Transfiguration

Ereignis

Ritual.

Cost: 0. XP: 2.

Mystiker

Choose another investigator card from your collection. Until the end of the game, treat the front of your investigator card as if it were the front of the chosen card, instead (including your skill values, traits, abilities, and elder sign effect). Max once per game.

Brian Valenzuela
Die Versunkene Stadt (Ermittler-Erweiterung) #76.
Transfiguration

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: I have a couple related questions about Transfiguration.
    • When you use it while you have cards placed facedown beneath your investigator (say as Diana Stanley) and use Transfiguration, what happens to the cards beneath your investigator? If they stay there, are you able to use them if your new investigator front also interacts with cards facedown beneath them? (For example you Transfigure into George Barnaby from Diana Stanley. Can you now commit the facedown cards that were placed beneath you while you were Diana Stanley?)
    • Additionally, how does the answer change for Investigators where the cards are not explicitly face down? Say for example you start as Sefina and Transfigure into Amanda? And likewise does the answer change when you go from an investigator with face up cards beneath them to an investigator that interacts with face down cards beneath them, or vice versa? Would you create two separate “stacks” of cards beneath you, one face up and one face down, and you’re only able to interact with the pile that is relevant for your current Investigator front?
  • A: Any cards beneath the original investigator card remain in their same position and state (e.g. faceup/facedown) when Transfiguration treats it as a new investigator card. As long as the new investigator card refers to such cards in the exact same way as the original, then the new one can interact with those cards as well. To be more specific:
    • If the Diana Stanley player uses Transfiguration to treat their investigator card as George Barnaby’s, the facedown cards beneath the Diana card are/can be used for George’s abilities, including for checking George’s hand size or committing those cards to skill tests.
    • If the Sefina Rosseau player uses Transfiguration to treat their investigator card as Amanda Sharpe, since both investigators place cards faceup beneath themselves, Amanda is able to use those cards for her ability, choosing one of them each time she performs a skill test that round. Note that when Amanda’s first ability discards “the card” beneath her, you should discard “each” card beneath her instead; you should only have multiple cards beneath Amanda for that one round.
    • If the Diana player used Transfiguration to treat their investigator card as Amanda, they could not use cards placed facedown beneath their investigator card for Amanda’s abilities, because Amanda does not specifically interact with facedown cards. Similarly, if a player used Transfiguration to treat Sefina as George, the faceup cards beneath their investigator card could not be used for George’s abilities. (Ruling, March 2025)
Last updated

Reviews

So what else can you do with this card? The first two things that come to my mind:

1) Get Lola Hayes's versatile and combo-enabling card pool access without being restricted by her roles.

2) Fun times - supercharge Diana Stanley or George Barnaby via staring out as Sefina Rousseau!

3) Norman Withers finally being able to play Yaotl!

( 4) Save yourself from the terrible statline of Lost Homunculus.)

AlderSign · 417
What is the combo with Lola? Everyone is all excited to play her with this card but I have yet to hear anyone suggest anything useful to do with Lola + Transfiguration. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
Lola has text on her front that prevents her from using abilities from more than one class at a time. If you use this to change to any other investigator she no longer has that text, so you can activate all your abilities freely. Lola is one of very few investigators whose investigator front card text is an active detriment, so getting rid of that detriment **and** adding another ability of your choose is pure goodness — NarkasisBroon · 11
So perhaps the reason you haven't heard any specific proposals is because there are so many. Turning into literally any investigator gets rid of her restriction, **and** gives her a new ability of your choice. For my part I'm most interested in transforming into Norman or Winifred. Norman because you get his look at the deck ability, and have a crazy deck to use it with. Winifred because you get her commit draw ability, but your deck can have astronomical atlas and almost any skill in the game. Any skill of level 3 or below, because of lolas deckbuilding — NarkasisBroon · 11
What I'm asking is WHY Lola's card pool makes this investigators better? What does Lola add to the equation? The way Transfiguration breaks the game is letting you get high level cards into decks that can't normally take them. What can Lola offer thats better than level 4-5 cards? — Pseudo Nymh · 67
@Pseudo Nymh: It's the fact that you get level 0-3 cards of 3 different classes. No other investigator offers that potential, at least not without additional restrictions (e.g. Charlie Kane, who can take level 0-5 Ally assets). They probably printed the disadvantage on Lola's investigator card to disallow strong synergies between those, and like NarkasisBroon suggested, there are many. If you're looking for examples I think that's better discussed on Lola's page itself. — AlderSign · 417
Since the review's first point is that Lola is great with Transfiguration I really don't think I'm out of line to discuss Lola's use of the card. I observe that I still haven't heard an example of a combo that Lola can set up better than another investigator, but I'll leave it at that. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
My mistake, the situation is even better, now that I remember Lola doesn't choose classes at all, she simply has access to all of them (corrected it in the review). Apart from that, here is more for you to observe, Pseudo "Tough Crowd" Nymh: Translolaration is the answer every time you ask yourself why you can't include this particular card in your deck, although it would synergize sooooo well with your investigator (e.g. having Guard Dog (2) in Daniela Reyes). So, if being Amanda Sharpe with access to an s-load amount of skills besides her Practiced ones and all kind of additional actions (e.g. Ace in the Hole) isn't enough to convince you I don't know what is. — AlderSign · 417
@Aldersign thanks for providing some examples. Thanks also for the sweet nickname, I may go by Tough Crowd Nymh from now on. :) Re-reading my comments this morning I feel that I've not done a very good job establishing where I'm coming from and why I’m having such a hard time seeing what everyone else is seeing in this combo. Perhaps I will clarify my position (and spin off this conversation) into its own review. Thanks everyone for your replies. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
@Tough Crowd Nymh: Happy to help! I too am a friend of skepticism, though, so I think I got your point (indeed, my review is quite minimalistic and thin). I bow my head to the maturity of your comment and am looking forward to a follow-up review :) — AlderSign · 417
A way to improve any deck without big combos would be permanent cards like 2x studious, 2x another dolar, stick to the plan and bewitching,.. — Django · 5164

I feel like turning from Father Mateo into William Yorick will be extremely funny. Not only can you use Yorick's ability to infinitely pull your Codex and thus be able to recur anything in your graveyard instead of merely being limited to assets, but it lets Yorick wield some pretty good high end weapons.

Blessed Blade(4), Holy Spear, etc!

I do also find the idea of Daisy Walker turning herself into Mandy Thompson to be pretty humorous. Finally, pre-taboo 30 card Mandy is back! (with slightly different deckbuilding requirements, and no signatures, but hey.)

nictron90 · 11
*pre-taboo, 30-card Mandy... without Mandy's weakness ! — DrOGM · 25
Makes sense, since Yorick is already a good candidate for a bless deck! — AlderSign · 417
The main problem I see with this is that you need to pay 2 resources to replay the Codex every time, so if you want to pull <span class="icon-elder_sign"></span> on every test, Yorick would need to be filthy rich. Also, you unfortunately lose the 5 bonus exp of Mateo if you want to use the good level 4/5 weapons. — Minethlos · 3
For being filthy rich, since this is gonna be in a bless setup, can just run Rite of Sanctification, and you're replaying it for 0 every time. Also, I don't see why you'd lose the 5xp? Non-paralell back Mateo has 'blessed cards level 0-5' and the 5 xp. — nictron90 · 11
Wait no I'm stupid he has blessed 0-3, you're right. — nictron90 · 11
Antiquary solves the cost issue. Timeworn Brand would fit with both of those as well. — WhispererInSnarkness · 1

Thanks to "You owe me one!" and Black Market, you can potentially turn anyone into anyone else. Having Norman Withers pick up a copy might be the best way to set up a guaranteed hit on Black Market, or let a teammate know when to play You Owe Me One without table talk. So what is this crazy thing actually good for?

  • Access an investigator's stats and ability without having to cope with their weakness

  • Combine one investigator's signature card or deck building options with another's abilities.

  • Swap in or out of Investigators whose abilities affect set-up, are one-shot, or have notably better value in the late game or early game.

  • Theoretically you could just take it as a toolbox card planning to adapt yourself to the needs of specific scenarios. But it's probably not really worth it without a plan.

What am I most excited for?

  • Turning Preston Fairmont into anyone who's not Preston Fairmont. You get real stats + a special ability + remove the handicap on normal resource-generation effects. The same "My ability is really a permanent" trick works to bring Lily Chen's disciplines or Luke's Gat Box into any other investigator.

  • Turning any mystic into Patrice Hathaway so you can draw 5 cards per turn with a lean deck and access to level 5 purple.

  • Turning other Seekers into Norman Withers or Monterey Jack to get their powerful abilities without thier deckbuilding restrictions.

  • Turning Sister Mary into Michael McGlen?

  • Turning anyone with a lot of healing directly into the second-stage versions of Hank Samson, or turning Hank Samson into someone else to get around his no-healing rule.

OrionAnderson · 125
I think you are missing a few restrictions here; Preston, Lily and Hank can't take it. And why the hell would you turn Mary into Micheal? — AlderSign · 417
You missed the first line of the review Alder. You owe me one and Black Market mean anyone could end up playing this card. — Spamamdorf · 5
Thanks, I kind of missed that everything afterwards is based on thosd cards. But still, why Mary -> Michael? — AlderSign · 417
More HP for a guardian! — MrGoldbee · 1494
Mary to Michael for the ultimate nun with a gun — Jota · 7
Preston to Jenny. Now that would be the ultimate big money build--get your minimum wage of $6 per round — liwl0115 · 42
But Preston cannot play this card. — AlderSign · 417

Lola Hayes is the very worst investigator to put this card in. Change my mind.

To clarify this discussion, I’m going to make a distinction between the Investigator you start the game as (the Base investigator) and the investigator you Transfigure into mid-scenario (the Landing investigator). My comments all have to do with Lola as the Base investigator, and apply to both pre- and post-taboo Lola.

With that out of the way, let's get to why Lola is the game’s worst possible Base investigator. There are three clear drawbacks to Lola as a Base:

1: She can’t take level 4-5 cards. Sure, you can do a lot with level 0-3 cards, but if we’re going to be giving up high level cards I would expect to get something pretty great in return and Lola has very little to offer in exchange.

2: Lola’s larger-than average decksize means she’s less likely to draw Transfiguration in her opening hand. Also her limited ability to combine draw effects from multiple classes hinders her ability to dig through her deck quickly if she doesn’t draw it early.

3: Her weakness (Crisis of Identity) can discard your cards before you even get to play them. Crisis discards cards from the top of your deck as well as your hand and/or play area, so there is nowhere a card is totally safe from being trashed by Crisis. The worst case is that Transfiguration gets discarded before you can play it, but even after you’ve Transfigured, Crisis might discard whatever cards you were using Lola to get. On top of all this, Lola also has two copies of Crisis, doubling the chances for things to go wrong.

There are other Base investigators who face some of these drawbacks, but Lola is uniquely situated to face all three drawbacks every scenario. And all of this is on top of the fact that she has a difficult-to-leverage statline and an investigator ability that is all downside. Any combo that can be set up by another Base will always be better set up by that other Base, since that investigator comes with fewer drawbacks and more strengths to lean into.

The only upside to using Lola as a Base is her broad card access. The things she offers that other Base investigators can't is 3+ class combos, or combos of multiple level 3 cards (and not all examples from these categories are unique to Lola). And I cannot think of a combo that fits this criteria that convinces me to risk all the negatives of starting out as Lola.

That said, the number of possible decks available to Lola are nigh unlimited, so I certainly haven’t considered every possible option. If people would like to comment below their best examples of cards that they would put in a Lola + Transfiguration deck I would be interested to hear them. So far, despite lots of chatter on the internet, I have yet to hear a single example of a Lola-specific setup that would make me consider taking on all her negatives.

Hit me with your best Lola + Transfiguration builds. If you post something truly awesome maybe you'll be the one to change Pseudo "Tough Crowd" Nymh's mind!

Until then, I stand by my opinion that Lola is simply the worst possible investigator to take Transfiguration.

Pseudo Nymh · 67
Disclaimer: This review, like all reviews, is solely my opinion, and I acknowledge opinions to the contrary are just as valid. Please keep all discussion civil. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
The thing about Lola that has people excited is that she’s uniquely the investigator whose benefits are on her back and drawbacks are on her face. For this reason, the delta between standard Lola and transfigured Lola seems greater than between other investigators and their transfigured version. So I’d respond to your question by suggesting that Lola, unlike all the other investigators, doesn’t need a broken combo to justify her transfiguring. — Eudaimonea · 5
You're right that Lola stands to gain the most by becoming another investigator, but I'm pretty sure the question this review is posing is "why bother playing Lola in the first place" — Spamamdorf · 5
I agree with your conclusion: Lola Transfiguration decks will probably not be that good compared to what other people can do with it. But I disagree with your first argument. Accessing level 3 cards from multiple classes is IMO really good and could easily be better than level 5 cards from one class. 3 is a big breakpoint. There are lots and lots of really strong level 3 cards, whereas level 4 and 5 cards are pretty rare. And a lot of cards are placed at level 3 specifically to make them harder to combo with. — OrionAnderson · 125
Love it! One thing one of us got wrong regarding 3., rules wise: I don't think Crisis does anything after you've Transfigured, since there is no 'role' anynore and the discard comes after "Then". — AlderSign · 417
Oh my god, the taboo moves the role part to the back, so we actually have to differntiate between pre- and post-taboo Lola on this part. Oof... — AlderSign · 417
Does Lola lose her current role when she Transfigures? I am by no means a rule expert, but this seems to me to be a continuous effect. At any rate, even if she does lose access to her roles, that makes both copies of Improvisation worthless after the Transfiguration, another downside that most other Base investigators wouldn't face. Also, I never said Lola had to have broken combos, but if she doesn't have at least pretty good combos then what's the point? — Pseudo Nymh · 67
I think you’re right that because Lola’s role is a persistent effect, she still has a role once she Transfigures. What she loses though is the restriction to only play cards of that role, because that’s printed on the front of her investigator card. Her sigs should remain impactful, by this reading. As to, “what’s the point?” I would say that I agree with the modest version of your argument, which is something like “Transfiguration is an absurdly powerful card that lots of players are thinking of game-warping effects for, and none of the most broken ones involve Lola.” But I disagree with the maximal version of your argument, which would be something like, “Lola doesn’t gain much in power from playing Transfiguration.” She gains a lot. Every Lola deck gets better the second this card is played, regardless of the “landing”investigator you choose. Lola is the only investigator that can be said for. In short, Lola is not the “best” home for this card, so much as the most obvious one. — Eudaimonea · 5
@Eudaimonea Your comment is "Every Lola deck gets better the second this card is played," but if the only upside to your Lola deck is that you don't have to play Lola very long then I stand by my opinion. What was the point of playing Lola in the first place if your plan is to ditch her later? What cards are you including in that deck that made it worthwhile to involve Lola at all? — Pseudo Nymh · 67
That point is well taken, but the nature of our discussion is drifting some. The first sentence of your review is “ Lola Hayes is the very worst investigator to put this card in,” not just “Lola Hayes is the very worst investigator.” You’ll get no argument from me on the second version. I’m not a fan of Lola Hayes and I despise Transfiguration. As far as I’m concerned, the two can have each other. — Eudaimonea · 5
@Pseudo Nymh: I might finally have the answer you are looking for: Get permanents of all 5 classes and play the synergy cards (Gang Up, Cheat the System, Join the Caravan, Close the Circle, Strength in Numbers, and Call for Backup). The only other gater that could accomplish that who comes to mind is Charlie Kane, so that's something quite unique and powerful. In theory, you could play Short Supply, hoping to discard Transfiguration, and recur (aka easy tutor) it with Uncage the Soul (3). — AlderSign · 417
I'm happy to finally see some practical ideas! Keep 'em coming. — Pseudo Nymh · 67
I’m a little confused how the synergy cards combo with Transfiguration. It seems to me they don’t, but are just generally good for Lola (as is Transfiguration). Are we at this point trying to find enough good Lola builds to vindicate her existence, at which point we’ll agree that since Transfiguration always makes her better, she is no longer the worst investigator for Transfiguration? — Eudaimonea · 5
Yes, my last comment was treating Lola as what Pseudo Nymh calls 'base investigator'. What you transfigure her into is not that important, what matters more is getting by until you have it in your hand. So cards like Studious, Mr. Rook, No Stone Unturned (sadly not level 5), Lucky Cigarette Case (3), Eureka!, Easy Mark, and initial deck thinners like Stick to the Plan and Bewitching are vital to Transfigure as soon as possible (if you didn't find it in your opening hand, anyway). Notice that Dilemma cards are also always fine for Lola since they are never restricted by her investigator ability in the first playe (they are neither triggered abilities nor played). — AlderSign · 417
This is my attempt for making it happen: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/53427/performing-for-a-tough-crowd-1.0 — AlderSign · 417
Writing a blatantly inflamatory review, then coming up with an half-assed disclaimer to avoid getting scorched back is funny in a sad way — HeroesOfTomorrow · 62
Astronomical atlas, plenty of skill cards, and friends in low places before turning into a skill based investigator works great. Enough card draw on each of the pieces you can get through your deck pretty quickly. Also she can run "Fool me Once" to mitigate or eliminate her weakness entirely with a bit of planning. If you plan around the skill cards you draw you can do good without transfiguring, too. — Vultureneck · 74

Um... I have questions :P

1) I feel a very important aspect of the front of the card was omitted from the inclusion list: The name of the investigator!!!

Is this by design? In other words are you meant to still have the name of you original character, preventing unique cards and unique weaknesses from breaking or do you now have another name such that a whole lot of unique cards no longer work (Sefinas Painted world and her weakness for example would both be unable to find any card beneath Sefina, if you now have another name and therefore there is no Sefina. Luke Robinson can not enter the dream gate if his name chances etc etc).

If you do not change name there is a whole plethora of investigators that reference themselves in the abilities on the front of the card, so those would stop working if you retain your old name.

Both switching name and not switching names creates many strange and broken interactions :P

2) What happens if a character capable of putting investigator cards under itself (like Diana or Sefina) uses this to turn into Amanda Sharp? Amandas ability is not worded with multiple cards in mind so you would have to do a bunch of guessing how this works out.

AGAZUR · 2
Duke has confirmed that you retain your original name, since the back of your card has not changed, and you also gain your new investigator’s name, since the front of your card now bears that title. In short, all references to your investigator work, regardless of whether they use your old or new name. — Eudaimonea · 5
Is end of game and end of scenario the same thing? Would it be possible for the Homunculus to Trans into another investigator so they could upgrade their deck before returning to Homunci status? — Prototivity · 1
How does this work with an investigator that's already in play? If we already have a Tommy Muldoon at the table, can I Transfigure into Tommy Muldoon with another investigator? Or would it retain its uniqueness from becoming a copy of the front of the investigator card? — infinitycubed · 1

Look at City of Archives...

"Body of a Yithian: During the setup for this scenario, each investigator is instructed to replace their investigator card with one of the Body of a Yithian investigator cards."

and then:

"Each investigator’s deck remains the same, but for the duration of this scenario, they must use a Body of a Yithian investigator card, and therefore cannot use any of their investigator’s abilities."

Does this card potentially break the scenario? Can you choose an investigator, with a normal stat line, that comes close to your original investigator or better suits your deck?

thakaris · 199
On the one hand the rules text "for the duration of this scenario they MUST use a Body Of A Yithian investigator card" prevents the playing of Transfiguration. On the other hand the card is explicitly intended to break the game, so who knows? — Pseudo Nymh · 67
Cannot should be absolute, so y — Tharzax · 1
Cannot is absolute, so I think you aren't allowed to use the investigator ability anyway. But you get the statline? — Tharzax · 1
But funnily enough Body of a Yithian is part of your collection, so you can be one in any scenario now (: — AlderSign · 417
Same goes for Shattered Self, of course. — AlderSign · 417
Transfiguration uses the ‘as if’ phrasing so it doesn’t replace the investigator card, Body of a Yithian in this case. It just changes the text on the investigator card. Therefore the second ‘must’ clause is not violated by using Transfiguration which would therefore work normally. — Sayre · 1
I think it's clear that when it says "cannot use any of their investigator's abilities" it refers specifically to the abilities of your original card, otherwise you wouldn't be able to use the abilities of the Yithian card. — Killbray · 12516
Therefore if you transfigurate into a completely different investigator, logically speaking you should be able to use those abilities. — Killbray · 12516
Another funny one: The TCU prologue investigators. — AlderSign · 417

I have a few questions about this card:

1) When an investigator like Sefina, Diana, or Barnaby becomes Amanda, which card is committed to each test? Are the cards beneath Sefina considered separate from Amanda’s?

2) If Sefina becomes someone like Diana, do effects that reference "cards beneath Sefina" (e.g., from The Painted World) still apply?

3) When Sefina becomes Diana, do Diana’s effects that add cards beneath her apply on top of those already under Sefina? Does the +1 Willpower bonus apply to all cards beneath?

4) When transforming into Ashcan Pete or Preston Fairmont, what happens to their signature cards? Does Duke enter play upon the change? Does Family Inheritance come into play?

Antilope · 1
It's mind-boggling to me that this expansion came with an FAQ, asking super self-explanatory questions like "Does a skill card have an even or odd cost?" and not ONE question about this card, which literally breaks the fabric of this game. — MaleficMarby · 31
Well said. 1) Dunno, still the weirdest edge case. 2) Yes. 3) Yes. 4) No. — AlderSign · 417
I don’t know how confident we can be about #4. They have explicitly (and bizarrely) ruled that 1p copies of On The Mend enter your bonded region when you become Vincent Lee. What is the principle by which you gain those but don’t gain other signatures? — Eudaimonea · 5
Are you talking about Transfiguring into Vincent? Because that ruling makes no sense, since only the front side of the investigator card is replaced (and starting with On the Mend is stated on the back). Would be happy about a source, though. For Pete I see it as clear, because the game has already begun by the time you Transfigure. Unless you interpret the wording "you begin the game..." independent from the game having begun, the same holds true for Family Inheritance, as the permanent keyword has a very similar wording. Even more important, the front of Preston does never instruct you to put it into play, so although it mentions it is in this situation nowhere else stated what a "Family Inheritance" is. — AlderSign · 417
Yes, that's the ruling I'm talking about. It certainly makes no sense. You can find it in the podcast spoiling Transfiguration. It was an official ruling from FFG: https://therestrictedcollection.podbean.com/e/ah020-spoilers-from-the-drowned-city/. — Eudaimonea · 5
Thank you! — AlderSign · 417

I have couple questions with this card.

  1. Can you play the card like Refine one more time if you transfer to another investigator? The text on Refine shows "Max once per game for each Investigator"

  2. I understand the damage will keep same after transfer. How about if the damages on original investigator are over the cap of the transferred investigator?

peryu · 1
1. As written you are still the same investigator, you just treat the front differenrly. 2. You are defeated. — AlderSign · 417