So, I just got the sexy new Lurker expansion, and after searching the forums, there were a couple questions I still had about gaining power tokens.

1- Can you get power tokens the from the healing effect when you first receive a pact?

*Example: An investigator has 2 stamina out of a maximum 6. At the beginning of a turn, he opts to gain a Blood Pact. He would normally gain 4 stamina for taking it. Can he opt to take 4 power tokens instead? Basically, I'm wondering if the pact is considered "in play" and usable when you gain the stamina from taking it.

2- Can you mix and match power tokens and sanity/stamina when you get healed?

*Example: If an investigator goes to the asylum and heals multiple sanity, can he take some sanity and some power tokens?

3- Can "overflowing" stamina/sanity turn into power?

*Example- An investigator is missing 1 sanity and gets healed for 4, can he get 4 power tokens, or just 1?

4- If an investigator heals up to "Maximum Stamina" or sanity, does he get the option to gain his maximum value in power tokens, or power tokens equal to the amount he's missing?

*Example- Harvey Walters has 2 Sanity out of his maximum of 7, and has a Soul Pact. He goes to the Asylum and spends $2 to heal up to his maximum sanity. Can he gain 5 power power tokens or 7?

--personally, I hope you can't use overflowing healing to get power tokens. (questions 3 and 4.) It opens up a lot of potential abuse. You could stack a Healing Stone, a Heal spell, the Psychiatrist or doctors investigator abilities and multiple other effects to generate 4 or more power tokens for free each turn. If you had all 3 pacts you could easily blow all your power each turn, spending it any time there's a die roll, health or sanity loss, or money to spend, so you never have any power during the Mythos phase.

One complaint I've seen is how easy it is to get rid of Power Tokens, thus avoiding the worst reckoning cards. I have a house rule I'm thinking of implementing to make it harder to get rid of power tokens. The rule is that you can only use Power tokens after you've spent the "real" copies of the corresponding resource. So, you could only spend them for dice after all your clues are spent, for stamina loss after you've gone down to 1 stamina, and for money when you're out of dollars. (Example- If you got hit for 4 stamina and have only 2 left, you'd have to lose 1 stamina before spending power tokens to prevent being knocked unconscious.) I think this rule would also emphasize the desperate nature of accepting the Lurker's help.

Another possible house rule as an alternative or addition to the above would prevent "overspending" power tokens on die rolls. The rule would state that you can't spend any more power tokens after you've succeeded on a roll. As it stands, you can just blow all of it on a skill check you've already succeeded on, which seems anti-thematic. I think that for encounters with variable success charts, you could spend power tokens until you've achieved the most successes possible on the chart.

1- Can you get power tokens the from the healing effect when you first receive a pact?

No. At least, I doubt it.

2- Can you mix and match power tokens and sanity/stamina when you get healed?

Yes, I think so.

3- Can "overflowing" stamina/sanity turn into power?

I don't know. So far, I've been playing no (that is, in your example, only 1 Power).

4- If an investigator heals up to "Maximum Stamina" or sanity, does he get the option to gain his maximum value in power tokens, or power tokens equal to the amount he's missing?

This is the one I'm most unsure of. It could be that you aren't really "gaining" Stamina, merely bouncing it all back to Max. (Kind of like the difference between moving space-to-space and using the Patrol Wagon to just "blink" there.) Since it's even possible to use Power tokens for that $2 Hospital/Asylum bill, turning 2 Power into 5 Power for free seems extraordinarily abusive.

The rule is that you can only use Power tokens after you've spent the "real" copies of the corresponding resource. So, you could only spend them for dice after all your clues are spent, for stamina loss after you've gone down to 1 stamina, and for money when you're out of dollars.

I LIKE IT. Very innovative. Thumbs up!

As it stands, you can just blow all of it on a skill check you've already succeeded on, which seems anti-thematic. I think that for encounters with variable success charts, you could spend power tokens until you've achieved the most successes possible on the chart.

That never even occurred to me, since I never pay Clue tokens up front. Pay Clue, roll die, pay clue, roll die.....never pay 2 Clues, roll 2 dice. But you're absolutely right. Dumping all your Power into any skill check before you even roll it would be a perfectly legal way to ditch Power before a Reckoning. Nice catch!

Welcome to the Carnival, RCarter!

RCarter said:

I too support this. It is a really obvious yet effective interpretation of dark power.

Nicely thought, RCarter.

RCarter said:

1. No. When you first draw the blood pact it technically isn't immediately active for you to use the Any Phase ability. It is worded:

When you gain a Blood Pact, restore your Stamina to full.

Any Phase: While this card is refreshed, any time you would gain any amount of Stamina, you may instead gain that amount of Power.

You restore your stamina to full and THEN you may use the Any Phase ability.

2. Absolutely.

3. The wording on the card actually indicates that you can take the overflow in power, in your example, taking up to 4 power, even though you can only accept 1 stamina. You technically do gain 4 stamina, but since your investigator is at its max stamina after 1, the other 3 are not accepted. But since you WOULD gain them, you can gain them as power instead. However, since this seems to be blatantly over-powered, players are looking for clarification on this.

4. In your example, you could gain up to 5 power tokens; the ability for the Arkham Asylum is worded:

You may either regain 1 Sanity for free, or pay $2 to restore your Sanity to its maximum value.

It has already been answered that you can gain power through the location abilities of the Asylum and the Hospital, so I would say that you can gain a free power token instead of gaining a sanity or stamina, regardless if you are at maximum or not (per the same reasons as #3) or you can pay $2 to gain power tokens up to the difference between your maximum value and your current value. If you're Harvey Walters, and your current sanity is 2, you can pay $2 to gain up to 5 power tokens, since the location ability says restore "to its maximum value," and not "gain up to your maximum value." When you spend $2 at the Asylum, you don't gain 7 sanity, you gain the difference between 7 and your current value.

I'm sorry to dig up this post, but I got here through search...

Regarding point 3, did any official clarification get out on this?

Just to make it clear, I'm interested in the effect of the Heal spell when used in conjuction with blood pact.

Aracnes said:

As far as I know, no. I sent some questions (including questions about power tokens) to the games rules support at FFG a long time ago, and while I had a good track record of getting answers back really fast, this time it's been almost a year. Still waiting.