Which of these two maneuvers should I take

[moritheil]

Well, since he's trying to kill the halfing in exclusion to all other actions, I'm pretty sure that would stop IHS just as surely as a dominated wizard couldn't cast protection from evil on himself to supress the effect, or cast dispel magic to end it.

But not when the IHS is a regular periodic action that replaces sleeping. If he can stop hunting down the halfling long enough to grab lunch or sleep for 8 hours, he can stop long enough to use IHS.

(such as sleeping, eating, and so forth)

Of course, as I mentioned above, that's cold comfort when the warblade is threatening a TPK in the next 5 minutes.

 

[Nail]

i don;t think that dominated creatures actually understand their state, ....

What rules text leads you to that conclusion?

 

[Nail]

This message is not for my players. ....so of course, they're gonna read it.

Hey, at least I tried. =>

Spoiler

BTW, if I tell my Warblade that he can't IHS his way out of Dominate, I'd better have an iron-clad rules reasoning.

<=

 

[Volsung]

But not when the IHS is a regular periodic action that replaces sleeping. If he can stop hunting down the halfling long enough to grab lunch or sleep for 8 hours, he can stop long enough to use IHS.

Dominate wouldn't stop him from using IHS to complete his given task. It would stop him from using IHS to end the domination effect, since, in all likelihood it would interfere with the last order he was given.

For Nail:

Spoiler

It's really up to your player to explain to you how using IHS to end the domination effect would allow him to complete his given task, since by the wording of the spell that's all he's allowed to do. If he can complete the task as well or better without ending the spell, then it would still be a "no" to IHS, even if he comes up with a justification.

Just think of it this way: Using IHS to end dominate person/monster is almost mechanically identical to casting a spell on yourself to end the same effect. They're both standard actions, they both require you to be able to move, and they both would allow you to not complete the orders given to exclusion of all else. So if you allow IHS, then you have to allow a dominated spellcaster to cast protection from evil on themself or break enchantment, or a targeted dispel magic on themself to end the spell.

 

[Nail]

Perfect. Thanks!