Charm person: how does it work?

[Deaxsa]

The reason for this thread is my simple lack of understanding of how charm person is actually supposed to help the situation. The effect of the spell makes perfect sense, as a target becomes friendlier. It's the casting itself that I'm confused about. If someone is casting a spell(saying mumbojumbo an waving their arms like an octopus) in my vicinity, while not in obvious need, don't I have a right to become suspicious? And would that not negate any benefit charm person may Impart?

Or do you run it more like suggestion or a Jedi mind trick?

[BWR]

It's the casting itself that I'm confused about. If someone is casting a spell(saying mumbojumbo an waving their arms like an octopus) in my vicinity, while not in obvious need, don't I have a right to become suspicious? And would that not negate any benefit charm person may Impart?

Look at it this way: if the casting made you more suspicious of the caster than you were before it would be a perfecty useless spell. Therefore, the spell makes you ignore or possibly even forget the spellcasting. You treat the caster as a good friend. Even if the spell doesn't make you forget or gloss over anything, it shouldn't matter too much. While there may be some people who are terribly paranoid about anything, most of us would at most think "I wonder what all that mumbjo-jumbo arm-waving was about" but not worry too much about it because you are talking to a good friend.

[AlanBruce]

Well, to begin with, if you're in the receiving end of the spell, you better ID that charm person via spell craft, otherwise, that guy in robes is indeed chanting mumbo jumbop and waving his hands like an octopus.

In my experience, rarely are spellcasters the target of such spells, instead going for melee types who are notorious for low will saves and not having ranks in spellcraft to even attempt to ID what the spell is.

As for the spell itself, it's an enchantment. Yes, the target saw you chanting and waving oddly one second, but if he fails that save, he will assume that those strange words and crazy hand gestures were a peace sign or an offering of friendship.

Tricks of the mind.

[Gnome Alone]

It seems like Charm Person would have a little clause in the spell somewhere where it particularly forces the memory of its casting into unimportant background noise. Although then you couldn't roleplay the general hilarity of "Aw, it's good ol' [Wizard Guy], I feel so bad that he had to cast Charm Person on me."

[Milodiah]

Would a third party succeeding in their spellcraft check and pointing it out to the (now charmed) target allow a second will save?

Because I think if some dude pointed out that guy over there (even if I think he is my good friend) just cast a spell on me that forces me to think he is my good friend, I'd be re-rollin' that "like this guy" check in my head.

[RoboEmperor]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388777-What-does-charm-monster-do-exactly

A thread I made about charm monster, so should translate to charm person too. It's a bit RAW heavy, but give just the 1st post a read and make your own decision.

As for your suspicions, the moment someone casts charm monster, the target becomes hostile, but can't do anything until his turn. If he fails his will save, he is no longer hostile. If he succeeds, he's gonna try and kill the guy, unless his spellcraft check to identify the spell fails, and you said you're casting a healing spell or otherwise harmless spell on him, and he doesn't have a problem with that.

It's not a jedi mind trick. You are waving your hands and speaking the spell loudly and clearly with magical sparks flying all over the place.

[Douglas]

Would a third party succeeding in their spellcraft check and pointing it out to the (now charmed) target allow a second will save?

Because I think if some dude pointed out that guy over there (even if I think he is my good friend) just cast a spell on me that forces me to think he is my good friend, I'd be re-rollin' that "like this guy" check in my head.
There is no RAW clause for that to happen. It might seem logical from our out of character perspective that this logic would raise a red flag and cause a rethink, but remember the mind that would have to do that rethink is under magical influence. There is a literal magical force writing "this guy is your friend" directly into the target's brain, and it takes something drastic to counter that without applying more magic. "My good friend cast Charm Person on me? Well that seems redundant and pointless."

[jedipotter]

It's the casting itself that I'm confused about. If someone is casting a spell(saying mumbojumbo an waving their arms like an octopus) in my vicinity, while not in obvious need, don't I have a right to become suspicious? And would that not negate any benefit charm person may Impart?

Or do you run it more like suggestion or a Jedi mind trick?

Well, the rules don't give us the components in detail. Though I'd say it's not ''saying mumbojumbo an waving their arms like an octopus'' and is a lot more ''Jedi mind trick''.


This does depend on your game and how common magic is in the world. In a normal 'adventuring lifestyle' world spellcasters will cast spells all the time. So a person will see lots of spells cast in any given day, but without spell knowledge they won't have any idea of what spells were cast or why, other then what they see.

Sure, it's a classic in many games: The PC's meet some semi-friendly toad men and come to a agreement to not fight. Then toad man #3 casts a spell like detect evil and the players scream ''they are casting a spell slay them all!''

And most of all: once you are charmed your view will be all friendly and you will see things in the best way for your new friend. So it would be like ''Hey, silly. Why were you casting charm person on me? I'm already your best friend in the world! We could not be any better friends! You should save that spell for a real enemy...you are such a kidder! Always joking around! ''