Dominate

Dominate is the power of mental command — implanting orders, erasing memories, and conditioning behavior through eye contact and will. It is the Ventrue’s defining social weapon and the Tremere’s administrative backbone.

Core restriction: Dominate requires eye contact with the target (and in most cases a verbal component). A character who avoids eye contact cannot be Dominated. A vampire may never Dominate another vampire of lower Generation — the blood resists. This ceiling is absolute; no amount of skill or successes overcomes it.

Resistance: Spending 1 Willpower breaks one Dominate effect for one scene. High-Generation Kindred can resist with 1 WP for an entire night. WP resistance requires an active decision — a passive target cannot accidentally resist.

Powers

● Command

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation vs target’s Willpower | Duration: Instant

Bark a single word or very brief command. The target obeys immediately — one physical action, now. The command must be physically possible. Cannot compel self-harm.

More successes produce a more complete, committed, and lasting obedience. Targets who succeed a later WP roll (diff 6) may realize they were commanded; otherwise they rationalize the action.

Commands can be embedded in a sentence ("Sit down and let’s talk") but only the single keyword triggers Dominate. The key word must be direct and unambiguous.

●● Mesmerize

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Leadership vs target’s Willpower | Duration: Until fulfilled

Implant a posthypnotic suggestion — a complex command, a behavioral instruction, or a triggered response. Requires eye contact during implanting and a short monologue (at least a sentence or two).

Successes determine the robustness:

• 1–2: Basic suggestion; target won’t violate common sense
• 3–4: Strong suggestion; target won’t act against obvious self-interest
• 5+: Powerful suggestion; target can be compelled toward nearly anything short of suicidal acts

Triggered commands may be conditional (“When you see the red door, you’ll forget this conversation”). Only one Mesmerize can be active at a time; a new implant replaces the old if it achieves more successes.

●●● The Forgetful Mind

Cost: None | Pool: Wits + Subterfuge vs target’s Willpower | Duration: Permanent

Reach into memory and rewrite, alter, or excise it. Unlike Mesmerize (which plants future behavior), Forgetful Mind reshapes the past.

Successes determine reach:

• 1: Remove one memory from the last 24 hours
• 2: Remove a memory permanently (or plant a vague alternate)
• 3: Make slight, plausible alterations to a scene
• 4: Alter or remove an entire scene
• 5: Reconstruct entire periods; implant detailed false histories

A vampire with equal or higher Dominate rating can detect and potentially restore altered memories (Wits + Empathy vs original vampire’s Willpower).

●●●● Conditioning

Cost: None | Pool: Charisma + Leadership vs target’s Willpower | Duration: Permanent until broken

An extended program of mental modification. The Storyteller sets a required total successes (typically 5 × the target’s Self-Control). This unfolds over multiple sessions of sustained contact.

At half the required successes, all Dominate difficulties against this target drop by 2.

At full successes, Conditioning is complete:

• No eye contact needed to Dominate the target
• No roll needed for Command (automatic compliance)
• Target will comply with self-harm orders
• Other vampires rolling Dominate against this target suffer +2 difficulty

Breaking conditioning: the target must be isolated from the conditioner for (6 months minus their Willpower rating in weeks). Reconditioning afterward requires only half the original successes.

●●●●● Possession

Cost: 1 Willpower | Pool: Two rolls: Charisma + Intimidation vs target’s Willpower (diff 7), then Manipulation + Intimidation (diff 7) | Duration: Until vampire chooses to leave or is expelled

Take control of a mortal body. The vampire’s physical form goes into torpor; consciousness transfers to the host.

Step 1: Strip all temporary WP from the target through successive contested rolls. Step 2: Establish possession — with enough successes, the vampire can access their Disciplines through the mortal body (1 success = none; 2 = Auspex; 3+ = additional Disciplines as appropriate).

Damage dealt to the host body afflicts the vampire’s body equally. If the mortal body dies while the vampire is possessing it, the vampire falls into immediate torpor. Cannot possess other vampires or supernatural beings; the ghouls of the possessing vampire are an exception.

Elder Powers

Chain the Psyche (●●●●● ●)

Cost: 1 Blood Point (when using Dominate) | Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation vs Stamina + Empathy

The target suffers agony when attempting to resist any implanted Dominate command. Each success = 1 turn the target cannot act while trying to resist. This effect persists for a number of resistance attempts equal to the caster’s Manipulation rating.

Loyalty (●●●●● ●)

Passive. Other vampires attempting to use Dominate on your conditioned subjects roll at +3 difficulty and must spend an additional Willpower Point. Your marks are protected by residual mental ownership.

Obedience (●●●●● ●)

Passive. All Dominate powers function through skin contact instead of eye contact. The eye contact requirement is replaced with deliberate physical touch.

Mass Manipulation (●●●●● ●●)

Cost: Same as the power used | Pool: As the applied power

Apply any Dominate power to a group simultaneously. Difficulty is set by the most resistant target. Each success beyond the required threshold affects one additional target. Eye contact with the first target suffices; the power radiates outward from there.

Still the Mortal Flesh (●●●●● ●●)

Cost: None | Pool: Manipulation + Medicine vs (target’s Willpower + 2, max 10) | Duration: 1 turn per success

Shut down one involuntary bodily function: heartbeat, breathing, sight, hearing. Targeting the heart kills mortals instantly. Functions against vampires as well (blindness, deafness, etc.) — though vampires already have stopped hearts, so that option is moot.

Far Mastery (●●●●● ●●●)

Cost: 1 Willpower (2 WP for supernatural targets) | Pool: Perception + Empathy, then normal Dominate roll | Duration: As applied power

Use any Dominate power on a familiar subject at any range — across the city, across the world — without eye contact. “Familiar” requires prior face-to-face contact. The first roll establishes the mental connection; the second delivers the power.

Speak Through the Blood (●●●●● ●●●●)

Cost: 1 permanent Willpower | Pool: Manipulation + Leadership vs (4 + Generations of remove from target) | Duration: 1 decade per success

Exert broad control over all vampiric descendants — not commands but inclinations, loyalties, tendencies. The effect unfolds over decades. Can be used while in torpor. The most ancient Methuselahs may hold entire bloodlines through this power without anyone in those bloodlines knowing why they feel compelled to act as they do.

Fealty (●●●●● ●)

Cost: None | Pool: Charisma + Politics, difficulty = oath-giver’s current Willpower | Duration: Variable by successes (see table)

Ventrue elder power.

Sanctify an oath or promise freely given — the oath-giver becomes incapable of breaking it without cost. This power does not function if the target was compelled to give the oath, but it works on oaths given under false pretenses.

While the effect lasts, the oath-giver must spend 1 Willpower before each action that violates the promise, and suffers 1 Health Level of bashing damage during each scene they are conscious and not actively working to fulfill it. Once the promised action is completed, the duration ends.

Implanted Opinion (●●●●● ●)

Cost: None | Pool: Charisma + Leadership vs target’s current Willpower | Duration: Permanent (very difficult to remove)

Lasombra elder power.

Instill a new belief, opinion, or personality trait the victim accepts as their own. They may be told they love modern art, hate their neighbors, have new political convictions, or have developed bigotry — or been cured of it. Unlike Conditioning, the vampire needs no ongoing contact and uses the subject as an agent without explaining their plans.

The Storyteller may require additional successes depending on how contrary the new opinion is to the subject’s original beliefs. Once instilled, the opinion is very resistant to removal — only prolonged exposure to an environment conducive to the old belief, combined with Willpower rolls, can erode it over time.

Memory Block (●●●●● ●)

Cost: None | Pool: Wits + Subterfuge vs target’s current Willpower | Duration: Variable by successes (see table)

Lasombra elder power.

A variant of The Forgetful Mind that prevents a dominated subject from revealing specific information without erasing it. The target unconsciously evades questions on the blocked subject, not even noticing they are doing so. Under direct pressure, they discover they cannot say or write the blocked information. The information remains intact and accessible to the vampire.

Another vampire can unlock the memory with Dominate (Wits + Empathy roll). The subject may roll Willpower (difficulty = original vampire’s Dominate rating) when directly asked about the blocked memory.