Confuse

Version 0.15: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This article is about the confuse spell. For the confusion state see Confusion.

Confuse
Level	3
School1	Hexes
Source(s)	Book of Hinderance Book of Maledictions
Casting noise	3
Spell noise	0

This spell induces a state of bewilderment and confusion in a creature's mind.

Confuse is a level 3 Hexes spell that attempts to induce confusion on a single target. It must overcome magic resistance, and you must have a clear line of effect to the target, but it works on anything that isn't immune to magic.

Strategy

Successfully confusing an opponent takes it almost entirely out of a fight for a significant amount of time. Considering that most animals and mindless undead, as well as several intelligent opponents, are susceptible to it, this makes Confuse a very helpful low-level spell throughout much of the game. If you happen to find a spellbook with it, have decent intelligence, and aren't abysmal at Hexes, it's often worth training that one school in order to get Confuse available. This is especially true for stabbers, who can take advantage of the ensuing confusion to inflict powerful stabs, but almost any character can benefit from converting deadly foes to blundering, self-destructive idiots.

Enchanters may be tempted to stick to only using the spell Ensorcelled Hibernation, as it allows for much more reliable and devastating stab damage. However, Confuse affects a wide variety of opponents that Ensorcelled Hibernation is useless against, and thus should be learned and used as well.

A sleeping monster that is also confused will start to sleepwalk, essentially moving as though confused without being able to attack at all until it awakens.

Monster Version

Many monsters are capable of casting this spell, with spellpower determined by their HD:

L Ancient lich

L Antique lich

2 Cacodemon

6 Chaos champion (through Chaotic Mirror)

e Deep elf fighter

c Faun

G Giant orange brain (Mass Confusion)

G Golden eye (as a special ability)

G Great orb of eyes

L Lich

O Ogre mage

o Orc wizard

H Sphinx

V Vampire

@ Wizard

x Erica

O Erolcha

@ Norris

@ Rupert

@ Sigmund

Some monsters are instead capable of inducing confusion with their melee attacks. Click here for a complete list.