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In the spell Compassionate Ally, what does it means by "ally"?
Does "ally" mean an friend of the Caster (e,g, a party member/NPC), or a friend of the spell target?
On the face of it, the text seems to frame the notion of an ally as an ally of the target creature, with no indication that this spell alters its perception of allegiance. I suppose that the spell could be moderately useful in this context, to occupy a dangerous creature for several rounds or to set up a better enemy positioning for AoE effects, but it seems to entail an intrinsic disadvantage in that if the target of the spell has healing items, those items will be used on an injured creature that most likely opposes the PCs, prolonging the fight and depriving PCs of potential healing resources.
On the other hand if the context of "ally" is an ally of the caster, while this interpretation makes the spell rather more useful, it is woefully unclear from the text of the spell alone. That said, with Charm Person being a 1st level spell and having a longer duration and a substantially greater potential impact on the behavior of a target creature, it seems to me that the fact that this spell is a 2nd level spell should entail a slightly more powerful spell. I would expect a spell that compels the target to aid another creature on its side of a fight to be first level, not second, since Charm Person has the same capability to induce a target foe to come to the aid of a caster's injured ally, but requires a shared language (or good pantomime) and an opposed charisma check. It seems appropriate to me that a second level spell should be able to compel a specific action directly out of a failed will save with a substantially reduced duration.
Was this question ever answered? I can see the target going to aid its own allies but I can also see it as going to aid your allies. Rather confusing wording. - Gauss
Resorting to grammar to provide insight, the sentence structure of the initial sentence where the "ally" is designated has the target of the spell as the subject of the line, as it can be re-written as "The target immediately disengages from its current course of action and rushes to provide aid at the sight of an injured ally." This construction remains ambiguous, inasmuch as the spell is an enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting] effect and therefore could still be talking about the caster's ally in an example of very poorly presented text, but this phrasing is perhaps slightly less ambiguous in referencing the concept of an ally as originating from the target of the spell rather than the caster.
I will say that, in addition to the uses I mention originally, the availability of this spell as a took for villains to inflict on PCs for improved dramatic effect (or other nefarious ends, like clustering for AoE damage if targeted against multiple PCs over several rounds) is not without attraction.
Still, as far as I know, this remains (officially) an unanswered question. The FAQ section for Ultimate Magic has no entry as of yet for Compassionate Ally.
Getting some insight into an official ruling on how this spell is worded would be fantastic, especially since it can swing both ways. I'm currently in a campaign where one of our spellcasters has the spell and attempted to use it on an escaping enemy, but our GM ruled that it didn't work due to his interpretation of the ruling (or he wanted/needed the enemy to escape, but that's besides the point). As of right now I see it as entirely GM interpretation, but clarification would be nice.