Last session, the party's ranger had a close (within 30') encounter with a Vampire:
A vampire can crush a humanoid opponent's will as a standard action. Anyone the vampire targets must succeed on a Will save or fall instantly under the vampire's influence, as though by a dominate person spell (caster level 12th). The ability has a range of 30 feet. At the GM's discretion, some vampires might be able to affect different creature types with this power.
The ranger was affected by the ability, missing her save by 1.
The player's complaint was that the ranger had taken Undead as a favored enemy (twice), and thought that it should grant some bonus on the save against the vampire's ability.After the vampire used Greater Invisibility, all of the players seemed to think the vampire couldn't use the Dominate ability against them, as they wouldn't be able to see the vampire.
I said that it wasn't listed as a gaze attack, so the vampire could (in theory) use it, but wasn't using it at the moment. (The next likely targets had good will saves.)
Anybody think the Ranger with Undead favored enemy should get a bonus?
Anybody think the Vampire wouldn't be able to Dominate if invisible?
1. Not really. That would be a huge unpaid for boost that isn't mentioned anywhere in the text.
2. I can't think of a reason they couldn't. It is cast as the spell and the spell mentions nothing about being needed to be seen to use it.
1)No
2)He should be able to
EDIT:3)You are the GM, if they want something to be the rules, they better point it out in the book. Even then its up to you to allow it.
Favored Enemy (Ex): At 1st level, a ranger selects a creature type from the ranger favored enemies table. He gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against creatures of his selected type. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A ranger may make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures.
At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the ranger may select an additional favored enemy. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +2.
If the ranger chooses humanoids or outsiders as a favored enemy, he must also choose an associated subtype, as indicated on the table below. (Note that there are other types of humanoid to choose from—those called out specifically on the table below are merely the most common.) If a specific creature falls into more than one category of favored enemy, the ranger's bonuses do not stack; he simply uses whichever bonus is higher.
Nothing about a save bonus in there, ergo none is granted.
Pathfinder Vampires don't charm or dominate by looking into your eyes, they just do it by thinking about it basically.