One of my players is a Fey-blooded Sorcerer and just gained the Enthrall spell. He has been arguing his case that the Fascinated condition, or at least the spell itself, should be stopping people from attacking the caster. But the neither the spell nor the Fascinated condition specifically says that it prevents targets from being aggressive or attacking, at least from what I can see.
Am I missing something here? What's the intended purpose or use of the Fascinated condition/the Enthrall spell?
The perception penalty seems like the main draw. Effectively it's a magical distraction.
As for combat, enthralling an enemy wouldn't just not stop them from attacking the caster, the way the spell is worded leads me to think that it would compel the enemy to primarily attack only the caster. You could use it to draw an enemy away from an ally (although it only lasts until you or an ally takes a hostile action).
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You are compelled to focus your attention on something, distracting you from whatever else is going on around you. You take a –2 status penalty to Perception and skill checks, and you can’t use actions with the concentrate trait unless they or their intended consequences are related to the subject of your fascination (as determined by the GM). For instance, you might be able to Seek and Recall Knowledge about the subject, but you likely couldn’t cast a spell targeting a different creature. This condition ends if a creature uses hostile actions against you or any of your allies.
Interesting question. I have to agree that a person under the effects of an Enthrall spell could attack the caster. But there are several actions that have the Concentrate trait that would impact the character in their attempt to attack the caster. Examples include entering a Rage, Ready an action, Demoralize an enemy.
The flip side is that the character would not be able to attack a different target because they would be "compelled to focus" on the caster. Also any spell with the Concentrate trait could not be cast or Sustained.
I would argue the enthrall spell would compel someone who intended your whole group harm, to instead focus on the caster of enthral.
This isn't a "protect me" spell, this is a protect my friends spells.
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This really doesn't seem like a combat spell to me. This is something the Bard does to help the Rogue Sneak past a crowd. Given that the effect ends immediately if the Fascinated creature is attacked, in combat, this would just turn the caster into a very short term, and probably short lived, target, assuming it does anything at all, as being actively engaged in combat with you would certainly warrant the +4 to their saves.
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"You are compelled to focus your attention on something" is the explanation of what is going on. What kind of attention you are paying isn't specified so it isn't affect.
So if you put this condition on someone looking to murder someone, what you have done is compelled them to focus their murderous attention on you.
Not necessarily. You've gotten them to focus on you. That's not the same as getting them to focus their murderous intent on you. They might mean you no harm.
For example, angry man with gun wants to shoot serial killer that killed angry man's child. Cop uses fascinate to try to talk the man down, getting him to focus on the cop. The man has no intention or desire to kill the cop, but the cop is keeping him from immediately shooting the serial killer (and himself going to prison and ruining his life).