How safe is it to Spam Dominate

[jcsw]

Just a question/poll...

How safe is it to continuously defeat/bypass encounters using dominate, in terms of DMine Intervention?

I ask because my whole character is built around psionic dominate. (Way more useful than normal dominate)

[Dethcom1]

Probably not very safe, depending on the leniency of your DM. It's probably not a good idea to build a character around a spell that will annoy the DM anyway. Eventually, everyone is going to have some sort of Magic Doodad of Screw You.

[Nebo_]

It depends on the DM. If you're going to be stupid about it and try to ruin the game, then it's dangerous.

[Chronicled]

Just a question/poll...

How safe is it to continuously defeat/bypass encounters using dominate, in terms of DMine Intervention?

I ask because my whole character is built around psionic dominate. (Way more useful than normal dominate)

Just have powers with it that aren't reliant on Mind affecting effects/Will saves, and you should be fine. In fact, try to have something that targets each save, touch AC, something that can't be saved against (not a lot of those in psionics), and battlefield control. Dominate when you can, but have other options if that doesn't work.

Energy Ray/Crystal Shard are good low-level ones that scale nicely, for instance.

Dominate is great for getting yourself a very big, mean, bodyguard. You can use him to bypass your next encounter.

[Indon]

Just use the _really_ powerful versions of Dominate. :P

[jcsw]

I *do* have other powers, half of which are mind affecting (since it's the character theme and all), but the other half use other saves (or are defensive).

On another note, will people know if a mind affecting power has failed on them? So I can brute force people's heads, and hope for a natural one against high will save potential opponents (out of combat)...

[jcsw]

Just use the _really_ powerful versions of Dominate. :P

There's only one version of psionic dominate, but it's extremely customizable with extra power points.

[Chronicled]

You can bet that your DM will make that the case if you're spamming Will save-or-lose powers.

[Indon]

There's only one version of psionic dominate, but it's extremely customizable with extra power points.

The Domination school (Complete Divine or Champion, forget which) has a version of Dominate as a level 9 spell, too, unsurprisingly. The text reads, "As True Dominate, except..." which implies there's a True Dominate out there.

Edit: Also, yes, by RAW people know when they've made a save and can pretty easily get an idea about what they saved against.

[Falrin]

Isn't the reaaly powerfull version of dominate diplomacy?

[Indon]

Isn't the reaaly powerfull version of dominate diplomacy?

Nah. Short of epic uses (which require pretty blatant cheesing) at best it works like Charm.

Dominate doesn't take cheesing - it's just a spell (grouping).

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Creatures immune to dominate include but are not limited to:

1) Undead
2) Constructs
3) Vermin
4) Oozes
5) Swarms
6) Angels (protective aura)
7) powerful Devils (Unholy Aura)
8) powerful Demons (Unholy Aura)
9) demodands

So, it is not really safe to rely on dominate. Except against adversaries you're sure thay're mortal.

[Squash Monster]

It depends on your campaign:

If your campaign is focused on a type of creature that's immune to mind-effecting (BBEG is a necromancer, for example), a good DM will tell you not to play this character.

If your campaign is focused on a type of creature that's not immune, a good DM will throw large groups at your party, planning on some of them being dominated. Eventually your character will have a reputation and enemies will use counters or just rush you specifically.

If your campaign is more of a general affair, a good DM will just mix in a decent percentage of creatures that are immune to mind-effecting to keep it interesting.

[Mewtarthio]

Creatures immune to dominate include but are not limited to:

1) Undead
2) Constructs
3) Vermin
4) Oozes
5) Swarms
6) Angels (protective aura)
7) powerful Devils (Unholy Aura)
8) powerful Demons (Unholy Aura)
9) demodands

10) Anyone under the influence of mind blank
11) Anyone warded by the first-level abjuration protection from [alignment]

[Parvum]

Creatures immune to dominate include but are not limited to:

1) Undead
2) Constructs
3) Vermin
4) Oozes
5) Swarms


I may be mistaken, but most of these are only immune due to lack of intelligence. Undead aren't a problem because the strongest are usually intelligent. But yes, the rest are unlikely to have intelligence scores (though there are some intelligent constructs, cheaty methods to give anything an int of at least three, and hive minds, but it's doubtful the DM would be that nice).

[Toliudar]

I believe that the immunity to mind-affecting effects is built right into the types listed. Since each of those types has at least some representatives that are at least slightly intelligent, it's safe to infer that it's not their mindlessness alone that give them their immunity.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

I may be mistaken, but most of these are only immune due to lack of intelligence. Undead aren't a problem because the strongest are usually intelligent. But yes, the rest are unlikely to have intelligence scores (though there are some intelligent constructs, cheaty methods to give anything an int of at least three, and hive minds, but it's doubtful the DM would be that nice).

Undead: immune due to type
Constructs: immune due to type
Vermin: mindless
oozes: mindless
swarms: immune to all targetted attacks

[Aquillion]

Just make sure you bring lots of non-mind-affecting abilities as well. You're going to encounter more and more creatures immune to mind-affecting things as you go up in level, even if your DM isn't actively trying to screw you over.

As far as it goes, your plan is "safe" because it doesn't work. You can't get past evey encounter with dominate.

If you want to stick with a mind-affecting theme, there are still lots of mind-affecting powers that will indirectly help you against creatures immune to them. I probably don't need to tell you to use Schism, but, well... yeah. And of course, unless it's totally against your character you should grab at least one blasting power... the psionic ones are all versatile enough to make one of them worth having.

[Dausuul]

Just a question/poll...

How safe is it to continuously defeat/bypass encounters using dominate, in terms of DMine Intervention?

I ask because my whole character is built around psionic dominate. (Way more useful than normal dominate)

Very risky, not to say suicidal. At best, you can expect your DM to quickly start using dominate-immune or high-Will-save monsters on a regular basis, so your character will be mostly useless. At worst, you may be hunted down and killed.

It's generally unwise to build your character around a single tactic and then become ridiculously ungodly game-breakingly good at that tactic. You fall into the trap of "either I completely own the encounter and make the rest of the party feel useless, or I suck and do nothing." Since the DM typically does not want major encounters decided in the first round by your uber-tactic, major encounters will almost always be immune, wherefore you will suck and do nothing.

(And undead are immune to mind-affecting. Doesn't matter if they're intelligent or not. Psionic dominate won't work on them.)