So what exactly good about that spell? As I can suggest, when returning to Arkham via this spell, you don't get a chance to seal the gates, as you still need to go all through the Other World and get out to get "explored" token. If you're at Other Worlds, there is no really point of returning to Arkham as you need to at least close the gates, if you're already in. So what is this spell all about?

www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Find_Gate

You absolutely get an Explored Token if you use Find Gate. That would be the point, I guess. It's the same thing as if your first Other World Encounter was a "Return to Arkham" one. As long as you have entered a Gate and come out on the other side, you get an Explored Token regardless of how many or few turns you spent in the Other World. (I'm pretty sure the minimum is one OW Encounter at the extreme least.) No one wants to spend more than one turn in R'lyeh if they can help it, so why wouldn't you try to bust out early?

Welcome to the Carnival, Lesseps! We will consider you officially initiated since you previously set off a "Dam-Tibs bomb" with a question ("Can you sell items?") that had very little to do with their raging off-topic debate. Oh, the nerve you have!

Well thank you!

Don't you think this spell makes closing gates and the game overall much more easier. That's really strange. You should not get Explored token so easily. -1 and 1 Sanity cost? Almost any character have a chance to return very quick. Dunno really.... I think this theme needs more considerng.

You do need to draw Find Gate first. With just base game deck, not too hard (though I shop for Spells very, very, very rarely indeed, only in a Marie Lambeau game for the most part). But once you factor in the expansions, finding one isn't a gimmie (I think there are 3 copies of FG in the Spell deck, might have counted them while sleeving). 3 in 100+ cards isn't a game-breaker by any means. And you can still fail the Spell check, even with 5 dice (Lore 6) .

There are 4 copies of Find Gate in the base game. No more were ever added through expansions.

Okay okay... As you wish

Just yesterday our companion finished game with 2 FG spells in hand, well, that's stilla base game I agree. In Expansions you'll make it harder to find. And expansions make your overall game harded so this is probably not a break of game. Righto.

jgt7771 said:

For almost all situations i would say yes.

But you COULD be the soldier with find gate being sucked through a new gate in the mythos phase...

Teydyn said:

Erich Weiss yells: Better not forget about me!

Or you're at Independence Square with no gate or seal on it when "Strange Power Flux Plagues City!" Mythos hits.

I knew if I "hyperbolized" that statement, y'all would come up with the TRUE "extreme" examples. I admit I thought of Mark some time after I posted, but I continue to forget about Weiss (he just never comes up anymore, dammit!).

jgt7771 said:

Houdini is a master escape artist, after all.

Find Gate is indeed quite good, but it's hardly broken. It saves you one turn every time you close a gate, mabye 3-4 times in a game if you're lucky. Saving 3 turns is nothing to sneeze at, but there are other cards (even other spells) that are better.

Bear in mind that Find Gate may halve the time actually required to pass through the other world, but it doesn't do anything about the time required to gather clue token/ elder signs to seal it with, get to the gate and close/seal the gate.

An Elder Sign is easily a better card draw than Find Gate, as it saves you at least 3 turns (the turns required to collect 5 clue tokens), plus removes a doom token (which may prevent you losing), plus makes gates easier to close (useful if they have a nasty modifier or you're facing Yog-Sothoth). Also, you do need to successfully *cast* Find Gate, which isn't a complete given.

YellowPebble said:

Thing with Find Gate is though that you can actually go for a closing win, so sealing isn't as needed. Of course, I still look to seal, but other investigators can go about collecting those Clues. If you can, just keep throwing the Find Gater into the gate on turn 1 and then into every gate reachable that nobody else is going to. Eventually, you should get a surges/non-gate Mythos/bounces which let's you get ahead of the gate curve. Find Gate + De Vermiis should = closing win in most games. Even a single Find Gate got me at least two closing wins in my previous rotation of games.

YellowPebble said:

Captain Obvious is on guard....

YellowPebble said:

The true advantage of an Elder Sign is that you're guaranteed to seal it. But it only works for a single gate. Find Gate works for every gate.

Judging from the 100+ games I've played, having Find Gate available contributed more often to a successful game than a single Elder Sign. It might be the equivalent of having two or three Elder Signs, though.

Also out of curiosity: What spell is better than Find Gate? I only know the spells from the first four expansions, but when given the choice I'd choose it pretty much every time. The only other spell that might also be worth it is Alchemical Process.

Give me a choice between Find Gate and two Elder Signs, and there is no way on earth I would take Find Gate.

I agree there are lots of ways to gain multiple clue tokens per turn. I just think it's unusual for a character to be able to gather five clue tokens in two turns. Of course it happens, but probably less than 10% of the time I set out to gather 5 clues do I get them within two turns. Three is a reasonable average, probably slightly low if anything.

I reckon Summon Shantak, Astral Travel and Mists of Rlyeh are generally better than Find Gate (especially Astral Travel, despite the steep Sanity cost. It even lets you gather clues on the turn you cast it). They make movement around Arkham so much easier that they easily save more than 3 turns over the course of a game.

Feeding the Mind and Cloud Memory are also good candidates for best spell, as sanity loss is such a serious problem.

But I don't think Find Gate is a long way from being the best spell, and I would be prepared to admit that it *might* be the best overall.

YellowPebble said:

Only slight hick-up with Astral Travel is that it's a "cast and discard", so it's one use. Still, it can come in handy, I used it today.

Dam said:

Hmmm. How provoking. It appears that you're right. I had managed to avoid noticing that. I'll retract it as a candidate for being better than Find Gate, though as you note it's still quite a nice spell.

YellowPebble said:

TBH, I wouldn't really mind if Astral Travel had been a normal "cast and exhaust" while Arcane Insight had been "cast and discard". AT and its casting cost of 2 Sanity isn't exactly cheap for what it does.

With two conditions, one being a high sanity and lore, two being your designation as the street sweeper (character that wipes out the monsters), I'd go with the Azure Flame.

It's a spell, not a weapon, so physical/magical/weapon immunity doesn't apply. Granted, it's one of those 'fiddly' spells, so it's a bit of a pain to use, but magic shotgun with no ambiguity (and for the record, I am firmly on the 'physical immunity means you can't use the weapon at all, special text be damned' side) makes for some serious monster bashing.

Completely off topic of spells, which is also off topic of the original thread the credit rating combined with the elephant gun is also a very nice weapon combo.

RevGiark said:

Azure Flame is still a Magical Effect and thus subject to Magical Immunity/Resistance. Voice of Ra is a Magical Spell that gives +1 to all skill checks for the turn, Mag. Immunity would negate that bonus as well.

I would actually have disagreed with the above based upon the base-game rule about Immunities, which specifically states "weapon or spell", and Azure Flame is a "Magical Effect", not a weapon or a spell. However, having checked the King in Yellow rules, it specifically notes that Magical Effects are subject to Magic Immunity. So you're out of luck there.

In fact, I'd say Magic Immunity even strictly applies to The Beast Within, even though that provides a Fight bonus rather than the usual Combat one, although it makes little thematic sense there so I might be prepared to let it go.

The Inner Beast card says "+2 to combat checks," so magical resistance and immunity still affect that bonus.