If you don't mind, I'd love to follow up on the ask about Bolaire because I find it an interesting conversation to be had even if I personally love the character from a conceptual standpoint. Everything about Bolaire on paper is narrative catnip to me and is extremely exciting, I think the only times I ever really bristle is mechanically. I've not personally played any TTRPG's myself so some of the ettiquite is lost on me (and I'm sure CR is not the baseline for that at all anyway) but I kept wondering what it means to build a character whose spell toolkit is primarily comprised of things like Command, Detect Thoughts, and then applying them in a PVP context at the table.
The examples I'm thinking of are using Command to 'Silence' Vaelus when she was trying to take the stone, using Command to 'Calm' Luis when Azune was about to have a moment about seeing his sister, and using Detect Thoughts on Wick and Tyranny. Again, on paper and as a story I actually quite liked these moments (apart from maybe the Vaelus one since that to me just sort of ends the scene since she cannot respond further) and conflict between PCs is always a highlight for me, but I wonder if applying hardline mechanics is at all frowned upon? If it was just roleplay, the players can skirt around info or actions they don't want to reveal or take, but that's harder to do when they have to make a saving throw against a spell that forcibly has them do/reveal these things. I like this toolkit for a panto mask who is there to put the actors in their proper place, make them say their lines, pull the marrionette strings and have everyone play out the story as they want it to be told, but above table I don't know how to feel about it just yet, and was wondering if you have any thoughts on it. Thanks for your time!
I know I'm in the minority here, but I love D&D PvP with characters who have an enchantment toolkit. That said, I mained a shadow priest for about a decade in World of Warcraft (including casual PvP) before getting into D&D, so I have a pretty skewed experience when it comes to exactly that. Psychic abilities, mind control, and preventing other people from doing things they want to do is just my favored way of doing things.
The key issue is that you need a table willing to put up with that in D&D for it work well. It's not just about giving a heads up and an OK from the beginning; the whole group needs to be willing to extend a solid amount of trust to the player with those abilities, especially when it undermines another PC’s decision. Not if, but when. It's going to happen. Again, it's going to happen. Is everyone fine with that? This is consensual non-consent but for a specific D&D PC throughout a full campaign. That's a lot to ask. It would not be surprising in the least to never find a table that is okay with it. (I'm lucky that I got to do it twice, but both were with the same GM and short campaigns.)
The appropriate attitude for everyone to have is that there needs to be discretion about when to use these abilities against another PC and for what purpose. Using it to throw a character’s weight around can be useful in certain contexts, but it requires a level of attentiveness that many people don’t want to gamble with. What it comes down to is that this sort of PvP should benefit the game either in terms of plot or for highlighting a character issue that otherwise just isn’t coming to the forefront.
Command is not a game-breaking spell, even if Bolaire can seemingly cast it at will. It hasn’t prevented any PCs from achieving what they wanted so far. We got more vignettes than we would have had otherwise. This type of PvP also gets us see little facets of these characters that can only come out in conflict, and without risking a PC death.
Bolaire’s use of Command to “Silence” Vaelus multiple times could have been taken as overstepping by both Vaelus and Ashley, but neither treated it that way. Ashley was excited and having fun. Vaelus could have escalated to violence and didn’t. Of all the PCs in that scene to confront Vaelus about trying to be sneaky about taking the Stone of Nightsong, Bolaire is the best tie in for the reminder that she mourns a dead god and would be their enemy if Sylandri was still alive. It works very well in conjunction with Azune’s brief conversation with Julien that trust is a choice and the earning has to come later. What Bolaire did was offensive, rude, and begging for a fight to break out. The overt hostility gave Vaelus a chance to show that she isn’t a fair weather ally, nor does she have a sensitive ego, and that would have been challenging to demonstrate organically because she is so reserved. We got to see that Vaelus doesn’t escalate to violence just because someone is controlling. That’s fascinating given how Sylandri was so manipulative of her followers. We learned a lot about Vaelus in a brief interaction with Bolaire, and it didn’t stop her from getting the Stone of Nightsong anyway.
Using ‘Calm’ on Azune also added roleplay opportunity rather than take any of it away. Command only works for one round. If Luis really wanted to, he could have rolled for the save or Azune could have persisted in his attempts to attack Filoneus immediately afterwards, perhaps when his back was turned. He also had Luck points to spend, so there was a good chance of forcing a success. Instead, Luis got the chance to show that Azune was desperate for any chance to get himself under control in that moment, and he was grateful that Bolaire had stepped in. He chose to fail the save and calm down. Now we can be sure of the interpretation that Azune’s babbling “I’m a person, not a thing” was a cry for help because his perspective of himself has just been shattered in an emotional reunion with his sister and he couldn’t get a handle on it. We got that drama without Luis needing to risk PC death by actually making the attack. The fact that he had been ready to lash out until Bolaire’s intervention was enough to land that character beat.
As for Detect Thoughts, I don't really consider that spell to be any more of a shortcut than other magical abilities. Fly avoids rough terrain. Misty Step and Dimension Door circumvent barriers. Control Water sank a whole pirate ship and meant no naval combat in C2. Any skipped encounters are simply replaced with different encounters.
For Wick and Tyranny, it would be rather boring for every one of the PCs to have to go through this "how can we trust a Halovar/demon?!" phase after the other soldiers already did that. Bolaire's use of Detect Thoughts skipped the repetition and was also a good comedy bit for Sam and Whitney to play with, and they wouldn't really expect to have that opportunity outside of mind reading. Instead, we got to the juicy part that even knowing Tyranny's inner thoughts doesn't seem to alleviate Bolaire's concerns. They both know more than they’re letting on, and we got to that right away.
Further, Bolaire’s use of telepathic abilities doesn’t mean he can just tell everyone what he found or force other characters take his assessment at face value. His distrust of Tyranny didn’t seem to sway anyone else. He still needs to persuade others of what he’s learned and his conclusions. If he makes a stink about Tyranny’s father, that is also going to raise questions of why he knows about any of that and why he chose not to tell anyone. It’s very “why were YOU at the Devil’s Sacrament?” in this circumstance, and that gives more opportunities for roleplay later, once the PCs have addressed the urgent stuff first.
Compare that to Bolaire’s Detect Thoughts on Murray after she claims that the Photarch faked her death. That’s a hell of a claim to make, and Murray had no proof other than what she saw using divination magic that she invented (or helped to invent). The drama that could come from other PCs doubting her really isn’t that interesting for the story; that’s already part of what she’s dealing with at the Penteveral in general. Disbelief is not a new shiny thing to roleplay about. Bolaire’s use of Detect Thoughts to verify Murray’s claim ensures that Marisha’s clever Portent use isn’t stymied by the lack of proof. Her allies believe her, so the Schemers now get to work together on the puzzle of how to persuade other people about it instead of all that weight falling on Murray.
Although you didn’t ask about it, Bolaire’s use of Suggestion on Amariya Cormoray is also a great example of why this toolkit doesn’t break the game. Brennan played that RAW: Amariya acted reasonably within the scope of the spell and still expected Hal and Bolaire to beg for their lives because she caught them stealing the Paraiah Blades from the Archanade before she could do it herself. Bolaire had only prevented an imminent lethal combat without taking that chance off the table. The whole thing cemented how much of a Hail Mary it was to throw a charm on a powerful, hostile NPC and how fragile the situation would remain even with success.
As a reminder, Bolaire has to adhere to strict social limits on his abilities because he doesn't have status and must hide what he is. Bolaire loves his job and his ability to socialize with Hal and his family. Those priorities limit the range of acceptable targets for his abilities, and he needs to show some ruthlessness when it comes to killing witnesses (mostly Crow Keepers so far). The situation with Lady Cormoray was far beyond that—Bolaire and Hal were risking death, so it tracks that Bolaire was willing to try something desperate.
Narratively, Bolaire is an exceedingly powerful entity among much weaker mortals. He can and does force his will upon people around him, but it’s not really any more domineering than what we’ve seen the Sundered Houses achieve through class and politics. Bolaire’s priorities also shackle what he can do without destroying the life he built for himself. He doesn’t have a faction to back him up in the way that others do.
My opinion is that Taliesin has been rather thoughtful about when and how to use Bolaire’s abilities on other PCs. He could undermine the game, but he hasn’t so far. The other players have reacted positively to Bolaire’s meddling and jumped on the chance for high-tension roleplay that arose from each instance. They seem to have found a way to make this work, and I’m excited to see more of it.
Like, to be clear: this stuff would not fly at most tables. The two games where I got to do this sort of thing were primed for PvP anyway, so sabotaging my fellow players was an expected part of the fun. Taliesin is doing something that is both more difficult (remaining allies with PCs he casts on) and less difficult (he’s known and played with this cast for years). It’s cool to see this play out on such a large table for a long campaign.
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