Hi all, I just wanted to belabor a point to drive it home into my skull.

Skill tests cannot be modified below zero.

Does this mean if I test against Grasping Hands - test agility(3) and have an agility skill of 2 and draw a -4 chaos token, I take 3 damage?

Likewise if I draw the tentacle token?

It seems like this is a very important nuance to be only found on a single bullet point in the rules reference when there are so many mentions and examples of skill tests.

Basically, after all modifiers are applied (positive or negative) if your skill total is below zero, then you treat it as zero. So yes, you'd only take three damage.

In watching a playthrough of Curse of the Rougarou (Fantasy Flight [Matt Newman was playing] with Team Covenant), one player took a will(3) test against Cursed Swamp (which behaves similarly to Grasping Hands with taking damage on he amount you failed the test by). Skids, will(2), took an unaugmented test and drew -4. He then, in concert with Matt's declaration, took 4 damage.

How exactly did that math work out?

Should've taken 3 damage, the difference between the test difficulty (3) and the investigator's final skill value ( 2-4 = [-2] = 0 ).

Thanks, that was also my sense of it.

I believe they had the Spectral Mist attached to his location which makes all tests difficulty +1. So he was actually testing against 4.

For clarity, what precisely would happen if you drew Tentacle?

Will Test(3). Skill 2... Tentacle? Is it 1 Damage?

What if it were a Will Test(3). Skill 4... Tentacle? Would it be no damage?

Or would both cases be 3 damage?

I believe they had the Spectral Mist attached to his location which makes all tests difficulty +1. So he was actually testing against 4.

You know, that's exactly right. They totally did. Thanks!

For clarity, what precisely would happen if you drew Tentacle?

Will Test(3). Skill 2... Tentacle? Is it 1 Damage?

What if it were a Will Test(3). Skill 4... Tentacle? Would it be no damage? thanks

Or would both cases be 3 damage?

For clarity, what precisely would happen if you drew Tentacle?

Will Test(3). Skill 2... Tentacle? Is it 1 Damage?

What if it were a Will Test(3). Skill 4... Tentacle? Would it be no damage?

Or would both cases be 3 damage?

The Tentacle means you automatically fail, and treat your Skill value as if it were 0 for the purposes of effects relating to how much you fail by. So in these cases, he would take 3 damage -- in the specific instance above, 4 due to the Spectral Mist boosting the difficulty of the skill test.

I believe they had the Spectral Mist attached to his location which makes all tests difficulty +1. So he was actually testing against 4.

There's no adventure that has both Grasping Hands and Spectral Mists in the card pool, I'll note. The Team Covenant video was using the card from Rougarou that works basically the same (Cursed Swamp).

If you did make your own adventure that included both, then they'd interact the same way as people have noted here. Spectral Mist would raise the difficulty to 4, so an autofail would cause 4 damage. Makes you just want to only play Wendy.

I believe they had the Spectral Mist attached to his location which makes all tests difficulty +1. So he was actually testing against 4.

There's no adventure that has both Grasping Hands and Spectral Mists in the card pool, I'll note. The Team Covenant video was using the card from Rougarou that works basically the same (Cursed Swamp).

If you did make your own adventure that included both, then they'd interact the same way as people have noted here. Spectral Mist would raise the difficulty to 4, so an autofail would cause 4 damage. Makes you just want to only play Wendy.

I was responding to mgorka's question about the Rougarou video, the interaction with Cursed Swamp and Spectral Mist. Not sure where the confusion is.

The Tentacle means you automatically fail, and treat your Skill value as if it were 0 for the purposes of effects relating to how much you fail by. So in these cases, he would take 3 damage -- in the specific instance above, 4 due to the Spectral Mist boosting the difficulty of the skill test.

Thank you again, that clears everything up for me. After you said this I was immediately able to find the details in the Rules Reference, natch.

Basically, after all modifiers are applied (positive or negative) if your skill total is below zero, then you treat it as zero. So yes, you'd only take three damage.

An important point, and a major part of the reason Flashlight is such a great card even for Daisy.

In the same vein, if you have an automatic success(Wendy with her amulet) - the skill test difficulty is set to (0) for calculating how much you succeed by.