Anybody know the reason for the nerf to these allies? eg. The old Erich Weiss gave +2 Spell and +2 Evade. The revised Erich Weiss gives only +2 Evade. I'm just having a hard time replacing the stronger version with the weaker version. I know it's up to me which version I keep in the game, it just somehow feels incomplete to me to play with all revised components with the exception of the 3 or 4 allies.

Musha Shukou said:

Oooh, I know, I know! Because the old Allies were TOO POWERFUL, especially when compared to the non-CotDP allies. After we'd played with the origional CotDP alllies for a while I joked to my brother that they should be the ones trying to save Arkham, and we should be their allies.

Musha,

I use only the old Allies in my games. In fact, it's not that I find the older version more powerful, I instead find the newer version far less powerful. It stems from the fact that the older versions provided a benefit in terms of the Investigator;s "secondary" (Evade, Combat, Horror, and Spell) Skill checks, vice the "primary" (Sneak, Fight, Will, and Lore) Skill checks. So while a Father Iwanicki provides a +2 to Evade and +2 Horror, a Professor Armitage provides a +2 Lore (which by extension provides a +2 to Spell checks) and a Ryan Dean who provides a +1 Sneak and +1 Will (by extension provides a +1 Evade and a +1 Horror to those checks).

Musha,

the Professor explained exactly even my thoughts. I don't like unbalanced games, but old CotDP allies were great. Both thematically and strategically. And they're not that overpowered when compared to some of the Kingsport allies. I still don't have the revised edition yet, but I think I'll use only some of the new components.

Wow, I can read Julia's thoughts...

The Professor said:

me too! (since you typed them out for us.. )

Julia said:

Yeah... I do love the old CotDP allies... Without them there's not going to be much incentive for me to get an ally... Well... Maybe a bit... Maybe I'll keep some and dump others. I'll need to do an analysis of how they compare to the other allies first though. Will probably use the new Messenger though (the whole Cursed ally angle is pretty cool, as much as I loved being able to get that powerhouse).

The Professor said:

::laughter::

Taurmindo said:

::rofling::

Avi_dreader said:

I'm glad to see that you all feel the same way I do. I ended up keeping all the old allies and putting the new ones aside. However, I am still incorporating the new The Messenger ally card cause I really like how that one works. So I have both copies of The Messenger in my ally deck and when I am drawing my 11 allies at the setup, if I ever draw both, I don't include whichever one gets drawn second.

I would also like to know the reasoning behind the ally nerf.

I mean, +2 to two derived skills equals + 2 to one attribute. Even if the the two derived skills are both very useful, there's a disadvantage of not having the bonus on a straight skill check (which are most common in encounters). I always thought the CoDP allies were reasonably well balanced. Now, a few of them are obviously weaker than most of the allies.

Musha Shukou said:

Huh... That's kind of an interesting fix. I'm not sure if I'd use it though... I mean... As much as I love +2 +2, there's only one cursed ally in the game :')

Avi_dreader said:

Very, very true. I, too, am allured by the ally with a detrimental value. But, among my playing group, I am one of the only ones that appreciates the challenge rather than just playing to win. So leaving both in was a compromise; a concession on my part. ::laughs::

The updated encounter requires you only to have an exhibit item, not a Mask item. I left the old one in because it was more thematic. I want The Messenger to be a very rare acquisition, and I want the players to have a hint what he represents by noting that they need to own a Mask.

Musha Shukou said:

Wellll it's not just that it's a challenge, it's more like it's extremely interesting... Besides :') who said anything about the messenger being detrimental, you just fight your way to being devoured when you have him as an ally, and you'll end up with a new character with a bunch of monster trophies and fewer doom tokens? :') Maybe. I don't know... It's hard to say what'd be worth two doom tokens... I wonder how many turns it'd take on average to get devoured if you're trying to do it just by getting knocked out or driven insane? Anyone want to do the math on this one? I'm way too tired to even try to figure out if I can figure out this one...

Einlanzer80 said:

It's too easy to abuse them on a street-sweeper, though - especially Erica "Combat Monster" Carlyle, Dan Packard and the Messenger. When you're never having encounters, there's no drawback to only getting a Fight or Will bonus in combat.