Did anyone have a situation where their group used Charm or similar type magics get the information they wanted? I anticipate this is the first thing my group would do. How did that impact the way you ran it?
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Did anyone have a situation where their group used Charm or similar type magics get the information they wanted? I anticipate this is the first thing my group would do. How did that impact the way you ran it?
This charm makes a humanoid creature regard you as its trusted friend and ally (treat the target's attitude as friendly).
This spell is a language-dependent mind-affecting effect. In my campaign there was only a single person who could understand the party (i.e. who spoke Common) and acted as the interpreter to the chieftain. And charming the interpreter wouldn't have helped. ;)
But even a "trusted friend and ally" wouldn't necessarily be told things that are "family secrets". So if you let the PCs charm individuals they should definitely be considered friends, but there are some things that you don't even tell trusted friends. Yours might be past felony convictions? Job/wage history and details? There'll be something. For the Shoanti chieftain it's their tribal history.
I'm not sure I can see how Charm or even Dominate would alter the plot of a History of Ashes. Certainly it could make things a little bit easier, but the PCs will still need to do certain things.
*********SPOILER ALERT*************
The PCs need to get information about Midnights Teeth. They go to see Thousand Bones to see what he has to say. Thousand Bones is already friendly, if not helpful, so casting Charm on him would have no real effect.
The PCs discover from Thousand Bones that only the Sun Shaman of the Sklar Quah would possibly have the information they seek. So neither Thousand Bones or any of the Skoan Quah can help the PCs out there. Even if the entire tribe were made helpful, it wouldn't change that fact; they can't give the PCs what they don't have.
Now, the PCs could attempt to go straight to the Sun Shaman of the Sklar Quah to get the information they seek. But the Sklar Quah will be unfriendly if not downright hostile to the PCs at this point in the adventure (without Truthspeaker Akram). Can the PCs effectively make all several hundred of the hostile Sklar Quah friendly? Not likely. And the PCs would be no match for the Sklar Quah tribe in full. And even if they could charm the entire tribe, they'd still have to try charm the Sun Shaman himself, who is a lvl 16 druid with a very good will save, who could probably single handedly take out the entire party of PCs.
Now the PCs could follow Thousand Bones advice and head to the House of the Moon to meet with the Lyrune-Quah. They could try and charm all the Lyrune Quah, but they need Truthspeaker Akrams aid since hes the only Truthspeaker there. And he just happens to be absolutely immune to charms and compulsions, since hes a Truthspeaker. So that just won't work, and they'd still need the Spherewalker's Mark to get him to go with them to see Cindermaw. So that means even with charming everyone they see, the PCs still need to go to the Acropolis and still need to go to Cindermaw.
Finally, even if the PCs tried to avoid the last part of the adventure by charming or dominating the Sun Shaman himself, his Will save would be rather high (old human druid 16). And Truthspeaker Akram might not appreciate seeing the PCs use such magic on the leader of the Sklar Quah. And even if made friendly or helpful, I don't think that would be enough for the Sun Shaman to just make the PCs part of the tribe and tell the story about Midnights Teeth. Perhaps if he was dominated. But if the domination wears off the PCs would probably have a pretty angry Sun Shaman and a few hundred Shoanti warriors to deal with (once the Sun Shaman realizes he made the PCs members of the tribe without having them do their right of passage), and that could lead to some major complications when the final fight scene takes place.
So all in all, I don't think that theres much that the PCs can gain in this adventure by trying to charm all of the NPCs. The way its laid out, the only way to get the information they need is by getting Truthspeaker Akram to vouch for them before the Sun Shaman. And Akram is immune to charms, and the Sun Shaman won't see the PCs without Akram. So theres really not much you need to worry about in this instance.