[Vampire] Looking for tips on how to use Dominate...

[Set]

'Confess' is a better one word option than 'Speak,' IMO. Back in the days of the D&D Command spell, it was something of a game to come up with one-word commands like Expectorate or Defecate that would keep someone busy for more than a round. (Of them, 'Flee' is one of the best, since it takes the advantages of 'Run,' and adds the implicit 'away from me.' Most one-word commands would only take someone out of action for one action, but 'Flee' has the advantage of requiring them a second action to get back to you, if they still want to fight.)

Best use of Forgetful Mind is for gathering long-term resources. Anyone with anything you want suddenly 'remembers' that they owe you a favor, that you have blackmail dirt on them from the time you helped them get rid of the body of that dead hooker, that you saved their life in 'Nam, that you are that Internal Affairs officer investigating their boss which they aren't allowed to tell anyone about, etc., etc.

Mesmerism is a great way to have 'Manchurian Followers' who, at specific times, or in response to specific stimuli, perform certain actions for you. Combined with follow-up with the Forgetful Mind, you can even catch up with them the next night and make them forget that action, while implanting a new 'sleeper' command. Need weapons? Have an officer in charge of a scene 'forgetfully' kipe a few and route them your way, and then forget entirely about it after the fact. Need something done during the day? Find the person who does that, and leave them a suggestion to do that when their watch alarm goes off (and then set their watch alarm to go off at noon, so that the fire department ends up busting into your rivals haven mid-day).

Dominate may be limited in its use on other vampires (at least it was in VtM, due to generation caps), but it's pretty much unlimited in applications on mortals. Anything any person in the city can do, through authority or resources, you can look them in the eye and make them do for you, and then forget all about it later.

Need a little cash? Oh, look at that front page news, about the seemingly squeaky-clean dude who turned out to be embezzling money from his company. He's up there on the stand saying he never did it, and the money was never found, but all of the evidence proves that he *did* do it... I wonder if he's gonna try for an insanity plea?

Gosh, I wonder where all that money went? :)

In my experience, a VtM Tremere that spent his points in Dominate was always vastly more effective than one that wasted his points on all that Thaumaturgy crap. Thaum was a huge point-sink, rarely more useful than a hand-gun, and while people didn't generally scream 'It's a trap!' back in those days, it really was.

Dominate is also an amazing way to drive people nuts (or make them fear that they are losing their minds) by adding memories that aren't real, changing memories that are, deleting past events and leaving 'gaps' that coincide with your own bloody nocturnal activities (convincing them that they have a secret life as a serial killer, perhaps to the point of causing an innocent person to turn themself in and confess to your acts of mayhem!), causing them to flip out in the presence of certain stimuli (effectively giving them phobias or prejudices), etc., etc.