Wand of charming

Version 0.31: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Wand
Name	Wand of charming
Icon

A magical device which causes a creature to be fiercely, but briefly, loyal to its use.

A wand of charming will attempt to charm a creature, checking the target's willpower. If successful, it will become allied for a short time. Unlike summoned monsters, charmed monsters can follow you up stairs, remaining loyal. Unlike most types of allies, charmed monsters can attack even if they are outside your line of sight.

If used on the player, this wand inflicts confusion instead.

This wand is mutually exclusive with the wand of paralysis; only one will appear in a given game.

Strategy

This wand's uses are straightforward:

• Charm the biggest monster in the group, who'll kill surrounding monsters for you. In the early game, nothing has serious willpower, so try to charm the strongest monsters first. For instance, you can hit an orc warrior, use it to destroy the orc pack, then fight the now-wounded orc warrior in a 1v1 fight. (You can attack allied monsters in melee with v or ctrl-direction.)
• Prevent a given monster from attacking you. When you charm a monster, it won't attack you, prevents other monsters from occupying its space, and even deals damage. In a hallway, a charmed creature will block traffic for a few turns. Great for dealing with pack enemies with low will, such as killer bees and wolf spiders.

As you progress, more and more tough creatures will have high willpower, making this wand harder to use. Even in the late game, though, "support" monsters like death cobs and hellions often have low will (and are prime targets for this wand).

Tips & Tricks

• If you charm a derived undead monster, it won't become hostile until the hex wears off. If there are no other enemies nearby to fight your new ally, you can safely punch the charmed monster until it's destroyed, and it won't turn hostile.
• To get rid of a troublesome monster, you can charm it, and then order it to retreat. If you want to operate freely on the current level, go up/down the stairs with it following, order it to retreat, then use the stairs again.
• If you're a D&D veteran, be aware that unlike in that game, charm effects in Crawl can work on the undead and "mindless" monsters like jellies.

History

• Prior to 0.29, this wand did not alternate with the wand of paralysis.
• Prior to 0.27, this wand was called the wand of enslavement.
• Prior to 0.19, it was impossible to enslave enemies hated by your god. For example, followers of Trog couldn't enslave spellcasters.
• Prior to 0.15, monsters could not use this wand (though players could still confuse themselves with it).