Personally…
Clarification: On any square grid board there are 8 squares that touch a given square that are considered adjacent. Within the World of HeroQuest the four squares that are orthogonally adjacent, sharing sides, are referred to as adjacent and the four squares that are diagonally adjacent, sharing corners, are referred to as diagonal. All eight squares collectively, both the four adjacent squares and the four diagonal squares, are referred to as the surrounding squares.
For me the Crossbow (and any other ranged weapon) cannot be used if you have a foe in any of the squares surrounding you, whereas a Longsword can be used in that situation and against any foe in any of the squares surrounding you.
The Halberd introduced in this Quest Pack seems pointless (pun, accidental but I’m going to claim it as intended) as it is just a two-handed version of the longsword, maybe it’s a cheaper version…but I digress as usual so back to the actual point of this topic…
The wording on the spell…
This spell causes 1 Body Point of damage to any one Hero or monster adjacent to the spellcaster (though not diagonally adjacent). The victim cannot defend against the attack.
The wording on the spell scroll…
This spell causes 1 Body Point of damage to any monster adjacent to the spellcaster (though not diagonally adjacent). The victim cannot defend against the attack.
I agree that the “any monster adjacent to the spellcaster” could be taken to mean “all monsters adjacent to the spellcaster” or “any monster
s adjacent to the spellcaster” in isolation but I think taking the spell wording into account it probably means any one Hero or monster so that would be my “official” interpretation.
That said a close combat attack dealing a single Body Point seems another example of a lame spell / scroll so personally I would modify it to deal three combat dice of damage to any adjacent target with no defence allowed or better yet make the number of combat dice rolled half the current Mind Point value of the caster (rounding up).
Also on the point made earlier by Daedalus
You'd think the Frozen Horror, another large monster, could cast a Chill spell diagonally for the same reason, but the wording of the spell prevents it.
I agree, if it is a touch spell then it should state that it can only be used against targets that you can touch i.e. adjacent UNLESS you are a large monster that can reach diagonal targets also.