Fast Friends: A Friend Enslaved is a Friend Indeed
Usable By: Bard, Cleric, Wizard
Spell Level: 3
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Components: V, S
When you cast this spell, choose one humanoid within range that can see and hear you, and that can understand you. The creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration. While the creature is charmed in this way, it undertakes to perform any services or activities you ask of it in a friendly manner, to the best of its ability.
You can set the creature new tasks when a previous task is completed, or if you decide to end its current task. If the service or activity might cause harm to the creature, or if it conflicts with the creature's normal activities and desires, the creature can make another Wisdom saving throw to try to end the effect. This save is made with advantage if you or your companions are fighting the creature. If the activity would result in certain death for the creature, the spell ends.
When the spell ends, the creature knows it was charmed by you.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 3rd.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Suggestion may be one of if not the most game altering 2nd level spells. You ask somebody to do something; if they fail a save, so long as it doesn’t KILL them, they’ll do it. For one spell level more, Fast Friends takes it to the next level: for up to an hour, if the creature fails just one saving throw, it’ll do what you tell it (so long as you’re polite).
Unlike Suggestion, Fast Friends does limit the actions a bit more by incorporating an additional save should the course of action you ask it to undertake “conflicts with the creature’s normal activities and desires”. Plus, the save is made with advantage if you or your friends are fighting it. This situates the spell as a tool that is enriched by the casters creativity and engagement with the characters they’re looking to charm. The more you know about your mark, the better of an idea you’ll have of what suggestions they’ll undertake freely.
A fun bit of charm effects is the inevitable acknowledgement the creature will face. They will eventually know you charmed it, and act accordingly. While not made explicit here, implicitly it's often assumed the creature is hostile towards you. After all, you just forced it to work against its own will; nobody is a fan of that. This means to get the most out of Fast Friends, you’ll probably want to be in a position where you’ll never see the target again, or doesn’t pose enough of a threat (even to your public image) to worry about later.
Fast Friends takes a powerful spell and amps it up. If you like Suggestion, Fast Friends should be in your wheelhouse. The up-cast reward of affecting more creatures is crazy good, and on its own it can take some NPC and get a task otherwise seemingly not doable to happen. If you’re the enchanter type, Fast Friends is for you.
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