The Skinsaw Man Dilemma

My Barbarian is running into some trouble during solo play; and I would imagine other classes will have trouble too. The Skinsaw Murders is the second adventure deck in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. This particular villain spawns during the 'Foul Misgivings' scenario.

This encounter will test your ability to manage haunts- which if you accumulate too many plus a D6 roll- can spawn Iesha Foxglove. If you don't deal with the haunts before The Skinsaw Man- they add one difficulty point to checks. Painful.

The language on the card indicates to me that this adventure was meant to be tackled with more than one player. Because everyone in my playgroup is back in the 1st adventure deck- they can't join me until they catch up. Having multiple characters encountering Haunts mitigates their penalties. Assuming you deal with the haunts solo- you are left with the task of axing the Skinsaw Man.

Let's work on some math for solo play. It's all in probabilities.

'BOG' is shorthand for a blessing called 'Blessing of the Gods'. My Barbarian has an innate attack value of d12. Assuming the Skinsaw Man gets his D4 difficulty buff, I have a 100% chance of failure if I attack him without a weapon.

If I play a weapon that adds +1d8 and I have a value of +4 strength- I still have a 75% chance of failure. This doesn't bode well- especially if you have any haunts left attached to you.

Now if I played a Blessing of the Gods with the above conditions, the chance of defeating him, assuming no haunts- is around 50%. That's quite a lineup you have to work on- getting a BOG and your weapon in hand to do this.

If you add a friendly character however, things are a lot easier as you can see. Solo, my only option is to beat him down with a BOG combo, and then I have to face him AGAIN. Since my Barbarian has a low intelligence of D4- I have trouble closing other locations. This means that I have to face him a couple of times- and already it seems like I should wait for my friends to catch up.

If only the snow storms would stop delaying our weekends. Sheesh.