So I only played the tutorial for the game single player and so far I don't see any actions that use will power? Fight, evade, and investigate don't use will power. Encounters can use any attribute, as well as parlay. So far it seems like a less useful trait unless you pull the right spell cards. It seems better to have characters with 1 will power and cards gears for investigating and/or fighting and evasion. Any help would be appreciated.

The Willpower attribute seems to be the most common target of the encounter deck, so it is pretty useful to have high Willpower to avoid or reduce the effects of any unpleasant surprises that come your way!

And, as you point out, it is the most important attribute for Mystics who can use it to investigate/fight/evade provided that they have the right spells.

It's true that it isn't used for any basic actions, unlike combat, intellect and agility. But the encounter cards that test willpower usually make you take horror if you fail. With low willpower, your investigator will soon run away screaming.

Maybe I'm wrong but looking at the encounter deck it seemed a lot of cards were monsters, add another Doom, and events that occurred without a test. And even some tests that tested things like agility (grasping hands). It didn't seem like there were that many will power test cards. I don't have much familiarity but with the core set it seems like it's not used very often. If you have no mystics you could ignore the trait and cards related to it altogether. But maybe other scenarios rely more on it or expansions?

Hey @Brosgw , just in the very first scenario of the core set, here are the encounter cards that force a test or otherwise:

Enemies: 6 ghouls, 3 rats (= 0 tests, except, of course, fighting or evading) (9 total)

Treacheries: 3 test agility (grasping hands), 7 test nothing (ancient evils, obscuring fog, dissonant voices), 7 test willpower (crypt chill, test of 4, rotting remains, test of 3, frozen in fear, test of 3)

So in the first scenario's encounter deck, 7 of 26 cards test willpower. That's not insubstantial, but it's certainly not vital. Rotting Remains can be particularly punishing to low sanity characters, while Frozen in Fear can stymie a low willpower character for turn after turn.

I've had success ignoring willpower and trying to power through scenarios. But it's also delightful fun to play as a mystic or survivor and essentially ignore a bunch of treacheries because your willpower is so high!

Some of the other scenarios have a much higher incidence of needing to pass willpower tests.

What ratio or amount of cards have a will power test in other encounters and how bad would it be to fail them if you're strong against everything else?

I've died with Roland in the final scenario to Umôrdhoth's Wrath

I find frequently that the willpower cards either hit you hard for sanity or inhibit you somehow. Like frozen in fear limiting your actions or mystic barrier preventing you from leaving your location.

The real question is, do you *need* it? Expressly?No, you could probably get by with a few skill cards to boost it. But you'll feel the hit as you get continually hobbled by nasty encounter cards. Like anything else you'll want some form of balance, even if it's just making sure you have a couple extra skill cards or willpower icons to make up for gaps.

That being said, willpower can be a very influential trait for mystic. With shrivelling, rite of seeking, ward of protection and/or blinding light/bind monster you can use willpower to do everything. With Agnes' high native will stat and card drawing engines like Heirloom of hyperborea and arcane apprentice, you can keep the spells flowing as fast as she can doing them.

Tldr: every stat has good uses. Just spec for the ones you'll use and have a plan for the ones you don't use much.

17 hours ago, Brosgw said:

So I only played the tutorial for the game single player and so far I don't see any actions that use will power? Fight, evade, and investigate don't use will power. Encounters can use any attribute, as well as parlay. So far it seems like a less useful trait unless you pull the right spell cards. It seems better to have characters with 1 will power and cards gears for investigating and/or fighting and evasion. Any help would be appreciated.

"Oh my sweet summer child."

As others have mentioned, Willpower is your primary stat when defending against effects that causes Horror.

Also, in Scenario two there are several nasty encounters with effects that remain in play, until you succeed your on Willpower check.

3 minutes ago, Keffisch said:

Also, in Scenario two there are several nasty encounters with effects that remain in play, until you succeed your on Willpower check.

It's not just scenario 2, I've been noticing a running theme of encounters that require willpower checks to keep affecting you until you succeed.