Wand of charming

Version 0.27: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Wand
Name	Wand of enslavement
Icon

A magical device which causes slavish obedience in a creature.

A wand of enslavement will attempt to charm the creature it hits, temporarily making it fight for you. If used upon the player, you will become confused instead. Targets may resist these effects with willpower, and targets with unshakeable will simply ignore them entirely. Unlike summoned monsters, a charmed monster remains charmed when you use the stairs; indeed, if adjacent, it will follow you to the next floor.

Strategy

This wand's uses are obvious, especially if you enslave the biggest monsters in a group. Many a kobold brigand, orc warrior, and gnoll sergeant has been robbed of their chance to murder a low-to-mid level player this way, instead felling only their own flimsier allies. Packs of killer bees are also a good target for enslavement to avoid being swarmed.

Another popular technique for when you're fighting groups in a one tile wide corridor is to enslave the monster closest to you and let it block up traffic for several turns, giving you time to run and likely resulting in at least one opponent killed. If you're facing a strong-willed target, consider targeting other creatures -- that death yak might be able to shrug off the effect, but other opponents in the room may not.

Less obvious is that you should be liberal when using these wands. Again, their effect can be resisted, and if you save them until the mid- or late-game (where monsters tend to have more willpower), you may not get as much mileage out of them. They'll do you no good at all if you simply pick them up, drop them off in a stash somewhere, and forget they ever existed.

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. However, if the monster you attempt to enslave hates your god, the effect will always fail:

• Evil or unholy monsters hate good gods.
• Holy monsters hate evil gods.
• Unclean and chaotic monsters hate Zin.
• Spellcasters hate Trog.

Tips & Tricks

• To get rid of a troublesome monster, 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.

History

• Prior to 0.15, monsters could not use this wand (though players could still confuse themselves with it).