But Charm Person and Dominate and the like were definitely evil in this particular DM’s ruling.
Keep in mind that the 'Charm' domain in later generations is attributed to several good-aligned deities such as Sune, or Lliira, and thereby the 'Charm Person' spell can be granted to their Clerics. One can see charms as an accentuation of a person's more positive emotions. In some D&D games (I believe) 'Charm Person' can also be categorised as an Illusion spell. There are different ways to interpret how the spell works, but given its availability among the Clerics of goodly deities, I don't think there's cause to qualify it as an inherently Evil practice.
Dominate Person might be different because it strips a figure of their free will, but ultimately I don't even think you can categorise Dominate Person as being a decisively Evil action. If anything, the removal of somebody's free will might sit more upon the Law-Chaos alignment axis in terms of how you define it. But consider that-- It's potentially a Lawful one if you're imposing a code of conduct upon an otherwise reluctant party; potentially a Chaotic one if you're forcing someone to act against their code of conduct; potentially a Good one if you're assuming control of somebody to prevent them from putting themselves in harm's way; and potentially an Evil one if you're enslaving somebody to suit your own purposes.
If you are still in touch with that DM and might play again in the future, it could be worth talking those ideas over. It's an interesting conversation at the very least, I hope!
While I do know that gameplay-wise a Diviner is far from optimal mage specialization choice, I do appreciate Divination as a school of magic. I also think that if magic existed in real life, the Divination spells would be most useful. As someone already said, knowledge is power.
Comments
Dominate Person might be different because it strips a figure of their free will, but ultimately I don't even think you can categorise Dominate Person as being a decisively Evil action. If anything, the removal of somebody's free will might sit more upon the Law-Chaos alignment axis in terms of how you define it. But consider that--
It's potentially a Lawful one if you're imposing a code of conduct upon an otherwise reluctant party;
potentially a Chaotic one if you're forcing someone to act against their code of conduct;
potentially a Good one if you're assuming control of somebody to prevent them from putting themselves in harm's way;
and potentially an Evil one if you're enslaving somebody to suit your own purposes.
If you are still in touch with that DM and might play again in the future, it could be worth talking those ideas over. It's an interesting conversation at the very least, I hope!
Enchantment is too overpowered for my taste