Sage

Information

Type	Townsfolk
Artist	John Grist
Revealed	04/07/2020

"It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick."

Summary

"Each night, choose a player: a Minion, if chosen, learns this. All chosen Minions have no ability."

The Preacher removes the Minion abilities of selected players.

How to Run

Each night, wake the Preacher and have them choose a player. If they choose a Minion, put a “No Ability” reminder token next to that Minion. Put the Preacher to sleep. If applicable, wake the Minion the Preacher chose tonight, show them the “this character selected you” card and the Preacher token. Put the Minion back to sleep.

From now on, that Minion has no ability. If they would normally wake at night to make a choice, take an action or learn information due to their ability, they no longer do so. If their ability would otherwise have an effect on the game while they are marked by the "No Ability" token, it does not.

If the Preacher dies, remove all “No Ability” tokens from affected Minions. The Minions regain their abilities. Minions with expended once-per-game abilities do not gain another use of that ability. Affected Minions are not told that the Preacher is dead, but may be able to figure it out when they start waking up again etc.

If a Preacher is made drunk or poisoned, Minions who have lost their abilities to the Preacher regain them, but lose them again when the Preacher becomes healthy and sober.

If a Minion who has been chosen by the Preacher later becomes a different type of character (ie not a Minion), they are no longer affected by the Preacher’s ability. Remove the relevant “No Ability” reminder token. Also, evil players are not affected by the Preacher ability just because they’re evil, they need to be explicitly a Minion character in order to be affected.

In a similar vein, a non-Minion who later becomes a Minion is not affected by having been chosen by the Preacher before they became a Minion. If the Preacher chooses them after they become a Minion, the Preacher ability works as normal.

If a preached Minion dies and is resurrected they do not regain their ability, they are still preached provided the Preacher is still alive.

Examples

Alex is the Preacher. On the first night, the Preacher chooses the Fearmonger. The Fearmonger loses their ability and learns that they have been chosen by the Preacher. On the second night, the Preacher chooses the Slayer. Nothing happens because the Slayer is not a Minion. On the third night, the Preacher chooses the Po. Nothing happens because the Po is not a Minion. On the fourth night, the Preacher chooses the Poisoner. The Poisoner loses their ability and learns that they have been chosen by the Preacher.

The Preacher has previously chosen the Spy, the Saint, the Drunk, and the Goblin. The Spy and the Goblin have no ability, so the Spy doesn't see the Grimoire each night, and the Goblin cannot win by being executed. The Preacher becomes drunk. The Spy and the Goblin regain their abilities. The Spy sees the Grimoire that night, and the Goblin will win if executed. The Preacher becomes sober, so once again the Spy and Goblin have no abilities. The Spy dies. The Preacher dies. The Goblin gets their ability back, but the Spy does not, because the Spy is dead.

Tips & Tricks

• The Preacher’s ability can turn Minion abilities off. They learn this but will get it back as soon as you’re dead. While you don’t know whether you’ve successfully hit a Minion or not, watch your targets carefully the next day and see if their behaviour changes. If they do, and they suddenly seem more enthusiastic for executions, then you’ve probably got a Minion.

• Be careful about revealing that you are the Preacher! Your ability is a thorn in the side of the evil team, defusing their Boomdandy or outsmarting their Mezepheles. Even just the threat of taking a minion's ability away could unravel the evil team's elaborate plan, and thus make you a priority for death. Try to bluff as a more innocuous Townsfolk, or even an Outsider like the Butler or the Barber!

• If a player is acting suspicious and they’re keeping to themselves, that’s a good target for you. While both good and evil players have reasons for trying not to be noticed, you have no effect on good players who aren’t actually Minions just trying to keep out of sight. You have nothing to lose for taking the shot in the dark!

• On the first day, listen carefully for people who are making public claims. Remember that Minions do not get bluffs and tend to be the last to come out publicly. The players who get embroiled in double claims or only come out later into the game are very good targets for your ability.

• If you have to pick between two potential Minions, pick the one doing the most ongoing damage. Hitting an Assassin after they've already killed doesn't really achieve too much for your team, but a Widow losing their ability has still seen the Grimoire, but will lose their ability to poison. A Pit-Hag would be a even more urgent priority again!

• Once you're dead, coming out is important if you suspect you've disabled some minions - now that you're dead, those abilities are back online now and a threat to your town!

• The Preacher can target dead players! While this may not be helpful most of the time, this does make you a surprise counter to the Vigormortis and an evil aligned Bone Collector. Some future Minions may even keep their abilities while dead - not that this keeps them safe from you!

Bluffing as the Preacher

When bluffing as the Preacher, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Bluffing as the Preacher can be a little tricky, because even a real Preacher doesn’t have much feedback in the game to back up their claims. However, you can use your pretend ability to throw a little bit of shade on other players or build trust.

• To lend credibility to your bluff, you can coordinate with the evil team to make a minion ability disappear! Just use a minion ability that has a public tell (like the Witch or Cerenovus), and then mask that ability by picking evil players for a time instead. You can then lay the blame for the lack of Witch deaths or madness at the feed of whatever poor innocent good player you please, claiming that since you "preached" them, that ability has vanished!

• Be cautious of who you accuse to be a minion! If the town believes you, they won't consider that person a demon target, and since you have neutralised them, they might prefer to go around executing unknowns as opposed to the good players you're tarring with your accusations! (Of course, if you suspect they're going to do this, you can always deliberately throw shade on your Demon - the town will dismiss them as an insignificant Minion and leave them alone for another day!)

• If someone’s behaviour dramatically changes from one night to the next, you can suggest that the change in their behaviour is because you’re the Preacher and you chose them last night. This implies that they’re suddenly acting differently because they’re just learned they have no ability.

• You can try to use your ability to build trust. You can go secretly up to a good player and confide to them that you used your Preacher ability on them last night. You can go on to suggest that because they don’t seem to be acting very differently, you trust them more because they’re probably not a Minion (obviously you know they aren’t, but they don’t know that). This has a similar impact to a Butler bluff - alone a Preacher doesn't have any way of confirming the people they choose, but just the act of being chosen and "cleared" can inspire trust in the other player.

• If your bluff is falling apart, you can claim to have been the Preacher all along as a fallback. The Preacher is a prime target for the evil team if they come out, so it will make sense that you lied. This can serve as a last-ditch effort to survive execution as well, since you can warn that minions will regain their powers without you!

• Deliberately die at night and come out as a Preacher to throw shade on some good players! You can have the demon kill you, or you can star-pass yourself if you're a demon like the Fang Gu for example. A Preacher dying at night has a lot more credibility than one who is executed.

• Once you are dead, you can really sell that you're the real, bonafide Preacher if you have a minion accomplice still alive. Simply have them mask their ability's existence until you're dead, and then go to town causing trouble in a public way (e.g. An Assassin kill or a Devil's Advocate execution block). Point out that you died just after you picked a certain player, and now the minions are running rampant! It's tricky, but pull it off and the town will not only be sad you died, but furious with the patsy you have named the minion!