I've suffered this in Normal mode during TSK campaign. This thing can deal you 5 horror easily if you aren't prepared.

How do you prepare to this? This are the thing I used to mitigate the sheer brutality of this card.

• Just run a lot of card draw. The sooner you pull this out your deck, the better. Yes, it can deal you1-3 horror from the get-go, but 1-3 horror is better than 5 in later stages of a scenario. You know, there is a chance you pull Aetheric Current before Failed Experiment to get you out of a fishy situation where you have 5 clues distributed among your cards.

• Horror healing: Steady Hand with the Science card kit is a must. Period. If you pull Failed Experiment, healing 1 each turn will keep you afloat. Logical Reasoning is also good for this, giving you 2 willpower icons if you want to try and pass the Willpower test.

• Horror soak: Allies in Seeker usually run higher horror soak. Medical Student is even a Science ally. Ravenous Myconid: Nurturing Strain will minimize the risk of dying from this to the bare minimum.

• Eureka to fish Aetheric Current / Failed Experiment earlier from your deck. Well Funded and Inquiring Mind to get free 3 wild icons because of the nature of the assets you'll run with Kate.

• Hawk-Eye Folding Camera to get +1 willpower and +1 sanity.

• Put clues in assets. BE CAREFUL ABOUT THIS, BECAUSE AN AUTOFAIL WILL PUNISH YOU HARD. Like I went 7 vs 5 to avoid massive damage and I ate 5 horror because of this. Even then, sometimes it is worth the risk.

You NEED to use Flux Stabilizer to get to the numbers, because Kate has only 4 intellect and 4 agility. Asume this will deal you at least 3 horror in every scenario and prepare for the worst. Let your Guardian (Carolyn, anyone with Girish Kadakia, for example) do something about this.

In harder modes this can be worse, but even then, pulling this weakness earlier is the best option you have to avoid a massive punishment in later stages of a scenario.

-

Now that Rod of Carnamagos has been ruled to act like a stick-shaped Olive McBride, here are some cards that interact with it. I've grouped them by what type of chaos bag you want, as the token distribution will affect the probability of revealing the token you want. If you're doing only or no-/, you don't need the upgraded version (though the Level 0 is only 1 per deck).

I'm not including interactions that are obviously bad, like Shrivelling.

bag

• Armageddon, Eye of Chaos, Shroud of Shadows: Perfect synergy with the Rod, and as a bonus you actually use the Rod for what it was originally intended for.
• Curse of Aeons: Yes this card sucks, but there is a niche case where you’re fishing for a in a heavy deck to activate a -specific card effect. Note you don’t remove the tokens until the end of the test so they can still come back to bite you in Step 3.
• Prismatic Spectacles
• Control Variable
• Fey: Use Rod on the first free trigger window before Step 2 when you commit skill cards. If a is revealed, you know that retrieving this card is guaranteed.

bag

• .35 Winchester: Works best with Jim Culver as will also trigger the bonus damage.
• Blessing of Isis: Useless as the conversion happens during the trigger window where it does nothing.
• Jacob Morrison
• Beloved: Like Fey, use Rod on the free trigger window before Step 2 to see if a is revealed to guarantee the auto-succeed if you commit.
• Guided by Faith
• Blessed Blade (level 0 version)
• Miracle Wish

Non-/ bag as those tokens dilute the chance of pulling other tokens these cards want

• Song of the Dead
• Jim's Trumpet
• Shards of the Void: The Rod allows you to get both bonuses from the spell with the same token, as you seal a 0 token in the free trigger window for +1 damage, which results in a +2 bonus during Step 3.
• Sixth Sense
• Wither

/ bag

• Jewel of Aureolus
• Ritual Candles: As per the FAQ, this triggers EVERY time a symbol is revealed during the test since it doesn't exhaust. You can stack bonuses during the Rod reveal because each revealed symbol nets you a +1 to the Step 3 skill test while their (usually negative) modifiers don't apply. (Edit: This interaction is probably the most busted on this list. You can stack massive bonuses with two candles in hand. Expect this to be nerfed somehow on the next Taboo list.)
• Spectral Razor, Read the Signs, Ethereal Form
• Banish: The bonus effect is sort of meh though.
• Tristan Botley
• Eye of the Djinn
• "Lucky" Penny: Sort of a funky interaction as it doesn't exhaust. That means it triggers during the Rod reveal and again during Step 3. Depending on your reveal and coin flips, you might pull a bunch of cards with this.
• Living Ink with Macabre Description upgrade
• Seal of the Elders: Also works with either servant
• (added) Token of Faith: Note that it's not Blessed so Kōhaku can't take it
• Broken Diadem: (edited) Good for summoning Twilight Diadem but once you have it, that card's ability to proc an is useless during the trigger window.
• Wish Eater: Useless as the /// token has no intrinsic effect so why cancel it, unless you REALLY need that healing effect.

Other interactions

• Premonition: Great synergy with the Rod. If you pull an or something else you want, don't trigger the Rod. If you pull a or something else you don't want, trigger the Rod to "dump" it so it doesn't mess up your Step 3 token pull.
• Prescient: Also great synergy. You can count the tokens to see which type you have most of before guessing (though this will probably be "symbol" in most cases).
• Recall the Future: Not as good synergy as you need to specify a specific token. Unlike a skill card, you must activate this at the beginning of the skill test, so you can't cheat and use the first free trigger window to see what tokens you pull first.
• Unrelenting: You can use this to seal tokens you don't want revealed before triggering the Rod.
• The Rod won't help Sacred Covenant and Paradoxical Covenant as they only trigger during Step 3 (good thing as Paradoxical would be sort of busted otherwise).
• Blasphemous Covenant, False Covenant, and Ancient Covenant: Works but useless. .35 Winchester might be an exception for Blasphemous—if every token you pull with the Rod is negative but you pull a , trigger the Covenant to make it non-negative, thereby guaranteeing the extra damage if you hit.

As a reminder, revealed tokens from the Rod only trigger card effects. They have no intrinsic effects on their own, so revealing 2 tokens with the Rod won't screw you over (and actually helps you for symbol-triggering card effects).

The combination of the above ruling that EACH token revealed gives a +1 bonus and the ruling that the 5 tokens revealed when Rod of Carnamagos is activated counts as "during a test" is a bonkers combination. Any symbols during that 5 token reveal triggers the +1 bonus WITHOUT applying their (usually negative) modifier since the reveal is only relevant for the Rod's effects. You're getting potentially multiple +1 modifiers "for free" (+2 if you double-wield candles by slotting your Rod into Occult Reliquary) before doing the actual test in Step 3.

You do need a non-Elite target to make this work, but that shouldn't be a problem in most scenarios. Extra points if you manage to Abyssal Rot some hapless monster, rendering it harmless for the remainder of the scenario while allowing you to abuse the Rod on it over and over.

This is a good card, but not as good as some suggest.

A lot of players favorably compare Diabolical Luck to Fey. It's also sometimes referred to as "cursed Lucky!. Both analogies fall a little short.

Note that the value proposition of Fey is that it returns to hand if a Curse is revealed. If you're using Scrying Mirror, Premonition, Favor of the Moon, or other manipulation tactics though, the reactive benefit of this card is moot while the return to hand advantage of Fey is tremendous.

Meanwhile, while the reactive element of this card makes it valuable as a splash card to sort of toss into a deck that uses Curses, in much the way players toss in Lucky! simply for being good stuff without feeling obligated to build around it, it's worth noting that this card isn't nearly as reactive as Lucky!. You know for sure when you play Lucky! that it's going to pass the test for you, whereas this one can wind up being played to no consequence because you chain into more curses, or into the autofail, or into a token that would have let you pass the test anyway.

In short, this card is very good. It is not strictly better than Fey and is not as good as Lucky!. It definitely relegates Skeptic to bicycle spoke status though.

Just adding an email ruling from FFG Game Rules Specialist pertinent to Rod.

Question:

Hello,

A question about multiple tokens in Arkham Horror.

Suppose I have a Rod of Carnamagos and a Seal of the Elder Sign.

If I use Rod before Step 2 of a skill test (and reveal say 5 non-special tokens), and then commit Seal of the Elder Sign in Step 2, from the FAQ entry of how "cards that refer to single tokens being revealed should be considered to refer to each revealed tokens", my read is that the game treats all 5 tokens that I revealed as stars.

Then, since I have Seal of the Elder Sign committed, I don't reveal a token during Step 3 as I'm automatically successful. Do I get the effects of 5 star tokens?

thanks!

Answer:

No, Seal of the Elder Sign does not treat tokens revealed via Rod of Carnamagos as elder signs. You resolve their abilities separate from one another.

If you trigger Rod of Carnamagos during a skill test, you do not resolve the effects of the tokens it reveals, except for its own ability of checking for a curse token and any abilities that state “if you reveal _ during a skill test…” (like Armageddon’s ability).

After you finish resolving Rod’s ability, you continue with the other steps of the skill test, and you would skip revealing tokens during Step 3 with Seal of the Elder Sign, instead resolving the test as if you’d drawn an elder sign token.

The most pertinent part being the essentially explicit implication that tokens revealed outside of Step 3 during a skill test don't apply to skill value, don't resolve funky effects, etc unless it's an effect based on being "revealed".

Happy Rod+Candles-ing!