How do you roleplay being charmed?

[Douche]

You are a player. You fail a wisdom save. The DM tells you that you're now charmed. How do you roleplay that? Do you do whatever the caster asks you? Do you say screw you to the DM and find all the loopholes you can until you're no longer charmed?

I want to make it general, but lets imagine 2 possible scenarios.
1 - You are charmed by a benign person who isn't trying to screw you, he/she just wants to make sure you to help them out with something relatively innocent
2 - You are charmed by an evil dude/chick who is trying to get you to sabotage your party. Like, you have the MacGuffin and the charmer tells you to secretly steal it and hand it over to them while everyone is asleep.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Well, the point of Charm spells is that they force you to view the charmer in the best possible light. Thus, it follows that they are the gold standard for concealing malicious intentions in scenario 2. So, I would almost certainly start carrying out their wishes, as long as they phrased them in such a way that I could think "yes, that seems like a reasonable idea". However, the charm doesn't mean you suddenly don't trust your party/allies, so if they cast doubt on what the charmer was saying, I'd behave as if two good friends had a difference of opinion - most likely weighing both courses of action and choosing whatever I think best.

[JumboWheat01]

I tend to go full ham when one of my characters is charmed. The love the charmer, they're willing to do anything for the charmer. I freaked out my DM doing that one time, he wasn't expecting all the ham. I haven't been targeted by too many charms since the last incident.

[Malifice]

You are a player. You fail a wisdom save. The DM tells you that you're now charmed. How do you roleplay that? Do you do whatever the caster asks you? Do you say screw you to the DM and find all the loopholes you can until you're no longer charmed?

I want to make it general, but lets imagine 2 possible scenarios.
1 - You are charmed by a benign person who isn't trying to screw you, he/she just wants to make sure you to help them out with something relatively innocent
2 - You are charmed by an evil dude/chick who is trying to get you to sabotage your party. Like, you have the MacGuffin and the charmer tells you to secretly steal it and hand it over to them while everyone is asleep.

The answer to both is the same. I imagine my best friend in the whole world is asking me to do whatever the charmer is asking me to do. Then (through the lens of my character and his alignment/ experiences/ personality) I do that.

[Segev]

A lot of this sounds like it's based on 3e's charm fluff and mechanics, where yes, the charmed target views the charming creature's every action and word in the best possible light he can.

Aren't the mechanics in 5e rather more limited? The charmed individual cannot/will not (can he be dominated into it?) attack the charming creature, and the charming creature gets advantage on Persuasion rolls with the charmed individual. Unfortunately, there are ZERO mechanics for what a Persuasion roll can actually get somebody to do, to my knowledge.

So, from a RAW standpoint...it's not a terribly useful effect unless your primary interest is getting them to stop attacking you.

However, it is clear that it's MEANT to model them being easy to talk into things. So the above are reasonable interpretations. I just felt it important to make sure we are discussing this in 5e terms, not 3e ones.

A lot of how effective it is and what you should expect somebody to do (as well as what you should expect to do, yourself, when charmed) would be clarified by some more solid Persuasion guidelines. Even if it's just "compare it to passive Insight; if the Persuasion roll is higher, then it sounds like a good/reasonable/fun idea," that would help. I'm not sure if we have clauses about whether "betrayal of friends" or other "unacceptable" actions influences these mechanics.

The trouble here, essentially, is that they tried to tie charm more into a subsystem rather than making it its own effect (a good idea). But the subsystem they chose is extremely poorly developed, making charm just as poor.



From an RP standpoint, I would also fall back on 3e for guidance. This is one of my best friends in the world. At WORST, I trust him not to be deliberately causing me harm, even if he's a bit of a roguish scamp with whom I have to be on my toes. I also would let the fluff surrounding the ability and maybe even the way the GM (or player) frames the relationship the charming creature wants to establish influence it. The sexy ingénue will evoke lust and/or a crush. The wizened old witch will be grandmotherly (if maybe a little stern or lacking in social graces, but she probably means well). The roguish bard or arcane trickster is a fun guy.

Maybe I trust them; maybe I know they're probably up to something. Either way, I trust they're not deliberately seeking to hurt me and am willing to give them a benefit of a doubt if they seem earnest about needing one. I might watch my wallet, but if they say it's all in good fun (or if, in the seductress type case, she acts like she's teasing), I'll probably buy it for as long as I can.

Essentially, in the context of the relationship the scenario suggests, I look at whatever they're doing and look for excuses to see it as innocuous, friendly, or well-intentioned.

[Regitnui]

That's a lot of the charm of 5e; the flavour of 3.5 kept without the Gordian Knot of tangled rules that kept getting in the way. So 3.5's flavour for charm is a fairly good barometer or starting point.

Look at Nale charming Belkar. Our beloved homicidal halfling didn't love Nale, just started treating him like one of the party. Admittedly, one of the party he wasn't inclined to flirt with or kill, but yeah. Belkar didn't act terribly out of character either, since we all know he'd kill all the OoTS without a second thought, but he'd never give Nale good stuff he could keep.

[MaxWilson]

You are a player. You fail a wisdom save. The DM tells you that you're now charmed. How do you roleplay that? Do you do whatever the caster asks you? Do you say screw you to the DM and find all the loopholes you can until you're no longer charmed?

I want to make it general, but lets imagine 2 possible scenarios.
1 - You are charmed by a benign person who isn't trying to screw you, he/she just wants to make sure you to help them out with something relatively innocent
2 - You are charmed by an evil dude/chick who is trying to get you to sabotage your party. Like, you have the MacGuffin and the charmer tells you to secretly steal it and hand it over to them while everyone is asleep.

Like the person who charmed you is someone who puts you in a good mood. I treat them like you would treat a celebrity whose TV show you've enjoyed in the past. They're not a friend, they don't rate above your family, you won't unquestionably obey every request they make, but you're predisposed to like them and might do them little favors like give them a discount on lunch.

Charm Person adds another layer on top of that, where in addition to Charm you view them as a friendly acquaintance. In this case I'd go a bit further and do them slightly larger favors like come with them for fifteen minutes to help out with a presentation (which can be e.g. leveraged into a kidnap attempt by the Charmer).

In the case of a Vampire charm I'd go quite a bit further such as keeping secrets from friends.

In short, if the DM just says "You're charmed" I wouldn't do very much besides act like I'm in a good mood, but if it's a special kind of charm I might do quite a bit more.