Can an Investigator "fail an Evade check" if his Sneak is zero and he isn't able to roll any dice because he has no clues?

Well, typically Evade checks are done against monsters, and if you're not in combat, you have the option of voluntarily entering the combat with the monster instead of making the Evade check. The reason you would want to do this is that if you fail the Evade check, you suffer stamina damage and then enter the combat as normal anyway .

If you're asking about if the investigator is already in combat, or if he would prefer to take the stamina damage (maybe going unconscious serves his purpose)? Then yes, he would fail the check because he has gotten zero successes.

Well, typically Evade checks are done against monsters, and if you're not in combat, you have the option of voluntarily entering the combat with the monster instead of making the Evade check. The reason you would want to do this is that if you fail the Evade check, you suffer stamina damage and then enter the combat as normal anyway .

If you're asking about if the investigator is already in combat, or if he would prefer to take the stamina damage (maybe going unconscious serves his purpose)? Then yes, he would fail the check because he has gotten zero successes.

The reason I'm asking this question is because I have Oliver Grayson ( a fan-made Ally) with one of my Investigators. Oliver's special ability states: "When you fail an Evade check, monsters do not deal

combat damage to you." So it seems as if the answer to my original question is ---- yes. Thank you for your assistance.

Oliver Grayson is alas not a fan-made ally, but an official one. He ws included as promo in one of the earlier FFG novels, and he's totally broken, basically because he allows you a free Evade attempt against every monster you meet; and in case you fail the Evade, it's just Horror and then if you want you may Evade again, and again, and again, and again...

As general rule of thumb, no one can force you to invest clues to add dice to pass a skill check. If you have zero dice and something loops indefinitely (you cannot evade, and you cannot be defeated by Stamina damage), then the FAQ instructs the investigator to go Insane. We have this FAQ entry as reference:

Q: What happens when combat is a stalemate (for example, when Michael McGlen can’t roll enough dice to kill the monster, he continually absorbs the combat damage, but can’t evade either)?
A: His sanity is reduced to 0, he goes insane, and the combat ends immediately.

So, as for your original query: you do fail the Evade check (no dice, no clues spent); Oliver allows you not to take the combat damage; then you have to make a Horror check. After the Horror check (if you are not unconscious), you can:

a) resolve combat as normal (keep fighting until the monster's defeated or you're driven unconscious)

b) looping the Evade check ad libitum, a process that will result your investigator to go Insane

sounds silly but actually it's not: you may want a Madness in stead of an Injury for several reasons

Oliver Grayson is alas not a fan-made ally, but an official one. He ws included as promo in one of the earlier FFG novels, and he's totally broken, basically because he allows you a free Evade attempt against every monster you meet; and in case you fail the Evade, it's just Horror and then if you want you may Evade again, and again, and again, and again...

As general rule of thumb, no one can force you to invest clues to add dice to pass a skill check. If you have zero dice and something loops indefinitely (you cannot evade, and you cannot be defeated by Stamina damage), then the FAQ instructs the investigator to go Insane. We have this FAQ entry as reference:

Q: What happens when combat is a stalemate (for example, when Michael McGlen can’t roll enough dice to kill the monster, he continually absorbs the combat damage, but can’t evade either)?

A: His sanity is reduced to 0, he goes insane, and the combat ends immediately.

So, as for your original query: you do fail the Evade check (no dice, no clues spent); Oliver allows you not to take the combat damage; then you have to make a Horror check. After the Horror check (if you are not unconscious), you can:

a) resolve combat as normal (keep fighting until the monster's defeated or you're driven unconscious)

b) looping the Evade check ad libitum, a process that will result your investigator to go Insane

sounds silly but actually it's not: you may want a Madness in stead of an Injury for several reasons

This sounds like a reasonable way to play with Oliver Grayson. This is the 1st time this particular Ally has made an appearance in an actual game. When I saw him enter this game, my initial reaction also was that he was WAY overpowered & I wondered why I ever included him. I reject many more fan-made contributions than I accept into my own Arkham universe. Your comment about Oliver originally being an official Ally (promo in an FFG novel) probably swayed my decision to bring him in years ago. Now I feel I made a mistake & will remove him from play after Investigation #33 is over.

I have bought 2 sets of almost every AH expansion to give me plenty of additional Common items, Unique items, Spells, Skills, & Monsters. I have used many of the duplicates as proxies for quality fan-made material. This has boosted my total collection by 30%+, and I play with everything in my solo adventures (but with only 1 additional expansion board which is determined randomly). Obviously with Mythos cards, Gate cards, Location cards & Allies, it makes sense to use only 1 of each card to maintain their sense of uniqueness. The extra unused cards have enabled me to expand my roster of Allies to a grand total of 65. Only 11 are Available for each game as per the standard rules & 33 are randomly removed from the Ally deck before each game to reflect the fan-made Allies I've added to the game.

65 allies seem quite a bit, lol You should consider going with the Citizens deck houserule (11 recruitable at Ma's, other 22 in a separate deck you can acquire through encounters; whenever terror raises by 1, discard 1 recruitable and 2 citizens)

I.... actually really like that idea Julia. My friends hate the 11 ally limit because on the off chance that you can get an ally, they often aren't there. That rule is nice as then you can't abuse Ma's, but allies are still available.

Yep, that's the point. By creating two decks, everyone's still available (there's nothing more frustrating in Arkham than finally gaining an Ally and discover he's not available), but at the same time you can't go shopping for Professor Rice or William Bain every time you want, since it's not said they are in the normal deck.

Julia,

I hadn't heard of the " Citizen " deck, but have been playing that way for a few years...I set-up the " Citizen " deck right next to Ma's Boarding House on the map.

Ciao,

Joe

65 allies seem quite a bit, lol You should consider going with the Citizens deck houserule (11 recruitable at Ma's, other 22 in a separate deck you can acquire through encounters; whenever terror raises by 1, discard 1 recruitable and 2 citizens)

Splendid idea. Will definitely adopt the Citizen's deck Houserule.

I think I automatically interpreted Oliver Grayson as being exhausted when his ability is used because the (apparently correct) alternative is full of madness. I'm sort of on the fence about how to treat him henceforth.

Exhausting the card seems to be like a reasonable fix for how broken it is

Is there an actual name for that variant? Nice. I've been going strong on it for years now.
Oh in addition: whenever you obtain a random ally, or you may otherwise take an ally of your choice, it must come from the Ma 's deck. The point of the other deck is for finding allies at their specific in-town encounters (Poor Oliver doesn't have one). Whenever you get an ally this way, you must move a random ally from the Ma's deck to the "town" deck.

And also: when three allies are nuked in this way (say, from Glaaki), it counts as only one of course, and only if one was actually in the Ma's deck.

The point of these extra stipulations is to enforce the 11-allies-per-game restriction. That's how I do it anyway. There are likely other fringe cases I'm not remembering because it's been years since I've played close to regularly...

Tibs,

For me, Allies obtained from the Encounters may come from either deck, but the 11 Allies at the start of the game are there for the purposes of removal via the Terror Track .

Cheers,

Joe

I restrict allies from encounters so that sometimes there simply won't be an ally available at an encounter (1/3 of the time seems reasonable).