17 Jan 2023. Used Hypnotic Gaze x2 on The Devourer Below. With sheer luck, the boss dealt 3x2 damage to itself. Very useful for the Elites and the boss. Instant save for 1 person and damage to the boss.

Obviously no one is going to top Valentin1331's review of Charlie Kane. Having played a flex-Kane in the Scarlet Keys campaign I want to highlight a couple of character dynamics. I approached Charlie in a pure ally fashion--no hand slots were used in the [redacted]. Obviously if you want to play Charlie differently some of these thoughts will be less useful.

First, ally economy. Kane is pretty inept until he gets allies out and even then it can be hard to safely get him through more than two tests a turn because he's exhausting his allies. You can get out of this by having a lot of allies on the field (i highly recommend rod of animism and charisma, especially once your primary cards are in the deck), exhausting allies (Bonnie Walsh is a perfect signature card and drawing the elder sign with Charlie is pure joy), or changing your base stats. To this end, I believe Miss Doyle and Summoned Hound are perfect additions to a Charlie Kane deck.

Miss Doyle provides two ally slots in a single ally slot, plus her kitties allow you to take a test with a base skill of 5 rather than 1. Even if you play the wrong kitten, the fact that Doyle has ? icons and that each kitten has two icons rather than one means they are almost always high benefit exhausts. Summoned Hound on the other hand is almost never exhausted for benefit. Rather it lets you do one of the main activities in the game with a base score of 5 as a fast action. If you get Bonnie and the Hound out at the same time this can lead to investigating or fighting with a base of 5 twice (and once with a minimum score of 4) three times for the price of a single action (fast action Hound, action do a test where you commit Bonnie, fast action hound). Have a few more allies out and/or cards to commit and suddenly Charlie Kane can be a secondary guardian or seeker.

Second, Rogue/Survivor Charlie. What is a politician, if not a roguish survivor? Their job is to shake hands, smile, grease wheels, and weather scandals. Kane is no different, and I actually think in multiplayer play this is a better pair for a flex Charlie than Seeker/Guardian as it helps you play, search for, and sometimes abuse your allies. On the Rogue side, Hit and Run is a wonderful card. Every time you add an ally into a Kane deck I recommend considering how it would interact with Hit and Run--by the end of my campaign Hit and Run was the only rogue card in my deck and I had no regrets about my class choice. Though I only did it one time, playing Hit and Run and Calling in Favors on the same card is exceedingly satisfying, and can save a few precious resources if you're really lucky. More impressive are the Survivor cards. Flare alone makes me think Survivor should be considered for every Kane deck. Adding A Chance Encounter (with or without experience) and Resourceful (to get back Encounter, and some of your high value allies like Miss Doyle and Peter back) to the card pool and...well, I promise it is fun. Remember, Chance Encounter(2) and Flare both put Summoned Hound into play so you don't need to drop the bonded card in the deck.

Overall I think Charlie is a super fun and satisfying investigator. His card pool opens up all sorts of wonky interactions (ESPECIALLY if you have oodles of experience or are playing off taboo). If you like allies, animals, and confusing turns, give the old man a shot.

A little bit of interaction gotchas of □□□ Ancient Power and □□□□ Scriptweaver to note. Scriptweaver says different and Ancient Power says same. They are not against each other and can take effect at the same time. For example if you have both customs :

• You cannot spend 1 charge and choose the damage twice to get +2 damage since Scriptweaver prevents it, even though Ancient Power allows it.
• You can spend 2 charges to get (+1 damage and +2 ) + (+1 damage and +2 ) since Ancient Power allows it.

Also you may think □ Inscription of the Hunt can "walk in and fight" similar to Duke's move-and-Investigate but it is different. You need to perform Fight to something at your location, only then you get to decide between moving or engaging using the charge. (EDIT: See comments)

Are the boxing gloves "USE" while attacking? Wondering this aspect of play cause of a new card in the Scarlet Keys name : Lurker in the Dark. --Lurker in the Dark can only be attacked or damaged using Weapon assets. ? Would need a clarification of the term "using" generaly.

This is pretty much only viable in a Nathaniel Cho deck. In that setting though, its pretty good. 3 testless damage is enough to kill roughly 80% of the enemies in arkham horror.

The downsides to it are it has to be the first thing you do in a turn. This means no upgraded taunting enemies over to you first. It must be the very first thing you do.

There are ways around that, namely On The Hunt. A deck then is already starting to form.