Asset

Spirit.

Cost: 0.

Guardian

Myriad. Fast.

Play Solemn Vow under the control of another investigator at your location.

If the owner of Solemn Vow is at your location, exhaust Solemn Vow: Move 1 damage or horror from a card you control to a card that investigator controls.

Andreia Ugrai
The Dream-Eaters #20.
Solemn Vow

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Can damage/horror be "moved" to asset cards without health/sanity (e.g. .45 Automatic)? If not, what about asset cards like Relentless that can have damage placed on it? Can the damage/horror "moved" exceed the upper limit of health/sanity of the asset card? A: No, damage/horror can’t be moved to asset cards without health/sanity, similar to how they can’t be dealt or assigned damage/horror. No. Relentless can only have damage placed on it in the manner described by its ability, and can’t have damage moved to it. No. A card will be defeated immediately if the damage/horror moved to it exceeds its health/sanity (August 2023).
Last updated

Reviews

With the release of Sister Mary, we see another great use for this card as her Guardian Angel can really benefit from moving damage off of it. As long as your Vowed gator has the cards to receive the damage, the Guardian Angel can even potentially defend future damage that gator would receive, so if played correctly, you and your partner would take damage as normal, but now you're getting double the benefit as you can just constantly proc GAngel's effect over and over again.

I do think that, as more cards come out and more synergies are introduced, this card might be seeing more and more combos just because of the fact that it doesn't limit the kind of cards that are interacting, such as by trait. Not game-breaking, but allows for a lot more creativity.

TheDoc37 · 467
Mark & Mary forever! — MrGoldbee · 1436
SO CLEVER — Krakenonastick · 9
Add Lonnie Ritter or Jessica to heal for free. — Django · 5032
I can't help but laugh at the idea of a Guardian Angel putting damage on you, instead of preventing it. — flamebreak · 19

Weird, but useful.

TL:DR, if tanking is your thing, this is now in your deck. Period.

Edit: By tanking in this review I mean the classical term used for roleplaying and videogames, a character who interposes himself between friends and danger and does everything he can to take on as much pressure and pain as he can handle, so that everybody else might do their jobs in peace.

Certain characters are really good at just, taking pain. That's what they do. They'll even do it intentionally for one reason or another. Obviously the characters I speak off are the + combinations Tommy Muldoon and William Yorick. Leo Anderson can do it too but he's not quite so good at it, those other guys don't care if their soaks die, Leo Anderson cares a lot!

Via beefy allies like Guard Dog, Madame Labranche and cheap soaks like Leather Coat and Cherished Keepsake these guys can take twice as much pain as anybody else and keep coming back for more. They can even leverage it into game advantages by taking on the pain for others, with cards like "Let me handle this!" or Heroic Rescue.

Solemn Vow is the new capstone card to this strategy. The key issue with the other cards is that they only apply when the cards are drawn and enemies attack, raw damage and horror however, those are easy as pie to find, and Solemn Vow makes it possible to just funnel all of that bad stuff onto the tanks and their soaks. You might even have a deck totally dedicated to the funneling and management of damage via soaks and healing, using First Aid and/or Painkillers to move the hurt around and make it go away on a choice soak or heal-able target.

It's fast, it's free, you can adjust the number of copies in case this strategy is important, it has 2 icons so the unused copies double as a defense mechanism for the tank himself.

So yes, Tanking, now a far more viable strategy than ever. Even if the "selfless tank" events we've got already didn't exist Solemn Vow single handedly grants viability to this whole strategy.

Tsuruki23 · 2514
Armor of Ardennes? Peter Sylvester? — Django · 5032
The thing is that tanking is, in of itself, not a winning strategy. You survive, but what do you do? This card lets you do the survival FOR your friends, I.E why this card is required — Tsuruki23 · 2514
This card is Carolyn Fern's new favourite. Basically it's a new way of "healing horror" for her, as she can use Peter Sylvestre to soak horror for all the team, while gaining resources in the process. It basically functions as a new horror-healing card for her. The only difference it has from other horror-healing cards is that she is the one that gains the resource instead of the one being healed and it has no limited uses. What's even better is that it costs no actions and it comes at 0 XP. — matt88 · 3093
There's a lot of people that can take maximum advantage of stuff being piled onto them. Tommy is the obvious one since he was in this pack, but Carolyn if she's running Peter Sylvestre is another. It's also a Spirit, so Calvin can take it and boost his stats even faster. I'm a big fan of this card. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Love the idea of this card. Hate that the way it is written gives away all control over its use. — Kael_Hate · 1
Thoughts on this card for Mark Harrigan? Given his ability of drawing a card each phase he takes damage, seems like you can get an absurd amount of cards by soaking everyone's damage... — NorthernPolarity · 1
William Yorick double loves this because he can use it for two pips first, then play it for free from the discard pile. It one of the few level zero assets with two models of the same skill icon. — jmmeye3 · 619
@matt88 I'm not sure it does count as healing for Carolyn... it specifically uses the word "move" and not "heal". Its still very handy for Carolyn but i think only in conjunction with something like peter sylvestre or for her to more easily heal herself later — Phoenixbadger · 197

The wording is MOVE damage/horror, so if you're playing Daisy Walker with The Necronomicon in play, you could just move horror action-free to the investigator who put Solemn Vow on you. Very niche but it's a nice cheese.

Erdjo · 323
I think it works : "Weaknesses with a player cardtype are controlled by their bearer". — Okami · 41
just don't do that to the last horror or daisy will never be able to get rid of it — zrayak · 85
Is horror on The Necronomicon a requisite to trigger the action on it? I'm not sure. If not, you can happily move all horror away from the card with Solemn Vow and then just use the action to get rid of the tome. — Lateralis · 7
"Then" requires the previous part to resolve successfully, so it doesnt work if there's no horror on daisies necronomicon. It's similar to self sacrifice where you only draw cards if the test fails (because that's the condition that needs to resolve "successfully"). — crayne · 3
That said, if you remove the last horror with Solemn Vow, the "It cannot leave play while it has 1 or more horror on it." clause in its revelation effect ceases to apply and you can just discard it to free the hand slot if you have enough books to carry — Thatwasademo · 56
And, notably, since Daisy controls when Solemn Vow is used to move things off of her cards, she knows if she has a hand asset to play to overwrite it before she triggers the Vow — Thatwasademo · 56

Great card for a supporter to run when you have Dexter Drake in your team. It essentially grants him a free resource and play action. Additionally you might use it to boost Dexter's main ability by committing this card for the double pips.

PowLee · 20

If you make a solemn vow to Carolyn to give her a piggyback for the rest of the evening while she whispers bible verse in your ears, you will find yourself much refreshed.

The usefulness of this card is limited by the fact you have to be at the same location at the tank or healer, but Safeguard does a ton to offset this. Because it's 0 cost and Fast, it's also a very polite inclusion in your deck, as you don't have to mulligan for it, as you know that most often you can draw it whenever and get it out.

I'm enjoying it a lot in Carolyn, as she likes centralising the party's horror, so she can deal with it on her own terms.

I like this most with Yorick actually as you can commit this like a Guts, then kill something and play it onto someone else at your location. — StyxTBeuford · 12971

With the recent release of the Winifred Habbamock pack, this card can be added to a combat-oriented rogue / guardian (Skids, Jenny, Leo, Zoey or someone else using Versatile) to be played in combination with Lonnie Ritter and Leather jacket: the fighter play Solemn vow under the control of an other investigator and then this investigator can transfer damage / horror to Leather jacket / Lonnie Ritter respectively and then for 1 resource the fighter heals both his assets.

AlexP · 247
Lonnie can already heal off of allies' jackets. — MrGoldbee · 1436
But she can't heal off their faces, which this can transfer from. It's a bit techy, but it gives your allies a little freedom to run off on their own. — SGPrometheus · 795
Lonnie requires your allies to have armor with 2+ health, that's not everyone's thing. Seeker doesn't even have one. So Solemn vow it to your own armor or Jessica is a good alternative. — Django · 5032

Funnily enough, the best investigator to place this on might be another Guardian.

It can move damage and horror from any card. That means it can heal your beat cops, guard dogs, Grete Wagner and Agency Backup forever as a free, 0 cost action. Infinite beat cops!

The icons are also fantastic for Well Prepared.

You need a very specific team composition to make this work but I have been loving playing Calvin Wright and playing this on my friend Leo Anderson. The ability to keep all those allies working forever is amazing.

Jack · 56

It is a Myriad card that doesn't interact with its other copies unlike most Myriad designs that came in TDE IE box. By including maximum 3 you can place a vow on each player in full 4 players party. Playing on lower player count, more copies let you play multiple stacked on one investigator in order to move more than 1 dmg/horror in a round. You can include just 1 copy to optimize deck space and it still works fine. I find this freedom to choose a quantity a neat design for this one.

5argon · 8998

So seems like a nice card that can help dealing with lots of damage, I've got three questions and my thoughts on the answers:

Q1) Does it count as "healing" for Carolyn Fern? Carolyn Fern. Clearly its useful for her to more conveniently heal others and get the resources herself, or remove the pain from others when a timing issue is criticial. But... i don't think this counts as "healing" when it comes to triggering her reaction ability, does it? I think it deliberately doesn't use the word heal, you are moving the hurt. It means she can take the horror off somebody close to defeat, but to get the extra resource from healing, she then has to heal herself (or Peter Sylvestre!)

A1) I think not.

Q2) If you have multiple Solemn Vows in play, can you trigger them all at the same time. (say you have some Fine Clothes, can another investigator with two solemn vows trigger them both to do 1 damage and 1 horror to the Fine Clothes, or would the Fine Clothes be defeated after the first trigger?

A2) I think yes you can.

Q3) In conjunction with a cancelling card like Perseverance, can you move the damage/horror from somebody and then stop the damage transferring across to you? Particularly more relevant if you have all three Solemn Vows out at the same time and can cancel 3 damage with Perseverance or Devil's Luck

A3) So long as the effect says you are cancelling the "horror" or "damage", and not the cancelling it being assigned. (because then you would be cancelling the move, so the original investigator would keep it?)

Phoenixbadger · 197
Q1 the answer is no. Moving is never healing. Carolyn can however move the horror from someone else onto Peter Sylvestre who can then heal it off. For Q2 the answer is no as you have to resolve as much of the ability in full before you are allowed to trigger the next one- so you move one, then defeat the clothes, then you can move the next one. For Q3 I believe the answer is no because you are moving the damage/horror, not assigning it or dealing it. But, even if that's wrong and you could somehow prevent the movement of damage/horror, then you would be undoing Solemn Vow's trigger because you're never healing or removing the damage/horror from the original card, you're just moving it. So if the move is prevented, damage/horror stays exactly where it is. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Fwiw all good questions that could very much come up when playing this fun and bizarre card. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Thanks! :-) there are a few cards like this where I find I do have to think long and hard about how they will get used before committing to them. This will be my first go through with Carolyn Fern (teamed up with Agnes Baker for the lovely horror-taking damage factor)... and yes I was ideally thinking of assigning it to Peter, or just soaking up the horror on my investigator to heal at a more convenient time (so Agnes can free up her sanity to do more damage!) — Phoenixbadger · 197
I think that's a very smart way of doing it, Agnes+Carolyn is a good pairing. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Q3: similar to q2, you resolve each vow separately so you can’t cancel all 3 at the same time. Usually each source of damage/ horror is resolved separately, including weaknesses like psychosis. — Django · 5032
But also it not being dealt or assigned, so those cancelling cards don’t help the situation. — Death by Chocolate · 1409
Can damage be moved to an investigator..do you control your own investigator card? — xarathornx · 1

I just realized that this card moves damage and don't heal or damage other cards.

According to the discussion about the Eldritch Sophist and the Archaic Glyphs you should be allowed to move damage to your guardians (or William Yorick ) Relentless for some cash. Especially Mark Harrigan would love the combo due to his ability.

Tharzax · 1
This is incorrect as Relentless does not have health and therefore cannot have damage moved to it. Damage can be placed on it by its ability only. You can however use Solemn Vow to move damage off of Relentless to something else. Damage just doesnt work the same way as secrets. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Your right, that you can't assign damage that is dealt to the investigator to it because of the missing health. But the vow ignores the steps of assigning damage in the rulebook and moves the damage directly to a card. For me the card effect is not clearly defined without a FAQ and could be interpreted as an effect which ignores the usual rule like the ability on Relentless. But if it seems too good it can't be part of the Cthulhu-Mythos — Tharzax · 1
By that logic you could move damage to any asset that lacks a health stat, which clearly isn't the intended effect, so no. — MiskatonicFrosh · 338
Im fairly certain the reason you can’t is because you can only move game elements to legal destinations, and moving damage/horror requires assigning them, which does follow the rules of needing health/sanity values. The only reason Relentless can put damage on itself is because the card ability overrides the normal restriction specifically for itself- Solemn Vow does not make any exceptions. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
But by it's own ability relentless seems to be a valid target for health tokens, which are moved outside the rule for dealing damage/horror. — Tharzax · 1
That is incorrect. If it were a valid target for health tokens, then you could soak normal damage on it, which is obviously not true. It is only valid to put health tokens on it through its own ability. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
If it helps, for Relentless, use breakfast cereal marshmallows instead of damage tokens. The intended effect will be the same, you'll be less confused about how the card works, and you get to eat the tokens when you discard it :) — MiskatonicFrosh · 338
There is so far no rule that prevents damage being moved to any asset explicitly (if it does exist I'd like to see it, been trying to find it for aegis), an asset without health cannot be assigned damage and solemn vow and/or tommy need an FAQ before the intended interaction is certain. In tommys case moving damage to asset still lets his weakness destroy them so it may be intended. (otherwise why don't either card say "deal" damage instead) — Zerogrim · 289
It would be good to have a clarifying FAQ, but there’s 0 chance Solemn Vow RAI lets you move damage/horror onto any asset regardless if it has a healthy/sanity value. That kind of combo would be ridiculously broken and is very clearly not the intent behind the design, so such an FAQ would reinforce the way most people already interpret the card. All of that is to say, if the rules do somehow currently allow for us to move damage onto Relentless, they shouldn’t and any FAQ would reinforce that. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
I think there should be a FAQ for moving tokens from one card to another. For example if you move a secret with the sophist on a spell like Shrivelling does it change his type of use? — Tharzax · 1
We don't need an FAQ for that, there's already one on the Sophist confirming that tokens don't change type when moved. So you can put a secret on Shrivelling but it doesn't do anything since it's not a charge. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Excuse me, it's not on Sophist, it's on Enraptured and Truth from Fiction. — StyxTBeuford · 12971
Not quite. The general rule for Uses (X "type") prevents that: >>A card cannot bear uses of a type other than that established by its own "Uses (X type)" keyword. (For example, a card with "Uses (4 ammo)" cannot gain charges.)<< So while the FAQ confirms, that you can put secrets, charges, whatever on an asset without any uses, you cannot move Secrets onto Shrivelling. — Susumu · 359

Tommy Muldoon loves this. In a pinch, another investigator can free trigger this to heal some damage/horror, move it on to one of Tommy's allies to kill it, and Tommy can use his ability to take that damage as bullets for Becky. Even better if that ally is Tetsuo Mori, so you get bullets/resources, an item (maybe Becky or Bandolier if you already have Becky out), and your buddy got some healing, all without spending any resources or actions.