An adept hypnotist, you may now use repeated sessions to implant suggestions and triggers that will eventually change a person’s behavior for a long time.
Challenge Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Intelligence + Resolve
Prerequisite: Submerged Directive and either Compel or Mesmerize
Cost: Two Rouse checks
System: Through sustained mental exertion, you can implant a semi-permanent Mesmerism (as per the above Dominate power) deep in your subject’s mind. Conditioning a target takes three hours of diligent and uninterrupted effort, during which time your subject must be conscious and aware. The target may be restrained, but she cannot be unconscious, drugged, or otherwise unaware. Once your character has spent this time, make an opposed challenge against the subject. If successful, you implant a Mesmerism that can be triggered repeatedly.
Mesmerisms implanted through Conditioning must have a clearly defined trigger. A Conditioned character acts normally, with no alterations of her standard behavior, until such time as her Conditioning is triggered. Once activated, the target must fulfill the behaviors demanded by the Conditioning or attempt to do so for one hour, whichever comes first. Just like Compel or Mesmerism, a Conditioning compulsion will automatically break if the target realizes that performing these actions will lead to direct harm. When this happens, the current compulsion to act will cease, but the Conditioning itself will remain and can be triggered again in the future.
For example, you might Condition a target to drink mortal blood every time she hears the word “vagrant.” If your target hears the word, and there is a source of mortal blood nearby, she will always attempt to do so. This Conditioning may seem foreign, unnecessary and even uncomfortable to fulfill unless the vampire user also has Rationalize power. The initial compulsion will end as soon as she finishes drinking, but could start again if someone else says the word. If the Conditioned individual is stranded in the middle of a desert, with no source of blood available when she hears the word, she will spend an hour looking for a source of mortal blood. Thereafter, the compulsion will fade (until the next time she hears the word).
A successful compulsion implanted with Conditioning is permanent until broken by the subject. It cannot be removed or overwritten. A mortal who goes one year without having her Conditioning triggered may make an contested challenge. If successful, the target breaks the Conditioning. If she fails, the target must wait another year before she can attempt to break the Conditioning a second time, and another year after that before she can try a third time.
Supernatural characters may attempt to break their Conditioning if they avoid having the compulsion triggered for three months. If the victim fails that opposed challenge, then she must wait another three months before making another attempt.
A character’s Conditioning cannot be triggered more than once per hour. The compulsion placed by Conditioning does not count towards a character’s Mesmerism limit; a target may be the victim of your Mesmerism and Conditioning powers at the same time. However, you may implant one Conditioning compulsion at a time per person. A subject may have multiple Conditioning compulsions, provided each one comes from a different user of Dominate.
If the dormant effect is triggered during combat, Conditioning works normally.
Duration: Until broken
