Norman Withers: Forgotten constellations

Decided To use the Replacement Noman Withers that I have for my first run trough The Forgotten Age, as always deckbuilding is restricted to what I own.

-0XP Deck Setup-

Alyssa Graham- She provides a decent sanity buffer in addition to the +1 intellect, however the main reason I went with her was to try to combo her with Split the Angle.

Delve Too Deep- Hopefully we can get some extra XP early on. it can be replaced for whatever is needed later.

Emergency Cache- Provides additional resources for the more expensive assets, you can always upgrade it if you have a couple XP to spare.

Guts- You can use it for treacheries as well as spells (once you get them), you can always upgrade it if you have a couple XP to spare.

Hyperawareness- It's in here to get upgraded into Arcane Studies, you might have to get the cheaper one first though.

"I've got a plan!"- It's an attack that uses your best stat, with that said you probably want to hold on to it for when you can get the +3DMG. Most likely will not be upgraded out, because it will save you a use from a attack spell.

Magnifying Glass- 1 off that uses a hand slot, it's providing a additional +1 Intellect for investigations, you can always upgrade it for something else later.

Medical Texts- the main item that's going to take up a hand slot, provides a consistent source for healing dmg since you have a very high intellect.

Mind over Matter- Similar to "I've got a plan!", its providing us with an alternative way of dealing dmg to enemies without using spell charges.

Shortcut- Provides action compression for movement, probably wont be upgraded out.

Thermos- A alternative source of healing, its expensive for only 3 uses, but provides coverage for both DMG and horror. Also it becomes more efficient later in the campaign if you take a couple of physical or mental trauma.

Tooth of Eztli- It provides some extra protection from the encounter deck in the first few scenarios, but its main purpose is to be upgraded into either Crystalline Elder Sign if you want the raw stats, or Jewel of Aureolus if you would prefer to have a stronger resource engine. If you upgrade into Crystalline Elder Sign your going to want to use Azure Flame as your main DMG spell, as sealing the elder sign or +1 will reduce the chances of incurring the negative effects of Azure Flame.

Trench Coat- You'll almost never use it for its printed text, but the 2 health buffer is nice. It's in the deck in order to be upgraded into Robes of Endless Night. This can easily be replaced with another card for the purposes of building a Lv0 Deck but I'm leaving it in the build, just so my slot uses are well defined. It does combo well with Hyperawareness though, in the unlikely event that happens.

Unexpected Courage- Commit it to a test if you need it, use them to upgrade into the first set of spells you need.

Voice of Ra- 1 off, you play it hoping it ends up being better than Emergency Cache, if you feel comfortable with the amount of resources you have you can upgrade it into something else. This card can be swapped out with another lv 0 mystic card if you feel like you don't need the resources when building the initial deck.

Working a Hunch- pay 2 get a clue, if you feel confident in your clue gathering abilities you can upgrade them into something else. Just keep in mind that you might be losing some action compression.

Split the Angle- The (replacement) signature. If Alyssa Graham is in play you can exhaust her to check the top of the encounter deck instead of using the action trigger on split the angle, then you exhaust split the angle if you don't want to deal with it.

Vengeful Hound- Signature (replacement) weakness.

Random Basic Weakness- ???

-Upgrade Paths-

-Primary Upgrades A.K.A. "The Build"-

First and foremost you're going to want to pick up some arcane slot spells, however in order to decide which spells Norman will want to run you first have to decide on another upgrade choice. That being what are you going to upgrade Tooth of Eztli into. First ill present the path that I'm not going for i.e. Jewel of Aureolus.

Jewel of Aureolus- Upgrading into this card is going to provide a consistent engine as a single card that can provide both card draw and Resource gain. The Spell we would then pick to go along with this upgrade path is the classic Shrivelling. The reasoning for this being that the negative effects incurred by shrivelling threatens your sanity which Norman has more of to spare, also because Jewel of Aureolus triggers on the same tokens as the negative effects of Shrivelling you know that you're going to get a kickback of resources or card draw that is going to facilitate in the mitigation of Shrivelling's negative effects. This enables you to upgrade out Emergency Cache into Moment of Respite, without having to worry as much for consistent resource gain. Going this path also means that you can more readily replace Voice of Ra with another Lv.0 card during the initial deckbuilding process.

This Upgrade path is slightly safer and more consistent, as it provides additional card draw which the deck is lacking. It also puts more strain on Normans sanity as opposed to his Health which would be the case if you choose to upgrade into Crystalline Elder Sign (which is the path ill be going for my playthrough) and subsequently use the Azure Flame spell which threatens health. This means that Norman will have a Larger Margin of error to play with and is less likely to accidentally self-destruct due to a bad token pull while fighting off enemies. This upgrade path is going to cost 12 XP to upgrade in to Jewel of Aureolus and the mid level Shrivelling, if you want to have the the additional safety from Moment of Respite that's going to be +6XP bringing the total to 18XP. And if you want to go for the Max level Shrivelling that's going to be another 4 XP.

Crystalline Elder Sign- So This is the build; Since Crystalline Elder Sign Seals the Elder Sign token or the +1 token, we are going to use this to our advantage and use Azure Flame as our main spell. Since The negative effects are incurred on a token pull of "Elder Sign", "+1", or "0" we are effectively reducing the chances of incurring the negative effects, while simultaneously increasing our stat line which allows us to deal with a larger portion of the token bag without having to commit cards. Add a Relic Hunter on top of this (not needed for expert difficulty) and you will only be incurring the negative effects of Azure flames on a pull of "0" ( there is an extra "+1" on easy difficulty" lets ignore that). the main downside to this is that Azure Flames threatens your health which is a bit more precious, but with a bit more XP we can mitigate the chances of a self-destruct almost if not completely (depending on Difficulty). you can choose to swap out either "I've got a plan!" or Mind over Matter for Shards of the Void, This seals away another token that could cost you health when using azure flame.

This upgrade path is more aggressive while simultaneously reducing the chance of incurring the negative effects while using your spells; and on top of that, you get a +2 across your stat line. the down sides to this build is that with minimal card draw it is a very demanding build to pull off. Similarly this upgrade path is going to cost +12 for the 2 Accessories and spells, +3 for a copy of Relic Hunter brings you to 15XP. You can get away with 1 copy of Shards of the Void for 18XP but if you want the consistency that's 21XP. and if you want Max LV Azure Flame that's another +4XP.

-Secondary Upgrades A.K.A. Upgrades to facilitate "The Build"-

Upgrading Hyperawareness into Arcane Studies saves you recourses over the source of a scenario.

Upgrading Magnifying Glass into Book of Shadows allows you to keep your spells going once you have them up.

Upgrading Guts into Guts provides you with much needed card draw and its one of the cheaper inclusions.

Upgrading Trench Coat into Robes of Endless Night provides you with the ability to play a spell even if an enemy is on you which is a situation that comes up surprisingly often.

Upgrading Emergency Cache into Sacrifice provides you with some much needed versatility between card draw and resource gain.

-Tertiary Upgrades A.K.A. How do you have this much XP-

If somehow you made it this far Swap out Delve Too Deep for Seal of the Seventh Sign Only do this if you get your hands on a Book of Shadows, if you didn't make it this far you can swap out Delve Too Deep for one of the secondary upgrades mentioned above.

The core of the build is between 21-25XP

A full set of secondary upgrades is 24XP

and a set of Seal of the Seventh Sign is another 10XP

bringing the total XP cost is almost 60XP

Just hope you pull delve too deep often.