I had a situation occur where I encountered a monster that gave me a -2 to my horror check while my Will was only at 1. It was an automatic fail, since I was reduced to -1 rolls, but I had clue tokens to spare so I spent them to roll rather than lose half my items. However, I also had the Will Skill that allows 1 extra bonus dice to be rolled when I spend clue tokens to add to my dice rolls. So I played it this way:

1. Pay 1 clue token to raise my Horror Check roll to 0 dice. No extra dice allowed for the Will Skill because no dice are actually rolled.
2. Pay another clue token to raise my Horror Check roll to 1 dice, with an extra dice thrown in for the Will Skill.

Did I play this right? When you raise your rolls to zero, and have a skill that grants bonus dice, those bonus dice only are counted if an actual roll takes place, rather than providing 1 extra bonus dice regardless of actual rolling?

Put another way, if I am at -1 to my roll, spend 1 clue token to raise it to zero, does the bonus dice due to the skill actually raise the roll to 1 dice? If so, I only needed to spend 1 clue token to get a roll, rather than the 2 I actually used...

Thanks in advance for any and all replies/answers.

Svartnatt said:

If you're at negative dice and spend a clue token, you are now at one die. The skill's bonus die puts you at two dice. That's how I learned it anyway.

DrFaust said:

You re correct. The use of the clue immediately puts you up to one die, plus a second for the bonus. If that fails, and you elect to spend anouther clue, you get two more dice. Lather rinse repeat as required.

Ah, so negative penalties are not counted beyond zero?

Right. Spending a clue always gives you a die. Two if you've got the appropriate skill card. There are skills from Dunwich and an investigator from Innsmouth that spend clues in a different way, but other than that, after you apply all relevant modifiers, you can't have a negative number of dice for any skill check.

Great, thanks for the clarifications everyone.