As long as you can act, you can also speak. You don't need to spend any type of action to speak, but because a round represents 6 seconds of time, you can usually speak at most a single sentence or so per round. Special uses of speech, such as attempting a Deception skill check to Lie, require spending actions and follow their own rules. All speech has the auditory trait. If you communicate in some way other than speech, other rules might apply. For instance, using sign language is visual instead of auditory.
So speak doesn't use actions but requires that you are able to act. As long the effect doesn't remove your ability to act by yourself in that round, you probably are able to speak by yourself even when controlled.
But if the controlled condition duration is larger, or you are unconscious while your body is controlled (this all will depend on the effect that is making you controlled) you won't able to communicate at all (maybe telepathically if the response doesn't require an action and is directly made to your mind/soul).
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I really wish people would stop even looking for 'I win instantly' buttons.
The controller dictates how you act and can make you use any of your actions
Yes, you could make the target speak and say whatever you decide to make them say.
No, the rest of the enemy team does not have to believe them or obey them. That is what Perception checks for noticing changes in behavior are for. I would probably have an enemy leader suddenly ordering surrender not be a check that could fail or even need to be rolled. Just like how most forms of influence over someone else (such as Suggestion) have rules preventing the instructions from being harmful or severely detrimental to the target.
If the enemy leader couldn't get the enemy team to stand down when it is not in their best interests to do so - even when using 4th Rank magic... they certainly can't do so with nothing more than their own voice.
I really wish people would stop even looking for 'I win instantly' buttons.
Probably it's a bad habit from D&D. :P
No, the rest of the enemy team does not have to believe them or obey them. That is what Perception checks for noticing changes in behavior are for. I would probably have an enemy leader suddenly ordering surrender not be a check that could fail or even need to be rolled. Just like how most forms of influence over someone else (such as Suggestion) have rules preventing the instructions from being harmful or severely detrimental to the target.
If the enemy leader couldn't get the enemy team to stand down when it is not in their best interests to do so - even when using 4th Rank magic... they certainly can't do so with nothing more than their own voice.
In practice, it's situation dependant.
For example, the enemy leader saying to its team to surrender can easily be accepted by its subordinates or at last make them a bit confused. Specially if this leader lead by force or by hierarchy. In this situation, it's unlikely that its subordinates to no obey. They may become a bit confused but in general they will follow, probably thinking that have some greater plan behind this.
Yet all things that put controlled condition has incapacitation. So it won't work vs enemies stronger than player, probably only working vs weaker opponents that could be dealt with other ways like skills or a small fight would do too.
For example, a non-primal caster could cast Dominate to control a guard to allow it to enter in a place. But also someone proficient in diplomacy, deception or intimidation probably could do the same too. Also, I didn't find any multitarget/AoE that could do controlled condition except for bard's Pied Piping composition spell but not only has incapacitation but also only applies the controlled condition in a critical failure and only against creatures with minion trait. So it's very unlikely that this would be useful vs multiple enemies specially if not cast with some subtle spellshape (anyone accompanying the target would notice the attitude change after see you casting a spell as a probable effect of this spell).
At the end of the day most spells that do controlled in PF2e are very hard to be useful. PF2e put most "win buttons" still possible but very hard to work or only workable vs those who you don't need it at all because you can defeat easily anyway.
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In a magical setting full of illusions, polymorph abilities, and charm/control effects, one would expect veterans (or those led by veterans) to use passwords & signals. Those would simply be normal precautions about common magical subterfuge tactics. In much the same way guards would likely kill unknown animals poking around simply because Familiars & Pest Form are available at low levels.
So sure, you might get them to say exactly what you want, but not necessarily what they'd need to say to get what you want.
Though published material doesn't do this much, I'd think there'd be more doubles, people disguised as leadership. Or leaders that blend in. Magical sniping would be too prevalent to ignore. Does Battlecry! address cutting off the head of armies? Or mimicking them? And countermeasures?
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I really wish people would stop even looking for 'I win instantly' buttons.
The controller dictates how you act and can make you use any of your actionsYes, you could make the target speak and say whatever you decide to make them say.
No, the rest of the enemy team does not have to believe them or obey them. That is what Perception checks for noticing changes in behavior are for. I would probably have an enemy leader suddenly ordering surrender not be a check that could fail or even need to be rolled. Just like how most forms of influence over someone else (such as Suggestion) have rules preventing the instructions from being harmful or severely detrimental to the target.
If the enemy leader couldn't get the enemy team to stand down when it is not in their best interests to do so - even when using 4th Rank magic... they certainly can't do so with nothing more than their own voice.
I wouldn't write it off so quickly. It's possible the enemies are seriously intimidated by the PC's strength and want to surrender, but they need the captain's go-ahead for fear of desertion.
Failing that, if the enemies saw the spell being cast, then yes, the guards would likely deduce instantly that the captain is being controlled. The guards could target the spellcaster to free the captain, hope the captain breaks free of the control, or flee because the fight just turned against them (I've died against similar odds myself).
But with Conceal Spell, things get interesting. The captain might need to make a Request to his guards, and the guards might be suspicious and Sense Motive against the caster's DC to determine the captain is controlled. This is an action waster, but not a fight winner.
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Yeah, I wouldn't allow it to be an instant win, but I do think the GM should reward careful and clever use of a powerful spell. Although people could notice the spell being cast, and I'd expect the controlling player to have to work to sell the deception. I'd also expect word to start getting around if the parry keeps using the same trick, so you'd see enemies get wise to it if the caster got lazy.
In a magical setting full of illusions, polymorph abilities, and charm/control effects, one would expect veterans (or those led by veterans) to use passwords & signals. Those would simply be normal precautions about common magical subterfuge tactics. In much the same way guards would likely kill unknown animals poking around simply because Familiars & Pest Form are available at low levels.
So sure, you might get them to say exactly what you want, but not necessarily what they'd need to say to get what you want.
Though published material doesn't do this much, I'd think there'd be more doubles, people disguised as leadership. Or leaders that blend in. Magical sniping would be too prevalent to ignore. Does Battlecry! address cutting off the head of armies? Or mimicking them? And countermeasures?
I agree with SuperParkourio that the success of this completely relies on context (e.g., whether someone saw the spell being cast, whether the orders contradict higher commands, etc.). In relation to Castilloano’s post, even in a magical setting the average grunts are not going to have the same encyclopedic knowledge, or even awareness of these types of magic and their effects.
Killing of random animals poking around, because that’s what all animals do, and assuming there are enough spellcasters stealing people’s identities that there are significant safeguards in place indicates a different world / campaign to me. It seems likely that even in the rare cases where a caster - or even doppleganger - assumes someone’s identity, maintaining that identity for any amount of time (minimally minutes, hours, or especially days) would be very hard because people surrounding the false identity will start noticing the lack of certain quirks, accents, and even mannerisms. That’s a lot of Deception checks, assuming the spellcaster looked into the fake identity! Once again, it’s all about context.
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Well, I had said veteran, not "average grunts". They wouldn't need encyclopedic knowledge, just the basic gist I covered in a sentence.
And guards killing stray animals (or shooing away if kinder) is already a thing in our world. As was superstition re: familiars and shapechangers in our reality I hope you agree has neither. On Golarion, the uneducated don't need to be exact w/ their knowledge, just wary that such things exist...which they do. If like us Earth humans, they likely are wrong quite often, but paranoid enough to keep alert, even put up wards (of dubious effectiveness). Spellcasters will steal your soul, don'cha know?!
And I don't know if you homebrew or not, but on Golarion most villagers would have met a 1st level Druid, all of whom can cast Pest Form, likely every so often to amuse folk. Given that Earth has tales of shapeshifting tricksters, imagine how many such stories exist on a world where most bands of heroes have several someones who can. This isn't Merlin & a few select others among armies of knights covering a country; you can find casters in nearly every church or decent-sized organization. And one would think illusions play a part in festivals, likely plays & parodies too. I'd think most every citizen would've been exposed to such trickery. Put a clever person in charge of security and they're going to have to consider that too.