Custom Investigators and Investigator Cards

Unfortunately, yeah, he's way overpowered. Mainly because:

- Starts with two one-handed Physical weapons, giving him +7 right off the bat
- Starts with Enchanted Blade, for additional damage, and in case Physical Immunity shows up
- Deputized gives him the ability to move anywhere, starting turn 1, AND gives him income
- On top of all that, his Fight / Will bar adds to 7.

Basically the guy has ridiculous ability to deal with almost every possible monster starting on turn one. Income and the power to move anywhere doesn't hurt either. If you look above, 357magnum recently submitted a character who's very similar. I'd make these suggestions:

- Get rid of the Enchanted Blade. I don't see a flavor reason why this guy would be carrying one around to begin with.
- Get rid of the 45. He already starts with the Deputy gun, which is very similar, and the guy shouldn't have the ability to rape nearly every monster starting off. (Mark Harrigan and Michael McGlen start with very strong physical weapons, but notice how their Will and Sanity scores are much lower, giving them a trade-off) Instead, give him something like another random common item. Maybe he'll draw into another weapon. Or something else useful.
- Deputy needs to be valued properly. The income-producer is worth $6-7, the gun probably $4, the wagon probably another $6. As a special ability, Deputy is too powerful. Compare to people like Marie Lambeau, Amanda Sharpe, or Jim Culver. They may have cool specials that are difficult to assign a value to, but IMO they don't begin to equal a value of $16. (My gut tells me $10 is about right for a Special.) In that case, I'd knock $6 off what he starts with (1 Skill + $25, so make it 1 Skill + $19) and then give his stat bar the -1 penalty. (Simply put, starting with the ability to move anywhere on the map is absolutely insane.)

A more balanced version would probably look something like this:

S: 1 2 3 4
S: 3 2 1 0

F: 2 3 4 5
W: 4 3 2 1

L: 0 1 2 3
L: 4 3 2 1

Fixed: $5, 1 Clue, 1 Common (Patrolling the Streets)
Randoms: 3 Common Items, 1 Skill

Special Ability: Deputy, other Investigators can't get arrested, whatever

Don't know if that's what you had in mind but it takes some pretty significant setbacks to make starting with Deputy fair. Fun though. People hardly ever get Deputized in our games.

And now for something completely different, here's someone that's ... well, just really f'ed up.

- Image copyright amoeba at GFXartist.com
- She gets a chunk of extra cash at the beginning with Paranoia and -1 Sanity
- Starts with 3 uniques, though if you have use for all of them you're pretty lucky (seeing as she can't cast spells or read tomes)
- Hardly reliable, but fun, and she fits the flavor well

Well I played last night and he did feel a bit overpowered. I considered your changes and what I like to play as and was wondering if this would be more balanced:

Fixed: $0, 2 Clues, 1 common (Patrolling the streets), 1 unique (Enchanted Blade [I mainly gave it to him for the back story]), 1 Special (Deputy of Arkham --valued at 7$)

Random: 1 Common, 1 Unique, 1 skill

Focus 1 and same stats.

Thanks for your help I'm still new when it comes to making characters.

Here's my first try at an investigator.

I know the first ability is rather weak compared to everyone's favorite redhead's powers... but I used that as incentive to get another moderately (I hope) decent power. The story is lacking, but I started to run out of space.

EDIT-Updated some typos and took some advice. The willpower skill was the only one I could think of that could show the force of a persuasive person. I thought about Luck, but then I figured that someone determined can usually get what they want. I'm open to further experimentation though. What sort of events did you have in mind? I don't have the sharpest memory with the game, I haven't been able to find a decent group to play with for a few months.

I really enjoyed the back story. The only thing I'd do is maybe remove the line about when he was born so as to not set a date on when this takes place but that's just me thinking this takes place in the 30's.

At most (and using both your skills) you'd possibly get 4 dice rolls to get your second ally which isn't that bad. And as few times I've had allies in my party I would think it's not game breaking. Overall very nice character.

Thank you very much!

I tried to follow the guidelines in the creator as closely as I could (the item pricing was annoying to get the right mixture), I was afraid the skill levels may have been set too highly though. Glad to see this isn't the case.

I'll take your suggestion when I revise the card , I noticed a few grammatical errors I need to fix as well.

Andrew's nifty, I've used the very same ability myself, actually. His second ability is a little odd though. Why a Will check? The mechanic seems a little linear, and really darn good too. Purchase 1 Ally, roll for a decent shot at getting a second for no additional charge. And while his Will is up to have to chance at making the roll, his Fight is very solid even though being at its minimum. I'd be tempted to make the ability some sort of replacement effect, i.e. when Andrew would be receiving some sort of benefit, he values building the family instead. This kind of wording, perhaps: "Whenever <something would happen>, instead Andrew may <pay some cost> and draw a random Ally instead." You can make the trigger for the effect anything you feel is flavorful and/or fair!

Avian Chaos wrote:<snipped discussion on 'Cop' Investigator>
Simply put, starting with the ability to move anywhere on the map is absolutely insane.

Agreed. My version has the 'Cop' Investigator starting with the deputy cards but NOT the Patrol Wagon. Instead, his Special Abilities are:

Doughnuts: Gain 1 Stamina each time an encounter is taken at Velmas Diner.
Official Business: May ignore any Curfew or Barred from Neighborhood effects, and may not be Arrested
Promotion: May take the 'Patrol Wagon' card for 1 gate trophy or 5 toughness worth of monster trophies when at the Police Station.

I'm still deciding whether to start him with a Motorbike

Cheers,

Steve

Here's some of the BPRD:

Nice ones. I'm a big fan of abilities that work more effectively when investigators are close to the brink of death, so Liz is right up my alley. I have a sword-wielder who counts dice in battle that show a value equal to her current sanity as successes. Would be nice with Eric Weiss. Is it me or does Liz not use all her starting funds? By my count she's only at $18-ish out of $25. I wouldn't consider her ability to be so powerful she requires a hit to her starting cash. Second ability should be spelled "Losing" however...

Hellboy might could use a second ability ... his first ability is very flavorful but (at least in my group) not many would consider it an advantage. Plus his box looks abashedly empty!

Abraham, another cool one. I used similar logic a few pages back on a mermaid character, though the water surrounded Arkham and many of the water locations thus connected to the Outskirts. Cryptozoology Collection is also the coolest item ever.

Got another one. Strong, but fragile:

- Image copyright Kalomus at GFXArtist.com

Avian Chaos wrote:Second ability should be spelled "Losing" however...

Wow, I am awesome...thanks for the heads up, the change has been made

Don't you people feel that having a total stamina+sanity lower that 10 is totally changing the game?

Not particularly, or at least not in fundamentally irreparable or game-breaking manner. Multiple elements are required to make an investigator, and if one is undervalued, another is overvalued to compensate. I think the only way to "break" an investigator is by giving them a ridiculous item, especially if it's paired with the corresponding stat. (Golden Sword of Y + awesome F/W, Storm of Spirits + awesome Lore, or Healing Stone + being alive) Besides, if they're lower, it makes it harder to survive. And in some cases it just makes perfect sense flavor-wise.

The other thing is that you should balance the lower San/Stam with an appropriate ability, either in power or in context to the lowered ability.

An investigator might have 1 less stamina, but might be able to.. i duno.. eat a monster trophy to gain back a stamina or something...

The image on the Ross Rocklynne card... where have I seen it before? It's like an itch you can't scratch not remembering! Ack! Who dat!

heres one i've put together