Spell- Dominate Person - Could be far worse then death...


Magic and Spells


Of all the Enchantments, Dominate Person seems the most brutal and out of balance. As Dominate Monster, it's a solid 9th level spell, but many aspects are just nasty as a 4th level spell. Considering that creatures like vampires and aboleths get this as a special ability, the possibilities to destroy characters, or at least remove all their equipment and march them off into the wilderness for 2 weeks makes this spell crazy.

I think the most exceptional aspect of the spell is it's duration - One DAY/level!
Dominate Animal only lasts 1round/level, which could be harsh against a player, but days? This allows a character to be taken out of the game for not just a combat, but for weeks. It also really increases the ways that a character could be stripped of all his equipment, level drained into a vampire, enslaved in the aboleth city, etc. Basically taken right out of the game.

The other thing that makes this spell exceptionally powerful is that the caster can communicate telepathically AND "get a good idea of what’s going on" from ANYWHERE in the same plane!

Finally, the main safeguard built into this spell is the term, "against its nature" which is extremely vague.

Granted, a Protection from Evil spell will suppress this temporarily, but that only allows a brief window, and there are all manner of scenarios where it is not available, or does not solve the issues.

I like the idea of a spell like Dominate Person, and would like to see it in the rules, but I think it should involve more saving throws, a HD limit, a shorter duration, limited control inputs, or something to make it fit into the game in a better way.

I think we could also do without the -4 penalty for arcane casters vs feeblemind, but that is another topic.


Fergie wrote:
Of all the Enchantments, Dominate Person seems the most brutal and out of balance. As Dominate Monster, it's a solid 9th level spell, but many aspects are just nasty as a 4th level spell.

I agree 100%. In fact, I started a thread called "Enchantment Spells = Broken" to lament this fact. Indeed, most of the Enchantment [Compulsion] and various other status effects spells seem to be pretty "broken" to me and could benefit from a round-by-round saving throw or some other mechanics to help mitigate their extremely "swingy" nature.

Fergie wrote:
Considering that creatures like vampires and aboleths get this as a special ability, the possibilities to destroy characters, or at least remove all their equipment and march them off into the wilderness for 2 weeks makes this spell crazy.

Yes, most GMs don't go to this logical extreme because they realize that they wouldn't have a very fun game. It gets used, but it doesn't get used to the extent that Team Monster probably would if it was "playing to win".

On the other hand, the players are more then happy to wring out every ounce of power from this spell to enslave and kill their enemies. And although I do believe that some players are reluctant to balance this spell because they really do believe that it detracts from the "flavor" of the game, I suspect that some are opposed to these changes because they will lose their favorite tool for derailing adventures.

Fergie wrote:

I like the idea of a spell like Dominate Person, and would like to see it in the rules, but I think it should involve more saving throws, a HD limit, a shorter duration, limited control inputs,

or something to make it fit into the game in a better way.

I'm open to any suggestions that you (or anyone else) might have resolving this matter. I'm also somewhat interested in whether or not the PRPG design team also considers the Enchantment [Compulsion] spells to be problematic and if they are studying the issue themselves in their playtesting.

Fergie wrote:
I think we could also do without the -4 penalty for arcane casters vs feeblemind, but that is another topic.

Feeblemind is just an awful spell that needs to be dropped from the game. It doesn't have much of an impact on the melee classes (they may be dumb, but they can still fight), and most casters are capable of resisting it. But a caster fails to resist it, they are even MORE boned then a Fighter that fails their save against Dominate Person/Monster.

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