Caustic Reaction

As a seeker, you'll often have access to the clues needed to get the bonus damage. We'll have to see how future Chapter 2 campaigns shake out, but in just the core, there are a startling number of enemies that have 3+ health even in the very first scenario, so there will be a lot of situations where this does not serve the job of "get the enemy off of me, permanently." Could still be worth playing, particularly if you have concerns about the rest of your party's ability to fight through an Elite enemy - being able to have your add in 2 damage will make it a lot easier for your fighters to defeat an enemy with 5 HP.

CitizenFry01 · 89
Psychoanalysis

You get a bunch of healing (potentially 6 or even 8 horror, if the whole party is grouped) which alleviates a lot of stress, AND ALSO draws a bunch of cards. It's not as flashy as something that directly advances the game by collecting clues, but I think this will silently do a lot of work in mid-game situations when playing with 3 or 4 players.

CitizenFry01 · 89
Can confirm that in a 4 player game when you all have Horror, this card performs well above its cost. — screamingabdab · 107
The nice thing about this is it's an *Insight* and therefore can be a Hunch in [Old Joe](/card/05005) decks. Considering Horror is often his Achilles heel, it's an interesting option. The fact that it is so strong in a 4-player game/campaign makes it almost an auto-include for Joe. — TrevWard · 11
Psychoanalysis

An action and two resources to help someone draw one of the top three cards of their deck is a bad rate of return. If you put this in your deck, it's to be an emergency horror healing option, if you don't want to commit all the way for Occult Records. And as a side effect, they get to stack the top of their deck to get the best card sooner and time when a weakness hits, or if it's an especially bad weakness they could perhaps choose to not heal and instead shuffle it away.

This does have decent skill icons, so when you don't need the healing, it can also help you pass a clutch Investigate.

CitizenFry01 · 89
The nice thing about this is it's an *Insight* and therefore can be a Hunch in [Old Joe](/card/05005) decks. Considering Horror is often his Achilles heel, it's an interesting option. — TrevWard · 11
Preposterous Sketches

An easy comparison is to new Seeker staple Gather Intel. Both cards have fairly common trigger conditions (granted, most locations will have clues at some point, but enemies spawning around you will also happen regularly). This draws you 3 cards; Gather Intel draws you 2 cards, but it's Fast so you could spend an action drawing to get to 3 cards, and GI is still ahead a resource.

I think I would always play GI over this, but if I feel I need even more card draw in my deck, I wouldn't feel too bad about including these as well in a Chapter 2 card pool.

In a legacy card pool, this is also competing against Deep Knowledge (+2 curses for -2 resources spent and the ability to share cards), Thorough Inquiry (similar efficiency, but ability to share cards, and fantastic skill icons), and Grim Memoir (probably drawing you cards, but if it ever isn't drawing cards, it's probably gaining you clues you would otherwise miss). I don't think I would often play this with all those stronger/more flexible alternatives available.

CitizenFry01 · 89
Scroll of the Pharaohs

Not a particularly challenging task to research, you just have to waste 3 resources, 5 actions, and 4 horror. You have to spread that out over 4 turns due to the exhaust, but with most scenarios lasting around 15 turns, that still gives you plenty of time to accomplish this.

So what do you get out of it?

  • Words of Bast: manipulate the top of the encounter deck. You probably want to spend two secrets at a time to be most action-efficient with your stacking. At low player counts you get multiple turns of foreknowledge which allows a lot of planning; at high player counts, you don't get as much foreknowledge, but you have more investigators with more varied strengths, so it's more likely you'll be able to give an encounter card to someone who can deal with it easily or even ignore it. I think this is good.
  • Words of Ra: it's a weapon. Ehhhh, probably leave the fighting to other investigators, or use stuff like Caustic Reaction if you want to have a little bit of ability to fight. Or if you are playing solo, and want your to be able to defeat an Ancient One in combat.
  • Words of Set: it does give you a remarkable +3 on use, but a 4 XP asset that is only good for +4 clues (whether you're using single secrets or pairs) doesn't feel great. I'd generally prefer a Fingerprint Kit (good for 6 bonus clues), or just not spend the research effort and XP and get by with Fingerprint Kit or Dreamer's Chronicle, maybe upgrade my Deductions.
CitizenFry01 · 89