Is Enthrall worth a 2nd level slot? Is it too strong as an at-will racial trait?

[Greywander]

I once wrote up a race that got a trait that does almost exactly what the Enthrall spell does, but it's at-will. Some differences: it's based on sight, rather than hearing, so breaking eye contact for a moment gives another save, and the effect ends if one of you can't see the other.

Enthrall seems like a pretty niche spell, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one even prepares it. And actually, it's only available on spells-known casters, so you're probably not spending one of your few precious spells known on this. Like, it's not that it's not useful, it's that it's use case is so specific that you'd probably only use it once or twice an entire campaign.

There's also precedent of racial traits that overlap with spells, such as racial flight, or the changeling's ability to change appearance.

What do you think? I really like this feature for this race, I think it's pretty flavorful and not too strong. The fact that it essentially replicates a 2nd level spell does bother me, but I suspect that Enthrall should perhaps be a 1st level spell or even a cantrip. I think I might modify it so that it also gives the user disadvantage on Perception checks, since they also need to maintain eye contact for it to work.

[sophontteks]

The spell is one of the worst spells in the game. It doesn't even work without bending some rules. For example, you are casting a spell to distract some people, but they arent charmed or anything. By all means their reaction to you casting a spell should prompt it own reaction. So for the spell to even work, you gotta handwave this. It's verbal and somantic too, are we gonna handwave their reaction if they pass the check too?

And all for what, disadvantage on perception? Nah, don't be fooled by it's second level slot. It's definitely not a level 2 spell.

You could do everything this spell does but better with performance skill or a cantrip.

[Greywander]

Against a single target, no less. What's that? There are two guards? Pack it up boys, the job's off. Who would have thought that stationing guards in pairs was all it took to foil the awesome power of a 2nd level spell?

I'm glad it's not just me. As I said, it's not that this ability is useless, it's just really, really niche. Merely having the ability to use it, especially at will, will make you look for opportunities to make use of it. It just strikes me as a flavorful and fun ability.

This was for a vampire-esque race, and kind of their thing is acting as spies and diplomats and merchants among the living for the undead kingdom they're from (they're the most life-like of the undead). I was futzing about with some kind of blood draining ability and it just didn't feel like it fit. But the idea of an Alluring Gaze was perfect for them. Vampires are known (though not as well known) for having a gaze that can charm people, and this is like a weaker version of that. It perfectly fits a race that essentially acts as the face for their kingdom, let alone an adventuring party. Let the guy who looks like he's still alive distract the guard so the three skeletons and a zombie can sneak past.

[Gurgeh]

Enthrall isn't a single-target spell; there's no strict limit to the number of creatures you can target, though there are some obvious practical limitations given the requirement for sight and hearing.

I'm also not sure why it's being characterised as non-functional: it's not supposed to paralyse people or mind-control them, it's supposed to get their attention. Is it good for a second level spell? Probably not. But it does what it's supposed to do.

[Greywander]

Enthrall isn't a single-target spell; there's no strict limit to the number of creatures you can target, though there are some obvious practical limitations given the requirement for sight and hearing.
Oh, well that changes a lot then. The Alluring Gaze racial trait is explicitly single target (because, you know, eye contact), so that means it's already a lot weaker than Enthrall and I was worried about nothing. Being able to spam it at will at least allows you to make use of it in a lot of niche situations that wouldn't be worth burning a spell slot.

I just remember a while back someone commenting that the trait was pretty much just the Enthrall spell, and that it was too strong as a racial trait. I was looking back over this old homebrew, seeing if I could touch it up, and wanted to revisit this and get another opinion on the matter.

[Amnestic]

Looking over the spell, to make it 'worth' taking I'd probably strip off its V component and make it a cantrip.

Even then it's pretty darn niche and probably not worth grabbing immediately outside of super stealth games, where it still isn't that amazing.

[Keravath]

The enthrall spell is "I'll distract the guards while the rest of the party sneaks past" spell. Alternatively, "I'll distract the audience while you pick their pockets" spell.

It is very niche but it takes an action to cast, lasts a minute, has a range of 60', and can affect everyone who can see and hear you. In addition, unlike charm, the targets don't know that they were affected by a spell. Depending on how the DM runs it, they may or may not know that the person causing the distraction cast a spell.

As DM, I'd probably let the bard work it into his performance or acting so that it wouldn't necessarily be obvious they were casting a spell - only that they were doing something. Most NPCs wouldn't likely notice - the bard could work the verbal component into a quote in another language in a story they were telling for example. However, I might give a knowledgeable PC or NPC the chance to recognize a spell was cast.

[Telok]

The enthrall spell is "I'll distract the guards while the rest of the party sneaks past" spell. Alternatively, "I'll distract the audience while you pick their pockets" spell.

Its the "we all dumped charisma, are too poor to hire prostitues or offer free booze, don't have anything to set on fire, and aren't willing to wear skimpy clothing, so we need to use magic" spell. A juggling act with torches, knives, and bad puns is just as good, will last longer, and might make you some money on the side. It doesn't even have to be good juggling, in fact worse is often better. As s bonus you don't risk people randomly identifying the spell and lynching you.

[jojo]

Its the "we all dumped charisma, are too poor to hire prostitues or offer free booze, don't have anything to set on fire, and aren't willing to wear skimpy clothing, so we need to use magic" spell. A juggling act with torches, knives, and bad puns is just as good, will last longer, and might make you some money on the side. It doesn't even have to be good juggling, in fact worse is often better. As s bonus you don't risk people randomly identifying the spell and lynching you.

This. This is a perfect summary.

[jojo]

The enthrall spell is "I'll distract the guards while the rest of the party sneaks past" spell. Alternatively, "I'll distract the audience while you pick their pockets" spell.

It is very niche but it takes an action to cast, lasts a minute, has a range of 60', and can affect everyone who can see and hear you. In addition, unlike charm, the targets don't know that they were affected by a spell. Depending on how the DM runs it, they may or may not know that the person causing the distraction cast a spell.

As DM, I'd probably let the bard work it into his performance or acting so that it wouldn't necessarily be obvious they were casting a spell - only that they were doing something. Most NPCs wouldn't likely notice - the bard could work the verbal component into a quote in another language in a story they were telling for example. However, I might give a knowledgeable PC or NPC the chance to recognize a spell was cast.

I will say that one of the big advantages to Enthrall is that it can work on creatures that are hostile toward you, as long as you're not ACTIVELY FIGHTING.

That means that, if you walk into a room full of Goblins and your Bard has the presence of mind to do it, he can just scream "I CAST ENTHRALL" usually, as a DM this is something I would allow since EVERYONE is technically in a surprise round at this point and, it makes one player feel like they did something awesome.

Then, while creatures are enthralled, the rest of the party can buff themselves or whatever to prepare for combat and initiate it on their initiative. This is especially true if the party blunders into an area of a dungeon where they weren't expected to go while running a module and might not otherwise have a chance of getting anything other than wrecked.

Usually, if I have a player that has Enthrall on their spell-list this is what their thinking and, usually, it eventually pays off for them provided they're one of my more experienced players.

[Aquillion]

Enthrall is terrible, yes. What it does probably doesn't require an ability or spell; most DMs would just award disadvantage for creating a distraction anyway, probably without requiring a separate roll the way this spell does.

You could make it a racial trait but I would count that trait as entirely "flavor", ie. it should not count as something the race gets when balancing it. Even getting this ability completely for free has no meaningful value.


It is very niche but it takes an action to cast, lasts a minute, has a range of 60', and can affect everyone who can see and hear you. In addition, unlike charm, the targets don't know that they were affected by a spell. Depending on how the DM runs it, they may or may not know that the person causing the distraction cast a spell.But it doesn't do anything. Disadvantage is something that is naturally produced by circumstances. If the Bard says "I'm going to start a loud argument with someone to distract everyone from the Rogue", that would almost certainly give disadvantage to perception checks and the Bard would not even have to roll to accomplish this. And it would affect people immune to Charm. And it lasts more than a minute.

That is to say that this spell is actually significantly worse than just handling the situation without casting a spell.


Here's what I would do instead.


Enthrall
2nd level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: None
Duration: 1 minute

You create a distraction that demands the attention of all onlookers, concealing your allies. Roll one Skill of your choice appropriate to the nature of the distraction you choose, and:

Each of your allies in range may hide immediately without an action, even if they would normally be in plain sight.
Both allies hiding in this way and any that were already hidden may choose to substitute your total on your distraction roll for their final Stealth result (after they roll the dice.)
For the duration, even supernatural senses such as Tremorsense or senses enhanced by divination spells that would otherwise detect hidden creatures are enthralled by this spell and do not cause successfully-hidden allies to be observed or automatically detected.



That is useful, and provides a way for the entire party to use stealth; it can be used either as a "get the big hulking barbarian past the guards" spell or as a "buff the rogue by providing them a retry on a vital stealth scene and by allowing them to use stealth against someone whose abilities would otherwise auto-negate it" spell. But isn't *too* powerful (you still have to actually win the stealth roll and the person using the spell is unconcealed.)

I would probably give it to a few more classes just to encourage players to have more fun with the "use any skill you want as the distraction" bit, since it's amusing to picture a wizard using the knowledge skills as a distraction by expounding on random facts.

[Tanarii]

The biggest problem with Enthrall is they probably just saw and definitely just heard you cast a spell. There's a number of spells in 5e that can be hard to use out of combat for the same reason.

Interesting side note, this spell assumes creatures 60ft away from you can hear you speaking. That's quite loud. A DM might rule that V components are quieter than the speaking required to continue the effect of the spell of course, so you could cast peeking around a corner and they wouldn't hear the V component, just the words you speak while continuing the effect.

[Jerrykhor]

If Alter Self lite (Changeling) is okay as an at-will racial trait, then Enthrall is absolutely fine. Perhaps too weak even to the point that people might be put off picking the race.

[Chronos]

Yet another problem with the Enthrall spell: It makes everyone pay attention to you (or at least, not pay any attention to anyone else), but it doesn't give you any control over what kind of attention. Walk into an orc bar? Maybe all the regulars will pay attention to you by killing you first. With performance checks, you at least have a hope of controlling what kind of reaction you get.

[jojo]

Yet another problem with the Enthrall spell: It makes everyone pay attention to you (or at least, not pay any attention to anyone else), but it doesn't give you any control over what kind of attention. Walk into an orc bar? Maybe all the regulars will pay attention to you by killing you first. With performance checks, you at least have a hope of controlling what kind of reaction you get.

You're mixing up Performance with Deception, Intimidation and, Persuasion.

Performance determines how much money you make from "shakin' dat a$$" whereas Deception, Intimidation and, Persuasion all influence a creature or, group of creatures' reaction to you. Also, there's nothing to prevent you from making persuasion, deception or, intimidation checks immediately subsequent to casting enthrall. All of these rely on talking and, talking is a Free Action. I'd probably also allow advantage on the checks if the target was enthralled.

[Greywander]

You're mixing up Performance with Deception, Intimidation and, Persuasion.

Performance determines how much money you make from "shakin' dat a$$" whereas Deception, Intimidation and, Persuasion all influence a creature or, group of creatures' reaction to you. Also, there's nothing to prevent you from making persuasion, deception or, intimidation checks immediately subsequent to casting enthrall. All of these rely on talking and, talking is a Free Action. I'd probably also allow advantage on the checks if the target was enthralled.
I think Performance is acceptable for someone trying to create a distraction, assuming the distraction is a performance of some kind. For example, juggling (which probably probably be DEX instead of CHA).

And while talking might be a free action, I believe there's a general rule that says making an ability check usually requires an action. Though now that I mention it, I feel like the last time this was discussed we couldn't find the rules reference for it. This generally falls into DM fiat territory anyway, but it makes sense to me that each attempt would require it's own action, so a failure means the crowd getting more and more agitated to the point where making more attempts to manipulate them might put you in danger, and you should probably start running.

[Tanarii]

You're mixing up Performance with Deception, Intimidation and, Persuasion.

Performance determines how much money you make from "shakin' dat a$$" whereas Deception, Intimidation and, Persuasion all influence a creature or, group of creatures' reaction to you. Also, there's nothing to prevent you from making persuasion, deception or, intimidation checks immediately subsequent to casting enthrall. All of these rely on talking and, talking is a Free Action. I'd probably also allow advantage on the checks if the target was enthralled.Performance applies when you determines how well you delight them. Technically you're eliciting a reaction. It's just not a useful one, it should never require a check. IMO Performance is the most useless skill and should be removed.

But agreed it's different from the normal use of Charisma that goes with the other skills, which are ways to get something you want.

[Aquillion]

I'm also not sure why it's being characterised as non-functional: it's not supposed to paralyse people or mind-control them, it's supposed to get their attention. Is it good for a second level spell? Probably not. But it does what it's supposed to do.

I'm seeing a lot of people making this error (although Chronos did note the problem in their parenthetical aside), but to be clear, based on the text, Enthrall does not make anyone pay attention to you. Not at all. That has nothing to do with what it does; people assume it does something in that regard because that's how it feels like it ought to work, but nothing in its text suggests that you get any sort of attention yourself.

It imposes disadvantage on their Wisdom (Perception) checks to notice anyone but you, which is, again, something that you can accomplish relatively trivially without a spell because disadvantage and advantage are meant to be situational modifiers that are relatively easy to impose. Pretty much any remotely-plausible "scheme" you propose to your DM to either aid an ally or interfere with an enemy using your action is meant to be represented by advantage and disadvantage; saying "I make a loud commotion to distract everyone from my friends!" already accomplishes what this spell does, but better in almost every respect.

It's a completely useless spell that feels like it was written without a proper understanding of how the systems it interacts with play. If it were a racial ability I would rate it comparable to eg. a note that your race has leaves growing in their hair or has a musical-sounding voice, ie. purely flavor with no mechanical advantages.

What the spell is supposed to do is provide supernatural assistance to your party members' attempts to go unnoticed. It fails at that - it provides no benefit at all. It's comparable to a Concentration spell that says eg. "You touch an ally within five feet of you, granting them your blessing for a particular task; the next ability check they makes to perform the task you are blessing is made with advantage, provided that they make the check before the start of your next turn. "

...which looks like a useful spell at first glance, until you realize that it is identical to the Aid Another action, which doesn't require a spell slot. And it's even worse because it requires Concentration! (Similar to how Enthrall grants a saving throw and has several other restrictions, when normally just saying "I make a distraction!" is going to work with no rolls - because the stealth / perception rolls already cover that and granting advantage / disadvantage via aid or interference doesn't normally require a roll.)

That is to say that the problem isn't that Enthrall does something inherently weak (see my version above - it is possible to write a version of the spell that is useful!) The problem is that Enthrall completely fails to represent what it says it does in a mechanically-useful fashion. If you just read the flavor of the spell without paying attention to its mechanics, you might say "oh, that sounds narrow but useful." But when you actually pay attention to the mechanical representation of that effect, it turns out the spell is generally going to be worse than not casting a spell at all and just creating a distraction normally.


That means that, if you walk into a room full of Goblins and your Bard has the presence of mind to do it, he can just scream "I CAST ENTHRALL" usually, as a DM this is something I would allow since EVERYONE is technically in a surprise round at this point and, it makes one player feel like they did something awesome.

Then, while creatures are enthralled, the rest of the party can buff themselves or whatever to prepare for combat and initiate it on their initiative. This is especially true if the party blunders into an area of a dungeon where they weren't expected to go while running a module and might not otherwise have a chance of getting anything other than wrecked.
No, that's completely wrong. Enthrall doesn't do anything remotely like this. Again, people are just sort of assuming Enthrall does stuff that it doesn't do.

Here, this is the entire mechanical effect of Enthrall (minus the numerous preconditions and limitations it attaches to this, which it somehow treats as something not just worth a spell slot but worth a spell slot with numerous preconditions and drawbacks):


On a failed save, the target has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to perceive any creature other than you until the spell ends or until the target can no longer hear you.

That is all. Enthrall does nothing else, and nothing in the text could remotely be construed to imply that it does anything else. The monsters otherwise act like normal in every respect, they just have disadvantage on one specific type of skill check, and even then only if they failed their saves.

Unless your entire party is already hiding, casting Enthrall will do nothing to conceal them and nothing to discourage the orcs from attacking them. Even if they are hiding, the orcs will still get rolls to detect them. And of course the orcs will still see you (because you just cast a spell) and will immediately attack you, because despite the name Enthrall does not actually enthrall them, it just gives disadvantage on their rolls to notice your allies in situations where they would make those rolls, ie. only if your allies are hidden. Unless your DM normally allows V/S components to be used stealthily, they also can't buff or cast spells or anything because doing so will still break stealth as normal - not that it matters because, again, the moment you cast the spell you, yourself, will be in combat and the orcs will be attacking you, assuming they were hostile to begin with.

It doesn't do anything else. Disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) rolls to notice creatures other than you, fullstop. Otherwise the orcs are still angry orcs and will behave exactly like angry orcs with no changes.

I can understand why people misread the spell (since the literal reading is so completely terrible that it's hard to accept that a spell so bad exists.) But that's what it says - it's completely unambiguous.

[Chronos]

Let's also compare it to a couple of other 2nd-level spells. If you just want your party rogue to be able to sneak past some guards, you can instead use Enhance Ability on the rogue. Giving one side advantage in an opposed check is exactly equivalent to giving the other side disadvantage. But Enhance Ability has no save, can be cast before you even see the guards, and continues its (long) duration even if the rogue and guards are far from you. And it's also far more versatile, since you can use the same spell to help the fighter be a better grappler, or to help the bard sweet-talk someone, or help the wizard remember some obscure lore, or whatever.

The one drawback of Enhance Ability to sneak past the guard is it only gets one party member past. What if you want everyone to sneak past? Well, then... Enthrall still doesn't work, since it doesn't help you get past. But Pass Without Trace will work, and far better than Enthrall does (even in the most extreme case, Advantage/Disadvantage is worth 5 points on the die, while Pass Without Trace gives +10).

[Rukelnikov]

I think most posters here are focusing too much in the mechanics, and too little in the implications.

This race can enthrall people at will, how many people would willingly submit to that? It'd be like a drug. I could easily see them being hunted by slavers to sell as pleasure slaves. OTOH, how would the more skeptical react to them? These people have the capacity to put you in a trance at any moment, are you gonna risk talking to one of them? Are they easily identifiable? Can they pass off as members of another race? Are other races even aware of this capacity?

[Greywander]

I think most posters here are focusing too much in the mechanics, and too little in the implications.

This race can enthrall people at will, how many people would willingly submit to that? It'd be like a drug. I could easily see them being hunted by slavers to sell as pleasure slaves. OTOH, how would the more skeptical react to them? These people have the capacity to put you in a trance at any moment, are you gonna risk talking to one of them? Are they easily identifiable? Can they pass off as members of another race? Are other races even aware of this capacity?
Good points, although you may be slightly overestimating the effect. All it does is hold a single person's attention, it doesn't give you the capacity to manipulate them (aside from simply being unaware that they're under such an effect). (Although, I did write up a racial feat that allows you to erase memories formed during the time you've entranced them, so long as you do it before the effect ends, i.e. if it breaks before you're ready then you lose the chance to erase memories. I might go back and change this feat, though.) That, and part of the idea is that most people don't know what these people are. They're part of a kingdom of undead, with the most lifelike appearance out of all of them, so they're often operating under the guise of being a normal human, elf, etc. Now, among the undead they do know about this subrace's ability to entrance people. I'll have to think about what the implications of that might be, but I can't imagine most people being concerned about it unless they're specifically cautious about being distracted (e.g. a security guard).

I think the fact that it's a single target feature helps rein in the most egregious uses of this trait, and consequently those who are aware of it don't have much cause to worry unless they are alone and have reason to not want to be distracted. Of course, those who aren't aware of it have no cause to worry anyway.

[Guy Lombard-O]

Let's also compare it to a couple of other 2nd-level spells. If you just want your party rogue to be able to sneak past some guards, you can instead use Enhance Ability on the rogue. Giving one side advantage in an opposed check is exactly equivalent to giving the other side disadvantage. But Enhance Ability has no save, can be cast before you even see the guards, and continues its (long) duration even if the rogue and guards are far from you. And it's also far more versatile, since you can use the same spell to help the fighter be a better grappler, or to help the bard sweet-talk someone, or help the wizard remember some obscure lore, or whatever.

The one drawback of Enhance Ability to sneak past the guard is it only gets one party member past. What if you want everyone to sneak past? Well, then... Enthrall still doesn't work, since it doesn't help you get past. But Pass Without Trace will work, and far better than Enthrall does (even in the most extreme case, Advantage/Disadvantage is worth 5 points on the die, while Pass Without Trace gives +10).

I mean, this.

Enhance Ability/Cha on the spell caster for an hour. Use whatever Cha ability check + skill proficiency/expertise fits best, and voila...you've just bested the Enthrall spell using one niche aspect of another 2nd level spell. And you've got another 59 minutes of being super-charismatic once the party has snuck past, to help you talk your way out of the "enthralled" crowd afterward.

Enthrall spell is clearly terrible.

[Rukelnikov]

Good points, although you may be slightly overestimating the effect. All it does is hold a single person's attention, it doesn't give you the capacity to manipulate them (aside from simply being unaware that they're under such an effect).

Maybe, given the spells name and effect, I interpret the holding of attention and disadvantage in perception is due to the person being... enthralled, magically, so... they are lost in your eyes or something like that.


(Although, I did write up a racial feat that allows you to erase memories formed during the time you've entranced them, so long as you do it before the effect ends, i.e. if it breaks before you're ready then you lose the chance to erase memories. I might go back and change this feat, though.) That, and part of the idea is that most people don't know what these people are. They're part of a kingdom of undead, with the most lifelike appearance out of all of them, so they're often operating under the guise of being a normal human, elf, etc. Now, among the undead they do know about this subrace's ability to entrance people. I'll have to think about what the implications of that might be, but I can't imagine most people being concerned about it unless they're specifically cautious about being distracted (e.g. a security guard).

Oh, ok its more like an ancestral legacy (Dhampir, Hexblood, Reborn), yeah if its not common knowledge and they can pass of as living memebers of their race, then they should be able to make use of the ability, how much mileage they get out of it will depend a lot on player ingenuity.


I think the fact that it's a single target feature helps rein in the most egregious uses of this trait, and consequently those who are aware of it don't have much cause to worry unless they are alone and have reason to not want to be distracted. Of course, those who aren't aware of it have no cause to worry anyway.

Enthrall is normally AoE not single target, and being at will makes it more similar to a cantrip than a leveled spell. At will, single target, I think its on par with the Friends Cantrip, harder to make enemies with Enthrall (which is Friends real strength), but people you use it on are not automatically aware that they were magically influenced, so you don't need to be using disguise self after every "friend" you make in order to not be hanged in the town square.

I think its not OP, but I don't think its useless either, far from it, I'd probably be pulling this **** every other NPC interaction lol :P

The feat might be too strong or not, depending on how it works exactly, for instance it could break economy really easy, really fast.

"498, 499, aaaand 500 gp, yeah, I'll take one of those diamonds", Enthrall

"Here's your 500 gp diamond"

"Thank you, now forget you gave me the diamond and gimme another"

[Greywander]

Yeah, I didn't read the Enthrall spell properly and thought it was also a single target ability when I posted the OP. The racial ability is single target, so I thought it was the same as Enthrall, but Enthrall being an AoE does make it more effective (though debatably something you could accomplish more easily with an ability check). The actual racial trait is called Alluring Gaze, which sounds more innocuous than "Enthrall"; dude just has really gorgeous eyes or something.

Also, yes, the way I've written up this undead race it can either act as a standalone race, or as a template applied on top of another race or monster. So at least narratively, if not always mechanically, the undead was a member of another race when they were alive, and this specific type of undead still looks mostly alive (just a bit pale with reddish eyes, and cold to the touch). Unless you're specifically looking for this specific type of undead, you generally wouldn't notice anything off about them, though things like Detect Evil and Good could find them.

Good point with the memory erasing potentially allowing you to pull shenanigans like that. Perhaps I could put a delay on the memory erasure. Not sure if 1 minute is too short or 1 hour is too long, but either should be enough to prevent you from immediately blanking out their memory and pulling a fast one. A 1 minute delay might still allow you to pull something if you can keep talking for a minute, but at least there's a sense of continuity; they'll react to what you do, even if they forget it a minute later, so they might not remember why they called the guards or why everyone else seems to think you're a thief, but they did see you steal from them and they did call the guards and shout "Thief!" at you, even if they've forgotten. And besides, while they might not remember, they would probably notice if something valuable like a diamond was missing, and might put two and two together.

Mostly I wanted the memory erasure so that you could, e.g. ask someone an important question and then make them forget you asked (since they might notify a superior that someone was snooping around or asking about a sensitive topic). A minute delay should be long enough for that, unless in a modern setting where everyone has cell phones or ear pieces.

[Rukelnikov]

Yeah, I didn't read the Enthrall spell properly and thought it was also a single target ability when I posted the OP. The racial ability is single target, so I thought it was the same as Enthrall, but Enthrall being an AoE does make it more effective (though debatably something you could accomplish more easily with an ability check). The actual racial trait is called Alluring Gaze, which sounds more innocuous than "Enthrall"; dude just has really gorgeous eyes or something.

Also, yes, the way I've written up this undead race it can either act as a standalone race, or as a template applied on top of another race or monster. So at least narratively, if not always mechanically, the undead was a member of another race when they were alive, and this specific type of undead still looks mostly alive (just a bit pale with reddish eyes, and cold to the touch). Unless you're specifically looking for this specific type of undead, you generally wouldn't notice anything off about them, though things like Detect Evil and Good could find them.

Good point with the memory erasing potentially allowing you to pull shenanigans like that. Perhaps I could put a delay on the memory erasure. Not sure if 1 minute is too short or 1 hour is too long, but either should be enough to prevent you from immediately blanking out their memory and pulling a fast one. A 1 minute delay might still allow you to pull something if you can keep talking for a minute, but at least there's a sense of continuity; they'll react to what you do, even if they forget it a minute later, so they might not remember why they called the guards or why everyone else seems to think you're a thief, but they did see you steal from them and they did call the guards and shout "Thief!" at you, even if they've forgotten. And besides, while they might not remember, they would probably notice if something valuable like a diamond was missing, and might put two and two together.

Mostly I wanted the memory erasure so that you could, e.g. ask someone an important question and then make them forget you asked (since they might notify a superior that someone was snooping around or asking about a sensitive topic). A minute delay should be long enough for that, unless in a modern setting where everyone has cell phones or ear pieces.

Hmm, maybe you could just bake the memory haze into Alluring Gaze, instead of making it a feat. Something like, "creatures under the effect of your Alluring Gaze won't think about what happened under its effects unless someone or something points them to it". The guard won't notify its superior about your questions, or even properly remember the conversation, it probably remembers there was someone who stopped to ask some questions, but if pressed "there was a hooded man wearing this and that, he must have passed thru here, do you remember something?" they may remember. I wouldn't wanna do a double save mechanism, but being an at-will, covert ability, which the user can almost always know whether it was resisted or not, means unless there is a save at a later moment, its close to there not being a save at all, except for when there is some time constraint.

You could just keep chatting with the barkeep, using Alluring Gaze every minute or so until he eventually fails his save, and then you know have one minute to do whatever you want the barkeep won't remember.