Stella Clark

I think people get the wrong impression of Stella. Her abilities reward failure, but there are really two ways to go: failure with success, and failure with “not caring about success ”.

What makes her so special is that there are so, so many survivor cards that reward failure. Predestination, take heart, rabbit's foot, “look what I found“, Live and learn... So if you’re going for partial success, you have the option to fail in your first and second action and set up your third and fourth. What’s great is, even in campaigns like the dream eaters where there aren’t many skill test on your encounter cards, you can slot the new level zero “test of will” to either get rid of a treachery or gain an extra action (and probably a card, because rabbit's foot is the best fit for an accessory.)

Permanents like a quick learner, which would be poisonous for most other survivors, let you fail early and succeed later. In fact, a -1 to future difficulty test means that you’re going to face automatic successes, especially if you’re dodging a low agility enemy, hitting an acolyte or group of rats, or using your old key ring to investigate a three shroud location. (Vital to appreciating this card: knowing that it doesn’t apply to the mythos phase. Your stats are safe there.)

In solo games, you’ll be able to persevere/bungle your way through skill test and fights with “neither rain nor snow”, getting these amazing +3 bennies, recurring with resourceful, and later True Survivor. Or you can rely on the Mysterious Raven to attack your sanity in exchange for one action clues, and heal with Grimm's fairytales.

In a group, you’re likely to get in a flex role: you’re great at agility, and with dark horse or the right skill cards, can be good at a few other things. Sometimes, with Peter S by your side, it’s soaking fear or dodging enemies. But Stella has a surprising role that is harder for other survivors to play: support. "Neither rain nor snow" allows you to give +3 wild skill icons to fellow investigators. Plus, it gets rid of the sting of failure. Some scenarios have cruel effects that, when resolved, can defeat you, take rounds off the scenario, or drive you insane. Not anymore.

You’ll have a lot of options to pick through as you gain experience, because the chainsaw and your .18 derringer both reward a failure first style. True survivor and drawing thin, while expensive in terms of XP, make an amazing late-campaign engine.

Playing Stella will have you saying weird things though. Things like “darn, I succeeded all of my actions!”, or bragging about how only the grit of the Postal Service can take on the horrors of the universe. So watch out for that.

MrGoldbee · 1470
That's a clever interaction with A Test of Will (0). I had written that off as being kind of a bad card. Not so in Stella's hands. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Tennessee Sour Mash

You need this card only you're playing with a campaign with high Will test.

Pay-out

  • 3 Exp
  • 1 Action with 2 Resource

Benefit

  • +2 Will (3 Times for Treachery only)
  • 1 high change to auto evade a non-elite enemy

However, survivor can use Cherished Keepsake, the cheapest horror soak or Nothing Left to Lose to prepare for incoming treachery with 5 Card and 5 Resource

"Ashcan" Pete can play Moonstone with the same price.

It's hard to squeeze this card for the full-potential because you need to play it before the treachery appeared. Then wait for 3 another treachery card.

Verdict

AquaDrehz · 198
Yeah, I'm not really sure who wants Survivor Sour Mash. I can sort of see Rogue Sour Mash, as that gives +3, is fast, and is in the faction with the lowest willpower, but even that one hasn't made the cut for me, yet. It's a shame, as I like the card a lot thematically. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Yorick maybe? I know the Teddy Bear is a thing, but boosting Willpower for 3 tests seems better than OK and may help mitigate the other bad things that Will test Treacheries can do besides deal horror. The +3 Fight action + auto evade seems pretty useful to either finish off an enemy with an odd amount of health or evade a non-hunter enemy and leave them behind. At 2 cost it is relatively cheap for Billy to replay as well. IDK, seems like a cool option. — Blitzer81 · 2
Snake Bite

EDIT:

Thanks everyone for the comments! Let me outline the discussion on top for anyone revisiting this card in the future.

If you fail this skill test and would like to choose option #1, then as Zinjanthropus in the comments clarified, the damage is dealt to "an ally" rather than "allies", "you", or "your investigator". And since it specifies one ally, this means (as StyxTBeuford notes) the card is effectively telling you to discard one ally. However, the card does NOT specifically say "discard" even though that's exactly what it wants (although because it is damage, as Hylianpuffball notes, this means you can trigger reaction effects upon death such as Brother Xavier). Do note that you cannot have multiple allies absorb the hit in order to keep them alive either (this is largely impossible anyways). It tripped me up at first because ordinarily, treacheries tell you when they want you to discard (e.g. Crypt Chill). In this case it does not because it sounds scarier, but more importantly, it is more thematically consistent. Someone is getting killed (or severely wounded) from a snake bite. This ally must be able to receive damage though so the incorporeal Guiding Spirit cannot take the blow as SGPrometheus brought up. Django and others point out that in short, when an encounter or other card effect requires you to do something, you can only choose to do it if you are able to meet the request in part. In other words, it has to effect the game state. If it says to lose 3 resources, and you only have 2, you may still choose this option. In our case, when it says to deal 5 damage to an ally, as long as you have an ally with any amount of health, they can take the hit even though the rest of the effect will not amount to much.

I maybe wasn't clear in my original "review" but my intent was to ask the community so that I know to make sure I play the card correctly, and so that others with the same question can now find an answer. As an aside, yes, Agency Backup and Trusted x2 is about the only combination that could have an ally survive this hit, but not for untamed wilds (unless you start with bonus exp somehow). If anyone has dealt 5 damage to an ally and the ally survived, I'd love to hear about it because it sounds epic.

ORIGINAL:

I'm not sure I understand why this card pretends to offer you a choice should you fail.

Dealing 5 damage to an ally means the ally must be able to receive 5 damage (during the assign damage step). If the total incoming damage exceeds the card's maximum health threshold, then the rest needs to be dealt to your investigator (or any other card that can take damage). So my question is, can I choose this first option even if I only have one ally up, say William T. Maleson or Jake Williams, and then stomach the rest on my investigator?

If you can, it's a lot of damage but at least poison can be averted. If you can't, then you'd be forced to choose the second option and suffer poison. But frankly, you'll never be able to choose the first option without having at least 2 allies in play. Why? Because the only allies who offer 4 HP are Agency Backup and Red-Gloved Man, and that still isn't enough to satisfy the requirement. It may not be as big a deal in later scenarios, but if we're talking about Untamed Wilds (which this card is in), then the only investigator who can effectively tank this is Leo Anderson, AFTER he has Mitch Brown AND one or two other allies in play. There is Trusted but it won't be enough. Mateo could soak it in theory since he can spend his bonus EXP on Charisma and two Summoned Hounds, but sheesh. I do feel like the severity for avoiding poison should have some bite, but this is impossible at lvl 0 for anyone but Leo (beyond protecting himself, he can sort of protect someone else with Tetsuo Mori but he didn't release until well after FA) and Mateo (again, only with hounds who did not release until much later). You can buff yourself with some armor, but most lvl 0 options are too minimal to help much.

In short, this card is scary.

LaRoix · 1645
i don't think it's true that excess damage would be dealt to your investigator or other allies. i am basing this on the fact that it specifies "an ally," rather than saying that the damage is dealt to your investigator or "allies" for example. apart from that, generally to satisfy a "must" condition, you only need for the game state to change, you don't need it to deal its full effect. i think it's really just meant to say that you lose an ally or take poison if you can't. also, if you had 2x trusted on Agency Backup, it could survive. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Zinjanthropus is correct; it's essentially lose an ally or get poisoned. Damage dealt to you can be assigned to your allies, and normally you can't assign them overflow damage, but in this case it's the treachery itself that's assigning the damage to your ally. There's no rule that says you have to deal with the excess, because you're not actually taking damage; your ally is. It's not 5 damage hitting you but going through an ally first, it's five damage on the ally, regardless of their stats. That said, I wonder what happens if I target my guiding spirit? My gut says that's illegal, but it is an ally I control. — SGPrometheus · 821
if i had to guess, you can't target Guiding Spirit because it has no health to take damage. if nothing else, it wouldn't change the game state, so probably doesn't fulfill the "must" requirement. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Yeah you have severely misread how this card works. As long as you deal any damage to an ally, you have resolved the card’s effect. So even a 1 health ally able to die to this card fulfills the effect, giving you the actual choice. It is basically “lose an ally with any health value, or get poisoned” — StyxTBeuford · 13028
When you have a choice, only those are valid that change a game state. You can’t choose to discard 3 Ressources If you have 0; you need an least 1. So you can’t target allies without hp with an effect that deals damage. — Django · 5108
@Zinjanthropus Yeah, the fact that it doesn't change the game state was the only reason I could think of that it wouldn't technically work. — SGPrometheus · 821
Another difference between discarding an ally and dealing it damage is that the Ally's "on defeat" stuff will still trigger this way, which doesn't happen on discard. — Hylianpuffball · 29
Oooh, you're right. I'll be sure to add that too then. Thanks! — LaRoix · 1645
It is a pretty mean treachery, but I kind of like it. Poison is really the worst, so I'm glad that there is an option should you either have unsalvageable agility (like Leo), or just get unlucky and pull a tentacle. It does encourage you to bring more allies than you normally would to a first scenario, and preferably ones that are cheap enough that you can always keep one in play. William T. Maleson particular is quite the trooper when it comes to taking Snake Bites. Leo's ability is obviously very useful for this particular treachery. — Zinjanthropus · 229
I agree! And since it encourages allies, it helps create the illusion of a big camp of people going on an expedition. — LaRoix · 1645
that's a good point, very thematic! — Zinjanthropus · 229
Anna Kaslow

I want to like Anna, I want to make her nonsense work. It's just tricky to justify when she amounts, more or less, to a 1/1 Ally that grants a net +2 to your skills at a cost of 6 XP (4 for Anna, 2 for the tarots), which literally 14 investigators can get thru Peter Sylvester (2) for just 2 XP, and 6 more can get thru Lola Santiago or Delilah O'Rourke for 3 XP, plus all the sanity/clues/murders they respectively bring.

One novelty, something of a swingy thingy if you feel lucky while playing Carolyn Fern or Roland Banks:

==

If you draw Anna in your opener/mulligan (odds improved as STTP + AR thins your deck by 4), you'll start Turn 1 with:

  • Your deck thinned by 6 cards
  • 9 resources
  • Anna
  • 1 tarot of your choice in play

Assuming I used this card-draw calculator right, a hard mulligan for Anna puts the odds of landing her at about 61%.

All for the low price of... er... 18XP. huh.

HanoverFist · 739
Prepared for the worst and practiced make perfect also thin their decks and have a chance to find astounding revelations but cost no xp. If their searches succeed they also thin your deck by 8 cards if you attach them to sttp — Django · 5108
Oh excellent idea; I'm building a non-stabby Carolyn deck right now and Prepared For The Worst just didn't make sense, but Practice Makes Perfect absolutely does. — HanoverFist · 739
Sefina already has a fairly high chance of getting Anna in her first hand, as she draws through 1/3 of her deck with her opening hand. I'm not sure how much that would be an actually effective strategy, however, versus some gimmicky fun. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Look at annas review section, someone did the math about drawing anna and some tarot cards. I played such a Sefina deck through FA and found it very effective. Sefina needs will boost at some piont and the tarots compensate her not having acces to mystic LV3+ (that include will boosts). With leo and haste you have actions to spare if you draw some tarots or anna later (using sixth sense for clues and bow for combat). — Django · 5108
I definitely agree that Sefina needs stat boosts. 4wp really doesn't cut it for Mystic 0-2 on its own. Those Rogue extra actions do help a lot with playing late assets. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Sefina kind of doesnt need boosts though. She has Suggestion and Lockpicks. You don’t need much beyond that imo. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I was used sixth sense and bow because lockpicks exhaust on use. So what to do with extra actions from Leo and haste? So i think sixth sense is better and those tarot — Django · 5108
Make it more consistent to succeed — Django · 5108
I think Lockpicks could actually use a bit of a boost in Sef, as they lose supplies if you don't succeed by 2. Still, both Lola and Delilah are good choices for that. I think the boosts are more necessary for events, though. Backstab and Storm of Spirits, particularly. Pretty expensive to be fighting at 4. Spectral Razor is great, but it's only 2 cards. You can't count on always being able to tuck and paint it. — Zinjanthropus · 229
Welp this combo idea got lodged hard enough in my head that I hadda make a deck to get it out: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/24668/tarotlyn-fern-malpractice-makes-perfect-1.0 — HanoverFist · 739
Burglary

I have to agree with the consensus that this card is a bit strange, but I don't necessarily think it should grant clues or some such. I do think it could be altered to scale differently. Here's how I'd house rule it:

The text would read: After you successfully investigate, exhaust Burglary and gain resources by however much you succeed by, to a maximum of X. X is the printed shroud value of your location.

This version would offer the benefit of not forcing you to "waste" an action investigating to get resources, you'd just get them as a result of successfully investigating like normal. The number of resources you'd gain would be quite low most of the time, but you probably won't be spending a lot of extra cards or resources to succeed by a large amount anyways, certainly not on low shroud values. High shroud locations can net you far more resources, but you would have to succeed by that much more in order to get them. The function of the card is not to net you a large chunk of change; most likely it will trickle out resources as you investigate along the way (and the exhaust keeps it from being too overpowered). Note that I would emphasize "printed" shroud value to allow cards like Skeleton Key to combo. You could essentially hack the shroud value, but still gain large quantities of resources in this way. It might need to be lvl 3 as opposed to 2, but if it means the card sees play rather than how it is now, then I think it'd be worth it.

But enough tooting my own horn. The card as is, does have some viability. Finn might like it, or anyone playing Fence since you can get it up quickly and then snag some dough whenever you have a spare moment at a low shroud value. You can still combo cards like Double or Nothing and "Watch this!" to heap a pile of cash, and I suspect this is probably the instance it'll be used (Boss Leo would probably love this). The problem, of course, is that while you can net a grand total of 16 resources this way, you could get 12 with Burglary lvl 0 which I would think is plenty. So I guess I'm back to being confused over where the allure in this upgrade exists.

LaRoix · 1645
Your houserule makes it absurdly much stronger than letting you get the normal clue from investigating — Timlagor · 5
It does make sense to me to find clues while hunting for valuables. — Timlagor · 5