“Lilith then showed me […] how she commands obedience."
The Book of Nod

“Madame Savona, I assume.” Talley bowed deeply to the Ventrue prodigy as she and her entourage entered the monument where their meeting was to take place.

“Call me ‘Madame,’ ‘Lady’, or whatever you choose, Hound. Your actions carry more weight than your skill in etiquette.” Fiorenza Savona dismissed two of her bodyguards with a gesture, a flick of imaginary dust from her sleeve.

Talley smiled, though his smiles were always false, and caught Savona’s eyes. “You will dismiss your security immediately.” The words cleaved through the Ventrue’s mind like a broadsword, wielded without subtlety.

She grimaced and hissed at the Lasombra. “You think to manipulate me so directly? I am no whelp to be commanded, keeper!” Each member of her entourage went for their holstered weapons.

“Wait, wait…” Talley was grinning now. “I just wanted to ensure you were not some weak envoy. I prefer diplomacy with strong characters, and clearly, you are that. I meant no offense.”

Savona’s guards froze, awaiting her response. She ordered them to put their weapons away.

Talley bowed again, mentally noting that to get to this Ventrue, he would need to focus on crushing the wills of her servants instead.

Clans: Lasombra, Malkavian, Tremere, Ventrue
Nicknames: The lordly voice (common), mentis imperium (archaic), mesmerism (common), mind control (slang), mindfucking (slang), the sanguine voice (archaic), snake charming (slang)

Characteristics

• Type: Social
• Masquerade Threat: Low. Barring someone Dominating an entire auditorium to jump off the cliffs of Dover, it remains one of the more subtle vampiric powers.
• Blood Resonance: Phlegmatic. The blood of the submissive or the dominant, masters and slaves, captains of industry, power trippers, cult leaders and followers.

Emotions: Dominate controls a victim’s actions and memories, not their emotions (which is the domain of Presence). For example, someone commanded to forget a bitter fight with their spouse may still feel angry, but may chalk it to up to just “being in a bad mood.” Given time for a victim’s altered memories to sink in (e.g., “you just got a big raise at work”), the victim’s emotional affect may change accordingly, but it usually doesn’t do so immediately. For this reason, prudent users of the Discipline instill victims with memories that reflect emotions they’ve experienced. (For example, telling someone who witnessed a vampire kill someone, “You almost got hit by a car! That was pretty scary,” instead of, “You saw nothing.”). It’s also one of the areas where Ventrue can exercise Dominate and Presence in efficient combination, as they can instill victims with new emotions to reflect their altered memories.

Eye Contact: The victim must see the vampire’s eyes for Dominate to work. Deliberately avoiding eye contact gives the vampire Advantage on sight-dependent rolls against the victim. The vampire can attempt to catch the victim’s gaze with a (Charisma or Manipulation) + (Social Skill, usually Intimidation) roll, DC = (1/2 victim’s [Wits or Resolve + Composure]) + 1. Unless the vampire can communicate through supernatural means (such as Auspex 4), the victim must also be able to hear the vampire and understand their language.

Victims under a full blood bond to the vampire are especially susceptible to Dominate. A regnant may use Dominate Devotions on a thrall without the need for eye contact; the thrall merely has to hear their regnant’s voice.

Limits: Commands resulting in obvious death or serious injury to the victim, or to anything they value as much as their own life, fail automatically. Commands resulting in other social or physical harm, such as undressing in public or attacking one’s allies in combat, take Disadvantage if the vampire is already making a Dominate roll. Dominated victims act with no independent judgment or initiative and follow the vampire’s commands literally, making it useless at extracting information (which requires the victim to exercise independent cognition in answering questions).

Memories: Victims of Dominate don’t remember the vampire giving them commands, or what they did while under the vampire’s thrall, unless the vampire tells them to remember. The victim can realize they have a few moments missing if pressed, or if they see evidence of the deeds they committed while under the vampire’s thrall (such as shooting their spouse and “waking up” to a corpse in front of them and a gun in their hands). Cruel applications of Dominate can easily drive mortals mad.

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Dominate • Devotions

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Common Devotions

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Cloud Memory

The vampire can make the victim forget their memories of up to the past scene, enough to mask a superficial feeding or a chance meeting. No new memories are formed and if pressed the victim realizes they have a few minutes missing.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Permanent

Command

The vampire can make the victim follow an immediate command, taking no more than several seconds to complete.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.

Command from Afar

(Auspex •••• amalgam)
This Devotion enhances the effects of the Telepathy line of Devotions over anyone who is under the vampire’s mental sway. The vampire can communicate with such individuals over a range equivalent to as if they shared blood sympathy.
Requirement: The victim must be blood bound (any stage) to the vampire, or be under the effects of a Dominate or Presence Devotion to override their free will.
Cost: Free

Crush Will

The vampire can brutally attack a victim’s mind with the force of their will, leaving them disoriented and mentally traumatized. Malkavians consider this Devotion a “less refined” version of Dementation, but even they admit it’s more useful in a fight. It’s also favored by the Ventrue and Lasombra as a tool to punish underlings.
Requirement: The victim must be a mortal or lesser night-folk. Vampires and other true night-folk are immune to this Devotion.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Every margin of success inflicts an Injured level, up to a maximum of −4. Repeated uses of this Devotion can cause long-term trauma to a victim.
• Victims with Dominate can counter this Devotion by locking eyes with the vampire and forcing their will back on their assailant. Roll a Clash of Wills. On a setback, the vampire suffers (DC – rolled successes) Injured levels, as if the victim had used the Devotion on them.
Cost: Free
Duration: Scene. Unlike other sources of Injured, wounds inflicted by this Devotion aren’t “real”—they’re in the victim’s head and fade at the end of the scene.

Dementation

The vampire can transmit any derangement they suffer from to a victim. If the derangement varies in how it manifests, which many of them do (e.g., triggers for panic disorder), the GM decides how it manifests. This Devotion is extremely popular among Malkavians and considered the foundation for the clan’s madness-inducing arts.
Prerequisite: The vampire must suffer from a derangement. Only the insane can learn this Devotion.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate. At the GM’s discretion, derangements particularly appropriate or inappropriate to a victim may take Advantage or Disadvantage.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Scene

Ignore

(Obfuscate • amalgam)
The vampire can command the victim to ignore a person, object, sound, or smell as if it weren’t there. The victim subconsciously recognizes a person’s or object’s presence and will move around it to avoid bumping into it, but otherwise ignores it completely unless it does something to draw significant attention (e.g., if an ignored person starts loudly screaming, or an ignored object gets thrown in their face). The victim ignores a sound or smell no matter what.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Scene.

Sleep

The vampire can command a living victim fall asleep. They wake up if someone does anything that would wake a sleeping person. The victim doesn’t remember being asleep after they wake up.
Command •• can also command a living victim to fall asleep in this way. This Devotion simply lets the vampire do it early (and opens up the more powerful Sleep Devotions).
Requirement: The victim must be alive. Vampires, wraiths, and other undead creatures are immune to this Devotion.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Scene. The vampire can specify an earlier point for the victim to wake up.

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Uncommon Devotions

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Askew Command

The vampire can issue commands with other Dominate Devotions in nonsensical but vaguely poetic-sounding phraseology. For example, “You killed your wife” could become “Murder, you wrote,” while “Run away” could become, “Flap your wings, chicken.” The ‘fake’ command must be at least tangentially related to the real command. The victim subliminally understands the real command, but no one else does. Onlookers may think the vampire is babbling nonsense.
This Devotion is widely taught among Malkavians, who enjoy it for the fact that it makes undoing their mental tampering and predicting the actions of their pawns that much harder. The kooks also seem to have an uncanny knack for understanding commands issued by fellow users of this Devotion.
Cost: Free

Somnolent Command

The vampire can use Dominate on sleeping victims by touching them instead of making eye contact. The vampire’s commands slowly play out in the victim’s dreams and take effect when they awaken. This process takes longer but is more efficient: reduce the cost of any Dominate Devotions the vampire uses on the victim by one Rouse check, to a minimum of 0.
Cost: Free

Wordless Command

(Auspex •••• amalgam)
The vampire can use Dominate on victims telepathically, without any need to speak aloud. The vampire still must make eye contact with the victim.
Cost: Free

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Dominate •• Devotions

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Common Devotions

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Command

The vampire can make the victim follow a long and complex command, such as “When you see Henry, shoot him in the head, put the gun in his hand, and drive back to your apartment.” The command can take up to the below duration to execute.
Prerequisite: Command •
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Varies.
• The rest of the night against mortals and night-folk with lower Supernatural Tolerance.
• One scene against night-folk with equal Supernatural Tolerance.
• One dice roll’s worth of actions against night-folk with higher Supernatural Tolerance.

Crush Will

This Devotion functions like Crush Will •, except the vampire can also use it on other vampires and other true night-folk. Additionally, the vampire can inflict Injured levels up to −5. Mortals and ghouls reduced to Injured −5 with this Devotion automatically fall unconscious.
Crush Will •: The vampire can brutally attack a victim’s mind with the force of their will, leaving them disoriented and mentally traumatized. Malkavians consider this Devotion a “less refined” version of Dementation, but even they admit it’s more useful in a fight. It’s also favored by the Ventrue and Lasombra as a tool to punish underlings.
Prerequisite: Crush Will •
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Every margin of success inflicts an Injured level, up to a maximum of −5. Repeated uses of this Devotion can cause long-term trauma to a victim.
• Victims with Dominate can counter this Devotion by locking eyes with the vampire and forcing their will back on their assailant. Roll a Clash of Wills. On a setback, the vampire suffers (DC – rolled successes) Injured levels, as if the victim had used the Devotion on them.
Cost: Free
Duration: Scene. Unlike other sources of Injured, wounds inflicted by this Devotion aren’t “real”—they’re in the victim’s head and fade at the end of the scene.

Delegate Authority

The vampire can lend their Dominate to other people. For every dot the vampire lowers their Dominate, the subject gains equally many Dominate dots, up to a maximum of Dominate 5. The subject gains as many of the vampire’s Devotions as the vampire wants them to know. A popular use for this Devotion is to empower trusted ghouls during the day, when the vampire already can’t act.
Cost: 1 Rouse check per Dominate dot imparted, which the subject must drink from the vampire. Most vampires require beneficiaries of this Devotion to drink straight from their vein (and further a blood bond) as simple “cost of doing business.”
Duration: Until the vampire chooses to rescind the granted Dominate dots.

Dementation

This Devotion functions like Dementation •, except the vampire can transmit a single extra derangement of their choice, in addition to any derangements they currently suffer from. Its duration also increases from one scene to one night. The vampire can take this Devotion multiple times, choosing a new derangement each time.
Dementation •: The vampire can transmit any derangement they suffer from to a victim. If the derangement varies in how it manifests, which many of them do (e.g., triggers for panic disorder), the GM decides how it manifests. This Devotion is extremely popular among Malkavians and considered the foundation for the clan’s madness-inducing arts.
Prerequisites: Dementation • and the vampire must suffer from a derangement. Only the insane can learn this Devotion.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate. At the GM’s discretion, derangements particularly appropriate or inappropriate to a victim may take Advantage or Disadvantage.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: One night. The victim can only be under the effects of one Dementation-induced derangement at once.

Forceful Decree

The vampire doesn’t take Disadvantage on commands that result in social harm or indirect physical harm to mortal or lesser night-folk victims, such as undressing in public or attacking one’s allies in combat. The vampire still can’t command victims to follow obviously suicidal or self-injurious orders.
Cost: Free

Irresistible Voice

The vampire can use Dominate by voice alone on mortals and lesser night-folk who have the vampire’s blood in their systems, not just people who are fully blood bound to the vampire. The vampire can still only target one victim with Dominate at once.
Cost: Free

Misremember

The vampire can rewrite the victim’s memories of the past 24 hours into anything they choose. False memories of even the past few minutes can have potentially profound consequences for the victim: “You killed that man” and “I wasn’t here” combine to frame a victim for murder. This Devotion does not allow the vampire to investigate the victim’s true memories; it more resembles blindly painting over the old canvas.
Prerequisite: Cloud Memory •
Requirement: The vampire must spend time describing the subject’s new memories to them. Longer memory alterations take more time to describe.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Permanent, but potentially not.
• The vampire has to roll again if the victim encounters evidence their memories aren’t real. The DC varies by the strength of the evidence, which can include intense questioning by people who believe the victim’s memories were altered. On a setback, one fragment of the victim’s true memories return for every success by which the vampire fails to meet the DC. On a success, the victim dismisses what they see or questions their own sanity.
• PCs who believe a victim’s memories were altered with this Devotion can interrogate them with a Social roll against a DC of (1/2 vampire’s [Intelligence + Charisma + Dominate]) + 1, modified by the strength of any evidence they have to present). Every success reveals one fragment of the victim’s true memories. Other vampires who have this Devotion can use it to draw out all of the victim’s true memories at once with a Clash of Wills. This process is traumatic for the victim, especially ones who are weak-willed or have had more extensive memory alterations. Victims who are sufficiently pressed may go mad or suffer other long-term cognitive impairments.

GM’s Note: This Devotion is a powerful plot tool, especially at the higher levels. The GM also strongly dislikes “Character X erases Character Y’s memories” being used as a one size fits all plot tool. As such, there are built-in mechanisms to make this Devotion potentially fail in direct proportion to how heavy-handed its usage is. Smaller memory alterations with minimal contradictory evidence are much more likely to hold up than sweeping memory alterations with an abundance of contradictory evidence. The sorts of “you remember a decades-long relationship with a wife who never existed” feats from VtR 2e are the province of elder Dominate levels—and even those are still subject to the “less subtle usages are more likely to fail” rule.

Sleep

This Devotion functions like Sleep •, except the victim sleeps like the dead. Touching or moving them doesn’t wake them. Even catastrophically loud noises like gunshots are ignored. The victim only wakes up in response to strong physical stimuli—being repeatedly slapped, their face dunked in water, hit over the head with an object, etc.
Sleep •: The vampire can command a living victim fall asleep. They wake up if someone does anything that would wake a sleeping person. The victim doesn’t remember being asleep after they wake up.
Command •• can also command a living victim to fall asleep in this way. This Devotion simply lets the vampire do it early (and opens up the more powerful Sleep Devotions).
Prerequisite: Sleep •
Requirement: The victim must be alive. Vampires, wraiths, and other undead creatures are immune to this Devotion.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Scene. The vampire can specify an earlier point for the victim to wake up.

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Uncommon Devotions

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The Haunting

The vampire manipulates the sensory centers of their victim’s brain, flooding the victim’s senses with visions, sounds, scents, or feelings that aren’t really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only fleeting “glimpses,” barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire cannot control what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected.
The “haunting” effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject’s repressed fears, guilty memories, or anything else that the GM finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtrusive, however, and make it impossible for the victim to perform complex or strenuous tasks: if they still try, rolls take Disadvantage. The GM should let their imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if they are going mad, or as if the world is.
This Devotion is widely taught among Malkavians.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: One night.

Message In A Bottle

(Auspex ••• amalgam)
Communication is key for political organization, and covert communication is essential for oppositional social movements. Mortal insurgencies have used everything from encrypted emails to blind drops to a message the recipient had to shave the messenger’s head to read. It was to be expected that the Anarchs would apply Disciplines to this age-old problem.
Typically, reading an item with The Spirit’s Touch reveals some information about the item’s past, and no one (neither reader nor the object’s last possessor) has any input into the vision’s content. This Devotion changes that. By holding an item and using Message in a Bottle, the vampire can manipulate the item’s psychic imprint. Anyone who later uses The Spirit’s Touch on the item receives a short vision of the vampire’s choice, about 15–30 seconds’ worth.
There are many applications for this Devotion. Securing messages (at least, secure from people without mid-range Auspex) is the most obvious. Planting evidence with false impressions for arrival whom the vampire knows can read impressions is more devious. Or, for the paranoid, it’s always safe to cleanse important objects so that more meaningful data can’t be mined from them.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Duration: One year.

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Dominate ••• Devotions

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Common Devotions

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Command

This Devotion enhances the effects of Command •• against mortal victims. Once the vampire crushes their will, they’re helpless to resist further. The vampire can issue the victim an unlimited number of commands for the rest of the night, rather than just a single command with a night-long duration. The vampire also no longer has to pay a Rouse check, regardless of their Blood Potency.
Prerequisite: Command •, Command ••
Requirement: The victim must be a mortal.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: One night

Command from Afar

(Auspex •••• amalgam)
This Devotion enhances the effects of the Telepathy line of Devotions over anyone who is under the vampire’s mental sway. The vampire can communicate with such individuals over a range equivalent to as if they had the vampire’s blood in their systems.
Prerequisite: Telepathy •, Telepathy ••, Telepathy •••, Telepathy ••••
Requirement: The victim must be blood bound (any stage) to the vampire, or be under the effects of a Dominate or Presence Devotion to override their free will.
Cost: Free

Crush Will

This Devotion functions like Crush Will ••, except vampires reduced to Injured −5 are automatically torpored. They awaken the next night if their Blood Potency is higher than the vampire’s; otherwise, their torpor lasts as long as any other torpor—potentially years if someone doesn’t feed them strong enough vitae.
Crush Will ••: This Devotion functions like Crush Will •, except the vampire can also use it on other vampires and other true night-folk. Additionally, the vampire can inflict Injured levels up to −5. Mortals and ghouls reduced to Injured −5 with this Devotion automatically fall unconscious.
Crush Will •: The vampire can brutally attack a victim’s mind with the force of their will, leaving them disoriented and mentally traumatized. Malkavians consider this Devotion a “less refined” version of Dementation, but even they admit it’s more useful in a fight. It’s also favored by the Ventrue and Lasombra as a tool to punish underlings.
Prerequisites: Crush Will •, Crush Will ••
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Every margin of success inflicts an Injured level, up to a maximum of −5. Repeated uses of this Devotion can cause long-term trauma to a victim.
• Victims with Dominate can counter this Devotion by locking eyes with the vampire and forcing their will back on their assailant. Roll a Clash of Wills. On a setback, the vampire suffers (DC – rolled successes) Injured levels, as if the victim had used the Devotion on them.
Cost: Free
Duration: Scene. Unlike other sources of Injured, wounds inflicted by this Devotion aren’t “real”—they’re in the victim’s head and fade at the end of the scene.

Dementation

This Devotion functions like Dementation ••, except the vampire can transmit any derangement of their choice. The vampire’s imagination is their only limit on the madness they can make their victims suffer from. This Devotion is extremely open-ended, so the GM will veto cheesy derangements like, “They want to do everything I say and follow the letter and spirit of my commands without ever causing problems.” The derangement should make sense psychologically.
Dementation ••: This Devotion functions like Dementation •, except the vampire can transmit a single extra derangement of their choice, in addition to any derangements they currently suffer from. Its duration also increases from one scene to one night. The vampire can take this Devotion multiple times, choosing a new derangement each time.
Dementation •: The vampire can transmit any derangement they suffer from to a victim. If the derangement varies in how it manifests, which many of them do (e.g., triggers for panic disorder), the GM decides how it manifests. This Devotion is extremely popular among Malkavians and considered the foundation for the clan’s madness-inducing arts.
Prerequisites: Dementation •, Dementation ••, and the vampire must suffer from a derangement. Only the insane can learn this Devotion.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate. At the GM’s discretion, derangements particularly appropriate or inappropriate to a victim may take Advantage or Disadvantage.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: One night. The victim can only be under the effects of one Dementation-induced derangement at once.

Forceful Decree

This Devotion functions like Forceful Decree ••, except it also works on victims who are vampires and other true night-folk.
Forceful Decree ••: The vampire doesn’t take Disadvantage on commands that result in social harm or indirect physical harm to mortal or lesser night-folk victims, such as undressing in public or attacking one’s allies in combat. The vampire still can’t command victims to follow obviously suicidal or self-injurious orders.
Prerequisite: Forceful Decree ••
Cost: Free

Irresistible Voice

The vampire can use Dominate by voice alone on other vampires and true night-folk who have the vampire’s blood in their systems, not just people who are fully blood bound to the vampire. The vampire can still only target one victim with Dominate at once.
Prerequisite: Irresistible Voice ••
Cost: Free

Memory Block

The vampire can stop someone from talking about or revealing specific information without forgetting it. When questioned about the memory or detail, the victim discovers they cannot say out loud or even write down the blocked information. This is useful when a servant needs to possess classified data, but the vampire wants to be certain they cannot reveal it, even under torture.
Prerequisite: Cloud Memory •, Misremember ••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against willing victims or non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Permanent. Another vampire with Dominate can try to unblock the victim’s information with a Rouse check and Clash of Wills. This process is traumatic for the victim and inflicts Stains equal to (5 – number of vampire’s successes that meet or exceed the DC).

Misremember

This Devotion functions as Misremember ••, except the vampire can rewrite any of the victim’s memories from the past week.
Misremember ••: The vampire can rewrite the victim’s memories of the past 24 hours into anything they choose. False memories of even the past few minutes can have potentially profound consequences for the victim: “You killed that man” and “I wasn’t here” combine to frame a victim for murder. This Devotion does not allow the vampire to investigate the victim’s true memories; it more resembles blindly painting over the old canvas.
Prerequisite: Cloud Memory •, Misremember ••
Requirement: The vampire must spend time describing the subject’s new memories to them. Longer memory alterations take more time to describe.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: As Misremember ••.

Puppeteer

(Auspex ••• amalgam)
By concentrating, the vampire can see perceive through the senses of a victim who’s fully blood bound to them or under the effects of a non-permanent Dominate Devotion they’ve used. The vampire can also speak through the victim’s mouth in their own voice.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Duration: Scene

Sleep

This Devotion functions like Sleep ••, except the vampire can use it on vampires, wraiths, and other undead creatures. No stimulus short of hurting the victim (and inflicting the Injured Condition) can wake them. Additionally, the Devotion’s duration increases to up to one night.
Sleep ••: This Devotion functions like Sleep •, except the victim sleeps like the dead. Touching or moving them doesn’t wake them. Even catastrophically loud noises like gunshots are ignored. The victim only wakes up in response to strong physical stimuli—being repeatedly slapped, their face dunked in water, hit over the head with an object, etc.
Sleep •: The vampire can command a living victim fall asleep. They wake up if someone does anything that would wake a sleeping person. The victim doesn’t remember being asleep after they wake up.
Command •• can also command a living victim to fall asleep in this way. This Devotion simply lets the vampire do it early (and opens up the more powerful Sleep Devotions).
Prerequisite: Sleep •, Sleep ••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Varies.
• One night vs. mortals and night-folk with lower Supernatural Tolerance than the vampire.
• One scene vs. night-folk with equal or higher Supernatural Tolerance than the vampire.
The vampire can specify an earlier point for the victim to wake up.

Submerged Directive

The vampire can embed a post-hypnotic command in a victim, such as “Kill your spouse on October 25th.” The vampire can’t embed more than one command in the same victim, but can pack multiple clauses into the same command, such as “Kill your spouse on October 25th if they leave the house, but not if they leave their briefcase behind or ask you to come with them.” This Devotion can be especially effective when paired with Declarations, which let the vampire declare someone was Dominated by them all along.
If the vampire knows a Devotion that can alter memories, the vampire can embed a command for the victim to forget things, remember false things, or remember real things as if the vampire had used the memory-altering Devotion (or canceled its effects) on the victim.
Prerequisite: Command •, Command ••
Requirement: Victims can only have one Submerged Directive embedded in their heads at a time, but people can walk around with orders buried in their heads for years.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-3. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: Varies.
• Permanent against mortals or night-folk with lower Supernatural Tolerance than the vampire.
• One year against night-folk with equal Supernatural Tolerance.
• One scene against night-folk with higher Supernatural Tolerance.

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Uncommon Devotions

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Dynastic Sovereignty

The vampire can more easily command mortals who are their biological relatives. This Devotion has several effects:
• The vampire pays no Rouse cost to use Dominate Devotions against such mortals.
• If the Devotion would already be free, the vampire increases its duration by one increment: one action to scene, scene to night, night to week, week to month, month to year, year to permanent.
• The vampire takes Advantage on all Dominate rolls against their relatives, including Clashes of Wills to overcome mental powers other night-folk use on them.
This Devotion offers no benefit against relatives with Supernatural Tolerance scores unless they are ghouls to the vampire.
This Devotion is very popular among the Giovannini.
Cost: Free

The Grand Delusion

The vampire can make the victim believe something that isn’t true: that someone is poisoning their food, that a doppelganger has replaced their loved one, that something lives in the shadows of their apartment, and so on. The vampire defines the victim’s exact beliefs, but can’t control their reaction to those beliefs. For example, the vampire can force someone to believe that their friends hate them, but not that they must attack their friends.
This Devotion is frequently shared among Malkavians.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-2. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: One night.

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Dominate •••• Devotions

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Common Devotions

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Command

This Devotion enhances the effects of Command •• against lesser night-folk (ghouls, hunters, thin-bloods, etc.). Once the vampire crushes their will, they’re helpless to resist further. The vampire can issue the victim an unlimited number of commands for the rest of the night, rather than just a single command with a night-long duration. The vampire also no longer has to pay a Rouse check, regardless of their Blood Potency.
Prerequisite: Command •, Command ••, Command •••
Requirement: The victim must be a mortal or lesser night-folk.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: One night

Conditioning

Through sustained manipulation, the vampire can make a victim more pliant to their will. The vampire no longer needs to make Rouse checks to use Dominate Devotions on the victim and does not need to make eye contact with them: it’s enough for the victim just to hear the vampire’s voice, even over the phone. If other night-folk try to affect the victim with mind-influencing powers, the vampire can make a Clash of Wills to stop them from working.
The vampire must pay a high price for the mind they’ve ensnared, however. Victims Dominated in this way lose much of their passion and individuality. They follow the vampire’s orders quite literally, seldom taking initiative or showing any imagination, even when they aren’t Dominated. In the end, such victims become like automatons or the walking dead, with Charisma and Resolve scores of 1.
Only mortals, ghouls, and other lesser night-folk can be affected by this Devotion. The Beast in vampiric would-be victims rebels against such sustained control, while other true night-folk have their own mental defenses.
Requirement: The vampire must repeatedly Dominate the victim over a period of weeks. A Declaration can retroactively establish the vampire has already been doing so if the player doesn’t want to wait for in-game weeks to pass.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t bother to roll against victims with no particular reason to dislike or rebel against the vampire. Given the extended nature of this roll, the vampire may usually Take Half on it.

Dementation

This Devotion functions like Dementation •••, except its duration increases from one night to one story arc. The restriction on only affecting the victim with one derangement at a time is also removed. The vampire can afflict the victim with as many types of madness as they like through repeated applications of this Devotion or its lower-dot predecessors.
Dementation •••: This Devotion functions like Dementation ••, except the vampire can transmit any derangement of their choice. The vampire’s imagination is their only limit on the madness they can make their victims suffer from. This Devotion is extremely open-ended, so the GM will veto cheesy derangements like, “They want to do everything I say and follow the letter and spirit of my commands without ever causing problems.” The derangement should make sense psychologically.
Dementation ••: This Devotion functions like Dementation •, except the vampire can transmit a single extra derangement of their choice, in addition to any derangements they currently suffer from. Its duration also increases from one scene to one night. The vampire can take this Devotion multiple times, choosing a new derangement each time.
Dementation •: The vampire can transmit any derangement they suffer from to a victim. If the derangement varies in how it manifests, which many of them do (e.g., triggers for panic disorder), the GM decides how it manifests. This Devotion is extremely popular among Malkavians and considered the foundation for the clan’s madness-inducing arts.
Prerequisites: Dementation •, Dementation ••, Dementation •••, and the vampire must suffer from a derangement. Only the insane can learn this Devotion.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate. At the GM’s discretion, derangements particularly appropriate or inappropriate to a victim may take Advantage or Disadvantage.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: One story arc

Interrogate

The vampire can place a victim into a suggestive, trance-like state where they briefly answer questions to the best of their knowledge. The victim can’t respond with any answers besides “yes” or “no.” If a yes or no answer wouldn’t be applicable, the victim says nothing.
Like other Dominate Devotions, the victim doesn’t remember what actions they performed while under the vampire’s influence, but the emotions they felt don’t go away. Thus, if the victim is made to disclose information they badly wanted to keep secret, they will have a sinking feeling they said something they shouldn’t have. Mortal victims may not know what to make of this, but other vampires may suspect they were Dominated.
Cost: 1 Rouse check per question asked. First question in a scene is free at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: Scene

Irresistible Voice

The vampire can use Dominate by voice alone on anyone who shares blood sympathy with them and has lower Blood Potency. The vampire can still only target one victim with Dominate at once.
Prerequisite: Irresistible Voice ••, Irresistible Voice •••
Cost: Free

Mass Manipulation

The vampire can amplify any of their other Dominate Devotions to affect a group of mortals at once, as well as anyone with the vampire’s blood in their system. The vampire can use this Devotion to issue instructions and to manipulate memories.
Requirement: All of the victims need to see the vampire’s eyes.
Cost: 1 Rouse check in addition to the cost of the Devotion amplified at Blood Potency 0-4. No extra cost at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: As Devotion amplified. Roll once and compare the result against every victim’s DC: some may succumb and some may resist.
DC: As Devotion amplified.
Duration: As Devotion amplified.

Misremember

This Devotion functions as Misremember ••, except the vampire can rewrite any of the victim’s memories from the past month.
Misremember •••: This Devotion functions as Misremember ••, except the vampire can rewrite any of the victim’s memories from the past week.
Misremember ••: The vampire can rewrite the victim’s memories of the past 24 hours into anything they choose. False memories of even the past few minutes can have potentially profound consequences for the victim: “You killed that man” and “I wasn’t here” combine to frame a victim for murder. This Devotion does not allow the vampire to investigate the victim’s true memories; it more resembles blindly painting over the old canvas.
Prerequisite: Cloud Memory •, Misremember ••, Misremember •••
Requirement: The vampire must spend time describing the subject’s new memories to them. Longer memory alterations take more time to describe.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: As Misremember ••.

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Uncommon Devotions

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Chain of Command

The vampire can force their own will into their victim, imparting a single use of any Dominate Devotion they know for the victim to use later. The vampire must clearly explain on whom the victim must use the gift, and how. The vampire can give a general description, such as “the first person you see wearing red.” Or, the vampire can be very specific: “Tell this to Gregor at 11:45 P.M. sharp.”
Requirement: The vampire must have already Dominated the victim.
Cost: 1 Rouse check, plus the Devotion’s normal Rouse cost.
Dice Pool: Whatever the Devotion’s normal dice pool is. The GM will roll the player’s dice pool in secret so as not to give away how successful the victim’s later use of it was.

Possess Thrall

This Devotion functions as the Possession ••••• Devotion, except the vampire can only use it on ghouls under a third stage blood bond to them.
Possession •••••: The vampire takes over a victim’s body and controls it as if it were their own. The vampire’s body enters torpor. The vampire uses the victim’s Physical Attributes and their own Skills, Mental Attributes, and Social Attributes. The vampire can use any Disciplines they or the victim know by making an additional Rouse check whenever they do so. The vampire can’t use any non-vampiric supernatural powers the victim possesses, and can’t use any Disciplines during the day without spending a Story Point point whenever they do. If the victim’s body dies while the vampire possesses it, accrue a Stain.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate. Don’t roll against willing targets.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: One night.

Rationalize

The vampire’s victims now believe that anything they do under the influence of Dominate was a result of their own free will, and defend their actions, however absurd. If the victim is pressed on their belief, the vampire must make an Intelligence + Charisma + Dominate roll against a DC of (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. A setback lets the the victim question their own statement, and possibly their sanity. Long-term exposure to this Devotion can lead to severe mental trauma in the victim.
Cost: Free

Voice of Madness

By addressing their victims aloud, the vampire can drive them into fits of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious demons, and try to flee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this Devotion’s use, though offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act “according to their natures.”
This Devotion is widely taught among Malkavians.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: Charisma + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: 1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Roll once and compare the result against every victim’s DC: some may succumb and some may resist. Affected victims fly immediately into frenzy or a blind fear. Mortals don’t remember their actions while berserk.
Duration: Scene.

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Dominate ••••• Devotions

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Common Devotions

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Dementation

This Devotion functions like Dementation ••••, except its duration increases to permanent. The victim truly becomes as permanently mad as any Malkavian, and for that reason, this Devotion is considered the pinnacle of the clan’s dubious art. Alternatively, the vampire can afflict the victim with two derangements that last for a year; three derangements for a month; four for a week; or five for a single, horrific night.
Dementation ••••: This Devotion functions like Dementation •••, except its duration increases from one night to one story arc. The restriction on only affecting the victim with one derangement at a time is also removed. The vampire can afflict the victim with as many types of madness as they like through repeated applications of this Devotion or its lower-dot predecessors.
Dementation •••: This Devotion functions like Dementation ••, except the vampire can transmit any derangement of their choice. The vampire’s imagination is their only limit on the madness they can make their victims suffer from. This Devotion is extremely open-ended, so the GM will veto cheesy derangements like, “They want to do everything I say and follow the letter and spirit of my commands without ever causing problems.” The derangement should make sense psychologically.
Dementation ••: This Devotion functions like Dementation •, except the vampire can transmit a single extra derangement of their choice, in addition to any derangements they currently suffer from. Its duration also increases from one scene to one night. The vampire can take this Devotion multiple times, choosing a new derangement each time.
Dementation •: The vampire can transmit any derangement they suffer from to a victim. If the derangement varies in how it manifests, which many of them do (e.g., triggers for panic disorder), the GM decides how it manifests. This Devotion is extremely popular among Malkavians and considered the foundation for the clan’s madness-inducing arts.
Prerequisites: Dementation •, Dementation ••, Dementation •••, Dementation ••••, and the vampire must suffer from a derangement. Only the insane can learn this Devotion.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-5. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate. At the GM’s discretion, derangements particularly appropriate or inappropriate to a victim may take Advantage or Disadvantage.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Permanent or shorter if the vampire afflicts the victim with multiple derangements, as described above. It may be possible to cure the victim with significant effort taking at least a story arc: this should be less conventional therapy and more surreal journeys into the mind confronting inner demons.

Interrogate

This Devotion functions like Interrogate ••••, except the vampire isn’t limited to “yes” or “no” questions—they can ask the victim any question that can be answered in a single word. If a one-word answer wouldn’t be applicable, the victim says nothing.
Interrogate ••••: The vampire can place a victim into a suggestive, trance-like state where they briefly answer questions to the best of their knowledge. The victim can’t respond with any answers besides “yes” or “no.” If a yes or no answer wouldn’t be applicable, the victim says nothing.
Like other Dominate Devotions, the victim doesn’t remember what actions they performed while under the vampire’s influence, but the emotions they felt don’t go away. Thus, if the victim is made to disclose information they badly wanted to keep secret, they will have a sinking feeling they said something they shouldn’t have. Mortal victims may not know what to make of this, but other vampires may suspect they were Dominated.
Prerequisite: Interrogate ••••
Cost: 1 Rouse check per question asked. First question in a scene is free at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: Scene

Irresistible Decree

This Devotion functions as Forceful Decree, except the vampire can also command the victim to do anything that wouldn’t directly kill them. Self-injurious commands for the victim to stick their hand in a boiling pot, gouge out their own eyes, or jump off the roof of a house are all fair game. The victim only balks at obviously suicidal commands like shooting themselves in the head or slitting their own throat.
Forceful Decree •••: This Devotion functions like Forceful Decree ••, except it also works on victims who are vampires and other true night-folk.
Forceful Decree ••: The vampire doesn’t take Disadvantage on commands that result in social harm or indirect physical harm to mortal or lesser night-folk victims, such as undressing in public or attacking one’s allies in combat. The vampire still can’t command victims to follow obviously suicidal or self-injurious orders.
Prerequisite: Forceful Decree ••, Forceful Decree •••
Cost: Free

Irresistible Voice

The vampire can use Dominate by voice alone on anyone who shares blood sympathy with them. The vampire can still only target one victim with Dominate at once.
Prerequisite: Irresistible Voice ••, Irresistible Voice •••, Irresistible Voice ••••
Cost: Free

Mass Manipulation

This Devotion functions like Mass Manipulation ••••, except the vampire can amplify their Dominate Devotions to affect a group of lesser night-folk at once, as well as any vampire who shares blood sympathy with them and has lower Blood Potency.
Mass Manipulation ••••: The vampire can amplify any of their other Dominate Devotions to affect a group of mortals at once, as well as anyone with the vampire’s blood in their system. The vampire can use this Devotion to issue instructions and to manipulate memories.
Prerequisite: Mass Manipulation ••••
Requirement: All of the victims need to see the vampire’s eyes.
Cost: 1 Rouse check in addition to the cost of the Devotion amplified at Blood Potency 0-5. No extra cost at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: As Devotion amplified. Roll once and compare the result against every victim’s DC: some may succumb and some may resist.
DC: As Devotion amplified.
Duration: As Devotion amplified.

Misremember

This Devotion functions as Misremember ••, except the vampire can rewrite any of the victim’s memories from the past year.
Misremember ••••: This Devotion functions as Misremember ••, except the vampire can rewrite any of the victim’s memories from the past month.
Misremember •••: This Devotion functions as Misremember ••, except the vampire can rewrite any of the victim’s memories from the past week.
Misremember ••: The vampire can rewrite the victim’s memories of the past 24 hours into anything they choose. False memories of even the past few minutes can have potentially profound consequences for the victim: “You killed that man” and “I wasn’t here” combine to frame a victim for murder. This Devotion does not allow the vampire to investigate the victim’s true memories; it more resembles blindly painting over the old canvas.
Prerequisite: Cloud Memory •, Misremember ••, Misremember •••, Misremember ••••
Requirement: The vampire must spend time describing the subject’s new memories to them. Longer memory alterations take more time to describe.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-5. Free at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Don’t roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: As Misremember ••.

Possession

The vampire takes over a victim’s body and controls it as if it were their own. The vampire’s body enters torpor. The vampire uses the victim’s Physical Attributes and their own Skills, Mental Attributes, and Social Attributes. The vampire can use any Disciplines they or the victim know by making an additional Rouse check whenever they do so. The vampire can’t use any non-vampiric supernatural powers the victim possesses, and can’t use any Disciplines during the day without spending a Story Point point whenever they do. If the victim’s body dies while the vampire possesses it, accrue a Stain.
Requirement: The victim must be a mortal or lesser night-folk. True night-folk can only be possessed if they are under a third stage blood bond to the vampire.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-5. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Charisma) + (applicable Skill) + Dominate
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Duration: One night.

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Uncommon Devotions

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Spectral Puppeteer

(Dominate ••••• amalgam)
Only a few Malkavians and Tremere have mastered this diabolical art, which allows the vampire can also use the Possession Devotion while astrally projecting. If the vampire succeeds in displacing the victim’s soul, their astral body flows into the victim’s mouth and assumes control. If the vampire leaves the victim voluntarily, their astral form reforms outside the victim’s body and may continue moving and acting normally. The death of a possessed victim instantly evicts the vampire and severs their astral cord, forcing them to walk back to their body at normal speed. This Devotion is often used to discredit or frame rivals while establishing a perfect alibi for the vampire.
Possession •••••: The vampire takes over a victim’s body and controls it as if it were their own. The vampire’s body enters torpor. The vampire uses the victim’s Physical Attributes and their own Skills, Mental Attributes, and Social Attributes. The vampire can use any Disciplines they or the victim know by making an additional Rouse check whenever they do so. The vampire can’t use any non-vampiric supernatural powers the victim possesses, and can’t use any Disciplines during the day without spending a Story Point point whenever they do. If the victim’s body dies while the vampire possesses it, accrue a Stain.
Prerequisite: Twilight Projection ••, Twilight Projection •••, Twilight Projection ••••, Possession •••••, Twilight Projection •••••
Cost: Free

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Disciplines Portal

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Animalism	Auspex	Blood Sorcery	Celerity	Dominate
Fortitude	Obfuscate	Potence	Presence	Protean