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It's something I always asked Myself.
Game rules usually expect every character to be a humanoid.
But when it comes to Charm Person, enlarge person and other spells that target humanoid casted by non humanoid how are they supposed to work?
Do we have to consider the Humanoid races as some sort of weak race against magic to have so many low level spell expecially designed to target them?
or we should adapt the spells to the caster type meaning that low level spells works on the type more familiar with you?
Actually I do expect an aberration to learn how to manipulate other aberrations before learning how to manipulate a race so alien to them as humans.
According to the rules, they only affect humanoids.
I houserule it that if you aren't a humanoid, you can include members of your own race in a 'person' spell's targets. So a minotaur could include other minotaurs, but not other monstrous humanoids. A titan could include other titans, but not other outsiders. Etc.
The spells work as normal no matter who casts them. A bugbear mage will cast Charm Person to work on elves, humans, etc... and charm monster to work on other bugbears.
No, that's wrong. Bugbears are humanoids, they are affected by charm person.
The spells work as normal no matter who casts them. A bugbear mage will cast Charm Person to work on elves, humans, etc... and charm monster to work on other bugbears.Bugbears are humanoids. Charm person works just fine on bugbears; charm monster isn't needed.
*Sneaks to within striking distance of Howie23 undetected and ninja-slits his throat.*
Ninja strike!
or we should adapt the spells to the caster type meaning that low level spells works on the type more familiar with you?Actually I do expect an aberration to learn how to manipulate other aberrations before learning how to manipulate a race so alien to them as humans.
By RAW you shouldn't, but it could be done without causing too much harm.
The undead sorcerer has the ability to use the humanoid spells on undeads due to a familiarity with them, so I would say that is enough basis for making a houserule without changing too much.Just be cautious with the implications, and perhaps restrict it to subtype. The first thing that comes to my mind is Tieflings and Aasimar, who, IMO, should not be able to use all the low level spells on any kind of outsider.
The list of spells in the core material are the ones commonly found, and are intended to go with the races in the core material. Any number of spells are possible through research, and spellbooks probably look quite different in different places.
I would let a wizard research Enlarge (subtype) or Hold (subtype), and would assume that casters from places where the majority of casters are non-humanoid would have lists that included the correlating spells.
Do we have to consider the Humanoid races as some sort of weak race against magic to have so many low level spell especially designed to target them?
Originally it took STRONGER Enchantment magic to affect non humanoids. In 3.5 when Enlarge was given a big power upgrade, the "humanoid" distinction was added to make "Enlarge Person" not work on monsters.
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Immunity to common spells that impact humanoids only is one of the key advantages of having a monstrous race PC. It's also a major reason why I think they should be discouraged as that blanket immunity is pretty significant power up.
This generally means that members of these monstrous races rarely memorize these spells unless they commonly interact with members of the humanoid races.
I tend to adopt a houserule that the common Native Outsiders are treated as humanoids for the purpose of legitimate spell targets but honestly I'd prefer if the native outsider subtype became a Humanoid (Planetouched) subtype instead.