Mind control spells and NPC's

Rodion

I'll be brief:

1) When I cast Charm Person on that Nobleman (husband) at the 1st floor Candlekeep Inn and then force dialog with him, he responds nicely and give me 20 gold. After the spell is off, he's turning hostile. I mean - "WHAAAT"?
Is it supposed to work like this, like Charm turning hostiles all day?

2) You could read about Blindness spell a little bit here and there, so they tell Blindness is another good spell to keep NPC's neutral (not turning them hostile). But they do turn. And I have the same question

After all, I won't argue if this is the official way how the magic works. If so, could you tell me of some secret-fun-exploiting-mind-trickery ways to influence NPC with cheese, in BG:EE?

Humanoid_Taifun

How would you react, if you realized that some guy had brainwashed you into giving him your money?
Or how would you react if somebody blinded you so you wouldn't be able to see him take your stuff?

Both Charm and Blindness are red spells. That means they are hostile. Friends is a white spell, and it won't magically force anyone to be your best friend. It just makes you more likeable.

Rodion

I'd resist the very idea that I'm being brainwashed deep within myself, that's what people do everyday to avoid true sight and enlightenment about their cultural-conditioned crowd behaviour, which is totally abused by "the System", for example.

Rodion

So, do you know any else "legit" ways to have rewarding fun with magic and game mechanics?

Humanoid_Taifun

NPCs turning hostile is not necessarily a problem if you manage to move them to safe locations before it happens and then don't come into their sights anymore.
I just had this problem at the start of Baldur's Gate II where for some reason the dryads were hostile, and so I had to charm them every time I wanted to talk to them, and then I had to separate them so they wouldn't kill each other once the Charms ran out.

Blinding your thieves can be beneficial, because for Hide in Shadows the game doesn't test if you are within the sight of any enemies, but if there are any enemies within your sight. Of course, Blindness comes with a big penalty to your THAC0, so connecting your backstabs is not going to be easy.

JuliusBorisov

You Algernon's cloak to charm NPCs, not the charm spell, - the effect of the cloak won't turn targets hostile. (of course, the cloak is available after you leave the Candlekeep, not before).

Balrog99

JuliusBorisov said:

You Algernon's cloak to charm NPCs, not the charm spell, - the effect of the cloak won't turn targets hostile. (of course, the cloak is available after you leave the Candlekeep, not before).

I'll take your word as gospel @JuliusBorisov. I thought I had heard that the cloak doesn't work that way in BGEE anymore. Guess I should have tested it. Oh well, time for some fun with my solo barbarian now!

JuliusBorisov

"Algernon's Cloak and the Nymph Cloak are the only ways of charming anything in the game that won't turn the target hostile if they fail or when they run out. This means that we can charm neutral characters at zero risk!" by @semiticgod from here

semiticgoddess

I think @Grond0 or another BG1 specialist is the one who originally told me that. I had the same problem, and I needed someone else to point out to me the difference between regular charm spells and Algernon's Cloak.

Grond0

It also depends on your setup. In the unmodded game a failed attempt to charm a neutral character by spell won't turn them hostile (the same applies with other useful spells such as blindness). If you've got mods like SCS installed, however, they're not so forgiving. Even with SCS though the cloaks are safe to try.

Rodion

Thank you for advice!