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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8727718" data-attributes="member: 6801228">I agree persuasion isn't mind control. Jonestown: Thousands of people committed mass suicide after leaving their homes, their family, and devoting their lives to the words of a single man. They killed their own children, on his order. How many Demagogues have turned peaceful nations to war and bloodshed?Persuasion isn't mind control, but where is the line? At what point is the line between the two?Someone earlier in the thread mentioned something about how Exalted's system is broken, because the best way to convince someone of something was to follow them, badger them incessantly about doing impossible or stupid things, until you'd finally worn them down enough they'd just say yes to anything. We all know that would actually work in real life, right? If you had someone who you couldn't get away from, you badgered you day in and day out, hour after hour, demanding things of you don't you think eventually (if you didn't snap and attack them) that they would say something that sounded reasonable, sounded like something you could do, and you would want to do it so they would GO AWAY. I've experienced that, where someone annoyed me to the point that I didn't care what it was they wanted, I would do it just to get them to leave me alone. You say no PC could convince Caesar not to invade Gaul? Well no mortal man can rip apart an adamantium door... except a raging level 20 barbarian could actually do that. No mortal man could withstand the Chromatic Flames of an Avatar of Tiamat. but a level 20 Rogue is going to walk away without a scorch mark on them. Player Characters do the impossible, and convincing a man not to attack another nation? It is possible. Won't be easy, shouldn't be easy. But to say it is impossible and the only way to do it is via magic, ignores the vast history of advisors who prevented their rulers from doing exactly that. Persuasion isn't mind control, I agree, but it is still VERY powerful, especially when wielded by figures of myth and legend, especially when we can see how devastating and terrible it can be in the real world.</blockquote>

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