Roland Banks, Sandford Citizen (The Circle Undone)

Roland Banks wants to punch out enemies, but also offer comfort thanks to Logical Reasoning and aid with First Aid. He helps his fellow investigators succeed through Deduction, Inquiring Mind, or Leadership all of which he can commit to another's skill check if he's close by. He has some ability to pick up clues but often he'll use them with Dr. William T. Maleson to defer difficult encounters. He can help clear out a location thanks to Evidence!. Physical Training can help him deal with horror especially as a campaign progresses where risks suffering mental trauma right down to a 3 horror stat line making him vulnerable to being killed outright (that is, Roland's horror is the most important stat to protect unless he's working with an investigator that can remove horror). His 9/5 health line means he can trade blows in the enemy phase to compress the actions needed to punch out an enemy, rather than evade, as long as they don't deal out much or any horror. He's very likely to land skill checked damage when he commits cards given his 4 combat, plus his .45 Automatic and Machete up his combat skill and deal extra damage. Combined with Beat Cop for a free hit, he can clear out 3 health enemies in a single action and very likely any such enemy in a single turn. Roland's a complement to vulnerable or semi-certainty cluevers like this Jenny Barnes, Sandford Citizen. He can help them succeed, help clear out a location, as well as punch out enemies. Economy can be a challenge with this deck, mulliganing for an Emergency Cache can help, as can making situational decisions on whether to commit cards to skill checks versus keeping them back for their effect. I found myself learning to look at the total card cost in my hand as well as what the cards did. This also means tuning how to use Mr. "Rook", as you may want to draw the most cost efficient or skill bumping card, and not just the most powerful effect card, all aside from the idea of playing Mr. "Rook" as the first action rather than a next turn polyfill. Because Roland of Sandford can help in general, and isn't just a damage dealing Guardian, he's designed to be fun to play collaboratively where you plan out the overall round with other investigators. There should be be a bit more to a game than acting as a tank while others progress the Act, and ideally this is a build will drive some table talk in the investigator phase.

In the The Circle Undone, the ability to +1 a parley with Physical Training can be useful, so you'll want to pay to get that into play rather than commit it to a skill check. Logical Reasoning allows him to commit to a skill check. Inquiring Mind provides , and Unexpected Courage provides , both of which also pay into willpower checks for this campaign as they are needed, aside from making damage a sure thing. While Dr. William T. Maleson's ability isn't on the level of a Mystic that can discard cards, it can help make space in a campaign that has tricky encounter draws you might not want to deal with right now in this mythos phase. And again, because Roland of Sandford has some clueing as well as general ability, he should be robust enough to handle how the campaign sometimes isolates investigators.