Stunning Blow

Skill

Practiced.

Survivor

If this skill test is successful during an attack, automatically evade the attacked enemy.

Thud.
Matthew Cowdery
Threads of Fate #112.
Stunning Blow

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Automatic Success/Failure & Automatic Evasion: Some card effects make an investigator automatically succeed or automatically fail a skill test. If this occurs, depending on the timing of such an effect, certain steps of the skill test may be skipped in their entirety.
    • If it is known that an investigator automatically succeeds or fails at a skill test before Step 3 (“Reveal Chaos Token”) occurs, that step is skipped, along with Step 4. No chaos token(s) are revealed from the chaos bag, and the investigator immediately moves to Step 5. All other steps of the skill test resolve as normal.
    • If a chaos token effect causes an investigator to automatically succeed or fail at a skill test, continue with Steps 3 and 4, as normal.
    • If an ability “automatically evades” 1 or more enemies, this is not the same as automatically succeeding at an evasion attempt. As per the entry on “Evade” in the Rules Reference, if an ability automatically evades 1 or more enemies, no skill test is made for the evasion attempt whatsoever. Consequentially, because no skill test is made, it is not considered a “successful” evasion. The investigator simply follows the steps for evading an enemy (exhausting it and breaking its engagement).
    • For example: Patrice uses the ability on Hope, which reads: “ If Hope is ready, exhaust or discard him: Evade. Attempt to evade with a base value of 5. (If you discarded Hope, this test is automatically successful.)” If Patrice chooses to discard Hope, the skill test automatically succeeds before chaos tokens are revealed; therefore Steps 3 and 4 of the skill test are skipped. However, the skill test still takes place. Cards may still be committed to the test, and the investigator’s total modified skill value is still determined, as it may have some bearing on other card abilities. However, if Patrice instead uses the ability on Stray Cat, which reads: “ Discard Stray Cat: Automatically evade a non-Elite enemy at your location,” no skill test is made whatsoever. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020
Last updated
  • Automatic Success/Failure & Automatic Evasion: Some card effects make an investigator automatically succeed or automatically fail a skill test. If this occurs, depending on the timing of such an effect, certain steps of the skill test may be skipped in their entirety.
    • If it is known that an investigator automatically succeeds or fails at a skill test before Step 3 (“Reveal Chaos Token”) occurs, that step is skipped, along with Step 4. No chaos token(s) are revealed from the chaos bag, and the investigator immediately moves to Step 5. All other steps of the skill test resolve as normal.
    • If a chaos token effect causes an investigator to automatically succeed or fail at a skill test, continue with Steps 3 and 4, as normal.
    • If an ability “automatically evades” 1 or more enemies, this is not the same as automatically succeeding at an evasion attempt. As per the entry on “Evade” in the Rules Reference, if an ability automatically evades 1 or more enemies, no skill test is made for the evasion attempt whatsoever. Consequentially, because no skill test is made, it is not considered a “successful” evasion. The investigator simply follows the steps for evading an enemy (exhausting it and breaking its engagement).
    • For example: Patrice uses the ability on Hope, which reads: “ If Hope is ready, exhaust or discard him: Evade. Attempt to evade with a base value of 5. (If you discarded Hope, this test is automatically successful.)” If Patrice chooses to discard Hope, the skill test automatically succeeds before chaos tokens are revealed; therefore Steps 3 and 4 of the skill test are skipped. However, the skill test still takes place. Cards may still be committed to the test, and the investigator’s total modified skill value is still determined, as it may have some bearing on other card abilities. However, if Patrice instead uses the ability on Stray Cat, which reads: “ Discard Stray Cat: Automatically evade a non-Elite enemy at your location,” no skill test is made whatsoever. - FAQ, v.1.7, March 2020
Last updated

Reviews

This is a FANTASTIC multiplayer card. An incredibly powerful tool that gives you an exclusive type of action compression useful mostly in a very particular circumstance.

The scene that I am referring to is the big moment where you engage the big-boss. The fat big bad with a health pool dependent on player count, a guy too large for a single investigator to take on unaided or just some moderately large monster that you happen to run into.

Let me explain: Often in multiplayer you will find yourself up against some threat that your limited number of actions will prevent from killing in one round, either the foe is standing a couple locations away, engaged with somebody else, or just outright too healthy to die in a single round. This card lets you:

  • A, do what you want to be doing (killing this enemy).
  • B, save the evade action to ensure that this boss doesn't just kill you.

All of this is compressed, in a single action, that is probably easy for you to strength buff and max out since you're the designated boss-killer. Oh and you get a +1 on the attack attempt too.

I think I've now mentioned all that this card has to offer, compress an evade action into your attack action to lay down the hurt on a major scenario threat. It's better in multiplayer than single-player due to the significantly increased health pools, this card effectively buy's you the breathing room you need to, without pause, work on that massive health pool.

Edit: In multiplayer you can also use Stunning Blow to dislodge a friend in trouble, a friendly William Yorick or "Ashcan" Pete running up and knocking out the thing holding up the clue dude can really grease things along.

Tsuruki23 · 2522
Hey! FFG stole this card idea from me (https://i.imgur.com/TIIhui9.jpg) Not that it was terribly original to begin with; but the similarity is uncanny. Where are my royalties?! ;-) — Herumen · 1719
Another big advantage in multi, you don't need to engage the target with this card. But you've spent a lot of words to say the same thing over and over... — Django · 5070
Amusingly, but typically inefficiently, this card can be paired with Marksmanship (Zoey or Yorick) to evade an enemy in a connecting location. This would primarily be useful for delaying the arrival of a Hunter enemy that you’ll have to deal with eventually. — Death by Chocolate · 1440
I agree with your assessment! I was impressed enough to include 2 in a Pete deck even — Malgox · 20

I wanted clarification on the rules regarding the elusive keyword and effects that would cause an enemy to become exhausted as part of an attack (i.e with Stunning Blow). FFG kindly got back to me to clarify:

Q: How does elusive work if an investigator attack would cause the enemy to become exhausted? For example, if an investigator commits Stunning Blow to their attack. Does the elusive keyword trigger before the automatic evade occurs? Thanks!

A: Yes; an elusive enemy that was ready before attacking will still move after attacking, and it does not exhaust until after it moves. If an effect causes it to exhaust in the middle of an attack triggered by elusive, the enemy still moves, and remains exhausted at the new location.

For instance, if an investigator commits Stunning Blow while attacking an elusive enemy, they’d resolve the attack & effects as normal (including exhausting and disengaging from the enemy), then that enemy would still move to a connecting location and remain exhausted.

Sincerely, Alex Werner, FFG Game Rules Specialist

I know this is more of a question about the elusive keyword than Stunning Blow, but there isn't currently a way to write posts about keywords specifically. Hope this helps anyone else wondering this.

snacc · 980
Hello! Can you share and forward the official ruling email (including questions and answers) you received to arkhamdbfaqs@gmail.com? This is the mailbox of the ArkhamFAQ team, and they will update the ruling you received into ArkhamDB! — Jacksonsu · 1
Thanks for letting me know! I've forwarded the email just now :) — snacc · 980

Can I review the card's illustration and flavour text only? It might be my favourite in the game; where else does one see a monster looking so foolish?

BlankedyBlank · 21
I suppose the monster on vicious blow doesn't look foolish so much as... dead. But yeah, great art, and I actually think this card is pretty good for sticky situations when you might need to reload or just run away. — SGPrometheus · 809
Great card for high fight characters to compensate for low evade, or for high fight characters to evade an enemy off of someone else. I even like this in Rita for that reason. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
Does this combo with Silas,so you get the effect and then return it to your hand? — jdk5143 · 98
@jdk5143 No; Silas' ability pulls the card back before success is checked, so you would have to leave his committed to get the evade. — SGPrometheus · 809
I dunno. The monster on Stunning Blow always reminds me of a Muppet. — Herumen · 1719
@Herumen And... that's bad? — SGPrometheus · 809

Hey, why don't we have a pipe or a pipe wrench as a weapon?

It MIGHT be worth taking this in Yorrick. Throwing a punch to dodge a boss for a round and finish them off later can be really good.

It also lets you fight an enemy engaged with an ally so that they can be evaded.

But lets be realistic, it isn't really doing a ton for you right this second.

Some people bring up the Waylay combo, but I don't see it right now. If you are waylaying them after you need high evade as well as high fight.

Not hot on this one right now due to its really narrow application as a way to tie up a boss or threat for a round. Hopefully it plays well with the inevitable pipe or pipe wrench weapon for theme.

Myriad · 1219
It has also a decent synergy with Sneak Attack - stun that badass with wrench and finish the job with garrote. — KptMarchewa · 1
Yup! It does. I had not considered that as I think only Jenny or a weird Pete deck would bother at the moment (since Wendy is pretty bad at that combo). Even for them it is kind of a stretch. — Myriad · 1219
I think of it as evading with Combat. But that means Yorick or Zoey (and maybe Duke), both of whom would probably rather defeat the thing anyway, unless they're trying to avoid Vengeance. — CSerpent · 126
A fire axe Minh could play it alright. Either to shore up her abilities or to buff a fighters attack and buy a round. — Myriad · 1219
Having just played The House Always Wins, I can see it as an economical way to deal with the Conglomeration of Spheres for a while.. — Katsue · 10
Silas Marsh has both strength 4 and agility 4, and can pull back the Stunning Blow if the fight will fail, so he has pretty good synergy with the Waylay combo. At least its something to do for him that doesn't involve Dark Horse for a change. — The_Wall · 286
I believe you are missing the value of this card. It basically lets you evade with your attack stat while still doing damage. That is extremely useful. — Tilted Libra · 35

Im very surprised how good this card is. Yorrick and Ashcan Pete should always have it in their deck, especially in multiplayer. It really helps with tricky situations like moving on your second move to a location with an enemy you cant kill with one attack. It also helps avoiding accidental hits.

Pgpgpg · 77
I want to stress how excited I am to try this in Survivor version of Tony Morgan. He has trouble evading, but he can use this to turn a fight into an evade. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
And Rita? — jd9000 · 73
It's basically a Vicious Blow for Rita if you build her for Bat/OHR, but if you're using Ornate Bow like I usually do with Rita it's not a great choice. — StyxTBeuford · 12985
Not quite as good for Rita but an option though. Mostly because of the aforementioned bow thing. I generally take her with 2 bows and 3 rifles so it comes in handy ;) — Tsuruki23 · 2522
3? — MrGoldbee · 1443