1. Steal Life - It states "Cast and exhuast to gain +3 to Combat checks until the end of this combat. For every success you roll, gain 1 Stamina." Do this mean one stamina for each success rolled when rolling the spell check, or when rolling the combat check?

2. Summon Monsters - It says "Cast and exhaust to draw a monster from the cup and place it in your current location." Why would you want to do this? Just for the very rare instance that you want a monster trophy and there are not enough monsters on the board to fight?

My assumption is that if "stealing life" is also an attack, then the stamina you gain should be the successes you make on the combat check. This is not an official answer however.


Uh, yep you got it. This is a rare-use item indeed.
Maybe you're close to having enough to cash in for clues or a blessing or to be Deputized. Maybe you want to use Call Ancient One and you need another trophy. Maybe you need trophies to pass your personal story. Maybe a battle Shub is right around the corner, or you're too afraid to enter Yuggoth without any trophies because you have the yellow/blue Dark Pharaoh card in the gate deck.

Unless I can reliably draw Mi-go's

If you are one toughness short and in range of a location that allows monster cash in, you can both get to the location AND get a guaranteed one toughness for the five or ten or whatever you need to cash in. This is one of the only ways in the game to get a monster fight to happen in a stable location, which can be pretty sweet. Yes, you may draw a monster that tears you a new one and then tears that new one a new one, but you also may draw a maniac. Just my two cents.