Is this a TPK, or do the other heroes not count as enemies even under the effecrs of Dark Charm? I couldn't find anything in the FAQ about it.

The general take on this seems to be that during a Dark Charm:

1) Other Heroes are considered 'Enemies' and monsters can be classified as "Allies"

2) Familiars convert sides along with the hero they are allied to.

3) Surges can be spent as per the OL's choosing; however Fatigue cannot be forced out of the hero to be spent on the attack.

Surges, fatigue, orders, and the like have all been made pretty clear, but FFG has declined to give a clear answer on how to resovle "ally" and "enemy"-dependent effects during a Dark Charm.

We are told that "The hero no longer benefits from any heroes with Command, but does receive a bonus from any of the Overlord's figures with command." (FAQ p.5) Which could be because ally/enemy status is supposed to be reversed. Oddly, it even seems to suggest that the charmed hero would count as his own enemy, though that could just be sloppy writing.

We are also told that "Sweep affects only enemy figures, never friendly figures (unless Dark Charm is played, of course!)" (FAQ p.6), which indicates that at least some attacks that ignore allies can be used to hit heroes with Dark Charm, though it also implies that friendly/enemy status is not reversed. For the record, this answer is older than the previous quote.

In classic Descent fashion, we are never actually given a useful general rule, like "attacks that normally only hit enemies hit allies during Dark Charm," or "enemy/ally status is reversed during Dark Charm," or anything of the sort. We're given brief, even sloppy rulings on extremely specific special cases and not given any hint how to generalize. It's very poor writing, and rather frustrating.

Based on the precedent of Sweep, I would tend to say that all attacks should be capable of targeting heroes when Dark Charm is played, including the Word of Vaal. Whether it affects only heroes or also affects monsters in the area is less clear. Whether the charmed hero affects himself is also unclear.

Additionally, if you want to be literal, the Word of Vaal has the special ability to "affect all enemy figures within 3 spaces of your hero," but there's nothing that says it doesn't affect all figures in a single targeted space in your LOS, which is the default behavior for all weapons, so by RAW it affects one space of your choice plus all enemies within 3 spaces (and only misses on an X, so it has infinite range and can't miss due to Fear). So even if other heroes don't count as enemies, you could argue you could still hit one of them.

Thanks. If/when it comes up I'll advocate that it reverses enemy/ally lines, but avoid the hyper-literal interpretation, as it makes an already incredibly powerful weapon even moreso.

It would also target the hero using it, right?

Sounds like it.

(form too short, typing more.........)

I would argue that Word of Vaal wouldn't target the hero using it, just as Sweep wouldn't hit the creature attacking... Otherwise it could have been written as "Blast 3".

Kard said:

Except that "Blast 3" implies that the attack can be centered somewhere other than on yourself and that it doesn't discriminate between enemies and allies. So, no, it couldn't have been.

Word of Vaal clearly doesn't normally hit the hero using it, because he's not his own enemy. Whether it can self-damage when you're under the effects of Dark Charm, however, is less clear. It would probably work the same way as Sweep (since Sweep hits "all enemies within melee range" or something to that effect)...but we're never told how Sweep works under the effects of Dark Charm, either!