- Q: At which step of the skill test do the bless and curse tokens activate their effects, for the purposes of Sacred Covenant and Paradoxical Covenant? I assume step 4 like other chaos symbols effects. In this case, how does Sacred Covenant work? [Skill Test timing] A: Some effects may cause skill test timing to jump around a bit. In particular, whenever an effect causes you to reveal a new chaos token outside of Step 3 (reveal chaos tokens), it resets the timing back down to step 3. For example, if you were to reveal a token with the effect “+2. Reveal another token,” resolving that effect during step 4 would reset the timing back to step 3. (That way you can go through the standard motions of revealing that token and applying its effects and modifier.) The same is true for bless and curse tokens.
Let’s say you drew 2 bless tokens and a +1 and wanted to use Sacred Covenant to put the unnecessary bless tokens back in the bag. It would go like this:
St. 3 — reveal bless token.
St. 4 — resolve its effect (reset back to step 3 to draw again).
St. 3 — reveal another bless token.
St. 4 — resolve its effect.
St. 3 — reveal +1.
After St. 3 — trigger Sacred Covenant to put the two bless tokens back in the chaos bag.
St. 4+ resolve as normal.
Актив
Covenant. Blessed. Cursed.
Цена: –. Опыт: 2.
Permanent. Limit 1 Covenant per deck.
After an investigator at your location performs the "reveal the chaos token" step of a skill test, if both a token and a token were revealed during that test, exhaust Paradoxical Covenant: This test automatically succeeds. (Remove each and token revealed from the chaos bag after this test ends.)
FAQs
(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)Reviews
Now with Favor of the Moon and/or Favor of the Sun, this covenant is incredible. Because you reset to step 3 after every token draw, you don't need to trigger the pact(s) when you initiate the test; you can draw normally, pull a bless, and in response tap favor of the moon to plug in a curse and auto-succeed. If you're using Moon, you even net a free dollar out of it. It's Father Mateo's best friend, who can use the combo to succeed on any test almost on-demand in spite of his mediocre stats.
As a bonus, it applies to everyone at your location, making it equally valuable to any Eye of the Djinn-specced rogues or Spirit of Humanity-wielding survivors. Preston Fairmont and Calvin Wright can throw themselves at impossible tests, drop a Signum Crucis and still succeed.
Finally, the combo further stacks with Tempt Fate. Anyone can take it to thin their deck, add 3 & 3 and someone with Favor of the Moon can immediately seal the curses. 3 blesses in the bag (and a full moon pact) for completely free, better even than Keep Faith.
Best combo with Olive McBride. Olive helps to find both and and Covenant prevents Olive's penalty, resolving 2 tokens. Note that after you trigger Paradoxical Covenant, you don't need to reveal additional tokens for revealed & . Of course, you could trigger Paradoxical after you reveal all tokens; but, Paradoxical is auto-fail.
Here is probability table for Paradoxical Covenant. This table assumes that the bag has 16 tokens and no reveal another token effect. Row is the number of bless tokens, and column is the number of curse tokens (or vice versa).
Normal case (16 tokens) (%)
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 0.65 | 1.20 | 1.67 | 2.07 | 2.42 | 2.72 | 2.98 | 3.22 | 3.42 | 3.60 |
2 | 1.20 | 2.22 | 3.09 | 3.84 | 4.49 | 5.05 | 5.55 | 5.98 | 6.37 | 6.72 |
3 | 1.67 | 3.09 | 4.31 | 5.35 | 6.27 | 7.06 | 7.76 | 8.38 | 8.93 | 9.42 |
4 | 2.07 | 3.84 | 5.35 | 6.67 | 7.81 | 8.81 | 9.69 | 10.48 | 11.17 | 11.79 |
5 | 2.42 | 4.49 | 6.27 | 7.81 | 9.16 | 10.34 | 11.39 | 12.32 | 13.14 | 13.88 |
6 | 2.72 | 5.05 | 7.06 | 8.81 | 10.34 | 11.69 | 12.88 | 13.94 | 14.89 | 15.73 |
7 | 2.98 | 5.55 | 7.76 | 9.69 | 11.39 | 12.88 | 14.20 | 15.38 | 16.43 | 17.38 |
8 | 3.22 | 5.98 | 8.38 | 10.48 | 12.32 | 13.94 | 15.38 | 16.67 | 17.82 | 18.85 |
9 | 3.42 | 6.37 | 8.93 | 11.17 | 13.14 | 14.89 | 16.43 | 17.82 | 19.06 | 20.18 |
10 | 3.60 | 6.72 | 9.42 | 11.79 | 13.88 | 15.73 | 17.38 | 18.85 | 20.18 | 21.37 |
Olive case (16 tokens) (%)
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3.92 | 6.81 | 8.96 | 10.59 | 11.83 | 12.79 | 13.53 | 14.11 | 14.56 | 14.91 |
2 | 6.81 | 11.85 | 15.65 | 18.54 | 20.76 | 22.49 | 23.84 | 24.90 | 25.74 | 26.40 |
3 | 8.96 | 15.65 | 20.71 | 24.60 | 27.61 | 29.96 | 31.81 | 33.28 | 34.44 | 35.37 |
4 | 10.59 | 18.54 | 24.60 | 29.27 | 32.91 | 35.77 | 38.04 | 39.85 | 41.30 | 42.46 |
5 | 11.83 | 20.76 | 27.61 | 32.91 | 37.07 | 40.35 | 42.96 | 45.06 | 46.75 | 48.11 |
6 | 12.79 | 22.49 | 29.96 | 35.77 | 40.35 | 43.98 | 46.89 | 49.23 | 51.12 | 52.66 |
7 | 13.53 | 23.84 | 31.81 | 38.04 | 42.96 | 46.89 | 50.04 | 52.59 | 54.66 | 56.36 |
8 | 14.11 | 24.90 | 33.28 | 39.85 | 45.06 | 49.23 | 52.59 | 55.32 | 57.55 | 59.38 |
9 | 14.56 | 25.74 | 34.44 | 41.30 | 46.75 | 51.12 | 54.66 | 57.55 | 59.91 | 61.86 |
10 | 14.91 | 26.40 | 35.37 | 42.46 | 48.11 | 52.66 | 56.36 | 59.38 | 61.86 | 63.91 |
J-Fine case (16 tokens) (%)
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2.08 | 3.71 | 4.99 | 6.01 | 6.83 | 7.49 | 8.02 | 8.46 | 8.81 | 9.10 |
2 | 3.71 | 6.31 | 8.54 | 10.34 | 11.81 | 13.01 | 14.00 | 14.81 | 15.49 | 16.05 |
3 | 4.99 | 8.54 | 11.11 | 13.49 | 15.48 | 17.12 | 18.49 | 19.64 | 20.60 | 21.41 |
4 | 6.01 | 10.34 | 13.49 | 15.86 | 18.20 | 20.21 | 21.90 | 23.33 | 24.54 | 25.57 |
5 | 6.83 | 11.81 | 15.48 | 18.20 | 20.32 | 22.55 | 24.51 | 26.18 | 27.60 | 28.83 |
6 | 7.49 | 13.01 | 17.12 | 20.21 | 22.55 | 24.43 | 26.51 | 28.38 | 30.00 | 31.39 |
7 | 8.02 | 14.00 | 18.49 | 21.90 | 24.51 | 26.51 | 28.17 | 30.10 | 31.87 | 33.42 |
8 | 8.46 | 14.81 | 19.64 | 23.33 | 26.18 | 28.38 | 30.10 | 31.58 | 33.35 | 35.03 |
9 | 8.81 | 15.49 | 20.60 | 24.54 | 27.60 | 30.00 | 31.87 | 33.35 | 34.67 | 36.31 |
10 | 9.10 | 16.05 | 21.41 | 25.57 | 28.83 | 31.39 | 33.42 | 35.03 | 36.31 | 37.50 |
Additional note: Unlike Olive, Jacqueline Fine has less effective. This is because both & have "reveal another token" effect, and Olive resolves two tokens, so that Olive could trigger Paradoxical if she reveal both from first 3 tokens, but Jacqueline doesnot.
I'll be honest; unless I'm just bad at math & probability - this card is almost impossible to resolve naturally. I guess it's expecting you to lean into cards like Premonition, Grotesque Statue, The Chthonian Stone etc - to manipulate your odds. I'm just not sure I would want to dump 2 XP and a load of other cards in order to make it work. Am I missing something here?