So. "Skids" O'Toole, poor fella.
It isn't unusual for starter-set cards to be far too good or far too weak, the tempo of the game still not completely clear to the creators. "Skids" O'Toole suffers from this issue in that he "Has" some abilities, but they don't actually line up to become a particularly useful investigator.
Skids is the first , a faction that depends on and a wonky, flexible, cardpool. as a skill type wasn't particularly useful as a skill type for the longest time, Evading is barely a viable strategy in the first campaign, there are so, so many enemies that you -want- to kill or -have- to kill in that campaign and the first and last scenario are both very claustrophobic, so you can't run from an evaded enemy, he'll eventually get in your way again! There was also the lack of effective cards that turn into defeated enemies and clues (Clues mostly, until Lockpicks was released), Backstab and Sneak Attack attack are decent cards, but they dont synergize with "Skids" O'Tooles cardpool.
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So, lets have a look at what "Skids" O'Toole does:
He uses and cards, the former leans towards combat, is weak at getting clues without experience, good at generating actions and possibly the best faction at generating resources. The latter faction further leans into combat, recently got a big clue boost, and mitigates damage. So, "Skids" O'Toole has access to a very large pool of combat oriented cards, damage mitigation included and all the action generation in the game.
2 Makes Skids very sensitive to bad treachery draws. Frozen in Fear shuts him off completely. This makes preventative measures like Physical Training and Guts necessary. (Edit: Take the Initiative is a great defensive card for Skids).
3 is decent, it doesn't yield clues from a 3-4 difficulty location without Lockpicks or a decent skill card dedication but he can take care of the easy spots. Lockpicks are a saving grace for Skids so you should never simply pass them over unless you're building a Tommy gun Skids. An focused Skids can be build by focusing on cards like Flashlight, Lockpicks and Perception but the lack of multi-clue pickup makes this a rather slow process
3 is "Skids" O'Tooles first design weakness, for a character that seems to be so combat oriented such a mediocre number is going to make dealing with enemies a bit more expensive. There are plenty of good weapon options however, you start with the baseline Machete, you can go for the sneaky options of Lupara or .41 Derringer or you can go for broke as a full-blown war-Skids with Chicago Typewriter. Personally I've been rather impressed with Switchblade in a Skids deck that focuses more on his . If you decide to use a gun, consider Sleight of Hand as a way to cheaply cheat it out and effectively double your ammo. Remember, as a character, that the best way to conserve ammo is by ducking out, use your to ignore threats in locations that you don't think matter anymore.
4 is "Skids" O'Tooles strength, in many scenarios an evaded foe is as good as a dead one, ideally you'll have completed all the clues on your location and you'll be free to just evade the enemies who come your way and run away. You need to be able to finish clue locations quickly so that you can be free to scamper away from enemies. can also be used in combat to deliver Sneak Attack or Backstab and it is very useful against large threats as a way to "turn off" their retaliate and/or their roundly attack. A fun new solution to the "gotta get these clues and skedattle" problem is Scene of the Crime, if an enemy ambushes you while you're working on a multi-clue location then you can turn that to your advantage, grab your clues, evade the bad guy and get out of there even faster then expected.
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In addition to the carpool and skills, "Skids" O'Toole has the ability to buy himself an extra action. Actions synergize well with , evading an enemy leaves you just 2 actions, assuming that you evaded the enemy to move away then youre left with just one action to pick up any remaining clues, otherwise you have just 2 actions to try and defeat the evaded enemy. Every extra action increases your possibilities in this "window of peace".
Skids's ability creates bonus action, you need to pay for it so you can't spam it every round, but for the rounds where every action is crucial (as is usually the case in rounds where you evade) the extra breathing room is a huge blessing.
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So, I've spoken about each element of "Skids" O'Tooles abilities, now to put them all together.
Skids's highest stat is , this stat can be turned into Clues with Lockpicks or Damage with Backstab and/or Sneak Attack, notice that these cards are somewhat costly.
With a stat of only 3 Skids will have to pay a little extra to net the desired effect from his attacks. Especially on higher difficulty the extra cost is going to stack up.
And that, quite simply, is the crux of "Skids" O'Tooles's problem, the things he likes to do cost a lot of resources. He likes Leo De Luca, the cardpool is notoriously expensive and the resources you need to spend via Hard Knocks or Physical Training to to try and make your attacks hit, all combine to make life very expensive for Skids, a character who needs resources to activate his special ability. In other words, even when you bring as much economy as is humanly possible, you are effectively playing a character that for the majority of most scenarios, does not have a special ability.
Skids's saving grace is perhaps that he can elect to dip a little less into the role and focus a bit more on his and , compile your abilities and focus on what Skids can do with his cards.
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In multiplayer you are not the primary clue gatherer (you just cant grab many enough clues at once!) and you aren't the main muscle (It's just too expensive!), you share the load and take care of yourself. You kill your own enemy draws (or leave them in the dust when possible) and you can pull your weight in clues. If you try however to take over someone else's duties and you'll soon find that a poor "Skids" O'Toole is a dead Skids.
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P.S: "Skids" O'Toole -HAS- a weakness and a strength card but neither of them matter, just ignore them, play On the Lam for the icons and only pay for the Hospital Debts when the map is obviously won.
P.S.P.S: "Skids" O'Toole is flatly better in single-player and on Standard rather then Hard/Expert. On Standard his and are more likely to beat easy checks and remain useful. In single-player the situation where you need to cover for someone else, where the cluehound just can't muster the power to finish locations or the monster hunter cannot finish off a beast, will not arise. As I said above, "Skids" O'Toole can take care of himself.
