As far as investigator-specific weaknesses go, Vengeful Hound is relatively mild. I would say it is most like the basic weakness Stubborn Detective in that it effectively blocks out Norman's special ability.

The differences between Vengeful Hound and Stubborn Detective:

• Stubborn Detective has +1 fight, where Vengeful Hound has +1 evade.
• Stubborn Detective's effect blanks every investigator's text box at the location, whereas Vengeful Hound's effect only works on the investigator engaged to them.
• Vengeful Hound deals one point of horror damage whereas Stubborn Detective does not.

Generally speaking, character-specific weaknesses are supposed to be worse than basic weaknesses, so if you get a character-specific weakness that's on par with a basic weakness, that's pretty good. If you compare Vengeful Hound to other character-specific enemy weaknesses like Sacrificial Beast and Graveyard Ghouls, I think it's much milder. In fact, I think even Stubborn Detective is a tougher weakness since it has a harder fight and you really don't want to be evading these types of smaller hunter enemies anyways.

I think this weakness was made weaker because Norman Withers has such low and , but he has plenty of combat options to help him deal with this weakness. Mind over Matter, "I've got a plan!", and Shrivelling can all potentially take down this monster with tests that are base +2 or base +3. That's really not bad. Of course, if it's multiplayer and Norman doesn't have any combat options in his deck for some reason, another investigator can easily dispatch this enemy for him.

I'm not sure what the non-replacement cards for Norman Withers will look like. I think that the other replacement card, Split the Angle, is situational at best. However, I think it is possible people may come back to use these replacement cards even after the main cards are released so that they can continue to use this relatively mild weakness.

This has been updated to match my "Signature Weakness Project." I have done my best to make sure that the original content isn't altered too much, out of respect for any comments.

Another enemy signature weakness. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: This thing attacks Norman keeps him from drawing or revealing cards, messing with, but not completely negating, Norman's special ability. This is not a terribly difficult enemy to kill, even for Norman. In a previous review, people pointed out that it's not a hunter, so, if Norman can Evade it (or someone else engages it and Evades for him, it stays in its starting location, which might effectively put it out of play. However, with it's Evade of 3 and Norman's of 1, this is not going to happen naturally. Mists of R'lyeh could do the trick, but combat seems a better option, since Norman is even up with the Hound, even during his opening round ((Norman is unique so far that he can draw his signature weakness first turn. It's not likely, but it's Arkham). As Norman gains XP, his damage-dealing options become too numerous to mention, but, at 0 XP he is very fragile until he gets set up. Knife seems to be his traditional solution to an early Hound. It's cheap and he can throw it, getting 2 up on his test and killing the Hound if he hits. Enchanted Blade is more expensive, but it's more or less 3 thrown knives with some extra utility. Sword Cane is very attractive, since it can be kept in hand for the Hound's appearance and might be his best shot for that Evade attempt. It will take twice as many attacks to finish it, which might strain Norman's luck if he can't boost his . It's possible to get a perfect storm of a bad opening hand + the Hound on top of the deck, but that's pushing "situational" a bit far.

The discard condition: As usual with enemy weaknesses, kill it.

All in all, this is a below average signature weakness, maybe even way below on Easy or Standard.

Box vs book The Hound is a pretty easy weakness, but Split the Angle seems to get used for icons more often than it is played, so the "box" set is better, although you can run both without too much trouble.