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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jabborwacky" data-source="post: 6853405" data-attributes="member: 98608">So, I gave others the benefit of a doubt and have attempted to use this in a few games. Unfortunately, anyone saying this cantrip is powerful or even at all useful is not thinking straight. A cantrip is supposed to make some aspect of the game easier, but this one does the complete opposite.1. You can't use it to influence attitude in a positive manner. The shortest speech a person can give to influence a person's standing is known as an "elevator pitch," and those are thirty seconds. However, this is only the beginning of a longer conversation. You won't get the chance to actually make a request within the one minute allowed before he turns totally hostile. 2. If you can already achieve a level of rapport with a creature that makes asking requests of it plausible, you have no need for the spell. Actually, the spell constitutes a form of self-sabotage in such cases because you could be making requests that take many magnitudes more time to complete. The subject also has no reason to turn hostile. Think of all that hard work you'd have to put in to make an orcish guard treat you as a friend only to blow it all on a one minute request for his ham sandwich. 3. Charm spells do not implant false memories of friendship, and have the complete opposite effect of making others ignore your presence: You may be a well received stranger, but you are still a stranger. So merely asking for the keys to the jail isn't going to work without some linguistic sugar, which will turn the request into an elevator pitch. Not only that, but for this spell to be effective, you need to get what you want in under thirty seconds: the remaining thirty is you running at top speed away from the people who will in short time want to do the worst things imaginable to you.4. If you are confident enough to use this spell without running, you could have achieved the same results with a minor distraction, some sleight of hand, or just outright beating the targets into unconsciousness. Two of those hold the genuine possibility of never turning your targets hostile despite taking advantage of them, making a mundane skill check vastly superior to a cantrip. The third will turn them hostile, but you'll be long gone before they'll be lucid enough to rally their forces, making any damage you take in the process well worth it. Virtually all of these options are vastly superior to the friendship cantrip. To balance the cantrip against these other options, I'd suggest the spell simply give the player advantage on one charisma check with a single creature that must be initiated within the spells duration. Regardless of the success or failure of the charisma check, the same creature cannot be the target of the friendship cantrip for 24 hours. If the target of the friends cantrip catches you in the act of casting it on him/her with a successful perception check against the spell's DC your standing with the creature after the spell wears off is moved one step lower than it was before the casting of the cantrip. The change lets players cast it as much as they want (albeit on different targets) and forces the player to think tactically about its use.</blockquote>

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