Proper Reaction to Charm Person.

[Potato_Priest]

How I imagine a group of npcs might react to a casting of charm person in-game:

A lone wizard walks into town, asks a man standing in the street if they are in need of his services.
“Shove off,” he says, “we don’t like your type around here, and can definitely take care of our own, no matter what those Jenson boys say.”

“Aww, that’s a shame,” says the wizard, his fingers beginning to perform the somatic component of a spell. Before the local can react with alarm, Charm Person has been cast.

“What spell were you casting, there?” He asks the wizard with friendly curiosity.

“Oh, I was just refreshing my mage armor. Sorry if I startled you. Would you mind showing me the way around town and introducing me to those Jenson boys who were looking for help?”

“Eh, might as well, I haven’t much going on today anyway” the local replied, taking the wizard on a brief tour of the village before pointing the way to the Jensons’ shack.

While the Wizard was at the Jensons’ abode discussing a job, the local who had guided him suddenly realized he’d been charmed with the wizard’s spell. Quickly, he ran to the hut of his best friend, the pensive farmer Harry.

“Come on, Harry, we need to assemble the boys to burn a mind-meddling witch!” He cried. “That stranger just cast a spell that made me think he was friendly!”

“Oh, my!” Harry exclaimed, clearly worried. “What did he make you do?”

“Had me give him a tour around town. Quick, grab an axe or a pitchfork before he leaves!”

Harry paused as he was reaching for the nearest farm implement turned weapon. “Wait, this man can cast magic spells, right? I can see you’re upset, but couldn’t we try asking him for an apology instead? I don’t want to end up turned into a newt, especially with a third child on the way.”

“Come on, are you some sort of coward?” screamed the local, “that wizard violated my free will! He could do it again! What if he cast that spell on your daughter?”

“Well,” Harry deliberated, “she probably wouldn’t be any worse off than if her father died from being exploded by a fireball. Besides, all he did was get a tour around town, are you sure we can’t just ask him not to do it again?”

As the two were arguing, the wizard sauntered out of town, the bag of coins the Jensons paid him for dealing with their rat infestation jingling in his pocket.



Essentially, opinions on how bad this is and whether it’s the violation of free will or what that violation is used for that matters would likely be mixed, just as our opinions on the spell are not universal. Said mixtures of opinion and the significant threat factor of a spellcaster might tend to prevent vigilante justice, but it could still occur in a group with unified leanings.