How can I enable my Sorcerer who has Charm Person?

[YCombinator]

I am a DM of a highly social, political intrigue campaign that is somewhat lighter on combat than normal campaign. We have a sorcerer who is playing D&D for the first time. She has high charisma and she's trained in persuasion and she has charm person, which makes her pretty great for setting like mine that has a lot of neutral NPCs which information that she might be able to pull out of them.

The problem is my player is really apprehensive of using charm person due to the stipulation that the NPC will know that they were charmed once the hour is over. I'm trying to give her opportunities to use it and encourage it but every time the party suggests that she might be able to charm an NPC, she says she doesn't want them to know because it'll mean that NPC will not ever cooperate with her again. Or she might get arrested, etc.

What could I do to present more opportunities? We are currently in a city that is being attack by Drow. Different political factions are competing for power.

Does anyone think that dropping the stipulation that the NPC knows they have been charmed is reasonable? It sounds, at face value, like that would be pretty unbalancing.

[Flashy]

I think the only real problem you could run into in removing the stipulation that the NPC knows they were charmed is that the spell might become something of an "I win" button. Are there ways that other members of the party can still feel like they're substantially contributing when the sorcerer can use magic without consequence to solve many social problems in a socially focused campaign?

If you think everyone will still be able to make critical contributions go ahead and try removing the stipulation. If you think there's too much risk of the sorcerer coming to dominate the social aspects of play then maybe hold off.

Depending how risk averse the player is, have you considered adding a second saving throw? Wisdom to resist the effect, Intelligence to realize you've been charmed? Might make a tolerable middle ground.

[Asmotherion]

A) Have her cast Charm Person when under the effect of Disguise Self. This way, she can not get caught, and possibly use it to her advantage to incriminate an individual of her choice (perhaps an adversary). Creating dislikes is a strong card in politics after all. This is the most RAW way to negate the side-effects. For a more efficiant way to do this, suggest a multiclass to Warlock 2 levels, so she can Disguise Self at-will

B) Have her cast it with subtle spell, or when the target doesn't know she's casting it. This is mostly how you, as a DM can interprete that "the target saw you casting a spell, and that's how they know they were influenced".

C) If she wants to focus a lot on RP, and less in battle, allow her to re-roll a bard with Expertise on Deception and Persuation. Then have the above mentioned Warlock Dip for Mask of Many faces, and she'll be able to convince Dragons they are Pixies.

[DKing9114]

Honestly, I'd kind of side with her on this one. Throwing charm around carelessly, without social or legal consequences, kind of removes immersion for me. I mean, imagine the social impact of people realizing the character controls people's minds. I think charm person is something of a social nuke-it's really not something you want to use casually.

There are plenty of ways going forward to deal with this. Give some hints that certain situations are nuke worthy-for example, the resolution of this particular issue will end with one of the factions involved being more or less dissolved-leaving the PCs more free to burn bridges with that side. Or, perhaps the importance of their mission and the support of their patron allows them more leeway-the merchant prince of the city tells the group that they need to repulse the next Drow incursion, they have two days to prepare forces, and they may use any means necessary to achieve that goal (because otherwise, everyone dies). In those situations, the Sorcerer will be more inclined to use a charm to speed things along.

Beyond that, mechanics wise the player may want to take one level in Rogue or three in Bard for expertise in Persuasion and Insight, in order to improve her ability to work in social situations-a +10 persuasion at level 5 is pretty powerful, especially if you combine it with Investigation and Insight to tailor the argument to that NPC.

[famousringo]

Either give her an NPC where she won't care if bridges are burned, or give her a couple levels and encourage her to trade Charm for Enhance Ability, AKA Charm Person That Actually Works And On Multiple People And Does Other Cool Stuff Too (I can see why they had to shorten this name for the release version). Or Suggestion, which also works very well and doesn't automatically penalize the caster.

It kind of bugs me how Charm Person's near-uselessness gets rationalized as preserving game balance when there are two vastly superior Charm substitutes at level 2 that would still be quite superior if Charm hadn't been hobbled with the hostility penalty.

[SilverStud]

Well I wouldn't call it a hostility penalty, since it doesn't state that the target becomes any steps more hostile. I mean, sure, it's a likely outcome. But when we think about it, how many people would really like an excuse to misbehave? (I hate bringing IRL into it but...) IRL, so very many politicians and businessmen make decisions they KNOW are bad. I can imagine that those cheaters would love to be able to say "But she Charmed me! I wasn't fully myself!" This way they can indulge, but they have a false safety net if caught. I dunno. It could work on some people. Insight checks yay!

Also, you could look at it as a stepping up or down in relations. So if the person is outright hostile, making them "friendly acquaintance" level is, say, a 3-level upshift. When the spell wears off, it is a 3-level downshift. What if, during that time, the PC becomes legit friends with the person? Then maybe the 3-level downshift will take the person back to merely indifferent? So much DM-dependent stuff here!

Finally, regardless of the fact that they know they were charmed, the memory of that hour will remain. Knowing something doesn't always help to dispel a feeling. If the PC uses Charm Person to "open up" the NPC, then proceeds to be a really nice person during and after the duration of the spell. Even knowing that the PC charmed them, the NPC still has those pleasant memories AND the continuing evidence that the PC is worth being friends with. Cognitive dissonance is a powerful thing indeed, and a great many people will go with their feelings over their minds.

Food for thought.