D&D: Five Spells Perfect for Making Friends
Friendship is the real magic and/or treasure. So you may as well use magic to make friends, which is like double magic.
Dungeons & Dragons is a game where magic is a lot like money. When you have a ton of it, people treat you differently. In fact, the game treats you differently. You get to use the fun rules and solve problems that nonmagical characters literally can’t. Even Fighters who don’t cast spells want magic items.
And for obvious reasons. Magic, like money, can solve any problem. Except for maybe making friends. After all, according to the spell, Friends, you get maybe a minute. That just won’t do. Try this instead.
Animate Dead
This spell lets you imbue a corpse or pile of bones with a “foul mimicry of life” that raises it up as an undead creature that doesn’t really have a will of its own as it won’t act unless you give your new friend a direct command via mental telepathy, or a general command such as “guard a particular chamber or corridor” or how about “be a good friend to me.” And with a single spell lasting for 24 hours, you can make up to four friends with a single 3rd-level spell slot.
Summon Aberration/Celestial/Fiend/Fey
Not that kind of Celestial
These spells are called “summon” spells but they’re really misnamed. They really just create a spirit aligned with whatever plane/energy you choose that manifests in a form you decide. Imagine that, a spell that lets you choose how your friend looks–and according to the text of the spell itself, this spirit “is an ally to you and your companions” meaning you don’t even have to tell it to be your friend, it just is.
Two 5th Level Spells (Any)
This next one isn’t exactly a single spell, but rather the fact that with two 5th-level spells (and several thousand gold pieces) you can use the Manual of Golems to create and then animate your very own golem out of clay, flesh, iron, or stone.
Modify Memory
Okay fine, you want to use magic to not just literally “make” a friend? Well, there’s little substitute for those small little moments that forge an earnest genuine friendship. Money can help facilitate them, but it can’t actually substitute for them. Fortunately, modify memory can. The spell lets you rewrite an event that lasted no more than 10 minutes within the last 24 hours, sure, but within that limitation? You can do so much.
After all, if you had a modified memory of meeting someone, thinking they were familiar, and then in 10 minutes suddenly remembering a lifetime of those little moments that forge an earnest, genuine friendship? Well. There you go. Fast friends without needing to cast fast friends.
Now to figure out how to influence people.
