Dominated Summoner Question

[Zieche]

So last night a Brain in a Jar dominated a druid who had a summoned panther out. On the druid's turn the brain used her AOE at will to attack her party and left the cat alone. This prompted a discussion in the group as to how the summoned creature should respond to the domination.

One side said that as a druid creature it had an instinctive action it should default to, that was dependant on the creature, not the player.

The other side said, that since the player attacked and failed to save against the dominate the panther should be considered hostile as it was her character's summoned option and she was hostile.

Now this is a druid summon with instinctive actions, but I could see the same discussion coming up with a wizard's summoned creatures as well so I just wanted to get some outside thoughts on the matter.

 

[firesnakearies]

Dominate doesn't change who your allies and enemies are.

The panther would take its instinctive action as normal, and would still consider the party's allies as its allies, and the party's enemies as its enemies.

Basically, it would work exactly the same as if the druid was simply stunned for its turn, rather than dominated.

 

[Intrope]

The current errata clarifies that domination does not change your ally/enemy status. So your summoned creature should still act according to who you would normally consider allies and enemies, not how the controller would.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

That said, this is a perfect opportunity for a DM to play it however makes the most sense in the circumstances, based on the background of the character, how the summoning is described, how the dominating is described and on how the world in that campaign works.

Personally, I take the "allies and enemies don't change" rule as a guideline - in certain circumstances I would happily rule that things work differently.

 

[DracoSuave]

The current errata clarifies that domination does not change your ally/enemy status. So your summoned creature should still act according to who you would normally consider allies and enemies, not how the controller would.

It's partially because enemy/ally status is mostly determined by the target, not by the agent.