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Old December 30th, 2007
CruelDespot CruelDespot is offline
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Location: The 'Ville, KY
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It says nothing about actions that the character might be violently opposed to, such as drawing his own dagger and slitting his own throat, or forcing a mother to toss her baby in front of a speeding carriage. This seems pretty harsh for just one power point!
Maybe the power point cost could be adjusted, but I think the spell should stay. I was just reading a Conan novel in which a spell like this was used to order a suicide. So if one goal of the rules is to simulate fantasy fiction, then that spell is doing it. Another possible limitation could be a requirement for the caster to make eye contact first. See below:

The stranger did not seem perturbed, though the spear-point touched his bosom. His eyes held the warrior’s with strange intensity.
“What are you obliged to do?” he asked strangely
“To guard the gate!” The warrior spoke thickly and mechanically; he stood rigid as a statue, his eyes slowly glazing.
“You lie! You are obliged to obey me! You have looked into my eyes, and your soul is no longer your own. Open that door!”

Lifting his voice slightly, he spoke to the guardsman. “I have no more use for you. Kill yourself!” Like a man in a trance, the warrior thrust the butt of his spear against the wall, and placed the keen head against his body, just below his ribs. Then slowly, stolidly, he leaned against it with all his weight, so that it transfixed his body and came out between his shoulders.
-from “The People of the Black Circle” by Robert E. Howard.
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