Hank Samson

Some rules I had reviewed when trying out Hank for the 1st time, collected for your reference :

  • Engaged enemies attacks in order of your choosing. Each attack "dealt" damage / horror, then you have to go through assign then apply, then you continue to the next enemy's attack. Hank's full heal ability can be triggered in the apply step inside each attack. This allow you to intentionally take smaller enemy attacks first such that you goes to the brim (4/4) before taking the biggest hit the last to go way past 5/5, then perform full heal.
  • When using Hank's ability to tank for others, you must place damage / horror tokens on Hank Samson card and not any other soak assets he has. The "dealt" occurs to other investigator, when they are going through their assign step (which they can assign to their own soaks as normal), the ability additionally allow using Hank Samson card as if he is their own soak asset. "You" in Hank's ability does not allow using any other assets Hank controls, "you" only works that way in response to taking / being dealt step, this is already the assign step.
  • The Ally clause allow Hank to take hits for treacheries/ability that specifically said to deal damage/horror to Ally asset. (Worded like on Beat Cop (2), Field Agent, ...) But if it said deal "direct" damage/horror to Ally then you can't. (Like TCU Spoiler.) Hank's ability work in assign step and direct damage/horror rule said it "cannot be assigned or re-assigned elsewhere".

5argon · 11118
I'm not sure if Peter's heal is going to be blocked by his bond card's You cannot be healed. In previous ruling being dealt damage includes asset being dealt damage, would that also mean being healed include asset being healed? In that case, Peter's healing will be blocked. — ben_feng0415 · 1
I don't think you can use his reaction to take damage over his maximums, but if he us being hit by the attack himself I think that works fine. — Xenas · 7
Only assets are forbidden from taking damage/horror over what their health/sanity would allow. Investigator cards can take any amount of damage/horror (in fact they must take all leftover damage/horror not assigned elsewhere) so Hank could easily tank, say, 100 direct horror and come out looking even better. — koaexe · 30
The resolute versions state “You” cannot be healed, which means Hank. This does not have any effect on assets that can heal themselves such as Peter Sylvester. — nckjnsn · 1
Cards like his signature “Stouthearted” and “Right place, wrong time” can heal resolute Hank because they move damage rather than heal it. — nckjnsn · 1
How this works with agenda 2b of the first Carcosa Scenario? This means he can survive — vak36 · 1
@vak36 The designers of that scenario were certainly not foreseeing Hank Samson and I'm sure their intent was for everyone to be defeated by horror at that point. But rules as written Hank survives and the scenario continues without an Agenda, because a scenario can only end if you reach a resolution or if every investigator is eliminated. This doesn't break the game. There are scenario that are in fact intended to continue even after the last agenda advanced. It would just mean that Hank can continue to play until he either resigns or he's defeated. — Killbray · 12370
Does his elder sign in the resolute version actually kills peter sylvestre ? since it's "Move 1 damage" if you have damage and only peter you actually have to kill peter... — Lagomorph · 1
No, reaction triggers are also optional. You don't HAVE to move a damage to an asset, just CAN do it, if you want to. — Susumu · 381
@Susumu: Elder sign abilities are NOT reaction abilities, and are NOT optional (although *specific* elder sign abilities like on Stella/Rex/Dexter/Wilson/etc might have options within them). ST.4 says "The [elder sign] symbol indicates that the [elder sign] abilityon the investigator card belonging to the player performing the test must activate." To highlight for clarity: "MUST activate". One cannot ignore an elder sign ability any more than one can ignore a spooky token ability on the scenario reference card -- and indeed, ST.4 uses the same "must activate" text for them too. That all being said: personally I think this was a major oversight in Hank's design, and I fully support playgroups *houseruling* the token-movement of Hank's elder sign to be optional. But strictly per the rules, it is clearly and unfortunately mandatory. — anaphysik · 97
Gah gah gah, to note: the text says "must INITIATE" (highlighting mine), not 'activate'. That's what I get for typing it out rather than copy-pasting... The conclusion remains the same, however. — anaphysik · 97
You can take direct damage from gators on your assets like true grit, but cannot take direct ally damage on yourself? What's that suppose to mean? — vak36 · 1
@vak36 Hank's ability canNOT interact with direct damage/horror at all (nor can cards like True Grit; Calvin's Until the End of Time is a special exception). E.g. there are many treacheries that deal direct damage to Ally assets -- Hank cannot place that damage on his investigator card instead. What he CAN do is interact with the costs on Beat Cop(2), Grete Wagner, and Field Agent, as these don't say "direct". (Also, be aware that Hank's ability only lets his investigator card take damage/horror for others; it doesn't let any of his assets do so.) — anaphysik · 97
"Devil"

In Dealing Damage/Horror rule, after you assigned all the damage / horror tokens, the apply damage/horror step goes in this order : Investigator > Enemy > Asset. Sometimes this mattered such as trying to make Devil explode in Enemy Phase. If the assign step would defeat you at the same time Devil, you get defeated first and elimination rule will discard Devil before it could explode.

5argon · 11118
There are only two steps in the order. What you are describing is the bullet points for Step 2. Nothing in the rules suggests a priority order for them. In fact, the rules specify that damage is applied simultaneously. And since Devil's Forced effect has a 'when' timing, it will resolve before the effects of defeat resolve for the investigator and Devil. — Death by Chocolate · 1488
If damage/horror was only applied to assets last, you could never assign damage to an asset until your investigator was dead. — Sepia_Penguin · 344
Drain Essence

This card is perfect for Parallel Agnes, especially in the first few scenarios. You can now safely run In the Thick of It and put the trauma to HP as you now have another reliable way to pseudo-heal (aside from Hallowed Mirror of course).

ichinokata00 · 598
Given the way timing works, I'm assuming || Agnes would take the damage first to use her ability, then immediately shift it to the enemy as an outcome of the spell. So she can self-fund and immediately heal, no trauma needed. — Time4Tiddy · 247
Rita Young

Looks like Rita will get a new lease on life with all the fun Trick cards in Hemlock Vale. She's always been one of my favorites, and I'm really looking forward to testing out some "made for Rita" economy actions like Grift to Snitch. Bewitching seems like it was made for her. She'll get good use out of False Surrender (Done Runnin' indeed!) and can Vamp to get maximum results from an easy (for her) evasion test. Now I just want to see Rita doing some running in her Fine Clothes!

Time4Tiddy · 247
The Hatchet is also a really good weapon for her. She attack with it at huge skill value and can easily find ping damage to finish off victims. — OrionAnderson · 114
Microscope

Finally a (relatively) cheap and effective answer to Roland Banks's terrible, terrible weakness. Play it out early, load it up with charges, and clear Cover Up with one test in one round.

Synergizes with Hand-Eye Coordination, which also combos with Chuck West 3 to let you investigate while engaged for free damage.

CombStranger · 287
Sadly, <a href="/card/10030" data-hasqtip="1" aria-describedby="qtip-1">Hand-Eye Coordination</a> only ignores the first <span class="icon-action"></span> according to the FAQ, so that wouldn't work. My freescopin' dreams are shattered. — Groovinator · 1
Er, sorry for the above comment, thought that would work. Basically, Hand-Eye Coordination only ignores the first action cost according the the FAQ, so it wouldn't synergize very well with Microscope. — Groovinator · 1
Great point, CombStranger. Roland's weakness is ludicrously harsh, and this is a good enough card in its own right to warrant inclusion in most decks that are a bit on the cluey side. — Dr_Shigogo · 1