Yes, but you don't need to postpone them indefinitely. With the advance warning you have, you can prepare for the card, and draw it when you're ready for it. It's unlikely that all three draws will be equally bad, before you're prepared to deal with one of them.

If want to like it. The spell deck needs powerful cards to compete with Elder Signs, magical weapons and others such as Healing Stone from the unique deck. What I saying is, that as it is it's too powerful for a non-discard spell. So it should either have been cast-and-discard, or less powerful.

Do you think the designers can do no wrong? What about Denying the Ancient One? Balanced spell? Wrack? Fist of Yog-Sothoth? Spectral Razor? How about Daisy or Patrice? AH designers make mistakes, just like everybody else.

Hannibal Rex said:

In the very first game I played I was Jacqueline. I had the Arcane spell and was able to pass it for several turns in a row. My job in the end game was to gather Sanity and Clues as by then we were living on the edge. However I was overwhelmed and couldn't gather clues fast enough to discard the Mythos cards. We were playing KiY and Dunwich at least. The Mythos deck was quite large. We lost but after the game was over I looked at the three cards I would have gotten. All Act Cards! We already had 2 Acts out.

Probably almost statistically impossible, but either the gamemaster didn't shuffle very well or he just got KiY and we were playing the harder (touring?) version and he just didn't tell us. I see him nearly every game convention. Maybe's he's on this website. I will have to ask him.

Hannibal Rex said:

I never said they didnt, though I find some of your examples disagreeable. In fact I have already explained in this thread a major problem involving the AI spell...

First off, when I and my friends play I won't say we sit there and analye "are spells useful" "would I be better off just going with unique stuff" etc. If a guy seems like he/she's supposed to be a spellcaster that kind of leans us into getting spells anyway. But what I will say is that while i never use the magic shop, I don't find the unique items so overpowered better than spells. I find that there are such a broad range of things unique items do (I'm playing with AH, KH, IH, KiY, and CotDP, by the way), that you have a pretty good chance to get something that isn't very helpful to you. However, with spells, if I'm a spellcaster type person (high sanity/lore/ability) then I can at least make use of building up a bunch of spells. eventually each of them will be usefull and by the end of the game I find built up spellcasters are just unstoppable. On top of spells being naturally versatile, there's more than one investigator who can reduce the sanity cost (the Librarian obviously, but also Harvey and Dexter's stroylines off the top of my head), and stuff like the Planetary allignment environment doesn't hurt either.

Though I do like spells I will agree, though, that the magic shop is pretty marginal. I never use it, and I've only seen another player go there once to knock down a storyline. Mostly because encounters and tomes wind up giving plenty of spells and I just don't shopin general most times except elder sign digging, or if I'm using the Ursula Downs.

How does building up a bunch of spells eventually become more useful than building up a bunch of unique items?

GrooveChamp said:

Because it's cheaper.

First, I believe that spells are more versatile than unique items. Yes, they both can do just about anything, but many spells in concert can overcome just about any deficiency - not always the case with unique items. Some spells also have more versatility than your unique items counterparts. Inner Beast, for example, adds Stamina and movement speed, in addition to the sanity penalty and combat bonus, making it a powerful option for, say, Harvey Walters. Sure, I'd rather have a Mi-go Brain Case than just about any spell, but that's due to unnatural love. Healing Stone or Ruby of Ryleh are both going to be superior to most spells, but you don't always have the 8 dollars to spend on it when it comes up.

If I have a bunch of spells, it's because I've taken pains to get them. Whether by encounter or tome, I've been able to amass a bunch of them, usually without paying $5 each. Unique items don't accumulate as easily. Spellcasters have been my most powerful characters. Harvey, Dexter, Agnes and Daisy are all extremely capable at this. Give Dexter Feeding the Mind and Heal, and you've solved most of your problems right there. Give them Revelation of Script and Storm of Spirits. Give them Implant Suggestion, or Find Gate, or Astral Travel, or Arcane Insight - spells solve problems, often in a way Unique Items can't. On the combat end of things, Red Sign or Plague of Locusts can solve problems in creative ways. The advantage Shriveling has over Cursed Sphere is the same one Wither has on Enchanted Knife - it's just more common. Not everyone can have the Cursed Sphere, either.

I don't mean to say that spells don't have their problems, because they do. But I think one of your issues is with the Magic Shoppe itself. I don't go there myself, unless one of the spellcasters has a lot of money to spend and some free time (Or they are Marie). It's not the most efficient space, and I doubt I would go there if I could decide between three spells. It's the same thing about visiting Velma's Diner, or anything in the Village Commons.

I like the spells a lot. Not that I feel that I'm in a need as much spell as I can get in each game, but if I get a spellcaster then I'm happy that I can use some spells.

True, not really going to the shop too often but still going there more often than to the Bank for example. (or even to River docks, or to the hospital or nowadays to the church)

I think everything just depends on playing style.

But when I go to the shop I'm hoping for a 'great help', not for a 'great weapon'...

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When I have new people playing I only make them pay the cost for combat spells if they fail the cast. Overpowering, but it lets them see how useful spells can be