Evil Beholders and Charm?

[ganjatron]

Evil Beholders have been a fixture in my army since level 7 (I'm 12 now) and in all that time, I have somehow charmed an enemy only twice. Usually when I use the "Mind Control" spell, I get the dialog to pick an enemy, then pick the target. However, during these instances, I was able to charm and control the enemy unit as if it were mine. One example was when I controlled a Werewolf Elf and was able to move it around and use its "howl" ability as if I were in full control. When I checked to see what spells were affecting it, "Charmed" was listed with an icon of little hearts.

Now, I'm assuming this was my Evil Beholder because the Werewolf Elf was the target of my mind control spell, but nowhere in its description do I see any reference to charming an opponent. Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone know what the probability you may charm an enemy is - and - is charm a spell you can get? Thanks.

[LiveInABox]

Evil beholders dont do that. Their default attack has a decent chance of putting the enemy to sleep, and their spell, as u say, allows you to select the target of your choice and who to attack. You cant control them in any way though. So I dunno, it must have been some other unit.

[Shd]

Evil beholders can take control of enemy unit, but only to make them attack other unit (after that control ends but enemy unit cannot move in that turn). You can take control in such way only if enemy stack overall leadership is less or equal leadership number that is shown at ability description (more evil beholders you have=more max leadership number is). If evil beholder attacks there is possibility to put enemy in sleep (that part LiveInABox described correctly :) ).

Chance to put enemy in sleep:

lvl 1 - 100%
lvl 2 - 50%
lvl 3 - 25%
lvl 4 - 10%
lvl 5 - cannot put to sleep

[skymarshall]

I think I've seen the odd behavior ganjatron described as well, so maybe there's a very occasional bug in the combat engine.

Normally the E. Beholder's special ability works exactly as described by Shd, but on one rare instance I've seen them do a full charm effect, and the game engine has given me full control of the enemy unit, with access to ranged attacks and abilities.

If you actually check the status of the unit after the E. Beholder's special effect has done, I think it shows up as "charmed", but of course its turn is over so you don't actually get control.

My guess is that the E. Beholder's effect is implemented by
- putting the unit in charmed status, so that it doesn't get a normal turn
- making the unit's turn come round immediately
- forcing the unit to take a move/attack action as directed by the player when the Beholder's ability was cast, rather than getting a normal turn
- setting the unit's AP to zero

So I figure that there's a possible bug in whatever code implements the replacment turn for the unit, and the game can leave the unit with AP but in charmed state, so that the player has full control when the unit's turn comes round.

I'm still on my first play through the game as a lvl 17 Warrior on norm difficulty, and the E. Beholders have been a staple of my army since around lvl 8. A rough estimate would probably say I've used the ability around 50-60 times, and seen this effect occur once.

[kadrzys]

i do charm a lot with Evil Eyes and never had that bug but due to other bugs I think it's possible.

btw - is charm a spell you can get?

you can get Hypnotise spell which gives you possibility to control enemy unit and use kamikaze or sacrifice on it (for example of course)

[bman654]

I've seen it happen too. Once it started happenning it kept happening until I quit the game and reloaded later on. Seems like a bug. Fun bug I found with E. Beholders: When it is their turn, use Wait. When their turn comes around again, use their Mind Control ability on someone. As soon as the target takes its attack, the E Beholder will get to go again! *And* their Mind Control skill will still be available. Repeat until no more targets exist then just do a regular attack.

[Saridu]

When the AI uses Evil Beholders he receives full control over them (He loves charming my Orc Shamans and making them spirit axe my Evil Beholders!) but I have also used them all game and never gained full control.

You cheat Mr Jones :(