This spell is both more and less useful than in PnP.
In combat it makes an enemy attack its allies AND auto-kills them once all other combatants are dead. That's pretty powerful, even with the advantage on the save.
On the other hand, it can't be used to interrogate someone, for example, or make a boss call off its underlings.
In a PnP situation, if I managed to charm a cult cleric, I'd want to talk to them, have their thugs back down, and get them to tell me what's going on.
Even old-timey Baldur's Gate had instances where you could get information from an enemy you charmed by talking to them, and that game was made a hundred years ago. Surely you can make charm a more interesting tool than just another combat mechanic.
Charm person is an incredibly powerful 1st level Wiz spell. If you are low on high-level spells and need "a chance" to eliminate a single target in combat, it is a must-memorize-spell on my wizards.
However, it is tough luck that you lose the treasure on the charmed opponent at the end of combat, but I understand the programming decision.
It would be cool to make more role-playing options out of existing spells, but for now, true to the company name, spells are mostly "tactical" combat assets.
Didn't notice the lost loot thing.
Would be nice to have the option of choosing "so long friend" and letting them go, or "sorry I'm going to kill you anyway" and attack.
Also, what about bosses that have quest-related items? It wouldn't make sense to just have them disappear without dropping the items.
Never used it on an important boss, since most have "Legendary Resists" to prevent a one-spell victory, or they are just immune.
Yeah, would be nice to keep one charmed monster around for an hour... and have the option to kills them at any time. I mean other spells stay up (e.g. Spirit Guardians), so it is reasonable. Just need to limit one Charmed-monster per party, or something might break.
i'm a bit surprised and disappointing about the application of the spell. in 5e charm person is not 'dominate person'. it makes it friendly to you it does not make the target forget it has other friends. at best in combat it will act as a limited sanctuary spell, but you are right the spell is more useful for getting information, though it still has limitations. for example, if you cast it on a guard and ask the guard to let you into the area it is guarding, to give you a key or ask it sensitive information, the guard should say "hey buddy, i would really like to but i'll get fired if i do, tell you what, when my shift ends, i'll buy you a beer".
if i asked any of my long time friends about the classified work they are doing for the government they would rightly not tell me anything
yellow flower of courage
for charm person to behave that way it would be equivalent to the 5th level dominate person spell, though really the 7th level version of it to get a whole hour duration.
yellow flower of courage
Yup, for those very reasons, it is incredibly powerful (for its level) in its current form.
It was incredibly broken in BG 20 years ago clearly outclassing the 5th level spell with that sort of functionality. The fact it is works like this here too is disappointing - I did not test it myself. At best is should be a kind of "stun" for a round or two where the target is not sure whose side they are on (after all its old friends should remain its friends still - only its relationship to the caster changes).
Still I do not have to use it and I can hope the bad guys don't too. I remember a meta in BG2 of mostly using wizards to counter mind control effects on my martial death dealers.