Shattered Kingdoms

I agree that backstab, voodoo, and final strike should all be looked at.

Voodoo is balanced, they are stunned for a few minuets and are open to gates. Solution don't [REDACTED] off a Shaman

Backstabs are easily avoidable. Put someone behind you.

Final strike should be removed from the game due to its extremely high cost. You need a really REALLY good reason to do a FS, especially if you take out PC's. I would prefer to see a new spell, something like Polymorph ally, where you can change someone inside your party to whatever you want, but that is just me.

Every class has an I win skill/spell with their own risk. Sometimes the risk is low, some are crazy high and other times the risk is item required but they are all getting a little more balanced.

However it is the unbalances that makes certain classes or races more appealing. If all the classes were balanced what would be the point?

Charm person got a huge (and I will say well deserved) buff. Basically you are at the controllers mercy rather then what it used to be where you could send tells, rest every time you moved, remove and junk all your stuff. Blatantly do [REDACTED] moves that lets other know you are charmed. Now do not get me wrong it SUCKS getting charmed, but deal with it. I would like to see some way of preventing it other then huge will saves.

Here is my solution. Make charm person a lot like summon elemental where there are time limits put into place so the spell cannot be spammed (by a sorc or a reciter) if their charm gets dispelled. Makes the spell a tad more riskier to use but doesn't remove the potency of the spell. Also a dedicated time limit on how long you can hold the charm for as well, like summon elemental make it 1/2 hour RL ( think that is how long it is not 100%).

Bash - Put someone in front of you, it's that easy. Or heck, just put yourself in front of a pet and order it to rescue you once you get bashed, now that you can order while prone.
Backstab - Put someone behind you or set your pulse racing.
Cleave - This has a -very- small chance of crit killing someone, and requires the cleaver being A) in the front row to hit someone in 2nd, or B) being in the second row to hit someone in the first. You can also used ranged combat to start the hellion pulse racing or just get the first blow.
Finger of death - As already stated in this thread, never instantly kills anyone unless they're an elf, and even then with bad saves/buffs. It also comes with a three round casting time and a heck of a lot higher mana cost.
Final Strike - If Charm Person is on the same level as Final Strike, then it's imbalanced.
Necro pet release all - Paladins with brains. Need I say more?

Voodoo I agree is also overpowered, but even voodoo lets the person who died have a chance to recover their things, whereas charm person does not.

Nothing else in the game is as powerful and low-risk as charm is, and that is part of why it is overpowered.

QFT.

Not to mention that you cannot simply examine single spells without the context of the entire skill/spell sets of the class. The point is that sorcs have the most powerful and low-risk offensive spell on top of a wide repertoire of utility/protective spells.

There is always going to be a spell that is better than others.

Charm Person takes away the single most amazing defense of the opponent.

But the class which wields that spell should not be the leader in other spell spheres (eg. protection, utility etc.) to other spellcasters.

This is one of the reasons why I backed the attempt to reinstate magma spray on the throne of offensive spells.

Mind you, this isn't me saying that charm person would be fine in the hands of another class - it is still blatantly unbalanced, but this was a reply to that point specifically. I think I've made my stance to the other aspects of the spell rather clear.

Why do I hear nothing about Dominate in this QQ?

Because dominate cannot hit targets over expert or somesuch, if the caster is GM.

:edit: Several other reasons actually, but I figured this one would stand well enough on its own.