(yes another spell topic) are Fist of Yog-Sothoth and Spectral Razor absolutely terrible? They seem quite inferior to Shriveling and Dread Curse, spells with debatable usefulness as it is. IMO, they are somewhat more specialized, and so should have a higher chance of performing well than they do. 2 sanity is far too much to pay for a two handed spell that might grant you no more than a +2 or +4 to your combat checks. I really think that Fist should be 2x the number of successes and Spectral Razor should be 3x or maybe even 4x - it would bring the average to roughly +6 for Fist and +9/+12 for Spectral Razor (Shriveling is decent, but I think Dread Curse is a bit weak for its costs as well, but at least it's a guaranteed +9 which is enough to kill most monsters).

You don't always have Dread Curse. Sometimes you have only Spectral Razor.

That's... not really the point. The point is that for the cost neither is as strong nor as reliable as they should be- the same argument could be made about other spells, but I think it especially applies here.

There are circumstances under which they're useful, like if you have Ancient Language, Dusty Manuscripts, or Library Use. Especially Library Use, in light of its Blessing synergy, I mean dang. But yeah, for the most part they're just there as unpredictable (and typically slightly crappier) counterparts of the standard combat spells.

Right, yeah. Library use and Glass of Mortlan (and other spell-boosting effects).

In general, right, they're not as useful as their predecessors. But the weaker one would be too strong with a sanity cost of 0, and the stronger one would be patently better with a sanity cost of 1.

If the spells had larger spell check modifiers they would be more worth it.

Thematically, it makes sense that the stronger combat spells would be harder to cast and require a higher sanity cost, but the benefits rarely justify the price.

I recall Spectral Razor being pretty good though. Doesn't it double the Combat check bonus for each success?(I don't have the card in front of me) And the casting modifier is favorable(+2, if I'm not mistaken) Anyhow, combat spells with a high sanity cost have their limited uses-when you have enough spell boosters, sanity-healing and cost canceling items and abilities to dish out some serious damage.I try to save them for final battle. It's good to keep extra spells anyway, for when you need to discard items, and there are some encounters that let you trade spells for clue tokens and other resources. I rarely if ever shop for spells, mostly getting new ones via encounters, due to their situational nature. I mostly prefer non-combat spells- Summon Shantak has proven to be handy many a time, for instance

yes they are pretty weak compared to other spells. but keep in mind, they are very unlikely to fizzle completely - you will always get at least something (contrary, all other combat spells are fail or pass only). besides this, they are much better when you are blessed or have other means to help your spellcasting. i also prefer a shrivelling anytime, but i think the spectral razor & co have justified stats.