including instantly slaying a victim by forcing his heart to cease beating. Despite its title, this ability may even be extended to other supernatural creatures, making a master of this ability a being to be truly feared.

System: Roll Manipulation + Medicine with the difficulty of the victim’s current Willpower points + 2. If this total exceeds 10, the attempt is impossible. The effect lasts one turn per success and the player must determine what bodily function he or she is altering or shutting down before he or she makes this roll. Obviously, different alterations affect targets in a variety of ways; shutting down a vampire’s heart is a momentary inconvenience but is certain death for a mortal, or anyone else who needs a beating heart.

Tyrant’s Gaze
This power is an unusually aggressive and overt use of Dominate. With it, a Cainite may weaken the mental faculties, social skills or bodily strengths of a target. The use of this power demands eye contact, unless the wielder possesses Command Obedience, but it does not require words.

System: The player spends a point of blood and chooses which Attribute category to affect: Physical, Social or Mental. She then rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of the target’s Willpower). The target may resist with a Courage roll (difficulty of the user’s Willpower). If the player’s roll fails, the target becomes aware that the character was trying to affect her. On a botch, the target becomes aware and is immune to any Dominate attempts from the user for the remainder of the night. For each net success, the victim loses one dot from one of the Attributes in the selected category. The loss is spread as equally as possible, with the user deciding where odd successes go. This loss does not affect reflexive rolls (such as soak and many Appearance rolls), as the loss is purely psychological.

Carry the Master’s Voice
Members of those clans who possess Dominate often rely heavily on ghouls and other servants. As such, it is a small wonder that this power, which allows for a servant to carry a Dominate command from her master, has arisen. This power can be a potent tool for a Cainite lord with a number of trusted servants.

System: In order to grant a Dominate command to a carrier, said carrier must be under a blood oath or Lure of the Subtle Whisper/Conditioning (Dominate 4). The Dominate power imprinted must be one of the first three levels of the Discipline. The player spends a Willpower point and makes the standard roll for the power, noting the number of successes (the difficulty is considered 7, rather than the Willpower of the ultimate target). The carrier must make eye contact with the subject as normal to initiate the power. Then the initial die roll is compared to the target’s Willpower. The power can affect anyone whom the user would normally be able to affect; if the user is fifth generation, then even her ghouls can dominate any Cainite of fifth generation or higher. A person, be it a Cainite, ghoul or mortal, can carry only a single application of this power at a time.

Far Mastery
With this ability, the vampire shakes off the shackles of intimate, personal contact previously required. No one familiar with the vampire is safe from her mental predations, for now she can snare and control the minds of anyone she knows, regardless of the distance between them.

System: Spend a Willpower point and roll Perception + Empathy at a difficulty of the target’s Wits + Stealth. Upon passing this roll, the character may use any Dominate ability on the target as if eye contact had been made. This may be used on other supernatural creatures, but requires the expenditure of an additional point of Willpower.

Speak Through the Blood
Vampires who have reached the pinnacle of this Discipline can spread their influence through the stilled blood of their descendants. Over the course of decades, the targets of this ability gradually shift their goals and machinations to match the impossibly subtle influence of the elder. So imperceptible is this power that targets rarely recognize it for an outside influence, instead often believing that their own tastes and desires have changed with time.

System: The elder vampire expends a permanent Willpower and rolls Manipulation + Leadership at a difficulty of 4 plus the number of Generations to which the command must be passed. When the difficulty exceeds 10, each amount above 10 requires another success to make the command take hold. For example, passing a command to a Tenth Generation character would be difficulty 13 and would require a minimum of 4 successes made at difficulty 9. Unless an elder vampire is specifically aware of where her descendants are at all times (not an impossible task for creatures of such power), she can only pass along general commands, such as “work for the glory of Clan Lasombra,” or “destroy those who would stifle knowledge.” A vampire currently resting in torpor can still use this ability. If a vampire has reached Golconda, she is unaffected by this power. However, her childer are not as fortunate unless they have also attained enlightenment. Ghouls of the victims of this power are also affected, but feel the inexorable pull of the elder’s command at a comparatively glacial pace.