With the release of the Esoteric Investigations boxset for The Doctors it’s time to take a look at what these can do for your gang, and how to get the most from the new characters.

Hello fellow Sociopaths of Venice. We have some new Doctors and some new experiments for you to test out at night. Lewis explained what each individual Doctor adds by themselves in this post here. However as we try to explain to everyone, the Doctors are really all about synergy and creating combos of characters.

So let’s see what the new Doctors add to the Faction as a whole, and how to use them with existing characters to get the best results on the board.

Fun with Poisons

Let’s first take a look at the Doctor of Poisons. One of the non magical Doctors the Doctor of Poisons is a support character who certainly gives support.

However she isn’t a slouch in combat, don’t let the 3 attack fool you. That Poisoned Blade can make short work of enemies. The Poisoned Weapons special rule means the stronger the enemy, the more likely they are to take additional damage.  With Expert Offence she can re-roll 2 of those 3 attack dice too.

Her Command Ability also means she can give a friendly character Acrobatic(3). Engage(3) or Expert Offence(3). Acrobatic can be useful, especially since it’s a skill generally lacking in the Doctors Faction, their rooftop game is very limited. Engage is situational, however Expert Offence(3) is my personal go to with this. Keep her near a Rhino, Crocodile or Gorilla and alongside her Poison Weapon you can really hurt even the most powerful enemies. With the likes of Vlad rolling 6 Dice with the possibility of losing 8 life from one attack, then being smacked by a creature with Expert Offence (3). This is a combo to be thrown at the best fighters your opponent has. Of course the best Fighters often have the best Protection rolls too.

Thankfully the Doctors have some consistent Magic, and throw a Sunder Armour from Wild Magic on first, and watch the chaos.

We all Love Magic

The Doctors faction are the go to faction for magic, especially now. With multiple characters able to cast some form of Magic and all disciplines represented, there are some amazing combos to be found.

The first reason I say to focus on magic now is one of the new characters.

A Hero choice, with Mage (2), 3 Disciplines, and my 3 favourites too, AND Expert Sorcerer (2). And as if that wasn’t enough, he can use 2 of those disciplines, learning the cantrips of both too! This guy is one of the most potent magic users in the game. Of course it’s easy to worry over his 2 will points, but the Doctors have Madmen for that.

I don’t need to run through the magic disciplines anymore, however at a quick run through, Blood Rites is your killing things discipline, I’d suggest to always take it. Fateweaving and Wild Magic are both great disciplines but with very different uses. Healing, Gateway and Sunder Armour make Wild Magic a strong choice for all situations, while Fateweaving has many more situational spells that can make plans work, or totally ruin your opponents. Neither is a bad choice. However:

The Apprentice Doctor is a phenomenal addition to the Doctors, and if you are wondering how to best use her, I really, really suggest to apprentice her to the Doctor of the Firmament. Give her Mage (2) and the discipline the Doctor of the Firmament didn’t take. That means you have two Doctors with 4 spells and 3 cantrips between them, from 3 different disciplines.  She also has 3 Will Points to herself. This makes a very powerful magical combo, make sure whoever has Wild Magic has Healing too and this pair can stick around.

The Doctor of the Firmament also has a cool Command Ability, all characters within 3″ can gain Ethereal allowing them to walk through walls, great for getting this bubble, and any batteries, and their rechargers away.

Battery Rechargers

The final characters in the Esoteric Investigations set are of course the Hollowmen.

It’s hard to imagine a character worse than a Madman, well meet the Hollowmen. These are the results of madmen being drained to almost death. However they are fantastic for replenishing the will points of said Madmen. If you have a Magic heavy group of Doctors then give them a single Madman and a Hollowman for better efficiency. The Hollowmen are marginally better in combat too, though this simply moves them from laughably bad to just bad.

As your Madmen get drained, make sure the Hollowmen get hurt, even it it’s by using their own Frenzied rule. This means a Madman in Line of Sight can replenish Will Points.  Keep these guys close to Doctors and other Madmen too though, for once they die, and they will, they explode, replenishing 2 will points to those caught in the blast radius!

The Morgue and the Being

Also released alongside the Esoteric Investigations set was the Morgue Doctor and the Being.

The Morgue Doctor is a Mage (2) with Divinity and Fateweaving, so another Candidate for an Apprentice Doctor if you want to maximise that magic. Very much a support character, the Morgue Doctor wants to avoid combat as much as possible. His Command Ability gives Universal Shielding (4) to a decent sized bubble which is always a good skill.

The Being is a way for the Doctors to cause significant damage in combat. And alongside the protective nature of the Morgue Doctor is a force to be reckoned with. Pump this with the Doctor of Poisons Elixir too and it’s a scary prospect for any opponent.

Lists! Show me Lists!

Well, this time, I’m not. I hope this time I have been able to explain just some of the great combos possible with new characters because that is how The Doctors work. It’s never about individuals, always how they synergise with other characters.

I’ll relent to give you one, big game list though. This is 150 Ducats, so only for the big games, however this has every combo I’ve suggested in this article and is a list of real power.

Chris’s 150 Ducat Doctors List

Leader:

• Plague Doctor.

Heroes:

• Morgue Doctor
• The Being
• Doctor of the Firmament
• Doctor of Poisons
• Alchemist Doctor

Henchmen:

• Apprentice Doctor
• 3x Madmen
• 2 x Hollowmen

Equipment:

• Poison
• Flashbang Grenade

This list has multiple combos of characters that can be chained together at times to create some devastating effects, however if you lose sight of those combos and synergies the list falls apart, as does any Doctor gang.

Conclusion

I genuinely think this is a set that changes the game for Doctors players. Always strong in magic this boxset makes The Doctors the top Magic faction in the game. Plan well you have unlimited will points and a wide range of spells. With The Doctors already significant firepower and melee combat now available the Doctors can truly dominate the street level game.

If you haven’t got your Esoteric Investigations set yet, or this has made you want to start a Doctors Gang, then take a look at our webstore for the full range.

I’ll be back with a Tactical Look at the new Vatican forces later in the week, in the meantime, let us know what you think of the new Doctors characters, even if you completely disagree with my thoughts! Science needs discussion to move forward after all, whatever the cost.