Why is everyone so down on Charm Person?

[Benjamin Olson]

The OP is looking for a Charisma buff spell, but charm person has never been that kind of spell. It's always been a mind manipulation spell. A Charisma buff spell might be interesting though and a question occurs - does that have the same problem as a charm person spell or not?

It does seem like in a 5e context it could be changed to just "Charm", a self buffing spell that gave you advantage on charisma checks with a particular target and gave them disadvantage attacking you, and it would achieve most of what Charm Person does with a fraction of the creepy mind control vibe.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I agree, it is loss of control.

That said, it's also a non-sequitur because it's explicitly a dominate effect and not a charm effect, and charm effects are what we're discussing here. It neither contributes nor detracts to either side of the argument except inspfar as there is a tendency for people to get the two confused. Dominate controls a character, charm just changes a character's attitude to friendly or helpful.

Depending on the character's demeanor it might not even stop them fighting you (such as if they're a dedicated lawful soldier who has their orders, or a casually evil character who would be inclined to hurt friends and loved ones)

Regardless of the spell name (and as stated earlier, this isn't specifically D&D) the effect is the same: the player is not in control of their PC's actions. That's not acceptable to me.