Custom Investigators and Investigator Cards

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

357magnum wrote:"said the Nightgaunt to young HPL: do you dream what I dream?..."
If you know the song

That song always reminds me of 'Gremlins'.

Scared the hell out of me when I was little ... it's all coming back now ... thanks!

I should probably start including some design notes! It's hard to value how big Miss Chio-Chio-San's bonus should be, but I figured +2 would be fair when paired with her otherwise low Fight. She's basically a KiY only character, yeah, but at the moment we aren't playing any other heralds. Unintentional bias on my part ... Blighted Allies are so awesome!

Isabel does need Alchemical Process. I gave her Holy Water solely because it looked like she was holding it in the picture. I made her ability a movement ability because she has to spend time to perform the task. I definitely don't have a problem adding a Sanity cost to Alchemy (sanity loss seems to be a byproduct of, well, everything these days in Arkham!) though it makes the entire ordeal a bit cumbersome.

- Image public domain
- Brutal special abilities, obviously, hopefully balanced by the following
- No combat, average sneak ... going to take some work to make it into a gate
- Focus of 2, the extra point does basically nothing because you're going to want max Lore every turn and the Fight/Will bar doesn't matter much
- Lightning Gun, which ... well, yeah. Blows. Still very weathery though.

Our gaming group has made dozens of characters (mostly serious ones), but this is our favorite.

In case you can't read the textbox:

Warcraft

Any Phase: Before entering combat, roll a die:

1: Let's do this!
Leeroy gets +2 to all skill checks this turn.
2: LEEROOOOOOOY JEEENKIIIIIINSSS!!!
Leeroy regains all his Sanity and Stamina.
3: Oh my god, he just ran in.
Raise the terror level by 1.
4: Goddamn it Leeroy! Goddamn it!
A monster surge occurs.
5: Leeroy, you are just stupid as hell.
Add one doom token on the doom track.
6: At least I have chicken.
Draw a Unique Item after combat ends.

^ Hilarious

If I could get your opinions on this character I'd be thankful. I'm kinda afraid he's too overpowered. I haven't played with him yet but to be sure I thought I'd post and ask here. It's my first real attempt so I'm not too sure what to have in a character.

Picture taken from http://goldomega.deviantart.com/art/Sheriff-25950297

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