Common Enchantment Spells - 5e Dungeons and Dragons

I have seen a few posts and complaints in discords, facebook, and twitter about various enchantment style effects. These complaints fall into two broad categories for the most part though I am sure that there's a couple of outliers.

1. They are too weak and not useful until you get to Dominate. (This is the less common complaint)
2. They are too powerful and break my encounters. (By far the most common complaint)

This is a combination of not reading the spells thoroughly and not understanding the limits. So, let's go down and look at the Charmed condition and effects that cause that or similar things.

Charmed Condition - This applies the following mechanical effects.

• The charmed creature can't attack the charmed or target the charmer with harmful or magical effects.
• The charmer has advantage on any ability check to interact socially with the creature.

What the Charmed Condition does not do:

• Allow you to outright command the target.
• Do anything unreasonable just for asking.

What the Charmed Condition does do:

• Somewhat lower the bar for what is unreasonable or not.
• Make it easier for you to use social skills to make things seem more reasonable.
• Keep the target from attacking you specifically.

The Charmed condition in combat is limited by the following effects:

• You have disadvantage on most social interactions dependent on GM interpretation, which cancels out the advantage the charmer has on checks. Though going from disad to flat roll is still better.
• Combat vastly raises the bar of what is or is not unreasonable.

Now to some specific spells

Friends

This cantrip gives you advantage on Charisma skill checks against one target but, at the end of the spell, 1 minute later, the target knows they were manipulated and become hostile. 

What this is good for:

• Getting past a small encounter without a fight.
• Getting past a door guard or bouncer.
• Performing quick scams. 

What this is not good for:

• Scams longer than a minute.
• Use against people you know you are going to see again.
• Use on residents of towns or neighborhoods you spend a lot of time in.

This is like most of Bugs Bunny's bits. He pulls a fast-one over on Yosemite Sam or Elmer Fudd and then exits the scene. The target spends the scene looking confused and befuddled before walking a bit with a happy and proud look on their face until a few seconds later when suddenly they figure out that they'd just been had. The only time I've seen this used in game against a long-term comrade was on Critical Role where Friends was used to gain advantage on a check to convince someone to come away from a fight the caster was sure would kill him.

Charm Person

Charm person applies the Charmed condition for an hour, after which time the target knows that you Charmed them. However, whether they become hostile or not depends on the circumstances and GM's decision. The target has advantage on the Wisdom saving throw if this is cast in combat. The Charm Person spell also gives further context to the Charmed condition by stating that the target sees you as a "friendly acquaintance."

What Charm Person is good for:

• Longer term scams and tricks.
• Last ditch effort to convince an ally from a dangerous decision.
• Keeping a fight from happening long enough to state a case or leave the area.
• Convincing someone with pre-existing doubts to betray their allies.

What Charm Person is not good for:

• Scams and infiltrations lasting longer than an hour.
• Frivolous use on allies.
• Getting someone to switch sides out of the blue.

How Charm Person differentiates from the base Charmed condition:

• The basic Charmed condition does not introduce a feeling of familiarity.
• Charm Person makes the person feel like a friendly acquaintance.
• Intellectually they are aware that this is someone they have just met, but they feel like an old friend.
• This means that the bar of what is or is not reasonable is lowered more than with just basic Charmed conditions.

This is more like the sort of scams that Mr. Wednesday tells Shadow about over the course of American Gods. They are more complex schemes that require longer interactions with the marks. It can also give you a brief reprieve to make an argument before combat stops. When the Charm effect ends, it is possible that the target will agree you had a point even after realizing you used magic on them, but they will always know what you did, so it will color future interactions.

Suggestion

Suggestion allows you to push a target onto a course of action within a sentence or two and can keep this going for up to eight hours or until the suggestion is completed. A key point is that the suggestion must be something that is not considered unreasonable. Things immune to the Charmed condition are also immune to Suggestion but it is not the charmed condition. You can also set the Suggestion to be triggered later down the line.

What Suggestion is good for:

• Seeding doubt.
• I wouldn't be able to trust him in your shoes. Hobgoblins are usually prone to plotting against their superiors.
• Making someone think something is their idea.
• Any statement applied to a trigger rather than immediately applied.
• Long-term infiltration and scams.
• You don't have to worry about me, I'm just a servant.
• Getting someone out of the way for eight hours.
• I think the west gate needs some extra security.
• Manipulating allies without being detected.
• I think you should reconsider that. That course of action is very dangerous. 
• Handing villains the Villain Ball.
• Why are you wasting your time with fighting us? Why not let your minions handle it? 
• Manipulating enemy tactics.
• The fighter is clearly the biggest target. Don't worry about the warlock.

What Suggestion is not good for:

• Laying commands. You place the Suggestion, but don't control how they carry out the Suggestion.
• Making someone your friend. Though properly worded and applied Suggestions might help you get there.
• Stopping a fight entirely. Suggestion can help, but won't do this on its own.
• Give you versatile influence. You give one Suggestion and have to hold concentration on it. Charm Person can be more versatile despite its other downsides.

This is also a Mr. Wednesday thing from American Gods. Indeed, Mr. Wednesday makes great use of a lot of levels of mental manipulation, though he is not noted to be using magic to do so directly. But he makes small suggestions here and there building a cradle or web of influence aiming toward a particular point.

Some Things to Consider

The above spells will not do the following:

• Cause the target to surrender with no effort. Though it might make it easier to convince them to do so.
• Cause the targets to just immediately switch teams and fight for you. Though, if you take your time with Suggestion you might be able to groom someone to turn traitor.
• Cause a target to give up their plots. Even if they are currently fond of the character, the scheme likely still has a higher priority.
• Cause the targets to freely give up important information. Though again, creative and layered use of effects might let you work your way there.
• Cause the target to bankrupt themselves. In all the above cases, it is highly unreasonable to expect the target to just give all their possessions away.

Some Subclasses to Consider

• The Enchanter School
• At 2nd Level can charm a target without using a spell slot, but this effect has it's own limits that make the charm easier to detect by others.
• At 14th Level they can ignore the parts of Friends and Charm Person that cause the target to realize they were manipulated. And also allow you to fudge some memory. 
• Glamour Bards
• Has some built in charming ability. Quite a bit, in fact. However, there are some limits that might allow someone else to spot the effect.
• Whisper Bards
• Can use fear effects and charm effects as features. 
• Swashbuckler
• Has a basic Charm ability. This is not magical, however, and so the bar of what is reasonable and what isn't does not lower as much as for Charm Person.

Charm is mostly a non-combat effect.

Players that want to use Charm effects in combat are going to find their effectiveness heavily narrowed because suddenly the matter of what is and isn't reasonable comes into play. Used outside of combat it can be hugely useful, but again, you have to match the tool to the job. Trying to set yourselves up to a long-term stay in an enemy castle as mercenaries or servants or whatever is not going to be helped by using Friends unless you are a high level enchanter.