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I have a question about tactics and roleplay.

Last night we had a situation come up and caused an in-game debate.

The Party's Bow Ranger was dominated by a Sucubus and forced to attack his own party members using twin-strike. While the mechanics of Dominate are not the question, what the ranger's player did about it was. Just before the DM told him to attack another party member, the player said the ranger was closing his eyes, thus blinding the ranger. The DM ruled against it as the player was dominated and dazed and could only take one action. The player tried to argue that closing your eyes would be a free action, but the DM didn't budge on the issue. He made the player roll his attacks at full bonuses and dropped one of the party members almost to negative bloodied value. Had the DM allowed the action, the ranger would have missed one of the attacks. At the end of that particular turn, the player had the ranger drop his longbow, which the DM said was a free action and the ranger could do it.

The debate was, "Can a character who is dominated and forced to attack other party members be allowed to close their eyes as a free action, blinding themselves and volunteering to take -5 penalty to the attack roll?"

As a DM, I wouldn't had an issue with it. Afterall, the character has a right to resist being forced to harm his own party members and teammates. Closing your eyes isn't covered in the rules, but common sense would say that closing your eyes would be a free action, even while dazed. While dominated, the character is still resisting/fighting against the control and would try anything to keep from hurting his own party.

Anyway, I'd like to know someone else's opinion on this issue.

Thanks in advance...

I wouldn't allow either blinding or dropping weapons.

I guess, by RAW, you could argue that free actions aren't included under the dominated condition, but as far as I'm concerned it goes against what the condition is supposed to represent and do.

If an ability exerts so much control that it can force a character to turn on a friend and attack them, and attempt to bypass defences and carry out complex combat manoeuvres (powers), then I see no reason why it shouldn't be able to make you keep your eyes open and hold on to your weapon.

Players already do have a chance to do whatever they can to avoid attacking allies: though the Will defence and saving throws.

And besides, if you do allow eye closing or weapon dropping, it makes the dominated condition nearly useless when it's supposed to be one of the best in the game.

lol pardon me but it seems like dominating a ranger and forcing him to twinstrike a pal is a DM's optimal choice for a dominate effect. so far all the examples mention rangers twinstriking friends. it's also what happened in my group once too and the ranger did end up K.O'ing his buddy with it.

anyway with all that said, like everyone else in this forum, I would have to side with your DM.