Leaving aside the fact that Ancient Ones could not be brought down by puny humans, investigators should still not be able to know their weaknesses. It always bugged me that even with epic combat the final battle can be significantly affected by a team that chose to gear up appropriately beforehand. This is metagame knowledge that the team wouldnt have. Ive seen the hidden GOO stuff, LOTS of it, and none of it flipped my dials.

But it just occurred to me after eons of play, that there is a simple way to at least partially fix this and introduce a lot more uncertainty to final battles: use the Dunwich Horror cards, ignoring everything but the immunity/resistance part and treat the blank one as the default text on the AOs card...granted, some like Bokrug are trickier, but those cases can be worked around too...youll get much more use out of those dusty Dunwich cardsas well.

what do you think?

Sounds interesting enough... Tried it yet?

In the process of yes im in the middle of a game against shub, if she wakes ill try it and ill gradually try it with the other 23 too and see how it hurts...

well She *almost* got me...Im tempted to hand it to Her...she woke disgustingly by playing 5 DoR in a row, just as the last two gates were in line for being sealed. FIVE in A ROW so she wakes up, and I had about 20 clues and two unplanned blessings, plus an arsenal of gear of every stripe. On picking up the 7 Dunwich horror cards, I drop one. I look long and hard at its back, before deciding I dont want it. So I put it back but when I do I drop it again and it floats face up.

Both immunities. With her -5 mod. No chance. But luckily I didnt choose the one she tried to stiff me with, did I? No, I randomly selected. Biatch. Youll have to do better than that to pull the tentacles over my cyclopean eye, dear Arkham...

Both resistances. Still an upgrade and with sinister plots hatching no easy battle at all, but She eventually slithered away...

If you want a tougher final confrontation I recommend giving this a try.