Jim's Swansong (SA)

Standalone Jimmy build with Grotesque Statues

I wanted to try and make Jim work in a campaign, but he can only shine with some experience so I decided to make a standalone build to work backwards from. Still pretty hard to see preferring him over Agnes, but in the name of experimentation:

Jim wants to draw skulls, so the first thing to grab is a couple of Grotesque Statues to maximize that probability. Then we need to include the only cards that reward drawing a skull (so far, i.e. through the Carcosa box): Song of the Dead and Hypnotic Gaze. Those includes nudge us toward a combatant role, so I leaned into it with Blinding Light and, in lieu of Book of Shadows for the same experience, level 3 Shriveling. I'd rather throw down a new spell with 4-5 charges than recharge, and we don't need a third slot for a Scrying and a combat spell. Scrying and Ward of Protection are there (aside from being generally good) because in early campaign scenarios I would seriously run Delve Too Deep to expedite the necessary experience gain, and Scrying first seems socially responsible. Replace the Delves with Drawn to the Flame.

I'm using "Look what I found!" in lieu of Perception to pull a little more investigative wait. At base 3 he ought to be able to snag a few off easier locations, and Look! helps with the more difficult ones, especially paired with a statue: In a pinch you ought to be able to orchestrate failing by 1-2 to trigger it.

Rounding out the rest of the splash is Guard Dog as an ally. I've really liked Jim with Guard Dogs; he feels a little clunky, and dragging enemies around with dogs out while he sets up gives him a health buffer that he kind of needs while helping take care of early enemies. Switchblade was cut in favor of the new Spirit dagger that has greater synergy.

Possible changes: Arcane Initiate is notably missing and there are 12 spells to dig for. Seems wrong, but I don't like the combined doom from the initiate and Blood Pact. Moreover, aside from free card draw being generally good I rarely feel like I need to dig for a particular spell. That's probably the most confusing thing about Jim -- if I'm relieved to draw a Shriveling and don't feel compelled to dig for Song of the Dead, why aren't I just playing Agnes? Anyway, I wouldn't take the dogs out but might try adding Charisma and running both sets of allies, or perhaps adding a single copy. Another possible change would be including Rite of Seeking if he needed to be more of a clue hunter, but at that point he'd also need a Book of Shadows.

All in all different and fun, yet a little frustrating. Curious about others' success stories with Jim and looking forward to him becoming more effective.