Custom Investigators and Investigator Cards

This is a custom job created for Warlock... (I know its a break from my "mythos only" traditions, but hey... what the hell)

Thanks MillMaster!!

I will try him out as soon as I get a chance.

do you know how many people who I have introduced to the game have asked "So, what does this game have to do with Batman?"

too funny!

Thats why I used a very dark picture, and never used the word Batman... was as Lovecraft as I could keep it...

In an effort to add a semi-historical figure to my game I found some amazing personalities from the 1920's that would fit in Arkham nicely. Here is my second try at this gentleman.

I tried to make him balanced. The rocket is OTT is suppose, but is one use only so the player will have to survive encounters with the weaker monsters and wait for a concertation worth using it on. It would be devastating against a GOO that had no physical resistance/immunity, so maybe I will drop the combat bonus. What do you think? Feel free to share any comments.

What would be cool is a rocket that exhausted, and didn't unexhaust until you got some fuel somehow. Possibly like in the upkeep you had to discard 5 bucks or something. You could have a secondary ability that just let you return it to the box to kill all flying monsters... sort of like a pain free lightning gun...

has anyone come up with a way to make the caracter markers better fit in the holders...i printed mine on card stock but it doesnt fit.

I stick mine to cardboard from a shoebox. This gives me about the right thickness. I use a black marker pen on the edges to make the sides look neater.

Cheers,

Steve

Probably a silly question....and one that has been asked NUMEROUS times:

Where do I find a card editor??

Jonny WS wrote:Probably a silly question....and one that has been asked NUMEROUS times:

Where do I find a card editor??

Try the one in this thread.

Never much cared for it myself, but people seem to like it.

Cheers,
Chris

See what you think of this one.

Harold is nice, But I think you should put a 5 SAN / 5 STA score.
Also his special ability is very powerful, since all spells but Dread Curse and Blessing would have a SAN cost of 0.
I'd give him a focus penalty of -2.

What do you think of this guy?
I try to be creative and balance him at best:
-he starts cursed, but the shotgun helps to cover it.
-he's got a fight of 6 but he's not the acerage "3 SAN" dumb guy.
-His special ability could seem a bit overpowered, but I thought of this: if he uses 2 tommyguns, then nobody else can have one. Also, using 2 tommyguns would rewuire him to keep a low will, so it could be quite a kamikaze thing.

My only question is if he uses a shotgun and a tommygun: he could roll lots of dice, scoring double successes with 6s... I don't know.

That's a pretty awesome character. I feel as though he gets too much though. He starts with a shotgun, which is great, but then he gets two more common and unique items? And then he's got two kicker abilities.
It seems as though starting out with a curse gave him more items to start with, and it should've just been used to balance his ability, but I dunno.

I would suggest lowering his will/sanity by one. With a fight of four, he can wield the shotgun with something else, and still have a will of 3, which is enough to roll a die on most horror checks. If he's got a great combat ability like that, the penalty should be just to fail the horror check. Of course, now the penalty would no longer increase if he wields the tommy gun with something (will of one is for the most part just as useful as a will of zero). With a 5 sta/5 san build, this just makes him even better. The point of giving the people with fight 6 low sanity is so that they're more hesitant to use the max fight score. With this guy max fight of 6 and his ability, if he decently healed, he can wander into any fight and be sure to win. McGlenn can't fight things that do 3-4 sanity damage without pumping up his will to the max. This guy doesn't have that problem either. And if his will is too low to be comfortable, his focus of two makes this much easier to adjust that skill before/after a fight.

And his last bullet can be used after every combat, which basically gives him an extra die every combat check.

However, the story changes completely if you make him permanently cursed.

Thanks for the comment.
I might consider giving him a 4 SAn / 6 STA, or lowering his Fight score to 5... though this wouldn't allow him to Wield a Tommy gun with one hand, unless he has a Fight Skill.
I understand the point of giving low SAN or low Will in order to discourage people from keeping a high Fight... Sadly, this makes all strong fighters look almost alike.

Evil, aren't you used to the Strange Eons character editor?
this investigators is actually balanced: the total amount of his possessions is $25: the curse is worth an extra $5, so being cursed basically gives him an extra unique item.

I'll tell you the truth: when I thought of this character, I first wanted to have a cursed guy (yesssss, I took inspiration from the Kingsport preview).
So I didn't curse him in roder to give him a better equipment.
He's got quite good money and many random items, which mirror his recent looting of the cult's temple.

One note on the last bullet thing:
he can use it only after failing a combat check!
So, let's say he's fighting a Gug:
He rolls his combat check, and gets 2 successes: not enough since he needs 3!
So he takes the Gug's damage (4 STA), then rolls the Last Shot die: if it is a success, it can be addedo to the total, and he defeats the Gug.
(And since the Gug is Overwhelming 1, he would go unconscious, as he has a Max STA of 5... though I might change it according to your advice).

Another investigator: I don't like his Story so much, however. I think it lack creativity.
What do you think of his special ability? I think it's pretty balanced.
And before you ask me: Yes, since all those spells have an additional sanity cost of 1, this also means that he can't use "Cloud Memory" effectively, since he would pay 1 STA and 1 SAN to... recover 1 SAN!
Of course, he can make an effective use of it if he draws it regularly.

This is my personal tribute to the Master of the Mythos. HPL himself. I made up a little fictional "Story So Far" for him. In this story, he's friends with Prof. Armitage. This is my first attempt at creating a Custom Investigator using EON.

Cool, it's like the fourth different HPL investigators I see.

I made one too, and used that very same picture!

Well, I like yours: His special ability is a bit overpowered, but it's balanced by the 4 SAN / 4 STA thing.
I'd make it a 5 SAN 7 STA anyway: a SAN of 4 wouldn't be of much help to a spellcaster...
Also, I'd give him less money (he was so poooor

), and a spell, maybe.
And His luck... well, the poor dear HPL had quite an unlucky life: I'd give him just a Luck of 3.

By the way, My HPL had a special ability which allowed him to gain 1 clue token whenever he suffered a sanity loss: if you keep the 4 SAN / 4 STA thing, I'd suggest you to do the same to balance it better:
this allows him to gain Clues not only by reading dangerous tomes, but also by suffering losses from encounters and combats.
it might seem a bit overpowered, but I still think that a 4/4 is a HUGE handicap: think of a game vs. Cthulhu!

Hi all. Been a huge fan of Arkham since its release (especially the possibility of customization) so I figured I'd post a couple of the custom investigators I've made. A few aside comments:

1. No backstories - never got around to it. Often anachronistic to the 20's, but very in tune with their profession / race.
2. Keeping the power level reasonable. All are probably above average, especially when compared to investigators like Vincent Lee and Dexter Drake, but none are as brutally amazing as Joe Diamond or Mandy Thompson and her reroll of win. IMO.
3. All artwork copyright other people, who I will list below the image. You can probably find their art at http://www.gfxartist.com/, which you should visit. All art is used for nonprofit, entertainment purposes only. I will remove immediately if any problem exists.

- Image copyright Katarina at GFXArtist
- Mermaid Scale is a disposable item ... either a Holy Water or a Research Materials
- Ruby of Ry'leh, Motorcycle, +1 Speed? Sign me up!
- Water route disrupted? Beat 'em up! Maybe ...
- Bonus points for remembering where Irenes + Mermaid-ism comes from

- Image copyright Aroms
- Retainer = Allowance!
- Doesn't have an immediate use, but finding one sure is fun!
- No bonus points for guessing the source material here!

- Image public domain
- Loves those disposable common items from KiY ... Time Bomb, Safety Deposit Key, etc
- Ditching Spells to a rumor ... don't mind if I do!

Started with the simple, and traditionally, the least powerful. I only play with one group, and we bump up the difficulty (4 players, dispense monsters as though 5 were playing), meaning custom investigators err on the strong side. Even with 20+ customs however, you just can't match Joe Diamond - or, at least, you shouldn't.

I think Joey D. is balanced by having a low SAN and a low Will, but I wouldn't argue that much..

Some suggestions:
The mermaid:
-Does Aquatic travel allow her to fight monsters that should be in the outskirts?
-Does it actually link those locations? Could she spend 1 movement point to enter Cold Spring Glen, 1 movement point to move to the Outskirts/Underwater Area, and a third movement point to move to the Woods?
-Astral Rapids: Why don't you make something more like Tim Culver's "tsrange luck"? "All Other worlds are considered to have a blue encounter symbol in addition to their original ones".

Cammy Jordan:
-Each of her special abilities is as powerful as a single one! You could remove the focus bonus (I suppose you did it because of her loweres STA) and leave them.

Vanessa:
-Her special ability seems to be a bit too powerful: basically, she gets free items now and then!
You could argue that other characters (Dexter, Monterey, Bob...) get to draw additional cards that allow them to choose, but they do it only in regards of precise Item types!
I don't know, I can't say whether it is balanced or not.

Here, I was a bit bored so I tried to make Deputy Kingby a playable character.
I considered the Deputy Card to be worth $15:
$6 for the retainer-like effect
$4 for the gun (The lost or stolen thing is just pointless IMO, even if Strange Eons says it should add $1 to the value)
$5 for the Patrol Wagon.

I also would have liked to give him the Jinxed Injury card, but Strange Eons didn't allow me to put more than 1 special card...

Aquatic Travel does link those locations. (Imagine a river or body of water that runs along the outskirts of Arkham.) You must fight or evade any monsters in the outskirts while using it, and she's only an average fighter. You could play her second ability like Jim Culver's, I hadn't thought of it. It's more like Gloria Goldberg's at the moment; basically trying to give her a second alternative in the other worlds - either taking the "normal" route or a water route.

The STA drop was in fact the reason for Cammy's second ability. Her cash 'n' goods adds up to the usual $35 and the monetary bonus from the STA loss is not allocated there. So it went for her other ability. The focus bonus comes from "Weak on Gates," which the editor randomly provided for me and after some deliberation I felt made sense.

Vanessa's ability scales with the number of players, and I'm used to playing four player games, which might account for the number. We removed Dexter and Monterey (among others) from the pool because after every player drawing them 3+ times and no one selecting them it became obvious they had no business being in there. (Drake literally does ... nothing. 5 SAN spellcaster with no Fight or Will. Some bad. Monterey is basically a Curiositie Shoppe mule because of his 3 SAN and crap Will. At least Mark Harrigan can crush gates with 6 Fight and anti-delay.) Bob Jenkins is another very, very powerful investigator. 4/6 split is acceptable for a fighter, and 5 speed is really nice. 4/3 on F/W is just a monster stat, especially because his ability gives him immediate supremacy from triggering on his first item draws, maximizing his chances of coming out with a Shotgun or 45's or something.

You can go custom text to add in Jinxed, right? I'd value the Patrol Wagon at probably $6-7. Moving anywhere seems ridunculous (Mi-Go Brain Case probably a good comparison) especially when you have a very good chance of being able to destroy any monsters that reside on the location. I like his last ability ... personally, I'm tired of getting shot while Deputy Dingbat "cleans" his gun! Would kind of suck to draw Sheriff Engle first, no?

Two for the price of one etc.

- Image copyright Michael Phillippi

I don't like Dupe much: the reroll thing is just an underpowered version of Mandy Thompson, so it's a bit unbalanced.

The Ally thing... well, whether the rules allow it or not, we always consider Allies as tradable: it makes sense: investigators trust each other, and so do allies.

Also, I disagree on Monterey and Dexter: in my group ther's ALWAYS someone playing them.
I love Monterey, and I choose him 3 games out of 4.
His special ability is impressive, and he's the ultimate mi-go killer.

People just don't understand that he's not a Monster Hunter.
There are 3 types of investigators:
-Spellcaster (Harvey Walters, Dexter...)
-Monster hunters (Michael Mc Glens, Bob Jenkins)
-Tacticals (Darrell Simmons, Monterey, Jenny Barnes..)

You just have to play the proper way.

We usually remove Amanda Sharpe and Vincent Lee: we find them just pointless.

No investigator is as good as Mandy Thompson. Her reroll is absolutely insane because it turns one awful, otherwise incontrovertible setback into a success. Each turn. And she starts with 4 clue tokens so she can seal a gate almost immediately. The Arkham FAQ forbids trading allies, hence the logic behind Dupe 2's special.

Vincent Lee is pointless. Everything that could go wrong with him does, other than the 5/5 split, I guess.

I like Amanda Sharpe. Every game is different with her. She draws 3 skills and keeps 2 at the beginning. Draw into some combination of Bravery / Fight / Will / Grapple / Marksman / "Will Bless" and she's an admirable fighter. +1 Fight but no other combative skills makes her a light fighter who can also seal gates. +1 Lore might make her a spellcaster, and +1 Speed or Sneak is just nice for moving around and slipping through monsters into gates. Mythos Lore is just awesome because you know you're getting a second skill to complement it. David Packard is a very nice addition to fightin' Amanda. Plus she starts at the bank with few possessions - it's like she's just begging to take out a bank loan, give everything away (temporarily) and default on the loan.

No one in our group plays Dexter because his only discernable benefit is starting with Shriveling. (And his Speed, of course.) Shriveling is nice but a 5 SAN spellcaster who's guaranteed to lose 1 every combat from casting the spell, and likely some more because his Will is so pathetic, didn't seem appealing, especially after a couple of us tried him once or twice.

Monterey is basically begging for everyone to give him their money and camp Curiositie for a large part of the game, a linearity nobody in our groups wants to subject themselves to. He can seal gates, if he's at full SAN, if the path to the gate is wide open because he can't fight or sneak his way in.

I really like the special abilities on Jenny and Harvey but 3 Speed is crippling. It's basically saying if something sudden occurs and needs immediate response, I can't be relied upon to deal with it. Tomes and Dunwich are basically out (shame, because Harvey is amazing with the former and Jenny the latter), plus it's just annoying not to have a reliable chance to make it to a gate that opens.

These guys are all playable, of course, but after a couple spins with each, nobody here wants to. Huge original favorites are Joe Diamond, Mandy, Jenkins, Amanda, Rita Young, Darrell, and occasionally Mark Harrigan.

(Images copyright Katarina at GFXArtist.com)

357magnum wrote:Cool, it's like the fourth different HPL investigators I see.

I made one too, and used that very same picture!

Well, I like yours: His special ability is a bit overpowered, but it's balanced by the 4 SAN / 4 STA thing.
I'd make it a 5 SAN 7 STA anyway: a SAN of 4 wouldn't be of much help to a spellcaster...
Also, I'd give him less money (he was so poooor ), and a spell, maybe.
And His luck... well, the poor dear HPL had quite an unlucky life: I'd give him just a Luck of 3.

By the way, My HPL had a special ability which allowed him to gain 1 clue token whenever he suffered a sanity loss: if you keep the 4 SAN / 4 STA thing, I'd suggest you to do the same to balance it better:
this allows him to gain Clues not only by reading dangerous tomes, but also by suffering losses from encounters and combats.
it might seem a bit overpowered, but I still think that a 4/4 is a HUGE handicap: think of a game vs. Cthulhu!

Thanks for the awesome feedback Magnum! This I feel that the first version was pretty balanced with his Special Abilities compensating for the lowered Health. I also didn't want to build HPL as a spellcaster. I really just wanted him to be a knowledge hound of all things Mythos without making him a great spellcaster too. However, using your suggestions I now present HPL version 2. Below his card, I posted my design notes also.

I gave him The Necronomicon, because well, its his Iconic Tome. He was also notoriously destitute. So, no starting cash for Howard. If you read "The Story So Far" you'll see where his last buck went. I lowered his Maximum Stamina by 1 to reflect his overall less than average health. I lowered his Fight because he wasn't known to be a physical person, and expressed views that violence was uncivilized. Howard was also a pretty unlucky fellow, so I lowered his Luck. With the points from the lowered Fight and Luck I raised his Lore Skill to 3-6. The other stats were left at average. His special ability was based on the suggestion from 357magnum here on the forums.

"said the Nightgaunt to young HPL: do you dream what I dream?..."
If you know the song

I think this version is nice too.
I usually don't like special abilities based on further skill rols, but it's just about tastes.

So I would move the same critic to Miss Chio-Chio-San: also, a +2 bonus seems too much to me. Maybe I'd grant a bonus equal to the number of successes in the Evade check, but this would mess things up.
The Yin-Yang thing is very creative, but such a caracter should be played with the KiY expansion only of course.
I'd think of her as being an actress from the play itself (Cassilda, maybe?

). I'd give her some Unique item like the Masquerade of the Night.

Isabel Paracelsus is very nice too. Maybe you could give her the "Alchemical process" spell, instead of Holy Water.
How about changing the Alchemy ability to an upkeep action? and adding a sanity cost?
I dunno...

Talking about Monterey Jack: I still stick to my opinion: he's a very difficult character to play, but I rarely go insane. I'd say that 50% of the games I never pay visit to the Asylum.
And I always happen to get 10 to 20 points of Monster trophies / gates.
And never underestimate dexter's ability... it's just as impressive as monterey's