Just a quick question. I was wondering if Robes makes something Sefinas Painted World copies cheaper regardless if it's a spell being copied or not? I think it does based on the q&a regarding Uncage the soul

Defensive stance is practiced, making it an unexpected pick for a Roland or Joe who prizes all-around success*. It’s also a great option for Lily Chen, obviously, because it supports whatever stat you didn’t build out first. And you can give it to others, like the un-agile seeker or a Succeed by X rogue.

*Man, it’s tricky to describe cards without using the adjectives adaptable or versatile!

I just played a dunwhich campaign solo with this weakness, and I have to say I'm a bit lost as to why people find this weakness anything more than a slight annoyance.

Firstly, as a rogue you can hard counter it with 3xp, which is what I did scenario 3, using Another Day, Another Dollar. This means for 3xp you can remove your weakness from the game. That is insane value, that ANYONE would take, as tempo and consistency are everything. Survivors also aren't resource hungry, so to them this is a mild speed bump, as its seldom you build a deck that requires 5 resources turn 1. Leaving 3 classes that MAY struggle with this.

Secondly, it's consistent you get it every game. That to me is it's strength. There is no swing. Knowing you have to play around -2 resources means you can hard counter it with tech options, or taking two SAFE actions to counter it. Sometimes I'm engaged with something and can't two action Chronophobia, but need too. This is "whenever you want spend two actions to counter". This game is all about chaos, and your deck ideally is designed to counter it, this "weakness" removes luck and chaos, which overall makes the game easier.

In solo two actions for a weakness is crippling, in multiplayer its light, but with so many players two resources means nothing, so this weakness really hits hardest in duos, when you run the traditional "seeker/guardian asset heavy" combo. When you do run guardian/seeker combo and get indebted it isn't that big of a deal because guardian/seeker is so insanely strong.

Also remember that this makes drawing FAR less scary, which unless you have a helpful weakness i.e Dread Curse in a curse deck, is a major help. In summary, this weakness is consistent, meaning you know how to counter it, thins your deck (which is great), can be hard countered or ignored (depending on class), can safely be countered, doesn't swing games.

Equip Calvin with this and Scavenging (0) + Schoffner's Catalogue and you are now unbeatable!

The fact that this is an Arcane slot and non-unique makes it possible to hold 2 at the same time. If you would lose one, you could easily recycle it before you lose the second. And no need to upgrade to Scavenging (2) for this because this card is Fast!

Schoffner's Catalogue finances it all so that you can make this cycle Dark Horse friendly, and what's best is that it is an Item so also comes back using Scavenging.

Backpack (2) will be your friend to then pull it out before you reach the amount of damages that would put you in the danger zone.

Now bring your Five of Pentacles + Moon Pendant and bring Mysterious Benefactress on a 9-9-9-9 statline journey without any fear of dying.

This card is also good in Lily Chen that wants to fill up her Arcane Slots to use her Dragon Pole and benefits from this being the only Fast Arcane Slot Filler available to her.

Since it feels like this card is somewhat flying under the radar, and I think it's potentially one of the stronger level 0 cards released this set, I guess I'll point out a few moments in each campaign where it shines.

Night of the Zealot

• Avoiding a single damage or horror from slipping into your basement or attic is fairly minor, but does let you try to get those clues from the safety of the location that you need to be on to advance.
• You will likely be leaving clues behind throughout most of Midnight Masks, if only to chase down Acolytes. Leaving clues sprinkled behind you is less of a pain if you can just look backwards and grab them.
• Scanning the various nasty Arkham Woods locations before blundering in is unquestionably valuable. Just look at them.

The Dunwich Legacy

• In the Miskatonic Museum, we have an ability that usually costs one or two actions that can be emulated for free simply by exhausting it. Considering there is a nasty trap location, another, though less nasty, in return, and another that hurts to enter, it might not be worthwhile when it's out of your way and two actions, but is incredible when it's fast and can be done from the connecting location. Not to mention it allows you to send someone else to reveal them while you sit back and get clues from every revealed hall whenever you feel like it. Not a bad counter for if the Infinite Doorway shows up there.
• Seeing whatever horrible demand the next train car will demand of you is incredible, even if it might not end up changing your playstyle all that much.
• Sitting on whatever location The Hidden Chamber spawns next to and just snipe every clue from it without ever having to tangle with Silas Bishop? Yes please.
• Being able to check every diverging path so you can completely minimize the pain or never bother visiting in the first place. And if they shuffle again it's not a problem.
• Just sitting on Another Dimension and grabbing clues from the Tears Through Space every time they show up before immediately discarding them until there's actually a path in play

The Path to Carcosa

• The first level's randomised locations are dead ends, so if you want the clues you have to reveal them anyway. That said, if you want to avoid being ambushed by rats, or avoid going to the two locations without clues, you could do worse. Spirit's Torment is also marginally less painful on more central locations.
• All of Echoes of the Past's locations will get revealed pretty quick, but checking them ahead of time can be useful. It could also be fun to connect a location to the Hidden Library and investigate there without running the (admittedly minor) risk of getting trapped there.
• Figuring out which of the Patient Confinement locations contains the way forward, or which have the easier tests for your team to make, is pretty good when you're strapped for time in the Asylum.
• No matter which way you're playing A Phantom of Truth, you're likely to be moving around a fair bit, and leaving clues behind as you do. It's also pretty fun to investigate the cemetery from outside it and be unable to leave a location you aren't in for the rest of the turn.
• The Pallid Mask might be the best use case for this card full stop. A completely randomised level with randomised locations, several of which can be quite punishing. It also lets you scan for your goal locations. Plus, this is another level that contains the ability to look at unrevealed locations, this time attached to a high test and limited in use.
• Get to the Abbey Church. Check which version of Chapel of St. Aubert you have. Congratulations, you know how to win the level without having to mess around with getting a guide. Though knowing the answer gives you more time to get everything anyway.
• Dim Carcosa has each location begin revealed and with clues on it. The is mostly useless, but the is always useable. Pretty similar to Lost in Time and Space, actually.

The Forgotten Age

• The explore mechanic in general makes this a lot worse than basically every other campaign. Even on levels where locations start in play, Threads of Fate and Boundary Beyond, it doesn't save much movement. Threads is another cultist level where you might leave clues behind to hunt enemies, but other than that there's not an enormous benefit. Boundary still needs a lot of movement to get the locations with clues into play, and then switches around the connections for extra confusion. The City of Archives can at least benefit you checking which Interview Room is which, but that's pretty minor and the rest of the level grants little benefit to leaving clues behind or checking the mostly non-randomised locations. Depths of Yoth and Elders-B basically force you to get every clue before moving off each location, so there's even less benefit. I wouldn't really consider it except in the people it's already good in.

The Circle Undone

• "Locations in front of you are connected to one another. You cannot enter locations in front of other investigators." But you can pretend to be there with a Telescope. Not insane on its own, but there is a window in each investigate where a friend could potentially interact with you in some way. I'm sure there's a broken combo there but everything I can think of is too high level to be relevant.
• Haunted in general is not countered by the Telescope, but the treacheries that interact with it can be. Position yourself on the least annoying haunted location and investigate the more annoying haunted locations without visiting - you can still get hit by the effect by failing, but not by a Realm of Torment you can't shake, or an annoying Shapes in the Mist. It helps that a few of these haunted locations will come into play revealed so you may never have to visit them at all.
• You could immediately move to the locations you put into play by Keziah's Room, or you could wait and check them for victory or clues. There's a location or two that hurt to enter, too, and you might want to prepare for. It's arguably inefficient not to move to them right away, but you could just do a three investigate turn, check the first you put into play on that turn, then check the second as soon as the telescope readies. If even a single one of the three locations is not worth visiting, you've likely saved actions over all, especially in higher player counts where others can just reveal the locations for you and you still don't have to leave the witch's room.
• I haven't played past The Wages of Sin, but I hear there's some annoying randomised locations later in the campaign. This could probably help with those.

The Dream Eaters

• Checking the Enchanted Woods before moving into them is invaluable. There are trap locations, and while they're all worth going to eventually, being able to plan for your approach and dodge the ones you can't handle is very good. It does take six turns to check all six, but if you see a safe one you can immediately move to it and start clearing it out.
• Kadath has a number of small maps that start with clues revealed. In one or two of them, you could get a good chunk of the clues without really having to move.
• Checking the hospital rooms for Randolf might save you an action or two, but across the campaign, spiders and their Sickening Webs can gum up your movement
• In the Waking side finale, any check of the randomised web locations is incredibly valuable, since they can vary from largely harmless to very nasty. And if you're chasing the spider around to hit it with a rolled-up newspaper, you're likely leaving behind a few clues that you might want to hoover up later.

The Innsmouth Conspiracy

• This is pretty much the opposite of The Forgotten Age. It's great on every level, with the sole exception of The Vanishing of Elina Harper. Pit of Despair, Devil Reef, Light in the Fog, Lair of Dagon and Into the Maelstrom all have randomised locations with certain goals - keys - you need to reach and a few locations that are a bit of a waste to move into, though no real outright trap or painful locations. Light in the Fog is another level that has a very useable 'peek at locations' ability - this time, by using the Telescope, you're saving clues, which isn't nothing. Being able to scout a single location for free before starting your movement is exceptional in every single one of these levels. The ability is a little less useful since you need to be at a location to pick up its key - though if you really don't want to move to one you could waste an investigate on an empty location and simply pick up its key in the window in that otherwise worthless investigate. I don't know if that's ever a good play, but it's an option.
• Pocket Telescope can bypass the gimmick of In Too Deep, the barricades that prevent movement but do not stop the locations from actually being connected. You can't leave keys behind very easily, but you can do so with victory, if the enemies are catching up and you feel the need to run.
• Horror in High Gear has very punishing locations that it's nice to see ahead of time, especially if you plan on driving your vehicle forward. On top of that, it completely negates the Forks in the Road that can give you a Long Way Around, and saves clues on the Intersections too.

Well, I'll leave it at that for now, but there's certainly side-scenarios that it's pretty good in too. At best, the Telescope can break levels in half, or completely neuter their threat or gimmick - which makes it an excellent Adaptable target. At worst - well, don't bother taking it in the Forgotten Age. And all this was written with the assumption that it's the worst possible version of itself - that its ability triggers attacks of opportunity from enemies at locations you're pretending to be at. I'd be very surprised if it turns out that it does, but I'd still consider it a very solid pick that can fall off in some levels, and an insane adaptable target for the levels it just breaks.