Promise of Power

This card is very strange. 4 icons is a lot. 4 icons is amazing. However, it happens to also be a Mystic card, which means the wilds are mostly going to act like pips. Adding a curse token to the bag is not that steep of a price in my opinion, especially if you're leaning into it with maybe one or two other cards that let you mitigate or benefit from curse tokens, though it remains to be seen what those payoffs are. Either way, 4 icons is a lot, and it can even be used to help evade if you don't have a good spell in play.

Realistically I see this as a staple for Amanda Sharpe. All of her stats being at 6 is amazing. Sure, she'll add up to 3 curses to the bag that turn, but that might actually be a good thing, again depending on the payoffs for curse tokens. Patrice Hathaway also likes it, as she's already happy to commit all of her cards in a turn, and this is just a very easy one to throw down.

StyxTBeuford · 13028
We've seen some of the rewards for curse tokens; specifically Armageddon and Eye of Chaos, and their rewards are very good (1 extra damage and 1 extra clue, respectively), so this is a great way to get extra benefit. — SGPrometheus · 821
It could also be interesting in a Daisy deck to speed up the addition of 10 curse tokens if she wants to translate the Cryptic grimoire. — AlexP · 252
I find that there's usually a few non-wp tests to have to do over the course of a campaign (especially in lower player counts), and this is pretty significantly better than UC for those times. — Zinjanthropus · 229
You can commit it to other people's tests, so there's that. — slyjeff · 503
Summoned Hound uses base combat or evade of 5, so it helps those tests too. — The_Wall · 286
The second sentence makes me wonder: Under which circumstances wouldn't you be able to add a cursed-token to the bag? — dr31ns5mf · 1
If the bag is already full of bless/curse. As I understand it, you are limited to only adding 10 tokens total. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Nope, ten EACH. — MrGoldbee · 1472
Well that’s just ridiculous, and hilarious. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I do like that this card means you can just not break out the curse tokens (your dog ate them or whatever) and you still know that this comes with a price. — Zerogrim · 295
Just started playing Amanda, I've read somewhere that if this was placed under her, there's no need to add the curse token because it's a Forced effect. Can anyone clarify this for me? — Helsinki · 1
Obfuscation

This card is weird. So incredibly weird that I don't have a good analysis ready at all for this, it's more prospective. Fast and 2 cost makes it a good Dexter Drake candidate just for feeding his ability, but when exactly does he care about dodging attacks of opportunity? Typically you avoid AoOs by fighting or evading, so I'm not sure what Dex would want to do instead of those. Maybe if you're caught without a fight/evade spell and need to play one? What I will say is that this card seems really nice for Trish Scarborough, who can investigate to evade any one enemy where she is, which would normally cause an AoO if that enemy is ready and engaged with her there. I can see this being a staple in Trish decks, especially solo.

Anyway, I'm glad this card exists. I'm not sure how many builds actually care about dodging AoOs, but for the ones that do, this and Narrow Escape seem like great picks.

StyxTBeuford · 13028
Preston would like to use this to move his money over without taking AoO. — Soloclue · 2604
Or, for that matter, to play Small Favor without taking an attack - it's really good testless damage for him, but the fact that it neither actually says Fight nor explicitly prevents the AoO has been an issue for me before. — Thatwasademo · 58
My first thought is that it's for "clue-getters". The investigator is engaged but has to get all the clues ? For 2 resources (and no action) you play Obfuscation, then you investigate twice and leave the location without a single AoO. And then the fighter steps in to kill the enemy. It reminds me of Delay the nevitable if used this way. — AlexP · 252
But wouldn't the enemy move with you when you leave the location? Cancelling the AoO does not break the engagement if I recall. — imerenserfud · 1
The enemy would move with you, yes, unless you happen to have a built in means of evading it. Trish, when she finds a clue, can automatically evade the enemy that earlier provoked the AoO that this card cancelled. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Sometimes your plan explodes because of a single mythos card or bad chaos token, and you are glad for a card like this to be able to take a beating. I just used this in Innsmouth to face-tank 3 attacks from a deep one, because I really needed 3 actions to clear 3 barriers for my team to escape. If you use it to avoid taking only 2 combined damage per charge, it is already better than many other soak cards. And it is also a slot which many rogues do not strongly care about. — casey080 · 25
Forbidden Tome

As written you can heal your friends with this, since it only specifies that you're moving damage from "a player card at your location". This includes damage on your friends and their assets. Team up with a friend on Beat Cop (2) and start shooting down 2 HP enemies without taking a test, or healing best friend Mark Harrigan so he can draw more cards and boost his skill value further; all while helping kill enemies and not taking any skill tests.

Definitely consider Shrewd Analysis if you're running these books; Secrets Revealed is very good action compression if you can get to 12 cards, but at 8 it's action neutral if you move (which is worth it to avoid taking a test). This one though is up there for one of the best health healing cards in the game because it does something proactive when you do it. Most healing is very reactive and therefore doesn't help you win a scenario if you would not otherwise be defeated.

Swekyde · 65
Having played a campaign with this as Amanda, it can be extremely tricky to use this! Even if you have a big hand, it’s only one damage…And your allies might not have their Cop out. At the same time, as the seeker, you should probably be focusing on clues... and this doesn’t say “this doesn’t take an attack of opportunity.” Don’t go big hand just so you can play this card. — MrGoldbee · 1472
Does this take attacks of opportunity? Shouldn’t but looks like it does — Krysmopompas · 360
Nimble

I have found (that I was wrong) that this card works pretty well with lockpic. Investigate with with feet and use Nimble to move after successfully clearing the location.

Using it in a Winifred deck with lockpic gave me a Ursula in reverse feel. But as most have pointed out. You rarely use more than one move.

Malakai1234 · 13
Unfortunately, you can't commit Nimble to Lockpicks as it is an Intellect check, not an Agility check. However, I had similar succes as you described with Pilfer. — Nenananas · 258
Sorry to be the spoilsport, but you cannot commit this to a lockpic-check, as you can only commit lore-icons to lore-checks and nimble does not have a lore-icon. — trazoM · 9
Sadly, you can't actually commit agility icons to Lockpicks because it's still a intellect test. Agility is just added to intellect. Otherwise that would make this skill much better than it is. — Zinjanthropus · 229
However, you CAN commit this to a Pilfer or Backstab test, so keep that in mind. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
True, or an agility treachery — Zinjanthropus · 229
Movement doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity correct? — CrabbyTerror8 · 161
It's not a move action just a move effect, so yes it doesn't provoke AoO. — Killbray · 12063
Voice of Ra

With most chaos bags, this has a reasonable chance of being Emergency Cache. With Jacqueline Fine, Olive McBride, Dark Prophecy, and/or either of the Grotesque Statues, you can have increasingly good odds of netting 7, which is a very good resource swing. This is one of the very few cards where you want to see a . Probably mostly for Jacqueline decks, but Chaos Bag Jim might like this, too.

On further consideration, it seems like Olive (and Jacqueline under very specific token pulls) might push your "scoring" tokens above 3 for even more money. If you used both of them with this card, you might draw 7 tokens and resolve 5 (assuming you at least 6 symbols including the ). Would that give you 11 resources? It would be overkill, but funny to do once....

Even better if Jacqueline has Dark Future out! — toastsushi · 74
Yea but do you really want to spend all those cards and resources just to gain 3 or so resources? I don't know. I like the idea behind Voice of Ra, but the jury is out how useful it's going to be. — LaRoix · 1645
I think for Jackie this simply replaces Emergency Cache, especially if you've got your ability up (or arbiter of fates). Anyone running Olive probably prefers it too, but beyond those cases it's probably worse/even. — SGPrometheus · 821
On average it's going to be at least Emergency Cache. If you haven't had a reason to use your ability or Olive that turn, it'll become much better that E Cache, at the cost of very rarely whiffing. It's definitely worth it imo over Uncage the Soul or E Cache. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
So I guess in order to match E Cache, you'd have to draw 3 symbol tokens, at which point there are 3 less symbol tokens in the bag. so yea, you'd have to draw more tokens with Jacq and Olive, but at some point you will run out. Also the Elder Sign will not help you (though Jim can make it a Skull and Jacq can benefit from canceling it). Those points alone elevate the card quite a bit because you're basically forcing a pain-free skill test and who knows what else you might activate in combination. Eldrich Inspiration? Jewel of Aureolus? Of course, if I have all that up, what do I need the resources for? — LaRoix · 1645
To match E Cache you have to just pull one token. It’s 1 resource by default and 2 per symbol. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Also, easily missed point, neither E Cache or Unage are spells- this is. Arcane Initiate can grab it. So even non Olive builds benefit from it imo. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Also, it has a Will pip, so unlike Ecache, it is still useful if you already have enough resources. — Death by Chocolate · 1485
Replacement Emergency Caches are one great thing that has come out of the Starter decks. Not only are they more interesting but there are some deck builds that need more than 2x ECache at the start of the campaign and now there is the option for that. And these have little benefits like this one having the Spell trait. — The Lynx · 980
So I need to admit something super embarrassing, but I played this card thinking I'd get only 1 resource for each token - that's it. So I used Jacq's ability to draw 3 (instead of 5) and didn't get any symbols. Then I felt justified in thinking this card was terrible. Dang, I must be getting old. But that aside, yea, since you get 1 resource and 3 tokens, odds are pretty decent you'll get at least one symbol and notch the missing 2 resources that an E Cache would have given you. So... yeah, this card's pretty decent... and I need to read the freaking text on the cards instead of spacing lol. — LaRoix · 1645
How this card interacts with [Eldritch Inspiration](/card/05033)? For example, if I revealed 2 skull symbols and used Eldritch Inspiration, how many resources it gives at total? — error · 34
[Eldritch Inspiration](/card/05033) does not interacts with this card, because this card does not contain any word "when", "if", or "after". — elkeinkrad · 499