Domination and other Compulsions.. can they be subtle?

[Three_Haligonians]

Standard fare (I assume) is that when the BBEG throws out a dominate person and snags the PC, they enter a typical "automaton" state; no speaking or other personality, basic movements and everything else that indicates they are no longer at the wheel (like in the movies.. you know.. the ones with hypno-assassins).

The spell descriptions say that a Sense Motive check DC 15 is all the characters need in order to discover that the person they are dealing with is under mental control. At high level, this is trivial - at very high level, where I am now, it's not even worth mentioning.

How can I get around this? Is it possible to order a dominated victim to "act natural"? Would this remove the DC 15 check? At least replace it with a Bluff check (either made by the victim or the dominator.. depending on which makes the most sense) ?

The spells all talk about how to exert control and what the limits of that control is, but do I have to? Can I use these spells to create "sleeper agents" who for the most part go about their daily lives as normal but can be commanded if needed?

If this kind of thing is belong the scope of the spells out there now, I suppose I could move this over to house rules because I could really use something like it.

Just looking for thoughts and suggestions

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Plane Sailing]

Probably a shorter duration than you are looking for, but you might consider 'Suggestion' (my emphasis)

You influence the actions of the target creature by suggesting a course of activity (limited to a sentence or two). The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the activity sound reasonable. Asking the creature to do some obviously harmful act automatically negates the effect of the spell.

The suggested course of activity can continue for the entire duration. If the suggested activity can be completed in a shorter time, the spell ends when the subject finishes what it was asked to do. You can instead specify conditions that will trigger a special activity during the duration. If the condition is not met before the spell duration expires, the activity is not performed.

I would think that someone who is under the effect of a suggestion spell, but hasn't hit the trigger condition and so is not yet compelled wouldn't be detectable with the standard DC15 check. Detect Magic, sure, but not just sense motive

 

[Wolfwood2]

The spells all talk about how to exert control and what the limits of that control is, but do I have to? Can I use these spells to create "sleeper agents" who for the most part go about their daily lives as normal but can be commanded if needed?

The psionic power 'Mind Seed' works well for those sorts of agents. However, since it effectively destroys the original personality you have to be careful.

 

[eamon]

A charmed monster or character also act's normally, with the only exception being that it sees the charmer in the most positive light. With a little guile, a charmed monster might seem uncharmed but nevertheless help the charmer. Of course, you'd need to somehow convince the charmed creature that it want to keep his new best friend secret, and if that's odd, then he'd need to bluff it, but it could work in some circumstances.