Compel Passion

Presence 7

Description: Many Kindred know of the Summon power, which implants an irrational, inexplicable desire to travel to a Cainite's location. A few ancients have refined this power to drive a person to seek any other person they want. What's more, the victim feels whatever emotion toward the target the ancient desires. The victim might feel driven to seek out a complete stranger whom he loves on first sight, or feel inexplicable rage toward her dearest friend. An unsuspecting victim may try to rationalize the sudden emotion, or she may think she has lost her mind, but is no less able to fight the compulsion for the realization.

Like Summon, Compel Passion dissipates at dawn - where the ancient is. Also like Summon, this power cannot drive its victim into suicidal danger, though the target might face or use violence to fulfill the compulsion.

System: Compel Passion works only on someone the ancient has met, though there are rumors that this requirement can be contravened via specific sorcery. The power works on mortals and supernaturals alike, over any distance in the physical world.

The character rolls Charisma + Subterfuge, at a difficulty dependent on the character's past connection to the target. The base difficulty is 5, for a person the ancient knows moderately well: A person met only briefly, or affected through a magical link, the difficulty is 7. If the victim has been affected by the character's Presence before, the difficulty drops to 4, but if the target has ever successfully resisted the character's Presence, the difficulty rises to 8.

The number of successes indicates the strength of the compelled passion for that night:

1 succes	Subject feels the compulsion, but acts hesitantly.
2 successes	Subject acts reluctantly and is easily thwarted by obstacles.
3 successes	Subject acts on the passion with reasonable speed.
4 successes	Subject drops everything to act on the compulsion.
5 successes	Subject is a complete and instant slave to the induced passion, doing any deed necessary to fulfill the compulsion (short of suicide).

The subject cannot resist Compel Passion unless someone else confronts him with the irrationality of his actions and feelings. A successful appeal using Empathy, Intimidation or some other communication Ability (difficulty of 5 + the number of successes rolled for Compel Passion) enables the victim to spend Willpower and so resist the emotion for a scene. Compel Passion does not impart any actual knowledge - only emotion and a drive to go someplace. The victim does not know who he seeks, only that he must go. Thus a millionaire financier cannot be compelled to pay a widow's mortgage. At most, the millionaire can be inspired to seek out the widow and instantly feel loyalty to her. The details of the action the millionaire takes are the domain of dominate, not emotion.