Who Invited the Astronomer?

Why use Norman Withers?

Pros:

1. His topdeck play ability is insanely good. +2 action economy each time it fires and very easy to use.
2. He has the greatest potential for combat among Seekers with his 4 willpower and access to Mystic upgrades.

Cons:

1. Potentially slower investigating tempo compared to other Seekers, especially Rex Murphy and Ursula Downs. The upgraded Rite of Seeking may partially compensate for this.

In a hard campaign, Norman Withers is arguably the best Seeker because he is best equipped to deal with challenges from the encounter deck.

Deck analysis to follow. This deck is designed to play with a combat-heavy partner.

1. Hand assets: Flashlight and Magnifying Glass are important to insure he always has enough intellect to get clues, especially since he uses almost no skill cards and cannot get Higher Education. Medical Texts works well with his high intellect, can be played cheaply using Norman Withers's power and could save the investigators in a pinch.

2. Arcane: Mists of R'lyeh is perfect to help him quickly evade enemies and move on to explore new locations. Only 1 Shrivelling here because of the 5 card limit on mystic cards and because Shrivelling will be the first upgrade choice.

3. Accessories: Holy Rosary is important to support his spells and is cheaper when played from topdeck.

4. Allies: Dr. Milan Christopher is especially good with Norman Withers because his power ensures he will have lots of cards to play with the extra resources.

5. Events: Emergency Cache, No Stone Unturned, Shortcut and Working a Hunch are auto-includes because they have useful effects and can almost always be played from the top of the deck. The other Seeker events are situational and therefore can block Norman Withers's power, but the best are "I've got a plan!", Logical Reasoning, Anatomical Diagrams and Mind over Matter. Of these, Mind over Matter should be swapped out first because it is less useful when the other investigator is handling most of the combat.

6. Skills: These block Norman Withers's power so he prefers to use less. But Eureka! is useful since it can help you get a better card on top to play with Norman Withers. These can be swapped out later for the upgraded Scrying.

Top priorities for upgrading:

1. Shrivelling. (Remove 1 #mind, then the level 0 Shrivelling)
2. Scrying
3. Rite of Seeking