Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 marona5 Jul 18, 2011 11:12:13	Hello, we have been playing our most recent 4E campaign for a few months now meeting almost every week and we are lvl 9.  I am enjoying the game, however I feel that our DM is throwing too many enemies that use dominate at us, and it doesnt seem fair to our party (we have been chasing after some demons, and the last 2 battles featured dominating demons and also maybe 3-4 battles in the past).  Me, being the only melee striker of the party, gets targetted for these dominate effects so much and I barely have any turns to act in battle in these encounters.  I think he may be targetting me and attemping to make my character useless. I dont know if most of the enemies in the monster manual have dominating effects, but I feel he could spice it up more and use some different monsters more often, since I feel the ranged attackers get away with a lot more.  I asked the DM about switching up the encounters a little more, but I am not sure if he sees my point with the arguement that I present.  Has anybody else had a problem with this?
#2 zeratulcraft Jul 18, 2011 11:29:52	Heh I was in a similar spot, we went up against a Succubus and I was the only melee striker. Was kind of funny at the time though, we eventually just found a way to deny the Succubus all her actions, much like she was doing for me. Prone and daze and so forth. But yeah, there's not *too* many monsters that have it, mostly because it's sucky. I'd ponder ways to increase your Will or something, DM may have a control fetish.
#3 quintal Jul 18, 2011 17:49:43	When I DM, I find that a good balance is to use powers that force the PC to make an attack and or move, but don't actualy dominate. Much like the wizard power charm of the defender or hypnotize. This allows the player to still have control over their character (and not get bored), but still makes them smack their friends around. 3-4 battle with dominates in a short time does seem like a lot. That's a lot of downtime for players.  You may want to bring it up with your DM, and mention that dominates make it feel like you're not even playing if used so often.
#4 Cohen95 Jul 18, 2011 17:50:33	Well, if you're willing to embrace it, is the DM letting you actually make the attack rolls? Or is he just turning you into a mob for a round? If it's the former, then when you're dominated and it's your turn, enjoy it. Offer suggestions. Roleplay it. Remember, you're a bad guy now, and you want to hurt the party as much as you can. If it's the latter, and you're up for it, suggest the former to the DM, that way you at least get to play. In either case, there's nothing wrong with saying, "Hey, so, I get dominated a lot, I'm not really having fun. Can you maybe tone it down a little?" And maybe take a feat or look for equipment that will help prevent you from getting dominated, and help you escape it.
#5 sliksham Jul 19, 2011 1:16:36	Mike Shea over at Sly Flourish has an alternative system for handling Stuns and Dominates, which I find very effective having tried it out last night. slyflourish.com/making-stun-and-dominate... The way I look at it is if its not fun for the players its not worth it.
#6 mousewithchainsaw Jul 19, 2011 1:27:02	Not sure how it works in 4th (Play 3.5 myself) but that spell is as much a bane to players as it is to dm and any side over using it is beyond annoying. As the post above said best to get your will beefed up, by feats, spells, items, etc if its happening so much its an issue. Maybe get lucky and get an item that makes you immune to such. If the issue is your dm takes control of your PC with it, tell him you will act the part honestly (I dont allow this since I have players that like, hit every time, doing 100+ damage a round, and second they get dominated they somehow magically miss non stop and do tiny damage when they do hit or screw around using usless powers they know wont do anything). But if you go at it as its another monster he may let you play still. If the issue is that your PCs are strong as hell and once dominated you are destroying each other, then best bet is just get improved will and such as mentioned above.
#7 Centauri Jul 19, 2011 13:21:39	Talk to your party leader and other characters about helping you get more saving throws, and bonuses to them. Its to their advantage to have the melee striker not dominated.
#8 salla Jul 21, 2011 20:09:56	Not sure how it works in 4th (Play 3.5 myself) but that spell is as much a bane to players as it is to dm and any side over using it is beyond annoying. As the post above said best to get your will beefed up, by feats, spells, items, etc if its happening so much its an issue. Maybe get lucky and get an item that makes you immune to such. If the issue is your dm takes control of your PC with it, tell him you will act the part honestly (I dont allow this since I have players that like, hit every time, doing 100+ damage a round, and second they get dominated they somehow magically miss non stop and do tiny damage when they do hit or screw around using usless powers they know wont do anything). But if you go at it as its another monster he may let you play still. If the issue is that your PCs are strong as hell and once dominated you are destroying each other, then best bet is just get improved will and such as mentioned above. 4e Domination can't force you to use your 'big guns' (encounter and daily powers), and  can only make you take one action.  So you can't be made to open the Giant Economy-Sized Can of Whoopaft.
#9 SpacyRicochet Jul 23, 2011 5:44:16	Unless you're dominated by an Astral Kraken, of course. Also, mousewiththechainsaw, you're players are cheating their roles. Make them roll out in the open with good, visually clear dice.
#10 CorrinAvatan Jul 23, 2011 11:35:09	Hold up, I need to look at a character sheet for one of my players that was totally in the same boat as you (I only used dominate in one battle, but ended up killing two PCs.  Dominating a raging barbarian rocks). The item was the Caracenet of Psychic Schism.  +1 will, daily: instead of being stunned, dominated, or dazed, you take a -2 to attack rolls and will defense for duration of the power.  Might be too high a level item. As an out-of-game situation, you need to be thinking about this:  Is this a theme?  I get that you feel singled out, but it might be that you're the only one dominated because your will is so crappy against all the other players.   Another case, you might be in a situation where you're complaining about there being a lot of necrotic damage in a campaign featuring undead.  By that, I mean, maybe that's the theme of this campaign (or this chapter of it), and it might behove you to actually buy items that prevent you from being dominated. However, I WOULD recommend e-mailing your DM and asking if he's dominating you as part of the story/combat, or if it's because doesn't like your character and is (even unconciously) trying to get rid of it.  Sometimes DMs will do something that they think is fun, not realizing how it appears to the rest of the players.  It could also be that his thoughts are "yeah, there have been 10 dominating monsters, I was kind of wondering when everyone would get the hint and gear up for that."
#11 BohoMojambo Jul 25, 2011 12:16:13	Well, if you're willing to embrace it, is the DM letting you actually make the attack rolls? Or is he just turning you into a mob for a round? If it's the former, then when you're dominated and it's your turn, enjoy it. Offer suggestions. Roleplay it. Remember, you're a bad guy now, and you want to hurt the party as much as you can.   This is how we play it in our game. One of my favorite sessions ever was when our Avenger got dominated by a Succubus, attacked me with a Daily, critted, and then chose to spend an action point and use another Daily on me. I nearly died, but it was a very memorable moment and introduced a lot of roleplay flavor between my character and the Avenger.  (IE - my character guilt tripping him about lingering pain from the blows in order to score posession of a healing potion found in a treasure haul...)
#12 Cohen95 Jul 25, 2011 13:28:19	Well, if you're willing to embrace it, is the DM letting you actually make the attack rolls? Or is he just turning you into a mob for a round? If it's the former, then when you're dominated and it's your turn, enjoy it. Offer suggestions. Roleplay it. Remember, you're a bad guy now, and you want to hurt the party as much as you can.   This is how we play it in our game. One of my favorite sessions ever was when our Avenger got dominated by a Succubus, attacked me with a Daily, critted, and then chose to spend an action point and use another Daily on me. I nearly died, but it was a very memorable moment and introduced a lot of roleplay flavor between my character and the Avenger.  (IE - my character guilt tripping him about lingering pain from the blows in order to score posession of a healing potion found in a treasure haul...) Well, no, I mean, you still can only use at-will powers, because those are the rules. Still, if I'm dominated, and the DM is trying to decide what to do, I'll be all, "I could charge so-and-so..."
#13 malcapricornis Aug 01, 2011 15:50:51	Hello, we have been playing our most recent 4E campaign for a few months now meeting almost every week and we are lvl 9.  I am enjoying the game, however I feel that our DM is throwing too many enemies that use dominate at us, and it doesnt seem fair to our party (we have been chasing after some demons, and the last 2 battles featured dominating demons and also maybe 3-4 battles in the past).  Me, being the only melee striker of the party, gets targetted for these dominate effects so much and I barely have any turns to act in battle in these encounters.  I think he may be targetting me and attemping to make my character useless. I dont know if most of the enemies in the monster manual have dominating effects, but I feel he could spice it up more and use some different monsters more often, since I feel the ranged attackers get away with a lot more.  I asked the DM about switching up the encounters a little more, but I am not sure if he sees my point with the arguement that I present.  Has anybody else had a problem with this? 6 battles out of 9 levels doesn't seem terribly unfair. Some status effects are more annoying then others. Now if it happens every fight til epic he might be holding a grudge of some sort. But unless that happens let this be extra motivation for your party to kill the dominator. Ideally the game is more then trading blows in combat and annoying effects/interesting effects spice up the combat imo.
#14 copycatzero Aug 06, 2011 15:53:13	Targetting the melee striker is tactically sound, not the DM being vindictive.  The demon that dominates at your level (incubus) isn't stupid, and if it knows that you're going to be the most threat to it and its allies, it's in its best interests to neuter you (especially since dominate moves tend to be ranged attacks, and if it's trying to dominate the ranged strikers, you're in its face getting OAs). In my own game, I don't tend to run dominators very often (for the soon-to-be stated reason), but when I do, they always go after the paladin.  Not because I have a grudge against the paladin (okay, I do, because she pretty much shuts down any solo monster, but that's not why I target her), but because she has a paragon path feature that makes all adjacent allies immune to charm, but not her.  The enemy forces know this now and will target her with charm effects to (a) actually have a target they can affect, and (b) get her away from her allies so that they can charm them, too.  It's just sound tactics. As stated, this is likely a theme limited to this adventure (or couple of adventures), and you should talk to your party's leader about granting you extra saving throws (heck, anyone can grant you an extra save if they can pass a Heal check), or, if you have a chance, invest in items that grant you a bonus against charm/dominate effects.