Evading Monsters

Whenever an investigator encounters a Monster, the investigator has the opportunity to evade it. This will usually occur during the Movement Phase, yet sometimes it will happen as part of an Arkham Encounters Phase or Other World encounters phase.

Evade Check

When an investigator attempts to evade a monster, he makes a conscious effort to avoid being seen. This is represented by an Evade check. Elusive monsters are automatically evaded.

An Evade check is a skill check based on the investigator’s Sneak value, as adjusted by any special modifiers. This value is further modified by the monster’s awareness rating (found in the upper-right corner of the Monster marker's movement side). The difficulty of this check is always 1 unless the monster has a special ability that states otherwise. If the investigator passes the check, they have successfully evaded the monster.

Evade damage

If an investigator fails to evade or defeat a monster, the monster deals its combat damage to the investigator. The investigator now must enter Combat with the monster.

Movement Phase

When an investigator attempts to move out of a Street or Location area containing a monster, or ends his movement in such an area, he must either fight the monster or evade it.

If the investigator passes the Evade check, he evades the monster and the player may continue his turn as normal, whether continuing movement or interacting with the area. If the investigator fails the check, the monster immediately deals its combat damage to him and combat with the monster begins.

Advantages

As the game continues, there will be several monsters roaming the streets of Arkham. In order to move to a particular location, an investigator will need to evade each monster in his path. Failing to evade or choosing to fight will cause the investigator to end his movement for the turn without reaching the desired area.

An investigator may remain in the same area as a monster after evading it. He simply remains where he is and does not have to enter combat with the monster this turn. This allows an investigator to enter a Gate in the same location as evaded monsters. Such an investigator could (if able) evade the monsters during the Movement Phase, and enter the gate during the Arkham Encounter Phase.

Since monsters never move away from locations with an investigator present, an investigator will need to evade each monster at the location during each movement phase if they stay several turns to close a gate.

Multiple Monsters

If there is more than one monster in an area, the investigator must evade each monster in turn, in any order, he chooses. If he fails to evade a monster, the monster deals its combat damage to him and combat with the monster begins. If he defeats the monster, he must still fight or evade any monsters in the area that he has not yet either fought or evaded. Regardless of whether or not any further evade attempts succeed, the investigator's movement is finished as soon as he fails even one evade check.

Arkham Encounter Phase

Monsters may appear as part of an Arkham Encounter. If the encounter states that both a gate and monster appears, then the monster remains on the board following the normal rules for the Monster limit. If the encounter states that only a monster appears, the monster is returned to the Monster cup after being evaded. Encounters where only a monster appears do not affect the monster limit.

Other World Encounters Phase

Monsters appearing as part of an Other World Encounter are returned to the Monster cup if successfully evaded. They have no affect on the monster limit.