It might end up being a full campaign if we click with the DM… after we conclude at least 2 of 3 ongoing year+ campaigns, lol.
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Looking for a GoA ruling.
Charmed condition:
- A charmed creature can’t Attack the charmer or target the charmer with harmful Abilities or magical Effects.
Charm Person spell:
- it is Charmed by you until the spell ends or until you or your Companions do anything harmful to it. The Charmed creature regards you as a friendly acquaintance.
Debating whether this means that a successful Charm Person mid-combat means they simply won’t attack me, or they won’t attack my party. I could read it either way since me being friendly extends to “the friend of my friend”, but the Charmed condition specifically reads they only wouldn’t hurt me. I’d argue the spell broadens the application but it’s non-specific.
Strictly, the Charmed condition also leaves the loophole of damaging the charmer with non-attack, non-targeting effects.
Found this reddit thread debating the question: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/didf77/do_charmed_creatures_regard_the_casters_allies_as/
In my opinion I would say that a charmed creature would not attack anyone in the party unless the party attacks first (that’s how it worked in Everquest/World of Warcraft, so that’s probably why that makes the most sense to me).
It seems that if you read the rules literally though, then the charmed creature will continue to attack the rest of the party, and as soon as the party strikes back the spell would be broken. I guess in that case it would mainly be useful (during combat) to get a squishy spellcaster out of a sticky situation long enough for the other party members to step in.
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Do you have an example? Would be an interesting way to take out something “solo” in D&D if you could charm it then kill it without breaking the charm.
The Charmed can damage the charmer, strictly rules-as-written.
“can’t Attack the charmer or target the charmer with harmful Abilities or magical Effects.”
“Okay I’m Charmed so I don’t target them but I do cast Fireball 5 feet behind them. It was not an Attack nor was it targeted.”
It’s bullshit and I wouldn’t try it nor allow it at my table - well, maybe once for cleverness then never again. But it’s rules-as-written. Which is full of loopholes.
However it’s 100% allowed in my opinion to convince them to walk to the edge of a cliff, then push them off. Or to have the entire party surround them and ready 4 Attack actions at once.
Yeah, that seems against the spirit of the rule imo. I agree that it makes sense technically though, and I would probably not allow it (or try and come up with a creative way to have a negative consequence from it) if a player attempted that while I was DM.
Yeah, that all seems fair game to me.
Coming from a MtG background, the player who knows the rules best wins 
But winning isn’t the point of D&D.
Suppose that the Charmed creature is inclined attack the Charmer’s enemy with an area spell:
- INT check on the Charmed to see if they recognize that the Charmer is in the area of effect.
- Failed check results in the area spell being cast
- WIS check by Charmer to see if they recognize what the Charmed is doing
- Successful check reduces damage (DM’s discretion, IMO)
As for other members of the party:
- CHA check of companions whose CHA is less than the Charmer’s CHA
- Failed check results in Charmed possibly attacking
I really don’t see that the spell really “broadens” the effect. It’s making explicit the idea that anything that attacks the creature (regardless of Charmed status) would be viewed as hostile; but that any companion of the Charmer will break the spell’s effect toward the Charmer.
That is why I propose the (second) set of checks to establish who exactly the Charmed views as “friends of the Charmer” (this is based on the status of “friendly acquaintance”).
In this case, I would have the Charmed do a WIS check: successful check breaks the spell.
Charmed makes them not hostile toward you, whereas Charm Person makes them view you as a friendly acquaintance.
Mayyybe. I’d probably let it happen honestly. There’ve not been many times I would want to do this, since casting it in combat gives them a save at advantage (not optimal) and it’s not often we want to absolutely gank a solo NPC. But sometimes, I wish I had it…
Have a cold open ready for somebody in an upcoming mini-campaign. Will have to figure out who’s best suited for it and ensure they like the concept but going to keep the actual open secret as it’s going to happen in medias res.
Going to have one or two characters go through a more normal, “introduce your character”, spend 5-10 minutes on each introducing their specific motivations.
This character (likely Barbarian/Fighter/Monk/Rogue) will be in the middle of an underground championship bare-knuckles fight for money. After going through the other 1 or 2 characters:
(Barbarian) - please set your HP to 11.
Does (rolling) XX hit your AC? You dodge/take on the chin a punch from this other character. You are currently unarmed, both you and your opponent are bloodied while 30 or 40 people cheer you on. It is your turn.
Would do more narrating but that’s the gist - a harsh cold open that begins with combat before we even have a character description.
Afterward, regardless whether they win or lose they will be approached by somebody with a job.
If we have 2 appropriate characters it’s possible they will be fighting each other.
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Shower realization this morning.
One of my characters in a campaign was forced to lose the memory his father ever existed. It’s been tough working that in, my character has been very careful to create “alternate” memories that exclude anything about his father who apparently was just absent(???) Other characters knew about my father but because I literally don’t remember him, have been struggling how to bring that up in roleplay.
But I also have canon younger siblings. And my mother didn’t have a job. So how would that happen if - OH. My mother was a prostitute to support the family. (Memory retconning to support the fact I can’t remember my very important father-based plotline)
There’s more to it but that’s getting real deep into our game, definitely going to bring that up in a tavern or such soon.
Ran my first 100% homebrew session recently.
Went decently. Kicking myself for shutting down a player’s creativity because I 100% expected a particular fight to happen and railroaded it. Ughhhh. Otherwise, generally was good, 3/5 players seemed to enjoy it and actively participated, 1 was on too many substances unfortunately, 1 I’d never met before and he was just… weird. Just surly in a weird way.
Also went to a random paid one-shot recently, met a very nice non-binary pal who we may hang out with in the future.
Second session in a very roleplay-heavy group I’m probably playing with for 1-2 years. More role-play heavy than I prefer, honestly, but it’s good to stretch your boundaries.
It occurred to me that I’ve never been into RP’ing romance and tried to seduce an NPC that I thought was giving off hints… it was clear the DM was… not upset about it but not into it, and the group was pretty quiet, and I’m still cringing thinking about it.
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Awkward! Hopefully at least it didn’t get too racy.
It really did not, was just a suggestion from me that maybe we spend the night in the same room. Pushed it a little further than just that but it didn’t go further.
The group has probably shrugged it off already and I likely kick myself more than others. I think they all like me. I’m just not used to primarily roleplay sessions and am so embarrassed still.
I definitely get kicking yourself long after others have probably forgotten. One time some friends invited us to a game night with some other couples. We knew they had these game nights, but had never been invited. As we were walking out the door after one of the hosts said “thanks for coming” to which my wife responded “thanks for inviting us this time!”
I laughed so hard afterwards that she said that, and she was mortified. We talked about it for a long time after that event, and I doubt that they even noticed it.
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Thanks. Can fully understand that… This is the single time I’ve intentionally mentioned I’m a cishet male on this site, and the entire rest of the group is some form of female or AFAB non-binary, so forcing a romantic roleplay felt doubly weird.
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This weekend we had the first session of a teen community D&D club I started.
It went well. 13 kids. Mostly middle school, some high school.
My daughter ran a table with 5 players that she knew. An experienced middle schooler ran a table with 6 players. That DM was a rock star.
I wanted three smaller tables, but let them sort themselves out. It mostly worked, but I think I will impose or very strongly suggest who I want at three tables next time.
At one point I leaned in the middle of the big table and said “as the old person in the room, I’m telling you to make your DMs life easier” That worked.
The most difficult was a high school boy who was neuro divergent / autistic (I assume) He was at the big table, I stuck close to him to help out and make sure he didn’t dominate the game. I think I’ll put him at a smaller table with older boys next time and I’m chatting with his mom for suggestions too.
I’m having them do the 5 1-hour adventures in DDAL05-01 Treasure of the Broken Hoard. Apparently if you give adolescents a “1 hour adventure” they can make it fill 2.5 hours no problem.
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