Hi everybody,
I've a little doubt buzzing into my mind since quite a long time. I've always considered Cultist to be "normal cultist" while all other monsters were considered "other kind of monsters". In case a monster has to be treated as a Cultist, it is influenced by AO's special powers affecting cultists, but still remains a different monster. For example, I've always played that a Child of the Goat has +2 toughness when playing against Ithaqua, but still remains a Child of the Goat.
After a game against Rhan-Tegoth, Dam made me notice that every Child of the Goat should have been treated as a Cultist and thus, after being drawn, placed on RT sheet, triggering a +1 doomer. This shouldn't have changed the result of the game, but gave me a lot to think about. I started wondering about the correct way for handling cultist. Some examples:

- AO: Abhoth. all Cultists have to be returned to the box at the start of the game. This seems to imply that even monsters treated as Cultist have to be removed. So no Child of the Goat, no Dark Druid and so on (and playing with the BGotW as a Herald without the Dark Druid seems to be quite odd, to me at least)

- Rita Personal Story: she needs a Cultist as a trophy, in order to pass the story. So every monster treated as a Cultist is ok for her to pass the story? By extension, she can never pass her PS with Abhoth as AO

- Handcuffs: a Child of the Goat, the Dark Druid and all monster treated as Cultists are automatically defeated by an investigator equipped with Handcuffs. Isn't this too powerful?

Any thoughts / ideas on how to play correctly?

I've never seen an overall "treated as" clause. Where is this mentioned?

I'd think the treated as cultists monsters would be effected and affect anything that requires or affects cultists. Anyone else?

Yes, for all practical purpouses they are cultists they just have a different base stats and a couple extra powers.

Can someone steer me toward this "treated as cultist" rule/specification?

There is no "treated as cultist" rule. it is a statement made on some monster tokens in BGotW specifically the Dark Druid and Child of the Goat.

Ahh, I've only had that expansion for a few days, so I didn't notice. Thanks.

Veet said:

Thanks Veet and all the others for answering!