Dismiss Ancient One, Revised

My previous version of this spell makes it difficult to battle the more powerful Ancient Ones, those with a Combat Rating of -5 or better, without spending clue tokens. This version makes battling those powerful ancient ones more doable:

 isn't it too powerful ? You could beat Cthulhu with Daisy (or any good spell caster) in few turns with a handful of clues... I think it is way too powerful :-)

amikezor said:

Avi_dreader said:

Don't forget the Sanity cost, which has to be paid each round. Even if the character has Iron Will, by the time the Ancient One awakens it's rare for any character to be at full Sanity or Stamina unless they have time to prepare, or are lucky.

jeremyj621 said:

Dismiss Ancient One, final revision

Perhaps my previous version of this spell is too powerful, especially since it was "cast and exhaust." Now that it's "cast and discard," the spell is more of a last-ditch defense instead of a primary weapon, as it should be.

jeremyj621 said:

Avi_dreader said:

For info, some characters do not spend sanity when they use spells (for the previous version).

That is an excellent suggestion from Avi.

Just to understand, what motivates your spell ? You feel like the final combat is too difficult ?

amikezor said:

Yeah, I was trying to design a spell that would make a battle with the Ancient Ones more survivable, especially with 5 or less players. The Epic Battle cards tend to apply penalties to the players, especially in the early stages of the battle (such as having to pay Sanity or Stamina before attacking, subtracting one from the result of each die (essentially applying a temporary Curse to all players), etc. Sure, players should focus on closing the gates before the Ancient One awakens, but more often than not, luck just isn't with them since they also have to deal with loss of Sanity and Stamina (and items), and collect clue tokens; not to mention trying to fulfill Personal Stories if players have the Innsmouth expansion, and collect the other rewards which make this game fun to play. The official Ancient Ones I believe were designed to be difficult to beat with anything less than six players. I think most playtesting must have been done with the maximum number of players: eight. It's a dilemma. The Call Ancient One spell is interesting since it's an official Fantasy Flight spell and not a custom creation. Maybe I'll have to buy the Black Goat expansion! LOL!

jeremyj621 said:

Noooo...  The original ancient ones are quite easy to beat with small teams 3 or less.  The smaller the easier actually.  A one investigator team can kill almost any one of the base game AOs with ease.  Why would you think it easier to kill an AO the more investigators you have?  You need to get *more* good equipment to pierce through the AO's defences, and the more characters in a game, the harder it is to get off doom tokens.  I'd say it's quite the opposite way around, where the larger your team, the harder it is to beat the AO in final combat.  What is your reasoning behind this idea?

Avi_dreader said:

Almost all games I've played have been with four or five players and in the cases where the AO has awakened (more often than not) the players end up losing no matter how well equipped they are. Fewer players can easily scramble to close all the gates to win, but then they tend to lose out on other elements/rewards of the game.

jeremyj621 said:

(1910) Ford Model T

A vehicle that grants extra movement points, and allows the carrying of passengers (other investigators).

I've removed my Dismiss Ancient One spell since Call Ancient One (from the Black Goat of the Woods expansion) does essentially the same thing. Since Call Ancient One is an official FFG creation, I'll go with that.