Edit: Some mistakes. It's hard to review any customizable card because it's actually a multitude of cards all in one, with different interactions with all the folks of arkham, so lets fire my shot and see what I can work out.

So, in a vacuum, the base card is terrible, you probably should not ever include this thing in a deck. dont have 4 resources to spend on 2 health and 2 horror, that's a terrible deal at any level and never worth it beyond some very, VERY extraordinary campaign starts where you've dealt yourself some unusual pain with cards like In the Thick of It or Arcane Research and you NEED some soak to compensate.

This means then that we really are only looking at this card in the context of the upgrades. All of the upgrades are in the afforable 3 XP range or less which makes them available to off-class characters like William Yorick or Diana Stanley. So, lets have some fun!

First off, a baseline upgrade that by itself is invariably good: Hexdrinker.

• Hexdrinker gets you a card everytime you take treachery damage. This right here is often going to be worth the 3xp investment and 4 resource cost, it'll easily draw you 2 cards, often net 3. 4 Resources to save 3-4 life and draw 3 cards is just extravagantly nice.

• Hexdrinker + Protective runes = The 4 card draws become almost automatic, especially in a 4 player game.

Obviously the +2 health / Sanity upgrades combine very nicely with Hexdrinker+Protective runes to create almost absurd card draw but I'dd argue that, because of the exhust clause, you need to curb your thirst for cards just a bit and lean more into the tanking aspect.

Second up, the other card defining baseline upgrade: Armor of thorns.

• Armor of thorns suddently slots Hunter's Armor into the passive damage archetype that rose to some prominence with William Yorick and his trusty doggos. Picture this: a Hunting Nightgaunt spawns on you when you have Guard Dog and Hunter's Armor out, instead of attacking it twice, you attack it once and then just move or investigate, triggering an AoO, killing it with retaliation damage. There's nothing to dislike about that for sure.

• Armor of thorns + Protective runes is not the wondercombo that it is with Hexdrinker, because without the other "spike" damage triggers, dealing only 1 damage often isnt enough. Even so, every now and then you might be able to ask a friend to engage a Whippoorwill that can then be killed off easily.

Again, like hexdrinker, the +health/sanity upgrades also may not combo as nicely as you'dd like, because frankly, even if you're actively triggering enemy attacks, you're often just not going to be attacked 6-8 times in a game. So again this is less about retaliation damage but a bit more about actual tanking.

Third up, the last card defining upgrade: Protective runes.

• Protective runes turns Hunter's Armor into a communal health pool, which is awesome. All of a suddent you can act as a living shield that moves around and covers harmed friends from danger, love it, like it.

• Protective runes + Health/Sanity upgrades = Bigger health pools, love it.

When you add the other upgrades, Hexdrinker, Armor of thorns. Protective runes becomes a routine way to benefit off of the "mister tank" role or to burn down enemies slightly faster sometimes. Perhaps the most major downside to taking Protective runes is that off-class folks cannot afford the level cap to combine it with the other major upgrades.

• A major point to worry about is that Armor of Thorns and Hexdrinker interfere with each other, both of them "cost" the armor's lifepool, both of them exhaust the card, IF you intend to take both, the upgrade path is then probably:

  • Hexdrinker/Thorns -> Health/Sanity/Protective -> Health/Sanity/Protective/Lightweight -> Hexdrinker/Thorns.

  • That said, I'dd like to argue that once you've spent 5 or 7 xp on it, you can probably just stop and be happy with it like that.

As a note on the unmentioned upgrades, Enchanted and lightweight, the former is primarily a choice of slots, which might seem superfluous but then you realise that it might interact interestingly with Dragon Pole. Lightweight meantime is less a priority upgrade than it is a capstone after you've gone for either Spikes or Cards.

To name some names, here´s some character that can seriously look at Hunter's Armor for nice builds:

• : Tommy Muldoon and Mark Harrigan come stock with mechanics that reward getting hit or taking damage. Stacking "Spike" damage with Guard Dog, Toe to Toe, Heroic Rescue, that's a compelling build with upgrade options to scale into the higher levels right there.
• Lily Chen can use the armor to fill her hand and maybe combo with Dragon Pole, meanwhile Diana Stanley REALLY likes the card draw.
• William Yorick is one of the first who did the retaliation archetype justice and this card is a great addition to his repertoire.

Lastly, anbody who can take the Protective runes variant should legtimitately consider taking up the tank role, Carolyn Fern and Vincent Lee are both the kind of character that's trying to protect the team and this is a pre-emptive way to do so without taking any risky skill checks.

Turns out I shouldnt be posting reviews when Im having a bit of a manic christmas stress episode. Sorry y'all! Apocalypse averted.

So anyway, to properly review this thing.

Hidden Pocket does by itself a relatively weak thing, +1 hand slot. It does not change the board state but enables more flexibility with weapons and tools. Hand slot tools universally take 1 slot, so the point of extra slots is all about enabling greedy strategies with 2-slot weapons. Ornate Bow comes to mind. The illicit requirement is'nt much of a drawback, but "I'll take that!" can help with this issue.

In an older version of the game, or with a limited collection, this would be a very, very bad card. Card draw used to be a premium that only had. Wasting a draw to find Hidden Pocket with a core+Dunwick Jenny Barnes would be like shooting yourself in the foot. The reason it'd be so bad is that a card like this needs a strong, dependable flow of cards to find all the pieces. You need to find the clothing, find the weapons and tools, find the pocket, find money generation to pay for it, find the card draw. For a large swathe of characters this is a ridiculous stretch.

But the support does exist, and the synergy, particularly if you have Underworld Market which single handedly assays the card's downside of dudding a draw and the deckspace issue. Also of note is the synergy, not only can you use Pickpocketing to fund the expensive boardstate, you have good illicit hand assets like Thieves' Kit to put into the extra slot.

I misjudged this card first time around. Even so. It is -very- niche. I wouldnt reccommend it for most decks without careful planning.

OP, now theyre taking over mechanics too. Well, not just , looking at you, wannabe.

This card is awesome, but I feel like the class system structure is breaking down and, as allways, it's cards that allways come out on top.

I would REALLY like to see this thing on the taboo list with a "non-" clause, or maybe they'dd erase the "any number of times" text, because this is an extreemely strong card, the downsides to it are easily made up for with the new mechanics that reward you for dropping clues.

To properly review the card, this is a contender for being one of the best skill cards ever, comparable to Justify the Means with no XP cost and a different downside. If you have any relatively big tests you think you might need to do, you should consider this card, even in a vacuum without the cluedrop teck, especially if you're a with a good secondary stat like Joe Diamond or Ursula Downs who'se spread of important tests goes beyond just tests.

If you do plan to play the cluedrop archetype, this of course is an autotake.

Summoned Servitor's niche. While the resource cost isn't bad, its asset discard cost means it's unlikely to be one of the first cards out of the gate, and its dual slot cost is another barrier. In practice, Summoned Servitor is going to cost at least 3 XP. Without at least 1 XP, all Summoned Servitor can do is hover around the map. And while 1 XP is enough to start taking some actions, it's hard to find someone who wouldn't want Dominance to free up a slot, one way or another.

From there, there are a few directions for the summon. The first and most apparent through the test actions. A 4-base test is okay, if not particularly impressive - you'll occasionally stumble onto a success, as long as you're willing to fail along the way. Of course, If someone runs Rabbit's Foot, Drawing Thin, "Look what I found!", or the like, even a failure can be good. And characters with easy boost access, like Charlie Kane or someone with Cornered like Patrice Hathaway, can turn those awkward checks into something that resembles a bonus action. Daemonic Influence can technically give even more 'actions', but it's one of the most expensive customizations around, and quite possibly one of the most difficult to build around.

The second option is to use Wings of Night as the equivalent to Pathfinder or Safeguard. While Summoned Servitor's movement isn't particularly mobile, it can still move one space a turn - and that means that if you don't need to move more than one space a turn, the summon can save that move action for you.

The third option is to use Armored Carapace to treat this as a source of soak. While a few scenarios may make you regret this decision, it's often a cheap plus. Armored Carapace allows you to share the soak, but it's worth remembering that investigators can assign damage to any asset under their control with health, and the Servitor is always under the investigator's control, no matter where its location is. It can tank for others sometimes, but it can always tank for its player.

And, of course, there are always a few incidental benefits to this. As one of the options, it's worth remembering that investigators who access this can boost it using Down the Rabbit Hole. And some people just want to squeeze a bit more XP through Refine.

On the whole, I don't think any of these single options is worth the total card, resource, slot, and XP cost. However, if you're looking at a couple of these, you might be breaking even or earning a bit more. Some classes may have better options, but for some or off-, you might just be looking for the combination of a bit of health, or an extra action, one way or another.

A solid upgrade on a very niche card. Stronger icons and fast turn this into a much better, tho still situational, safety valve for doom decks.

Fast makes this a situational answer to stacked doom enemies, but that still doesn't seem worth it on its own. Would have problems paying the XP for this outside a standalone deck.

(+) Strong upgrades (yay action economy!)

(-) Still very situational.

(++) Added Sailor Moon flavor text