Submission: Financial Auditor

Name: Financial Auditor
Cardtype: Ally
Cost: 2 pool
Capacity: NA
Discipline: NA
Clan: see text
Mortal with 1 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed.
Requires a Giovanni or a Camarilla vampire. Your master phase actions to remove a counter from investment cards are a trifle. +1 stealth

Flavor text: "Fraud is not an acceptable accounting practice." -C. R. Vance, Jr.

Art Notes: A labtop, tax returns, a pen, paper and a calculator on sitting on a table.

World of Darkness reference: Whether it is patent trolls pursuing intellectual property protection or the Technocracy investigation using the Men in Black. All it takes is one tax violation to create real problems. Vampires are particularly vulnerable to auditors since in many cases they have been dead for many years and survive with foraged documentation. A zealous Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent questioning documentation risks a possible endangerment to the Masquerade while paralyzing resources and influence. This method to deal with competition has been used by both the Giovanni and Camarilla Elders to deal with competition and rivals. The other advantage of Financial Auditors is that they know the loop holes to clear red tape preventing access to financial resources. The original inspiration of this card came from the vampire stories that hide behind mortal investors, lawyers, accountants and money launderers to hide their activities. The Financial Auditor is just the offensive version.

How does this card address a compelling game need?: This card helps to make investment cards viable by making the collection of counters a trifle. In addition, the Camarilla as whole has very little Ally options that aren't combat focused. Rafastio Ghoul is the only non-unique Ally that all Camarilla can play that has an innate +1 bleed (and he has no requirements at all). Thematically an Ally that can bleed a prey makes a great deal of sense for vampires that don't want to directly attack their opponent. In fact intercept and rush decks might find this an effective method to oust a prey. My first deck concept for this card is to be used by Nosferatu, however I didn't want to make it exclusive to only one clan as it makes perfect sense for Toreador, Ventrue, and Brujah as they have presence cards that would be quite effective if they had a viable Ally deck option.

Created by: Justin Lacey

Update October 9th

Financial Auditor

3
Mortal with 1 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed.
Requires a Giovanni or a Camarilla vampire. Your master phase actions to remove a counter from investment cards are a trifle. As a +1 stealth action look at a Methuselah's hand and you may discard a card that can increase a bleed or changes the target of a bleed.
Fraud is not an acceptable accounting practice. -C. R. Vance, Jr.

Update October 25th

Financial Auditor

3
Mortal with 1 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed.
Requires a Giovanni or a Camarilla vampire. Your master phase actions to remove a counter from investment cards are trifle. Auditor may look at another Methuselah's hand and discard one minion card that can increase a bleed or change the target of a bleed (if any) as a +1 stealth action.
Fraud is not an acceptable accounting practice. -C. R. Vance, Jr.

An ally with 1 bleed and +1 stealth is really strong. I would remove the clan/sect requirement and remove the +1 stealth. I would give it "monsters have -1 intercept while Financial Auditor is acting." or give it something like "Burn Financial Auditor to reduce a bleed against you by 2."

I know +1 stealth and 1 bleed is really powerful and have been considering increasing the cost to 3 pool. The clan requirement was mostly thematic but the sect requirement was intentional. A Sabbat vampire would never use a Financial Auditor. In comparison the Camarilla doesn't really have much in the way of sect specific Allies, unlike the Sabbat. I could drop the trifle for investment cards since it effects such a small range of cards and replace it with your suggestion of a bleed reduction effect. I would like to see another way to reduce bleed that isn't a card.

What I am thinking about doing is...

Financial Auditor

3
Mortal with 2 life. 0 strength, 1 bleed.
Requires a Camarilla vampire. Burn Financial Auditor to reduce a bleed against you by 2. +1 stealth.

This increases the cost by 1 pool, increases the life by 1, drops the requirement option, and replaces the investment card effect text with a burn effect that reduces a bleed. I do like this a little better. It gives your opponents an extra incentive to steal, rush down or block your Auditors.

What do you think?

The investement support should definitely not drop. In fact I'd say you dont have to take it into consideration in pricing. The power of the ability is so very minor.

Investments for sure need all the help and a statement that they're in fact a thing.

Whatever you do, do not drop it, is my suggestion. That is The thing keeping the card afloat thematically.

I dont mind the giovanni addition either. Its thematic and adds to the uses. Sure, a stealtj bleed minion in giovanni might be strong, but the thing is you have to consider the uniqueness more in Giovanni

I may have found a solution. Basically, I focused on how auditor's are suppose to work and the goal is to make the card more thematic.

Financial Auditor

3
Mortal with 2 life. 0 strength, 0 bleed.
Requires a Giovanni or a Camarilla vampire. Your master phase actions to remove a counter from investment cards are a trifle. +1 stealth action reveal a Methuselah's hand and you may discard a card that can increase bleed or changes the target of a bleed.
Fraud is not an acceptable accounting practice. -C. R. Vance, Jr.

Better?

Lovely. For theme I'd do 1 life 1 bleed, since it's just a mortal (not a gang or hunter), and dealing with finances collaborates easily with bleed amount. Without the stealth 1 bleed shouldn't be problem.

3 pool might be too much for her to be viable but play testing should tell that.

Lovely.

Crausedit\\ Did another second of thinking and surely the effect is so hilariously strong that 3 pool is more than fine. At 2 it would be too good.

Reveal a hand or look at the hand? Open information or just for you?