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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the campaign's BigBad and the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'', is a complete joke compared to [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. For a boss, he deals a pitiful amount of 1 damage and horror per attack, and his health is below that of some monsters you can meet in tutorial scenarios (and, on lower player count, some of the monsters in ''that'' scenario too), which makes him very easy to put down by experienced and well-geared team. That's assuming you fight him at full force, or event fight him at all, as depending on your prior actions, he may be wounded, or even neutralised altogether, before you even face him. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign's BigBad and the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'', scenario, is a complete joke compared to [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. For Despite being a boss, he deals a pitiful amount of 1 damage and horror per attack, horror, and his health is below that of some monsters the bosses you can meet in tutorial scenarios (and, (especially on lower low player count, some of the monsters in ''that'' scenario too), count), which makes him very easy to put down by experienced and well-geared team. team; he even gets easily overshadowed by some generic enemies you can meet. That's assuming you fight him at full force, or event fight him at all, as as, depending on your prior actions, he may be wounded, or even neutralised altogether, before you even face him. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given make it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]to him.
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** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty (challenging enemies, little time and brutal final boss), especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
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** The [[ThatOneLevel Rather infamously]], third and final scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer "Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving significantly ups the difficulty (challenging enemies, little time and brutal final boss), especially since it comes right after compared to the first two [[NoobCave mostly scenarios, in what's supposed to be a tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance campaign. And since you only had two easy levels before it, you'd likely be very short on exp to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.actually prepare for it.
* LowTierLetdown: Some investigators are commonly considered to be weaker than their colleagues from same class:
** '''Carson Sinclair''' (Guardian class) is a SupportPartyMember, with all his abilities, including signatures, being geared towards helping the other players -- the others, [[NoSelfBuffs but not himself]]; his main selling point is the ability to trade his actions to the other players. But, unlike the other support characters, he's also crippled by [[MasterOfNone having no stat above 2]], which makes him fall behind his colleagues, both in and outside of his class. To add insult into injury, effectiveness of his main ability drastically diminishes at low player count, as Carson can't buff each player more than once per round, meaning that it only reaches full potential in full groups.
** '''"Skids" O'Toole''' (Rogue class) fell victim of his JackOfAllStats design, which doesn't synergise well with him having Guardian as a secondary class and doesn't let him do anything other Rogues can't. His main ability ([[ExtraTurn turn resources into actions]]) was actually good at release, but suffered the UniquenessDecay over the years, as the cards that grant the player extra actions became so widespread in Rogue card pool, they're one of the class' selling points now. It's generally believed that he would've worked better with Survivor as a secondary class, which is more or less what was done to his "Parallel" version (which was received generally positively).
** '''Amina Zidane''' (Mystic class) has [[JackOfAllStats average 3-3-3-3 statline]], in a class that is dependant on Willpower to fuel their magic, and has few means to boost or benefit from other stats. She's restricted in deckbuilding, as her only off-class option -- the Charm assets -- generally occupy the precious accessory slot. But the most glaring issue is her core gameplay: she's intended to represent "Doom control" archetype of the Mystics, but to be effective, she requires lots of tools that cost lots of exp to purchase, and lots of time and resources to put into play, while her ability to get discounts by putting Doom tokens on assets may drain your precious time, as it ''doesn't'' come with the means to remove it by default.
** '''Calvin Wright''' (Survivor class) has interesting concept of [[GatheringSteam initially-weak investigator who grows stronger over time]]. But the time is exactly what team has in [[TimedMission short supply]], while 6/6 Health/Sanity and the weakness that randomly drops traumas on him makes it hard to actually keep him alive (especially in long terms), given that his entire playstyle is focused around [[PainAndGain trading health and sanity for stat boosts]]. For a long time, he was also very restricted in his deckbuilding (due to Spirit not being very common trait), but that was gradually rectified.
** '''Carson Sinclair''' (Guardian class) is a SupportPartyMember, with all his abilities, including signatures, being geared towards helping the other players -- the others, [[NoSelfBuffs but not himself]]; his main selling point is the ability to trade his actions to the other players. But, unlike the other support characters, he's also crippled by [[MasterOfNone having no stat above 2]], which makes him fall behind his colleagues, both in and outside of his class. To add insult into injury, effectiveness of his main ability drastically diminishes at low player count, as Carson can't buff each player more than once per round, meaning that it only reaches full potential in full groups.
** '''"Skids" O'Toole''' (Rogue class) fell victim of his JackOfAllStats design, which doesn't synergise well with him having Guardian as a secondary class and doesn't let him do anything other Rogues can't. His main ability ([[ExtraTurn turn resources into actions]]) was actually good at release, but suffered the UniquenessDecay over the years, as the cards that grant the player extra actions became so widespread in Rogue card pool, they're one of the class' selling points now. It's generally believed that he would've worked better with Survivor as a secondary class, which is more or less what was done to his "Parallel" version (which was received generally positively).
** '''Amina Zidane''' (Mystic class) has [[JackOfAllStats average 3-3-3-3 statline]], in a class that is dependant on Willpower to fuel their magic, and has few means to boost or benefit from other stats. She's restricted in deckbuilding, as her only off-class option -- the Charm assets -- generally occupy the precious accessory slot. But the most glaring issue is her core gameplay: she's intended to represent "Doom control" archetype of the Mystics, but to be effective, she requires lots of tools that cost lots of exp to purchase, and lots of time and resources to put into play, while her ability to get discounts by putting Doom tokens on assets may drain your precious time, as it ''doesn't'' come with the means to remove it by default.
** '''Calvin Wright''' (Survivor class) has interesting concept of [[GatheringSteam initially-weak investigator who grows stronger over time]]. But the time is exactly what team has in [[TimedMission short supply]], while 6/6 Health/Sanity and the weakness that randomly drops traumas on him makes it hard to actually keep him alive (especially in long terms), given that his entire playstyle is focused around [[PainAndGain trading health and sanity for stat boosts]]. For a long time, he was also very restricted in his deckbuilding (due to Spirit not being very common trait), but that was gradually rectified.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: For years, Father Matteo was suffering from inability to get almost anything outside of his own class, due to Blessed cards (his only off-class option) being [[CripplingOverspecialisation virtually non-existent]] on ''The Forgotten Age'' release, which was [[LowTierLetdown widely mocked for not giving him anything useful]]. It changed with release of ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' expansion, which introduced lots of non-Mystic Blessed cards, opening up new options and synergies; subsequent releases reinforced it.
** "The City of Archives" scenario from ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign takes away your investigator, forcing you to play as [[spoiler:a Yithian]] with overall terrible stats and not very useful abilities (they do contribute towards main objective, but little else)... and also takes away all unique Items, ''including signatures''. Some investigators gets completely crippled by that, as it ruins their preferred playstyle and takes away the cards that are the core of their gameplay. While overall alien aesthetics of scenario can be memorable, few players have fond memories of this particular restriction. And then there's a risk of ''staying this way permanently'' if you don't perform well enough on the scenario.
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** While generally liked expansion overall, ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' has one design decision which very few would defend: that at several points, the game forbids the players to spend their experience between scenarios, seemingly arbitrarily. Besides obvious issue with players getting stuck with low-level deck for longer than they would prefer, on initial release, there was another issue, related to [[EpisodicGame "Mythos pack" release model]]: that each pack comes with new flashy cards, but you may not be able to actually use them if you're unlucky and your last scenario is one of those where you can't spend experience.
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** While generally liked expansion overall, ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' has one design decision which very few would defend: that at several points, the game forbids the players to spend their experience between scenarios, seemingly arbitrarily. Besides obvious issue with the players getting stuck with low-level deck for longer than they would prefer, on initial release, there was another issue, related to [[EpisodicGame "Mythos pack" release model]]: that each pack comes with new flashy cards, but you may not be able to actually use them if you're unlucky and your last scenario is one of those where you can't spend experience.
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* ThatOneLevel:
** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty (challenging enemies, little time and brutal final boss), especially since it [[DifficultySpike comes right after]] two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
** "Undimensioned and Unseen" scenario from ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign has you pursuit several monsters that you [[NoSell can't hurt by anything but one scenario-specific card]], and who're all to eager to kill you if they run into you. The most annoying part is that [[GetBackHereBoss the monsters you're after keep moving around erratically]], forcing you to waste time on pursuing them. And you want to kill them all, as letting even one to slip away would cut your time on the next scenario ([[NonstandardGameOver failing which ends your entire run]]).
** ''The Forgotten Age'' is considered a very hard campaign in general, but couple of scenarios are particularly disliked, both for being harder than average even by its standards, and for being ''very'' mean to the players:
*** "Boundary Beyond" makes progressing very tedious, as you have to stand in location and keep exploring it, hoping that the exploration deck would actually send you a matching Ancient location, so it would swap and let you start to actually gather clues: you need to fully clear 6 locations before you even reach the Act 3, which lets you do your actual objective. If you draw location with the wrong symbol (or worse, an encounter card), you would waste that exploration. And then you can get a treachery dropped on your head, which threatens to either cut your precious time, or undo all the progress for your location, cutting even more time. Unfortunately, winning this scenario is one of conditions for the GoldenEnding.
*** "The City of Archives" strips investigators of their abilities and any unique Items (signatures included) with no prior warning, instead giving them MasterOfNone replacement they would spend the rest of scenario playing as. This scenario can completely disrupt carefully thought strategy that you've built throughout the entire campaign up until this point, and yet you still must somehow complete your tasks within the time limit, or entire campaign would end in a failure prematurely.
** ''The Circle Undone'' is also considered one of the harder campaigns, alongside ''The Forgotten Age'' which directly precedes it, and much like it, has some scenarios that cross the line into being unreasonably difficult:
*** "Wages Of Sins" starts with all locations revealed, letting Investigator to gather clues from connecting locations if they have the tools to Investigate from a distance... And that's where the advantages end. Your objective is to "banish" the spirits of various Heretics, which can only be done by defeating them and then performing a time consuming task, while being hunted by various enemies and The Spectral Watcher in a very tiny map with plenty choke points where they can corner you. And if you fail to exorcise all Heretics, you will start the other notoriously hard level, "Union and Disillusion", with Doom already on the agenda for each spectre that got away.
*** In "Union and Disillusion", advancing through the forest is painfully slow, as it throws lots of difficult tests at you just to progress into next section, and frequently dumps the players with all sorts of treacheries to drain their health and sanity before they even make it to the site of final battle.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Revised core set replaced the art for some player cards, all five investigators, and for some encounter cards, as well as for ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign's FinalBoss, Umôrdhoth. Not all choices for replacement art were received equally positively: some players prefer old art for investigators over new, while new portrayal of Umôrdhoth is viewed as a generic.
** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty (challenging enemies, little time and brutal final boss), especially since it [[DifficultySpike comes right after]] two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
** "Undimensioned and Unseen" scenario from ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign has you pursuit several monsters that you [[NoSell can't hurt by anything but one scenario-specific card]], and who're all to eager to kill you if they run into you. The most annoying part is that [[GetBackHereBoss the monsters you're after keep moving around erratically]], forcing you to waste time on pursuing them. And you want to kill them all, as letting even one to slip away would cut your time on the next scenario ([[NonstandardGameOver failing which ends your entire run]]).
** ''The Forgotten Age'' is considered a very hard campaign in general, but couple of scenarios are particularly disliked, both for being harder than average even by its standards, and for being ''very'' mean to the players:
*** "Boundary Beyond" makes progressing very tedious, as you have to stand in location and keep exploring it, hoping that the exploration deck would actually send you a matching Ancient location, so it would swap and let you start to actually gather clues: you need to fully clear 6 locations before you even reach the Act 3, which lets you do your actual objective. If you draw location with the wrong symbol (or worse, an encounter card), you would waste that exploration. And then you can get a treachery dropped on your head, which threatens to either cut your precious time, or undo all the progress for your location, cutting even more time. Unfortunately, winning this scenario is one of conditions for the GoldenEnding.
*** "The City of Archives" strips investigators of their abilities and any unique Items (signatures included) with no prior warning, instead giving them MasterOfNone replacement they would spend the rest of scenario playing as. This scenario can completely disrupt carefully thought strategy that you've built throughout the entire campaign up until this point, and yet you still must somehow complete your tasks within the time limit, or entire campaign would end in a failure prematurely.
** ''The Circle Undone'' is also considered one of the harder campaigns, alongside ''The Forgotten Age'' which directly precedes it, and much like it, has some scenarios that cross the line into being unreasonably difficult:
*** "Wages Of Sins" starts with all locations revealed, letting Investigator to gather clues from connecting locations if they have the tools to Investigate from a distance... And that's where the advantages end. Your objective is to "banish" the spirits of various Heretics, which can only be done by defeating them and then performing a time consuming task, while being hunted by various enemies and The Spectral Watcher in a very tiny map with plenty choke points where they can corner you. And if you fail to exorcise all Heretics, you will start the other notoriously hard level, "Union and Disillusion", with Doom already on the agenda for each spectre that got away.
*** In "Union and Disillusion", advancing through the forest is painfully slow, as it throws lots of difficult tests at you just to progress into next section, and frequently dumps the players with all sorts of treacheries to drain their health and sanity before they even make it to the site of final battle.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Revised core set replaced the art for some player cards, all five investigators, and for some encounter cards, as well as for ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign's FinalBoss, Umôrdhoth. Not all choices for replacement art were received equally positively: some players prefer old art for investigators over new, while new portrayal of Umôrdhoth is viewed as a generic.
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Fought during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroyed or recovered it before him, then Seth will be forced to perform a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the campaign's BigBad and the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' Legacy'', is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Fought during the last act on top For a boss, he deals a pitiful amount of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls per attack, and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out below that of some monsters you can meet in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains tutorial scenarios (and, on lower player count, some of the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroyed or recovered it before him, then Seth will be forced to perform a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, monsters in ''that'' scenario too), which makes him start the very easy to put down by experienced and well-geared team. That's assuming you fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will him at full force, or event fight him at all, as depending on your prior actions, he may be defeated while reading the back of the previous act wounded, or even neutralised altogether, before the final one]].you even face him. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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Misplaced, moving to the correct tab
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* MagnificentBastard: From ''The Scarlet Keys'': [[TheSpook The Red-gloved Man]] is the most mysterious member of the Scarlet Coterie, having evaded the Society for years. [[spoiler:After being rescued from his kidnapping and supplantation by the Outsiders, he thanks the investigators before setting out on his own research. He later interrupts the investigator's trial, sneaking behind his impostor and shooting it in the head, proving that the Coterie had been infiltrated while its members were focused on the wrong priorities. After calling them out, he gets them to join forces against their doppelgangers, following them to the City of Remnants, their home dimension, to settle the score.]]
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* MagnificentBastard: From ''The Scarlet Keys'': [[TheSpook The Red-gloved Red-Gloved Man]] is the most mysterious member of the Scarlet Coterie, having evaded the Society for years. [[spoiler:After being rescued from his kidnapping and supplantation by the Outsiders, he thanks the investigators before setting out on his own research. He later interrupts the investigator's trial, sneaking behind his impostor and shooting it in the head, proving that the Coterie had been infiltrated while its members were focused on the wrong priorities. After calling them out, he gets them to join forces against their doppelgangers, following them to the City of Remnants, their home dimension, to settle the score.]]
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* SpoiledByTheFormat: In most scenarios, it's easy to tell how close you are to the end of the scenario simply by looking at how many agenda or act cards are left.
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Added DiffLines:
* MagnificentBastard: From ''The Scarlet Keys'': [[TheSpook The Red-gloved Man]] is the most mysterious member of the Scarlet Coterie, having evaded the Society for years. [[spoiler:After being rescued from his kidnapping and supplantation by the Outsiders, he thanks the investigators before setting out on his own research. He later interrupts the investigator's trial, sneaking behind his impostor and shooting it in the head, proving that the Coterie had been infiltrated while its members were focused on the wrong priorities. After calling them out, he gets them to join forces against their doppelgangers, following them to the City of Remnants, their home dimension, to settle the score.]]
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* ScrappyMechanic: The "Haunted" mechanic from ''The Circle Undone'' expansion wasn't well-received; as it triggers negative effects whenever investigator fails skill checks in "haunted" locations, it discourages investigators from trying anything at which they don't specialise (eg., not risking investigating if you're not a Seeker).
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* ScrappyMechanic: ScrappyMechanic:
** The "Haunted" mechanic from ''The Circle Undone'' expansion wasn't well-received; as it triggers negative effects whenever investigator fails skill checks in "haunted" locations, it discourages investigators from trying anything at which they don't specialise (eg., not risking investigating if you're not aSeeker).Seeker).
** While generally liked expansion overall, ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' has one design decision which very few would defend: that at several points, the game forbids the players to spend their experience between scenarios, seemingly arbitrarily. Besides obvious issue with players getting stuck with low-level deck for longer than they would prefer, on initial release, there was another issue, related to [[EpisodicGame "Mythos pack" release model]]: that each pack comes with new flashy cards, but you may not be able to actually use them if you're unlucky and your last scenario is one of those where you can't spend experience.
** The "Haunted" mechanic from ''The Circle Undone'' expansion wasn't well-received; as it triggers negative effects whenever investigator fails skill checks in "haunted" locations, it discourages investigators from trying anything at which they don't specialise (eg., not risking investigating if you're not a
** While generally liked expansion overall, ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' has one design decision which very few would defend: that at several points, the game forbids the players to spend their experience between scenarios, seemingly arbitrarily. Besides obvious issue with players getting stuck with low-level deck for longer than they would prefer, on initial release, there was another issue, related to [[EpisodicGame "Mythos pack" release model]]: that each pack comes with new flashy cards, but you may not be able to actually use them if you're unlucky and your last scenario is one of those where you can't spend experience.
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroyed or recovered it before him, then Seth will be forced to perform a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
to:
* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced Fought during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroyed or recovered it before him, then Seth will be forced to perform a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroyed or recovered it before him, the Seth is forced to do a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroyed or recovered it before him, the then Seth is will be forced to do perform a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroy or recover it before him, the Seth is forced to do a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroy destroyed or recover recovered it before him, the Seth is forced to do a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* AntiClimaxBoss: Seth Bishop, the boss of the penultimate scenario of ''The Dunwich Legacy'' is a complete joke compared to the [[ThatOneLevel absolute hell]] that the investigators had to face in the previous scenario. Faced during the last act on top of Sentinel Hill, Bishop boast 5 fight and evade, 3 health per investigator, the elite trait granting him immunity to some card effects, the Retaliate keyword to [[CounterAttack counterattack]] after investigator fails to attack him and an attack power of... 1 damage and 1 horror (which is comparable to the damage and horror output of [[TheGoomba Ghouls and Thralls]]). While the high fight and evade value would have made him at least somewhat annoying to fight early on, by that point, most investigators are likely to have tools to boost their stats far higher to overcome Seth's or just be able to inflict damage on him without even testing against his high fight. And his health value is so low is not unlikely for a solo-investigator to [[CurbStompBattle take him out in one attack]]. That's not even getting how he is only fought at full power if he obtains the Necronomicon: if the investigators destroy or recover it before him, the Seth is forced to do a [[BloodMagic blood sacrifice]] on himself to complete the ritual, which makes him start the fight injuried, losing 1 health per investigator. If the investigator recovered the Necronomicon AND used it to (unsuccesfully) heal his brother Silas ([[OneSteveLimit No relation]] [[AvertedTrope to the investigator]]), then Seth [[CutsceneBoss will be defeated while reading the back of the previous act before the final one]]. [[BossInMookClothing The Crazed Shoggoth]] that could randomly spawn during the scenario is far more of a threat than Seth, given it hits harder and [[PermaDeath kills investigators it defeats]]
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* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Every class has certain cards (especially the level 0 ones) which are commonly considered to be "must-have", resulting in these cards showing up disproportionally often, overshadowing the other cards. Several popular cards were hit by "taboo" rules specifically for that reason, particularly low level ones, mostly by increasing their experience cost (but not level) to encourage the players to consider other options, and preventing certain cards from showing up in starting decks. Amongst the most infamous cases are "Machete" (Guardian-class Weapon) and "Mr Rook" (Seeker-class Ally).
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* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Every class has certain cards (especially the level 0 ones) which are commonly considered to be "must-have", resulting in these cards showing up disproportionally often, overshadowing the other cards. Several popular cards were hit by "taboo" rules specifically for that reason, particularly low level ones, mostly by increasing their experience cost (but not level) to encourage the players to consider other options, and preventing certain cards from showing up in starting decks. Amongst the most infamous cases are "Machete" (Guardian-class Weapon) Weapon)[[note]]this taboo was eventually lifted however[[/note]] and "Mr Rook" (Seeker-class Ally).
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More fitting.
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* SelfImposedChallenge: So-called "true solo" runs -- to start and finish the campaign playing by alone as one specific investigator, and keep them alive right until the end. Such runs are very popular, and it's not uncommon for the players to share their decks build specifically for those runs.
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* SelfImposedChallenge: SoloCharacterRun: So-called "true solo" runs -- to start and finish the campaign playing by alone as one specific investigator, and keep them alive right until the end. Such runs are very popular, and it's not uncommon for the players to share their decks build specifically for those runs."true solo" decks.
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* ThatOneDisadvantage: Some basic weaknesses are more devastating than the others. One of particularly painful to deal with is "Silver Twilight Acolyte"; whenever it attacks, it causes the Doom to be placed directly to the current Agenda (which means, [[TimedMission you just got one step closer to losing]]), and it has just enough health to survive one attack unless you're prepared for fight. It's also not so easy to run from, as it has decent agility and would keep pursuing its prey, being a Hunter.
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* ThatOneDisadvantage: Some basic weaknesses are more devastating than the others. One of particularly painful to deal with is "Silver Twilight Acolyte"; whenever it attacks, it causes the Doom to be placed directly to the current Agenda (which means, [[TimedMission you just got one step closer to losing]]), and it has just enough health to survive one attack unless you're prepared for fight. It's also not so easy to run away from, as it has decent agility and would keep pursuing its prey, being a Hunter.
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Removed Unreliable Narrator, it ended up on the page by mistake when moving the other examples (that, and it's non-YMMV anyway); original entry is still present on the main page
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* UnreliableNarrator: The investigators discover that Lita Chantler herself is the reason the Umôrdhoth cult is active, having destroyed the ghouls' food source and antagonised their god, something she neglected to mention to the players.
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* ThatOneDisadvantage: Some basic weaknesses are more devastating than the others. One of particularly painful to deal with is "Silver Twilight Acolyte"; whenever it attacks, it causes the Doom to be placed directly to the current Agenda (which means, [[TimedMission you just got one step closer to losing]]), and it has just enough health to survive one attack unless you're prepared for fight. It's not also not so easy to run from, as it has decent agility and would keep pursuing its prey, being a Hunter.
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* ThatOneDisadvantage: Some basic weaknesses are more devastating than the others. One of particularly painful to deal with is "Silver Twilight Acolyte"; whenever it attacks, it causes the Doom to be placed directly to the current Agenda (which means, [[TimedMission you just got one step closer to losing]]), and it has just enough health to survive one attack unless you're prepared for fight. It's not also not so easy to run from, as it has decent agility and would keep pursuing its prey, being a Hunter.
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Moved from main page.
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* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, cultists claim Umôrdhoth is a just god who claims only the dead and the guilty, and notably it does willingly leave if you deliver the one who destroyed one of its lairs to it. Lita in contrast claims that the cult is sacrificing innocents to sate it and the ghouls' hunger, and while we only have her word for that they're clearly willing to strongarm civilians like the mortician into aiding them and kill anyone interfering in their actions.
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** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
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** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, difficulty (challenging enemies, little time and brutal final boss), especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
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* ThatOneBoss: Umôrdhoth has a big health pool (6 plus 4 per investigator), high combat stats and deals a monstrous three damage and horror to every investigator on its space at the end of the turn. Players in turn will have likely expended resources surviving and trying to prevent its summoning (which is all for nothing if it fails). Players will need good gear and defensive tools if they aren't able to prevent the summoning.
* UnreliableNarrator: The investigators discover that Lita Chantler herself is the reason the Umôrdhoth cult is active, having destroyed the ghouls' food source and antagonised their god, something she neglected to mention to the players.
* UnreliableNarrator: The investigators discover that Lita Chantler herself is the reason the Umôrdhoth cult is active, having destroyed the ghouls' food source and antagonised their god, something she neglected to mention to the players.
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* DemonicSpiders: Enough to [[ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame/DemonicSpiders warrant a separate page]] to list even the most dangerous and hated cases.
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* DemonicSpiders: Enough to [[ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame/DemonicSpiders [[DemonicSpiders/ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame warrant a separate page]] to list even the most dangerous and hated cases.
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* GoddamnedBats: Enough to [[ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame/GoddamnedBats warrant a separate page]] to list all the ways the game can make the players suffer.
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* GoddamnedBats: Enough to [[ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame/GoddamnedBats [[GoddamnedBats/ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame warrant a separate page]] to list all the ways the game can make the players suffer.
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* DemonicSpiders: There are many annoying cards in the encounter deck in any given scenario, but some can actually end your run very quickly, either by wiping out the team, or by advancing Doom to the point that you [[TimedMission run out of time]]:
** From the core game:
*** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
*** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Seeker of Carcosa enemy (from "Echoes of the Past" scenario) quickly sucks out clues in his location, and once they run out (which happens quickly, as there are the enemies who do the same), starts accumulating Doom -- in a mission with [[TimedMission already strict time limit]]. With there being three of these fellas in the deck, they can end the scenario very quickly, making wiping them out an urgency.
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from the "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from th "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Ill Omen" treachery (from "Forgotten Ruins" set) is like "Ancient Evils", but worse; it puts the Doom tokens on locations, where it stays even if Agenda advances, so the more Agendas scenario has, [[TimedMission the more time in total it chops each time it hits]]. It also has "Peril" keyword, preventing the other players from assisting in dispatching it. And as a tip on the cake, there are many locations with additional penalties if there's Doom in them.
*** "Ancestral Fear" treachery from "Forgotten Ruins" set forces the players into a SadisticChoice: either it adds Doom to a location (similarly to "Ill Omen" from same set), permanently [[TimedMission taking away some time]], or rises Vengeance (albeit this at least removes it from the game), which would hurt the players even after scenario is finished. It has both "peril" and "surge" keywords, meaning that it's hard to cancel ''and'' it would be immediately followed by another encounter card.
*** "Conspiracy of Blood" treachery from "The Threads of Fate" scenario [[TimedMission lowers Doom threshold of the current Agenda]] (and can stuck up to two times), which can screw you over if something else rise Doom. It can be disabled after triggering, but it requires going out of you way, and imposes Willpower check which makes things ''worse'' if failed.
*** "Window to Another Time" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario is another SadisticChoice card; either it hits like "Ancient Evils" and takes away your precious time, or it shuffles "Ancient" location back into exploration deck, possibly undoing several turns of your hard work, without any guarantee that you would be able to catch up. As may be expected, it also has "peril", so no outside help.
*** "Lost Humanity" treachery from "The City of Archives" forces you to pass a hard Willpower test, and ''removes your cards from the game'' if you fail, with effect scaling with your performance. It's very nasty effect in the best of times, but here, you're stuck with low stats, without many of your powerful cards, ''scenario's goal is to gather cards in hand'', and it can drive you insane if it reduces you below certain amount of cards. Additionally, reducing your deck's size means looping through it more often, which, in turn, means extra horror.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** [[BossInMookClothing Piper of Azathoth]] enemy from "Agents of Azathoth" set is tough like a tank, hits even harder, relentlessly pursuits investigators and can't even stay dead once slain, despite supposedly providing victory points, as the other cards which comes with its set can revive it. It also has "Elite" trait on top of it, despite not being an actual boss, which protects it from most of the best tools at players' disposal.
*** Witness of Chaos enemy from "The Clutches of Chaos" scenario puts breaches (read: Doom) in every location she enters. She spawns in location with fewest breaches, potentially far away from you, and then starts running towards you, due to also being a "hunter". The only adequate response is meet her head on... where she reveals high Fight and health values. Fortunately, she awards victory points, which means that once slain, she ''stays'' dead.
*** [[BossInMookClothing Mindless Dancer]] enemy from "Before the Black Throne" scenario is like Piper of Azathoth's littler brother: only slightly less health, even more Fight, and targets your health instead of your sanity. Not only it hits like a truck, it runs like one, too, being able to pass through "empty spaces" and even receiving extra moves when doing so. It isn't Elite, but there are ''three'' of them in the deck; they also don't award Victory points, so even if killed, they can return later.
*** "The End is Night!" treachery from "Before the Black Throne" scenario imposes (increasingly higher) Willpower test, and on a failure, feeds all Doom on Cultists in play directly to Azathoth (or 1 Doom if there's none). If Azathoth ever accumulates at least 10 points of Doom, it's an immediate NonStandardGameOver, regardless of current Agenda.
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** "Myriad Forms" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario. Once drawn, it forces to reveal all copies of Nyarlathothep in your hand, and then shuffle them back into encounter deck (but not before they attack you). What makes it truly dangerous, and not just annoying, like most time-wasters, is just how much [[TimedMission time]] and efforts gets thrown out of the window, and how hard it's to come back from it; just one such card (and there are two of them in the deck) can irreversibly ruin your run.
*** Web-Spinner enemy from the "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario. It's an elusive spider which hides in the distant empty corner and, unless found and smashed in time, puts Doom on its location with every turn (which is ''permanent'', persisting between Agendas), directly contributing to your defeat. As they have "aloof" keyword, by the time you move to them and engage, you would already spend two out of default three actions, and if you fail to kill or exhaust them (by evading) with the last one remaining, they would ''still'' do their black deed.
** In ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign, a Pursuing Motorcar enemy from "A Horror in High Gear" scenario, which can attack everyone in a card, doing 2 points of damage; it has above average Fight and health, meaning that it's likely to attack more than once. And if it catches someone outside of the car, its damage ''doubles'' (even bosses rarely causes more than 3 damage in one attack).
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** "Polar Vortex" treachery from "Deadly Wether" set sticks to a location, and, if they end a turn there, deals direct damage to not just investigator, but ''all'' assets under their control, partners included. While investigator often can survive it, same can't be said about many partners -- and those who can, would keep their damage between scenarios. What makes it much more dangerous than its twin sister "Nebulous Miasma" (from "Miasma" set; targets sanity instead) is that it shows up in scenarios with way fewer options to avoid it.
*** "Ice Shaft" treachery from "Dangers of Antarctica" set at first looks like yet another "fail the test, get 2 damage" card, but what makes it more lethal is campaign-exclusive frost tokens, which not only can make you fail this check ''automatically'' if you draw 2 of them, but this card also deals you extra damage per frost token, resulting in up to 4 damage from just one card (and there are three copies of it). It has a twin sister, "Dark Aurora" from the "Silence and Mystery" set, which causes all the same troubles, but targets sanity instead of health.
** From the core game:
*** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
*** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Seeker of Carcosa enemy (from "Echoes of the Past" scenario) quickly sucks out clues in his location, and once they run out (which happens quickly, as there are the enemies who do the same), starts accumulating Doom -- in a mission with [[TimedMission already strict time limit]]. With there being three of these fellas in the deck, they can end the scenario very quickly, making wiping them out an urgency.
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from the "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from th "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Ill Omen" treachery (from "Forgotten Ruins" set) is like "Ancient Evils", but worse; it puts the Doom tokens on locations, where it stays even if Agenda advances, so the more Agendas scenario has, [[TimedMission the more time in total it chops each time it hits]]. It also has "Peril" keyword, preventing the other players from assisting in dispatching it. And as a tip on the cake, there are many locations with additional penalties if there's Doom in them.
*** "Ancestral Fear" treachery from "Forgotten Ruins" set forces the players into a SadisticChoice: either it adds Doom to a location (similarly to "Ill Omen" from same set), permanently [[TimedMission taking away some time]], or rises Vengeance (albeit this at least removes it from the game), which would hurt the players even after scenario is finished. It has both "peril" and "surge" keywords, meaning that it's hard to cancel ''and'' it would be immediately followed by another encounter card.
*** "Conspiracy of Blood" treachery from "The Threads of Fate" scenario [[TimedMission lowers Doom threshold of the current Agenda]] (and can stuck up to two times), which can screw you over if something else rise Doom. It can be disabled after triggering, but it requires going out of you way, and imposes Willpower check which makes things ''worse'' if failed.
*** "Window to Another Time" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario is another SadisticChoice card; either it hits like "Ancient Evils" and takes away your precious time, or it shuffles "Ancient" location back into exploration deck, possibly undoing several turns of your hard work, without any guarantee that you would be able to catch up. As may be expected, it also has "peril", so no outside help.
*** "Lost Humanity" treachery from "The City of Archives" forces you to pass a hard Willpower test, and ''removes your cards from the game'' if you fail, with effect scaling with your performance. It's very nasty effect in the best of times, but here, you're stuck with low stats, without many of your powerful cards, ''scenario's goal is to gather cards in hand'', and it can drive you insane if it reduces you below certain amount of cards. Additionally, reducing your deck's size means looping through it more often, which, in turn, means extra horror.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** [[BossInMookClothing Piper of Azathoth]] enemy from "Agents of Azathoth" set is tough like a tank, hits even harder, relentlessly pursuits investigators and can't even stay dead once slain, despite supposedly providing victory points, as the other cards which comes with its set can revive it. It also has "Elite" trait on top of it, despite not being an actual boss, which protects it from most of the best tools at players' disposal.
*** Witness of Chaos enemy from "The Clutches of Chaos" scenario puts breaches (read: Doom) in every location she enters. She spawns in location with fewest breaches, potentially far away from you, and then starts running towards you, due to also being a "hunter". The only adequate response is meet her head on... where she reveals high Fight and health values. Fortunately, she awards victory points, which means that once slain, she ''stays'' dead.
*** [[BossInMookClothing Mindless Dancer]] enemy from "Before the Black Throne" scenario is like Piper of Azathoth's littler brother: only slightly less health, even more Fight, and targets your health instead of your sanity. Not only it hits like a truck, it runs like one, too, being able to pass through "empty spaces" and even receiving extra moves when doing so. It isn't Elite, but there are ''three'' of them in the deck; they also don't award Victory points, so even if killed, they can return later.
*** "The End is Night!" treachery from "Before the Black Throne" scenario imposes (increasingly higher) Willpower test, and on a failure, feeds all Doom on Cultists in play directly to Azathoth (or 1 Doom if there's none). If Azathoth ever accumulates at least 10 points of Doom, it's an immediate NonStandardGameOver, regardless of current Agenda.
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** "Myriad Forms" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario. Once drawn, it forces to reveal all copies of Nyarlathothep in your hand, and then shuffle them back into encounter deck (but not before they attack you). What makes it truly dangerous, and not just annoying, like most time-wasters, is just how much [[TimedMission time]] and efforts gets thrown out of the window, and how hard it's to come back from it; just one such card (and there are two of them in the deck) can irreversibly ruin your run.
*** Web-Spinner enemy from the "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario. It's an elusive spider which hides in the distant empty corner and, unless found and smashed in time, puts Doom on its location with every turn (which is ''permanent'', persisting between Agendas), directly contributing to your defeat. As they have "aloof" keyword, by the time you move to them and engage, you would already spend two out of default three actions, and if you fail to kill or exhaust them (by evading) with the last one remaining, they would ''still'' do their black deed.
** In ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign, a Pursuing Motorcar enemy from "A Horror in High Gear" scenario, which can attack everyone in a card, doing 2 points of damage; it has above average Fight and health, meaning that it's likely to attack more than once. And if it catches someone outside of the car, its damage ''doubles'' (even bosses rarely causes more than 3 damage in one attack).
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** "Polar Vortex" treachery from "Deadly Wether" set sticks to a location, and, if they end a turn there, deals direct damage to not just investigator, but ''all'' assets under their control, partners included. While investigator often can survive it, same can't be said about many partners -- and those who can, would keep their damage between scenarios. What makes it much more dangerous than its twin sister "Nebulous Miasma" (from "Miasma" set; targets sanity instead) is that it shows up in scenarios with way fewer options to avoid it.
*** "Ice Shaft" treachery from "Dangers of Antarctica" set at first looks like yet another "fail the test, get 2 damage" card, but what makes it more lethal is campaign-exclusive frost tokens, which not only can make you fail this check ''automatically'' if you draw 2 of them, but this card also deals you extra damage per frost token, resulting in up to 4 damage from just one card (and there are three copies of it). It has a twin sister, "Dark Aurora" from the "Silence and Mystery" set, which causes all the same troubles, but targets sanity instead of health.
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* DemonicSpiders: There are many annoying cards in the encounter deck in any given scenario, but some can actually end your run very quickly, either by wiping out the team, or by advancing Doom Enough to the point that you [[TimedMission run out of time]]:
** From the core game:
*** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for[[ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame/DemonicSpiders warrant a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks separate page]] to prevent it, leaving the investigators with list even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
*** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Seeker of Carcosa enemy (from "Echoes of the Past" scenario) quickly sucks out clues in his location, and once they run out (which happens quickly, as there are the enemies who do the same), starts accumulating Doom -- in a mission with [[TimedMission already strict time limit]]. With there being three of these fellas in the deck, they can end the scenario very quickly, making wiping them out an urgency.
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from the "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from th "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Ill Omen" treachery (from "Forgotten Ruins" set) is like "Ancient Evils", but worse; it puts the Doom tokens on locations, where it stays even if Agenda advances, so the more Agendas scenario has, [[TimedMission the more time in total it chops each time it hits]]. It also has "Peril" keyword, preventing the other players from assisting in dispatching it. And as a tip on the cake, there are many locations with additional penalties if there's Doom in them.
*** "Ancestral Fear" treachery from "Forgotten Ruins" set forces the players into a SadisticChoice: either it adds Doom to a location (similarly to "Ill Omen" from same set), permanently [[TimedMission taking away some time]], or rises Vengeance (albeit this at least removes it from the game), which would hurt the players even after scenario is finished. It has both "peril" and "surge" keywords, meaning that it's hard to cancel ''and'' it would be immediately followed by another encounter card.
*** "Conspiracy of Blood" treachery from "The Threads of Fate" scenario [[TimedMission lowers Doom threshold of the current Agenda]] (and can stuck up to two times), which can screw you over if something else rise Doom. It can be disabled after triggering, but it requires going out of you way, and imposes Willpower check which makes things ''worse'' if failed.
*** "Window to Another Time" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario is another SadisticChoice card; either it hits like "Ancient Evils" and takes away your precious time, or it shuffles "Ancient" location back into exploration deck, possibly undoing several turns of your hard work, without any guarantee that you would be able to catch up. As may be expected, it also has "peril", so no outside help.
*** "Lost Humanity" treachery from "The City of Archives" forces you to pass a hard Willpower test, and ''removes your cards from the game'' if you fail, with effect scaling with your performance. It's very nasty effect in the best of times, but here, you're stuck with low stats, without many of your powerful cards, ''scenario's goal is to gather cards in hand'', and it can drive you insane if it reduces you below certain amount of cards. Additionally, reducing your deck's size means looping through it more often, which, in turn, means extra horror.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** [[BossInMookClothing Piper of Azathoth]] enemy from "Agents of Azathoth" set is tough like a tank, hits even harder, relentlessly pursuits investigators and can't even stay dead once slain, despite supposedly providing victory points, as the other cards which comes with its set can revive it. It also has "Elite" trait on top of it, despite not being an actual boss, which protects it frommost of the best tools at players' disposal.
*** Witness of Chaos enemy from "The Clutches of Chaos" scenario puts breaches (read: Doom) in every location she enters. She spawns in location with fewest breaches, potentially far away from you, and then starts running towards you, due to also being a "hunter". The only adequate response is meet her head on... where she reveals high Fight and health values. Fortunately, she awards victory points, which means that once slain, she ''stays'' dead.
*** [[BossInMookClothing Mindless Dancer]] enemy from "Before the Black Throne" scenario is like Piper of Azathoth's littler brother: only slightly less health, even more Fight, and targets your health instead of your sanity. Not only it hits like a truck, it runs like one, too, being able to pass through "empty spaces" and even receiving extra moves when doing so. It isn't Elite, but there are ''three'' of them in the deck; they also don't award Victory points, so even if killed, they can return later.
*** "The End is Night!" treachery from "Before the Black Throne" scenario imposes (increasingly higher) Willpower test, and on a failure, feeds all Doom on Cultists in play directly to Azathoth (or 1 Doom if there's none). If Azathoth ever accumulates at least 10 points of Doom, it's an immediate NonStandardGameOver, regardless of current Agenda.
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** "Myriad Forms" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario. Once drawn, it forces to reveal all copies of Nyarlathothep in your hand, and then shuffle them back into encounter deck (but not before they attack you). What makes it truly dangerous, and not just annoying, like most time-wasters, is just how much [[TimedMission time]] and efforts gets thrown out of the window, and how hard it's to come back from it; just one such card (and there are two of them in the deck) can irreversibly ruin your run.
*** Web-Spinner enemy from the "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario. It's an elusive spider which hides in the distant empty corner and, unless found and smashed in time, puts Doom on its location with every turn (which is ''permanent'', persisting between Agendas), directly contributing to your defeat. As they have "aloof" keyword, by the time you move to them and engage, you would already spend two out of default three actions, and if you fail to kill or exhaust them (by evading) with the last one remaining, they would ''still'' do their black deed.
** In ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign, a Pursuing Motorcar enemy from "A Horror in High Gear" scenario, which can attack everyone in a card, doing 2 points of damage; it has above average Fight and health, meaning that it's likely to attack more than once. And if it catches someone outside of the car, its damage ''doubles'' (even bosses rarely causes more than 3 damage in one attack).
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** "Polar Vortex" treachery from "Deadly Wether" set sticks to a location, and, if they end a turn there, deals direct damage to not just investigator, but ''all'' assets under their control, partners included. While investigator often can survive it, same can't be said about many partners -- and those who can, would keep their damage between scenarios. What makes it much moredangerous than its twin sister "Nebulous Miasma" (from "Miasma" set; targets sanity instead) is that it shows up in scenarios with way fewer options to avoid it.
*** "Ice Shaft" treachery from "Dangers of Antarctica" set at first looks like yet another "fail the test, get 2 damage" card, but what makes it more lethal is campaign-exclusive frost tokens, which not only can make you fail this check ''automatically'' if you draw 2 of them, but this card also deals you extra damage per frost token, resulting in up to 4 damage from just one card (and there are three copies of it). It has a twin sister, "Dark Aurora" from the "Silenceand Mystery" set, which causes all the same troubles, but targets sanity instead of health.hated cases.
** From the core game:
*** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for
*** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Seeker of Carcosa enemy (from "Echoes of the Past" scenario) quickly sucks out clues in his location, and once they run out (which happens quickly, as there are the enemies who do the same), starts accumulating Doom -- in a mission with [[TimedMission already strict time limit]]. With there being three of these fellas in the deck, they can end the scenario very quickly, making wiping them out an urgency.
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from the "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from th "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Ill Omen" treachery (from "Forgotten Ruins" set) is like "Ancient Evils", but worse; it puts the Doom tokens on locations, where it stays even if Agenda advances, so the more Agendas scenario has, [[TimedMission the more time in total it chops each time it hits]]. It also has "Peril" keyword, preventing the other players from assisting in dispatching it. And as a tip on the cake, there are many locations with additional penalties if there's Doom in them.
*** "Ancestral Fear" treachery from "Forgotten Ruins" set forces the players into a SadisticChoice: either it adds Doom to a location (similarly to "Ill Omen" from same set), permanently [[TimedMission taking away some time]], or rises Vengeance (albeit this at least removes it from the game), which would hurt the players even after scenario is finished. It has both "peril" and "surge" keywords, meaning that it's hard to cancel ''and'' it would be immediately followed by another encounter card.
*** "Conspiracy of Blood" treachery from "The Threads of Fate" scenario [[TimedMission lowers Doom threshold of the current Agenda]] (and can stuck up to two times), which can screw you over if something else rise Doom. It can be disabled after triggering, but it requires going out of you way, and imposes Willpower check which makes things ''worse'' if failed.
*** "Window to Another Time" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario is another SadisticChoice card; either it hits like "Ancient Evils" and takes away your precious time, or it shuffles "Ancient" location back into exploration deck, possibly undoing several turns of your hard work, without any guarantee that you would be able to catch up. As may be expected, it also has "peril", so no outside help.
*** "Lost Humanity" treachery from "The City of Archives" forces you to pass a hard Willpower test, and ''removes your cards from the game'' if you fail, with effect scaling with your performance. It's very nasty effect in the best of times, but here, you're stuck with low stats, without many of your powerful cards, ''scenario's goal is to gather cards in hand'', and it can drive you insane if it reduces you below certain amount of cards. Additionally, reducing your deck's size means looping through it more often, which, in turn, means extra horror.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** [[BossInMookClothing Piper of Azathoth]] enemy from "Agents of Azathoth" set is tough like a tank, hits even harder, relentlessly pursuits investigators and can't even stay dead once slain, despite supposedly providing victory points, as the other cards which comes with its set can revive it. It also has "Elite" trait on top of it, despite not being an actual boss, which protects it from
*** Witness of Chaos enemy from "The Clutches of Chaos" scenario puts breaches (read: Doom) in every location she enters. She spawns in location with fewest breaches, potentially far away from you, and then starts running towards you, due to also being a "hunter". The only adequate response is meet her head on... where she reveals high Fight and health values. Fortunately, she awards victory points, which means that once slain, she ''stays'' dead.
*** [[BossInMookClothing Mindless Dancer]] enemy from "Before the Black Throne" scenario is like Piper of Azathoth's littler brother: only slightly less health, even more Fight, and targets your health instead of your sanity. Not only it hits like a truck, it runs like one, too, being able to pass through "empty spaces" and even receiving extra moves when doing so. It isn't Elite, but there are ''three'' of them in the deck; they also don't award Victory points, so even if killed, they can return later.
*** "The End is Night!" treachery from "Before the Black Throne" scenario imposes (increasingly higher) Willpower test, and on a failure, feeds all Doom on Cultists in play directly to Azathoth (or 1 Doom if there's none). If Azathoth ever accumulates at least 10 points of Doom, it's an immediate NonStandardGameOver, regardless of current Agenda.
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** "Myriad Forms" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario. Once drawn, it forces to reveal all copies of Nyarlathothep in your hand, and then shuffle them back into encounter deck (but not before they attack you). What makes it truly dangerous, and not just annoying, like most time-wasters, is just how much [[TimedMission time]] and efforts gets thrown out of the window, and how hard it's to come back from it; just one such card (and there are two of them in the deck) can irreversibly ruin your run.
*** Web-Spinner enemy from the "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario. It's an elusive spider which hides in the distant empty corner and, unless found and smashed in time, puts Doom on its location with every turn (which is ''permanent'', persisting between Agendas), directly contributing to your defeat. As they have "aloof" keyword, by the time you move to them and engage, you would already spend two out of default three actions, and if you fail to kill or exhaust them (by evading) with the last one remaining, they would ''still'' do their black deed.
** In ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign, a Pursuing Motorcar enemy from "A Horror in High Gear" scenario, which can attack everyone in a card, doing 2 points of damage; it has above average Fight and health, meaning that it's likely to attack more than once. And if it catches someone outside of the car, its damage ''doubles'' (even bosses rarely causes more than 3 damage in one attack).
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** "Polar Vortex" treachery from "Deadly Wether" set sticks to a location, and, if they end a turn there, deals direct damage to not just investigator, but ''all'' assets under their control, partners included. While investigator often can survive it, same can't be said about many partners -- and those who can, would keep their damage between scenarios. What makes it much more
*** "Ice Shaft" treachery from "Dangers of Antarctica" set at first looks like yet another "fail the test, get 2 damage" card, but what makes it more lethal is campaign-exclusive frost tokens, which not only can make you fail this check ''automatically'' if you draw 2 of them, but this card also deals you extra damage per frost token, resulting in up to 4 damage from just one card (and there are three copies of it). It has a twin sister, "Dark Aurora" from the "Silence
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* GoddamnedBats: Many treacheries and some enemies can't outright kill investigators, but instead aims to halt their progress (in [[TimedMission a game with strict time limit]]), by either directly stalling them, making them waste limited actions or harassing their valuable cards:
** Repeat offenders from the core game:
*** The "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
*** The "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
*** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that some investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
*** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
*** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
*** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
*** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign:
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set lacks offensive capabilities, but has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less deadly.
*** "Collapsing Reality" treachery in the "Lost in Time and Space" scenario not only causes damage (and horror, due to scenario-specific rules), but discards your location and drops you in the very beginning. Have fun spending several more turns going back to where you were before this card hit you.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Roach Swarm enemy from "Decay and Filth" set exists to annoy clue-searchers; they're just hard enough to evade to require some card investment, and have their combat scaling with locations shroud, making it hard to swap them. If investigator tries to investigate with them still being nearby, they would be just hit by attacks of opportunity. Fortunately, they deal only 1 point of damage.
*** "Corrosion" treachery from "Decay and Filth" set exists to harass any investigators who relies on key assets, as it makes them discard ''multiple'' assets at once, with severity scaling with shroud. Its counterpart from ''Return to the Path to Carcosa'' instead targets events, which is just as annoying.
*** "Delusions" set rarely poses real threat, but it's very annoying, due to putting various restrictions on the player and only being discardable by wasting almost all your actions. The one card which doesn't do that, "Descent into Madness", instead makes investigator losing actions if they have enough horror, which they usually have, given this campaign's focus.
*** "Straitjacket" treachery from "The Unspeakable Oath" scenario, once drawn, forces investigator to wear it (taking both hands and a body slots), and can't be removed except by spending two actions. It may outright put investigator out of action for some time.
*** "Realm of Madness" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" is another card which forces to discard cards, but it scales with horror suffered, which, in this scenario, can exceed your usual maximum. It very easily can force you to discard everything in your hand and play area, wrecking your entire plan of action.
*** "A Shadow Behind You" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" forces investigator to waste one action every turn (remember that you're on a [[TimedMission time limit]]), or discard either all resources or all cards from had to get rid of it (can be very painful for most investigators).
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Entombed" treachery from "Deadly Traps" set exists solely to make investigator stuck in one place and waste actions to get rid of it. And test difficulty is just hard enough to potentially require more than one attempt.
*** "Lost in the Wild" is similar to "Entombed"; unlike it, it can be avoided, but also unlike it, if it actually lands, that's it: you're stuck until the end of your turn.
*** "Pit Viper" enemy from "Serpents" set is very easy to kill, but doing so costs vengeance points, which would hurt investigators in the long run. If you decide to deal with it non-lethally, any mistake can result in you ending up poisoned, which can cause you tons of headache to you personally later in campaign, and possibly even cause you traumas.
*** Boa Constrictor enemy from the "Serpents" set is hard to kill (though its damage output is low), can prevent you from readying your assets (making it ''much'' harder to deal with it if you failed to dispatch it quickly), and if you still kill it, you get the whopping two vengeance points. You can try to avoid it, but it wouldn't avoid you, being a "hunter" enemy.
*** "Snake Bite" treachery from the "Serpents" set forces to choose between essentially OneHitKill for any Ally, or [[ArmorPiercingAttack direct damage]] to investigator themselves and being poisoned (which would cause massive headache to the player later in campaign).
*** "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to the deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead. And if you have nothing, it targets your hand instead, discarding 3 cards. No matter what, it ''would'' screw you over.
*** Fang of Yig enemy (from "Yig's Venom" set) prevents poisoned investigators from playing cards or committing them to skill tests, essentially crippling them without actually doing anything to kill them. They don't pose much danger to non-poisoned investigators, however.
*** "Timeline Destabilization" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario aims to disrupt your progress. If drawn, it enforces the Willpower test (which scales with the number of discovered locations), and if the player fails to pass it, it goes into exploration deck, so, instead of a new location you want to find, you can accidentally draw this one, wasting that exploration. It also deals minor damage and horror.
*** "Poisonous Spores" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario poisons everyone who doesn't move away from its location before the end of the round. Those already poisoned instead suffers horror.
*** Apex Strangleweed enemy from "The Heart of Elders" scenario has more health than some investigators, and though it lacks offensive capabilities, each time it makes attacks of opportunity, it takes away ''all'' investigator's actions and forces them the end their turn immediately. It can be disabled by one of the possible supplies (a pocketknife), but players are so limited in picking those, it's very likely that no one would bother to take it.
*** "Ants!" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario imposes hard Agility test, and forces investigators to discard cards from either play or hand; to make it worse, effect is scaling with how badly you perform the test. And there are multiple copies of this card in the deck.
*** "Wracked in Time" treachery from "Shattered Aeons" scenario is yet another "fail a test, suffer damage" card... except for the fact that any asset which gets damaged by it, unless it's defeated, must be then shuffled back into your deck, making it harder to stay well-equipped while also avoiding losing too much health.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** "Centuries of Secrets" treachery from the "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
*** "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Witchcraft" set consists of treacheries dedicated to make life harder, without actually ending it, be it through targeting your assets ("Bedeviled"), your hand ("Diabolic Voices") or your stats ("Wracked").
*** Vengeful Witch enemy from "The Wages of Sin" scenario is tough enough to often warrant using extra cards to kill, but the worst part comes when she dies, as she deals ''direct'' damage and horror to all investigators around her, which you can't soak with your assets. And don't think you can just run from her, as she's "hunter".
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way. It also makes it harder to kill them, as each "swarm" card allows to absorb some damage while dealing more damage/horror.
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower test; the test becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a [[TimedMission time limit]].
*** "Law of 'Ygiroth" treacheries from the "Agents of Nyarlathothep" set not only puts restrictions on what player can or can't do, but also makes it in such a way that just checking the conditions becomes annoying task (like "you can't play the cards with odd number of words in the title"). And they're "hidden", meaning that they would occupy your (limited) hand until you perform (equally awkward) condition to discard them.
*** "Deeper Slumber" treachery from the "Dreamer's Curse" set targets everyone who likes to keep good cards at ready in their hand, by drastically reducing hand size and forcing to check it (and thus, discard excessive cards) every time you draw anything.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to the "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards. It's also harder to discard, as you have to successfully investigate a location, which may be problematic for investigator who's not the best at it, especially while under effects of this card.
*** "Night Terror" treachery from the "Merging Realities" set goes into your threat area, and hits you each time you fail any test (which can be very painful for Survivors, who actually have it as they core mechanic), by forcing to reveal 3 cards from your deck; each weaknesses immediately gets drawn, while any other cards gets ''outright removed from the game''. You have to pass a Willpower test to remove it, which you ''also'' can fail (though, fortunately, the card gets removed regardless).
*** Inconspicuous Zoog enemy from the "Zoogs" set combines "swarm" mechanic (with higher value than other zoogs) with inability to kill it in one attack, no matter what, as it cancels any excessive damage which would've otherwise targeted the other swarm cards or the host, and runs away to connected location. And even if it gets killed, it can respawn thanks to "Zoog Burrow" treachery.
*** "Zoog Burrow" treachery from the "Zoogs" set can add even more "swarm" cards to any zoog in play, or, if there's none, just outright spawn one from either the encounter deck or discard pile. You just barely killed the Inconspicuous Zoog after multiple turns? Too bad, it's here again.
*** Ancient Zoog from "Beyond the Gates of Sleep" scenario just hides somewhere, and keeps adding more and more "swarm" cards to every other zoog, until you find and kill it. And it's also Elite, which makes it immune to many cards which would otherwise allow to quickly deal with it.
*** "Song of the Magah Bird" and "Wondrous Land" (from "The Search for Kadath" scenario) both aims to slow down the investigation, on the threat of increasing Doom; first one locks you in location unless you pass a hard test, the second one can make you unable to investigate a location unless you're willing to get punished for it.
*** "Endless Descent" from "A Thousand Shapes of Horror" scenario puts the top-most location on the bottom, essentially prolonging your descent -- while you're [[TimedMission against the timer]] and pursued by AdvancingBossOfDoom.
*** Cats from Saturn enemy from "Dark Side of the Moon" scenario whose "swarm" value goes higher as the alert level goes higher, which can make them very slow to dispatch. But they lose "swarm" cards one by one whenever they move or gets evaded.
*** "Restless Journey" treacheries from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario tries to combine all the most annoying qualities in one cocktail. They makes you unable to commit more than one card to skill tests each round (seriously hurting your effectiveness), they're "hidden" (meaning that they take up limited place in your hand), and can only be discarded through skill test (each version tests different stat), ''failing each would also increase Doom''. They also have "peril" keyword, so your friends wouldn't help you. And if all that wasn't enough, there's a [[BossInMookClothing Crawling Chaos]] lurking around which goes more and more dangerous the more "hidden" cards you accumulate, these ones included.
*** "Abandoned by the Gods" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario is one of the nasties encounter cards which targets players' hand, as it hits ''all'' investigators, and forces to discard all assets and events with specific cost. On the bright side, it only triggers when failing a Willpower test, and scales up with how bad you deal with it. It has "peril", preventing you friends from assisting.
*** "Caught in the Web" treachery from "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario not only lowers your Agility, but also limits you to only one movement action per turn -- in scenario where actively moving around is crucial for success, and where even main boss [[GetBackHereBoss is actively trying to escape from you]].
** ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign:
*** Initiate of Dagon and Priest of Dagon (both from the "Agents of Dagon" set) are another take at Doom-generating cultists, but with their own annoying gimmick. Both spawns without Doom by default, but Initiate receives massive boost to Fight and Evade while has no Doom, and Priest outright can't be defeated, ensuring that they ''would'' live until they generate those.
*** Lloigor enemy from the "Agents of Hydra" set keeps pursuing investigators without actually engaging them (due to "aloof" keyword). While it's nearby, it forces all investigators in its or connected location to discard a random card from hand on ''every'' enemy phase. And if they decide to fight it after all, they would meet a very tough enemy with decent Fight whom they likely wouldn't kill fast enough to avoid being hit by its ability one more time.
** "Psychic Pull" treachery from the "Agents of Hydra" set not only forces investigator to discard a random card from hand, but then also imposes a Willpower test (with difficulty scaling with discarded card's cost) to avoid losing an action. Both effects are amongst most hated, and this card has them both.
*** "Malfunction" treachery from namesake set can randomly break your Vehicle, forcing you to stop and pass a not-trivial Intellect check to fix it. It's not as painful in the "Devil Reef" scenario, which goes at more or less standard pace, but in the "Horror in High Gear", it may either slow you down while you're trying to outrun pursuit, or make you ''unable'' to slow down and investigate a road ahead to not run into something nasty.
*** "Rising Tide" set exists to speed up the flood, and make it more painful for the players, ''on top'' of (often already nasty) scenario-specific effects. "Undertow" punishes the player for attempt to run away with damage and horror, unless they pass a skill test; "Riptide" is yet another asset discarder; and "Rising Tide" can make the flood go higher ''even faster'' than it usually does, and can become extremely annoying in "A Light in the Fog" scenario, where you have to fight off the flood in order to escape alive.
*** Hunting Deep One enemy from the "Devil Reef" scenario can drug you from your boat, and then ''prevent'' you from jumping back unless you either kill it or evade it. Additionally, it prevents you from gaining resources, which may be painful when trying to dispatch it. And if you fail to quickly deal with it, you may run into this scenario's nasty pack of treacheries specifically made to grind investigators who think that they can survive without a boat.
*** Hybrid Assassin enemy from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario can't hurt investigators much, but as he moves ''twice'' if it can't reach the investigators in one move, it's borderline impossible to outrun him -- wile fighting him wastes time and allows other, nastier enemies to catch up. He also spawns right on top of you, instead of far behind, like most other enemies in this scenario.
*** "Eyes in the Trees" treachery from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario is yet another "pass a test or discard cards" treachery... which scales with your performance, and, if you're a driver, can hit your teammates.
*** Deep One Hatchling enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario has abysmal stats, but if it's killed, it can and likely would attract attention of another, much stronger Deep One who would come for your blood. But if you stop trying to kill it, it wouldn't stop trying to kill you; and each time it tries to engage you, you have to choose between suffering small amount of horror, or losing an action.
*** Deep One Nursemaid enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario just quietly sits in a location, while passively boosting all the other, more dangerous enemies. But if you try to attack it, it would drop another encounter card on you (at least, it loses "surge" effect to not make it nastier than it has to be).
*** "Taken Captive" treachery from "A Light in the Fog" scenario dumps investigator in the cell, from which they have to escape while also taking back their keys. This is in scenario which puts on strict [[TimedMission time limit]], and ''outright kills'' investigators if they fail to escape in time.
*** "Stone Barrier" treachery from "The Lair of Dagon" scenario blocks the way out of its location, requiring passing a skill test every time you try to go through, which costs an action to even initiate.
*** "Treacherous Depths" treachery from the "Into a Maelstrom" scenario forces the player to choose between increasing flood level, or discarding assets from play with their total cost scaling with you location's shroud; so, a choice between flooding location and getting even less place to breath, or potentially discarding tons of valuable cards, as shroud sometimes can be very high. As with all cards involving choices, it has peril, preventing your friends from bailing you out.
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** Tekeli-li mechanic as a whole; a deck of various weakness cards which can get shuffled into your deck through a million-and-one ways, and screw you over when you lest expect it, while rarely, if ever, actually pose a danger directly. Enemies and treacheries who can drop such cards on the players are amongst the most annoying to deal with, though some are worse than others.
*** Primordial Evil enemy from the "Agents of the Unknown" set is already very tough and hits hard, but it's not what makes it memorable; each time you damage it, you have to blindly shuffle Tekeli-li card into your deck, and because it's tough, it may take multiple turns to kill, thus costing you several such cards.
*** Manifestation of Madness enemy from "Creatures of the Ice" set shuffles ''two'' Tekeli-li cards on each attack. Due to it being a "hunter", it would never cease to pursuit you unless dealt with.
*** Glacial Phantasm slowly follows the investigators and then forces everyone in its location to shuffle Tekeli-li card, without giving a chance to avoid it.
*** "Elder Things" set is all about harassing investigators' decks by forcing them to discard cards from it, be it when they attack you (Elder Thing Scavenger) or when you attack them (Guardian Elder Thing); both enemies have just enough health to possibly require more than one turn to deal with, and both are "hunters", meaning that you can't just run from them and forget.
*** "Left Behind" set consists of two enemies who spawns with Doom on them. They're easy to kill... but it's actually the worst thing you can do, as it only makes their Doom tokens to move to their location instead. Instead, you're supposed to deal with them through specific non-lethal means, which would make them despawn... while they're trying to kill you. The set also includes a treachery which makes dealing with them even harder while adding more Doom.
*** "Miasmic Torment" treachery from "Miasma" set attaches to your partner, and disables them, making them unable to get ready, and dealing either damage or horror to them once your turn ends. You can remove it, but it costs an action and requires a skill test. This thing can be quite annoying when you just can't afford to waste time.
*** "Blasphemous Vision" treachery from the "Nameless Horrors" set, on top of shuffling those cards into your deck, makes you resolve them ''twice'' each time you trigger them, until you get rid of it; but the true pain comes when it gets paired with the other cards from same set: "Glimpse the Unthinkable", just before shuffling card into deck, forces you to immediately trigger it, while "Nightmarish Vapors" gives a choice between wasting two actions (by itself extremely painful) or gaining two cards.
*** Giant Albino Penguin isn't aggressive, but makes you waste more turns each time you try to move from or into its location (it's "aloof", and thus wouldn't attack first). Grew tired of it and decided to kill it? But you would lose an action just to engage it, and then you have to kill an enemy with 3 health. In short, no matter what you do, the penguins ''would'' slow you down. And then there's "Wuk! Wuk! Wuk!" treachery, which can make the penguin ''move'' to your location, or put a Doom token on it (and if there's no penguins, it would just drop one on top of you).
*** "Polar Mirage" treachery from the "Silence and Mystery" set flat-out discards ''all'' non-weakness cards from your hand if you try to discover clues in location to which it gets attached (and you have very little control over where it spawns). It can and would ruin your plan of action if drawn in the wrong moment. At least, it discards once it hits.
*** Constricting Elder Thing enemy from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario gains more and more health the higher it spawns, and can prevent an investigator from advancing to the location above.
*** "Hanging on the Edge" treachery from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario can deal you damage and drag you to location below, while any Expedition assets stays above and must be recovered. "Avalanche" treachery from same scenario is even worse, as it drags you immediately, and only then puts a skill test... to avoid being dragged even further. This card can easily undo several turns of progress.
*** Benign Elder Thing enemy from the "City of the Elder Things" scenario, despite the name, isn't friendly and ''would'' attack investigators. It has 1-1-1 statline, making it easy to kill, but it spawns with Doom on it, and, if killed, adds that Doom directly to the current Agenda. What you're supposed to do with it is to pass a Willpower test to remove it from the game permanently, but you have to either spend two actions to engage and evade it, or jus tank its attack of opportunity. Another issue with it is that there are enemies who can kill them for you (specifically, shoggoths), with the same results as if it was done by you.
** Repeat offenders from the core game:
*** The "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
*** The "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
*** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that some investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
*** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
*** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
*** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
*** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign:
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set lacks offensive capabilities, but has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less deadly.
*** "Collapsing Reality" treachery in the "Lost in Time and Space" scenario not only causes damage (and horror, due to scenario-specific rules), but discards your location and drops you in the very beginning. Have fun spending several more turns going back to where you were before this card hit you.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Roach Swarm enemy from "Decay and Filth" set exists to annoy clue-searchers; they're just hard enough to evade to require some card investment, and have their combat scaling with locations shroud, making it hard to swap them. If investigator tries to investigate with them still being nearby, they would be just hit by attacks of opportunity. Fortunately, they deal only 1 point of damage.
*** "Corrosion" treachery from "Decay and Filth" set exists to harass any investigators who relies on key assets, as it makes them discard ''multiple'' assets at once, with severity scaling with shroud. Its counterpart from ''Return to the Path to Carcosa'' instead targets events, which is just as annoying.
*** "Delusions" set rarely poses real threat, but it's very annoying, due to putting various restrictions on the player and only being discardable by wasting almost all your actions. The one card which doesn't do that, "Descent into Madness", instead makes investigator losing actions if they have enough horror, which they usually have, given this campaign's focus.
*** "Straitjacket" treachery from "The Unspeakable Oath" scenario, once drawn, forces investigator to wear it (taking both hands and a body slots), and can't be removed except by spending two actions. It may outright put investigator out of action for some time.
*** "Realm of Madness" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" is another card which forces to discard cards, but it scales with horror suffered, which, in this scenario, can exceed your usual maximum. It very easily can force you to discard everything in your hand and play area, wrecking your entire plan of action.
*** "A Shadow Behind You" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" forces investigator to waste one action every turn (remember that you're on a [[TimedMission time limit]]), or discard either all resources or all cards from had to get rid of it (can be very painful for most investigators).
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Entombed" treachery from "Deadly Traps" set exists solely to make investigator stuck in one place and waste actions to get rid of it. And test difficulty is just hard enough to potentially require more than one attempt.
*** "Lost in the Wild" is similar to "Entombed"; unlike it, it can be avoided, but also unlike it, if it actually lands, that's it: you're stuck until the end of your turn.
*** "Pit Viper" enemy from "Serpents" set is very easy to kill, but doing so costs vengeance points, which would hurt investigators in the long run. If you decide to deal with it non-lethally, any mistake can result in you ending up poisoned, which can cause you tons of headache to you personally later in campaign, and possibly even cause you traumas.
*** Boa Constrictor enemy from the "Serpents" set is hard to kill (though its damage output is low), can prevent you from readying your assets (making it ''much'' harder to deal with it if you failed to dispatch it quickly), and if you still kill it, you get the whopping two vengeance points. You can try to avoid it, but it wouldn't avoid you, being a "hunter" enemy.
*** "Snake Bite" treachery from the "Serpents" set forces to choose between essentially OneHitKill for any Ally, or [[ArmorPiercingAttack direct damage]] to investigator themselves and being poisoned (which would cause massive headache to the player later in campaign).
*** "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to the deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead. And if you have nothing, it targets your hand instead, discarding 3 cards. No matter what, it ''would'' screw you over.
*** Fang of Yig enemy (from "Yig's Venom" set) prevents poisoned investigators from playing cards or committing them to skill tests, essentially crippling them without actually doing anything to kill them. They don't pose much danger to non-poisoned investigators, however.
*** "Timeline Destabilization" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario aims to disrupt your progress. If drawn, it enforces the Willpower test (which scales with the number of discovered locations), and if the player fails to pass it, it goes into exploration deck, so, instead of a new location you want to find, you can accidentally draw this one, wasting that exploration. It also deals minor damage and horror.
*** "Poisonous Spores" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario poisons everyone who doesn't move away from its location before the end of the round. Those already poisoned instead suffers horror.
*** Apex Strangleweed enemy from "The Heart of Elders" scenario has more health than some investigators, and though it lacks offensive capabilities, each time it makes attacks of opportunity, it takes away ''all'' investigator's actions and forces them the end their turn immediately. It can be disabled by one of the possible supplies (a pocketknife), but players are so limited in picking those, it's very likely that no one would bother to take it.
*** "Ants!" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario imposes hard Agility test, and forces investigators to discard cards from either play or hand; to make it worse, effect is scaling with how badly you perform the test. And there are multiple copies of this card in the deck.
*** "Wracked in Time" treachery from "Shattered Aeons" scenario is yet another "fail a test, suffer damage" card... except for the fact that any asset which gets damaged by it, unless it's defeated, must be then shuffled back into your deck, making it harder to stay well-equipped while also avoiding losing too much health.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** "Centuries of Secrets" treachery from the "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
*** "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Witchcraft" set consists of treacheries dedicated to make life harder, without actually ending it, be it through targeting your assets ("Bedeviled"), your hand ("Diabolic Voices") or your stats ("Wracked").
*** Vengeful Witch enemy from "The Wages of Sin" scenario is tough enough to often warrant using extra cards to kill, but the worst part comes when she dies, as she deals ''direct'' damage and horror to all investigators around her, which you can't soak with your assets. And don't think you can just run from her, as she's "hunter".
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way. It also makes it harder to kill them, as each "swarm" card allows to absorb some damage while dealing more damage/horror.
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower test; the test becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a [[TimedMission time limit]].
*** "Law of 'Ygiroth" treacheries from the "Agents of Nyarlathothep" set not only puts restrictions on what player can or can't do, but also makes it in such a way that just checking the conditions becomes annoying task (like "you can't play the cards with odd number of words in the title"). And they're "hidden", meaning that they would occupy your (limited) hand until you perform (equally awkward) condition to discard them.
*** "Deeper Slumber" treachery from the "Dreamer's Curse" set targets everyone who likes to keep good cards at ready in their hand, by drastically reducing hand size and forcing to check it (and thus, discard excessive cards) every time you draw anything.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to the "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards. It's also harder to discard, as you have to successfully investigate a location, which may be problematic for investigator who's not the best at it, especially while under effects of this card.
*** "Night Terror" treachery from the "Merging Realities" set goes into your threat area, and hits you each time you fail any test (which can be very painful for Survivors, who actually have it as they core mechanic), by forcing to reveal 3 cards from your deck; each weaknesses immediately gets drawn, while any other cards gets ''outright removed from the game''. You have to pass a Willpower test to remove it, which you ''also'' can fail (though, fortunately, the card gets removed regardless).
*** Inconspicuous Zoog enemy from the "Zoogs" set combines "swarm" mechanic (with higher value than other zoogs) with inability to kill it in one attack, no matter what, as it cancels any excessive damage which would've otherwise targeted the other swarm cards or the host, and runs away to connected location. And even if it gets killed, it can respawn thanks to "Zoog Burrow" treachery.
*** "Zoog Burrow" treachery from the "Zoogs" set can add even more "swarm" cards to any zoog in play, or, if there's none, just outright spawn one from either the encounter deck or discard pile. You just barely killed the Inconspicuous Zoog after multiple turns? Too bad, it's here again.
*** Ancient Zoog from "Beyond the Gates of Sleep" scenario just hides somewhere, and keeps adding more and more "swarm" cards to every other zoog, until you find and kill it. And it's also Elite, which makes it immune to many cards which would otherwise allow to quickly deal with it.
*** "Song of the Magah Bird" and "Wondrous Land" (from "The Search for Kadath" scenario) both aims to slow down the investigation, on the threat of increasing Doom; first one locks you in location unless you pass a hard test, the second one can make you unable to investigate a location unless you're willing to get punished for it.
*** "Endless Descent" from "A Thousand Shapes of Horror" scenario puts the top-most location on the bottom, essentially prolonging your descent -- while you're [[TimedMission against the timer]] and pursued by AdvancingBossOfDoom.
*** Cats from Saturn enemy from "Dark Side of the Moon" scenario whose "swarm" value goes higher as the alert level goes higher, which can make them very slow to dispatch. But they lose "swarm" cards one by one whenever they move or gets evaded.
*** "Restless Journey" treacheries from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario tries to combine all the most annoying qualities in one cocktail. They makes you unable to commit more than one card to skill tests each round (seriously hurting your effectiveness), they're "hidden" (meaning that they take up limited place in your hand), and can only be discarded through skill test (each version tests different stat), ''failing each would also increase Doom''. They also have "peril" keyword, so your friends wouldn't help you. And if all that wasn't enough, there's a [[BossInMookClothing Crawling Chaos]] lurking around which goes more and more dangerous the more "hidden" cards you accumulate, these ones included.
*** "Abandoned by the Gods" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario is one of the nasties encounter cards which targets players' hand, as it hits ''all'' investigators, and forces to discard all assets and events with specific cost. On the bright side, it only triggers when failing a Willpower test, and scales up with how bad you deal with it. It has "peril", preventing you friends from assisting.
*** "Caught in the Web" treachery from "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario not only lowers your Agility, but also limits you to only one movement action per turn -- in scenario where actively moving around is crucial for success, and where even main boss [[GetBackHereBoss is actively trying to escape from you]].
** ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign:
*** Initiate of Dagon and Priest of Dagon (both from the "Agents of Dagon" set) are another take at Doom-generating cultists, but with their own annoying gimmick. Both spawns without Doom by default, but Initiate receives massive boost to Fight and Evade while has no Doom, and Priest outright can't be defeated, ensuring that they ''would'' live until they generate those.
*** Lloigor enemy from the "Agents of Hydra" set keeps pursuing investigators without actually engaging them (due to "aloof" keyword). While it's nearby, it forces all investigators in its or connected location to discard a random card from hand on ''every'' enemy phase. And if they decide to fight it after all, they would meet a very tough enemy with decent Fight whom they likely wouldn't kill fast enough to avoid being hit by its ability one more time.
** "Psychic Pull" treachery from the "Agents of Hydra" set not only forces investigator to discard a random card from hand, but then also imposes a Willpower test (with difficulty scaling with discarded card's cost) to avoid losing an action. Both effects are amongst most hated, and this card has them both.
*** "Malfunction" treachery from namesake set can randomly break your Vehicle, forcing you to stop and pass a not-trivial Intellect check to fix it. It's not as painful in the "Devil Reef" scenario, which goes at more or less standard pace, but in the "Horror in High Gear", it may either slow you down while you're trying to outrun pursuit, or make you ''unable'' to slow down and investigate a road ahead to not run into something nasty.
*** "Rising Tide" set exists to speed up the flood, and make it more painful for the players, ''on top'' of (often already nasty) scenario-specific effects. "Undertow" punishes the player for attempt to run away with damage and horror, unless they pass a skill test; "Riptide" is yet another asset discarder; and "Rising Tide" can make the flood go higher ''even faster'' than it usually does, and can become extremely annoying in "A Light in the Fog" scenario, where you have to fight off the flood in order to escape alive.
*** Hunting Deep One enemy from the "Devil Reef" scenario can drug you from your boat, and then ''prevent'' you from jumping back unless you either kill it or evade it. Additionally, it prevents you from gaining resources, which may be painful when trying to dispatch it. And if you fail to quickly deal with it, you may run into this scenario's nasty pack of treacheries specifically made to grind investigators who think that they can survive without a boat.
*** Hybrid Assassin enemy from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario can't hurt investigators much, but as he moves ''twice'' if it can't reach the investigators in one move, it's borderline impossible to outrun him -- wile fighting him wastes time and allows other, nastier enemies to catch up. He also spawns right on top of you, instead of far behind, like most other enemies in this scenario.
*** "Eyes in the Trees" treachery from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario is yet another "pass a test or discard cards" treachery... which scales with your performance, and, if you're a driver, can hit your teammates.
*** Deep One Hatchling enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario has abysmal stats, but if it's killed, it can and likely would attract attention of another, much stronger Deep One who would come for your blood. But if you stop trying to kill it, it wouldn't stop trying to kill you; and each time it tries to engage you, you have to choose between suffering small amount of horror, or losing an action.
*** Deep One Nursemaid enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario just quietly sits in a location, while passively boosting all the other, more dangerous enemies. But if you try to attack it, it would drop another encounter card on you (at least, it loses "surge" effect to not make it nastier than it has to be).
*** "Taken Captive" treachery from "A Light in the Fog" scenario dumps investigator in the cell, from which they have to escape while also taking back their keys. This is in scenario which puts on strict [[TimedMission time limit]], and ''outright kills'' investigators if they fail to escape in time.
*** "Stone Barrier" treachery from "The Lair of Dagon" scenario blocks the way out of its location, requiring passing a skill test every time you try to go through, which costs an action to even initiate.
*** "Treacherous Depths" treachery from the "Into a Maelstrom" scenario forces the player to choose between increasing flood level, or discarding assets from play with their total cost scaling with you location's shroud; so, a choice between flooding location and getting even less place to breath, or potentially discarding tons of valuable cards, as shroud sometimes can be very high. As with all cards involving choices, it has peril, preventing your friends from bailing you out.
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** Tekeli-li mechanic as a whole; a deck of various weakness cards which can get shuffled into your deck through a million-and-one ways, and screw you over when you lest expect it, while rarely, if ever, actually pose a danger directly. Enemies and treacheries who can drop such cards on the players are amongst the most annoying to deal with, though some are worse than others.
*** Primordial Evil enemy from the "Agents of the Unknown" set is already very tough and hits hard, but it's not what makes it memorable; each time you damage it, you have to blindly shuffle Tekeli-li card into your deck, and because it's tough, it may take multiple turns to kill, thus costing you several such cards.
*** Manifestation of Madness enemy from "Creatures of the Ice" set shuffles ''two'' Tekeli-li cards on each attack. Due to it being a "hunter", it would never cease to pursuit you unless dealt with.
*** Glacial Phantasm slowly follows the investigators and then forces everyone in its location to shuffle Tekeli-li card, without giving a chance to avoid it.
*** "Elder Things" set is all about harassing investigators' decks by forcing them to discard cards from it, be it when they attack you (Elder Thing Scavenger) or when you attack them (Guardian Elder Thing); both enemies have just enough health to possibly require more than one turn to deal with, and both are "hunters", meaning that you can't just run from them and forget.
*** "Left Behind" set consists of two enemies who spawns with Doom on them. They're easy to kill... but it's actually the worst thing you can do, as it only makes their Doom tokens to move to their location instead. Instead, you're supposed to deal with them through specific non-lethal means, which would make them despawn... while they're trying to kill you. The set also includes a treachery which makes dealing with them even harder while adding more Doom.
*** "Miasmic Torment" treachery from "Miasma" set attaches to your partner, and disables them, making them unable to get ready, and dealing either damage or horror to them once your turn ends. You can remove it, but it costs an action and requires a skill test. This thing can be quite annoying when you just can't afford to waste time.
*** "Blasphemous Vision" treachery from the "Nameless Horrors" set, on top of shuffling those cards into your deck, makes you resolve them ''twice'' each time you trigger them, until you get rid of it; but the true pain comes when it gets paired with the other cards from same set: "Glimpse the Unthinkable", just before shuffling card into deck, forces you to immediately trigger it, while "Nightmarish Vapors" gives a choice between wasting two actions (by itself extremely painful) or gaining two cards.
*** Giant Albino Penguin isn't aggressive, but makes you waste more turns each time you try to move from or into its location (it's "aloof", and thus wouldn't attack first). Grew tired of it and decided to kill it? But you would lose an action just to engage it, and then you have to kill an enemy with 3 health. In short, no matter what you do, the penguins ''would'' slow you down. And then there's "Wuk! Wuk! Wuk!" treachery, which can make the penguin ''move'' to your location, or put a Doom token on it (and if there's no penguins, it would just drop one on top of you).
*** "Polar Mirage" treachery from the "Silence and Mystery" set flat-out discards ''all'' non-weakness cards from your hand if you try to discover clues in location to which it gets attached (and you have very little control over where it spawns). It can and would ruin your plan of action if drawn in the wrong moment. At least, it discards once it hits.
*** Constricting Elder Thing enemy from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario gains more and more health the higher it spawns, and can prevent an investigator from advancing to the location above.
*** "Hanging on the Edge" treachery from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario can deal you damage and drag you to location below, while any Expedition assets stays above and must be recovered. "Avalanche" treachery from same scenario is even worse, as it drags you immediately, and only then puts a skill test... to avoid being dragged even further. This card can easily undo several turns of progress.
*** Benign Elder Thing enemy from the "City of the Elder Things" scenario, despite the name, isn't friendly and ''would'' attack investigators. It has 1-1-1 statline, making it easy to kill, but it spawns with Doom on it, and, if killed, adds that Doom directly to the current Agenda. What you're supposed to do with it is to pass a Willpower test to remove it from the game permanently, but you have to either spend two actions to engage and evade it, or jus tank its attack of opportunity. Another issue with it is that there are enemies who can kill them for you (specifically, shoggoths), with the same results as if it was done by you.
to:
* GoddamnedBats: Many treacheries and some enemies can't outright kill investigators, but instead aims Enough to halt their progress (in [[TimedMission [[ArkhamHorrorTheCardGame/GoddamnedBats warrant a game with strict time limit]]), by either directly stalling them, making them waste limited actions or harassing their valuable cards:
** Repeat offenders from the core game:
*** The "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionallyseparate page]] to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
*** The "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
*** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that some investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
*** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
*** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
*** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as thelist of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
*** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign:
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set lacks offensive capabilities, but has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less deadly.
*** "Collapsing Reality" treachery in the "Lost in Time and Space" scenario not only causes damage (and horror, due to scenario-specific rules), but discards your location and drops you in the very beginning. Have fun spending several more turns going back to where you were before this card hit you.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Roach Swarm enemy from "Decay and Filth" set exists to annoy clue-searchers; they're just hard enough to evade to require some card investment, and have their combat scaling with locations shroud, making it hard to swap them. If investigator tries to investigate with them still being nearby, they would be just hit by attacks of opportunity. Fortunately, they deal only 1 point of damage.
*** "Corrosion" treachery from "Decay and Filth" set exists to harass any investigators who relies on key assets, as it makes them discard ''multiple'' assets at once, with severity scaling with shroud. Its counterpart from ''Return to the Path to Carcosa'' instead targets events, which is just as annoying.
*** "Delusions" set rarely poses real threat, but it's very annoying, due to putting various restrictions on the player and only being discardable by wasting almost all your actions. The one card which doesn't do that, "Descent into Madness", instead makes investigator losing actions if they have enough horror, which they usually have, given this campaign's focus.
*** "Straitjacket" treachery from "The Unspeakable Oath" scenario, once drawn, forces investigator to wear it (taking both hands and a body slots), and can't be removed except by spending two actions. It may outright put investigator out of action for some time.
*** "Realm of Madness" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" is another card which forces to discard cards, but it scales with horror suffered, which, in this scenario, can exceed your usual maximum. It very easily can force you to discard everything in your hand and play area, wrecking your entire plan of action.
*** "A Shadow Behind You" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" forces investigator to waste one action every turn (remember that you're on a [[TimedMission time limit]]), or discard either all resources or all cards from had to get rid of it (can be very painful for most investigators).
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Entombed" treachery from "Deadly Traps" set exists solely to make investigator stuck in one place and waste actions to get rid of it. And test difficulty is just hard enough to potentially require more than one attempt.
*** "Lost in the Wild" is similar to "Entombed"; unlike it, it can be avoided, but also unlike it, if it actually lands, that's it: you're stuck until the end of your turn.
*** "Pit Viper" enemy from "Serpents" set is very easy to kill, but doing so costs vengeance points, which would hurt investigators in the long run. If you decide to deal with it non-lethally, any mistake can result in you ending up poisoned, which can cause you tons of headache to you personally later in campaign, and possibly even cause you traumas.
*** Boa Constrictor enemy from the "Serpents" set is hard to kill (though its damage output is low), can prevent you from readying your assets (making it ''much'' harder to deal with it if you failed to dispatch it quickly), and if you still kill it, you get the whopping two vengeance points. You can try to avoid it, but it wouldn't avoid you, being a "hunter" enemy.
*** "Snake Bite" treachery from the "Serpents" set forces to choose between essentially OneHitKill for any Ally, or [[ArmorPiercingAttack direct damage]] to investigator themselves and being poisoned (which would cause massive headache to the player later in campaign).
*** "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to the deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead. And if you have nothing, it targets your hand instead, discarding 3 cards. No matter what, it ''would'' screw you over.
*** Fang of Yig enemy (from "Yig's Venom" set) prevents poisoned investigators from playing cards or committing them to skill tests, essentially crippling them without actually doing anything to kill them. They don't pose much danger to non-poisoned investigators, however.
*** "Timeline Destabilization" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario aims to disrupt your progress. If drawn, it enforces the Willpower test (which scales with the number of discovered locations), and if the player fails to pass it, it goes into exploration deck, so, instead of a new location you want to find, you can accidentally draw this one, wasting that exploration. It also deals minor damage and horror.
*** "Poisonous Spores" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario poisons everyone who doesn't move away from its location before the end of the round. Those already poisoned instead suffers horror.
*** Apex Strangleweed enemy from "The Heart of Elders" scenario has more health than some investigators, and though it lacks offensive capabilities, each time it makes attacks of opportunity, it takes away ''all'' investigator's actions and forces them the end their turn immediately. It can be disabled by one of the possible supplies (a pocketknife), but players are so limited in picking those, it's very likely that no one would bother to take it.
*** "Ants!" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario imposes hard Agility test, and forces investigators to discard cards from either play or hand; to make it worse, effect is scaling with how badly you perform the test. And there are multiple copies of this card in the deck.
*** "Wracked in Time" treachery from "Shattered Aeons" scenario is yet another "fail a test, suffer damage" card... except for the fact that any asset which gets damaged by it, unless it's defeated, must be then shuffled back into your deck, making it harder to stay well-equipped while also avoiding losing too much health.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** "Centuries of Secrets" treachery from the "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
*** "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, withall the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers ways the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Witchcraft" set consists of treacheries dedicated to make life harder, without actually ending it, be it through targeting your assets ("Bedeviled"), your hand ("Diabolic Voices") or your stats ("Wracked").
*** Vengeful Witch enemy from "The Wages of Sin" scenario is tough enough to often warrant using extra cards to kill, but the worst part comes when she dies, as she deals ''direct'' damage and horror to all investigators around her, which you can't soak with your assets. And don't think you can just run from her, as she's "hunter".
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way. It also makes it harder to kill them, as each "swarm" card allows to absorb some damage while dealing more damage/horror.
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower test; the test becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a [[TimedMission time limit]].
*** "Law of 'Ygiroth" treacheries from the "Agents of Nyarlathothep" set not only puts restrictions on what player can or can't do, but also makes it in such a way that just checking the conditions becomes annoying task (like "you can't play the cards with odd number of words in the title"). And they're "hidden", meaning that they would occupy your (limited) hand until you perform (equally awkward) condition to discard them.
*** "Deeper Slumber" treachery from the "Dreamer's Curse" set targets everyone who likes to keep good cards at ready in their hand, by drastically reducing hand size and forcing to check it (and thus, discard excessive cards) every time you draw anything.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to the "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards. It's also harder to discard, as you have to successfully investigate a location, which may be problematic for investigator who's not the best at it, especially while under effects of this card.
*** "Night Terror" treachery from the "Merging Realities" set goes into your threat area, and hits you each time you fail any test (which can be very painful for Survivors, who actually have it as they core mechanic), by forcing to reveal 3 cards from your deck; each weaknesses immediately gets drawn, while any other cards gets ''outright removed from the game''. You have to pass a Willpower test to remove it, which you ''also'' can fail (though, fortunately, the card gets removed regardless).
*** Inconspicuous Zoog enemy from the "Zoogs" set combines "swarm" mechanic (with higher value than other zoogs) with inability to kill it in one attack, no matter what, as it cancels any excessive damage which would've otherwise targeted the other swarm cards or the host, and runs away to connected location. And even if it gets killed, it can respawn thanks to "Zoog Burrow" treachery.
*** "Zoog Burrow" treachery from the "Zoogs" set can add even more "swarm" cards to any zoog in play, or, if there's none, just outright spawn one from either the encounter deck or discard pile. You just barely killed the Inconspicuous Zoog after multiple turns? Too bad, it's here again.
*** Ancient Zoog from "Beyond the Gates of Sleep" scenario just hides somewhere, and keeps adding more and more "swarm" cards to every other zoog, until you find and kill it. And it's also Elite, which makes it immune to many cards which would otherwise allow to quickly deal with it.
*** "Song of the Magah Bird" and "Wondrous Land" (from "The Search for Kadath" scenario) both aims to slow down the investigation, on the threat of increasing Doom; first one locks you in location unless you pass a hard test, the second one can make you unable to investigate a location unless you're willing to get punished for it.
*** "Endless Descent" from "A Thousand Shapes of Horror" scenario puts the top-most location on the bottom, essentially prolonging your descent -- while you're [[TimedMission against the timer]] and pursued by AdvancingBossOfDoom.
*** Cats from Saturn enemy from "Dark Side of the Moon" scenario whose "swarm" value goes higher as the alert level goes higher, which can make them very slow to dispatch. But they lose "swarm" cards one by one whenever they move or gets evaded.
*** "Restless Journey" treacheries from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario tries to combine all the most annoying qualities in one cocktail. They makes you unable to commit more than one card to skill tests each round (seriously hurting your effectiveness), they're "hidden" (meaning that they take up limited place in your hand), and can only be discarded through skill test (each version tests different stat), ''failing each would also increase Doom''. They also have "peril" keyword, so your friends wouldn't help you. And if all that wasn't enough, there's a [[BossInMookClothing Crawling Chaos]] lurking around which goes more and more dangerous the more "hidden" cards you accumulate, these ones included.
*** "Abandoned by the Gods" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario is one of the nasties encounter cards which targets players' hand, as it hits ''all'' investigators, and forces to discard all assets and events with specific cost. On the bright side, it only triggers when failing a Willpower test, and scales up with how bad you deal with it. It has "peril", preventing you friends from assisting.
*** "Caught in the Web" treachery from "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario not only lowers your Agility, but also limits you to only one movement action per turn -- in scenario where actively moving around is crucial for success, and where even main boss [[GetBackHereBoss is actively trying to escape from you]].
** ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign:
*** Initiate of Dagon and Priest of Dagon (both from the "Agents of Dagon" set) are another take at Doom-generating cultists, but with their own annoying gimmick. Both spawns without Doom by default, but Initiate receives massive boost to Fight and Evade while has no Doom, and Priest outright can't be defeated, ensuring that they ''would'' live until they generate those.
*** Lloigor enemy from the "Agents of Hydra" set keeps pursuing investigators without actually engaging them (due to "aloof" keyword). While it's nearby, it forces all investigators in its or connected location to discard a random card from hand on ''every'' enemy phase. And if they decide to fight it after all, they would meet a very tough enemy with decent Fight whom they likely wouldn't kill fast enough to avoid being hit by its ability one more time.
** "Psychic Pull" treachery from the "Agents of Hydra" set not only forces investigator to discard a random card from hand, but then also imposes a Willpower test (with difficulty scaling with discarded card's cost) to avoid losing an action. Both effects are amongst most hated, and this card has them both.
*** "Malfunction" treachery from namesake set can randomly break your Vehicle, forcing you to stop and pass a not-trivial Intellect check to fix it. It's not as painful in the "Devil Reef" scenario, which goes at more or less standard pace, but in the "Horror in High Gear", it may either slow you down while you're trying to outrun pursuit, or make you ''unable'' to slow down and investigate a road ahead to not run into something nasty.
*** "Rising Tide" set exists to speed up the flood, and make it more painful for the players, ''on top'' of (often already nasty) scenario-specific effects. "Undertow" punishes the player for attempt to run away with damage and horror, unless they pass a skill test; "Riptide" is yet another asset discarder; and "Rising Tide"game can make the flood go higher ''even faster'' than it usually does, and can become extremely annoying in "A Light in the Fog" scenario, where you have to fight off the flood in order to escape alive.
*** Hunting Deep One enemy from the "Devil Reef" scenario can drug you from your boat, and then ''prevent'' you from jumping back unless you either kill it or evade it. Additionally, it prevents you from gaining resources, which may be painful when trying to dispatch it. And if you fail to quickly deal with it, you may run into this scenario's nasty pack of treacheries specifically made to grind investigators who think that they can survive without a boat.
*** Hybrid Assassin enemy from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario can't hurt investigators much, but as he moves ''twice'' if it can't reach the investigators in one move, it's borderline impossible to outrun him -- wile fighting him wastes time and allows other, nastier enemies to catch up. He also spawns right on top of you, instead of far behind, like most other enemies in this scenario.
*** "Eyes in the Trees" treachery from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario is yet another "pass a test or discard cards" treachery... which scales with your performance, and, if you're a driver, can hit your teammates.
*** Deep One Hatchling enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario has abysmal stats, but if it's killed, it can and likely would attract attention of another, much stronger Deep One who would come for your blood. But if you stop trying to kill it, it wouldn't stop trying to kill you; and each time it tries to engage you, you have to choose between suffering small amount of horror, or losing an action.
*** Deep One Nursemaid enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario just quietly sits in a location, while passively boosting all the other, more dangerous enemies. But if you try to attack it, it would drop another encounter card on you (at least, it loses "surge" effect to not make it nastier than it has to be).
*** "Taken Captive" treachery from "A Light in the Fog" scenario dumps investigator in the cell, from which they have to escape while also taking back their keys. This is in scenario which puts on strict [[TimedMission time limit]], and ''outright kills'' investigators if they fail to escape in time.
*** "Stone Barrier" treachery from "The Lair of Dagon" scenario blocks the way out of its location, requiring passing a skill test every time you try to go through, which costs an action to even initiate.
*** "Treacherous Depths" treachery from the "Into a Maelstrom" scenario forces the player to choose between increasing flood level, or discarding assets from play with their total cost scaling with you location's shroud; so, a choice between flooding location and getting even less place to breath, or potentially discarding tons of valuable cards, as shroud sometimes can be very high. As with all cards involving choices, it has peril, preventing your friends from bailing you out.
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** Tekeli-li mechanic as a whole; a deck of various weakness cards which can get shuffled into your deck through a million-and-one ways, and screw you over when you lest expect it, while rarely, if ever, actually pose a danger directly. Enemies and treacheries who can drop such cards on theplayers are amongst the most annoying to deal with, though some are worse than others.
*** Primordial Evil enemy from the "Agents of the Unknown" set is already very tough and hits hard, but it's not what makes it memorable; each time you damage it, you have to blindly shuffle Tekeli-li card into your deck, and because it's tough, it may take multiple turns to kill, thus costing you several such cards.
*** Manifestation of Madness enemy from "Creatures of the Ice" set shuffles ''two'' Tekeli-li cards on each attack. Due to it being a "hunter", it would never cease to pursuit you unless dealt with.
*** Glacial Phantasm slowly follows the investigators and then forces everyone in its location to shuffle Tekeli-li card, without giving a chance to avoid it.
*** "Elder Things" set is all about harassing investigators' decks by forcing them to discard cards from it, be it when they attack you (Elder Thing Scavenger) or when you attack them (Guardian Elder Thing); both enemies have just enough health to possibly require more than one turn to deal with, and both are "hunters", meaning that you can't just run from them and forget.
*** "Left Behind" set consists of two enemies who spawns with Doom on them. They're easy to kill... but it's actually the worst thing you can do, as it only makes their Doom tokens to move to their location instead. Instead, you're supposed to deal with them through specific non-lethal means, which would make them despawn... while they're trying to kill you. The set also includes a treachery which makes dealing with them even harder while adding more Doom.
*** "Miasmic Torment" treachery from "Miasma" set attaches to your partner, and disables them, making them unable to get ready, and dealing either damage or horror to them once your turn ends. You can remove it, but it costs an action and requires a skill test. This thing can be quite annoying when you just can't afford to waste time.
*** "Blasphemous Vision" treachery from the "Nameless Horrors" set, on top of shuffling those cards into your deck, makes you resolve them ''twice'' each time you trigger them, until you get rid of it; but the true pain comes when it gets paired with the other cards from same set: "Glimpse the Unthinkable", just before shuffling card into deck, forces you to immediately trigger it, while "Nightmarish Vapors" gives a choice between wasting two actions (by itself extremely painful) or gaining two cards.
*** Giant Albino Penguin isn't aggressive, but makes you waste more turns each time you try to move from or into its location (it's "aloof", and thus wouldn't attack first). Grew tired of it and decided to kill it? But you would lose an action just to engage it, and then you have to kill an enemy with 3 health. In short, no matter what you do, the penguins ''would'' slow you down. And then there's "Wuk! Wuk! Wuk!" treachery, which can make the penguin ''move'' to your location, or put a Doom token on it (and if there's no penguins, it would just drop one on top of you).
*** "Polar Mirage" treachery from the "Silence and Mystery" set flat-out discards ''all'' non-weakness cards from your hand if you try to discover clues in location to which it gets attached (and you have very little control over where it spawns). It can and would ruin your plan of action if drawn in the wrong moment. At least, it discards once it hits.
*** Constricting Elder Thing enemy from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario gains more and more health the higher it spawns, and can prevent an investigator from advancing to the location above.
*** "Hanging on the Edge" treachery from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario can deal you damage and drag you to location below, while any Expedition assets stays above and must be recovered. "Avalanche" treachery from same scenario is even worse, as it drags you immediately, and only then puts a skill test... to avoid being dragged even further. This card can easily undo several turns of progress.
*** Benign Elder Thing enemy from the "City of the Elder Things" scenario, despite the name, isn't friendly and ''would'' attack investigators. It has 1-1-1 statline, making it easy to kill, but it spawns with Doom on it, and, if killed, adds that Doom directly to the current Agenda. What you're supposed to do with it is to pass a Willpower test to remove it from the game permanently, but you have to either spend two actions to engage and evade it, or jus tank its attack of opportunity. Another issue with it is that there are enemies who can kill them for you (specifically, shoggoths), with the same results as if it was done by you.suffer.
** Repeat offenders from the core game:
*** The "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally
*** The "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
*** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that some investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
*** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
*** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
*** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the
*** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** ''The Dunwich Legacy'' campaign:
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set lacks offensive capabilities, but has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less deadly.
*** "Collapsing Reality" treachery in the "Lost in Time and Space" scenario not only causes damage (and horror, due to scenario-specific rules), but discards your location and drops you in the very beginning. Have fun spending several more turns going back to where you were before this card hit you.
** ''The Path to Carcosa'' campaign:
*** Roach Swarm enemy from "Decay and Filth" set exists to annoy clue-searchers; they're just hard enough to evade to require some card investment, and have their combat scaling with locations shroud, making it hard to swap them. If investigator tries to investigate with them still being nearby, they would be just hit by attacks of opportunity. Fortunately, they deal only 1 point of damage.
*** "Corrosion" treachery from "Decay and Filth" set exists to harass any investigators who relies on key assets, as it makes them discard ''multiple'' assets at once, with severity scaling with shroud. Its counterpart from ''Return to the Path to Carcosa'' instead targets events, which is just as annoying.
*** "Delusions" set rarely poses real threat, but it's very annoying, due to putting various restrictions on the player and only being discardable by wasting almost all your actions. The one card which doesn't do that, "Descent into Madness", instead makes investigator losing actions if they have enough horror, which they usually have, given this campaign's focus.
*** "Straitjacket" treachery from "The Unspeakable Oath" scenario, once drawn, forces investigator to wear it (taking both hands and a body slots), and can't be removed except by spending two actions. It may outright put investigator out of action for some time.
*** "Realm of Madness" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" is another card which forces to discard cards, but it scales with horror suffered, which, in this scenario, can exceed your usual maximum. It very easily can force you to discard everything in your hand and play area, wrecking your entire plan of action.
*** "A Shadow Behind You" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" forces investigator to waste one action every turn (remember that you're on a [[TimedMission time limit]]), or discard either all resources or all cards from had to get rid of it (can be very painful for most investigators).
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Entombed" treachery from "Deadly Traps" set exists solely to make investigator stuck in one place and waste actions to get rid of it. And test difficulty is just hard enough to potentially require more than one attempt.
*** "Lost in the Wild" is similar to "Entombed"; unlike it, it can be avoided, but also unlike it, if it actually lands, that's it: you're stuck until the end of your turn.
*** "Pit Viper" enemy from "Serpents" set is very easy to kill, but doing so costs vengeance points, which would hurt investigators in the long run. If you decide to deal with it non-lethally, any mistake can result in you ending up poisoned, which can cause you tons of headache to you personally later in campaign, and possibly even cause you traumas.
*** Boa Constrictor enemy from the "Serpents" set is hard to kill (though its damage output is low), can prevent you from readying your assets (making it ''much'' harder to deal with it if you failed to dispatch it quickly), and if you still kill it, you get the whopping two vengeance points. You can try to avoid it, but it wouldn't avoid you, being a "hunter" enemy.
*** "Snake Bite" treachery from the "Serpents" set forces to choose between essentially OneHitKill for any Ally, or [[ArmorPiercingAttack direct damage]] to investigator themselves and being poisoned (which would cause massive headache to the player later in campaign).
*** "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to the deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead. And if you have nothing, it targets your hand instead, discarding 3 cards. No matter what, it ''would'' screw you over.
*** Fang of Yig enemy (from "Yig's Venom" set) prevents poisoned investigators from playing cards or committing them to skill tests, essentially crippling them without actually doing anything to kill them. They don't pose much danger to non-poisoned investigators, however.
*** "Timeline Destabilization" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario aims to disrupt your progress. If drawn, it enforces the Willpower test (which scales with the number of discovered locations), and if the player fails to pass it, it goes into exploration deck, so, instead of a new location you want to find, you can accidentally draw this one, wasting that exploration. It also deals minor damage and horror.
*** "Poisonous Spores" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario poisons everyone who doesn't move away from its location before the end of the round. Those already poisoned instead suffers horror.
*** Apex Strangleweed enemy from "The Heart of Elders" scenario has more health than some investigators, and though it lacks offensive capabilities, each time it makes attacks of opportunity, it takes away ''all'' investigator's actions and forces them the end their turn immediately. It can be disabled by one of the possible supplies (a pocketknife), but players are so limited in picking those, it's very likely that no one would bother to take it.
*** "Ants!" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario imposes hard Agility test, and forces investigators to discard cards from either play or hand; to make it worse, effect is scaling with how badly you perform the test. And there are multiple copies of this card in the deck.
*** "Wracked in Time" treachery from "Shattered Aeons" scenario is yet another "fail a test, suffer damage" card... except for the fact that any asset which gets damaged by it, unless it's defeated, must be then shuffled back into your deck, making it harder to stay well-equipped while also avoiding losing too much health.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** "Centuries of Secrets" treachery from the "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
*** "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with
*** "Witchcraft" set consists of treacheries dedicated to make life harder, without actually ending it, be it through targeting your assets ("Bedeviled"), your hand ("Diabolic Voices") or your stats ("Wracked").
*** Vengeful Witch enemy from "The Wages of Sin" scenario is tough enough to often warrant using extra cards to kill, but the worst part comes when she dies, as she deals ''direct'' damage and horror to all investigators around her, which you can't soak with your assets. And don't think you can just run from her, as she's "hunter".
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way. It also makes it harder to kill them, as each "swarm" card allows to absorb some damage while dealing more damage/horror.
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower test; the test becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a [[TimedMission time limit]].
*** "Law of 'Ygiroth" treacheries from the "Agents of Nyarlathothep" set not only puts restrictions on what player can or can't do, but also makes it in such a way that just checking the conditions becomes annoying task (like "you can't play the cards with odd number of words in the title"). And they're "hidden", meaning that they would occupy your (limited) hand until you perform (equally awkward) condition to discard them.
*** "Deeper Slumber" treachery from the "Dreamer's Curse" set targets everyone who likes to keep good cards at ready in their hand, by drastically reducing hand size and forcing to check it (and thus, discard excessive cards) every time you draw anything.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to the "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards. It's also harder to discard, as you have to successfully investigate a location, which may be problematic for investigator who's not the best at it, especially while under effects of this card.
*** "Night Terror" treachery from the "Merging Realities" set goes into your threat area, and hits you each time you fail any test (which can be very painful for Survivors, who actually have it as they core mechanic), by forcing to reveal 3 cards from your deck; each weaknesses immediately gets drawn, while any other cards gets ''outright removed from the game''. You have to pass a Willpower test to remove it, which you ''also'' can fail (though, fortunately, the card gets removed regardless).
*** Inconspicuous Zoog enemy from the "Zoogs" set combines "swarm" mechanic (with higher value than other zoogs) with inability to kill it in one attack, no matter what, as it cancels any excessive damage which would've otherwise targeted the other swarm cards or the host, and runs away to connected location. And even if it gets killed, it can respawn thanks to "Zoog Burrow" treachery.
*** "Zoog Burrow" treachery from the "Zoogs" set can add even more "swarm" cards to any zoog in play, or, if there's none, just outright spawn one from either the encounter deck or discard pile. You just barely killed the Inconspicuous Zoog after multiple turns? Too bad, it's here again.
*** Ancient Zoog from "Beyond the Gates of Sleep" scenario just hides somewhere, and keeps adding more and more "swarm" cards to every other zoog, until you find and kill it. And it's also Elite, which makes it immune to many cards which would otherwise allow to quickly deal with it.
*** "Song of the Magah Bird" and "Wondrous Land" (from "The Search for Kadath" scenario) both aims to slow down the investigation, on the threat of increasing Doom; first one locks you in location unless you pass a hard test, the second one can make you unable to investigate a location unless you're willing to get punished for it.
*** "Endless Descent" from "A Thousand Shapes of Horror" scenario puts the top-most location on the bottom, essentially prolonging your descent -- while you're [[TimedMission against the timer]] and pursued by AdvancingBossOfDoom.
*** Cats from Saturn enemy from "Dark Side of the Moon" scenario whose "swarm" value goes higher as the alert level goes higher, which can make them very slow to dispatch. But they lose "swarm" cards one by one whenever they move or gets evaded.
*** "Restless Journey" treacheries from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario tries to combine all the most annoying qualities in one cocktail. They makes you unable to commit more than one card to skill tests each round (seriously hurting your effectiveness), they're "hidden" (meaning that they take up limited place in your hand), and can only be discarded through skill test (each version tests different stat), ''failing each would also increase Doom''. They also have "peril" keyword, so your friends wouldn't help you. And if all that wasn't enough, there's a [[BossInMookClothing Crawling Chaos]] lurking around which goes more and more dangerous the more "hidden" cards you accumulate, these ones included.
*** "Abandoned by the Gods" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario is one of the nasties encounter cards which targets players' hand, as it hits ''all'' investigators, and forces to discard all assets and events with specific cost. On the bright side, it only triggers when failing a Willpower test, and scales up with how bad you deal with it. It has "peril", preventing you friends from assisting.
*** "Caught in the Web" treachery from "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario not only lowers your Agility, but also limits you to only one movement action per turn -- in scenario where actively moving around is crucial for success, and where even main boss [[GetBackHereBoss is actively trying to escape from you]].
** ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign:
*** Initiate of Dagon and Priest of Dagon (both from the "Agents of Dagon" set) are another take at Doom-generating cultists, but with their own annoying gimmick. Both spawns without Doom by default, but Initiate receives massive boost to Fight and Evade while has no Doom, and Priest outright can't be defeated, ensuring that they ''would'' live until they generate those.
*** Lloigor enemy from the "Agents of Hydra" set keeps pursuing investigators without actually engaging them (due to "aloof" keyword). While it's nearby, it forces all investigators in its or connected location to discard a random card from hand on ''every'' enemy phase. And if they decide to fight it after all, they would meet a very tough enemy with decent Fight whom they likely wouldn't kill fast enough to avoid being hit by its ability one more time.
** "Psychic Pull" treachery from the "Agents of Hydra" set not only forces investigator to discard a random card from hand, but then also imposes a Willpower test (with difficulty scaling with discarded card's cost) to avoid losing an action. Both effects are amongst most hated, and this card has them both.
*** "Malfunction" treachery from namesake set can randomly break your Vehicle, forcing you to stop and pass a not-trivial Intellect check to fix it. It's not as painful in the "Devil Reef" scenario, which goes at more or less standard pace, but in the "Horror in High Gear", it may either slow you down while you're trying to outrun pursuit, or make you ''unable'' to slow down and investigate a road ahead to not run into something nasty.
*** "Rising Tide" set exists to speed up the flood, and make it more painful for the players, ''on top'' of (often already nasty) scenario-specific effects. "Undertow" punishes the player for attempt to run away with damage and horror, unless they pass a skill test; "Riptide" is yet another asset discarder; and "Rising Tide"
*** Hunting Deep One enemy from the "Devil Reef" scenario can drug you from your boat, and then ''prevent'' you from jumping back unless you either kill it or evade it. Additionally, it prevents you from gaining resources, which may be painful when trying to dispatch it. And if you fail to quickly deal with it, you may run into this scenario's nasty pack of treacheries specifically made to grind investigators who think that they can survive without a boat.
*** Hybrid Assassin enemy from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario can't hurt investigators much, but as he moves ''twice'' if it can't reach the investigators in one move, it's borderline impossible to outrun him -- wile fighting him wastes time and allows other, nastier enemies to catch up. He also spawns right on top of you, instead of far behind, like most other enemies in this scenario.
*** "Eyes in the Trees" treachery from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario is yet another "pass a test or discard cards" treachery... which scales with your performance, and, if you're a driver, can hit your teammates.
*** Deep One Hatchling enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario has abysmal stats, but if it's killed, it can and likely would attract attention of another, much stronger Deep One who would come for your blood. But if you stop trying to kill it, it wouldn't stop trying to kill you; and each time it tries to engage you, you have to choose between suffering small amount of horror, or losing an action.
*** Deep One Nursemaid enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario just quietly sits in a location, while passively boosting all the other, more dangerous enemies. But if you try to attack it, it would drop another encounter card on you (at least, it loses "surge" effect to not make it nastier than it has to be).
*** "Taken Captive" treachery from "A Light in the Fog" scenario dumps investigator in the cell, from which they have to escape while also taking back their keys. This is in scenario which puts on strict [[TimedMission time limit]], and ''outright kills'' investigators if they fail to escape in time.
*** "Stone Barrier" treachery from "The Lair of Dagon" scenario blocks the way out of its location, requiring passing a skill test every time you try to go through, which costs an action to even initiate.
*** "Treacherous Depths" treachery from the "Into a Maelstrom" scenario forces the player to choose between increasing flood level, or discarding assets from play with their total cost scaling with you location's shroud; so, a choice between flooding location and getting even less place to breath, or potentially discarding tons of valuable cards, as shroud sometimes can be very high. As with all cards involving choices, it has peril, preventing your friends from bailing you out.
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** Tekeli-li mechanic as a whole; a deck of various weakness cards which can get shuffled into your deck through a million-and-one ways, and screw you over when you lest expect it, while rarely, if ever, actually pose a danger directly. Enemies and treacheries who can drop such cards on the
*** Primordial Evil enemy from the "Agents of the Unknown" set is already very tough and hits hard, but it's not what makes it memorable; each time you damage it, you have to blindly shuffle Tekeli-li card into your deck, and because it's tough, it may take multiple turns to kill, thus costing you several such cards.
*** Manifestation of Madness enemy from "Creatures of the Ice" set shuffles ''two'' Tekeli-li cards on each attack. Due to it being a "hunter", it would never cease to pursuit you unless dealt with.
*** Glacial Phantasm slowly follows the investigators and then forces everyone in its location to shuffle Tekeli-li card, without giving a chance to avoid it.
*** "Elder Things" set is all about harassing investigators' decks by forcing them to discard cards from it, be it when they attack you (Elder Thing Scavenger) or when you attack them (Guardian Elder Thing); both enemies have just enough health to possibly require more than one turn to deal with, and both are "hunters", meaning that you can't just run from them and forget.
*** "Left Behind" set consists of two enemies who spawns with Doom on them. They're easy to kill... but it's actually the worst thing you can do, as it only makes their Doom tokens to move to their location instead. Instead, you're supposed to deal with them through specific non-lethal means, which would make them despawn... while they're trying to kill you. The set also includes a treachery which makes dealing with them even harder while adding more Doom.
*** "Miasmic Torment" treachery from "Miasma" set attaches to your partner, and disables them, making them unable to get ready, and dealing either damage or horror to them once your turn ends. You can remove it, but it costs an action and requires a skill test. This thing can be quite annoying when you just can't afford to waste time.
*** "Blasphemous Vision" treachery from the "Nameless Horrors" set, on top of shuffling those cards into your deck, makes you resolve them ''twice'' each time you trigger them, until you get rid of it; but the true pain comes when it gets paired with the other cards from same set: "Glimpse the Unthinkable", just before shuffling card into deck, forces you to immediately trigger it, while "Nightmarish Vapors" gives a choice between wasting two actions (by itself extremely painful) or gaining two cards.
*** Giant Albino Penguin isn't aggressive, but makes you waste more turns each time you try to move from or into its location (it's "aloof", and thus wouldn't attack first). Grew tired of it and decided to kill it? But you would lose an action just to engage it, and then you have to kill an enemy with 3 health. In short, no matter what you do, the penguins ''would'' slow you down. And then there's "Wuk! Wuk! Wuk!" treachery, which can make the penguin ''move'' to your location, or put a Doom token on it (and if there's no penguins, it would just drop one on top of you).
*** "Polar Mirage" treachery from the "Silence and Mystery" set flat-out discards ''all'' non-weakness cards from your hand if you try to discover clues in location to which it gets attached (and you have very little control over where it spawns). It can and would ruin your plan of action if drawn in the wrong moment. At least, it discards once it hits.
*** Constricting Elder Thing enemy from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario gains more and more health the higher it spawns, and can prevent an investigator from advancing to the location above.
*** "Hanging on the Edge" treachery from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario can deal you damage and drag you to location below, while any Expedition assets stays above and must be recovered. "Avalanche" treachery from same scenario is even worse, as it drags you immediately, and only then puts a skill test... to avoid being dragged even further. This card can easily undo several turns of progress.
*** Benign Elder Thing enemy from the "City of the Elder Things" scenario, despite the name, isn't friendly and ''would'' attack investigators. It has 1-1-1 statline, making it easy to kill, but it spawns with Doom on it, and, if killed, adds that Doom directly to the current Agenda. What you're supposed to do with it is to pass a Willpower test to remove it from the game permanently, but you have to either spend two actions to engage and evade it, or jus tank its attack of opportunity. Another issue with it is that there are enemies who can kill them for you (specifically, shoggoths), with the same results as if it was done by you.
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Changed line(s) 2 (click to see context) from:
* DemonicSpiders:
to:
* DemonicSpiders:DemonicSpiders: There are many annoying cards in the encounter deck in any given scenario, but some can actually end your run very quickly, either by wiping out the team, or by advancing Doom to the point that you [[TimedMission run out of time]]:
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** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
** In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:
** In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:
to:
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, campaign, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
**In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:campaign:
**
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*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
to:
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from the "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from th "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encountercard.card.
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Ill Omen" treachery (from "Forgotten Ruins" set) is like "Ancient Evils", but worse; it puts the Doom tokens on locations, where it stays even if Agenda advances, so the more Agendas scenario has, [[TimedMission the more time in total it chops each time it hits]]. It also has "Peril" keyword, preventing the other players from assisting in dispatching it. And as a tip on the cake, there are many locations with additional penalties if there's Doom in them.
*** "Ancestral Fear" treachery from "Forgotten Ruins" set forces the players into a SadisticChoice: either it adds Doom to a location (similarly to "Ill Omen" from same set), permanently [[TimedMission taking away some time]], or rises Vengeance (albeit this at least removes it from the game), which would hurt the players even after scenario is finished. It has both "peril" and "surge" keywords, meaning that it's hard to cancel ''and'' it would be immediately followed by another encounter card.
*** "Conspiracy of Blood" treachery from "The Threads of Fate" scenario [[TimedMission lowers Doom threshold of the current Agenda]] (and can stuck up to two times), which can screw you over if something else rise Doom. It can be disabled after triggering, but it requires going out of you way, and imposes Willpower check which makes things ''worse'' if failed.
*** "Window to Another Time" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario is another SadisticChoice card; either it hits like "Ancient Evils" and takes away your precious time, or it shuffles "Ancient" location back into exploration deck, possibly undoing several turns of your hard work, without any guarantee that you would be able to catch up. As may be expected, it also has "peril", so no outside help.
*** "Lost Humanity" treachery from "The City of Archives" forces you to pass a hard Willpower test, and ''removes your cards from the game'' if you fail, with effect scaling with your performance. It's very nasty effect in the best of times, but here, you're stuck with low stats, without many of your powerful cards, ''scenario's goal is to gather cards in hand'', and it can drive you insane if it reduces you below certain amount of cards. Additionally, reducing your deck's size means looping through it more often, which, in turn, means extra horror.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** [[BossInMookClothing Piper of Azathoth]] enemy from "Agents of Azathoth" set is tough like a tank, hits even harder, relentlessly pursuits investigators and can't even stay dead once slain, despite supposedly providing victory points, as the other cards which comes with its set can revive it. It also has "Elite" trait on top of it, despite not being an actual boss, which protects it from most of the best tools at players' disposal.
*** Witness of Chaos enemy from "The Clutches of Chaos" scenario puts breaches (read: Doom) in every location she enters. She spawns in location with fewest breaches, potentially far away from you, and then starts running towards you, due to also being a "hunter". The only adequate response is meet her head on... where she reveals high Fight and health values. Fortunately, she awards victory points, which means that once slain, she ''stays'' dead.
*** [[BossInMookClothing Mindless Dancer]] enemy from "Before the Black Throne" scenario is like Piper of Azathoth's littler brother: only slightly less health, even more Fight, and targets your health instead of your sanity. Not only it hits like a truck, it runs like one, too, being able to pass through "empty spaces" and even receiving extra moves when doing so. It isn't Elite, but there are ''three'' of them in the deck; they also don't award Victory points, so even if killed, they can return later.
*** "The End is Night!" treachery from "Before the Black Throne" scenario imposes (increasingly higher) Willpower test, and on a failure, feeds all Doom on Cultists in play directly to Azathoth (or 1 Doom if there's none). If Azathoth ever accumulates at least 10 points of Doom, it's an immediate NonStandardGameOver, regardless of current Agenda.
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** "Myriad Forms" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario. Once drawn, it forces to reveal all copies of Nyarlathothep in your hand, and then shuffle them back into encounter deck (but not before they attack you). What makes it truly dangerous, and not just annoying, like most time-wasters, is just how much [[TimedMission time]] and efforts gets thrown out of the window, and how hard it's to come back from it; just one such card (and there are two of them in the deck) can irreversibly ruin your run.
*** Web-Spinner enemy from the "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario. It's an elusive spider which hides in the distant empty corner and, unless found and smashed in time, puts Doom on its location with every turn (which is ''permanent'', persisting between Agendas), directly contributing to your defeat. As they have "aloof" keyword, by the time you move to them and engage, you would already spend two out of default three actions, and if you fail to kill or exhaust them (by evading) with the last one remaining, they would ''still'' do their black deed.
** In ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign, a Pursuing Motorcar enemy from "A Horror in High Gear" scenario, which can attack everyone in a card, doing 2 points of damage; it has above average Fight and health, meaning that it's likely to attack more than once. And if it catches someone outside of the car, its damage ''doubles'' (even bosses rarely causes more than 3 damage in one attack).
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** "Polar Vortex" treachery from "Deadly Wether" set sticks to a location, and, if they end a turn there, deals direct damage to not just investigator, but ''all'' assets under their control, partners included. While investigator often can survive it, same can't be said about many partners -- and those who can, would keep their damage between scenarios. What makes it much more dangerous than its twin sister "Nebulous Miasma" (from "Miasma" set; targets sanity instead) is that it shows up in scenarios with way fewer options to avoid it.
*** "Ice Shaft" treachery from "Dangers of Antarctica" set at first looks like yet another "fail the test, get 2 damage" card, but what makes it more lethal is campaign-exclusive frost tokens, which not only can make you fail this check ''automatically'' if you draw 2 of them, but this card also deals you extra damage per frost token, resulting in up to 4 damage from just one card (and there are three copies of it). It has a twin sister, "Dark Aurora" from the "Silence and Mystery" set, which causes all the same troubles, but targets sanity instead of health.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from th "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter
** ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign:
*** "Ill Omen" treachery (from "Forgotten Ruins" set) is like "Ancient Evils", but worse; it puts the Doom tokens on locations, where it stays even if Agenda advances, so the more Agendas scenario has, [[TimedMission the more time in total it chops each time it hits]]. It also has "Peril" keyword, preventing the other players from assisting in dispatching it. And as a tip on the cake, there are many locations with additional penalties if there's Doom in them.
*** "Ancestral Fear" treachery from "Forgotten Ruins" set forces the players into a SadisticChoice: either it adds Doom to a location (similarly to "Ill Omen" from same set), permanently [[TimedMission taking away some time]], or rises Vengeance (albeit this at least removes it from the game), which would hurt the players even after scenario is finished. It has both "peril" and "surge" keywords, meaning that it's hard to cancel ''and'' it would be immediately followed by another encounter card.
*** "Conspiracy of Blood" treachery from "The Threads of Fate" scenario [[TimedMission lowers Doom threshold of the current Agenda]] (and can stuck up to two times), which can screw you over if something else rise Doom. It can be disabled after triggering, but it requires going out of you way, and imposes Willpower check which makes things ''worse'' if failed.
*** "Window to Another Time" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario is another SadisticChoice card; either it hits like "Ancient Evils" and takes away your precious time, or it shuffles "Ancient" location back into exploration deck, possibly undoing several turns of your hard work, without any guarantee that you would be able to catch up. As may be expected, it also has "peril", so no outside help.
*** "Lost Humanity" treachery from "The City of Archives" forces you to pass a hard Willpower test, and ''removes your cards from the game'' if you fail, with effect scaling with your performance. It's very nasty effect in the best of times, but here, you're stuck with low stats, without many of your powerful cards, ''scenario's goal is to gather cards in hand'', and it can drive you insane if it reduces you below certain amount of cards. Additionally, reducing your deck's size means looping through it more often, which, in turn, means extra horror.
** ''The Circle Undone'' campaign:
*** [[BossInMookClothing Piper of Azathoth]] enemy from "Agents of Azathoth" set is tough like a tank, hits even harder, relentlessly pursuits investigators and can't even stay dead once slain, despite supposedly providing victory points, as the other cards which comes with its set can revive it. It also has "Elite" trait on top of it, despite not being an actual boss, which protects it from most of the best tools at players' disposal.
*** Witness of Chaos enemy from "The Clutches of Chaos" scenario puts breaches (read: Doom) in every location she enters. She spawns in location with fewest breaches, potentially far away from you, and then starts running towards you, due to also being a "hunter". The only adequate response is meet her head on... where she reveals high Fight and health values. Fortunately, she awards victory points, which means that once slain, she ''stays'' dead.
*** [[BossInMookClothing Mindless Dancer]] enemy from "Before the Black Throne" scenario is like Piper of Azathoth's littler brother: only slightly less health, even more Fight, and targets your health instead of your sanity. Not only it hits like a truck, it runs like one, too, being able to pass through "empty spaces" and even receiving extra moves when doing so. It isn't Elite, but there are ''three'' of them in the deck; they also don't award Victory points, so even if killed, they can return later.
*** "The End is Night!" treachery from "Before the Black Throne" scenario imposes (increasingly higher) Willpower test, and on a failure, feeds all Doom on Cultists in play directly to Azathoth (or 1 Doom if there's none). If Azathoth ever accumulates at least 10 points of Doom, it's an immediate NonStandardGameOver, regardless of current Agenda.
** ''The Dream Eaters'' campaign:
*** "Myriad Forms" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario. Once drawn, it forces to reveal all copies of Nyarlathothep in your hand, and then shuffle them back into encounter deck (but not before they attack you). What makes it truly dangerous, and not just annoying, like most time-wasters, is just how much [[TimedMission time]] and efforts gets thrown out of the window, and how hard it's to come back from it; just one such card (and there are two of them in the deck) can irreversibly ruin your run.
*** Web-Spinner enemy from the "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario. It's an elusive spider which hides in the distant empty corner and, unless found and smashed in time, puts Doom on its location with every turn (which is ''permanent'', persisting between Agendas), directly contributing to your defeat. As they have "aloof" keyword, by the time you move to them and engage, you would already spend two out of default three actions, and if you fail to kill or exhaust them (by evading) with the last one remaining, they would ''still'' do their black deed.
** In ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign, a Pursuing Motorcar enemy from "A Horror in High Gear" scenario, which can attack everyone in a card, doing 2 points of damage; it has above average Fight and health, meaning that it's likely to attack more than once. And if it catches someone outside of the car, its damage ''doubles'' (even bosses rarely causes more than 3 damage in one attack).
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** "Polar Vortex" treachery from "Deadly Wether" set sticks to a location, and, if they end a turn there, deals direct damage to not just investigator, but ''all'' assets under their control, partners included. While investigator often can survive it, same can't be said about many partners -- and those who can, would keep their damage between scenarios. What makes it much more dangerous than its twin sister "Nebulous Miasma" (from "Miasma" set; targets sanity instead) is that it shows up in scenarios with way fewer options to avoid it.
*** "Ice Shaft" treachery from "Dangers of Antarctica" set at first looks like yet another "fail the test, get 2 damage" card, but what makes it more lethal is campaign-exclusive frost tokens, which not only can make you fail this check ''automatically'' if you draw 2 of them, but this card also deals you extra damage per frost token, resulting in up to 4 damage from just one card (and there are three copies of it). It has a twin sister, "Dark Aurora" from the "Silence and Mystery" set, which causes all the same troubles, but targets sanity instead of health.
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* GoddamnedBats:
** In the core game:
** In the core game:
to:
* GoddamnedBats:
GoddamnedBats: Many treacheries and some enemies can't outright kill investigators, but instead aims to halt their progress (in [[TimedMission a game with strict time limit]]), by either directly stalling them, making them waste limited actions or harassing their valuable cards:
**In Repeat offenders from the core game:
**
Changed line(s) 18 (click to see context) from:
*** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
to:
*** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many some investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
Changed line(s) 23,26 (click to see context) from:
*** The "Midnight Masks" scenario from the "Night of the Zealot" campaign has couple of cards which specifically targets investigators with clues, actively trying to force investigator to waste them, setting them back in their investigation -- while they [[TimedMission have no time to waste]]. Those cards also shows up in some other campaigns, in scenarios which involves actively gathering clues in large open areas.
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'':
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less dedly.
** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'':
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less dedly.
to:
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set lacks offensive capabilities, but has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less
Changed line(s) 28 (click to see context) from:
** In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:
to:
** In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:campaign:
Changed line(s) 35,42 (click to see context) from:
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead. As you have to draw specific asset first, and then pay to put it into game, it may be quite annoying.
** In ''The Circle Undone'' expansion:
*** The "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way.
*** The "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a time limit.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
** In ''The Circle Undone'' expansion:
*** The "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way.
*** The "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a time limit.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
to:
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, campaign:
*** "Entombed" treachery from "Deadly Traps" set exists solely to make investigator stuck in one place and waste actions to get rid of it. And test difficulty is just hard enough to potentially require more than one attempt.
*** "Lost in the Wild" is similar to "Entombed"; unlike it, it can be avoided, but also unlike it, if it actually lands, that's it: you're stuck until the end of your turn.
*** "Pit Viper" enemy from "Serpents" set is very easy to kill, but doing so costs vengeance points, which would hurt investigators in the long run. If you decide to deal with it non-lethally, any mistake can result in you ending up poisoned, which can cause you tons of headache to you personally later in campaign, and possibly even cause you traumas.
*** Boa Constrictor enemy from the "Serpents" set is hard to kill (though its damage output is low), can prevent you from readying your assets (making it ''much'' harder to deal with it if you failed to dispatch it quickly), and if you still kill it, you get the whopping two vengeance points. You can try to avoid it, but it wouldn't avoid you, being a "hunter" enemy.
*** "Snake Bite" treachery from the "Serpents" set forces to choose between essentially OneHitKill for any Ally, or [[ArmorPiercingAttack direct damage]] to investigator themselves and being poisoned (which would cause massive headache to the player later in campaign).
*** "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to the deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead.As And if you have nothing, it targets your hand instead, discarding 3 cards. No matter what, it ''would'' screw you over.
*** Fang of Yig enemy (from "Yig's Venom" set) prevents poisoned investigators from playing cards or committing them to skill tests, essentially crippling them without actually doing anything to kill them. They don't pose much danger to non-poisoned investigators, however.
*** "Timeline Destabilization" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario aims to disrupt your progress. If drawn, it enforces the Willpower test (which scales with the number of discovered locations), and if the player fails to pass it, it goes into exploration deck, so, instead of a new location you want to find, you can accidentally drawspecific this one, wasting that exploration. It also deals minor damage and horror.
*** "Poisonous Spores" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario poisons everyone who doesn't move away from its location before the end of the round. Those already poisoned instead suffers horror.
*** Apex Strangleweed enemy from "The Heart of Elders" scenario has more health than some investigators, and though it lacks offensive capabilities, each time it makes attacks of opportunity, it takes away ''all'' investigator's actions and forces them the end their turn immediately. It can be disabled by one of the possible supplies (a pocketknife), but players are so limited in picking those, it's very likely that no one would bother to take it.
*** "Ants!" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario imposes hard Agility test, and forces investigators to discard cards from either play or hand; to make it worse, effect is scaling with how badly you perform the test. And there are multiple copies of this card in the deck.
*** "Wracked in Time" treachery from "Shattered Aeons" scenario is yet another "fail a test, suffer damage" card... except for the fact that any assetfirst, and which gets damaged by it, unless it's defeated, must be then pay to put it shuffled back into game, your deck, making it may be quite annoying.
harder to stay well-equipped while also avoiding losing too much health.
**In ''The Circle Undone'' expansion:
*** The "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
campaign:
*** "Centuries of Secrets" treachery from the "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
*** "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Witchcraft" set consists of treacheries dedicated to make life harder, without actually ending it, be it through targeting your assets ("Bedeviled"), your hand ("Diabolic Voices") or your stats ("Wracked").
*** Vengeful Witch enemy from "The Wages of Sin" scenario is tough enough to often warrant using extra cards to kill, but the worst part comes when she dies, as she deals ''direct'' damage and horror to all investigators around her, which you can't soak with your assets. And don't think you can just run from her, as she's "hunter".
**In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
campaign:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable thisway.
way. It also makes it harder to kill them, as each "swarm" card allows to absorb some damage while dealing more damage/horror.
***The "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower check; test; the check test becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location and being on a [[TimedMission time limit.
limit]].
*** "Law of 'Ygiroth" treacheries from the "Agents of Nyarlathothep" set not only puts restrictions on what player can or can't do, but also makes it in such a way that just checking the conditions becomes annoying task (like "you can't play the cards with odd number of words in the title"). And they're "hidden", meaning that they would occupy your (limited) hand until you perform (equally awkward) condition to discard them.
*** "Deeper Slumber" treachery from the "Dreamer's Curse" set targets everyone who likes to keep good cards at ready in their hand, by drastically reducing hand size and forcing to check it (and thus, discard excessive cards) every time you draw anything.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to the "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playingcards, cards. It's also harder to discard, as you have to successfully investigate a location, which may be problematic for investigator who's not the best at it, especially while under effects of this card.
*** "Night Terror" treachery from the "Merging Realities" set goes into your threat area, and hits you each time you fail any test (which can be very painful for Survivors, who actually have it as they core mechanic), by forcing to reveal 3 cards from your deck; each weaknesses immediately gets drawn, while any other cards gets ''outright removed from the game''. You have to pass a Willpower test to remove it, which you ''also'' can fail (though, fortunately, the card gets removed regardless).
*** Inconspicuous Zoog enemy from the "Zoogs" set combines "swarm" mechanic (with higher value than other zoogs) with inability to kill it in one attack, no matter what, as it cancels any excessive damage which would've otherwise targeted the other swarm cards or the host, and runs away to connected location. And even if it gets killed, it can respawn thanks to "Zoog Burrow" treachery.
*** "Zoog Burrow" treachery from the "Zoogs" set can add even more "swarm" cards to any zoog in play, or, if there's none, just outright spawn one from either the encounter deck or discard pile. You just barely killed the Inconspicuous Zoog after multiple turns? Too bad, it's here again.
*** Ancient Zoog from "Beyond the Gates of Sleep" scenario just hides somewhere, and keeps adding more and more "swarm" cards to every other zoog, until you find and kill it. And it's also Elite, which makes it immune to many cards which would otherwise allow to quickly deal with it.
*** "Song of the Magah Bird" and "Wondrous Land" (from "The Search for Kadath" scenario) both aims to slow down the investigation, on the threat of increasing Doom; first one locks you in location unless you pass a hard test, the second one can make you unable to investigate a location unless you're willing to get punished for it.
*** "Endless Descent" from "A Thousand Shapes of Horror" scenario puts the top-most location on the bottom, essentially prolonging your descent -- while you're [[TimedMission against the timer]] and pursued by AdvancingBossOfDoom.
*** Cats from Saturn enemy from "Dark Side of the Moon" scenario whose "swarm" value goes higher as the alert level goes higher, which can make them very slow to dispatch. But they lose "swarm" cards one by one whenever they move or gets evaded.
*** "Restless Journey" treacheries from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario tries to combine all the most annoying qualities in one cocktail. They makes you unable to commit more than one card to skill tests each round (seriously hurting your effectiveness), they're "hidden" (meaning that they take up limited place in your hand), and can only be discarded through skill test (each version tests different stat), ''failing each would also increase Doom''. They also have "peril" keyword, so your friends wouldn't help you. And if all that wasn't enough, there's a [[BossInMookClothing Crawling Chaos]] lurking around which goes more and more dangerous the more "hidden" cards you accumulate, these ones included.
*** "Abandoned bysuccessfully investigating the Gods" treachery from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario is one of the nasties encounter cards which targets players' hand, as it hits ''all'' investigators, and forces to discard all assets and events with specific cost. On the bright side, it only triggers when failing a Willpower test, and scales up with how bad you deal with it. It has "peril", preventing you friends from assisting.
*** "Caught in the Web" treachery from "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario not only lowers your Agility, but also limits you to only one movement action per turn -- in scenario where actively moving around is crucial for success, and where even main boss [[GetBackHereBoss is actively trying to escape from you]].
** ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign:
*** Initiate of Dagon and Priest of Dagon (both from the "Agents of Dagon" set) are another take at Doom-generating cultists, but with their own annoying gimmick. Both spawns without Doom by default, but Initiate receives massive boost to Fight and Evade while has no Doom, and Priest outright can't be defeated, ensuring that they ''would'' live until they generate those.
*** Lloigor enemy from the "Agents of Hydra" set keeps pursuing investigators without actually engaging them (due to "aloof" keyword). While it's nearby, it forces all investigators in its or connected location to discard a random card from hand on ''every'' enemy phase. And if they decide to fight it after all, they would meet a very tough enemy with decent Fight whom they likely wouldn't kill fast enough to avoid being hit by its ability one more time.
** "Psychic Pull" treachery from the "Agents of Hydra" set not only forces investigator to discard a random card from hand, but then also imposes a Willpower test (with difficulty scaling with discarded card's cost) to avoid losing an action. Both effects are amongst most hated, and this card has them both.
*** "Malfunction" treachery from namesake set can randomly break your Vehicle, forcing you to stop and pass a not-trivial Intellect check to fix it. It's not as painful in the "Devil Reef" scenario, which goes at more or less standard pace, but in the "Horror in High Gear", it may either slow you down while you're trying to outrun pursuit, or make you ''unable'' to slow down and investigate a road ahead to not run into something nasty.
*** "Rising Tide" set exists to speed up the flood, and make it more painful for the players, ''on top'' of (often already nasty) scenario-specific effects. "Undertow" punishes the player for attempt to run away with damage and horror, unless they pass a skill test; "Riptide" is yet another asset discarder; and "Rising Tide" can make the flood go higher ''even faster'' than it usually does, and can become extremely annoying in "A Light in the Fog" scenario, where you have to fight off the flood in order to escape alive.
*** Hunting Deep One enemy from the "Devil Reef" scenario can drug you from your boat, and then ''prevent'' you from jumping back unless you either kill it or evade it. Additionally, it prevents you from gaining resources, which may be painful when trying to dispatch it. And if you fail to quickly deal with it, you may run into this scenario's nasty pack of treacheries specifically made to grind investigators who think that they can survive without a boat.
*** Hybrid Assassin enemy from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario can't hurt investigators much, but as he moves ''twice'' if it can't reach the investigators in one move, it's borderline impossible to outrun him -- wile fighting him wastes time and allows other, nastier enemies to catch up. He also spawns right on top of you, instead of far behind, like most other enemies in this scenario.
*** "Eyes in the Trees" treachery from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario is yet another "pass a test or discard cards" treachery... which scales with your performance, and, if you're a driver, can hit your teammates.
*** Deep One Hatchling enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario has abysmal stats, but if it's killed, it can and likely would attract attention of another, much stronger Deep One who would come for your blood. But if you stop trying to kill it, it wouldn't stop trying to kill you; and each time it tries to engage you, you have to choose between suffering small amount of horror, or losing an action.
*** Deep One Nursemaid enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario just quietly sits in a location,replacing while passively boosting all the other, more dangerous enemies. But if you try to attack it, it would drop another encounter card on you (at least, it loses "surge" effect to not make it nastier than it has to be).
*** "Taken Captive" treachery from "A Light in the Fog" scenario dumps investigator in the cell, from which they have to escape while also taking back their keys. This is in scenario which puts on strict [[TimedMission time limit]], and ''outright kills'' investigators if they fail to escape in time.
*** "Stone Barrier" treachery from "The Lair of Dagon" scenario blocks the way out of its location, requiring passing a skill test every time you try to go through, which costs an action to even initiate.
*** "Treacherous Depths" treachery from the "Into a Maelstrom" scenario forces the player to choose between increasing flood level, or discarding assets from play with their total cost scaling with you location's shroud; so, a choice between flooding location and getting even less place to breath, or potentially discarding tons of valuable cards, as shroud sometimes can be very high. As with all cards involving choices, it has peril, preventing your friends from bailing you out.
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** Tekeli-li mechanic as a whole; a deck of various weakness cards which can get shuffled into your deck through a million-and-one ways, and screw you over when you lest expect it, while rarely, if ever, actually pose a danger directly. Enemies and treacheries who can drop such cards on the players are amongst the most annoying to deal with, though some are worse than others.
*** Primordial Evil enemy from the "Agents of the Unknown" set is already very tough and hits hard, but it's not what makes it memorable; each time you damage it, you have to blindly shuffle Tekeli-li card into your deck, and because it's tough, it may take multiple turns to kill, thus costing you several such cards.
*** Manifestation of Madness enemy from "Creatures of the Ice" set shuffles ''two'' Tekeli-li cards on each attack. Due to it being a "hunter", it would never cease to pursuit you unless dealt with.
*** Glacial Phantasm slowly follows the investigators and then forces everyone in its location to shuffle Tekeli-li card, without giving a chance to avoid it.
*** "Elder Things" set is all about harassing investigators' decks by forcing them to discard cards from it, be it when they attack you (Elder Thing Scavenger) or when you attack them (Guardian Elder Thing); both enemies have just enough health to possibly require more than one turn to deal with, and both are "hunters", meaning that you can't just run from them and forget.
*** "Left Behind" set consists of two enemies who spawns with Doom on them. They're easy to kill... but it's actually the worst thing you can do, as it only makes their Doom tokens to move to their location instead. Instead, you're supposed to deal with them through specific non-lethal means, which would make them despawn... while they're trying to kill you. The set also includes a treachery which makes dealing with them even harder while adding more Doom.
*** "Miasmic Torment" treachery from "Miasma" set attaches to your partner, and disables them, making them unable to get ready, and dealing either damage or horror to them once your turn ends. You can remove it, but it costs an action and requires a skill test. This thing can be quite annoying when you just can't afford to waste time.
*** "Blasphemous Vision" treachery from the "Nameless Horrors" set, on top of shuffling those cards into your deck, makes you resolve them ''twice'' each time you trigger them, until you get rid of it; but the true pain comes when it gets paired with the other cards from same set: "Glimpse the Unthinkable", just before shuffling card into deck, forces you to immediately trigger it, while "Nightmarish Vapors" gives a choice between wasting two actions (by itself extremely painful) or gainingclues.two cards.
*** Giant Albino Penguin isn't aggressive, but makes you waste more turns each time you try to move from or into its location (it's "aloof", and thus wouldn't attack first). Grew tired of it and decided to kill it? But you would lose an action just to engage it, and then you have to kill an enemy with 3 health. In short, no matter what you do, the penguins ''would'' slow you down. And then there's "Wuk! Wuk! Wuk!" treachery, which can make the penguin ''move'' to your location, or put a Doom token on it (and if there's no penguins, it would just drop one on top of you).
*** "Polar Mirage" treachery from the "Silence and Mystery" set flat-out discards ''all'' non-weakness cards from your hand if you try to discover clues in location to which it gets attached (and you have very little control over where it spawns). It can and would ruin your plan of action if drawn in the wrong moment. At least, it discards once it hits.
*** Constricting Elder Thing enemy from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario gains more and more health the higher it spawns, and can prevent an investigator from advancing to the location above.
*** "Hanging on the Edge" treachery from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario can deal you damage and drag you to location below, while any Expedition assets stays above and must be recovered. "Avalanche" treachery from same scenario is even worse, as it drags you immediately, and only then puts a skill test... to avoid being dragged even further. This card can easily undo several turns of progress.
*** Benign Elder Thing enemy from the "City of the Elder Things" scenario, despite the name, isn't friendly and ''would'' attack investigators. It has 1-1-1 statline, making it easy to kill, but it spawns with Doom on it, and, if killed, adds that Doom directly to the current Agenda. What you're supposed to do with it is to pass a Willpower test to remove it from the game permanently, but you have to either spend two actions to engage and evade it, or jus tank its attack of opportunity. Another issue with it is that there are enemies who can kill them for you (specifically, shoggoths), with the same results as if it was done by you.
*** "Entombed" treachery from "Deadly Traps" set exists solely to make investigator stuck in one place and waste actions to get rid of it. And test difficulty is just hard enough to potentially require more than one attempt.
*** "Lost in the Wild" is similar to "Entombed"; unlike it, it can be avoided, but also unlike it, if it actually lands, that's it: you're stuck until the end of your turn.
*** "Pit Viper" enemy from "Serpents" set is very easy to kill, but doing so costs vengeance points, which would hurt investigators in the long run. If you decide to deal with it non-lethally, any mistake can result in you ending up poisoned, which can cause you tons of headache to you personally later in campaign, and possibly even cause you traumas.
*** Boa Constrictor enemy from the "Serpents" set is hard to kill (though its damage output is low), can prevent you from readying your assets (making it ''much'' harder to deal with it if you failed to dispatch it quickly), and if you still kill it, you get the whopping two vengeance points. You can try to avoid it, but it wouldn't avoid you, being a "hunter" enemy.
*** "Snake Bite" treachery from the "Serpents" set forces to choose between essentially OneHitKill for any Ally, or [[ArmorPiercingAttack direct damage]] to investigator themselves and being poisoned (which would cause massive headache to the player later in campaign).
*** "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to the deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead.
*** Fang of Yig enemy (from "Yig's Venom" set) prevents poisoned investigators from playing cards or committing them to skill tests, essentially crippling them without actually doing anything to kill them. They don't pose much danger to non-poisoned investigators, however.
*** "Timeline Destabilization" treachery from "The Boundaries Beyond" scenario aims to disrupt your progress. If drawn, it enforces the Willpower test (which scales with the number of discovered locations), and if the player fails to pass it, it goes into exploration deck, so, instead of a new location you want to find, you can accidentally draw
*** "Poisonous Spores" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario poisons everyone who doesn't move away from its location before the end of the round. Those already poisoned instead suffers horror.
*** Apex Strangleweed enemy from "The Heart of Elders" scenario has more health than some investigators, and though it lacks offensive capabilities, each time it makes attacks of opportunity, it takes away ''all'' investigator's actions and forces them the end their turn immediately. It can be disabled by one of the possible supplies (a pocketknife), but players are so limited in picking those, it's very likely that no one would bother to take it.
*** "Ants!" treachery from "The Heart of Elders" scenario imposes hard Agility test, and forces investigators to discard cards from either play or hand; to make it worse, effect is scaling with how badly you perform the test. And there are multiple copies of this card in the deck.
*** "Wracked in Time" treachery from "Shattered Aeons" scenario is yet another "fail a test, suffer damage" card... except for the fact that any asset
**
*** The "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" treachery from the "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
*** "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Witchcraft" set consists of treacheries dedicated to make life harder, without actually ending it, be it through targeting your assets ("Bedeviled"), your hand ("Diabolic Voices") or your stats ("Wracked").
*** Vengeful Witch enemy from "The Wages of Sin" scenario is tough enough to often warrant using extra cards to kill, but the worst part comes when she dies, as she deals ''direct'' damage and horror to all investigators around her, which you can't soak with your assets. And don't think you can just run from her, as she's "hunter".
**
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this
***
*** "Law of 'Ygiroth" treacheries from the "Agents of Nyarlathothep" set not only puts restrictions on what player can or can't do, but also makes it in such a way that just checking the conditions becomes annoying task (like "you can't play the cards with odd number of words in the title"). And they're "hidden", meaning that they would occupy your (limited) hand until you perform (equally awkward) condition to discard them.
*** "Deeper Slumber" treachery from the "Dreamer's Curse" set targets everyone who likes to keep good cards at ready in their hand, by drastically reducing hand size and forcing to check it (and thus, discard excessive cards) every time you draw anything.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to the "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing
*** "Night Terror" treachery from the "Merging Realities" set goes into your threat area, and hits you each time you fail any test (which can be very painful for Survivors, who actually have it as they core mechanic), by forcing to reveal 3 cards from your deck; each weaknesses immediately gets drawn, while any other cards gets ''outright removed from the game''. You have to pass a Willpower test to remove it, which you ''also'' can fail (though, fortunately, the card gets removed regardless).
*** Inconspicuous Zoog enemy from the "Zoogs" set combines "swarm" mechanic (with higher value than other zoogs) with inability to kill it in one attack, no matter what, as it cancels any excessive damage which would've otherwise targeted the other swarm cards or the host, and runs away to connected location. And even if it gets killed, it can respawn thanks to "Zoog Burrow" treachery.
*** "Zoog Burrow" treachery from the "Zoogs" set can add even more "swarm" cards to any zoog in play, or, if there's none, just outright spawn one from either the encounter deck or discard pile. You just barely killed the Inconspicuous Zoog after multiple turns? Too bad, it's here again.
*** Ancient Zoog from "Beyond the Gates of Sleep" scenario just hides somewhere, and keeps adding more and more "swarm" cards to every other zoog, until you find and kill it. And it's also Elite, which makes it immune to many cards which would otherwise allow to quickly deal with it.
*** "Song of the Magah Bird" and "Wondrous Land" (from "The Search for Kadath" scenario) both aims to slow down the investigation, on the threat of increasing Doom; first one locks you in location unless you pass a hard test, the second one can make you unable to investigate a location unless you're willing to get punished for it.
*** "Endless Descent" from "A Thousand Shapes of Horror" scenario puts the top-most location on the bottom, essentially prolonging your descent -- while you're [[TimedMission against the timer]] and pursued by AdvancingBossOfDoom.
*** Cats from Saturn enemy from "Dark Side of the Moon" scenario whose "swarm" value goes higher as the alert level goes higher, which can make them very slow to dispatch. But they lose "swarm" cards one by one whenever they move or gets evaded.
*** "Restless Journey" treacheries from the "Where the Gods Dwell" scenario tries to combine all the most annoying qualities in one cocktail. They makes you unable to commit more than one card to skill tests each round (seriously hurting your effectiveness), they're "hidden" (meaning that they take up limited place in your hand), and can only be discarded through skill test (each version tests different stat), ''failing each would also increase Doom''. They also have "peril" keyword, so your friends wouldn't help you. And if all that wasn't enough, there's a [[BossInMookClothing Crawling Chaos]] lurking around which goes more and more dangerous the more "hidden" cards you accumulate, these ones included.
*** "Abandoned by
*** "Caught in the Web" treachery from "Weaver of the Cosmos" scenario not only lowers your Agility, but also limits you to only one movement action per turn -- in scenario where actively moving around is crucial for success, and where even main boss [[GetBackHereBoss is actively trying to escape from you]].
** ''The Innsmouth Conspiracy'' campaign:
*** Initiate of Dagon and Priest of Dagon (both from the "Agents of Dagon" set) are another take at Doom-generating cultists, but with their own annoying gimmick. Both spawns without Doom by default, but Initiate receives massive boost to Fight and Evade while has no Doom, and Priest outright can't be defeated, ensuring that they ''would'' live until they generate those.
*** Lloigor enemy from the "Agents of Hydra" set keeps pursuing investigators without actually engaging them (due to "aloof" keyword). While it's nearby, it forces all investigators in its or connected location to discard a random card from hand on ''every'' enemy phase. And if they decide to fight it after all, they would meet a very tough enemy with decent Fight whom they likely wouldn't kill fast enough to avoid being hit by its ability one more time.
** "Psychic Pull" treachery from the "Agents of Hydra" set not only forces investigator to discard a random card from hand, but then also imposes a Willpower test (with difficulty scaling with discarded card's cost) to avoid losing an action. Both effects are amongst most hated, and this card has them both.
*** "Malfunction" treachery from namesake set can randomly break your Vehicle, forcing you to stop and pass a not-trivial Intellect check to fix it. It's not as painful in the "Devil Reef" scenario, which goes at more or less standard pace, but in the "Horror in High Gear", it may either slow you down while you're trying to outrun pursuit, or make you ''unable'' to slow down and investigate a road ahead to not run into something nasty.
*** "Rising Tide" set exists to speed up the flood, and make it more painful for the players, ''on top'' of (often already nasty) scenario-specific effects. "Undertow" punishes the player for attempt to run away with damage and horror, unless they pass a skill test; "Riptide" is yet another asset discarder; and "Rising Tide" can make the flood go higher ''even faster'' than it usually does, and can become extremely annoying in "A Light in the Fog" scenario, where you have to fight off the flood in order to escape alive.
*** Hunting Deep One enemy from the "Devil Reef" scenario can drug you from your boat, and then ''prevent'' you from jumping back unless you either kill it or evade it. Additionally, it prevents you from gaining resources, which may be painful when trying to dispatch it. And if you fail to quickly deal with it, you may run into this scenario's nasty pack of treacheries specifically made to grind investigators who think that they can survive without a boat.
*** Hybrid Assassin enemy from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario can't hurt investigators much, but as he moves ''twice'' if it can't reach the investigators in one move, it's borderline impossible to outrun him -- wile fighting him wastes time and allows other, nastier enemies to catch up. He also spawns right on top of you, instead of far behind, like most other enemies in this scenario.
*** "Eyes in the Trees" treachery from the "Horror in High Gear" scenario is yet another "pass a test or discard cards" treachery... which scales with your performance, and, if you're a driver, can hit your teammates.
*** Deep One Hatchling enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario has abysmal stats, but if it's killed, it can and likely would attract attention of another, much stronger Deep One who would come for your blood. But if you stop trying to kill it, it wouldn't stop trying to kill you; and each time it tries to engage you, you have to choose between suffering small amount of horror, or losing an action.
*** Deep One Nursemaid enemy from "A Light in the Fog" scenario just quietly sits in a location,
*** "Taken Captive" treachery from "A Light in the Fog" scenario dumps investigator in the cell, from which they have to escape while also taking back their keys. This is in scenario which puts on strict [[TimedMission time limit]], and ''outright kills'' investigators if they fail to escape in time.
*** "Stone Barrier" treachery from "The Lair of Dagon" scenario blocks the way out of its location, requiring passing a skill test every time you try to go through, which costs an action to even initiate.
*** "Treacherous Depths" treachery from the "Into a Maelstrom" scenario forces the player to choose between increasing flood level, or discarding assets from play with their total cost scaling with you location's shroud; so, a choice between flooding location and getting even less place to breath, or potentially discarding tons of valuable cards, as shroud sometimes can be very high. As with all cards involving choices, it has peril, preventing your friends from bailing you out.
** ''Edge of the Earth'' campaign:
*** Tekeli-li mechanic as a whole; a deck of various weakness cards which can get shuffled into your deck through a million-and-one ways, and screw you over when you lest expect it, while rarely, if ever, actually pose a danger directly. Enemies and treacheries who can drop such cards on the players are amongst the most annoying to deal with, though some are worse than others.
*** Primordial Evil enemy from the "Agents of the Unknown" set is already very tough and hits hard, but it's not what makes it memorable; each time you damage it, you have to blindly shuffle Tekeli-li card into your deck, and because it's tough, it may take multiple turns to kill, thus costing you several such cards.
*** Manifestation of Madness enemy from "Creatures of the Ice" set shuffles ''two'' Tekeli-li cards on each attack. Due to it being a "hunter", it would never cease to pursuit you unless dealt with.
*** Glacial Phantasm slowly follows the investigators and then forces everyone in its location to shuffle Tekeli-li card, without giving a chance to avoid it.
*** "Elder Things" set is all about harassing investigators' decks by forcing them to discard cards from it, be it when they attack you (Elder Thing Scavenger) or when you attack them (Guardian Elder Thing); both enemies have just enough health to possibly require more than one turn to deal with, and both are "hunters", meaning that you can't just run from them and forget.
*** "Left Behind" set consists of two enemies who spawns with Doom on them. They're easy to kill... but it's actually the worst thing you can do, as it only makes their Doom tokens to move to their location instead. Instead, you're supposed to deal with them through specific non-lethal means, which would make them despawn... while they're trying to kill you. The set also includes a treachery which makes dealing with them even harder while adding more Doom.
*** "Miasmic Torment" treachery from "Miasma" set attaches to your partner, and disables them, making them unable to get ready, and dealing either damage or horror to them once your turn ends. You can remove it, but it costs an action and requires a skill test. This thing can be quite annoying when you just can't afford to waste time.
*** "Blasphemous Vision" treachery from the "Nameless Horrors" set, on top of shuffling those cards into your deck, makes you resolve them ''twice'' each time you trigger them, until you get rid of it; but the true pain comes when it gets paired with the other cards from same set: "Glimpse the Unthinkable", just before shuffling card into deck, forces you to immediately trigger it, while "Nightmarish Vapors" gives a choice between wasting two actions (by itself extremely painful) or gaining
*** Giant Albino Penguin isn't aggressive, but makes you waste more turns each time you try to move from or into its location (it's "aloof", and thus wouldn't attack first). Grew tired of it and decided to kill it? But you would lose an action just to engage it, and then you have to kill an enemy with 3 health. In short, no matter what you do, the penguins ''would'' slow you down. And then there's "Wuk! Wuk! Wuk!" treachery, which can make the penguin ''move'' to your location, or put a Doom token on it (and if there's no penguins, it would just drop one on top of you).
*** "Polar Mirage" treachery from the "Silence and Mystery" set flat-out discards ''all'' non-weakness cards from your hand if you try to discover clues in location to which it gets attached (and you have very little control over where it spawns). It can and would ruin your plan of action if drawn in the wrong moment. At least, it discards once it hits.
*** Constricting Elder Thing enemy from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario gains more and more health the higher it spawns, and can prevent an investigator from advancing to the location above.
*** "Hanging on the Edge" treachery from "To the Forbidden Peaks" scenario can deal you damage and drag you to location below, while any Expedition assets stays above and must be recovered. "Avalanche" treachery from same scenario is even worse, as it drags you immediately, and only then puts a skill test... to avoid being dragged even further. This card can easily undo several turns of progress.
*** Benign Elder Thing enemy from the "City of the Elder Things" scenario, despite the name, isn't friendly and ''would'' attack investigators. It has 1-1-1 statline, making it easy to kill, but it spawns with Doom on it, and, if killed, adds that Doom directly to the current Agenda. What you're supposed to do with it is to pass a Willpower test to remove it from the game permanently, but you have to either spend two actions to engage and evade it, or jus tank its attack of opportunity. Another issue with it is that there are enemies who can kill them for you (specifically, shoggoths), with the same results as if it was done by you.
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** In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:
*** Seeker of Carcosa enemy (from "Echoes of the Past" scenario) quickly sucks out clues in his location, and once they run out (which happens quickly, as there are the enemies who do the same), starts accumulating Doom -- in a mission with [[TimedMission already strict time limit]]. With there being three of these fellas in the deck, they can end the scenario very quickly, making wiping them out an urgency.
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
*** Seeker of Carcosa enemy (from "Echoes of the Past" scenario) quickly sucks out clues in his location, and once they run out (which happens quickly, as there are the enemies who do the same), starts accumulating Doom -- in a mission with [[TimedMission already strict time limit]]. With there being three of these fellas in the deck, they can end the scenario very quickly, making wiping them out an urgency.
*** "Dismal Curse" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario starts with standard test difficulty of 3 and horror value of 2, but gets +2 to both for investigators who've suffered too much horror, making it both hard to avoid and hitting like a truck.
*** "The Final Act" treachery from "Dim Carcosa" scenario works exactly like "Ancient Evils", but has doubled effect (taking away two full turns in one shot), and immediately "surges" into another encounter card.
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** In ''The Path to Carcosa'' expansion:
*** Roach Swarm enemy from "Decay and Filth" set exists to annoy clue-searchers; they're just hard enough to evade to require some card investment, and have their combat scaling with locations shroud, making it hard to swap them. If investigator tries to investigate with them still being nearby, they would be just hit by attacks of opportunity. Fortunately, they deal only 1 point of damage.
*** "Corrosion" treachery from "Decay and Filth" set exists to harass any investigators who relies on key assets, as it makes them discard ''multiple'' assets at once, with severity scaling with shroud. Its counterpart from ''Return to the Path to Carcosa'' instead targets events, which is just as annoying.
*** "Delusions" set rarely poses real threat, but it's very annoying, due to putting various restrictions on the player and only being discardable by wasting almost all your actions. The one card which doesn't do that, "Descent into Madness", instead makes investigator losing actions if they have enough horror, which they usually have, given this campaign's focus.
*** "Straitjacket" treachery from "The Unspeakable Oath" scenario, once drawn, forces investigator to wear it (taking both hands and a body slots), and can't be removed except by spending two actions. It may outright put investigator out of action for some time.
*** "Realm of Madness" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" is another card which forces to discard cards, but it scales with horror suffered, which, in this scenario, can exceed your usual maximum. It very easily can force you to discard everything in your hand and play area, wrecking your entire plan of action.
*** "A Shadow Behind You" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" forces investigator to waste one action every turn (remember that you're on a [[TimedMission time limit]]), or discard either all resources or all cards from had to get rid of it (can be very painful for most investigators).
*** Roach Swarm enemy from "Decay and Filth" set exists to annoy clue-searchers; they're just hard enough to evade to require some card investment, and have their combat scaling with locations shroud, making it hard to swap them. If investigator tries to investigate with them still being nearby, they would be just hit by attacks of opportunity. Fortunately, they deal only 1 point of damage.
*** "Corrosion" treachery from "Decay and Filth" set exists to harass any investigators who relies on key assets, as it makes them discard ''multiple'' assets at once, with severity scaling with shroud. Its counterpart from ''Return to the Path to Carcosa'' instead targets events, which is just as annoying.
*** "Delusions" set rarely poses real threat, but it's very annoying, due to putting various restrictions on the player and only being discardable by wasting almost all your actions. The one card which doesn't do that, "Descent into Madness", instead makes investigator losing actions if they have enough horror, which they usually have, given this campaign's focus.
*** "Straitjacket" treachery from "The Unspeakable Oath" scenario, once drawn, forces investigator to wear it (taking both hands and a body slots), and can't be removed except by spending two actions. It may outright put investigator out of action for some time.
*** "Realm of Madness" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" is another card which forces to discard cards, but it scales with horror suffered, which, in this scenario, can exceed your usual maximum. It very easily can force you to discard everything in your hand and play area, wrecking your entire plan of action.
*** "A Shadow Behind You" treachery from "The Pallid Mask" forces investigator to waste one action every turn (remember that you're on a [[TimedMission time limit]]), or discard either all resources or all cards from had to get rid of it (can be very painful for most investigators).
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** In ''The Dunwich Legacy'':
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less dedly.
*** "Collapsing Reality" treachery in the "Lost in Time and Space" scenario not only causes damage (and horror, due to scenario-specific rules), but discards your location and drops you in the very beginning. Have fun spending several more turns going back to where you were before this card hit you.
*** The Conglomeration of Spheres enemy from the "Hideous Abominations" set has more health than some investigators, and forces investigator to discard any Melee cards used against it -- and non-Melee cards usually have limited ammo or charges.
*** "Claws of Steam" treachery from "The Essex Express" scenario forces to pass a Willpower test; on a failure, it not only does damage (tolerable), but also makes investigator unable to move for entire round... in scenario with AdvancingWallOfDoom. There's also the "Broken Rails" treachery, which makes investigators lose 1 action, but it's less dedly.
*** "Collapsing Reality" treachery in the "Lost in Time and Space" scenario not only causes damage (and horror, due to scenario-specific rules), but discards your location and drops you in the very beginning. Have fun spending several more turns going back to where you were before this card hit you.
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** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In ''Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In ''Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
to:
** From the core game:
*** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
** *** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
** In''Dunwich ''The Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten points'' of damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
*** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
** In
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** "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
** "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** The "Midnight Masks" scenario from the "Night of the Zealot" campaign has couple of cards which specifically targets investigators with clues, actively trying to force investigator to waste them, setting them back in their investigation -- while they [[TimedMission have no time to waste]]. Those cards also shows up in some other campaigns, in scenarios which involves actively gathering clues in large open areas.
** "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** The "Midnight Masks" scenario from the "Night of the Zealot" campaign has couple of cards which specifically targets investigators with clues, actively trying to force investigator to waste them, setting them back in their investigation -- while they [[TimedMission have no time to waste]]. Those cards also shows up in some other campaigns, in scenarios which involves actively gathering clues in large open areas.
to:
** In the core game:
*** The "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
** *** The "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** *** The "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
** *** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
** *** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
** *** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
** *** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** *** The "Midnight Masks" scenario from the "Night of the Zealot" campaign has couple of cards which specifically targets investigators with clues, actively trying to force investigator to waste them, setting them back in their investigation -- while they [[TimedMission have no time to waste]]. Those cards also shows up in some other campaigns, in scenarios which involves actively gathering clues in large open areas.
*** The "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
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Added line(s) 9 (click to see context) :
** Wizard of the Order enemy from the "Dark Cult" set is like Acolyte, but worse; it also spawns in an empty location, but instead of just entering game with 1 Doom, it generates it with every turn, taking away [[TimedMission your precious time]]. If left alone, it can cost investigators the game.
Changed line(s) 9 (click to see context) from:
** "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the core game forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
to:
** "Rotten Remains" treachery from the "Striking Fear" set. It tests Willpower, and deals horror if investigator fails, proportionally to how hard they fail it; Rogues suffers the most, generally having poor Willpower and limited number of options to boost it. Having three copies in the deck, and coming from one of the most recurring set in the game, it would come to cause you problems time and time again. It also has a twin brother, "Grasping Hands" from the "Ghouls" set, which tests Agility and deals damage, but it's way less common and thus less infamous.
** "Frozen in Fear" treachery from thecore game "Striking Fear" set forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]. time]]; the only way to discard it is to pass Willpower test, which may be problematic when playing as Rogue. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].Evils"]].
** "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** The "Midnight Masks" scenario from the "Night of the Zealot" campaign has couple of cards which specifically targets investigators with clues, actively trying to force investigator to waste them, setting them back in their investigation -- while they [[TimedMission have no time to waste]]. Those cards also shows up in some other campaigns, in scenarios which involves actively gathering clues in large open areas.
** "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the
** "Crypt Chill" treachery from the "Chilling Cold" set forces the investigator to pass hard Willpower check or discard one asset from play (or losing health if it's impossible). The check is hard enough that many investigators wouldn't be able to reliably pass it.
** Acolyte from "Dark Cult" set; not only it spawns with 1 Doom on it, but it spawns in an empty location, meaning that you have to go out of your way to get that time back. There are enough of them in the deck to show up time and time again, and it's one of the sets which would show up in nearly every campaign at least once. It isn't vey strong on its own, but frequently shows with the other cards which can add more Doom to it.
** Hunting Nightgaunt enemy has only one notable ability -- it doubles negative modifiers on every chaos token you draw when trying to evade it, which often makes doing so borderline impossible (especially since it has the "Hunter" keyword, which makes it actively pursuing investigators).
** "The Yellow Sign" treachery from the "Agents of Hastur" set has hard enough Willpower check that investigators can reliably fail to pass it and suffer horror, but the more annoying effect is that it can force investigator to draw a weakness with "Madness" trait from their deck; if the player doesn't have such cards, it's a freebie, but if they do, it can screw them over, as the list of such cards includes some very nasty ones (and for some investigators, it's a part of their signatures).
** The "Dreams of R'lyeh" treachery from the "Agents of Cthulhu" set reduces investigator's Willpower and Sanity, until they deal with this card. The problem is, to discard that card, you have to pass Willpower check, while suffering from the stats reduction effect. And penalty to Sanity is very painful for any investigator who has low stat to begin with.
** The "Midnight Masks" scenario from the "Night of the Zealot" campaign has couple of cards which specifically targets investigators with clues, actively trying to force investigator to waste them, setting them back in their investigation -- while they [[TimedMission have no time to waste]]. Those cards also shows up in some other campaigns, in scenarios which involves actively gathering clues in large open areas.
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Changed line(s) 4,5 (click to see context) from:
** In ''Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil", from recurring "Sorcery" set, works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which it deals them ''ten'' points of damage. The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
* DifficultySpike: The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
* DifficultySpike: The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
to:
** In ''Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil", from Veil" treachery (from recurring "Sorcery" set, set) works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which point it deals them ''ten'' points ''ten points'' of damage.damage (enough to kill ''any'' investigator unless they redirect and/or resist it by any means). The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
*DifficultySpike: DifficultySpike:
** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-levelcards.cards.
** When it was originally released, ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign was nearly universally acknowledged as much harder than anything prior to it, not in the last turn due to emphasis on (previously underused) Agility stat, and new Poison and Vengeance mechanics which forces the players to adapt or die. It's telling that ''Return to the Forgotten Age'' expansion actually ''toned down'' much of it to more reasonable level. While other hard campaigns were released since then, none had as much of impact in that regard.
*
** The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level
** When it was originally released, ''The Forgotten Age'' campaign was nearly universally acknowledged as much harder than anything prior to it, not in the last turn due to emphasis on (previously underused) Agility stat, and new Poison and Vengeance mechanics which forces the players to adapt or die. It's telling that ''Return to the Forgotten Age'' expansion actually ''toned down'' much of it to more reasonable level. While other hard campaigns were released since then, none had as much of impact in that regard.
Changed line(s) 7,8 (click to see context) from:
** "Frozen in Fear" from core game forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" from "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead.
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" from "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead.
to:
** "Frozen in Fear" treachery from the core game forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigatorinstead.instead. As you have to draw specific asset first, and then pay to put it into game, it may be quite annoying.
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" treachery from the "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator
Changed line(s) 10,14 (click to see context) from:
*** "Realm of Torment" from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" from "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" from "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" from "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" from "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
to:
*** The "Realm of Torment" treachery from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on keyAllies.Allies, by dealing direct horror to each of them. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters''expansion:
expansion:
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way.
*** The "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in yourlocation.
location and being on a time limit.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key
** In ''The Dream Eaters''
*** Swarm enemies in general; with few exceptions, they're weak (with or without "swarm" cards), but the "swarm" cards they use are taken ''from investigators' decks'', making killing them an urgency, as they can take something valuable this way.
*** The "Will of the Spider Mother" treachery from the "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator to pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in the situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" treachery from the "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
Added DiffLines:
* ThatOneDisadvantage: Some basic weaknesses are more devastating than the others. One of particularly painful to deal with is "Silver Twilight Acolyte"; whenever it attacks, it causes the Doom to be placed directly to the current Agenda (which means, [[TimedMission you just got one step closer to losing]]), and it has just enough health to survive one attack unless you're prepared for fight. It's not also not so easy to run from, as it has decent agility and would keep pursuing its prey, being a Hunter.
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Changed line(s) 16 (click to see context) from:
* SelfImposedChallenge: So-called "true solo" runs -- to start and finish the campaign playing by alone as one specific investigator, and keep them alive right until the end. Such runs are very popular, and it's not uncommon fo the players to share their decks build specifically for those runs.
to:
* SelfImposedChallenge: So-called "true solo" runs -- to start and finish the campaign playing by alone as one specific investigator, and keep them alive right until the end. Such runs are very popular, and it's not uncommon fo for the players to share their decks build specifically for those runs.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
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Added DiffLines:
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Every class has certain cards (especially the level 0 ones) which are commonly considered to be "must-have", resulting in these cards showing up disproportionally often, overshadowing the other cards. Several popular cards were hit by "taboo" rules specifically for that reason, particularly low level ones, mostly by increasing their experience cost (but not level) to encourage the players to consider other options, and preventing certain cards from showing up in starting decks. Amongst the most infamous cases are "Machete" (Guardian-class Weapon) and "Mr Rook" (Seeker-class Ally).
* DemonicSpiders:
** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
** In ''Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil", from recurring "Sorcery" set, works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which it deals them ''ten'' points of damage. The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
* DifficultySpike: The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
* GoddamnedBats:
** "Frozen in Fear" from core game forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" from "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead.
** In ''The Circle Undone'' expansion:
*** "Realm of Torment" from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" from "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" from "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
* ScrappyMechanic: The "Haunted" mechanic from ''The Circle Undone'' expansion wasn't well-received; as it triggers negative effects whenever investigator fails skill checks in "haunted" locations, it discourages investigators from trying anything at which they don't specialise (eg., not risking investigating if you're not a Seeker).
* SelfImposedChallenge: So-called "true solo" runs -- to start and finish the campaign playing by alone as one specific investigator, and keep them alive right until the end. Such runs are very popular, and it's not uncommon fo the players to share their decks build specifically for those runs.
----
* DemonicSpiders:
** The "Ancient Evils" treachery is universally hated, and for a good reason. It has just one effect -- it [[TimedMission advances Doom]], and gets immediately discarded, with no skill checks to prevent it, leaving the investigators with even less time to finish their mission. To add insult into injury, it ''can'' advance the agenda right on the spot (with Doom on locations or enemies usually giving you one last chance to deal with them). There ''are'' the ways to counter it, but they are not always readily available, nor they are available to every class. The cards which follows the "Ancient Evils" template (or otherwise fulfil the similar function) are generally just as nasty as original one, and just as loathed.
** In ''Dunwich Legacy'' expansion, "Beyond the Veil", from recurring "Sorcery" set, works by going into investigator's threat area, where it does nothing... until their deck runs out of cards, at which it deals them ''ten'' points of damage. The problem is, there are more than enough effects which targets investigators' decks directly, with one such card also coming with the "Sorcery" set.
* DifficultySpike: The third scenario of the ''Night of the Zealot'' campaign, "The Devourer Below", is infamous for its unforgiving difficulty, especially since it comes right after two [[NoobCave mostly tutorial scenarios]], in a campaign which gives little chance to stockpile experience and gain higher-level cards.
* GoddamnedBats:
** "Frozen in Fear" from core game forces investigator to waste (limited) actions on even the most basic tasks, which, in turn, would slow down their progress so much, they likely wouldn't [[TimedMission make it in time]]. Whenever it comes to deciding what to cancel, this card is amongst the top priority ones, alongside [[DemonicSpiders "Ancient Evils"]].
** In ''The Forgotten Age'' expansion, "Lost in Time" from "Temporal Flux" set forces investigator to pick and shuffle non-story asset under their control back to deck, without any saving throws; if that asset had any damage or horror on it, those gets deal to investigator instead.
** In ''The Circle Undone'' expansion:
*** "Realm of Torment" from the "Realm of Death" set makes investigator trigger every "Haunted" effect in their location at the start of their turn, with all the chaos that follows. It can be discarded by passing Willpower check, but it must be done ''after'' gaining it, and yes, failing that check ''also'' triggers the "Haunted" effects.
*** "Centuries of Secrets" from "City of Sins" set, if investigator is particularly unlucky, can severely hurt investigators who relies on key Allies. It also deals direct horror to investigator themselves.
** In ''The Dream Eaters'' expansion:
*** "Will of the Spider Mother" from "Agents of Atlach-Nacha" set forces investigator pass a Willpower check; the check becomes harder, due to inability to commit cards, if there're any Spider enemies in your location (and this card shows up in situations where ''all'' your enemies are spiders), and if you fail it, you can't investigate or fight until the end of the round -- while still having to deal with spiders in your location.
*** "Prismatic Phenomenon" from "Dreamlands" set works similarly to "Frozen in Fear", but targets drawing cards, gaining resources or playing cards, and can only be discarded by successfully investigating location, replacing gaining clues.
* ScrappyMechanic: The "Haunted" mechanic from ''The Circle Undone'' expansion wasn't well-received; as it triggers negative effects whenever investigator fails skill checks in "haunted" locations, it discourages investigators from trying anything at which they don't specialise (eg., not risking investigating if you're not a Seeker).
* SelfImposedChallenge: So-called "true solo" runs -- to start and finish the campaign playing by alone as one specific investigator, and keep them alive right until the end. Such runs are very popular, and it's not uncommon fo the players to share their decks build specifically for those runs.
----
