Mind-bending Magic: Enchantments in DDO

By Darkgolem

Enchantments are a form of magic that can turn the tide of battle radically in most circumstances. Enchantment effects in Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO) are formidable, though often not long lasting. Unlike many schools of magic, enchantments are usually spells that will either be totally successful or totally unsuccessful in their effects. By understanding the techniques in using charms and other enchantments, a spell caster can turn this most effective school of magic into a powerful set of weapons in her collection of spells.

The nature of enchantments:
It is important to define enchantments, because there are two uses of the term.

1. Magic that is placed upon an item, place or thing. A creature that has been made weak by ray of enfeeblement has been enchanted. A sword that allows one to cast haste is an enchanted sword. A room that heals all those standing in it is enchanted. This form of enchantement is not associated specifically with spells that affect minds in particular.
2. A school of magic that is associated with affecting the thoughts of living things. This school does not affect the perceptions of creatures the way the school of illusion does.
   

For the purposes of this treatise, we are speaking of the second definition of enchantments--the school of enchantment.

Enchantments can include:

• Charms: spells that affect who a creature considers to be an ally or enemy.
• Compulsions: spells that affect how a creatures mind works.

The charms of the enchantment school of magic in DDO are charm person and charm monster. For our purposes here, include Suggestion and Dominate Person in regards to this advice. They cause an enemy to fight for you just as charms, and can be treated as such. Compulsions form the entirety of all other enchantment spells in DDO.

Enchantments are only able to affect living creatures. This is because the minds of undead are dual natured; they are empowered by negative energy from the plane of Mabar, and this energy powers a soul or spirit linked to the world of Eberron. In addition, the undead mind is alien to a living mind, and as such, an enchantment will not affect it. Vermin are not affected by enchantments; their minds are too simple. Aberrations sometimes are immune to mind affects, something that is case by case in nature. For example, Charm Monster will not affect rust monsters, but Otto’s Resistible Dance will. Constructs, because they are not truly alive, are not affected by enchantments.

All enchantments affect the will of an opponent. Therefore, those who are less mentally or spirituality inclined are more likely to be affected than others.
Enchantments are temporary. By affecting the mind of a creature, a spell caster can cause radical changes, and these types of affects do not last very long usually. A spell caster will not want to waste time once affects are placed on creatures since the spell will fade in time.

The Use of Charms:
Charms are used as both a means of crowd control (reducing the number of enemies attacking your party without killing them) and a means of damage. Charmed creatures are not particularly formidable compared to an adventurer. After all, your typical adventuring group goes through many times their own numbers of foes on each quest. However, since the accomplished spell caster can have several creatures charmed at one time, and these creatures can be improved to increase their effectiveness by buffs such as bards song, bless, haste and so on, you can still add the support of effective damage capacity with your party. Note that this is never reliable as a means of doing damage, because of the temporary nature of charms.

As a form of crowd control, you can charm creatures, especially using suggestion, as a means of reducing the number of foes you fight at once. Even if your enemy does not assist you much in combat, when your force the enemy to stop fighting, you're making that one less enemy you have to face right away. Instead, you will fight that enemy later when your foe recovers from his charm. One method to prevent  having to fight many of your charmed enemies directly is to simply charm many enemies. Your crowd of devoted followers will take care of themselves, defeating each other in turn as they come out of their charm, until only one (to whom you will have to attend) is left.

When using charmed followers for melee, remember that often your followers must be fairly close to notice your enemies--close enough for the enemy to notice and attack you.  Frequently, it is wise to Sneak or otherwise move stealthily toward your opponents with charmed followers so that they gain aggression first.

The Use of Compulsions:
Compulsions are almost always spells that force specific behaviors in your targets. For example, the Command spell causes your opponent to lie down for a moment. The use of these spell vary. To best use compulsions, a caster should take the time to test them--at length--to understand what these spells do that other spells cannot. Obviously, a compulsion is best used on targets that have poor will saves (usually targets that do not cast spells), such as rogues, warriors or (non-shaman/witch doctor) giant-kin and humanoids.

Here is a quick partial list of some compulsion spells that are available in DDO, and to what use they might be best put:

1. Hypnotism: Allows party members to gang up on one opponent while the rest stand still. Faster to cast than sleep. Affects an area.
   
2. Sleep and Deep Slumber: Similar to hypnotism, but better used before the party is noticed. Lasts longer than Hypnotism. Deep Slumber has higher hit dice limit.
3. Command: Affects high hit dice creatures. Good for making a single target vulnerable.
4. Hold Person and Hold Monster: As Command but auto-hit, auto-critical on target.
5. Otto’s Resistible Dance: As Command but an arcane spell.
6. Rage: Make party members better when fighting foes immune to enchantment.
7. Heroism: As Rage, but also improves skill checks.
8. Crushing Despair: Opposite of heroism, to cast on enemies. Better cast before party noticed. Affects an area.
   

Summary
Both types of enchantment magic have limits. As with all arcane magic, it’s important to learn these limits so as to be most effective when using these spells. For example, Deep Slumber can be an excellent spell.. But if your party does not coordinate well, and will not realistically be able to target one at a time, it might be better to use Rage or Heroism on your party members. Then they will be able to attack multiple targets at once and suffer the least amount of damage because of it.  Don’t be fooled by the fact these spells do not do damage directly. They can be very powerful because they can altogether prevent many foes from being able to affect you at all, and they allow your party to be much more effective than they otherwise would be.

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