Paranormal Investigator

pi“Paranormal Investigator, wake up. You may look at up to two cards of other players. If you see a Werewolf or the Tanner, you must stop and you become a Werewolf or the Tanner.”

From Daybreak, on Team Village

Do not reveal that you are the Paranormal Investigator. People will assume that you saw a Werewolf card and became a Werewolf even if you didn’t. Most of the time they will be correct, especially in smaller games where the chance of anyone else being a Werewolf, and therefore you seeing a Werewolf, is relatively high.

If, as the Paranormal Investigator, you do look at a Werewolf card, one strategy is to confess to being the Paranormal Investigator and that the Werewolf card you saw was actually a Minion. This will ensure the Werewolf you saw doesn’t get lynched. This can backfire massively if the Minion is identified elsewhere on the board, bringing both you and the player you claimed was a Minion under great suspicion.

One option to minimize the probability of becoming a Werewolf is to resolve to look at only one card or even no cards, rather than two. I would only do this if the cards in use in the game strongly favors Team Village (e.g. includes Seer, Aura Seer, Masons etc). If the cards are balanced (or even favor Werewolves) then would rather look at two cards even if there is a good chance of becoming a Werewolf. Gaining more information is always beneficial, and there is no inherent disadvantage in becoming a Werewolf if the initial card choice was balanced.

A common scenario is looking at one card which is on Team Village and then looking at another card which is a Werewolf. If this happens immediately claim that you were the Robber and you robbed the first Team Village card you saw, confirming what it was. The original owner of the Team Village card will corroborate your story, providing credibility that you were the Robber and took their card. This will make it difficult for the real Robber (if there is one) to contradict you.

This also works even if both cards you saw were on Team Village because even if you remained on Team Village as the P.I. you will have a difficult time convincing others of that. Its easier to claim the Robber and avoid suspicion altogether. This will only work occasionally though. If you need to use it again in a short period of time, better to quickly come clean that you were the Paranormal Investigator and saw the two Team Village cards before this information is revealed of its own accord.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

13 thoughts on “Paranormal Investigator”

  1. If a Paranormal Investigator card is switched by the Robber, Village Idiot or Troublemaker, would he still be turned into a Werewolf, would the new P.I. or neither?

    1. I’m pretty sure this is a circumstance in which a role change is permanent. Once the P.I. sees the Tanner or a werewolf that player is permanently on those teams unless the card they possess is altered by an artifact.

    2. Any team affiliation change (such as PI seeing a Werewolf or Tanner) follows the card, not the player that physically performed that action, if the card is switched. The player that has the PI in front of them at the end of the game will be either a WW or Tanner if that’s what the original PI saw. That original player is now on whatever team their new card is affiliated with.

        1. No. When the votes are tallied and a team wins/loses, the fate of the player who received the PI card depends on the honesty of the person that acted as the PI during the night phase to say what team that card is now aligned with.

          But even if the PI team realignment stayed with the person, not the card, the group would still be dependent on the honesty of that person since there are no independent witnesses (unless you have a moderator).

          But in practice, I’ve never seen this being an issue. If someone really wanted to cheat at ONUW there are far easier ways. Just peeking during the night phase is the most obvious one.

  2. If a parinormal investigator looks at a werewolf card and a village idiot moves everyone card does the role move with the paranormal Investigator.

  3. You can also claim that you are a seer and saw someone else’s card, or even a doppelseer if dopelganger is in, but that would increase your chance of lying and being caught by 50% or so…

  4. How does the PI work with the minion, Alien or Vampires? I’m assuming if he sees anybody not on his team he joins the team that he sees, so minion or vampire he would join wolf or vampire team? Or is that wrong

    1. That is correct; the ONU app changed the dialogue for the PI so that if he sees any card that isn’t on the villager team he becomes that role.

  5. I remember playing Paranormal Investigator, and I looked at my friend’s card (he was a tanner) and I immediately was like: Aw man. My least favorite.

  6. Let’s have the following scenario:
    Person A is a PI who has saw a werewolf card. Now person A is a werewolf.
    Then person B, who is a robber, still the PI card.
    On which team is now the person B?

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