I'm running a Starfinder game, and one of my players is playing a Mystic Overlord. They're the party face, and use the Charm Person spell to mak everyone like the party. I don't want to make this impossible, because it's what they've built their character around and has lead to some cool non-violent solutions, but I'd like to have things in place so it won't always work. Are there any abilities or items that would negate Charm Person, or should I just make sure important NPCs have strong Will saves?
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Charm is almost never going to work in any context other than roleplay encounters due to the +5 bonus to the saving throw that any creature would automatically get if they're inside of initiative and are not ALREADY on the "side" of the party as they'd feel threatened by anyone acting as though combat is happening or functionally armed.
Most of the time Charm Person will only really ever do one thing and that is to trick the NPC into trusting the spellcaster (and only the spellcaster) more than they typically already would, this is especially relevant if the NPC is starting off as opposed to the Mystic since in such situations simply watching the PC begin casting the spell would almost always cause said NPC to feel threatened and thereby kicking in the +5 bonus to their saving throw.
You'll also want to be certain that the party is fully informed of the plan before the NPC is in earshot too given that if they do not know ahead of time and go into the situation while already having been sure to make themselves non-threatening the NPC will again get that +5 bonus.
So, things to watch:
1) Is the Mystic and the NPC in combat? If yes, +5 to the Saving Throw.
2) Are all of the Mystics allies sufficiently unarmed or non-threatening? If no, +5 to the Saving Throw.
3) Does the NPC ALREADY have reason to distrust the Mystic or have a lower than neutral "starting attitude" toward them? If yes, most likely the NPC will see the Mystic casting a spell (even if they cannot identify what that spell is) as being potentially harmful and threatening, +5 to the Saving Throw.
Charm Person is great for the purpose of getting access to places, information, and people of power as long as the party goes in well informed of the situation, knows not to draw weapons, acts shady, and are already aiming for a peaceful resolution to things. You should also bear in mind that if said important NPC has any of their own friends or allies around who can or DO identify the spell for what it is then complications are sure to arise at LEAST in the form of opposed Charisma Checks between their ACTUAL friends and the Mystic who would need to work against whatever advice/warning their friend offers in regards to telling the Charmed NPC that they're being manipulated.
I hope this can help at least a little bit.
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The NPC needs to be alone with PCs or everyone around is going to know your Mystic cast a spell and demand an explanation for what it was and why they did it without warning everyone and asking permission first. (I was glad Galactic Magic made it clear in a lore article that this is the social expectation in the Pact Worlds.) If anyone is trained in Mysticism they’ll be able to roll to identify it. Charm Person is almost certainly a crime unless you’re the secret police in a less nice polity.
So always get them alone first. No cameras will also often be important.
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Keep in mind that in starfinder casting a spell is a big obvious act. There's no words of gestures like previous editions but there are big glowy lights and sound effects that generally make it obvious what you're doing. So if someone is standing there guarding a place someone trying to walk up and cast a spell is just as noticable as someone trying to walk up and take the giant rocket launcher off their back and aim it at the guard...its something that tends to start a fight.
People also feel when a spell has been thrown at them, kind of like feeling a bird hit the window. So if you get that feeling then you know the guy with the glowy lights just tried something, even if you're not sure what, and no one likes having their mind and or heart* messed with, and tend to get TICKED off when someone tries that.
*or whatever metaphorical circulatory organ
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Yeah, Charm Person in Starfinder can actually border on useless.
For example, if you cast it on the BBEG guard trying to enter their base, I would expect the guard to react by saying something like "You should get out of here, my boss will kill you and me if he catches you".
And it should basically never work to prevent combat unless the enemy is alone.
To be honest, it sounds like you're running Charm Person too beneficially to the player.
There is the opposed charisma check to make them do something they wouldn't ordinarily do, but who knows what if any limits there are supposed to be on that. Does it turn it into domination lite if you have a high charisma and/or rerolls?
I think it's pretty easy to to say that the limits of what someone would do, is what they would do for a close friend.
It's definitely not domination.
And as a GM you can always say things like "This person isn't exactly nice to his "friends" so they're not willing to do much for you."
It because the it's so incredibly vague it's basically all up to the GM to decide what they're going to allow.
That does however mean that IRL relations between GM's a players can make navigating this spell difficult. Some GM's have a real hard time ever saying no to a player with a spell like this.
It treats you as a trusted friend always. The charisma check is to convince them to do something they wouldn’t ordinarily did for a trusted friend. The question is what the limit is to that. Bank password? Child sacrifice? Who knows
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Charm Person didn't remove the common sense of an enemy.
If the guard knows that letting in enemies results in a harsh punishment for him, he will not let them in, no matter if they are his best friends or not.
Simply Image your best friend is a guard at a high security military base. Will he let you into the base? Of course not.
On the other hand if he catches you inside the facility and no damage was done, you could argue that he could probably just throw you out and don't report you to his superior.
I think a baseline for what a charmed person would do is always to ask yourself "Would I do a similar thing in the real world for my best friend?"
Yes, that answers the baseline. It doesn't answer the "do things you would ordinarily not do" that you can be compelled to do with an opposed charisma check. It's not hard to optimize ability checks with rerolls (or a precog who picks up charm via a feat or archetype), so this matters.
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Yes, that answers the baseline. It doesn't answer the "do things you would ordinarily not do" that you can be compelled to do with an opposed charisma check. It's not hard to optimize ability checks with rerolls (or a precog who picks up charm via a feat or archetype), so this matters.
The great part is the answer depend on the individual (NPC) which means it's up to the GM to decide.
As long as the players and GM have a good relationship and the GM doesn't always shut down Charm Person then it shouldn't be a problem.
The spell pretty clearly lays out it wont attack friends or allies, and never obeys obviously suicidal or harmful commands. The harmful commands bit can be taken liberally to mean anything that would have a result that the commanded person wouldn't like to have happen to them.
That can be a lot of stuff.
In short, this spell depends heavily on GM adjudication.
If someone in their capacity as a GM feels it being abused, it probably means you're being too easy and it's likely driven by the fact that most NPCs are fully fleshed out characters with respect to things they would and wouldn't normally do because most of them are little more than an short lived challenge to the PCs.