Just picked up the Pallid Mask and was going through some of the cards. I havent actually played with these so I may change my tune later. Spoilers for player cards ahead. Oh, and I tend to be pretty critical.

Inspiring Presence: The ready effect is the interesting one here. There aren't that many allies that exhaust, but we have enough now that this could be interesting. I'm still not able to think of anything too good to do with it, and I generally don't use skill cards unless they are really, really strong. Icons are good though, healing is ok. So... 2/5.

Mano A Mano*: Basically a poke for 1 damage. Despite odd HP enemies being somewhat annoying, this isn't good enough. 1/5.

First Aid***: During the later scenarios it's usually nice to have some healing around. Basic first aid is decent enough, but this is way better. Efficient healing for any investigator or Ally, with 4 supplies. I'm on board. 4/5.

Eureka!: I don't use skill cards unless they're really good. But this does have some Minh-ergy, so maybe with her.... but I doubt it. 2/5.

Shortcut**: Shortcut unleveled is already a pretty good card. This is going to be super strong if there is a mission with a "hub" in it. Less so in missions without one like Essex County. Still, this is worth the XP for me. 4/5.

Watch This!: .... What can we say about this card? I guess the idea is that you pass a check and earn 3 resources, which is more efficient than say emergency cache. The check has to be a pretty low difficulty for you to pass without buffing yourself beyond the icons on Watch This! and if you do buff yourself you're sort of defeating the purpose of this card. Still, I can see a place for it, especially if you're feeling lucky. Problem is mostly that Rogues lack the high stats to pull this off as easily as others. But there are ways, like throwing this on a check against a 2 shroud location with Flashlight. 3/5. Not great, but good.

.41 Derringer**: Do you want to be even more all in on smashing a check that you're only mediocre at? No? 2/5.

Torrent of Power: I give this one the award for being very interesting. Really weird card, which I sort of like. You can chalk up some impressive bonuses on this for some investment in charge, which Akachi can get easily with Scrying or Alch. Transmutation. combo piece with potential for good bonuses. Definitely cool. Effective? Not sure. 3/5. I'll at least try it. And I appreciate that it's weird.

Scrying***: Much better than the original scrying. Akachi can definitely put the mythos deck on Lockdown if that's what she wants to do. 3/5. Probably worth it, if control is your thing.

Waylay: I was happy to see another Tactic for Mark to maybe play with, but then I actually read this and realized that like most of the other Tactics that aren't in Guardian... it isn't good for him. In Survivor though it's a decent, though expensive event. Good on Broods. 3/5 just for that.

A Chance Encounter**: Seems good I guess but who runs this? Pete for sure. Great for Pete, probably a must-have. 4/5 for him, 3/5 for anyone else.

Emergency Cache***: So, while I appreciate being able to load up on supplies... just not a whole lot that makes me really want to use it for that purpose. 2/5 now. Maybe 3/5 if we get some cards with Supplies on them that make it worth it.

16 hours ago, awp832 said:

But there are ways, like throwing this on a check against a 2 shroud location with Flashlight. 3/5. Not great, but good.

No Intellect pip. Wah, wah.

Probably best to use on an Evade or Fight that you think you can beat anyway. And as others have pointed out, if you can pair it with Double or Nothing, it turns three resources into twelve.

After reading the skills in this pack, I have decided that I need to start thinking of skills as less of something to help you pass tests and more of a method to get a zero resource, zero action cost power/ability. In a deck in which I have a lot of high cost cards, these skills can help the overall cost of the deck while still giving me useful abilities.

Here are my comments:

Inspiring Presence: I agree with you it probably best on Pete right now, even if it is out of class. There are 11 allies (not counting higher level ones) that exhaust, which is a fair amount. In a deck that features multiple tapping allies, this can be good.

Mano A Mano*: This I am thinking of as actually pretty decent, but it is competing for deck space with a lot of cards. The zero cost really drives it home for me. I find as a guardian, I spend a lot of time trying to kill monsters in the most efficient method and always wishing I had more resources. Sure it can clean up a 1 HP foe without a test but I am more thinking of using it similar to how I use viscous blow, to help take out those 3 or 5 health baddies without spending another ammo or use a skill card to make another test.

First Aid***: I am with you on this one.

Eureka!: This one is okay. Again, if you need more card draw than action success, its great.

Shortcut**: I actually am not that hot on this one. I really like the zero cost of the level zero version of the card. Its limits are very limiting since it can just move one person a turn. I also really like Pathfinder, so there is that.

Watch This!: Same way as I feel about the other new skills. I have to say for the resource class, Rogue's really need more level zero options for getting resources, so that is good.

.41 Derringer**: I thought better of this card until you wrote it the way you did, this card is just not that great.

Torrent of Power: This one I will struggle with a lot. Sometimes you need to pass that will check and this one will let you do that. That being said, Mystics usually come in hot in will anyhow so I am not positive losing another chance to cast Shriveling is worth a +3 to the current Shriveling (for example). This could be useful for dealing with broods (that scenario makes so many specific cards become so much better because of it)

Scrying***: I like it

Waylay: You got it, this one is good. I am really thinking of Wendy with this card.

A Chance Encounter**: Yeah Pete loves this. Really any ally dependent deck loves this. Yorrick has other options for getting allies back into play and Wendy tends to go pretty ally light (she likes events). In the game I am in now, one player is running Pete with L2 Sylvestre and L3 Aquinnah with Charisma. This would really step up these allies and increase his already insane survivability.

Emergency Cache***: Agreed. Its nice but usually you have better options for 3 xp.

27 minutes ago, CSerpent said:

No Intellect pip. Wah, wah.

d'oh.

I think Derringer is actually pretty great, but only on rogues that have decent fight already, which we don't really have yet. Skids with a beat cop could make decent use of it. If there's a 4 combat rogue in the future, I'd consider it. Action compression/additional actions are great. I would love to see a fight-y rogue with derringer, 2x quick thinking, leo, and the Pocketwatch. If Skid's had higher fight, even better due to his ability.

5 minutes ago, Soakman said:

I think Derringer is actually pretty great, but only on rogues that have decent fight already, which we don't really have yet. Skids with a beat cop could make decent use of it. If there's a 4 combat rogue in the future, I'd consider it. Action compression/additional actions are great. I would love to see a fight-y rogue with derringer, 2x quick thinking, leo, and the Pocketwatch. If Skid's had higher fight, even better due to his ability.

I also think a Jenny with a talent that can pump fight could use it well. She has the resources for it. She starts at a 5 so its not a stretch to get to a 6 or 7.

Also while its not that popular, Rogues do have Hired Muscle. I might need to take another look at that card.

21 hours ago, awp832 said:

Inspiring Presence: The ready effect is the interesting one here. There aren't that many allies that exhaust, but we have enough now that this could be interesting. I'm still not able to think of anything too good to do with it, and I generally don't use skill cards unless they are really, really strong. Icons are good though, healing is ok. So... 2/5.

I proxied this card into a ally-heavy Zoey deck in our Dunwich campaign and found it pretty useful. To me, the most obvious application of this card (and one that I had some success with) is with the upgraded Beat Cop. Being able to untap and heal them works pretty well. It's not insanely great or anything, but enough that it bumps the card up to at least a 3/5.

Emergency Cache would depend on who is using it. Weapon heavy investigators, such as all three guardians, Skips, Jenny, and William can benifet from this upgrade.

It is also a great insurance card for lock pick

Eureka is better than the double pip neutral cards. Instead of having 2 of one kind, you get 1 in 3 different, giving you flexibility. THen you get your pick of 3, so no chance of drawing a weakness off of it.
I mean you play Deduction and Viscious Blow. You don't always need double icon, sometimes one is enough.

2 hours ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

Emergency Cache would depend on who is using it. Weapon heavy investigators, such as all three guardians, Skips, Jenny, and William can benifet from this upgrade.

Weapons use „ammo“. Emergency Cache lvl. 3 adds only „supply“ tokens. (unliky Contraband, which doubles both.)

On 1/27/2018 at 5:41 PM, Astrophil84 said:

Weapons use „ammo“. Emergency Cache lvl. 3 adds only „supply“ tokens. (unliky Contraband, which doubles both.)

I like it in Guardian with First Aid. Guardian tends to have resource issues, so the extra resource saves you an action, while being able to refill your upgraded First Aid Kit seems pretty valuable too if the team has taken a beating.

I ind all the cards, save Mano A Mano, to be useful in some way in this pack. Mano A Mano would actually be a great Level 0 card, but at 1 pip, it seems over-costed for such a very narrow scope. That "play this only as your first action" really hurts the use of this card.

3 hours ago, HolySorcerer said:

I like it in Guardian with First Aid. Guardian tends to have resource issues, so the extra resource saves you an action, while being able to refill your upgraded First Aid Kit seems pretty valuable too if the team has taken a beating.

It can also recharge your Strange Solution.

2 hours ago, rsdockery said:

It can also recharge your Strange Solution.

And Flashlight!

10 hours ago, C2K said:

I ind all the cards, save Mano A Mano, to be useful in some way in this pack. Mano A Mano would actually be a great Level 0 card, but at 1 pip, it seems over-costed for such a very narrow scope. That "play this only as your first action" really hurts the use of this card.

Except it's a guaranteed damage with 0 resource cost. That's pretty significant and useful. Maybe better as a card for an investigator whose secondary role is Guardian.

2 hours ago, mwmcintyre said:

Except it's a guaranteed damage with 0 resource cost. That's pretty significant and useful. Maybe better as a card for an investigator whose secondary role is Guardian.

I suppose you could argue that it has a place in William Yorick. But its not reliable and Lantern does it better. Plus Lantern doesn't have to be the first action.

There is always a chance that Mano A Mano is before its time to shine, but that clause sucks the life out of any good combo so far.

4 hours ago, C2K said:

I suppose you could argue that it has a place in William Yorick. But its not reliable and Lantern does it better. Plus Lantern doesn't have to be the first action.

There is always a chance that Mano A Mano is before its time to shine, but that clause sucks the life out of any good combo so far.

Combo with Ambush. 3 damage without taking a test.

Mano a Mano doesn't work everywhere, but it does work. It mostly seems like a good way to make your limited use weapons last longer.

I am Roland with a lightning gun, engaged with a Avian Thrall (5 or 2 fight, 4 health).

I can use two charges of the lightning gun to inflict 6 damage on it. Alternately, I can use a zero cost Mano a Mano, one charge and save the 2nd charge for an upcoming enemy. There are a lot of enemies and weapon combos that fit into this situation.

On the other hand, if you are using a Machete, its probably best to skip this card.

Edit, while it does cost an XP, it is still just an XP. I think 2 extra ammo and 2 Mano a Mano can have a major effect on your ammo supply.

I still prefer it in Yorick. Combined with Lantern, Guard Dog, and Ambush, he deals a ton of testless damage. And he tends to run a pretty svelte deck, XP-wise, so spending 1 on this card isn't a big deal.

There are several reasons why I think Mano a Mano is just really weak. Let me explain a bit further.

Play only as your first action: This is crippling.

Costs 1 XP: Really sad. Not only do I have tons of things to spend my Guardian XP on, but this also prohibits non-guardian investigators from taking it as a way to defend themselves from weak enemies.

Basic melee: You probably can just punch them. Combat is your high stat, so if you need to do an extra 1 damage for an action to conserve some ammo, why not just use basic melee instead?

Takes deck space: At the end of the day, is this worth one of your 30 cards? I just really can't imagine a scenario where I would say that it is.

2 hours ago, Jobu said:

Mano a Mano doesn't work everywhere, but it does work. It mostly seems like a good way to make your limited use weapons last longer.

I am Roland with a lightning gun, engaged with a Avian Thrall (5 or 2 fight, 4 health).

I can use two charges of the lightning gun to inflict 6 damage on it. Alternately, I can use a zero cost Mano a Mano, one charge and save the 2nd charge for an upcoming enemy. There are a lot of enemies and weapon combos that fit into this situation.

On the other hand, if you are using a Machete, its probably best to skip this card.

Edit, while it does cost an XP, it is still just an XP. I think 2 extra ammo and 2 Mano a Mano can have a major effect on your ammo supply.

My thought exactly. Dealing with 1 and 4 HP enemies with Lightning gun is annoying. And don't forget about 3hp enemies when you don't have lightning gun to rely on.

Also on Hard and Expert, the ability to deal damage without revealing a token is exponentially more useful than on standard.

2 minutes ago, Network57 said:

I still prefer it in Yorick. Combined with Lantern, Guard Dog, and Ambush, he deals a ton of testless damage. And he tends to run a pretty svelte deck, XP-wise, so spending 1 on this card isn't a big deal.

I could also see it on Yorrick, he spends a lot of resources on pulling items out of discard, so a zero cost event is useful. Plus sometimes he needs to over extend himself to both kill a monster and get and get something out of his discard. This helps with that.

I could also see it on Zoey. She can get real ridiculous, with her cross, taunt, storm of spirits, guard dog, beat cop, let me handle this, heroic rescue etc. She can basically become a one woman dynamite.