the power of Declaration

[Exkramental]

hey, i'ts just some basic stuff, i dont get,

Declaration in combat, how powerful are they, like only limited by the GM/ST, say i have a SWAT team that uses a flash-granade to do a blind effect, how would you invoke the blind, as a tag OR as a minus to the blinded persons via FP.

also, from the YS book, dresden tags some ghosts to attack his target, that just seems really powerfull, say i am in a park and i want the dogs there to attack the a clown selling baloos, i use evocation spirit/mind to do a tag, and have the dogs attack him. how does that work, or even. a warlock places a mind binding/Declaration on a PC to force him to attack his group, normaly i would say he would have to be taken out by the warlock, but what are the limit of tags/Declaration really,

Thanks

[Haru]

I think I would use a flash grenade as a way to use weapons instead of stealth to set up an ambush. Throw flash grenades with weapons, defend with alertness, and if the attacker succeeds, it's an ambush, meaning the attacker gets to act first, and the defender's defense skills are treated as 0 for the first exchange.

That's not a declaration though. With a declaration you can add details to the story. So in your example, the group might be going in, and when they spot the enemy around the corner, the ex-military guy says it would be best to take them out with flash grenades. Since nobody explicitly has some, he could declare that he has some. Given his background and the people he knows, it makes sense, so the GM sets the difficulty only at 2. He rolls his contacts to declare he just got a pack from his arms dealer and he brought some with them.
So the flash grenades were never there at first, but he declared them to be there, so he had them with him, they just didn't matter until now.

Equally, a catburglar could declare a ventilation shaft just above the guards, so he climbs through and takes them out from above. Or any number of details that could be used to your advantage.

Since a declaration doesn't take an action, you shouldn't overuse them. Not every detail has to be an aspect and give a bonus, sometimes thing are just there and that's that. If a declaration seems too far fetched, the GM can also ask the player to pay a Fate point for it.

[Sanctaphrax]

They're mostly limited by the group's sense of fair play.

For example, I wouldn't let a simple mind maneuver turn a PC into an enemy. That's just too powerful, and besides it's mean to the player who got whammied. I might use the maneuver to Compel the PC to spend a turn attacking his friends, though. Because that seems potentially fun and fair.

[UmbraLux]

Declaration in combat, how powerful are they, like only limited by the GM/ST, say i have a SWAT team that uses a flash-granade to do a blind effect, how would you invoke the blind, as a tag OR as a minus to the blinded persons via FP.

They're as powerful as you and the group want them to be.  After all, they are ways for the players to take over and manipulate the narrative to their own ends.  I'd suggest talking it over with the group and setting some expectations together.

It's also worth noting the newer versions of Fate fold declarations into manuevers and require an action.  Doing so prevents some creative stacking...however, it would also affect thaumaturgy in DFRPG.