How does the "crash to desktop" spell work?

Question

Since Magicka is free to play during this weekend, I thought I'd give it a try after I found the demo quite enjoyable at the time. It appears that this currently-free-to-play version includes quite a few of the many DLCs (maybe all of them?) and so I got a chance to learn the "Crash to desktop" spell.

Assuming the spell would do as the name suggests, I tried to cast it when I actually wanted to quit the game, but instead I simply wound up killing myself with it (there was no body for me to recover after that, which was a tad vexing).

I saw a video of someone using the spell much more successfully to dispatch of monsters instead of himself, and that led me to wonder just how it is this spell works.

So, can someone shed some light on this?

Answer 1

The "crash to desktop" spell "crashes" (kills) a random NPC/enemy, player, or yourself. It's dependent on range.

The most effective way for this spell to work is if there are many NPCs on the screen. It means that there is less chance of the spell affecting yourself.