Hypnotic Trance
Prerequisite Knack: A Simple Command
With a moment of eye contact and the expenditure of
a Willpower point, the Avatar instantly plunges a mortal
into a hypnotic trance. Attempting to hypnotize a fellow
Avatar of lesser or equal (Willpower + Divinity) requires
not only a Willpower expenditure but a (Manipulation +
Leadership + Divinity) roll contested against the victim’s
(Willpower + Virtue + Divinity). Avatars cannot instantly
hypnotize fellow Avatars of higher (Willpower + Divinity).
Should he successfully hypnotize a victim, the Avatar
can implant one hidden command that the victim must
obey at the time of the Avatar’s choosing. The command
must be something that the victim can accomplish in
one scene, and the trigger condition that compels him
to attempt it must occur within a number of months
equal to the Avatar’s Divinity. The Avatar can give as
specific an order as he pleases, and a mortal cannot
interpret it in any way other than the spirit in which
it was intended. A fellow Avatar can interpret it loosely
to his own advantage, as per "A Simple Command", but doing so
costs him a point of Willpower.
The victim remains unaware of the ticking time
bomb in his subconscious, but he does have a chance
to resist it when the trigger condition occurs. At the
moment when he has been commanded to perform
the action in question, the victim’s player may make a
(Wits + Virtue) roll. (This roll cannot be modified by
a Avatar’s CORUSCATION or an Virtue ARETE.) If the roll
garners more successes than the hypnotist Avatar has
dots of Divinity, the compulsion is broken. If the last
minute resistance roll fails, the victim must attempt to
do as he was commanded. Whether he succeeds or fails,
the compulsion ends after he makes the attempt, and he
has no memory of what could possibly have convinced
him to do as he did.
