| Confusion | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Sorcery | |
| Spell Rarity | Common | |
| Spell Type | Unit Curse | |
| Combat Cost |
 15 | |
| Research Cost |
 130 | |
| ||
|
At the start of each combat turn, the enchanted unit has an equal chance of:
| ||
|
Buggy Feature |
| As of Master of Magic v1.31, Confusion is known to be malfunctioning in at least one way. Please read the Known Bugs section below. The earliest game version that does away with (all of) these, thus in which Confusion works fully as intended, is v1.50. |
Confusion is a Common Sorcery Unit Curse. For 15 it may be cast on an enemy unit during combat. The target may attempt to Resist this curse at a penalty of 
-4. If it fails to do so, it will be subjected to a random effect at the start of each turn, that determines what actions the unit performs during that turn. There are four possible options: do nothing, move randomly, be controlled by the enemy for one turn, or behave normally. If the unit failed to resist Confusion, it will remain confused until the end of the battle, or until Confusion is dispelled.
Units possessing the 
Illusions Immunity ability may not be targeted by this spell.
Effects[]
Confusion can force an enemy unit to perform one of four random actions each combat turn. It is one of the strongest Unit Curses in the game, inflicting a -4 penalty on the target's Resistance roll. Heroes can even improve on this, as the spell is subject to Spell Save modifiers provided by Magical Items.
Random Actions[]
Once a unit has been successfully inflicted with Confusion, the game will roll a random number between 1 and 4 at the start of each of that unit's turns. Depending on the result of this roll, the unit may be forced to perform one of the actions described below. The chance for each outcome is equal (25%), and since the roll is completely random, the unit may be forced to perform a different action each turn, or do the same thing repeatedly - it's all based on luck.
If the unit is forced to perform any activity, its action will occur immediately before any other unit from its army gets to move.
Action #1: Do Nothing[]
- If this action is picked, the confused unit will do nothing for the remainder of its turn. Its controller may not move the unit, nor initiate any attack by that unit. It is essentially stunned. However, the unit may still Counter Attack as normal, if any other unit makes a Melee Attack against it.
Action #2: Move Randomly[]
- If this action is picked, the unit will spend all of its Movement Points wandering about randomly. The game simply picks a direction at random and moves the unit one tile, over and over until the unit runs out of Movement Allowance.
Action #3: Temporary Enemy Control[]
- If this action is picked, the unit is temporarily placed under the control of the player whose side cast the Confusion on it (i.e. the enemy). They get to move the unit as though it was their own, and make any attack or use the unit's other abilities (if any). Chronologically, this happens after the caster's other units have moved, but before the rest of the target unit's army gets to move.
- The unit may attack its own friends as though they were enemies. Immediately afterwards, when its friends get to move as part of their own turn, they may also attack the Confused unit as though it was an enemy. This allows them to get rid of it, as it may be a liability to the well-being of the rest of their army!
- Control is returned to the unit's owner at the end of the turn.
Action #4: No Effect[]
- If this action is picked, the unit is not affected by Confusion this turn, and retains full control over its actions. It may move, attack, or use abilities as normal.
Usage[]
Confusion may only be cast during combat. It has a base Casting Cost of 15, and must always be targeted at an enemy unit that is not already under the effect of this curse. The target gets exactly one chance (as a unit) to 
Resist the effect with a default modifier of -4, although if Confusion is cast by a Hero, this may be improved by Magical Items bearing a -Spell Save enchantment. The curse will last until the end of the battle, until it is dispelled, or until the target unit is destroyed; whichever occurs first. While the spell is in effect, the targeted unit will have a ring of sparkling blue lights orbiting above it, indicating that it is Confused.
If at any point during a battle all of a Wizard's remaining units are affected by Confusion, and all of them simultaneously trigger Action #3 (temporary control by the enemy), then that player loses the battle immediately. Their remaining (Confused) units are destroyed! However, the victor is not awarded either 
Fame or 
Experience for these units.
Acquisition[]
As a Common Spell of the Sorcery Realm, Confusion may become available to any Wizard who acquires at least 1 Spellbook. With none, the spell can naturally not be learned during the campaign. This is the minimum requirement for it to be traded for, appear in Treasure, or be found in the spoils of victory when conquering the Fortress of a rival Wizard who already knows it.
The base chance for Confusion to be researchable (at some point) in the campaign is roughly 30% (with 1 book), which gradually increases with the amount of Sorcery Spellbooks possessed or found during gameplay. With 7 or more, the spell is certain to show up sooner or later, unless acquired from another source. It has a Research Cost of 130, although its research is quicker for Wizards possessing the Sage Master, and/or Sorcery Mastery Retorts; or a bookshelf containing 8 or more.
Confusion may also be selected as a starting spell by any Wizard with at least 2 books. In this case, it will be available for casting as soon as the game begins.
In addition, Confusion is available as a Hero spell. It is known by Valana the Bard, although it's worth noting that she can't actually cast it at her initial level. She either needs to become at least a 
Commander (level 4), or otherwise equip Magical Items to gain enough Mana to use Confusion.
Strategy[]
Confusion is best used when cast at a powerful or valuable enemy unit. On average, that unit will be unproductive to its owner during 75% of the battle, and every 1 in 4 turns on average it will be able to attack its own friends, thus benefiting Confusion's caster immensely. Thanks to the -4 penalty, most enemy units stand at least some chance of being affected by the spell, so it can be cast on all but the most Resistant enemies.
When Confusion is cast on the player's own units, it's often worth sacrificing a turn with any adjacent units and move them out of the way, to prevent them from being attacked by the Confused unit. Enemy Wizards with access to Confusion can be extremely dangerous against small armies, and should be approached with caution. If all of the remaining friendly units are afflicted, and trigger action #3 at the same time, the result is immediate defeat and the loss of all of those units.
With adequate Mana stores and Spell Casting Skill, Confusion can be used to assist with Rampaging Monsters, provided that the stack is a single unit (which the most powerful monsters often are). If successful, one need only require a single unit garrison to hold out against monsters such as Earth Elementals, which can be inflicted with Confusion to wait out the spell's #3 effect, thus ending the battle in victory for the casting Wizard.
Known Bugs[]
Confusion suffers from multiple bugs in the latest official game version, some of which can be highly beneficial to its caster. The control change (#3) effect of this spell can actually become permanent if either the "Done" button is clicked before the unit runs out of moves, the side that gained control of the unit is an AI player, or the previous owner dispels Confusion while this particular effect is active. While two of these do not remove the spell itself, all three result in the other player becoming the combat owner of the affected unit. Should this be different than the overland owner when the battle ends, the unit will always be destroyed, regardless of its properties. This will occur even if the side that "captured" the unit manages to win the battle - end even if the unit is teleported out of combat after being captured through the use of the Word of Recall spell.
Combined with another bug, this presents a strange but powerful exploit. Confusion is treated as a Unit Curse which, by default, may only be dispelled by the player that owns the affected unit. This means that if the unit's combat owner has permanently changed, it will now be Confusion's caster who can remove the spell. In addition, in the latest official version of the game, Unit Curses are always automatically removed by even the weakest dispel type magic. That is, no dispel attempt is made, as would be the case for any other persistent Spell Types. Even the cheapest 
Dispel Magic will do the trick. Thus, it is possible to use Confusion as an ingenious and rather sneaky way of getting rid of an enemy unit by deliberately triggering a change of ownership and then dispelling the effect.
This is not the only issue with dispelling Confusion. If a player uses dispel-type magic on a unit they do not own, but only control for the turn, their own, other Unit Curses will be targeted for removal, should there be any on the unit.
It's also worth noting that if a Wizard "captures" one or more units as described above, and then goes on to win the battle, they do not get any Fame reward for any "captured" units. This is because Fame is rewarded for actually killing enemies. The same is true if the battle is finished automatically as a result of all enemy units coming under the third effect simultaneously.
The AI has an erroneous advantage when being on the receiving end of Confusion. Action #2 (random movement) is not implemented for the AI players. If they get this random result, they will still be able to move the unit as if nothing happened! This means that there is actually only a 50% chance per turn of them not being able to use their Confused unit.
A final minor but notable oversight is the in-game description making no mention of the -4 penalty to resistance applied to the target of Confusion. This is especially unfortunate since this penalty is the best of all Unit Curses, aside from those that succeed automatically, and makes the spell significantly more appealing to players aware of it.
All of these bugs are fixed in the Unofficial Patch 1.50.