Running pretty well for my first game through and I encountered an interesting situation. while an investigator is in one of the outer worlds, an unmoveable monster appears on the only exit gate. Now if I read the rules correctly, when the investigator emerges from the gate, he/she does NOT have to encounter the monster THIS turn. The rules also say that after emerging from the on the next AE phase an attempt to close that gate can be made. So if I figure this right, when the investigator returns, they can attempt to close it that turn, and will not have to face the monster until he/she either tries to leave or stays put to make another closing attempt. Am I correct in this? Also, if an investigator enters a location with a monster and a gate, they are immediately transported to the outer world and make no checks vs. monster, correct. Will post more as I come across them

You are correct on the first point. When you leave an OW and reenter Arkham you don't have to deal with any monsters guarding that gate until the next turn. Now when you enter a location with a gate you DO have to encounter the monster before you enter the OW because the encounter happens at the end of that character's Movement phase while entering the OW happens during the Arkham Encounter phase. Basically any time you end your Movement phase and there's a monster in the area with you it's evade/combat time regardless of whether or not you moved except on the turn when you leave an OW.

If the investigator returns during Upkeep or Movement phase, then he may try to close the gate without dealing with the monsters.

If he returns during OW encounters or Mythos phase, the turn will have ended before his next chance to close the gate, so he will have to deal with the monster(s).

Also, it's not "fight," so much as "deal with." This includes evading. So on the rare chance that an investigator returns during the Upkeep phase, he may use his Movement phase to leave the location without evading any of the monsters. Of course he will have to re-enter the gate if he wants to close it.

On your second point, however, you are mistaken. The normal way to enter a gate is during the Arkham Encounters phase. Which means you have to do your full Movement phase first: including fighting and evading any monsters on the gate.

Ok thanks for those answers. Now here are a couple of more questions. If an investigator ends his/her movement on a location with a monster present. since that person ended their movement there, they must deal with the monster right away. Now if they kill the monster in combat, do they still do an encounter for that location in the AE phase? I would say yes. But what happens if they evade said monster. Do they still do an encounter or not? and what happens if they do get an encounter and a card specific monster, that doesn't stay, appears, then do they just deal with the one?

Tibs said:

I thought a monster encounter started as soon as you try to leave the area with the monster.

Tyrant242 said:

The Encounter Phase doesn't depend on the Movement Phase: locations are big enough for an investigator to hide from monsters and have a normal AE phase. So, in your case, if the investigator simply evades the monsters, no probs with him drawing an Encounter card. This is really important under a strategical POV: sometimes when you come back from an OW, you fail your closing check and have to wait for another round. In case there are monsters over the gate you cannot fight, simply maximize your Sneak, evade them all and then during the Encounter phase, close / seal the gate normally

As for monster appearing as a result of an encounter, you simply have to decide whether you want to evade or fight it. In case you evade, simply return the token to the monsters cup. In case you fight, proceed with combat according to the normal rules

arkhamresident said:

It does, and likewise you have to encounter them when you end your movement phase in a space with them, but on the turn you come back from the other world you get a "freebie."

Come to think of it, maybe the freebie doesn't apply to leaving; only to staying.

Tibs said:

Yeah I thought it only applied if you stayed but there's a pretty good chance I misremembered the rule.

Well as I understood the rule, if someone moves out from the OW to a gate location (movement phgase) and there is a monster there, they do not have to bother with it until the next turn. Since your movement this turn is already spent, whether you move or stay put the next turn you would still have to deal with it. Oh and now I remember my other question. If you cast a spell such as wither where you only exhaust it, does the effect last that combat round or for the entire combat. So if my spell gives me a +3 say, and I still fail, go through with fight or flight, and I fight again, is it still active or not? And if it is still active, can I cast another such spell next round and stack the effect?

Tyrant242 said:

Yes, that's correct. The monster won't leave the location it shares with you, so you'll have to deal with it on your next turn.

Tyrant242 said:

If you look at the stickied thread "official answers by Kevin Wilson", there is quite a long digression on this topic, IIRC. But anyway, whenever a spell says "until the end of the combat", you should read "as long as my investigator devolves hand(s) to the spell and keeps on fighting this monster,the spell is active". Thus a Wither spell can be active for several combat checks. If a weapon, or a spell, is intended to give you a bonus on a single check, it's stated "to gain xy bonus to that check"

Effects of spells do stack (you can have two shrivelling active, for instance) but please remember that spells can require hands; in case they do, you cannot have more that two hands equipped (for example, you can have two Shrivelling active, but not 2 Dreaded curse of Azathoth)