I was just looking at this card on the wiki when it struck me:

"Cast and Discard this spell to pass one Combat check. You must roll successes equal to the monster's toughness to cast this spell. This spell doesn't work on Ancient Ones."

Does this imply that combat modifiers are not applied? The SPELL is cast in order to pass one combat check, and the spell's modifier is +4. There is no caombat check made per se (per se, I know ). it looks like the monsters stats other than toughness are bypassed. I never considered this before and have always applied the monstesrs combat mod in addition to the +4. Also would magical resist apply as it doesn't appear to be a combat spell in the normal sense?

How about MAgical resistance? Now I *am* being devil's advocate . I would say definately so. But then that to me implies that in the absense of specific mention that Mad Res should alos apply, which I'm less ocnvinced about.

Any opinions? How do others use this card? Why do I never read things properly?

- Mariana the ex-nun cultist

EDIT: although hands (2 of them) are required. Hmmm, what did I say about not redaing things? Still puzzled though. - MtE-NC

Mariana the Ex-Nun Cultist said:

No combat check modifiers (including resistance) apply to the spell check. If you fail the casting, you can still attempt the combat check (but your hands are tied up by the spell so you likely won't have many dice - in almost any situation where you would want to use this 2-sanity one-use spell you'll end up failing a handless combat check).

I don't remember if the spell specifically mentions this, but I don't allow it to be used on Magical Immune creatures.

I play it as such that you're basically making a spell check +4 [X], where X = monster's toughness. Even though it does eat your hands for that round, it's not a combat spell per se , so no modifiers from the monster's stats. I know it might seem like a flip-flop, given my anti-Shotgun stance, but I allow BM against Magical Immunity. BM is a one-shot dealie after all.

Mariana the Ex-Nun Cultist said:

It's a Spell Check, so no Combat Bonuses may apply. The idea is that you are using your greater Lore Skill to compensate for your lesser Fight Skill, so any Spell or Lore bonuses WILL help you. It is a "combat spell" because you do have to use both your hands for that round, but then, if you successfully cast the Spell, combat's over.

Resistance and Immunity only apply to the "plus" bonuses, like, say, Shrivelling would be reduced to +3 or +0. Bind Monster doesn't have any such bonuses, so as far as I know, it's completely legitimate to Bind a Magically-Immune Warlock.

More importantly, I view this as being able to be cast on "Weapons Immune" monsters

ricedwlit said:

Given that even normal combat spells work against WI, don't see why not.

"A new monster ability, Weapon Immunity, appears on
several monsters in Innsmouth Horror. A monster with this
ability reduces any combat bonus from Magical or Physical
Weapons to 0. Spells are not affected." (p. 7, IH rules)

Bind Monster works full strength on Magically immune and resistant monsters. The die bonus is not to a combat check, so magical immunity/resistance can't affect it whatsoever.

Thanks guys, looks lik this is a better card than I thought.

- mariana the ex-nun cultist