Extent of Player Actions Under Domination Spell

[dreaded_beast]

Last session, a PC Druid became Dominated per the spell.

He RPed in a very 'over-zealous' manner, in my opinion, twisting the instructions that he was given. I believe that he took the spell description of 'carry out orders to the best of their ability' as being 'over-enthusiastic' to the point that it was obvious that something was wrong.

How do you handle the Domination spell in your game?

 

[Pyrex]

...Once you have given a dominated creature a command, it continues to attempt to carry out that command to the exclusion of all other activities except those necessary for day-to-day survival (such as sleeping, eating, and so forth). Because of this limited range of activity, a Sense Motive check against DC 15 (rather than DC 25) can determine that the subject’s behavior is being influenced by an enchantment effect (see the Sense Motive skill description)...

That doesn't seem terribly out-of-line to me; although I would tend to think a Dominated character would behave methodically/monotonously instead of zealously, but that difference could easily be chalked up based on the caster of the Dominate spell. (I.E. Dominated followers of a highly-charismatic sorcerer posing as a religious prophet may act zealously instead of methodically, etc).

 

[DanMcS]

Last session, a PC Druid became Dominated per the spell.

He RPed in a very 'over-zealous' manner, in my opinion, twisting the instructions that he was given. I believe that he took the spell description of 'carry out orders to the best of their ability' as being 'over-enthusiastic' to the point that it was obvious that something was wrong.

It is obvious that something is wrong. It's only a DC 15 sense motive check to notice it.

Dominate isn't subtle. It can't even give instructions that the dominated person be subtle.

The PC did exactly what he should have.

 

[Thanee]

I think, a dominated person is pretty apathic while not carrying out commands and not quite enthusiastic while doing so. Monotonous fits pretty well, I guess.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Infiniti2000]

Monotonous and zealous aren't exactly antonyms. You can be monotonously zealous. The same thing with methodical.

But, should he act dispassionately or apathetically about the commands he is given? No, I don't think so. He follows them to the exclusion of all else save survival. I think that certainly qualifies as required zeal or enthusiasm much more so than the opposite. At worst, it would be somewhere in the middle.

But, to get back to an underlying point, do you feel that the player did this as means to communicate his state to the other players or as an honest attempt at roleplaying? I think you must mean the former, because if its the latter just be happy he's trying to roleplay. If it's the former, did you perchance provide any roleplaying instructions?

 

[Peter Gibbons]

It is obvious that something is wrong. It's only a DC 15 sense motive check to notice it.

Quoted for truth.

 

[dreaded_beast]

But, to get back to an underlying point, do you feel that the player did this as means to communicate his state to the other players or as an honest attempt at roleplaying? I think you must mean the former, because if its the latter just be happy he's trying to roleplay. If it's the former, did you perchance provide any roleplaying instructions?

I felt the PC acted this way in order to communicate his state to the other players.

However, if it is within the rules for him to act in such a way, based on the description of the Dominate spell, then I have no problem with that.

 

[frankthedm]

Obvious cheating, i recommend XP loss, player removal or making the dominate dispel-resitant since the PC is so willfully breaking himself to its commands.