Hi Guys

Using this card as an example, when can it be cast? ...

We've been playing it can be cast anytime during the game ... during my turn or another investigators turn but always BEFORE they go into combat, which is the gamble you take once per round.

Any thoughts? ... Walts

Well...the example spell you gave is pretty clear to me:

- You may play Flesh Wars once per round and when an investigator would lose health .

You are an Investigator and the other players are Investigators...so you could use that spell once in that round to prevent 1 Investigator to lose up to 2 health.

Normally everything is said on the card.

it depends on the card. Cards that say Action: in front are a Component action, and thus cost one action to cast. See Conjuration, Feed the Mind, Blessing of Isis. Other cards will say during the Encounter phase, and generally I play it that spells modifying the encounter phase are the first things resolved since that makes the most sense. That's spells like Mists of R'lyeh or Clairvoyance. Finally, you have spells that break general order like Flesh ward or Instill Courage. Those come up when whatever effect prompts them.

So in the case of Flesh ward, whenever an investigator is about to take damage, whether from a monster, an encounter, a rumor, or a mythos effect you can cast Flesh Ward to prevent it, provided that you haven't already used it earlier in the round. It doesn't have to be your turn specifically, it doesn't take an action, and it doesn't have to be resolved before the actual encounter.

it depends on the card. Cards that say Action: in front are a Component action, and thus cost one action to cast. See Conjuration, Feed the Mind, Blessing of Isis. Other cards will say during the Encounter phase, and generally I play it that spells modifying the encounter phase are the first things resolved since that makes the most sense. That's spells like Mists of R'lyeh or Clairvoyance. Finally, you have spells that break general order like Flesh ward or Instill Courage. Those come up when whatever effect prompts them.

So in the case of Flesh ward, whenever an investigator is about to take damage, whether from a monster, an encounter, a rumor, or a mythos effect you can cast Flesh Ward to prevent it, provided that you haven't already used it earlier in the round. It doesn't have to be your turn specifically, it doesn't take an action, and it doesn't have to be resolved before the actual encounter .

Hi WG

Thanks for that, but I'm not 100% sure of the last ( highlighted ) sentence. The card says " would lose health", which to me means you have to cast it before an encounter, thus losing the spell in a gamble that the investigator might lose health during a combat encounter?

This is where we've been getting a bit confused ... that some spells NEED to be cast before encounters and help protect investigators from losing health/sanity and some cards ( not just spells ) can be after a loss of health/sanity. Here's the back of the same card ...

... which shows the following text ... " harden against attack ", which is too prevent damage BEFORE the attack?

Any thoughts?

Thanks, Walts

"The harden against attack" line is flavor text describing the extra benefit. I wouldn't worry over much about it.

In case of "would" that's because if Flesh Ward hadn't been cast, you would have taken damage. You don't know going into a combat encounter whether you will take damage at all; a successful combat check means you would not take damage. Therefore, you can't know if you would or would not take damage until after that check is made, and therefore, that is when you should cast the spell.

The spell is cast "when an Investigator would lose Health". Do you lose health at the beginning of a combat encounter? Not normally.

Hi WG

Your points do make sense. I guess we're still a bit confused about the terminology used and some of the other phrases floating about ... " unless " ... " or " ... which are causing us slight headaches, but we're getting official responses to help us along the way.

To be honest, we could do with some help, we're 0-4 losses to date ... so this would work in our favour!

Thanks, Walts

Hi Walts,

In my opinion, you're "overthinking" this. It's very difficult for me to believe that "Instill Bravery" or "Flesh Ward" is intended to be cast every time an investigator could potentially lose either sanity or health. That would really over-extend game play and lead to a ton of wasted effort.

It seems clear that these spells are to be used after an investigator has been hit with a sanity or health loss to attempt to reverse it, not before the fact. So I just want to weigh in with a vote of +1 for what Wolfgar said.