Hello,

I'm not quite sure about how Tom "Mountain" Murphy, the ally, works. His card states that I should "Ignore the Stamina cost of all tasks". If it means that it's useful solely on monster tasks like monster Flying Polyp, it sounds that this ally is almost useless. But, if I interpret it as if he would prevent me from losing Stamina from adventure effects like Unnatural Habitat ("Terror: Lose 1 Stamina") or even Stamina costs from failing an adventure, he becomes too powerful, I think.

What's true? Is there a middle ground?

For my money, it only applies to tasks that have the -1 Heart (Stamina) as one of the requirements of completing that row. Those are fairly rare, as are allies (never spent trophies on one, it's usually R'lyeh completion that nets the only ally) and Tom (and his Sanity counterpart) have probably the most useless abilities.

It refers to the task on the adventure card, such as the second task on "the Elder Sign" or "Hallway on Fire", only.

Angus Lee said:

Monsters, too. 

I wouldn't call the ability useless- I've died putting out that damn fire on several occasions!

Dam said:

I respectfully beg to differ. Just today I played a game wherein I received Tom's Sanity counterpart (as a reward for completing R'lyeh) and playing as Kate Winthrop I was able to tank at least two late-game adventures that involved both Sanity loss and Terrors (which have no effect on Kate as it stands)

[edit]: accidental double-post

goldenTroubadour said:

(apologies for not replying sooner, both Firefox and Chrome were not giving the writing window for about two week)

By tanking, did you mean fail an Adventure? Sure, Tom/William probably work great if you're houseruling them. T/W help you against Sanity/Stamina COSTS (those listed on the tasks for Adventures), they do NOTHING against losses for failing Adventures. Costs and losses are two different things.

Tanking, in basketball, refers to deliberately losing (in order to get a higher draft pick).

We're on the internet here, boy! MMOs have a much higher status here than mere basketball, and thus their definitions are the norm. ;)

Well, honestly, I have never (and will never) played a MMO. I'm not paying a monthly charge to get to play a game that I paid for already.

Not every MMO has monthly payments. And not every such MMO uses pay2win.

Dam said:

Except that Whiskey/Food say to prevent "loss" and according to the FAQ they can be used to prevent costs.

But yeah, the allies in question only apply to task costs.