Daisy Walker: The Librarian

There are many ways one can encounter beings from the Myths. Some are abruptly confronted with a horrific being. Others are plagued by dreadful dreams of eerie places and unimaginable phenomena. Daisy's first confrontation with the unhuman forces occurred through reading of blasphemous volumes. And no wonder, she's a librarian, after all. Books are not only her job, they are her calling.

Legacy: Unlike Roland, Daisy is quite an Arkham Files veteran. Her first appearance in the Arkham Horror already set her up to be a tome- related character, while also crafting her to be a spellcaster. This idea was beautifully continued in Eldritch Horror. One might argue that her ability to cast a spell or read a tome during rest action is almost directly translated into AH:TCG into her free tome action. With her high Intellect value she is also portrayed as a spell-based investigator. This aspect is still preserved in newest installment of Arkham Files, as she has access to all the Mystic spells so far. One might easily say, she's a well-executed idea from the very first Arkham Series game, until now.

Addendum: Daisy has been featured along with Roland in the preview of Omens of the Deep. I don’t like her character there, as she has nothing to do with tomes, at all. On the other hand, Elder Sign is rather a basic game, supposed to be fast-paced and straightforward, hence it has no means of introducing tomes in a consistent, interesting way.

Skill Values: Just as Agnes, Daisy is a very specialized investigator, with one skill at whooping value of 5 (Intellect) and two at merely 2. It clearly defines her area of focus – investigating. And she's extremely proficient at it, with a little help of an asset she can easily clear even high shroud location (so far highest shroud is 4 and I doubt it will ever get much higher, as it would hamper low - Intellect investigators too heavily). With a decent Will of 3 she can also use spells to some degree. Unfortunately she lacks a lot in the body – related skills. With a Combat of 2 she cannot hope to deal with the enemies through usual means and Agility of 2 adds to the trouble, as she cannot evade them too easily, neither. She needs to use some tricks not to let enemies end her mission too quickly.

What is more, she is quite feeble – her Stamina value of 5 points even more towards staying far from combat, whenever possible.

I like the new graphics for Daisy much more than the Arkham Horror one

It goes without saying, that her skills reflect the nature of a librarian – highly intelligent and observant, yet not a trained warrior or rogue of any kind. You really feel like a book worm, when pulling her character card for the game session. It also clearly indicates how to play her. Finally, since she lacks flexibility, she undoubtedly performs best in a pair/team – something I definitely enjoy and cherish.

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Special abilities: One could easily assume, that Daisy's abilities just one of many “extra actions” (see post about Roland). However, through this simple idea, a very strong result has been archived. So far effects of books are quite varied – card draw, healing, boost to skills (and extra spell charges, though this one is not available for Daisy). I expect us to be provided with quite a few interesting and creative book effects in the future.¹ Therefore it creates interesting options and choices for playing Daisy. And since each of the tomes can easily be used on fellow investigators, it adds to her team player role, making her an excellent support character. Not to mention, that this seemingly straightforward ability plays well into her theme.

As of now, especially before upgrading her deck, Old Book of Lore is a natural candidate to be used for free every turn. And since it's stronger if drawn early, I tend to strongly consider a mulligan, if I don't get it in my opening hand.

Daisy's Elder Sign effect is easily a top notch one too – while I feel slight disappointment drawing one as Roland or Agnes (you might eventually get tired, if I keep repeating it through all of the posts about investigators, huh?), it's almost always fun to get one when playing Daisy and draw a card or two.

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Signature cards: At the first sight Daisy's Tote Bag does not seem to very useful – after all there only few books so far, so it does not seem to help too often. However, we cannot forget that there are other things Daisy might want (or be forced to! Read further) to hold in her hands – Magnifying Glass or some basic weapon to deal with some easier enemies. The Bag allows for some “hands management” (if you allow me this neologism). And if my dreams come true¹, she might require 4 slots just to handle all the tomes in her deck. It definitely does not always come in handy nor adds a lot of strength, though. Please mind, this card does not deal with any threats by itself and before we see further expansions, it's hard to judge its full value.

Daisy's weakness is partially a task to complete. However it does not penalize for not meeting the goal at the end of scenario – it just comes in the way until we get rid of it. The Necronomicon cripples Daisy in two ways. Firstly, it takes up a hand slot. Secondly, it quite annoyingly turns a very cool Elder Sign token into automatic failure. Obviously, the earlier you draw it, the stronger you should consider getting rid of it. It comes at a cost though – 3 actions AND 3 sanity. Still not the worst (compare with task-related weaknesses, usually costing more and threatening a nasty penalty for not meeting their requirements).

Even a librarian can skip some of the publications, especially from the restricted collection of the library...

All in all, both Daisy's cards are somewhere in the middle – her bag is not too strong and her weakness (unless drawn very early) shouldn't hurt you too much. They are both very nicely tied both with her story (Librarian who stumbled upon the blasphemous Necronomicon) and general theme of the investigator (tomes). On a side note, have you wondered about a thematic explanation of changing Elder Sign into Auto-failure? I believe you can very nicely explain it. Instead of drawing inspiration from her useful tomes, Daisy delves into horrific content of the profane Necronomicon, which siphons her life force. Think about it, when the sacrilegious volume makes you fail an otherwise very successful skill check!

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Class/Deckbuilding options: Daisy has access to all the Seeker cards. They are more versatile, than one would imagine, especially the tomes, which makes her able to pull all sort of tricks. As mentioned before, they also turn her into a very potent support character, even more so through some of the Mystic cards (Scrying, Ward of Protection to an extent).

You can use the Encyclopedia in so many interesting ways

She is not a mere servant of others, though – Miskatonic’s Librarian investigates like no one else and can manage some easier monstrous threats with a help of Shrivelling, Mind over Matter or even a Knife. Mystic cards very nicely provide Daisy with what she might miss from her Seeker cards – fighting capabilities, as well as efficient ways to slightly boost her average Will to cast the spells proficiently (see: Holy Rosary).

Since both classes are heavily mind focused, they greatly preserve the nature of a calm, introvert scholar and not even once you lose the feel of dust and forgotten volumes.

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Daisy is by far the most thematic investigator. Not only because all aspect of her design perfectly align with the archetype of a Librarian, but also all of them nicely add together to form a clear game play idea. On top of that, they guide a player to use her as designed – give them incentives to use the books, keep her out of the heat of combat, play her in a team etc.

And she is also a very effective one. She has a niche of her own - investigating, where she outperforms everyone (well, probably Rex can beat her in this area, but not by much). But she does not limit herself to collect elements of the puzzles. She can arrange for card-draw or healing. Playing her always gives you many options and different paths to choose.

On the flaws side one must note, she is quite ill-suited for solo play (not a disadvantage for me)

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¹Getting more tome cards was on top of my wishlist for future expansions. I can only hope it will eventually be delivered, The Dunwich Legacy was a disappointment in this regard.

 All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com