Asset. Arcane

Spell. Blessed.

Cost: 2. XP: 2.

Guardian

Seal (up to 5 ). If Shield of Faith has no tokens sealed on it, discard it.

When an enemy attacks an investigator at your location, exhaust Shield of Faith and release a chaos token sealed here: Cancel that attack.

Sebastian Luca
A Light in the Fog #221.
Shield of Faith

FAQs

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Reviews

Ran this in a Mary deck during a 4P game and was pleasantly surprised at how useful it was. The real benefit from this was in enabling me to move to others' locations and pull an enemy off them fearlessly, even when I didn't have the actions to finish the enemy off that round. It was also incredibly useful for neutralizing hunters about to enter our location while we still had business there. Knowing their attack would fall flat gave us substantial latitude to focus on advancing the act rather than worrying about proactively engaging baddies.

This isn't a card for every build, but in the right one, it can be refreshingly liberating.

Sandmole · 35

I just don't see a place for this card. Compared to Obfuscation:

1) It's slow (takes an action to play, and hence, is prophylactic).

2) Requires tokens to be in the bag (and requires you to seal them, foregoing their benefit).

3) Has the same resource cost; takes up the same arcane slot; has the same "Spell" trait.

4) ..and costs 2 XP instead of 0 XP.

In exchange for all that, Shield of Faith cancels any attack, not just AoO's; and works for any investigator at your location.

So among investigators who can take both (Leo, "Skids", Zoey, and Lola), you'd clearly only be interested in this if you're leaning heavily into protecting your teammates. And if that's the case...well, there are better cards for that. Dodge, Solemn Vow and Heroic Rescue are all fast and cost fewer resources (ZERO for SV and the upgraded Rescue), require no XP, and the latter two complement Leo's tanky nature. He can certainly afford to take the occasional hit on the chin without sinking some considerable setup into canceling attacks. Skids is a fighty Rogue, whereas Zoey is a roguish Fighter; between the two, I guess Zoey likes this a little better since she's more likely to be engaged with an enemy during the enemy phase. I'd still rather have her resources committed to dealing damage instead of playing defensively, though. And as far as Lola...well, beats the hell out of me. If you're running a Lola bless-heavy deck that can leave a defensive asset on the board just to cancel some enemy attacks--well, that's just crazy, amirite?

Now, a few words about the value of canceling Attacks of Opportunity versus any type of attack. It's been said more eloquently elsewhere, but if you're unintentionally engaged with a ready enemy during the enemy phase, your game is already heading south. characters operate by killing enemies during their turn, and if one makes it to the enemy phase, they have several contingencies to choose from: expendable allies that provide benefits from dying; counterattack events, items, or allies that kill the enemy during its own turn; or some other situational reason why you wouldn't mind taking a hit. Simply canceling the attack with a card like Shield might have some value, but it lacks the forward momentum of these other options, and is therefore the least advantageous.

On the other hand, taking an Attack of Opportunity can sometimes be a necessary evil that you incur as a cost of keeping your tempo in place. Maybe a monster spawned on you during the Mythos phase before you have a weapon out to deal with it, and you need to play that asset from your hand. Maybe you need to drag said enemy to a new location--one with a combat-ready teammate, or a clue that you'll pick up by killing the monster. Or maybe you're Trish, or you're running with Alice, and you like investigating with an enemy in your face. The point is, AoO's are incurred while you're doing something to advance the scenario, not just standing there and getting torn up. So clearly I believe Obfuscation is the superior card among those who can take it--and that's only if you're playing a specific build that will benefit from canceling attacks at all.

And how many attacks are you planning on needing to cancel, anyway? If it's 1 or 2, why bother? Use a cheaper, faster option like Dodge. And if it's 3, 4, or 5...well, Arkham Horror isn't a game that rewards a heavily defensive playstyle. Being a punching bag isn't going to win you any games.

Lastly...what about the guy whose picture is on the card? A who might be interested in protecting himself and his teammates, and who has the ready ability to add blesses to the bag? Even if this card was 0XP--or paid for with bonus starting experience--I'd still pass. Don't forget that you've spent cards and resources to put those tokens in the bag, only for them to wind up in purgatory. I greatly prefer Rite of Sanctification with Mateo, to cycle those tokens back to where they belong faster while getting some assets out for your team: weapons, spells...you know, the type of things to ensure everyone will be taking fewer attacks from enemies.

TL;DR: Leave it in the binder. 2 resources, 2 XP, an action, a card, an arcane slot, and a bunch of sealed tokens just isn't worth it to cancel a couple of attacks.

Pinchers · 115
This could be useful if there is a massive, super hard to kill boss monster around. If you’re facing an elder God in a final scenario, and it attacks triggered by random chance, being at its location, or something else you’re going to have to soak a few times… This can really help you. For ordinary ghouls and ghasts, not gonna help. But if you want to go one way while your teammates flee the other this will let you do it all scenario. — MrGoldbee · 1390
Shield of Faith also EXHAUSTS. Which is very unfortunate because it will not only in general scale poorly with investigator count, but also in the specific scenarios of "everyone is taking a big attack" or "this boss is attacking multiple times" where an effect like Shield of Faith could be great, the card unfortunately cannot perform the way one needs it to. (I'm honestly baffled by the exhausting, since it both seems unnecessary (given the setup cost and XP cost) AND plays against the team-protection theme.) — anaphysik · 94
Very good point @anaphysik. I glossed over that part and didn't notice. This card's even worse than I thought. — Pinchers · 115
Anything that seals blessings and exhausts AND auto discards itself immediately starts looking like an event for yorick, an event he can cycle endlessly, I think 2 resources for cancel 1 or 2 attacks is pretty nice in him, id take this as an upgrade to dodge if I wasn't doing spirit of humanity stuff. — Zerogrim · 284
I think this is a niche card that I probably won't use often if at all but I disagree with your main points. Comparing cards across classes doesn't work well. The other main disagreement is that you are doing something wrong if you are unintentionally engaged with an enemy during the enemy phase. Hunter enemies are quite common and this saves move actions that you need to take to deal with that enemy before it moves to your location. Taking your turn and not worrying about that Hunter enemy until next turn is really nice. Not sure if I will play it but it looks good on TFA as a possible niche use. — The Lynx · 952
If you're purposely allowing a hunter enemy to engage you during its turn so you can save actions, that isn't "unintentionally engaged". — Pinchers · 115
If I have a card like this then I am certainly saving actions. A) I don't have to move somewhere that I don't need to be B) If I have to move into that enemies location then I only have 2 actions left to fight it since I used a move action already. Avoiding attacks in the enemy phase that this card allows does have its benefits. I don't think the card is a great value though. — The Lynx · 952
Right, I'm not debating that having an enemy come to you can oftentimes be the better play. What I'm saying is that it's being done by you *intentionally*. In my opinion, though, it's better to deal with that attack through soak or counterattack, like I described above, than to invest in an expensive canceling asset like Shield of Faith. ...And I do agree with you that if there IS a place for this card, it's in TFA. It's pretty easy to get mobbed by enemies in certain scenarios, and some of them have really nasty consequences for hitting you! — Pinchers · 115
I think this is specifically good in sister Mary where health is a problem. Not taking up to 5 attacks can equal a lot of health soak, this allows you to go toe to toe with elite monsters that have a lot of health, with a good weapon and some AoE attacks you should be able to tackle anything. — kayosiii · 1
It`s great for a fighter against boss monsters and hunters. — Chiungalla · 2
It`s great for a fighter against boss monsters and hunters. You can just take your time killing that 10+ hitpoints enemy, because you will not take any damage during his turn. And you can let the hunter come to you, instead of taking a detour to get to him. And since the bless tokens are released, you will just get the benefits later. The only real questions you should ask yourself: 1.) Are there going to be enough bless tokens in the bag? 2.) Do I have an arcane slot to spare in my build. If the answer to both questions is a maybe, you are going to love this card while it is in play. Because it enables a very different approach to many situations. — Chiungalla · 2