Актив. Hand

Item. Weapon. Melee. Blessed.

Цена: 3.

Хранитель

If Blessed Blade is ready: Fight. You get +1 for this attack. If a or token is revealed during this attack, this attack deals +1 damage. Before revealing chaos token(s) for this attack, you may exhaust Blessed Blade to add 1 token to the chaos bag.

Carlos Palma Cruchaga
The Innsmouth Conspiracy #18.
Blessed Blade

FAQs

No faqs yet for this card.

Reviews

To assess this weapon, you need to see it for what it is.

1) This is a weapon, it gives a fight boost and some random bonus damage. Random bonus damage is not hugely viable.

2) This is a Bless token generator, as of yet one of rather few, it will generate an inconsistent volume of tokens (more consistent at higher playercounts, but then it's also harder to maintain a high density of the tokens in the bag).

So, Blessed Blade is a card that does 2 things, cards that do several things are allways interesting because if just 1 or more of the mechanics are useful, the card will see play.

Bless tokens vary a lot for different playercounts. A lone Bless character in a 4 man team isnt able to keep up the bless volume, cashing in on a Radiant Smite for example is tricky, for the big team bless tokens will generally be quickly found and generate a few extra successes per map, which is nice. On the flipside a Solo bless character (or someone in a duo) can hog all the tokens for synergies (Radiant Smite).

As a weapon, the Blessed Blade depends on a high percentile of Bless tokens to be lethal, otherwise it's just a fancy knife! The blessed blade synergizes with it's own tokens, so as explained above, a solo character is more likely to be able to build a bag full of Bless and stand to score bonus damage on half or more of all his tests.

TL:DR from the above. Blessed Blade is essentially a team-support weapon in big groups, and a bit more of a killer in small groups. But when is blessed blade a good choice?

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Blessed Blade is a good choice when you need a sidearm or backup weapon, often you will find an enemy with an awkward health total or a very low health total, where taking a series of random swipes with the Blade is more useful than swiping with a Timeworn Brand (because it generates a bless token) or conserves your charges on Enchanted Blade, Shrivelling or any guns you might have. You might take 2 in deckbuilding, or stuff just 1 copy in your deck because it's just a backup weapon.

To synergize the blade, any bless generation is good, Sister Mary is a natural fit, I think at least 1 copy is almost mandatory for her. Any cards that build up the token bag with bless (Book of Psalms for example) will really buff up the blade and cause you to land 2 damage hits.

A trick to use when you use this weapon is to find circumstances where you'dd be fine with or without bonus damage. Often this involves playing 2 weapons together, for example Enchanted Blade and Blessed Blade together. If you encountered a Ravenous Ghoul you could lead an attack with the Blessed Blade to see if you got bonus damage and exhaust for a bless token, then finish with Enchanted Blade one way or the other. Then with the same sword combo you might encounter a bigger Icy Ghoul and this time swipe twice with the Blessed, and if the Ghoul survived, finish with Enchanted again.

The bless tokens in of themselves are useful in general, especially if you have some mediocre stats at 2 or 3. With a decently bless filled bag a 3 character stands to pass a couple tests that you've given up on in the mythos phase, 3 will go much further when trying for clues and 2-3 stands to get out of trouble in a coupele tries. Building towards this game-state is a useful benefit of Blessed Blade by itself.

Last but not least, as of writing this we've only seen a few Bless cards, and Blessed Blade + Sister Mary + Radiant Smite is already a rather cool lineup, I cannot wait to see what else is coming. Every new method to generate Bless tokens is going to make Blessed Blade that much more lethal and every new source of Bless tokens will make it that much easier to set up the next bless-themed combo card.

Blessed Blade will see play, and you should try it, even if only to push the Bless gimmick.

Tsuruki23 · 2524
I really like this as a backup and odd health weapon just like Song of the Dead (but 0XP). Hit first with the Blessed Blade and see if you get bonus damage. And then hit with the stronger (ammo limited weapon) if you still need 2 damage. It won't go in every deck (like my Hungering Blade Diana deck) but it is a very nice L0 weapon especially if your team is adding blessed tokens into the bag. — The Lynx · 967
Are you sure Bless tokens are that useful? Most tests you take will be your highest stat, where you pass with the most likely modifier of your difficutly (-2 on standard). So i think most bless tokens will be wasted on tests that succeeded anyway. — Django · 5070
Bless is much more about the other things that interact with it, like Rite of Sanctification. Curse hurts worse than Bless helps otherwise. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
From my experience bless tokens tend to net something like 7-8 extra successes in a game where somebody is pumping bless tokens vigorously. A blessed blade by itself my net 2 successful tests for the team by itself. Also Bless I find is WAY better in a team where people are willing to risk moderate chances, so it's kinda bad in a team where people are pumping every skill test to the max the way Mystics do. — Tsuruki23 · 2524
I'm running a pretty fun and effective Blessed Blade with Fr. Mateo. De Vermis Mysteriis and Blessed Blade go pretty nicely with Mind's Eye — dlikos · 151

Really disappointing to see this weapon is not a relic ! It means that if you are playing Carcosa or TCU (for example) you can't rely on it to kill those annoying enemies who require spells / relics to be killed and so that if you want to have a fighter generating blessed tokens you will probably have to use both Blessed blade and Enchanted blade ! I for sure really hope this card will be tabooed to add it the "relic" trait.

AlexP · 248
I houseruled it as magic. It's glowing! — MrGoldbee · 1449
Well, we now have Enchant weapon to give it the Relic trait. — AlexP · 248
That really was a missed opportunity, yeah — Zinjanthropus · 227

With Into the Maelstrom arriving later this month, I wanted to share my thoughts on this card, having used it with Sister Mary as the primary fighter and primary weapon for my 4 player campaign. My feelings on the card were mixed when I first saw it and I think they've shifted around only to end up in a similar sentiment (so forgive me if my review comes across as a touch contradictory). I do want to state that with each new cycle I always play a new investigator from the corresponding deluxe box and I always include as many new cards from the cycle as I can manage. I like the idea of my first experience with a fresh campaign matching somewhat with developer intentions. Given the / mechanic with this cycle, it has been a particularly interesting experience to say the least.

I played the Blessed Blade in conjunction with the Book of Psalms (which is how I perceive the designers intended, at least on some level) so I'm going to be holding it to be a sufficient monster killer rather than an offhand tool. As many others have pointed out, the Blessed Blade is little more than a shiny Knife which is a very bad thing if you're the main fighter in the group. My strategy was to use Olive McBride (until Favor of the Sun released) to help me find and trigger those tokens reliably, and for the most part, I think this worked reasonably well. Going a step further by adding Enchant Weapon to the mix and you're landing 3 damage blows with fairly good consistency. Sure, there were the odd instance when Olive would miss the and grab me a -4 instead, but these felt more in line with pulling an than the cards not performing "as intended" if we may call it that.

Already I think you can see the first of two problems though. You NEED Olive McBride AND Enchant Weapon before this thing can start pulling it's weight (to say nothing of the you also need, but thankfully Mary and the Bible manage this expeditiously, Rite of Sanctification notwithstanding). The XP and resource cost for Enchant Weapon is forgivable since you're more than likely spending the same amount (if not more) on something stronger anyway. You'll want Sacred Covenant as well but that's cheap and permanent. So having a weapon reliant on other cards in your deck to be of any use at all (and that is, unfortunately, not an exaggeration), is a very long winded way to go about the most basic playstyle in the game.

To digress for a moment, I think this is what ultimately bothers me about this card. The "if you pull" condition is inundated with luck and randomness, and those mechanics don't suit how 's approach the chaos bag. 's want results, and they get them through very plain, simple, and therefore unsurprisingly, expensive methods. For example, I was perplexed the card didn't ask you to remove a token to trigger the extra damage, thematically imbuing the blade with holy magic (exactly why Radiant Smite is such a useful card). Or perhaps it gives you a when you engage an enemy instead so at least mechanically you get the potential damage that you need BEFORE you have to chew through your attacks, missing all the way (and you will miss, and you will miss often without ). You could even make a one-time grotesque effect by making it so that you can reveal 2 tokens for an attack instead of 1, but you must resolve the higher number among them or a if it is revealed (hey, as it currently stands, you're already failing on easy modifiers like -2's so you may as well up the odds for a ).

My drive to write this review didn't solidify until I played the Lair of Dagon which spawns Acolytes and Dagon Cultists like they're going out of style. Both of those enemies only have a single hit point, so I don't need the damage from the token. But I DO need to successfully land a hit on my target, which was all but impossible without them. This second problem, put everyone in a bind, forced to fix my blunders until I was able to cast Magic Weapon about 5 rounds into the game. Most 's don't want to feel like dead weight for so long at the onset of a scenario.

Having your primary weapon do absolutely nothing but incrementally add a single token to the bag each round creates an extremely slow burn. This is in part a problem because Sister Mary only has 3, but she is the ideal user for this weapon nevertheless because of her native synergy with . Sure, I could take Beat Cop to help my low , but Olive helps you land those tokens, and if you hit one of those, you're typically getting enough from the +2 skill value the provides. And the is what you need to secure +1 damage so why wouldn't you just go big?

To switch perspectives a little, I must reiterate that once the cards are on the table, you can handle most enemies in a similar manner you would as any other . The difference is as a gun wielder, you're reliant on ammo, and ammo can afford to wait several turns before it arrives, while this set up can not. I think its bigger sin (haw haw...) is how useless it is at lvl 0. Just commit Overpower or Daring, you say? But how many more cards can a single weapon demand before it starts pulling it's weight? Is it so much to ask to want a half decent chance to land a single point of damage as a .

My point isn't to stress how bad this weapon is because it isn't bad. If anything, my playthrough has proved the opposite. This is an incredibly powerful tool in the right hands and with the right deck, such that you WON'T need any other weapon to combat the mythos with until campaign's end. At some point, you are pulling consistently, and therefore, you are getting the and the damage boost you need. My issue is how long it takes to get there and how many other cards it is reliant on before Mary has flexed enough to actually start fighting. If you want to buck the tried and true approach then be prepared to deal anywhere from 0-1 damage for an entire turn's worth of attacking when an enemy spawns engaged with you first draw of the encounter deck. Again, this problem arises in part because Sister Mary's is below the curve for what a needs, putting a hefty amount of pressure on her to be shoring up a weakness until she can peak mid scenario. I don't think it would've broken the card if her sword gave her +2 since she desperately needs it and seeing as how very few other investigator's will be interested in this weapon (Carolyn and Mateo aside).

It is a bit of a shame the Blessed Blade isn't going to see an upgrade this cycle, but it is a very fitting choice for an eventual Return to TIC. I know some people see the Blessed Blade as a good offhand slot for adding , but I personally much prefer the Book of Psalms. I think the combination of the two works well once it gets going, as wobbly as it is. I can't tell whether the designers were intending a clunky approach, hoping to change up the style, or if this design stems more from a lack of inspiration (there are MANY other cards with the "if an X is revealed" mechanic to be fair), but I think the results are... well, mixed as I began with. If they decide to revisit it in the future, I would encourage them to commit to making the Blessed Blade into a more stable weapon. The simple route of reducing the resource cost and improving the are obvious, but I think a rework of how interacts with the blade would be more rewarding to explore.

Being mixed on a card is usually better than outright love or hate because it encourages creativity when deckbuilding. Yet I do have to stand by the fact that a weapon you play on turn 1 that isn't useful until turn 5 with at least 6XP's worth of other cards is antithetical to the card's purpose as well as to the playstyle.

LaRoix · 1643
I think the intent with blessed blade and book of psalms in mary at least is that they are your off hands, spells being the main hand, bless blade I treat more like the rat killing stick or the softening blow in mary, using at as your primary fighting tool does seem to require a lot of set up as you describe. My main "wow this is stupid" experience came from yorick+favour of the sun+blessed blade, for endless bless generation, automatic hits and guaranteed damage...forever.. at 4xp. — Zerogrim · 292

Fancy duelists might kill me, but this is an offhanded blade. Unless multiple people are filling the bag with bless tokens every turn, your odds won’t go above ~40% of getting that extra damage. But if you’re a guardian with a gun or mystic blade, Yorrick with an axe, or have vicious blows...You can finish off an enemy and make the world just a little bit easier to deal with, every turn.

And if you’re rocking ancient covenant somewhere on the team, you make the world even better for yourself. When the bag is good, you can start out with the blade as a first hit, hope for the bonus damage, and strike again to replace the token.

Can’t wait to see the upgraded version.

MrGoldbee · 1449
I agree that this is kind of sub par. Offhand/support weapon feels right, although with meat cleaver or survival knife there are already options. Support Mary is probably the best place for this to go, in a 4-hand game with enough chaff to kill. — SGPrometheus · 809
You either go into fully blessed-base build and hope to draw bless say 1 in 2 attacks so this effectively deals 1.5dmg while adding bless tokens to the bag at lvl 0 or use it as you described as an interesting off-hand. I haven't thought about the 2nd use, so kudos! — Eruantalon · 104
No upgrade! :0 — MrGoldbee · 1449

Hello folks, this review is just another one that gives you insight into how my group changes some cards that never see play, because we realised we hate paying money to have cards sitting in binder from the moment they are pulled out of the pack, so here it goes.

So i think we can all agree that this card is underwhelming. Even in Sister Mary who "wants" to play this card as it is from her cycle and looks like it is made for her, this card just does not pull the weight. If it had +2 fight then maybe, but still would be pretty bad. So like with a lot of cards that are just sitting for years in my collection without ever seeing the light of the sun, we decided to change this card a bit and made the effect of exhaust to add 1 bless AFTER revealing the token. This changed it a bit so that you do not have to exhaust it and pray you kill the enemy if it has 2 health or something like that, or worry why did you not exhaust it in the first hit if you pull the bless one out on the first swing, and you can actually smack it once or twice and then when you see what you pulled you can exhaust it to add that 1 little bless inside the bag. It is a minor change, but now when we build Mary we actually take it, and in solo i was suprised to see myself actually not cutting it out after the first scenario like i did before. Idk, time will show, we may even change it even more and have it give you +2 combat instead of 1, time will show.

Blood&gore · 419