Luke Robinson

Luke Robinson is a pure mess of an investigator as it currently stand, everyone has their own interpretation of how his effect of playing events as if being at a connection location actually works.

So until some FAQ on him is released I would say he is close to unplayable, you will be making up rules and spending insane amount of time trying to read the current rules to determine how his ability interact with them or reading conflicting intetperetations of how his ability works in given situations on both reddit, BBG and other places . Being consistent with what ever rulings you might come up I personally found to be extremely hard.

Some questions can be answered, but others like what happens to enemies already or becoming engaged with Luke during the event work when played at a connecting location work? - there are no clear answers in the rule book, under Engagement it only talk about enemies in the Threat area when moving, so what happens when you are not really moving but are just there as if. Do they follow you or disengage? - What if they already are engaged with you when you play the event - you are considered to be as if your are at the connecting location when playing the event so did the already engaged enemy "follow" you? or do they disengage and reengage? Do they do Attack of Opportunity?

tdctaz · 48
I am playing true solo Luke in the dream eaters. For the time being I had zero issues in deciphering what should happen. there can be problematic cases but in actual practice I have been enjoying the experience. — Lord Phrank · 75
You're not actually engaged with them, so none of that movement stuff applies and neither does it trigger any AoO. This is really not that difficult to understand. I'm pretty sure the 'as if you were engaged' thing is just intended to allow certain events which require you to be engaged to function. There aren't many of these atm, but we don't know what might be coming down the track. — Sassenach · 179
I played him true solo as well and ran into no issues. Most of these FAQ matter more in multiplayer situations. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
I played him in 3 player and also think he needs some clarification, like: Where do other players need to be to commit cards to his ability? What investigators take damage from his storm of spirits (and symbol is drawn)? While playing a clue event, can he play fast events at the other location like crack the case? — Django · 5094
You are effectively engaged though, so I think it absolutely should trigger AoOs from the enemies at the event location. You 'play [the] event... as if you were... engaged with each enemy.' Part of playing events (or assets) while engaged is triggering AoOs. I'm just not sure about enemies at his original location - I've never used his ability in such a spot yet, but I reasonably could at some point. — Death by Chocolate · 1473
For the most part, looking at the wording, I believe the condition of "You may play one event each turn as if you were at a connecting location and engaged with each enemy at that location" applies directly to the activation of the event itself. Or at least that's how I would interpret it. If they wanted it to be something where you could play an event and invoke AoO, then I distinctly feel they would of clarified such in the text of Luke's card. So, for all intents and purposes, he is at his location except in regards to where the game considers he activated the event. I dunno, it's pretty much up to player interpretation. — WolfGeneral349 · 12
You have "no problems" with Luke Robinson only if you take a habit of "shortcutting" the potential problems. For me he was pretty much problematic as soon as I started using him. What happens if I play Shortcut? Does this mean I can jump from an unrevealed location to an even further unrevealed location? What happens with Barricade? Does it whiff immediately or does it stay permanently until an investigator enters again and leaves? Is he getting AoOs or not (the community is firmly split down a middle on this one)? He is pretty much "still in beta", and a real headache to play if you care about playing by the officially sanctioned rules. — ratnip · 67
A lot of those I'm fairly sure we know how they resolve. Shortcut basically works as a double move. Barricade stays where it's played and does not whiff because you never entered or left the location, you merely played it as if you were there. The AoO one is the toughest one but in solo it was not problematic, and for now you can grim rule it. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
There shouldn't be an AoO, since playing an event doesn't trigger an AoO, spending the action that allows you to play an event does. Since you spend the action first and then the playing the event happens, there is no AoO. The situation perhaps gets a bit messier if you're somehow taking actions during the resolution of the event, but I can't think of a situation where that would happen. — Chitinid · 14
Edit: Never mind, FAQ says otherwise on the AoO — Chitinid · 14
Dayana Esperence

I think the new Dream-Eaters cycle gives Dayana Esperence so much more variety to experiment with. She can help investigating (Read the Signs), become an awesome battlemage (Spectral Razor), help fragile mystics move around (Ethereal Form) or even become sort of an arcane initiate replacement (Lucid Dreaming or Word of Command). Some of these options may be a little expensive, but should be no problem for Diana Stanley, Agnes Baker or even a resourceful Jim Culver. What a fantastic expansion to an already fabulous ally.

galge · 16
in the preview the links worked. Read the Signs / Spectral Razor / Etheral Form / Lucid Dreaming / Word of Command should be the linked cards. — galge · 16
ah nevermind these two comments. — galge · 16
I played her with Luke Robinson on 3 player through forgotten age and she's really strong with above events, especially with his ability. Very helpful to kill adjacent cultists or evade engaged enemies. Astounding revelation adds secrets to her with Arcane initiate, Lucid Dreaming and Word of command. — Django · 5094
As you've mentioned, I think the primary restraining factor of Dayana Esperence using all of those spells is the cost involved. Since the event must be played, it means you have to ante up the resource cost to play it every time, on top of the four cost of Dayana herself. Then, it becomes a matter of whether it's worth running Spectral Razor over Shriveling, Ethereal Form over Mists, or Read the Signs over Rite of Seeking. I think in these cases, it becomes a matter of consistency versus flexibility. — Ruduen · 1004
I’ve had great success using Dayana with Blood Rite (from the Occult Lexicon). It’s a cheap and flexible utility knife of a spell that I can always find a use for and never have enough copies. — Death by Chocolate · 1473
Dream-Gate

When you're using Luke Robinson you can play Event for the connecting location. So any event with Investigate is usable for this case.

For Example:

  • Combo with Fieldwork to use Read the Signs to guarantee success with 9 skill (+2 skill, 4 Will, 3 Intellect) to deal target Shroud.
  • Combo with Fieldwork to use Seeking Answers to guarantee success with 5 skill (+2, 3 Intellect) to 1 Shroud here, Dream-Gate: Pointless Reality Note: I get the correct image for anyone who uncomfortable with mistake like me.

Update: Fix misunderstood of Fieldwork

Note

AquaDrehz · 197
Don't really see the advantage of Fieldwork combined with Dream-Gate. There are no clues on Dream-Gate - how does Fieldwork benefit from it? - Also you don't move to the location when using Lukes ability to play an event at a connecting location so it also does not help there. — tdctaz · 48
Sorry, you also need to be Luke Robinson to use his ability to play Read the Signs at the connecting location too. — AquaDrehz · 197
Like tdctaz says, Luke's ability and Dream-Gate don't combo with Fieldwork in any meaningful way. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
I think he means the following. If you use gatebox, you "move" into the dreamwold, triggering fieldwork. Then you can play any clue event with a test and his ability at a connecting location to benefit from fieldwork's bonus. Or investigate the empty dreamgate and take an adjacent clue with Seeking Answers. — Django · 5094
@Django, but moving into the dreamworld doesn't trigger fieldwork, because fieldwork only triggers if the location you move to 'has at least 1 clue on it' which Dream-Gate doesn't (at least not without help from Vantage Point, but that's a bit much). — Death by Chocolate · 1473
You are right Death by Chocolate that's my miostake. — AquaDrehz · 197
Technically Luke could move to a location with a clue, trigger Fieldwork and then move to Dream-Gate and then investigate. In this situation he would have +2 from Fieldwork. Most of the time this won´t be worth the extra action, though. — Nadneseny · 1
Umôrdhoth

The FAQ provide a good explanation of why this last scenario is usually not much loved. Basically almost anything that you could try to shorten the massive amount of beating that the investigators stand to receive (3 damages and 3 horrors per each per round...) is disabled: no Lita, no Machete, no Cross... (Edit: the Machete works, it was an error on my part. Of course it has been duly taboo-ed but against this enemy one is fully allowed to disregard the taboo list, in my opinion!)

So, not only you have a huge, huge enemy, which was expected: but all of your "smart ideas" are frustrated.

It may hammer the point home... But is not a lot of fun.

Lord Phrank · 75
Looks like a solid target for pendant of the queen though — NarkasisBroon · 10
Pretty sure Machete works just fine, per the FAQ. — Kergma · 11
I also find it annoying that Zoey's Cross doesn't work on massive monsters--I think this ruling is both unnecessary and athematic (Zoey should be at her best fighting huge monstrosities!). I also think it would have been nice if Lita said "Monster or Ancient One enemies." But Machete does work fine--though I would certainly recommend using something a bit more powerful if your plan is to hack through this massive health pool. — CaiusDrewart · 3170
thank you for noticing my error, I was thinking about the various mechanics and got confused. Will fix it. — Lord Phrank · 75
Against All Odds

I tried with Preston Fairmont already. It always be the dead card. It's hard to use effectively. Because you need 2 Drawing Thin and a Double or Nothing to guarantee success.

  • Example: Test Will 5: +4 Difficulty, *2 from Double or Nothing = Test Will 18 Then you take 1+18 Token from this card and Pay 2 resources to auto success from Preston Fairmont ability.

  • If you have no Double or Nothing you got only Test Will 9. That's just around half of Chaos bag. That's mean it's only 50% to success.

  • Compared to Eucatastrophe which can be triggered when you draw a -1 or more negative token. So you do not lost this card as Against All Odds. This cost you only 1 EXP for each copy Preston Fairmont was not allow to use level 3 survivor card.

  • Summary: There's no advantage for this card except you need specific Chaos token. Or for fun, pouring all Chaos token on the table. But that's the best bet he can do

Updated 02-02-2020

AquaDrehz · 197
I don't understand your point. You don't need to make the test more difficult to use this, you just need a find a test with a difficulty of 2 or greater. It doesn't guarantee success, it just makes it easier. — Sassenach · 179
I think he means using Double or Nothing + Drawing Thin to make a test so difficult that you reveal every token in the bag and then spent the two resources as Preston to automatically succeed with his Elder Sign. Which honestly sounds pretty good, as it's an autosuccess on a Double or Nothing test. That could be 4 damage on Fire Axe or 2 clues, plus any number of extra effects pitched in by the group. Preston also can't take Eucatastrophe, so this would be his closest option. I never thought of combining it with Drawing Thin, but that's a cool idea. — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Ah yes, I see what you mean. In this case though you'd have sent 4 resources for 1 auto-succeed, so it had better be worth it. In most case it probably won't be. — Sassenach · 179
Although... since you need to trigger 2x Drawing Thin to make this work then its effectively a free auto succeed, so maybe it is worth it. Could also work with Wendy, but it would be harder to trigger. — Sassenach · 179
Yeah DT pays for it, also the idea was to be Preston anyway — StyxTBeuford · 13028
Thanks, folk. I forgot that Preston can get it. This card is suck. But it's the best best he can get. — AquaDrehz · 197