A Player Character got mind-tricked (Influence Power combined with an opposed Discipline vs Discipline check using the Control: Emotion/Belief upgrade, duration upgrade used to last a total of 6 rounds) by a Nemesis NPC and was commanded to defend the NPC as they left the party's ship and is now at engaged range of the Nemesis.

This was all happening in front of a 2nd PC who promptly started trying to attack and stop their captive Nemesis.

My question is this: Because the 2nd PC knows their ally just got mind-whammied and their ally has begun attacking them (this happened earlier by the same adversary), would the automatic difficulty upgrade when "making ranged attacks at engaged targets" (see EotE pg 210 or F&D pg 217) still apply to ranged attacks at the Nemesis?

Put more simply, does the "ally" status of a PC change when an enemy NPC has you mind-tricked into opposing your party?

I'd apply it.

I'd apply it any time you someone you'd care to hit by accident is in harms way, which could be civilians, hostages, etc also. It's basically just a way to have the occasional shot go astray.

I'm with Darzil on this one. Just because that PC is temporarily working for the enemy (under duress) doesn't mean his friends no longer care if he lives or dies. They'd still not want to hit him.

On a somewhat separate note, I'm a bit leery of using Influence that way. If you want to run a comparison against more traditional fantasy systems with spells, Influence is more akin to Charm Person than Dominate Person; Charm Person just means you consider the casting character an ally, not that you'd immediately attack your lifelong friends because the guy you met 10 minutes ago said you should. Rey got the stomtrooper to release her, drop his weapon and leave the room, not walk in front of her and blast all the other stormtroopers.

Thanks for the replies. Guess I'll have the difficulty upgrade apply then.

@Kreiger22 I figured someone would try to argue that influence doesn't do what the description says, that's not what I was asking about but I appreciate your input on it.

It's for the Despair result to shoot the engaged party accidentally, so yah, I'd apply it. Both because it makes the being mind controlled thing even more heinous, and it makes sense, trying to hit someone with gunfire while someone else is hopping in the way is harder.

I'd certainly apply a setback, and arguably make it worse. If they're actively defending the badguy they may be going out of there way to leap in front of the shots. A couple upgrades is not out of the realm of possibility.