I'm surprised there isn't a review for this.

It's good. It's really damn good. I've played Hank Samson once in a Standard Dunwich campaign and this card was often really useful, but I played it before I realised I couldn't use it against that one enemy we all hate, so I would probably play him again in a different campaign. Testless damage is something that gets much better in Hard / Expert, but is still great in Standard / Easy.

It's best to save Stouthearted for when you flip as it is functionally some of the only healing you have. (Note that you still have soak and whatnot. Cards like Wrong Place, Right Time and "Devil" work too, but Stouthearted does it the most reliably and efficient way in my opinion. Peter Sylvestre / Peter Sylvestre(2XP) + Jessica Hyde, Perseverance, shit like that.)

Since Stouthearted is fast, it lets you put out a burst of extra damage in a turn without sinking an action on it.

However, there are four minor caveats to Stouthearted. The first is the timing restriction, which is probably the most frustrating part of the card. You can't just play it any time and get value out of it, you either have to draw an enemy or engage an enemy that's engaged with another investigator to play it. Normally, engaging is a loss of tempo, but with Stouthearted you mitigate that loss by dealing 2 damage, which is generally an average amount for fighters. To combat this, what I usually do is run separate engage cards such as "Get behind me!", "Get over here!" / "Get over here!" (2XP), and Heroic Rescue / Heroic Rescue(2XP). Personally, I think "Get over here!" (2XP) is the best card to pair with this as it potentially lets you do upwards of 3-4 damage fast(Stouthearted + 1 damage from successful fight + any other potential damage boosts).

Second of all, you need to have damage/horror on you. This really isn't a problem as the mythos is more than happy to dish out damage/horror and you can always take damage/horror through beneficial card effects such as Blood Will Have Blood and Fend Off.

Thirdly, you cannot recurr it without looping for your deck. It's not a card and it doesn't have a level, so there's no way to get it back. And that's okay. Just using this once is beneficial.

And lastly, this doesn't work against Elite enemies. I'm not surprised. You'll still have plenty of applicable targets to use this.

For two resources, a card, and some awkward timing restrictions, you have a pretty damn good signature card that makes you feel like you're a powerhouse of a tank.

Speaking from personal experience here. I'm playing with a George Barnaby / Forced Learning through our blind run of The Drowned City and they put a one-of this into their deck. It's almost always used for it's commits and has never been played once. It feels so underwhelming. Most decks that could run this would almost certainly prefer Act of Desperation because it refunds you back and even gives you a chance to fight alone. Yes, you'll have a harder time if you have less base , but the refund on resources is much more efficient than grabbing a clue.

However, this card has one great use. It is an incredible Scavenging enabler. While it won't give you back resources like Act of Desperation, you can play Unconventional Method, discard the asset that you want to loop, investigate with a bit bonus, and then if you have enough resources and succeed by 2, you can play the same asset that you discarded all in the same action. Minh Thi Phan + The Necronomicon, anyone?

P.S. I really like how the art is the same Winchester 1866 from Act of Desperation. It's also being gripped the same way as well.

I presume this card can be used to cancel Prophecy of the End?

Am I mistaken? (Edit, yes I think I am... see below)

Chatgpt states:

Interaction Summary Psychic Sensitivity requires:

An investigator is drawing an encounter card.

A copy of that same encounter card is already beneath Gloria Goldberg.

Prophecy of the End is an encounter card, so it qualifies.

If someone draws a Prophecy of the End and one is already beneath Gloria, Psychic Sensitivity can:

Be played in response to the draw.

Cancel all of Prophecy's effects (i.e., the Surge and Forced effect).

Discard both the drawn copy and the one beneath Gloria.

Allow Gloria to draw 1 card as a bonus.

I'm not talking about cancelling the card if found via search. It might behoove you to cancel the actual surge drawing of the card to both skip the surge AND remove a copy beneath Gloria. I believe it might be the case that surge is a keyword ability and not an effect, so you're probably always surging. It might be since there is no effect to cancel, you cannot cancel Prophecy of the End with this card?

Edit: Our understanding is that surge is a keyword ability and not effect. Therefore, the card has no effects to cancel, which means Psychic Sensitivity cannot be played to cancel the lack of effect. This is our interpretation, and not an official ruling.

DISCLAIMER: I play on standard and occasionally hard. I seldom play expert.

It's against the spirit of reviews to review a card you haven't played yet, but I have a very good reason for not playing it. It's objectively awful. And I have many reasons to justify this opinion.

Take for example, The Forgotten Age- TFA

Near the middle of the campaign you are given an option to remove one trauma from your investigator in exchange for a lump sum of 5 experience. TFA is notorious for having a reputation of handing out trauma left and right.

And yet, people hardly take this option. Why?

It just doesn't do enough. Being up one health or sanity sure as hell sounds nice, but it doesn't really... do anything. Most decks run enough soak already that even bringing In the Thick of It will hardly ever bring you down if you play well.

Opportunity Cost

Logically, it doesn't make sense to spend 4XP on any healing except if the campaign is going really poorly or your name is Carolyn Fern or Vincent Lee. Why spend 4XP on removing a trauma when you could include any one of the following:

Guardian's "Timeworn Brand", an incredibly strong draw option that could help support your team, a powerful two-handed weapon in Survivor, a big burst of resources, and lastly- one of Mystic's best investigate spell assets.

Now, to be fair, these are all very expensive options. But they are an example of what you could have had in your deck. By spending 4XP to gain one more health/sanity at the start of a scenario you forfeit all of the aforementioned options- and more! By being selfish and protecting yourself a smidge, you miss out on utilising valuable XP that could have gone to helping your whole team(and really, yourself as well!).

XP/0XP Defensive Options are Numerous

It makes even less sense to put this in your deck when Arkham Horror provides plenty of defensive options to help you survive the Mythos at a much cheaper rate. I will provide my favourite options for each class(and Neutral) for helping you survive damage, helping you survive horror, protecting yourself against the encounter deck, and lastly generic soak/healing.

Guardian

Damage Protection:

Generally, Guardians do not struggle with taking damage. I wouldn't recommend any dedicated damage-healing options in Guardian and I believe that most Guardian's have better soak options. That being said, Second Wind and Emergency Aid are both XP-free options and get the job done. If you're feeling spicy you can also take the upgraded version of Second Wind.

Horror Protection:

Most Guardians struggle a lot more with horror than damage. As mentioned earlier, they excel at soak. But they do have a few horror-specific healing options such as Kerosene and from the most recent expansion... Ready for Anything. Though I do recommend packing soak or other generic healing options instead of these.

Encounter Deck Protection:

Surprisingly, Guardian has lots of decent encounter deck protection! My top picks are: "Fool me once..." as a cheap(XP-wise) option for protecting yourself against one particularly awful treachery, Obsidian Bracelet for excellent treachery soak and team-support, First Watch for making your team as a whole handle a round of encounter cards more smoothly, and lastly On the Hunt / On the Hunt(3XP) as ways to dig for enemies.

Generic Soak / Healing:

This is where Guardian shines. One of my pet cards whenever I play an investigator that has access to Guardian 0 or Guardian 3 is Hallowed Mirror / Hallowed Mirror(3XP). It provides 6 healing AND it cantrips! The only problem is finding the dam*ed card in the first place. Medical Student is also another pet card of mine and is incredibly efficient. I run a one-of in most decks. Most allies also provide good soak while also having an additional benefit. Tetsuo Mori is a fine example of this.

Seeker

Damage Protection:

By far and away, the simplest way to heal damage in Seeker is Bizarre Diagnosis. It's decently efficient and has 0 cost in both resources and XP. It also heals your teammates as well! Aside from that I don't have any recommendations as- I sound like a broken record here, but soaking damage/horror is generally more efficient than outright healing damage/horror.

Horror Protection:

Just like their damage mitigation, Seeker has another stand-out card for protecting yourself and your team against horror. And that comes in the form of Logical Reasoning. It's secondary mode doesn't come up too often, but it's always a nice feature to have. I do NOT recommend Logical Reasoning(4XP) as it is generally overkill. I'd only take it as an end-game upgrade in Carolyn Fern. There is one other niche option as well if you're going with the 'succeeds by exactly X' archetype, and that comes in the form of Steady-Handed. I have not played this yet, but I do know it could potentially be a powerhouse.

Encounter Deck Protection:

Seeker has plenty of ways to protect themselves from the encounter deck, with a lot of them involving dropping clues. Scroll of Secrets is a very cheap and efficient way to protect yourself and your team from the encounter deck while also potentially drawing cards in the process. However, it's upgrade is INCREDIBLE. Scroll of Secrets(3XP) provides additional protection and deck filtering. Other than that, Forewarned is a decent counter, only costing an action. Dr. William T. Maleson / Dr. William T. Maleson(2XP) has some use drawing a new card, but has his primary use to soak, and The Eye of Truth is... hard to judge but does what it does very well.

Generic Soak / Healing:

When I think of Seeker soak, my first thought is the aforementioned Dr. William T. Maleson. His upgrade Dr. William T. Maleson(2XP) is also good, but does not change the health/sanity values. I also recommend Medical Student as well.

Survivor

Damage Protection:

Survivor is probably the class when it comes to surviving. But I suppose that much is obvious when you look at the name. They have plenty of options when it comes to staying alive. For preventing damage... Leather Coat is the immediate card that comes to mind. It's free and provides decent soak. Bandages protects not only you and your allies, but your team as well! And lastly, Jessica Hyde provides a continuous soak of damage along with a static +1 boost to .

Horror Protection:

Survivors also have plenty of options for dealing with horror. The most iconic is Leather Coat's more fuzzier cousin... Mr. Pawterson. It's a bit trickier to play around with because it takes up an accessory slot, but it is very efficient. Peter Sylvestre is one of the best allies in the game(In my opinion) and his upgrade is incomparable when it comes to horror mitigation.

Encounter Deck Protection:

While they have lots of soak and healing, Survivors have less options in the ways of dealing with the encounter deck aside from just buffing their stats. However, there are a few. Grizzled is an exceptional(Disclaimer: Grizzled does not have the keyword 'Exceptional') card for repeat playthroughs. I wouldn't recommend it in a blind campaign as you likely cannot optimise it. A Test of Will is my go-to level of AToW and I love taking it with In the Thick of It at the start of The Forgotten Age to make it go smoothly. I also really like Alter Fate / Alter Fate(3XP)! It's a powerhouse.

Generic Soak / Healing:

When it comes to soaking both damage and horror at once, Survivor doesn't have a lot of great options. Madame Labranche provides 2/2 for 2 resources while also providing econ, which is a fine rate. I would argue that Spirit of Humanity is some of the best healing in Survivor. It takes up an arcane slot which doesn't have a lot of competition in the class. It's cost is pretty low at 2 resources and provides a repeatable source of healing at the meager price of adding 2 to the bag.

Rogue

Damage Protection:

Generally, Rogue's don't take a lot of damage due to their high , meaning they can be safe from the attacks of enemies by evading them and passing most tests in the encounter deck. I don't have any suggestions for pure damage protection. If you're taking lots of damage as a Rogue you're either: a. Playing way too risky. or b. Having the scenario go on for a very long time.

Horror Protection:

Rogue's are notorious for being weak to horror. Only 4 Rogues have 3 and the only Rogue with 4 or more is Sefina Rousseau. That being said, two cards stand out to me for helping with horror. Liquid Courage / Liquid Courage(1XP) can not only heal you and your team, but could also randomly discard weaknesses out of your hand! The other card is "You've had worse...". You could use it to help you heal damage, but being able to prevent up to three horror for three resources(which is a trivial cost for Rogues) is a godsend. Anybody running Charon's Obol should run this.

Encounter Deck Protection:

Counterespionage! Expensive, but definitely gets the job done. Spending 4 resources is a bit of an ask, but being able to turn the encounter deck into a one-time draw for you is well worth it. You can even use it on your teammates as well.

Generic Soak / Healing:

Lonnie Ritter is the queen of Rogue soak. Pair her with a Heavy Furs or a Leather Jacket and you'll be cruising free for most of the scenario, granted that you can keep paying for her services.

Mystic

Damage Protection:

I cannot in any way, shape, or form recommend any Mystic cards that strictly heal damage or provide a damage soak. Healing Words / Healing Words(3XP) in my mind are not real cards. I guess Robes of Endless Night is fine.

Horror Protection:

Funnily enough, I feel like Mystics might struggle with Horror more considering self-damage from Spell assets(Looking at you Shrivelling and trauma from Arcane Research. Some oldies, but goldies are great at protecting you against horror. Holy Rosary is a classic that provides you with a static boost and 2 horror soak at a decent rate of 2 resources. Fearless and Fearless(2XP) are not very popular options, but actionless horror healing is great and personally I like them.

Encounter Deck Protection:

There are two shining examples of Mystic protection spells. Ward of Protection / Ward of Protection(2XP) and Deny Existence / Deny Existence(5XP) I don't know if the debate is still going on as to which is better, but I say... why not both! There's no harm in it.

Generic Soak / Healing:

Mystics don't have a lot of healing / soak. Their allies are relatively fragile, with lots of them being sanity soaks. Hallowed Chalice is potentially a good healing card, but it's slow and probably not worth a deck slot for most Mystics. There is a new combo that popped up with Spectral Shield and Breath of the Sleeper / Eyes of the Dreamer. I've heard it's very good(Mostly because of the fact that Breath and Eyes are very good cards), but I have not yet played with it.

Neutral

Damage Protection:

Neutral cards generally have a worse rate than other classes because anybody can take Neutral cards. Bulletproof Vest while seemingly expensive provides you with plenty of soak for a decent cost. If you are pressed for damage defense, consider it.

Horror Protection:

Smoking Pipeis the only reasonable suggestion for horror protection without further setup. Elder Sign Amulet takes up an accessory slot, Moment of Respite is expensive, though I would consider it for a Marion Tavares Prophetic build. Smoking Pipehelps you heal horror at a fine rate at the cost of taking damage. So as long as you have a plan for that damage, everything should be a-okay.

Encounter Deck Protection:

Yeah, I got nothing here. Purifying Corruption is a card. I don't know what it's like in an actual campaign though. If anyone runs it, please let me know. I'd love to her about it.

Generic Soak / Healing:

The Black Cat is expensive, but provides a great amount of repeatable soak as long as you can draw the coveted . I don't have too much else to say about it except throw a copy of it into Charlie Kane. If you can get a team to humour your antics and try Short Rest, then that could potentially work as well.

Summary of Alternate Healing / Soak

As you can see, there are PLENTY of cards you can take in any deck or class that will help you survive scenarios. Notice how a lot of them costed a grand total of 0XP. Meaning that you don't have to spend 4XP to help you out a little bit more AND that you can start out with them in your deck to prevent taking the trauma in the first place. I didn't even mention all of them such as cards like the Composures(Combat Training, Scientific Theory, Plucky, Moxie, and Grounded). Remember, trauma doesn't kill investigators. Running out of sanity / health does. (Thanks AlderSign for putting my thoughts into words!)

If you still want to take Spiritual Healing after reading that last section, then I admire your conviction. You do you, pal. Who am I to judge?

TLDR- Too Long, Didn't Read:

This card is a noob trap with no reason to ever take it. You are bleeding XP on a defensive option in which there are so many better ones out there that are much cheaper in price compared to Spiritual Healing(Link in case you forgot that this was a review for the card). This card will only get less and less relevant as time goes on. This is because more and more cards will be added to the pool, giving more options for both spending your XP and providing defensive options.

Please, please, please. Don't buy this card unless you feel like you absolutely need to.

PS: It's a shame such a beautiful piece of art was wasted on such a useless card. Lin Hsiang is one of my favourite artists for this game. Also, they didn't even bother to include flavour text! That's another loss in my book.

I do wonder - how does she interact with The Wicked Witch?

If I first use Katarina and then subsequently use Witch on the token Katharina pulls, do I fish for 4 symbols to eventually use 2 of them? Might make a horiffically efficient way to pull Elder Signs. And even nicer way to find Skulls for Song of the Dead, particularly for Jim. Also might make fishing for 2 matching symbols for Breath of the Sleeper or Eyes of the Dreamer fairly feasible.

That makes hell of a combo or I got too excited too easily? There are quite a few mystics with solid Elder Signs.

• Father Mateo (obviously) but also
• Diana Stanley
• Dexter Drake
• Kōhaku Narukami
• Jim Culver (for SotD, as explained above)
• Luke Robinson
• Marie Lambeau

Also some can take the combo off class, notably Sister Mary and Sefina Rousseau