The Woes of Domination

[5w337x7007h]

I've got a character that can dominate, and do it well, but I've got a major issue; What do I do with them once they're no longer useful? Say I dominate a giant, and turn it against its allies. If it survives combat, what do I do then? I've got a giant, but I can't make it commit suicide. I need a permanent solution, otherwise it'll be a detriment to the group when my domination wears off.

Any solutions that could involve keeping it out of our hair, and not coming back to bite my group on the ass?

[Mechalich]

Since it doesn't sound like you care much about moral quandaries, just kill it. It's a giant, it sleeps. Order it to sleep and then coup de grace it.

[Extra Anchovies]

"I've stripped this living, sentient creature of its free will, but killing it would be unethical"

If your character doesn't care about using long-duration compulsions, your character shouldn't care about killing their thralls.

[Geddy2112]

You can always de facto exile it. Dominate spells(assuming dominate person and the like) have a days/level duration, and require no visual link. Send the thing walking in direction X, and just focus every day on the spell to maintain control without a save. Should get the thing far enough away to no longer matter, or send it to a place where the locals or monsters will attack and kill it. If you see it again, cast dominate again. Repeat.

[5w337x7007h]

Since it doesn't sound like you care much about moral quandaries, just kill it. It's a giant, it sleeps. Order it to sleep and then coup de grace it.

I guess a Thrallherd shouldn't have moral dilemmas with getting rid of unwanted subjects. I am using a Hatter theme for the design, referring to the believers as the Tea Party, and my Thralls as March Hare, and Dormouse.

I'm just struggling with the thrall part too. I need a way of building NPC cohorts quickly, because death is an inevitability.

Are there any ways to make a Dominate spell, or Mind Control permanent?

[HolyCouncilMagi]

"I've stripped this living, sentient creature of its free will, but killing it would be unethical"

If your character doesn't care about using long-duration compulsions, your character shouldn't care about killing their thralls.

It's not quite as ridiculous an argument as you make it out to be. As long as this creature and its allies were the aggressors, dominating one of them into fighting the others off is entirely reasonable self-defense; after all, it was already attacking, so mentally compelling it to protect you from its friends at that point really can't be worse than killing it yourself, and reduces the danger to yourself. Ideally, of course, you'd want to use buffs and the like to make sure that the one you dominated survives... Er, technically, the most ideal circumstance is that there happens to be an actual worthy and legitimate authority nearby and you neutralize the enemies without killing any of them before turning them all over, but I'm talking about ideals that are actually realistic when attacked on the road. However, once you've dominated the enemy, it's both incapable of attacking you and incapable of defending itself, and is effectively incapacitated in regards to you, so killing it wouldn't be any flavor of self-defense any more.

That said, I approve of the exile option. Alternatively, the Book of Exalted Deeds has rules for redeeming bad guys, but that takes time and dedication, neither of which are necessarily things your character is guaranteed to have.

[5w337x7007h]

Quick question guys! At my next level, I'll have Greater Mind Control (Ex), and I'm confused by the text.

At 7th level and higher, a thrallherd does not have to pay 2 additional power points when she augments mind control to affect animals, fey, giants, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids. This reduced point cost does not increase the save DC of the power as if she had spent the additional power points.

Giants are already under the Humanoid category, and are automatically available targets for Mind Control without augmentation. Why would they be put under this description?

Also, Mind Control, Greater Mind Control, and Superior Mind Control are all Extraordinary abilities. Does this mean, even in Magic & Psionics Transparency Rules, I could use this ability in an Antimagic Field?

[Necroticplague]

Quick question guys! At my next level, I'll have Greater Mind Control (Ex), and I'm confused by the text.

At 7th level and higher, a thrallherd does not have to pay 2 additional power points when she augments mind control to affect animals, fey, giants, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids. This reduced point cost does not increase the save DC of the power as if she had spent the additional power points.

Giants are already under the Humanoid category, and are automatically available targets for Mind Control without augmentation. Why would they be put under this description?

Also, Mind Control, Greater Mind Control, and Superior Mind Control are all Extraordinary abilities. Does this mean, even in Magic & Psionics Transparency Rules, I could use this ability in an Antimagic Field?

Giant is a different type from Humanoid. Trolls are giants, Elves are humanoids.

No. Those abilities are improvements on your ability to manifest Psionic Dominate. You always know how to manifest it more efficiently, which is a separate issue from whether you can actually manifest it right now.

[5w337x7007h]

Giant is a different type from Humanoid. Trolls are giants, Elves are humanoids.

No. Those abilities are improvements on your ability to manifest Psionic Dominate. You always know how to manifest it more efficiently, which is a separate issue from whether you can actually manifest it right now.

What I'm saying is, that the actual power, Mind Control (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-powers/m/mind-control), doesn't have "Giant" in the augment list, which would imply that any creature with the Giant subtype would be subject to Dominate Person, just as any other humanoid would be, unless otherwise specified.

[Necroticplague]

What I'm saying is, that the actual power, Mind Control (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-powers/m/mind-control), doesn't have "Giant" in the augment list, which would imply that any creature with the Giant subtype would be subject to Dominate Person, just as any other humanoid would be, unless otherwise specified.

Whoops, I didn't see the Pathfinder tag, and thought this was about the 3.5 version (where Giant is a type of its own, not a subtype of Humanoid). Probably just a side-effect of copy-pasting from the 3.5 version and not quite double-checking closely enough. Giants are normally targettable, and that ability just has a minor typo.

[5w337x7007h]

That's understandable. Especially if the Thrallherd is a super easy translation from 3.5 to PF. I'm still trying to get past a little hurdle involving my thralls too. Myth-weavers is fun, but I can't spend time translating. I found this though, http://www.pathguy.com/PathfinderCore.htm it's pretty straight-forward, and a bit time consuming. I'm hoping to find something portable.

[Psyren]

If whatever contortions of ethics your character operates under make them okay with mental slavery but not okay with just killing, command your subjects to sleep for a day or three while you leave. If you're really nice, leave them some food so they don't wake up starving.

[5w337x7007h]

I could use an Exile approach, let the rogue kill them in their sleep... What else?

[Extra Anchovies]

Have them stay up all night keeping watch. In the morning tell them to get some sleep, and then move on without them.

[Psyren]

I could use an Exile approach, let the rogue kill them in their sleep... What else?

Abandoning them as stated by several folks. You can even teleport them somewhere far away so they can't find you and aren't a threat to the area anymore.

If you're really mean, shove them onto the Plane of Shadow or Astral and don't look back, their chances of making it out of that without magic of their own would be pretty slim.

[ericgrau]

If you're looking for the legal, ethical way, make them walk to a prison. As long as the prison is in a well armed country not at war it should be secure enough.

[daremetoidareyo]

If you're looking for the legal, ethical way, make them walk to a prison. As long as the prison is in a well armed country not at war it should be secure enough.

Send him into the woods with a big axe and direct him to build you a log cabin.

[Extra Anchovies]

Send him into the woods with a big axe and direct him to build you a log cabin.

In fact, any number of unnecessarily time-consuming requests would work well. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DopGxUAoAY)

[5w337x7007h]

In fact, any number of unnecessarily time-consuming requests would work well. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DopGxUAoAY)

Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition.

And with this done, I'm still down to randomly generating NPC thralls. I don't plan on going through them quickly, but this is a tough campaign and we've lost two paladins. One to a falling bell, and another to an Ogre with a taste for Mortal Kombat. We've also lost a cleric to a giant gar, and a fighter to a cheap ogre.

[DrMartin]

you could put the creatures you are dominating under a Geas/Quest to not interfere with you, forever, and then go your merry way.

[5w337x7007h]

you could put the creatures you are dominating under a Geas/Quest to not interfere with you, forever, and then go your merry way.

Psionics can't do that though, I don't think... Thanks for the advice though I'll be double-checking my powers later then.

[Segev]

It has a duration of a day per level. Just keep the minion. Renew the spell every few days until the minion dies.

[DrMartin]

mnh psionics have early access (comparing to arcane caster at least) to plane shift. You could find a nice planar theme park (or some re-education focused afterlife, or just Carceri) and drop them there