Delve Too Deep: Agnes Baker

Read the full article here: https://delve2deep.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/investigator-focus-agnes-baker/

A pretty standard, no-nonsense build with minimal extra fluff, this build is focused entirely on making use of spells to succeed. Shrivelling is the most important, but Rite of Seeking will allow you to investigate and help your friends out as well. Just make sure you only use it as your last action, which will allow you to mitigate its downside. Drawn to the Flame is your single clue cheating card, and one of the best in the game. This is especially true in calm board states, as you should be able to easily deal with whatever comes out.

Once you’ve gotten out Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking, you don’t really need to worry too much about any other assets. Peter Sylvestre, Fire Axe and Ritual Candles are nice additions which you’ll happily play out if you see them, but none of them make or break your build. Your events are cheap, and thus you’ll be spending few if any actions gathering resources, allowing you to focus on the action.

Forbidden Knowledge and/or Painkillers allow you to go around and eat all the one health enemies for breakfast. You’re able to hand out damage with greater ease than any other investigator, and unlike Guardians, who often rely on Machete, you can simply snipe enemies engaged with other players. You have a high enough base stat that you won’t have to worry about missing very often (though it will hurt when you do so).

If you wish, you can opt for Smoking Pipe and another copy of Fearless to help manage your sanity. “Look what I found!” makes for a decent second clue cheater in low shroud locations, and the conspicuously absent Flashlight can also be included if you feel you really want to help out more with investigating. I’d cut a copy of Ritual Candles, Storm of Spirits, and maybe a copy of Fight or Flight if you want to go for the more jack-of-all-trades style build.

When levelling, Blood Pact makes a great buy, especially if you continue to use Fire Axe. The turn before the Agenda is going to advance anyway, you can just abuse this upgrade for huge bonuses. Peter Sylvestre (Level Two) and Spirit Athame also provide you with great ways to boost your important stats and checks, while also having the advantage of being cheap buys. Peter is a fantastic buy all-around, and definitely one you’ll want to pick up sooner rather than later.

Upgrading Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking are great options (you don’t need to take Shrivelling all the way to Level 5, but you can if you have buckets of experience, or you’re encountering many tough enemies). Book of Shadows (Level One) makes for a good buy due to its cheap experience cost, allowing you to use your spells more liberally. You can try for Recharge if you wish, which makes for a much more action efficient card, though the chance of failing with it is a huge turnoff.