I've tried casting this at one of the dreaded beetles (twice) and both times it ate up all four of my level 2 spell charges, targeting the beetle and several of my party members.

Yeah, that's pretty frustrating. But it would be an interesting spell if it was "Wild Magic", but it's really powerful and just eats up anything it touches. I believe the spell itself is unbalanced/buggy.

Do we actually know that this isn't intended behaviour? Most of the wizard's spells come with serious potential for friendly fire, so I wonder if this might be intentional.

Do we actually know that this isn't intended behaviour? Most of the wizard's spells come with serious potential for friendly fire, so I wonder if this might be intentional.

Well it's description makes it sound like a single target spell, and it also used up four spell charges rather than one.

Maybe it loops the code and casts it several times at the location of where the mouse-pointer is? Repeatedly "SMART Casting" (MOBA term) spells. That would explain why it is mostly the closest characters that get hit by friendly fire.