The Charm Person Spell

What is the Charm Person Spell?

Charm Person is a 1st level spell that affects any humanoid creature of medium size or smaller. If the victim fails the saving throw versus spell, the victim will treat the caster as their "best friend" or otherwise a close personal friend and ally that is to be heeded and protected. The effect lasts until the victim succeeds on another saving throw versus spell, the opportunity to make the new save varying anywhere from 3 months to a couple days depending on the victim's intelligence score. It can also be removed by a Dispel Magic cast upon them.

The victim cannot be compelled to do something that is against their alignment or nature, but they will take significant personal risks to save the caster's life.

Why is this Significant?

You think the thief class is the best at stealing things?

You are wrong. You are very wrong.

Ask yourself something. How much would you trust your best friend with? How much money would you lend someone that you are very close emotionally to? My guess is, quite a lot, but not your life savings.

Ask yourself something else. Would you let your best friend crash at your place for the night? Of course you would. You trust them. It's not like they're going to rob you blind and slip out in the middle of the night. And your best friend would never in a million years stick a knife in your back while you sleep!

That would be your thought process as a victim of the Charm Person spell.

So What?

When we think of D&D fantasy settings, we think of medieval-style castles, cities, and hierarchies.

The people and leadership of this society are woefully unprepared for a smart wizard, let alone several smart wizards working together, even if they are all level 1.

Most nobles, even kings, are not 10th level fighters. More often than not, these people are 0th level. In most editions, a 0th level character has extremely poor resistance against spells. For example, in B/X, 0th level NPCs must roll a 17 or higher to resist a spell. In 2nd Edition AD&D, they must roll a 19 or higher.

This means they have anywhere between 80% and 90% chance of being affected by a Charm Person spell if it's cast on them and being the caster's stooge for an average of 3 weeks, and that's assuming they make their next saving throw- which is still just as unlikely as making the first one. That is a very good gamble for any magic-user seeking to exploit those with money and power for their own gain.

What is the Solution?

Despite the listed repercussions of Charm Person being available at first level, I am not saying that the spell should be changed at all.

What should change is the methods by which lords or officials protect themselves from mind-affecting magic. There are a few solutions to this, which would depend on the culture and resources available.

The idea is that those in positions of power would be aware this spell exists, and would take reasonable precautions. Below are three examples of what strategies a lord might use, but they are by no means the only possibilities in your campaign world.

by Alex Troufanov

Have more "middle men" between the public and the lord.

If you have several different levels in the chain of command between a lord and the general public, or there are large groups of guards stationed instead of just one or two, a magic user would need to have immediate access to a large number of Charm Person spells- maybe needing a dozen. This is not impossible, but it's far less likely to occur. More guards means more protection.

This is the solution of choice for kingdoms with very little magic at their command, or lands who are distrusting of magic in general. This trait could be one of their biggest advantages, since these lands tend to have some laws against the supernatural, and do not permit the free practice of wizards, and perhaps the majority of clerics. Magic of any kind does not go unnoticed.

Disadvantages of this method include the cost of administration and availability of competent guards. Lords would be unable to personally attend to their low-rank guards since one or more could be prone to allow a "new friend" direct access to their superior officer.

by isdira

Commission clerics of a Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral god to defend the lord.

Clerics naturally have higher wisdom scores, which give them greater resistance to mind-affecting spells. Clerics are usually able to wear armor and use weapons, making them practical in a combat situation. Some clerics can even use Detect Charm as a 2nd level spell, giving them a significant edge even over wizards who have somehow successfully charmed the lord.

A kingdom that is highly religious or otherwise has a good amount of clerics on hand is pretty close to the ideal situation if a kingdom is worried about subterfuge by wizards. There is a high likelihood that arcane magic is strictly forbidden, and full-blown inquisitions against them may be part of the kingdom's history.

There are a few disadvantages with this system for the lord employing it. The church will not be keen on defending a lord who is not of their faith, and normally the city or town an order of clerics is protecting must have their god as the highest, if not the only, patron deity. Even Lawful Good orders can have their own agendas that do not align with the kingdom's, and loyalty to their church will always trump loyalty to their lord.

by warnick

Employ one or more highly-trusted wizards to spot and defend against magical influences on the lord.

Fighting magic with like-magic is perhaps the most obvious choice. No one can think like a wizard better than a wizard can. A court mage will be selected from the best, brightest, and most loyal of the land's crop of magic-users, making him or her far better equipped to counter magical threats than anyone else.

A kingdom that is relatively accepting of arcane magic or one that has a policy of giving some wizards official license to cast spells would likely employ this method. These lands may have wizard colleges, making sure the practice of magic is regulated. Wizards who use their spells to harm others or use forbidden spells (like Charm Person) would still be severely punished. This method is mostly employed in worlds that have no clerics or extremely few clerics.

Disadvantages of this system include having no check on the power of the court mage. The lord is required to trust a person with knowledge and magical might beyond his own, and since the study of magic would be limited to a select few, it's almost impossible to know what the wizard is really doing when they're working in their tower. Another disadvantage is the fact that more wizards in the general population means more opportunity for some to use spells irresponsibly.

Player Character Race: Half-Giants

I enjoy 2nd Edition D&D quite a lot, so I enjoy writing about it and discussing it. Some may say that 2e is not sufficiently "oldschool", but I choose to believe otherwise.

With that, I have followed the Dungeon Master Guide's rules for creating a new player race to a degree I found reasonable, and, being someone who enjoys playing fighters and other combat-oriented classes, I chose to make a race that is very good at fighting.

Rolling for exceptional strength is an aspect of 2e that is equal parts compelling and frustrating. In order to have a chance of getting the much-coveted 18/00 strength, which grants the person +3 to their melee attack rolls and +6 to their melee (and ranged with appropriate bows) damage rolls, you must be extremely lucky. You have a flat 1 in 216 chance of rolling an 18 in any given stat if you're playing by "Method 1" of rolling your ability scores (3d6 with no adjustment). You now have to roll a 100 on a d100, which further decreases the odds.

Of course, rolling an 18 in strength is a clear guarantee you're going to have a very respectable score as a warrior class, but I wasn't satisfied with this. I wanted to create a player character race that got an 18 in strength every single time, and rolled on the d100 table every single time.

Such a race would also need to be written in true 2nd Edition style or as close as I could get to that.

Not to be confused with the Dark Sun version, MY Half-Giants are Different.

Half-Giants

Height in inches: 96/94 +1d12 (Size: L)

Weight in pounds: 380/360 +3d20

Age: Base 17 +1d8 || Middle Aged: 60 || Old: 80 || Venerable: 120 || Max: 120 +2d20

Classes and Level Limits: Barbarian 12, Fighter 12,

Ability Score Limits: Str 16/18, Dex 6/17, Con 11/18, Int 3/17, Wis 3/17, Cha 3/18

Ability Score Adjustments: +2 STR, -1 DEX, +1 CON, -1 INT, -1 WIS

(All Half-Giants roll for exceptional strength. Add +10 to the 1d100 roll for every unused bonus STR point. The maximum strength possible at character generation is 18/00.)

Half-giants are a people trapped between two worlds, neither to which they can hope to truly belong. Some believe their name implies they are a product of giants interbreeding with another race, but this is a common misconception. The “half” in “half-giant” refers to them being about half as tall as a hill or mountain giant, and indeed, they are an evolutionary offshoot of the giants. They are sometimes mistaken for verbeeg giants, but it is considered an insult against both kinds of giant to do so. Verbeeg consider half-giants to be weak and soft, while half-giants consider verbeeg to be cruel and cold-hearted. They tend towards a tribal societal structure and usually lean towards a Neutral Good alignment. They are notably more intelligent than their mountain giant cousins and may be of any alignment. Their history is shrouded in legend, as half-giants have an oral tradition in their tribes that has altered the truth of their creation and inception. Most tribes would agree that their race and humans have interacted and traded for thousands of years before the onset of agriculture. For this reason, they can speak human common and the common language of all giants. Their nomadic nature allows them to choose any additional languages they are entitled to for high intelligence.

Half-giant fighters are those who have broken away from the traditional tribes and endeavor to stay in more civilized and structured lands. Most of these individuals are fighters using the barbarian kit, but it is not required. Half-giants of the barbarian class are those who keep to their cultural traditions, and plan to go back to a tribal life after retiring from a life of adventure.

They are met with anywhere from suspicion to outright hostility in the lands of other humanoids, and it’s nearly impossible for them to hide or get lost in the crowd, especially since they are so rare as it is. Despite this, many understand how useful a creature of such great size and strength can be, and they are often hired as mercenaries or bodyguards. They have a natural wanderlust and, if they are Good-aligned, a more social attitude than other giants, making them similarly suited to a life of adventure as humans and demi-humans are. Half-giant appearance depends on their tribe, but generally they appear as massive, powerfully-built humans with odd features. Their skin tones range from fair to reddish brown. Their hair color ranges from bright red to lustrous black, with most bearing a shade of brown. Eye colors are more varied than a human’s, as yellow, red, and orange eyes are as common as blue, green, and brown.

Half-giants may not multi-class or dual-class.

Half-giants are fantastically strong and hardy, but somewhat clumsy and simple. They gain a +2 bonus to strength and +1 to constitution, but -1 to dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom. They can wield large sized weapons with one hand, as well as medium sized weapons, but are unable to wield small sized weapons properly. For instance, a bastard sword wielded by a half giant in one hand would deal 2d4 damage, just as if a medium sized creature wielded it in two hands. Huge/Giant-kin sized weapons appropriately can be wielded by a half giant using both hands.

Being large sized creatures, they are appropriately subjected to a weapon’s damage dice against large creatures, making longswords or larger blades and lances far more dangerous to them. Their base movement speed is raised by 3 because of their longer stride, but they are unable to ride animals smaller than huge size. Shields are treated as one fewer size category for half-giants. Large shields are treated as medium, medium as small, and small as bucker. Half-giants may not use bucklers as shields.

Because of their heritage, half-giants have a natural armor class of 6 and gain a +6 bonus to their starting hit points only in addition to any constitution bonus. They gain +1 AC if wearing armor with an AC equal to their natural AC, but their natural armor is not factored in if they wear armor better than AC 6. Armor worse than AC 6 has no effect. Because of their size, armor is harder to make for them. Leather armor is twice as expensive and metal armor is three times as expensive (at minimum). Encumbrance values are the same. Because of their great size, they must eat and drink twice as much as a human to get full nutrition. They can fit into buildings made for medium-sized creatures, but only with some difficulty. They may need to stoop low to avoid hitting their head on the ceiling, and accommodations such as chairs and beds made for medium sized humanoids will be difficult to use without discomfort or breakage. When half giants fight in enclosed spaces where their size limits their mobility, they suffer a -2 to their attack rolls and move at half speed.

Half-giants, in addition to their height allowing them to see over obstacles, also have greater depth perception than other playable races. Their ranged attack penalties for long range are all halved. Huge/Giant-kin bows colloquially referred to as “greatbows” are usable by half-giants. These bows employ “great arrows” that deal 1d10 damage each, or sheath arrows. Half-giants cannot use shortbows properly.

A half-giant must take great care not to find himself or herself surrounded by enemies, as they are more vulnerable to flanking attacks than smaller creatures. While a medium sized creature can be attacked in melee by 3 enemies at once, a half-giant can be attacked in melee by 4 enemies at once, with two of the enemies getting a flanking bonus.