D&D 5E So, it seems I have a cursed item...
Nebulous
Legend
I'd probably allow it. I'm a big fan of cursed items myself. Our 3rd level wizard just got hold of a cursed Crystal ball, which is too powerful to cast scry once a day, but it gives him 3 levels of exhaustion each time and if used enough will turn him to an evil alignment.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
That would be suicidal because Friends has the unfortunate side-effect of having a duration of 1 minute, and immediately after that, the target automatically, 100%, knows you messed with them with magic, and the spells specifically calls them out as being angry about it. It's one of the worst cantrips in the game as a result. 1 minute isn't even enough time to get clear of most social situations even by anything short of sprinting!
Smell-wise, Pass Without Trace might be the best option if you can get hold of it. It necessarily stops you from smelling of much, something frequently overlooked because humans can't generally track by smell, but most creatures can.
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jgsugden
Legend
That is the response a lot of people have, but I find it to be very useful for certain PCs. I get what I want, and then I take the repercussions.
Is it really that different than a typical intimidation check to get what you want? They're angry that you manipulated them with magic - but that doesn't mean they'll attack you unless they are prone to violence... and even if they are, they may or may not attack you depending upon the circumstances. It is up to the DM.
If you're already presenting yourself as rotting undead, I'm not so sure you're losing much by using offensive magic to offset the penalty for a bit. Friends might serve that PC to delay a combat for a minute rather than have it start as soon as they are encountered.
Ruin Explorer
Legend
I mean, that doesn't follow, because if combat starts as soon as they're encountered, there's no opportunity for negotiation in the first place. You'd need Calm Emotions or something to stop the combat from kicking off.
And this is the main issue with Friends. There are very few situations where the "social" part will be over in under 1m. You use it to get past some guards at the door, you won't even be into the ballroom before they're haring after you screaming "Stop that man!". You use it to try and negotiate a good deal, then the negotiation might not even be over by the time it drops, and even if it is, you're probably mere paces away from the shop before the shopkeeper is screaming for the city watch to arrest you. If it had a 10m duration, or required a check to know it had been used (Intuition or Arcana vs Save DC maybe?) things would be dramatically different. It would then be risky but have a purpose. Basically 90-95% of situations are guaranteed screwed by using Friends. Which is somewhat perverse.
Intimidating a being weaker than you, who has no real opportunity to strike back, and will likely be afraid to is pretty much the only scenario where it's reliably of use. But all it does is give you Advantage. In many, perhaps most, social situations, you already have Advantage due to the very clear "Working Together" rules from the PHB. Certainly if you're trying to intimidate some oik or goblin or something, you will already have Advantage from the Fighter looming over the goblin/oik. Even the most mealy-mouthed DM should be giving you that as long as the other PC has Intimidate (and that's ignoring RAW, which just states that they need to be technically able to make the check themselves).
TLDR: Friends is a terrible spell that only has much use, if, ironically, you don't have any friends, and don't intend to have any in future.
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