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The Charm Person spell affects any single humanoid creature it is cast upon. Giants and other large bipedal creatures are not affected.

Description[]

This spell affects any single person it is cast upon. The term person includes any bipedal human, demihuman, or humanoid of man-size or smaller, such as brownies, dryads, dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, kobolds, lizard men, nixies, orcs, pixies, sprites, troglodytes, and others. Thus, a 10th-level fighter could be charmed, but an ogre could not. The person is allowed a Saving Throw vs. Spell to negate the effect.

If the spell's recipient fails his Saving Throw (with a +3 modifier), he regards the caster as a trusted friend and ally to be heeded and protected. The caster may give him orders, and the charmed individual will carry them out as quickly as possible.

If the caster harms—or attempts to harm—the charmed person by some overt action, or if a Dispel Magic spell is cast upon the charmed person, the Charm spell is broken. If two or more Charms simultaneously affect a creature, the most recent Charm takes precedence. A formerly charmed subject is fully aware of what occurred while he was under the spell's influence. Note that a charmed creature cannot leave the area where he is charmed.

— Charm Person

Gameplay[]

  • In the Original and Enhanced editions of BG1 only, many commoners and enemies have hidden dialogues spoken only under charm. You may manually initiate dialogue with them by using the Talk button. These hidden dialogues are usually but simple and amusing quotes, but sometimes they do reveal more substantial clues.
  • Commencing aggressive actions towards the charmed creatures ends the state.
  • When the level 1 Wizard spell Charm Person wears off, a previously neutral charmed creature will turn hostile. At least in Baldur's Gate II, the Nymph Cloak or the Ring of Human Influence can be used instead to charm neutral creatures in a non-hostile way.

Enemy-only variants[]

Quite a few enemies use spells that will appear in the combat log as Charm Person. Sometimes it is the real wizard spell described above, but in a number of cases it is a significantly more powerful or harder to block variant. These variants are described below.

Note: The Charm Person cast by Beholders was left out of the table because it is largely the same as the real Wizard spell, except that it lasts 100 seconds instead of 30.[1]

Nalmissra Succubus Erinyes
Used by Fallen Solar
Nalmissra
Nyalee's Nymphs
Alu-Fiend
Succubus
Erinyes
School None None Enchantment
Spell type None None None
Level 0 0 0
Casting time 3 1 1
Range 40 ft. 50 ft. 50 ft.
Area of effect 15 ft. radius One creature One creature
Resist: Elves,
Half-elves
90%
30%
90%
30%
90%
30%
Bypass MR MR penalty: Yes
Others: No
No No
Dispellable Yes Yes Yes
Effects Charm creature
  • Affects any species
  • Negate: vs Spell, -2 penalty
  • Lasts 1 turn
Save penalty
  • -2 vs Spell for 10s
  • No save allowed
  • Cumulative
MR penalty
  • -5 for 10s
  • No save allowed
  • Cumulative
Charm creature
Save penalty
  • -2 vs Spell for 10s
  • No save allowed
  • Cumulative
Charm creature
File name SPIN553 SPWI930 SPIN558

Where to obtain its scroll[]

The Black Pits[]

Sold by[]

Baldur's Gate[]

Sold by[]

Treasure[]

Shadows of Amn[]

Sold by[]

Treasure[]

Throne of Bhaal[]

Sold by[]

Treasure[]

The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay[]

Sold by[]

Visuals[]

Videos[]

See also[]

Mod content[]

Mods icon This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.

Spell Revisions mod has changed this arcane spell, changing its saving throw. See below for description:
Charm Person
Level: 1
School: Enchantment
Range: Long
Duration: 5 rounds
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 1 person
Saving Throw: Spell negates

Charm Person affects any single person it is cast upon. The term person includes any bipedal human, demihuman, or humanoid of man-size or smaller, such as dwarves, elves, gnolls, gnomes, half-elves, halflings, half-orcs, hobgoblins, humans, kobolds, and others. Thus, a 10th-level fighter could be charmed, but an ogre could not. If the recipient fails his saving throw vs. spell at +2 bonus, he regards the caster as a trusted friend and ally to be heeded and protected. The caster may give him orders, and the charmed creature will carry them out as quickly as possible.

If the caster harms, or attempts to harm, the charmed creature by some overt action, or if a dispel magic spell is successfully cast upon the charmed creature, the charm spell is broken. If two or more charm effects simultaneously affect a creature, the most recent charm takes precedence.

Appendix[]

External links[]

References[]

  1. SPIN980
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