Hauntings

My take on this set: A very interesting set that focuses on Intellect instead of the usual Agility or Willpower. Poltergeist is a cool twist on enemies that is most vulnerable to traditionally combat weak enemies while preying on the fighters. There are a lot more weapon relics around today than at Carcosa’s printing, but the poltergeist can still blindside a lot of players. I appreciate this small set a lot for how different it is.

What it does: Poltergeist is an enemy that poses a very unique threat. Its combat stats are on the low side, with average fight and only two life. However, the only way to damage it is by using spells and relics. Or encounter cards, which mostly refers to its own parley ability. Investigators can put one damage on the poltergeist by passing an Intellect check. If none of those options are available to the player, things are complicated by the poltergeist’s agility value of 4, making evasion difficult as well. At two horror per attack it can not be ignored for long either.

My take: Poltergeist is a surprisingly upsetting creature in some situations. It is hard to deal with for many investigators, putting Mystics and Seekers at the forefront for removing it from the board. Cool enemy, i’m glad stuff like this exists to keep players on their toes.

Threat level: Medium. Poltergeist deals enough horror to matter in the turns where it can not be removed early. If no Relic or Spell is around, the Seeker will find himself in the unusual role of having to kill an enemy, something that keeps him from doing his actual job and thus costing important actions.

Dealing with it: In a weird twist, the ways to deal with the poltergeist are actually printed right on the card. One interesting non-obvious piece of tech however is Fine Clothes. Since the option to investigate the poltergeist counts as Parley, Fine Clothes will drop the difficulty of the intellect to 1, allowing anyone to handle it with ease..

What it does: Spirit’s Torment attaches to the player’s location and asks for a clue and an action to defuse it. Otherwise, any time an investigator leaves that location, he will have to lose an action or take a horror.

My take: For investigators that can expect to be able to pick that clue right up, this treachery can be discarded by using two actions. So this baseline can be used to decide if it’s better to use that action or to just take the horror or action loss. Losing two actions is a significant cost to pay, so this card usually has an impact.

Threat level: Medium. Dealing with this treachery will usually require two actions, but has the potential to take more since there is a test involved in picking the clue back up. If the players will not need to return to that location, just taking the horror can become an option that makes drawing this encounter card a lot less troublesome.

Dealing with it: Thanks to the built in action to discard the treachery, the worst case is not too terrible. Like with Poltergeist, it is interesting that the clue getter of the group does have slightly less trouble with this card.