Patrice Hathaway's Choir Tryouts

After Miss Hathaway started praying at church to stifle the looming dread of her previous adventures, two insightful thoughts came to mind: One, living in faith seems to be giving her good luck as of late. Two, this church's choir desperately needs a violinist.

Welcome to my guide of a holier-than-thou take of Patrice Hathaway. Patty has always been a versatile gal, and while I've had fun times seeing her shine as a willful survivalist, I'd like to see her not only cranking up the shine, but also manipulating the light in more ways than one. Let's brighten up the day, shall we?

Patty is taking on a support role via providing and encounter-canceling, but she also brought some hefty clue-snagging and occasional crowd-control to the table, thanks to her ultimate new weapon: A flashlight . She will be fairly durable, able to withstand a good chunk of abuse thanks to a special trinket that seems built for her. Yes, the head nun of the church did make Patty grizzled from enough ruler-thwacks whenever she misbehaved at choir practice.

A deck like this is precisely the reason I have created this sub-category in my guides. This, more than my other builds that have made assumptions of your investigative team, will require a team who is willing to help you accomplish a set goal. That goal, in this case, is helping Patty preach the . In other words, you need someone to join a Sacred Covenant in order to maintain the foundation.

You might scoff at the notion of asking a fellow-player to do this. Why should someone blow 2 xp just to make this deck excel? Well, because in my opinion, works best when it's supported and not just ran in isolation by one player. Other players won't need to bring -generators (although it doesn't necessarily hurt to), but I found that Patty being the main blesser with a second player running Sacred Covenant was enough to shatter the Mythos Phase once or twice per game after acquiring A Watchful Peace.

Team-wise, I always run with 4 players, but this can do well in 2-3, so long as the aforementioned covenant slot is contributed. I would not recommend running solo, despite the reduction of wasted tokens being drawn, because I see this deck as one that will thrive better in a filled team.

As the conductor lifts the baton to begin our Sunday sermon, please observe these benefits:

• Now that we have established the above assumption that there will be Sacred and Ancient Covenants, let's talk about the benefits this brings to your team as you keep your faith and hand-gesture crosses against those demons dwelling in Arkham.

  1. We get to control the randomness of our chaos bag. If Patty or someone next to her really needs to pass a test? Ancient it. If we know this is an easy-pass regardless of drawing 1+ ? Sacred it; I'm a big fan of the fact that Sacred has global range, making it incredibly easy for the user to apply it whenever it is needed.
  2. By and large, one of our big objectives is to wave away the Mythos phase. You might ponder why we risk such a setup on a character who cannot bank her cards between rounds, and to that I say: Have you seen this violinist cycle her deck? You should not only consistently end up with 6-10 per game, but you can reliably get off one Watchful Peace per game; if not, both. There is some degree of luck involved, here, but this is why it was important to have Sacred Covenant to maintain without being wasted. This will require you to pay close attention to the amount you have in the bag and weigh that against the probability of drawing a Watchful Peace at upkeep, but you will be surprised how often you can land this. Worst case-scenario: Both peaces are in your discard, and you simply sit on a handsome pool of blesses, biding your time, which in itself is not an issue for your party to know they have fallback blesses at their disposal. If your prayers lead to an , then your time to shine will come sooner than later. Careful uses of Resourceful for extra faiths will make for easy replenished . I'm also a fan of Signum Crucis for giving Patty easy replenishes thanks to her three unlikely allies: her , , and , all of which can easily rise from the ashes with some strong skill cards at your disposal for insured success. Signum Crucis also happens to be a great way to exorcise Patty's inner demon while throwing in three tokens.

• Another way to put Resourceful to use is by landing easy Shed a Light. It's a popular card for a reason, and Patty barely struggles cycling a healthy amount of these, which then easily triggers Scavenging. Thanks to Astral Mirror, Patty has enough space to hold her shroud-destroying tools while still having room to keep her violin; and the bonus action means upgraded Scavenging won't be necessary until after the core build is complete. The rule of thumb is: If you spot an opportunity to zero-test via Flashlight, Old Keyring, and/or Gumption? Go for it. Hell, all three of those can net a four-clue-yielding Shed even at Shroud 6 if you happen to have all three ready to go!

• Extra utility will come in the form of her long-time friend, Miss Doyle, who can help her with easy tests of any variety as called upon, as well as packing some strong skill-boosters whenever she or other nearby friends need the support. Grizzled with Always Prepared is amazing on Patty, and I recommend you review Miskatonic Malcontent's guide to help choose your extra two traits, wisely. Monster is a good starting trait for combating Patty's weakness, but I think it's overkill to double-down on Extradimensional when we can achieve greater treachery-protection with a balanced trait-loadout. Being able to yank out three icons nearly every mythos phase is no joke.

• Speaking of protection, Patty's Idol of Xanatos, as mentioned earlier, makes her unbelievably tanky, and not only will she have plenty of wards, both Radiance and Protection, she'll also bring Nature of the Beast, my favorite dilemma, aka "Goodbye, Ancient Evils, hello easy treachery & clue." When pinned in combat, the use of Gumption, Grizzled, and her Flashlight casn easily get her out of harm's reach. If the stars align and the wrong foe turns up, Patty can simply use Exploit Weakness with support from Flashlight, Impromptu Barrier, and Gumption (one more reason to have extra hand-slots to support the extra lights).

• Resource-wise, Patty keeps her violin polished, and while it may be blasphemous for her to pray to Ra for support, she's already guilty of stashing her Schoffner's Catalogue in her King James' Bible. No wonder she has inner demons! Bad Patty. Wicked. And by wicked, I mean wicked sick.

As Patty reviews her music sheets, these are my recommendations for her repertoire, in order from most important to least: Scavenging ►Astral Mirror ► Patrice's Violin ► Schoffner's Catalogue ► Resourceful. It should be noted that, if great fortune somehow blesses Patty with all of these, it won't be possible to slot everything, so the Violin will play a funeral rite for Resourceful while everything else gets slotted. If Patty secures a Keep Faith & Voice of Ra, keep those, as they make for a decent starting-economy boost.

As a reminder, Patty's an easily-distracted gal (thankfully smart-phones don't exist in this setting), so her tendency to forget to bring goods via Short Supply will come in handy after initial hands are drawn in order to jump-start her recur-cycles. Please do not forget that Astral Mirror gives a bonus hand-equip action, which will help balance equipping shroud-dingers as they appear, and feel free to abuse Winging Its as they enter discard.

Here is the link to my level 0 take on this.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Let's talk recommendations for late-game to round out Patty's crescendo: First up is Spirit of Humanity, which can safely replace your Last Chance. This is yet another useful tool to keep in the bag, and while I never struggled with keeping our bag blessed, this is not going to hurt, since Patty will only realistically need three of her hands occupied, so Astral Mirror doesn't suffer; plus, this gives Idol of Xanatos some extra heavy-lifting in order to stop Patty from flagellating herself too much in the name of her faith.

You can't go wrong slotting upgraded Scavenging and Ward of Protection, so those are easy recommendations.

Some permanent recs: Quick Learner is bonkers-tier for zero'ing tests (overkill, in my opinion, but still a strong investment near the end of a campaign). There's also Observed near the end, which I have been favoring as a free randomly-generated bonus during final scenarios of a campaign.

I hope you enjoyed this blessed orchestral run-through of Patrice Hathaway. I believe Scarlet Keys pushed her options into frankly-crazy territory, but I still wanted to have fun slotting some bless-tech into her arrangement. I hope your Patty will sing songs of a Mythos-less-round more than a few times during the second half of your campaign!