Latest posts for the topic "The most useless/unplayable investigator"

The most useless/unplayable investigator

357magnum — GMT

Now, I can already think of what a flaming thread could come out of this... hoping this subject has not been discussed yet.

I spent almost one year thinking that Monterey Jack was the worst investigator: Will 3, SAN 3. Why should I play such a rabbit-scared wimpy guy?
Now I consider him to be my favourite investigator, as I choose him 4 games out of 5.
His skill is so good, so useful that really helps with such a bad STA/Will combo.

But since I started playing AH 2 years ago, there are two character wich NOBODY wants NEVER to play:
Vincent Lee and Amanda Sharpe.
But Dr.Lee's special ability is still somehow useful to all the other players... though not as useful as the psychologist's counterpart.

All my group thinks that Amanda sharp is just useless. useless to the group and useless to herself: FFG tried to craft a completely averaged character (4 to all skills, one item per type...) but the result is an investigators unable to even tie her shoes.
Her special ability might be amazing... but Skills are very rare, and even if they were easier to get, her skill just works for herself only, since she can't trade'em.
Ok, Michael Mc Glen's or Darrell Simmons' skills are for themselves only, but they get to be used a lot more often.

Amanda starts out with 2 skills (one more than other investigators... though this costs her $10 of the starting budget), but this makes her become a randomized character.
The point is, if I want to play a spellcaster, I choose Dexter Drake or prof. Walters, If I want to play a brawler, I ring ad Mc Glen's phone.
Even if Amanda is lucky enough to get those juicy Dunwich Horror's new skills, she still might be a hard time.

We can even compare her to Leo Anderson (from DH): he's very similar, but his special ability is far more useful, and he starts with one random Ally: it's worth $10 too, but as we know all allies (except for Duke and William Brinton) give a total bonus of 2 skill points, and some extra item or special ability.

Sorry Amanda.
Still, you are the cutest.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

MillMaster — GMT

Amanda is just the template for all other characters, and having here in there doesn't really matter to me either way. She is just sort of a "mold her any way you like" type of character. Her ability lets you dig for the +X Skill cards you want to make her good at whatever you want. She is not good at anything, but she isn't bad at anything... she just has the potential to be something you need her to be.

The most useless/unplayable investigator

Count_Crapula — GMT

[quote=357magnum]
The point is, if I want to play a spellcaster, I choose Dexter Drake or prof. Walters, If I want to play a brawler, I ring ad Mc Glen's phone.[/quote]

You shouldn't get flamed too bad on this one, and yes, it was discussed in length early last year or before. Funny thing is, Dexter Drake was continuously voted worst investigator by the majority of players.

We play random investigators, so there are no "bad" ones. I like Vincent Lee's ability, and the insane look on his face is pretty sweet, too.

I personally find the "underpowered" investigators to be more appealing, since I like to root for the underdogs.

-The Count

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

357magnum — GMT

This is interesting.
Why do people think Dexter is such a bad investigator?
Yes, he could really use a 6 SAN/4 STA pattern, But it's still better than the 4 SAN/6 STA of the redeemed cultist in DH.

I don't like spellcasters much, I played Dexter only once in some 50+ games, But I had a great time.
He can be an excellent fighter and/or gate closer, since he can easily choose spells according to his taste and needs.
A friend of mine is so fond of Dexter that he always chooses him, AND plays wearing one of those lovely hats (what's its English name by the way?).

Talking about spellcasters, I think Dexter, Carolyn Fern and prof. Walters are really equal: they're so well balanced that I still can't say who's better. Just My opinion

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Tanakor — GMT

I canÂ´t agree with your choice either. Amanda is a decent investigator - starting with two skills and being able to chose these two out of three cards isnÂ´t bad at all. Of course you should buy at least one other skill if at all possible. I donÂ´t like Vincent Lee too mucht but he isnÂ´t bad either.
In the end there is only one investigator I wouldnÂ´t play with (and which I remove from the deck when we play with random draw): The Nun. Unless you use some house rule, that at least make it easier for her to keep her blessing, she is is completely useless and boring.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

vinterdraken — GMT

Bob Jenkins. No one ever wants to be Bob in my circle of friends. We usually draw our characters at random and get to redraw it once if we arent pleased, but we even have a special house rule stating you can always redraw if you get Bob, simply because people dont want to play him.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

357magnum — GMT

Wow, this is the first time I hear of people disliking bob!
His special Ability is not so useful (is it just my impression, or most encounters lead to draw Unique items more than Commons?) but still comes in handy...
But I think his skill chart is great! He is the only character with a Will of 6, This helps a lot.

About the Nun: I remember reading Kevin Wilson talking about her: he said that a good house-rule would be allowing her to spend 2 Clues (or was it just 1?) in order to re-roll a lost blessing.

Oddly, Even though all my group thinks that Kate Wintrop is a great character, nobody never plays her.
Is she lacking some appeal, maybe?

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

MillMaster — GMT

The redeemed cultist seems to have got the shaft... but I would rather have her than Dex or the Prof. in many cases. Her speed of 3 sux, but as spell casters go Carolyn and Diana both have abilities that gain sanity directly back. Their abilities are key if you want a true "spell caster" type character.

In any case, most people don't play full-time spell casters, so it really doesn't matter to much, but regaining that sanity is soooo key in my book. (or you can just go spec yourself with a healing stone and cryptical books )

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

vinterdraken — GMT

[quote]Wow, this is the first time I hear of people disliking bob!
His special Ability is not so useful (is it just my impression, or most encounters lead to draw Unique items more than Commons?) but still comes in handy...
But I think his skill chart is great! He is the only character with a Will of 6, This helps a lot. [/quote]

Well. he probebly has his strong sides. For my part he was the first character I played in the new Arkham Horror, and I didnt manage to do anything during the entire match, so ive never really got a good first impression of Bob. Why my friends dislike him varies a bit, but mostly I think its his special ability.

The most useless/unplayable investigator

Skithee — GMT

i like the redeemed cultist. i just go and chill out in the inner sanctum the whole game. those encounters are interesting. screw the other players!

The most useless/unplayable investigator

Dr. Rudolf von Richten — GMT

Bob rules!

His max will of 6 means you can actually stand a decent chance not to lose sanity even against monsters like Star Spawns or Elder Things, so his relatively low sanity doesn't really matter.

His special ability combined with his starting money and his good number of starting cards mean that he is pretty certain to have a good physical weapon. No use against Physical immune, I admit, but the majority of monsters falls like flies before Mighty Bob (His Bobness? )

And he's got a great speed (sneak doesn't matter anyway when you're aim is to kill monsters) so he was able to come to the rescue of the other Investigators many times.

In our last game, Bob was [i]the[/i] monster clearer and he rocked the world ... until he got devoured by going lost in Time and Space (We were playing against Yog Sothoth), but that's not really his fault, is it?

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Formerly known as Jake — GMT

Bob makes a great monster sweeper. He's a good chance of getting weapons to begin with and his high Will means he won't be running off to the Asylum all game. Amanda can be pretty cool too. If you don't get anything worthwhile in your starting hand, (or you get a use and discard like a Tome), grab a Loan and pay for some education. 3 Skills from 5 isn't to be sniffed at.

IMHO, The worst investigators are:

Sister Mary - Her special ability to far too specialised to be of any use. However, with the 2 Clues to a Blessing upgrade, she becomes lot more playable. At least her Lore/Luck/ability make her a good Gate Girl.

Monterey Jack - Low San and Low Will. He just doesn't have enough staying power. Also, his special ability should be improved by applying it to Exhibit Items.

Dexter Drake - He needs 6 Sanity and 4 Stamina. His Sanity is too low to be an effective spell caster.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Nephilim — GMT

In our group we used to have discussions on favorite chars a lot, but after a zillion games for most of us it doesn't really mater.
We still have our favorites but no absolute bad or good characters.

True only Sister Mary we disliked all in the beginning, she had a few specs that where mayor sitbacks at first.
But we play her now with the "may spend clues to reroll blessing/curse checks during upkeep) as additional special ability and this is a mayor improvement.

We usually find characters with less than $5 starting money a bit of disadvantage because it'll give you a bit of a head start if your starting equipment was not so successful. Other than that we found out that we play every character that we randomly pick.

A good house rule for the ones who really don't want to play certain characters but still want "fate" decide you can always pick two characters and choose one of them.

But to answer the original question: My favorite characters are Darrell Simmons and Bob Jenkins

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

tibs — GMT

[quote=vinterdraken]Bob Jenkins. No one ever wants to be Bob in my circle of friends. We usually draw our characters at random and get to redraw it once if we arent pleased, but we even have a special house rule stating you can always redraw if you get Bob, simply because people dont want to play him.[/quote]

First off, this is exactly the reason why I never give leniency when drawing investigators. Before the game starts, players can trade among themselves if they really want to, but essentially you get who you get.

Secondly, I love Bob. He may start with no clues, but he does start with a decent chunk of change and usually at least one decent weapon. You know what you get when you pair a maximum potential Will with good weapons? A very reliable monster hunter.

Dexter Drake's only downfall is that his max sanity is only 5. Otherwise, his ability is quite good: it's nice to be able to avoid the really junky spells, and improve your chances of acquiring a truly useful one (Find Gate, Feeding the Mind, so on).

With Amanda Sharpe... I'm never really happy to get her, but her unused ability is compensated with a third focus point. This at least makes her able to prepare for anything, in theory.

Kate Winthrop's lack of appeal is due to the unpredictability of her ability. Granted, it's a good abilityâ€”it's gotten us out of trouble on many occasionsâ€”but it's unpredictable.

Let me just say that I love Diana Stanley. Healing herself and getting clues with terror/doom increases is an awesome ability. Her low speed is inhibitive, yes...but making good of bad situations is great compensation.

Yes, Sister Mary is lacking. But everyone seems to have a good solution to her shortcomings. I personally start her with 3 clues (And I rationalized this in an older thread). This at least gives her a direction when the game begins. I mean, she normally starts with no money, no clues, and no weapons. What a pain. I do not play the "clues to save Blessing" ability though, because I like the idea that God's brainwaves are being occulted by the evil smog of the Ancient One. And I don't want to make new rules and exceptions, just starting gear.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

geki — GMT

A friend of mine HATES the musician (JIM).
It's no logical reason, just a bad first playing impression when we bought DH. She would rather use ANYTHING, including Kate, Sister Mary, Ashcan or Vincent Lee that are the less-liked investigators in our group. (They all hate Dexter Drake, even if he's probably one of my favorite)

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

tibs — GMT

[quote=geki]A friend of mine HATES the musician (JIM).
It's no logical reason, just a bad first playing impression when we bought DH. She would rather use ANYTHING, including Kate, Sister Mary, Ashcan or Vincent Lee that are the less-liked investigators in our group. (They all hate Dexter Drake, even if he's probably one of my favorite)[/quote]

Oh snap. I forgot Jim Culver. Yeah, I don't like him.
He can't move, he can't fight, and his undead ability is often unused. But that Green in OW draw can come in handy when he seals. So I still respect him and don't mind playing as him.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

mageith — GMT

I agree that Sister Mary is the worst and most uninteresting investigator. When we play here we don't require that she roll at all to keep her blessing during upkeep. If she is cursed, then she loses her blessing and has to go back and get a new one (but that has not yet happened.) Even with that special rule its hard to get anyone to play her.

I really like both Amanda and Bob and both seem to to well for me. Starting out with additional skills makes Amanda very Flexible and I spend all of Bob's money on additional common items right away. It makes him very popular.

The other investigator I don't like is the one who has the Flux machine that prevents gates. She's OK in the solo games where I just have her sit for a long time in a popular gate location but that would be very boring in a multiplayer game.

Jim

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Hastur — GMT

[quote=mageith]The other investigator I don't like is the one who has the Flux machine that prevents gates. She's OK in the solo games where I just have her sit for a long time in a popular gate location but that would be very boring in a multiplayer game.
[/quote]

It would seem to me to be both boring and not very useful in a solo game, as you would sit on one gate while gates are opening all around you and monsters are swarming the neighborhood. Plus, every turn would be: sit on a location, draw an encounter card.

At least in multiplayer, you could shut down a popular gate location while the other investigators take care of monsters and close/seal gates.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

mageith — GMT

[quote=Hastur]It would seem to me to be both boring and not very useful in a solo game, as you would sit on one gate while gates are opening all around you and monsters are swarming the neighborhood. Plus, every turn would be: sit on a location, draw an encounter card.
[/quote]
I guess I used my terminology wrong. By solo I meant I was the only player. I usually run 4-5 investigators.

In a multi-player game where a player would only run one investigator does Kate have much to recommend her?

Jim

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Hastur — GMT

[quote=mageith] I guess I used my terminology wrong. By solo I meant I was the only player. I usually run 4-5 investigators. [/quote]

Ahh. That makes more sense, as I also often run 4 investigators solo. It was the use of solo in one sentence and multiplayer in the next that threw me off. She is a lot of fun in solo games in that way.

[quote=mageith]
In a multi-player game where a player would only run one investigator does Kate have much to recommend her?

Jim[/quote]

Well, if you have a well-rounded group of investigators (you know, monster whacker, gate closer, etc.), then Kate sitting on a hot spot can be a very valuable asset to the team, particularly if you have 4-5 gates sealed and want to keep a new one from showing up. It's not the most glamorous job, but if it stops a gate from popping up, everyone will recognize her valuable contribution.

Also, there is a card in the King in Yellow expansion that lets you look at the next three Mythos cards and arrange them in any order (Arcane Insight?). I once had an investigator who could successfully cast that (it's -4 spell check, but you get +1 for each tome you have**) and if you know where the gates will show up, Kate becomes the MVP of the endgame!

** this spell is one of those times where I occasionally regret weeding out so many tomes from my item decks, to tie this in to another topic on the board. Even with weeding, I usually manage to get 2-3 tomes among my investigators during a game.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R — GMT

We draw investigators randomly, and I think all of them are good; but somehow I don't like the nun (I think she doesn't fit in a Lovecraft adventure), and the "quality" of investigators is very situational (e.g. 3/7 investigators are bad vs Cthulhu, and Montery Jack doesn't have much fun when the Dark Pharaoh herald is in play).

[quote=357magnum]Talking about spellcasters, I think Dexter, Carolyn Fern and prof. Walters are really equal: they're so well balanced that I still can't say who's better. Just My opinion [/quote]
May it be that you missed that Harley Warren's...er...Harvey Walters' special ability only applies to sanity losses, but not to sanity costs (-> spells)? It's in the F.A.Q.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

tibs — GMT

[quote=HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R]We draw investigators randomly, and I think all of them are good; but somehow I don't like the nun (I think she doesn't fit in a Lovecraft adventure), and the "quality" of investigators is very situational (e.g. 3/7 investigators are bad vs Cthulhu).

[quote=357magnum]Talking about spellcasters, I think Dexter, Carolyn Fern and prof. Walters are really equal: they're so well balanced that I still can't say who's better. Just My opinion [/quote]
May it be that you missed that Harley Warren's...er...Harvey Walters' special ability only applies to sanity losses, but not to sanity costs (-> spells)? It's in the F.A.Q.[/quote]

This is true. Walters's only claim to (spell) fame is his high sanity and lore. On the other hand, he's not going to lose sanity in most other cases, so he should be able to cast a whole lot before having to go to the asylum. This would make him a good spellkeeper.

Carolyn's sanity restoration avoids the technical shortcoming Walters suffers from, but she starts with no spells and borderline Lore. It would appear that there are precisely zero characters who have mastered the art of spellcasting.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

ced1106 — GMT

I surrepticiously play the Visiting Exhibit variants, so all those nice Magical Weapons and Combat Spells are lost in the bottom of the deck. Dexter then becomes more useful -- he's often the only Investigator who starts with a Magical attack! In a multiplayer game, he's the Tome guy. If you get a Tome that allows spell draws, give it' to Dex. Let him draw the spells and pay the Sanity cost!

aka. Washu! ^O^

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

deejay — GMT

[quote=357magnum]This is interesting.
Why do people think Dexter is such a bad investigator?[/quote]

Well, here he has a rep for being invisibly cursed. Bad things happen around Dex. Gugs block him in. Visible curses fly at him and stick like glue. Encounters blast his sanity. He is never Lucky. Thats why hes one of our favourites!
As you have discovered, there is no consensus on this question. AH is just too situational, and people have very different perspectives on what is enjoyable or not.

[quote=357magnum]A friend of mine is so fond of Dexter that he always chooses him, AND plays wearing one of those lovely hats (what's its English name by the way?).[/quote]

Its a top hat, and your friend is cool.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

357magnum — GMT

[quote=deejay][quote=357magnum]This is interesting.
Why do people think Dexter is such a bad investigator?[/quote]

Well, here he has a rep for being invisibly cursed. Bad things happen around Dex. Gugs block him in. Visible curses fly at him and stick like glue. Encounters blast his sanity. He is never Lucky. Thats why hes one of our favourites!
As you have discovered, there is no consensus on this question. AH is just too situational, and people have very different perspectives on what is enjoyable or not.
[/quote]
Lol, here we have a similar opinion about all characters: those who keep a high Luck, always get to roll a lot of Lore checks in encounters, and [i]vice versa[/i] investigators keeping a high lore always get mauled by nasty Luck-rolling encounters.

[quote=HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R]
[quote=357magnum]Talking about spellcasters, I think Dexter, Carolyn Fern and prof. Walters are really equal: they're so well balanced that I still can't say who's better. Just My opinion [/quote]
May it be that you missed that Harley Warren's...er...Harvey Walters' special ability only applies to sanity losses, but not to sanity costs (-> spells)? It's in the F.A.Q.[/quote]
I know it, but he still proves to be a great spellcaster: a score of 7 SAN allows him to cast a lot before paying just a few dollars to get restored to his maximum.
it's like paying $0.3 per sanity point.

[quote=Formerly known as Jake]
Monterey Jack - Low San and Low Will. He just doesn't have enough staying power. Also, his special ability should be improved by applying it to Exhibit Items.
[/quote]
That's why I love these threads: opinions
I love Monterey, he's my faaaaavourite.
You just have to play it tactically: he's definitely not a monster sweeper, unless he gets some good items like the Gruesome Talisman or a +1Will skill or a healing stone.
Basically, I think he's the best item-finding character in AH, and the ultimate Mi-Go killer.

Sometimes you can also use him for kamikaze actions: boosting his fight to 5, failing any horror check which damage is 2 or less, and then blasting out any single powerful monster with some good magical weapon.. though this could be done by just anybody else, so I don't think this makes much of a point.

Does anybody like Ashcan Pete?
I think his ability is rather useless...
We improved it by house-ruling that if he's in play, each deck must be shuffled after anybody draws a card.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Dublin Ireland — GMT

I am amazed no one has named the gangster -- forget his name. He is my bet for worst investigator, mainly because of his 3 sanity. With the expansions, sanity seems to get used up much faster than stamina -- leastwise, that is our experience. Just 3 sanity means he is running to the hospital or taking madness cards all too often.

We think Bob Jenkins is good, and we have done okay with Dexter Drake.

Gloria Goldman is great for the OW. Two draws, and choose your favorite. Sort of an OW version of Bob Jenkins.

James Whats-his-name, the trumpet player, is pretty good. I have used him a couple of times with some success. I see in the thread that a few players don't like him.

Some we have never tried -- one of them would be the gymnast woman or whatever. I think she joined the set with DH, if I remember right.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

MadPlanarian — GMT

[quote=tibs]
It would appear that there are precisely zero characters who have mastered the art of spellcasting.[/quote]

That's probably a very good description of the Lovecraft world anyway

I like almost all of the spellcasters -- especially since they get some help in the expansions.

The Unique Item that reduce the Sanity cost is invaluable It's enough to turn
Dexter into a very good fighter (when having 5 Stamina is good for him) --
let's see, he could cast 4 Withers, 4 Shrivellings, and 4 Dread Curses in one turn,
that should be able to take quite a few things out (And his special ability
would make it easier for him to arm up with the combat spells).
.
Feeding the Mind and Heal go together very well, not only for keeping yourself up,
but for healing all your buddies. And of course, if Carolyn has both of those,
she can fix anyone anytime anywhere.

As far as the Nun, I have not played her with any house rules yet,
and still she ends up very effective. Last time I played her she started
with Enchant Weapon, so she stopped if in Ma's to borrow McGlen's
shotgun and immediately dispatched some 3-toughness physical-immune thing.
Get her any weapon before her blessing expires, and she can defeat
those evil critters rather handily.

And yes, Kate's special ability gets an exponential boost if you
have Arcane Insights in the party. Even without it, I've hit lucky
days where her ability activated something like 6 times in 6 turns
(combination of Mythos and encounter phases). Have her tag along
with another investigato, and you don't have to worry as much about
getting sucked through a new gate before you get your five clues.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Hastur — GMT

[quote=357magnum]
Does anybody like Ashcan Pete?
I think his ability is rather useless...
We improved it by house-ruling that if he's in play, each deck must be shuffled after anybody draws a card.[/quote]

I have a friend who always plays Ashcan Pete. He loves starting off with Duke. To him, the ability to look at the bottom of the decks is just gravy. He always makes hay when he plays Ashcan. One time, he ended up with 4 allies and a Tommygun and went around shooting monsters. Another game he found an Enchanted Sword and some gun and was the monster beater for the game.

As a side note: I think his ability is as useful as what's on the bottom of the deck.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Frost — GMT

[quote=Hastur]

Also, there is a card in the King in Yellow expansion that lets you look at the next three Mythos cards and arrange them in any order (Arcane Insight?). I once had an investigator who could successfully cast that (it's -4 spell check, but you get +1 for each tome you have**) and if you know where the gates will show up, Kate becomes the MVP of the endgame![/quote]

That's exactly what happened in our game last night. Arcane insight is the spell you're thinking of. Dexter had drawn it as one of his starting items.

When we had drawn Azathoth as the AO, things looked grim because we were using the KiY Herald. We didn't want to add yellow tokens to the doom track since there is no final battle with this guy. This meant adding them to the terror track and a whole lotta blights.

With the spell and Kate's ability, we totally dominated the board. Everyone gave their tomes to Dexter and he just hung out in the asylum refreshing his sanity cost for the spell. The group determined which gates would open and where.

The only difficulty came from a few mythos cards.

In the end, we won by sealing all the gates.

We felt the combo was quite broken. It was fun to do once, but we agreed we wouldn't want it to happen the same way again since it took almost all the tension out of the game.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

C.H.A.D. — GMT

Here's how I rank them:

24. Sister Mary - can't fight, not a good gate closer, starts broke, clueless and weaponless

23. Monterey Jack - has his own room at the asylum

22. Ashcan Pete - I'm not sure I have ever used his ability

21. Dexter Drake - jinxed

20. Mark Harrigan - has a room next to Monterry Jack at the asylum

19. Amanda Sharpe - she's well-rounded... she does everything poorly...

18. Vincent Lee - slow and can't fight, often gets "stuck" for turns at a time

17. Jim Culver - low lore spell caster, but he does kill mummies and wraiths

16. Marie Lambeau - low lore spell caster, but removing the doom token helps

15. Wilson Richards - better version of Amanda...

14. Harvey Walters - utility spell caster, has killer combo potential

13. Gloria Goldberg - great in the outer worlds, not so great at actually closing the gates...

12. Diana Stanley - her abilty is one of the best as the game goes on

11. Rita Young - She's fast and can fight

10. Kate Winthrop - If she stops two gates from opening she's more than worth having

9. Michael McGlenn - He does one thing and does it well

8. Jenny Barnes - $$$$$. She's my favorite to play by far. Versatile.

7. Carolyn Fern - the best spell caster, once she gets spells...

6. Bob Jenkins - Bob is a brawler

5. Darrel Simmons - Fast, great ability, has money, can fight

4. Leo Anderson - Leadership is a game winner

3. Jaqueline Fine - Precognition is a game winner

2. Mandy Thompson - Research is a game winner

1. Joe Diamond - Everything I said about Sister Mary, but the exact opposite and most importantly he kicks the crap out of Ancient Ones.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

357magnum — GMT

Chad, you made me laugh the formless spawn out of me!

I like Joe Diamond, he's got a very cool portrait too, But I think that he's used to paying visit to Monterey Jack and Mark Harrigan quite often.
A will of 3 never helped anybody, not even Kate Wintrop.

By the way, why do you say that "Leadership" is such a game winner? it's useful, but it just prevents ONE Stamina or Sanity loss from ONE character, once per turn. It helps for sure, but... I don't know, I must have missed something about it.

[quote=MadPlanarian]

That's probably a very good description of the Lovecraft world anyway

I like almost all of the spellcasters -- especially since they get some help in the expansions.

The Unique Item that reduce the Sanity cost is invaluable It's enough to turn
Dexter into a very good fighter (when having 5 Stamina is good for him) --
let's see, he could cast 4 Withers, 4 Shrivellings, and 4 Dread Curses in one turn,
that should be able to take quite a few things out (And his special ability
would make it easier for him to arm up with the combat spells).
[/quote]
Actually, you must exhaust it after use.
This means you reduce a sanity loss from ONE spell...
Still, it helps a lot.
Casting two Shrivellings and paying just 1 STA is definitely a dream coming true
Bad luck we have never drawn it.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Emmanuel M — GMT

Nice work of classifying investigators.

I personally would go for 3 tiers

The excellent
Joe Diamond => GOO slayer. Clearly broken with a combat skill against some GOOs
Mandy Thompson => free reroll
Jenny Barnes => Shop squatter, who finances her colleagues trips to the asylum. beware of her low speed.
Gloria Goldberg => A woman always wandering "outside". Keeps finding good things when in other worlds.
Carolyn Fern => Excellent fighter, excellent caster. Enough cash to act.
Michael McGlenn => "Boo, I took 0 damage". Starts with excellent equipment.

The would-be lamers
Sister Mary => Clueless, Moneyless, Helpless, Worthless. (House Rule : Gets blessings for free in the church. We should switch it to "doesn't roll for blessings")
Ashcan Pete => Good stats, good starting items. But investigators other than he and Sister Mary have a special power. (House rule : whenever someone choose an item / spell among many, he may place the item/spells left on the bottom of the stack)
Amanda Sherpe => Can end decent, or even good. Can end useless. (House rule : if you don't like her starting equipment, reroll everything ( all items and skills) once)

The average
All others, who may have limits but also good things, either great skills or usefull starting equipments

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

C.H.A.D. — GMT

With Joey D. if you have one clue token it is like having a Will 2 greater than a monster's horror rating... I have never had a "bad" game with the P.I. Plus he is the only one to succesfully storm Sentinal Hill and kill the DH in our games. But, mostly I rank him first because if you are playing with just one investigator he is the best. The big bads cringe in fear of the 20+ dice he throws on turn one. If he has the Fight skill or the shotgun (or both), you can't lose. Joey D. is the baddest thing in Arkham and unlike Cthulhu he is on your side. The cherry on the top is he starts armed and is usually able to seal a gate after turn 1.

As far as leadership goes, think of all the times you were one sanity or stamina away from doing what you wanted whether it is horror checks, reading tomes., or the difference between getting through an outer world or being lost in time and space. Remeber, it is a race game, and Leo always gives you extra turns you wouldn't have had without him. Plus there is the times he starts with Prof. Rice...

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Dr. Rudolf von Richten — GMT

[quote=Emmanuel M]nt.

Ashcan Pete => Good stats, good starting items. But investigators other than he and Sister Mary have a special power. (House rule : whenever someone choose an item / spell among many, he may place the item/spells left on the bottom of the stack)
[/quote]

I was under the impression that this was the case anyway, i.e. that [i]all[/i] discarded cards* that do not explicitely say 'return to the box' (like Elder Signs do) are put on the bottom of their respective deck, in the order the discarding player chooses (assuming they're discarded at the same time).

We used this to great effect last game, were we 'cheating'?

*cards that you do not choose when you shop, one-use cards, cards you lose when you go insane/k.o./devoured, etc. etc.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

MillMaster — GMT

Yeah, discarded items go on the bottom of their decks, not in a separate pile. This is also important if an encounter/effect has you shuffle an item deck after searching it.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Emmanuel M — GMT

[quote=MillMaster]Yeah, discarded items go on the bottom of their decks, not in a separate pile. This is also important if an encounter/effect has you shuffle an item deck after searching it.[/quote]

OK

So Ashcan Pete is decent after all. And only Sister Mary and sometimes the student "suck". I find Monterey Jack to be decent. He has decent fighting skill and very good starting equipment after all. Of course he pales in comparison to Joe "AncientSlayer" Diamond and Michael "Tommygun" McGlenn. But unless you have one of those two on your side, Jack is welcome

BTW, thank you for the answer

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

C.H.A.D. — GMT

The problem with Ashcan Pete is he can't cast spells, there are never Elder Signs at the bottom of the deck, and the common items at the bottom of the deck are the ones nobody wanted in the first place. In the end it is almost always better to draw from the top of the deck. So you are stuck with a broke investigator, who pays too much for a lame ally, and has a useless special ability.

The good thing about him is it is fun to call him "trashcan" or "ashtray"... or some other names that are simiular to "ash"...

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

EvilAmarant7x — GMT

Ashcan Pete + Old Journal Scrounging for the win!
Seriously, three clue tokens for a dollar? It's awesome.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Hastur — GMT

[quote=C.H.A.D.]The problem with Ashcan Pete is he can't cast spells, there are never Elder Signs at the bottom of the deck, and the common items at the bottom of the deck are the ones nobody wanted in the first place. In the end it is almost always better to draw from the top of the deck. [/quote]

Just two points in the opposite direction:

1. Not being able to cast spells has never bothered me much. Spellcasters are disliked in my group.

2. When shopping, I have drawn two items that I really wanted to purchase, but of course, I can't. But if I give Ashcan Pete some money, he can go pick up the item I couldn't get. Is it awesome? No. But I wouldn't completely dismiss it either.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Frost — GMT

Additionally, in a recent game, a player drew two elder signs, but was only able to purchase one. The other was discarded to the bottom of the deck and Ashcan was able to buy it.

A somewhat rare instance, but not unheard of.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

HÃ«llRÃ†ZÃ˜R — GMT

...and don't forget the situation when a single investigator doesn't have enough money to buy expensive items like the Sword of Glory, or an Elder Sign. Then he/she can place them at the bottom of the deck, and the other investigators give Ashcan some cash. And starting with an ally isn't too bad either - especially in a game vs Cthulhu Duke is great!

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

explorator — GMT

[quote=C.H.A.D.]The problem with Ashcan Pete is he can't cast spells, there are never Elder Signs at the bottom of the deck, and the common items at the bottom of the deck are the ones nobody wanted in the first place. [/quote]

I think Ashcan has a bit of a bad rap. Remember, there are lots of good items, common and unique, that are discarded after use (dynamite, molotov, many tomes like my favorite common; the Directors Diary ), so Pete might manage to grab some of the most useful from the bottom of the deck. Also, don't forget that when Pete is getting his starting equipment he can use his ability. Looking at the bottom card of the spell deck is nice when there is a good spell, and I have played a game where a strong caster persuaded Pete to go buy Find Gate.

No one plays the nun in my group, not even with special rules. Her biggest crime is not being much of a character in a game full of real personalities. That freaked out priest on the encounter cards is less bland, even if he is usually a jerk. Yes, some other characters are a little blah, but they are at least balanced by being strong in-game.

My wife is in love with Leo Anderson , and I admit, that when it is just the two of us playing, I also appreciate Leo's special ability. Two investigators are hard pressed as it is, and Leo has saved my butt many, many times. However, I could see how Leo's ability might get lost in games with lots of investigators.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

MillMaster — GMT

I think that with the Sister Mary house rule, she is not THAT bad if she can get equipped right.
The last 2 times I remember the Dunwich Horror actually being killed by someone, it was by Sister Mary...

While some investigators may have more powerful abilities, any player can play an investigator well if they know how to exploit that investigators strengths and shore up their weaknesses...

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

C.H.A.D. — GMT

[quote=Hastur]

Just two points in the opposite direction:

1. Not being able to cast spells has never bothered me much. Spellcasters are disliked in my group.

2. When shopping, I have drawn two items that I really wanted to purchase, but of course, I can't. But if I give Ashcan Pete some money, he can go pick up the item I couldn't get. Is it awesome? No. But I wouldn't completely dismiss it either. [/quote]

When I was referring to has lack of spell casting I was referring to his abilty allowing him to grab spells off the bottom of the spell deck. Does it really matter what spell he grabs?

I suppose if you happen to have a guy with a lot of money and all the elder signs are clumped and Ashcan happens to be near then you can use his abilty once... Awesome.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

dvang — GMT

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't spells tradeable? It could be useful to get a good spell, like Bind Monster, or a combat spell, in order to pass it off to a good spellcasting character (or one that didn't start with a combat spell, etc)

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Gelvan — GMT

this is funny because everyone hacks on sister mary and monterey jack, the two first characters I started my first game with arkham horror to learn the rules

well, the house rule that sissy can keep her blessing (e.g. not has to make a roll) make's her well... MUCH better in most cases. I never ever had a 4 when rolling a dice with her though. also 7 will power is great against masks, useful for spells, she has a nice luck/lore slider and fight isn't that useful anyway if she's able to get a good sword from another character.

jack on the other hand has some problems with his mind, but somehow i was mostly lucky when rolling a dice for the horror check. he's got plenty of money to buy some nice things at the beginning, even though I had bad luck and never drew a elder sign card.

both can have lore of four which is useful for sealing gates.

this shall not mean that the other's are not better but I would not agree that these two are completely useless.

well, after (or at) the first game that is

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

ced1106 — GMT

Dexter Drake: Give him the tomes so he can use his ability to draw spells. I think he may be outclassed by the Kingsport librarian who can read tomes w/out a penalty.

Sister Mary: With Nodens from Kingsport, Sister Mary begins the game with a Noden's Blessing card!

Ashcan Pete: He needs to be loaded up with money to do the shopping. There is *one* Rumor which requires a sacrifice of an ally, and Pete is the only investigator who starts with an ally at the beginning of the game.

I still haven't found Amanda Sharpe useful, because we'd rather buy stuff at the Curiousitte Shoppe then spend money for skills. Also, does anyone think the politician from Kingsport will be all that useful? He seems to pale compared to the other Kingsport investigators.

aka. Washu! ^O^

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

C.H.A.D. — GMT

Charlie Kane is a brawler. Good Fight/Will plus starting with two common items and an ally make him a monster masher from turn 1. The irony is he's such an effective monster killer he rarely has to use his "Settle Down!" ability.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Nijay — GMT

I think all investigators are playable. Honestly, anyone can be a monster hunter, or gate sealer, or any other role. So I don't put much stock in characters geared to be a fighter or magician unless they are exceptional. Seriously, Sister Mary has collected her share of monster trophies. To me, the best investigators are the ones that save the most time. Arkham Horror has a lot of tempo challenges. All of the penalties in the game relate to tempo - LiTaS, going to the hospital/asylum, being delayed, failing a gate check, movement rules, etc. So all my favorite characters are the ones that offer incredible tempo advantages.

My 7 Stars, in no particular order except for #1, randomly with hockey analogies.

#1 Wendy Adams. Starting a hockey game 1-0 is good times. Call her the center.
Jacqueline Fine - as useful as a goalie.
Diana Stanley - solid, enduring, loves swords. Like a wing.
Mark Harrigan - best Changed candidate and equally good in Arkham and Other Worlds. A checker, and the most able drunk in Arkham.
Daisy Walker - My choice for best spellcaster. Some spells/spell combos are too good with no costs.
Luke Robinson - Quick tactical monster nuker / emergency gate closer. Like a good defenseman.
Mandy Thompson - Bad stuff happens much less frequently. Good stuff happens more. Like a wing. (We first used her to reroll combat checks, lol. Nicknamed her ability "calling in the hacks.")

Least favorite: Marie Lambeau. Her mediocrity is rampant, she's a pure support character. I never figured out how to make a pure support character fun for me. Witch Blood is nice, but not quite nice enough on its own to make the top rankings. Her Third Eye ability is funny, since she's not going to be casting many handed spells imho even if she can get them.

I'm not saying that those 7 would make the best team in the world, or that I would always pick from them if I could. Just my vote for "most powerful overall".

I think for me I like all play styles - brawler, gate closer, support character - and any character can play any role if they draw the right/wrong cards, and what is more important than ranking investigators is figuring out how your team works together. Give the bad character a shot next time, they might surprise you.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Corvillion — GMT

Lets drop in with some a completely different opinion:

Worst character in this game is Mandy Thompson.
Of course the first rounds I got her were just fine and everything was great, but she is just off-balance:
A free reroll - with actually only rerolling all the failures - every turn!

Even if everything goes wrong and the GOO awakes - hey no problem Mandy is around, lets get the meanest (blessed or grappled) guy the biggest gun (probably Mandy anyhow) and after scoring 5 sucesses or more just reroll the rest and watch the still sleepy deity bleed. Don't forget to repeat this every round!

As a result of this I startet to use Mandy less frequent than before in solo-multicharacter or multiplayer games. In our group drawing two Charakters and keeping one is very popular; because some Characters are shunned (mostly Gloria and Jim), also often enough you draw the very same Charakter you had last round.

If the thread concerns mostly about the weakest charcters I would go for Gloria, because her ability is a very nice idea, but her skills make it kind of pointless for the difficult gates. If you are a futile monster basher - due to an aweful Will/Fight ratio - you can easily compensate it with some weapons and a few more visits at the Asylum. In my opinion being designed as a gate closer and not being able to perform the task is a much harder drawback. And her speed of three is really annoying!

The most useless/unplayable investigator

Dumon — GMT

We never play Gloria Goldberg and the photographer (encounter eqivalent, whatshisname). For me/us, they are the worst of the worst.
However, this is due to the fact that we play AH differently, with more RPG influence. Let me explain that shortly...
One of the players (usually me) acts as some sort of GM, reading all encounters aloud, taking care of game mechanics and mythos cards etc.
That means, a player doesn't read his own encounters.
Why? To create more tension.
Let's say, an encounter would read:
"You come upon a strange box half-buried under some rubble. Do you want to..."
...now usually the player is given several possibilities of what he can do, and what possible gains/consequences are connected. He can calculate his chances. This is a more strategic approach.
However, we like the more RPG-like approach better. Meaning, the player is given the possibilities:
"...do you want to
1. open it
2. destroy it
3. leave it "
Without knowing what he gets himself into, he can either risk it or not risk it. He doesn't even know what he will have to roll...

Of course, when it's the GM's turn, another player performs his job for him, so he has the same chances/risks as everyone else.

For me, being the GM most of the time, it is often quite difficult to decide which encounter would be better. Would the player risk something for a greater benefit, or would he rather play it safe this time?
That's why I decided a long time ago that those characters are usually excluded.

Of course, both are quite valuable in a more tactical, more strategic approach, as most of you usually seem to play the game.

On the other hand, the salesman, the doctor, the psychologist, the magician and the nun are in general the least popular in our games. Again, this is as likely as not based on coolness of character and not of usefulness.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Gelvan — GMT

I made some statistics and found out that Sister Mary has one big plus: she has 6 Luck (Fortune?) and therefore can handle most of the cards drawn in Arkham and other worlds as well. There are about 100 encounters that need luck, much more than any other skill. together with a blessing that increases chances of rolling massively and a really nice starting item (the cross) that enhances her Will she's far from being the most useless investigator in the box.

Furthermore Wisdom is the second most used ability in drawn cards - therefore characters like Joe Diamond or the Gangster just have a hard time regarding encounters.

Most characters who have high Stealth don't have high fight/will as well. But do they need them? the scientist can easily close gates because she can slip through other worlds and has a high wisdom rating.

do not underestimate luck, wisdom and will power - together they are really helpful - that said the writer is much more useful than one could think at first sight.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

C.H.A.D. — GMT

Let's look at Sister Mary's "luck" a little closer. First of all she starts with two spells. If she wants to use those spells her luck will be nowhere near six. With a focus of one she isn't capable of jacking up her luck before encounters. Joey D. on the other hand can run around with three luck all the time and depending what you get from the encounter can pop it up fast with a clue token.

Plus as far as luck in encounters goes, while it is the most common skill used it is still not that common. Playing with the Dunwich and Kingsport expansions as we do, only in the Black Cave,River Docks (who has encounters there?), Bishop's Bridge, and the Whately Farm are the chances of getting a "luck" encounter >= to 33% (the Black Cave is the highest at 39%). If you're counting that's < 10% of all locations. Plus with a lot of encounters if you fail nothing bad really happens. Being able to fend of those "monster appears" encounters is far more valuable than high luck...

The most useless/unplayable investigator

avi_dreader — GMT

Ashcan Pete is awesome. I remember one really nasty game when he saved my ass playing against Hastur and his Herald.

First of all, his fight/will is pretty good. Second of all, his ability? So so so so good. First you get to check the bottom of all the decks while drawing initial equipment and cherry pick anything good or take from the top instead. Then, later in the game he is freaking awesome if you exploit a cheap one use item, such as the old journal (unlikely), or the unique $2 item that gives you clue tokens (very likely). Think about it. Three turns and six bucks for 12 clue tokens. Yeah. Of course, you might decide to spend just one more turn and that's 16 clue tokens. Seriously? You don't think this character is awesome? Of course, there are other uses for him, but massive clue acquisition is my favorite.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Avian Chaos — GMT

I consolidated evidence from numerous pros to create this list. Playtesting pros include common sense, proven experience, and my own pro skill.

32. Vincent Lee
No speed. No fight. Worst ability in the game. Fail trifecta. WHAT A GREAT SPELLCASTER, HE STARTS WITH 5 SANITY AND TWO WHOLE SPELLS. Do I even need to mention he starts with no uniques?

31. Sister Mary
Crap ability, average Lore spell-caster, average Speed, starts with no random uniques. The anti-Mandy Thompson. Average in most everything to the point of ineptitude, with no rockin' ability to make it all worthwhile.

30. Luke Robinson
Starts the game 4 turns back (2 in a gate, 1 coming out, 1 fighting monsters on that gate) AND he can't even seal the gate unless he's dealt the right items or encounters. FAIL! See also Wendy Adams for the idiotic ability department: I can't lose my Gate Box? OH NOES! In retropsect, this guy wearing a mask to hide his face seems immensely appropriate.

29. Diana Stanley
Characters with 3 Speed are supposed to be good at doing something other than camping the Inner Sanctum and not contributing to the effort. But it's OK. I didn't want any uniques to begin with anyways. Sure, I guess I could wander around and do shit with WHAT SPEED, MOTHER OF PEARL. This character rips off Laura from Fallout, by the by. Red Rider!

28. Dexter Drake
Why have spells if you can't cast them due to having no Sanity and no Will? This guy is basically hoping for Find Gate (or Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, I guess.); otherwise he's a gate-sealer with no ability other than having above-average Speed / Sneak.

27. Jim Culver
WOW this guy is bad. Crap Sneak, no gate-sealing stat, no Fight, only average Lore for a spellcaster, no random uniques.

26. Monterey Jack
Spends 5 turns a game at the Shoppe, and another 5 getting items to people by waiting in the street. Sucks majorly at Fighting anything with a Horror check. The buying ability alone makes him playable at least, and also hugely boring. Darrell Simmons just completely owns this guy, I mean holy crap.

25. Wilson Richards
RIDICULOUS items and literally nothing else. The entire point of this character is to collect clues from dangerous locations, pass off stuff to investigators, get in a gate and seal it, and find a Moonbeast, devour yourself and get a new character. Pass.

24. Harvey Walters
No Speed ... bad! Decent in combat, I suppose, but only if you pick up Storm of Spirits or something(s) that take up two hands, because 3 Fight + Shriveling isn't going to cut it. (Something tells me people aren't going to want to make Harvey Walters the fighter and load him up with Golden Sword, Carbine Rifle, etc.) 2 uniques is nice though. 6 Lore going into Ry'leh seems good ... oh wait, the checks are primarily Speed and stamina loss? Whoops ...

23. Tony Morgan
Okay, why the heck do handcuffs give you Sanity? Same thought process that was behind why this guy has six luck for literally no damn reason? Bounty Hunters start with lots of clue tokens, I guess. So he seals a small gate and fights crap. Sloppy and dull. Blood Money, also known Noob Detector, unless you need to heal at Arkham Aslyum, which they tell me happens a lot when you only have 3 Sanity, which basically negates the benefit of his first ability if you can't find cash otherwise. Tell me again why I'm not playing [Insert most other investigators here].

22. Kate Winthrop
Ability only works if you lucksack. Or sit on, say, The Witch House over and over again. Mediocre items, but she's got Sneak at least. Shame about that ability though. Question: does it stop monsters from attacking her in Otherworlds?

21. Asshat Pete
WHAT a fighter! If he can get there, of course. Too bad about that ability, though if someone does pop King in Yellow or Old Journal he becomes broken. In most scenarios however he just can't get anywhere. Three stats that have 3's in them, whoops? Investigator-creators, do not do this. PLEASE do not friggin' min-max like this please.

20. Marie Lambeau
-1 Doom token. YES! Very, very average aside from that, which is kind of a shame. She fights ... okay, but we can do better. She seals ... okay, but we can do better. Almost worth it for the half, inverse Ghroth though. Rumor has it, two doom tokens is a bitch!

19. Mark Harrigan
Yeah, he seals gates. Yeah, he sneaks into them. No, Flamethrower doesn't DO anything for him. Yes, the entire process is very labored, unless he finds more Speed. No, he doesn't get Golden Trumpet. South Church is right by Historical Society, or so I've been told.

18. Gloria Goldberg
One of the game's best individual abilities mired onto a shitty frame. Starts with no uniques, no Fight, no Sneak (basically has to fight her way into gates, iffy at best), and no expert sealing stat. Hope that skill is +1 Lore...

17. Rita Young
Joe Diamond's little sister who doesn't seal gates or swap between stats as efficiently or start with a great weapon or have a ridiculous ability. Still functions marvelously, though the ability is surprisingly pessimistic. I figured I would - I dunno - avoid bad odds?

16. Amanda Sharpe
Jesus people. Focus 3. Average everything, when you're guaranteed to use probably four out of your six skills in the game. Not including her skills of course, which give her the possibility of being amazing. Lore at 4 provides the option to Illuminated Manuscript or Cabal Saboth. Also a 5 / 5, which is a great split.

15. Charlie Kane
Funny how the politician comes away with the fewest words in his possessions box. And also that he primarily fights stuff. You can't argue with an ally to start, but Leo Anderson just walks all over this guy with his absurd ability. Rosebud's a sled by the way. Citizen Kane uses it to smack people upside the head who make movies like Crash, Babel, and The Bicycle Thief. Or you, if you happen to like them.

14. Michael McGlen
Bob Jenkins with fewer uniques. Solid fighter, 3 Sanity blows, but he's got a nice gate-sealing stat if needed.

13. Carolyn Fern
2 commons and 2 uniques, wonderful ability that protects the game's most heavily assaulted stat, 5 Lore for sealing gates (and 2 Luck at the same time to boot, KH seemed to add some Luck encounters in gates that rape you if you fail them. Expect to have 4/3 or 3/4 in gates.) ALSO has a 4/1 Fight bar, which is very nice when you easily recover from Horror checks. Now, about that Speed...

12. Jenny Barnes
Darn good, but Speed, URRRRGH. Basically a Fighter, which helps, but even Fighters want average Speed to traverse the original Arkham board quickly. (After all, Shoppe and Asylum are on the complete opposite of Ma's and St. Mary's.) A woman with a F/W bar? Blasphemy!

11. Wendy Adams
One of the worst-designed investigators in the game, not that even laziness would stop starting with an Elder Sign. Taking a page from Monterey Jack, this wench does the same thing every game. Seal two gates, move to Kingsport to stop Rifts. (Or maybe seal a third gate, depending on other people.) Her last two abilities are possibly the most inane ideas an official investigator has been given while her first is just one less element of the game she interacts with, on her mission of doing the same damn thing every game. Random possessions, two different things. Wow, TWO whole variables each game? 4 Lore on a homeless kid? Bank of Arkham? WTF?

10. Bob Jenkins
What the min-max? 3 Sneak and 3 Lore? When would he ever use them? Monster fight bar, 4 Luck, and 5 Speed. Helpful ability because 2 out of 3 common items are usually good and he would like to find a weapon quick. 4 Sanity doesn't seem so bad when you'll never fail a Will check. Focus 1 could suck. Oh, did I mention he gets two (2!) uniques to start?

9. Lola Hayes
The game's best fighter, though Darrell Simmons is more helpful. More skills just makes her more insane. 6 / 4 is argubaly the game's strongest split, and the ho even has 5 speed. Sure, I'll start at the Asylum; after all, it's close to the Shoppe.

8. Rex Murphy
Why was this guy ever printed? Since then, everyone and their epileptic dog felt the need to add pseudo-Press Pass abilities to their custom investigators. The magic is gone people, move on. This guy, on the other hand is pretty sick. Accumulate them clues until someone blesses you, then it's off to the races! 5 / 5 split is pro, Sneak apparently gets people into gates, 5 Lore for sealing, and he starts with two uniques and three clues. Holy hell.

7. Darrell Simmons
Christ, this guy just wins games. Starts with two uniques and his retainer and funds will probably supply you two more. Pick up a retainer at the Newspaper with his great ability and you can just pick up even more. Did I mention this guy also Fights well? I hear 5 Speed is good.

6. Lily Chen
If Asians aren't beating you at math or StarCraft they're probably just plain beating your ass, so yeah, I lied. Here's the best fighter right here. 5 Fight seems good when you never need to pass a Horror check EVER because you're your own personal Healing Stone. Aside from Joe Diamond, the only truly playable investigator with no starting uniques.

5. Jacqueline Fine
Yeah, so I'm basically an iconoclast. (A fancy term for being a huge liar, please believe me etc.) THIS is the best fighter right here. A 4 / 1 you say? Yep, and 7 Sanity so she doesn't need to pass Will checks until she picks up an ally. Yes, someone else needs to load her up with a good weapon (she can trade them spells), but lessee here. Can pick up clue tokens that she doesn't need to spend in a gate. Howzzat work? Oh right, to COMPLETELY OWN THE MYTHOS of dehabilitating gate bursts and rumors. Speed works, average Fight bar works, 5 Lore works if you do feel like sealing a gate anyways. Does everything, and then some, including starting exactly where she needs to be.

4. Leo Anderson
Wow, okay. Stamina and Sanity prevention ... it wins games! Going to get Lost in Time and Space by an encounter that's not even a skill check? A thing of the past. The ally is either going to make this guy a gate-sealer or a fighter, so his flexibility actually exceeds Amanda Sharpe because he doesn't need his ability to obtain it.

3. Joe Diamond
Min-maxed to hell. Custom investigator makers take note: DO NOT give people a 3 / 0 Lore-Luck bar, it's BROKEN. 3 clue tokens to start, and .45's, and 6 speed, and average sneak, and 5 fight, and $8, AND a ridiculous ability? I mean holy shit! Seal a gate with the guy, polish off some shorties, cash in for an helpful Will-ally like Ammi Pierce and commence the rape. Hell, he's so good you don't even have to do it in that order.

2. Daisy Walker
Starts with Find Gate. Wow, someone's bell just got junked, I mean jesus. This is arguably better than all the retards that make characters that begin with King in Yellow. (As you might have expected, broken. Please stop doing this etc.) Fight your way into gates (3 / 2 is acceptable) or Sneak in, whichever is easier. As usual, anything that isn't great and is needed is average. 5 / 5 split is back for more, and there's no reason she can't Shoppe camp for a few turns to let things develop and to find tomes, weapons, and Elder Signs. Guess I'll just seal three gates in a game, that seems fair and all.

1. Mandy Thompson
Duh. How can somebody think healing Stamina or looking at more Spells can even compare to this insane ability? See also: 4 Clue tokens. Great Sneak. Decent Lore. Decent Fighting bar, actually. Average Speed. 5 / 5 split. Starts in the middle of the board, and with enough money for an Elder Sign or anything good at the Shoppe. Focus of 2. In other words, she has no real faults, save maybe the inappropriateness of her ability name. Research? I think you mean RAPE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~shoa!

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

cw67q — GMT

Avian Chaos, while I found it interesting to read your opinions broken down by investigator, I couldn't disagree more with the reasoning behind your grading.

E.g. pretty much everything you said about the reformed Cultist is probably true. She is still one of my favourite investigators. Why? Because I like playing _a reformed cultist_ .

Some of the more powerful abilities actually put me off certain investigators (e.g. the Martial Artist)

I like the investigators who appeal to me thematically, finding them more fun than the ones with the strongest abilities. Not that there is anything wrong with approaching the game in the manner that you do. It all hinges on whether you are at heart a competitive board/strategy gamer (yes I know it is a co-operative game) or a roleplayer/story junky.

I think FFG have made a remarkable job of coming up with 32 distinct charcters for a board game.

Cheers - Chris

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Thelric — GMT

AC, you seem a bit... worked up.

Any investigator, played well, can win consistently. The main thing I worry about is that an investigator can be too powerful, in which case he or she will tend to dominate play; that makes things less fun for the other players.

All of the investigators have strengths and weaknesses. Granted, a few of them are more useful than others in typical games. But investigators should be looked at as more than a point in a design space. All of the investigators are interesting as characters, and that is at least as important to the fun as their particular combination of stats. And part of illustrating their character is the selection of their stats, starting items, and abilities. You seem to think it is a crime for an investigator to have a Speed of 3. Harvey Walters is an old man. Doesn't it make sense for him to move slowly?

Investigators are best considered as a whole. The game is designed well enough that is very hard for one thing to condemn a investigator. For example, you argue that designers [b]must not[/b] give investigators a 3/0 Lore/Luck because this is "BROKEN." Yet your own ranking of investigators with this trait places them at #3, #14, #17, and #21. Given this distribution of ratings, it's pretty hard to argue that anything is broken as a result. (The average of those ratings is 13.75, which is pretty close to the median of 16.5.)

Why don't you try playing some games with only investigators that you have placed in the bottom half of your rankings? If you concentrate on playing them as characters, and if you are willing to adapt your tactics to the investigators instead of expecting them to conform to your usual tactics, maybe you'll find that they are not so bad after all.

Cheers,
Chris

(Just as an aside, an iconoclast is someone who attacks traditional beliefs and institutions on the grounds that they are based on superstition or incorrect doctrine.)

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Victimizer — GMT

Somewhat odd opinions aside, I do believe the thread title suggests that a ranking per character utility is in order in this thread, so I think Avian chaos has posted together a quite relevant post.

I'm personally more of a character-gamer, but in Arkham Horror I'll play anyone (i.e. we draw characters randomly over here).

I don't think Luke Wilson really starts a few turns back - after he seals his first gate, he only needs to aquire three more to seal the next one. The time balances out, and in regular games, he saves time on collecting clues overall. Not losing the gate box is essential for his abillity to work, and is quite useful, since he will regularly be performing such stunts as sealing Carcosan and R'lyehian gates without having to walk through their dangerous outer worlds. So I think avian chaos' perception of that character is somewhat short sighted.

I don't agree with a whole bunch of others on that list, but those are primarily due to differing opinions on how useful things are, so I won't comment on that.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Avian Chaos — GMT

I guess I probably implied a few things. Usually when we select investigators, we go for making a solid team based on the options everyone was dealt, not just everyone looking at who's most powerful and choosing that person. However, with the game's increased difficulty (say, playing against Abhoth with Ghroth, so you're facing a 9 doom track GOO that spits out brutal monsters every so often) sometimes you just have to gravitate towards the power. I'm actually very much a character gamer myself; the main things I try to avoid in playing or making characters is complete ineptitude or pigeon-holed. I think doing so makes the game more interesting because there's a greater selection of investigators people would be willing to play. Our selection pool is about half official investigators people like and half custom investigators that are very flavorful and reasonably balanced. (In my early days of character creation I had a few too powerful ones, though none nearly as strong as someone like Joe Diamond - nowadays, if they were to fall in this list they'd be around 8-15, which seems above average until you drop out the 7-8 inexcusably limp investigators rounding out the pack.)

In a recent post, 3 speed was voted one the most crippling effects a character can have, and with the expansions it's easy to see why. Unless otherwise aided, a character with three speed will spend a lot of time in the street because it takes time to get from place to place. With any luck, there will be monsters in those street areas so they have something to do, but you can't always guarantee that. So not only are 3 speed characters unrelaible, they can be very dull to play because you get turns where they sit in the street not doing anything. I'm not saying people shouldn't ever have it (I'll play Carolyn Fern every once in a while in the hopes someone picks up a Map of Arkham for me or something) but in a game with two extra boards the designers intend you traverse, it's become a huge disadvantage to be so slow. (Hence the order here.)

The reason I hate 3 Lore 3 Luck is because every time it's used the character ends up with brutal stats elsewhere, usually for fighting. The people aren't rated as highly because obvious measures have been taken against them to shaft the character. (Ashcan Pete - no speed, McGlen - crappy ability, in spite of this, they're still in the top half-ish!) From a functionality standpoint these investigators are all the same thing: predominantly fighters that if forced to can seal a gate. There's nothing wrong with investigators that are good at fighting, but I dislike just blatantly giving an investigator some impetus to perform a function so much so that they really don't do anything else. Compare to Jacqueline Fine, who IMO works best as a fighter with her 7 Sanity and only average fight bar, because her ability prefers when she doesn't spend clues elsewhere. It takes a couple of plays to formulate an opinion of a character like that, though in any scenario, she's also a fairly effective gate sealer as well. More importantly, she's pretty solid at doing both, but hindered in each way for fairness. (While gate-sealing, it's harder to use her ability, while fighting, she wasn't given an above-average F/W bar.) To me, this is a very successful and reasonable investigator.

I've played all the characters I rate poorly except for Vincent Lee (a couple other people drew him and used him early on when we figured Stamina was just as important as Sanity - it became apparent very quickly he does absolutely nothing well.) and the new guy, Luke. (We theorized about his character for a bit, and at least he does something, but the early game is a very important setup time that he misses out on. Sure he can come out of whatever gate he wants with a Gate Box but with 3 Speed it's not like he's going into whatever gate he wants. That plus his early delay means this guy just doesn't ever regain lost time.) Not only do the characters suck, they aren't even fun to play. Dexter Drake is given a bunch of spells you can't effectively use because of his low Sanity, Monterey Jack quite clearly is most effective doing the same thing over and over again, camping the Shoppe, while Diana Stanley comes out way behind because Lodge Membership is horribly overrated (valued at $10 - apparently better than a retainer guys!) and sucks to boot, its usefulness so wishy-washy you'd never want to visit the Lodge solely to use it unless, of course, your Speed was so awful that moving off of the Lodge wouldn't get you anywhere. Rather than create some sort of small incentive to visit the Lodge (I created an investigator with the membership who puts a clue token on the lodge every time a Mythos tries to put a clue token somewhere and can't, meaning if possible the character will drop by the Lodge a couple more times a game and have some fun with it while trying to win), Diana was shafting into going there because she doesn't do anything else well. Not what I'd consider enjoyable or effective.

(Iconoclast was deliberately placed in a phrase demarcated as a fib, had I been going for accuracy I would have said pathological liar or mythomaniac or something; point is, there is no best fighter!)

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

ced1106 — GMT

> 31. Sister Mary

She starts out Blessed! I usually play 8-player games, which means, by the next turn, someone's given Sister Mary a machine gun and a Shrivelling spell. GO MARY!

> 28. Dexter Drake

Until the Librarian in Kingsport, DD was our chief Tome-reader. Again, in an 8-player game, someone will have a book he can read to get that additional spell.

> 25. Wilson Richards

His ability to ignore an encounter is dull, but he can collect clues at unstable locations without chancing a gate encounter. He's a decent fighter and, with his motorcycle, can pretty much go anywhere on the board.

> 21. Asshat Pete

Give him money and have him hang out at the store to get the discarded items back.

Keep posting!

aka. Washu! ^O^

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

cw67q — GMT

I'm a noob and with my current time contrainst & domestic commitments I'm restricted to solo play (the ability to do this with a game I was thematically attracted to were big factors for me).

It does occur to me that speed three would be more of pain if I were playing a single investigator as part of a ream, rather than running 2 or 3 at once. Even when running a single investigator solo 3 speed is probably less of a pain since even though you are slowed you aren't fiddling your thumbs until your turn comes around.

Cheers - Chris

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

357magnum — GMT

[quote=Avian Chaos]
6. Lily Chen
If Asians aren't beating you at math or StarCraft
[/quote]

[img]http://www.qotile.net/images/lol.jpg[/img]

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

avi_dreader — GMT

Ah Avian Chaos :') you've given me so many things to complain about, thank you.

Okay, first of all, Luke is a much better character than you think, because he actually generates clue tokens every turn. In other words, lets say you're playing Hastur or Y'golniac and are short on clue tokens (because there just aren't enough being generated on the map), Luke is a clue token generator. Granted, I'd rather have Rex Murphy, but Luke's world shifting ability is also very nice (along with not having to put up with the curse crap). If you don't value him, it just means you're not using him well. He also makes a great Captain of the White Ship (but that's a whole other story and its applications are more limited).

Then there's the rarely appreciated Jim Cuvier. First of all, being able to murder any undead monster for one clue token can be an excellent ability if the wraith or the mummy or something else particularly nasty comes on the board at a time when you don't have overwhelming strength. Perhaps you play eight player games in which case you always have an arsenal at your disposal, but if you play 2-4 player games, you'd realize that Jim's ability can be a real lifesaver. Of course, that's not all, having a pseudo-Gloria ability is quite nice too. He makes going through other words much more likely to be beneficial or at least harmless. And last, but not at all least, he has the silver trumpet. Yeeesh! Don't you realize how amazing that item is? I know, I know, you prefer to just pick characters, so who needs a silver trumpet when you can just play Leo Anderson, but if you play random characters (as you are encouraged to do) and small investigator teams, that little trumpet can keep you from going insane usually between one and three times in a game. Oh yeah, and no one said Jim needs to keep the trumpet, I usually give it to a fighter with 3 sanity (if there's one), and that way it's much less risky to go against high sanity damage monsters.

Now on to Wilson. Um. Motorcycle. Shotgun. Infinite focus. Do these things not mean anything to you? Great starting equipment is great. So what if his stats aren't the best in the game, he's still a reliable draw. Personally I'd rather have a shotgun and a motorcycle than a (one use per round) flamethrower and three sanity. He's capable of picking up an ally too you know, and once he does it, he's going to be a shotgunning monster (who doesn't go insane at the drop of the hat).

Kate Winthrop. Oh poor slandered Kate. First of all, it's great to not have random monster encounters (so, yes, monsters do not appear where Kate is, regardless of where she is), and to not have to worry about accidentally opening gates when visiting certain locations for clue tokens. And then of course, you can stuff her into a spot later in the game if you're playing on a razor's edge, or you can block up monster surges (even if you're not ready to seal gates yet) with her by dropping her on a gate, if there's only one or two gates left. And then of course, there is the Kate/Arcane Insight game breaker.

Ashcan Pete. Hmmm... Can recycle awesome tomes. Feel like getting ten allies? Why not invest in some bank loans and dhole chants. Enough said. Oh yeah, and there's the search spell deck for any spell tome. Of course, there are also the obvious benefits that can accrue from a King in Yellow or Old Journal. Oh wait, and then there's also his good sanity/stamina, and his great fight/will. Lets not forget being able to peek at the bottom of the decks while making his starting draw (so you can skip crap items there but pick up a good item, just in case it happens to be there). Oh, and speaking of picking up items. What about accidental unconsciousness or insanities with characters whose items are excellent? You don't want to wait until you cycle through a whole deck to pick up their best items again, do you? And of course, there's also the occasional circumstance in which you're shopping and you have two great items in the same draw and can only pick one of them (not if you have Pete!) Such a good character. He's not a gamebreaker like Mandy or Daisy, but he's definitely a second tier character. I'm always happy to draw him.

Lily. I know is going to sound like heresy because so many people seem to love her, but I think she's overrated. So she heals herself one per turn. Big deal. It's not a transferable skill, and martial arts is actually a handicap compared to 2 +4 weapons (or even +3s). Other than fighting Colors From Outerspace, I don't really like her skill. And she starts short on money and items. No thanks. I prefer greater flexibility with my strategies, not just being able to take out medium-small sized monsters. Oh yeah, and if you're playing vs. Glaaki and get the lose skills spawn monster, she's screwed.

Leo Anderson, as much as I like him, is overrated. So what if he can prevent one point of sanity or stamina per turn, as a character himself, I'd be happy to draw him, but unless you play a bad game, his ability isn't so wonderful. I'm not crazy about his stats, and if I remember correctly, his starting equipment isn't very good (even though I do enjoy starting with an ally, I just wish it weren't random). Okay, let me put it this way, I'd rate him in the top ten, but he'd be closer to ten. I used to think he was better, then I realized that spells are sanity costs, not sanity losses (and hence, their damage is unpreventable except by elder shards, Daisy, or cryptical books of hsan, I think there might be something else also, but I can't think of it right now, I guess there are a couple allies and the healing stone also ::shrug:: and Lily, and Carolyn, basically).

One slightly underrated character (although I'll admit, I usually groan internally when I draw her), is Diana Stanley. For one thing, there actually *are* some amazing encounters in the inner sanctum. Problem is, there's plenty of crappy ones and a few dangerous ones as well. But hey, if you could get ahold of The Dragon's Eye or (far more unlikely) the exhibit item from CotDP that lets you copy Darrell Simmon's ability she could get some really great stuff there.

As for Joe Diamond. Honestly, I've never liked him. Yeah, he starts off with a good item, but I don't like his luck/lore stats, or his fight/will. As for his clue token ability, I try to stay away from situations where I *need* to waste clue tokens, so it usually isn't helpful for me. I also think stocking up clues to instantly blast away the ancient one with a shotgun is boring (even though I do it occasionally when I think it necessary to win). Speed's good though. So is focus. I don't want to post him in the top ten, just because I don't like him :') (although I'll grant it that my dislike of him is somewhat prejudiced and in reality he probably does deserve a top ten slot, I can still think of at least five investigators who I would rather draw than him, in terms of sheer power, barring clue token combat vs. ancient ones, I guess if you leave that in he is one of the best, especially in lower player number games with a fight skill and a blessing, heh, still, Rex can almost do the same, and he's much better for sealing victories and strange events that require the spending of clue tokens for non-skillchecks).

As for Daisy, I'd rather search for alchemy than find gate. Seriously. $3 a turn for the entire game. Hello? Can you say ka-tching? I constantly have trouble deciding who I think is the most powerful character, Mandy or Daisy. Having played a game with Daisy where she became a near godlike character (and this was *without* the newer expansions more powerful spells, I'm inclined to say Daisy, partially). But then again... Hmmm... Always a tough choice.

One last note. 3 speed characters. Yeah, they're annoying, but so what, Charlie, Caroline, and Ashcan Pete are great despite their handicaps. You send them to Kingsport. Give them monster killing duties. Have them go into other worlds. Make them into shoppers. Yeah, they're somewhat inflexible, but so are characters with three sanity. Get them a map, or a motorcycle, or a ruby of rlyeh, or a +speed ally or skill. Yeesh. It's not a dealbreaker.

:'D feel free to disagree ;'D then I will feel free to yell at you (politely of course).

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Avian Chaos — GMT

This should be of some help. We don't fight Ancient Ones (makes certain setups less desirable) and our games are often four player. (You can't dig as far through the decks, limiting the chances of a could-be powerful ability working out, like Pete.) We don't just select whoever we feel like, it's a selection from a few candidates dealt out randomly to each player. Our game last night was the first Mandy game in 3-4 plays.

As for specific people:

Sure, Dexter increases the odds you draw something good from tomes, but that's only digging a few extra spells down (in our four player games, we usually crack 2-3 spell tomes a session) and it really sucks that he doesn't have the Sanity to really use the spells himself, unless of course, you luck into Find Gate.

As I mentioned, Wilson Richards has AMAZING starting items. Infinite focus is nice but not nearly as strong when you have crappy stats to back it up. Sure, he can hold onto his own Shotgun and use it semi-effectively (it really isn't a great weapon if you don't have a lot of Fight), but odds are another player has selected a better candidate and you just give it away. (This happened twice during our games. Why wouldn't you hand off the shotgun to someone like Joe Diamond or Bob Jenkins?)

There's a reason Kate is ranked above Wilson, mainly because she can actually seal more than one gate reliably and she has the same no-gates clause when you have encounters at risky locations. Problem is, her ability doesn't really DO anything against the game, it just protects you from stuff you voluntarily engage in. She's okay, but squatting on a location isn't really conducive to accumulating clues, and I certainly wouldn't base her effectiveness on a two-part combo.

Pete has no Lore so I don't know how one can reliably expect to recycle tomes. It would take the effort of at least one other player hovering in the same area. King in Yellow and Old Journal are the only options that are cost-efficient, and you have to find them. Yes, his F/W bar is nice but he fights about as effectively as anyone else because he has to get over to where monsters are located with three Speed. (If he's camping the Shoppe, say, the only oft-crowded area he can get to in one swoop is Merchant District Streets. Uptown, French Hill, and Dunwich are all comfortably out of his reach, ensuring he takes multiple turns to do something Bob Jenkins could do in one.

I played Jim Culver once and simply cannot stand him. He has no effective gate sealing stat so most of the time he will enter gates that already have green. Simply adding greens to the mix is nowhere near as ridiculous as Gloria Goldberg who by looking at two almost guarantees she gets a favorable encounter. Jim, on the other hand, really only bumps his chances to 1 in 3, if he's not in a green world already. Golden Trumpet is a nice hand-off, but the percentage of difficult Undead monsters in the cup is very, very low.

Luke doesn't generate clue tokens every turn, only when he's in an Otherworld, which he can expect to be probably six times in a game. Rex Murphy's curse probably lasts about as long as Luke's huge delay from starting in some Otherworld, while the turns he hopes to gain by generating clue tokens himself really only even out because his Speed sucks so he has to spend time traversing the map. This is why he can't hop into any gate he feels like, so he's basically limited to what gates are around him already. The Captain of the White Ship is fine, but factoring in the time it takes to get to Kingsport to get it makes it pretty mediocre. Same with the other junk up there, including the High House.

Lily's skill is just early-game firepower and backup later against Immunities. Ideally she'll be using weapons that other people acquire, so she can easily fight larger monsters, and losing the skill to Glaaki isn't a big deal. (Traditionally, that's Glaaki's most benign servant, along with Spell.) Sucks to start out in the Red district and her initial items are threadbare but not worrying about sanity and stamina all game compensates pretty well.

Leo Anderson's ability is amazing, easily one of the best in the game. During the first couple turns, people who crack tomes don't lose the sanity. (This adds up, so preventing it is nice.) Over the next couple turns, fighters can forgo Will to destroy monsters they would otherwise have trepidations about because Leo can mitigate the damage. Later, as people are clamoring through Otherworlds his ability helps against encounters that prompt sanity / stamina losses with NO way around them. It doesn't make any sense to say only bad players would need this prevention. Even if that were the case, it allows "good players" to push their limits fightning monsters and choosing not to heal. He doesn't need to prevent losses from spells, good spellcasters have 6+ sanity. Often times they only cast spells when needed (Find Gate, Summon Shantak, etc) and can usually time the other ones with obtaining a Madness card to heal. (Stuff like Greater Banishment, Alchemical Process, or Arcane Insight.)

Disliking Joe Diamond is perfectly understandable - he's [i]too[/i] good. As an investigator, though, he's incontrovertibly insane. Stashing clue tokens to Shotgun an Ancient One? That just sounds idiotic and a complete waste of Joe's talent. I like Luck and Lore, but they obviously aren't vital to an investigator, and the fact he doesn't have them means his F/W and S/S are higher than they should be. His clue token ability is the same principle as Jim Culver - you spend one and you can beat a monster you otherwise couldn't. (Don't forget he can just seal a gate starting off, he begins with 3 clue tokens and can easily Sneak into gate, if not Fight in. This gets him much closer to a Will ally, admittedly his only real downside.) Like I mentioned before, the guy starts with $8, 6 Speed, average Sneak, a .45, and 3 focus. He's not my one of my favorite characters either but the guy can do everything.

Some of the 3-Speed characters I have in the top half. The ones that are iffy however, the Speed thing really swings it out of their favor. I don't believe I have any 3 sanity characters very high anyways.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

Cynical — GMT

[quote=avi_dreader]
As for Daisy, I'd rather search for alchemy than find gate. Seriously. $3 a turn for the entire game. Hello? Can you say ka-tching? I constantly have trouble deciding who I think is the most powerful character, Mandy or Daisy. Having played a game with Daisy where she became a near godlike character (and this was *without* the newer expansions more powerful spells, I'm inclined to say Daisy, partially). But then again... Hmmm... Always a tough choice.
[/quote]
And what exactly are you doing with the money that's better than sealing a bunch of gates?

In order to use that much money, you'd have to spend 1/4 of your turns on a shop, meaning you'd pretty much never do anything but have Arkham encounters or shop. How does that help you achive victory, aside from passing items to people who actually will do something?

On the other hand, find gate:
Gets you out of gates faster. Assuming you seal 3 gates (not unreasonable with Find Gate), you save 3 turns. Nice.

Spares you a second gate encounter. R'lyeh, Unknown Kadath, City of the Great Race, The Abyss, etc. are a whole lot less scary when you only have 1 encounter. This saves numerous turns that you'd otherwise have to heal/get delayed/get lost in time and space/replace items and clue tokens lost. And turns are always your most important resource in Arkham Horror.

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

alamogold — GMT

[quote] And what exactly are you doing with the money that's better than sealing a bunch of gates? [/quote]

I think either option is effective, depending on the other investigators. I mean, if you're playing with Jenny Barnes, Darrell, or Rita then Find Gate is certainly preferable.

But if you're teamed with Sister Mary and Amanda Sharpe or other poor investigators having someone with some cash is probably not a bad idea. Turn quantity is important, but so is turn quality. And the quality of your turns can certainly go down if you have limited equipment, not to mention the fact that Elder Signs are relatively helpful (unless you're a score fiend).

Re:The most useless/unplayable investigator

avi_dreader — GMT

Find gate doesn't let you seal more gates, it'll save you maybe three or four turns in a game (for one character), and let you skip 3 or 4 encounters. Big deal. Usually what I do in my games is have all the players meet at one of the shops, usually for unique items, but sometimes for common items if we're really short on weapons. We trade, spend one or two turns shopping (sometimes one character goes off to collect clues), then split up to do our separate tasks, sometimes the weakest character will stay behind another turn to shop with any leftover money. The same process can be done later in the game after Daisy accumulates say, another $20. As for what's worth buying in the unique item shop? Seriously? Elder signs, King in Yellows, Eye of the Dragon, Healing Stone, one handed combat items. Stat bonus items. And a huge one for Daisy, The Necronomicon. That's not to mention all the other neat more specialized items that are in the later expansions.

In my opinion, it's better to have a slow start and extremely powerful characters shortly afterwards than to just rush into gates as fast as you can. Based on my win/loss (pretty high, even with random characters), I'd say rushing into combat isn't necessarily the best strategy.

Pretty much the only place I prefer to avoid is Rlyeh, and then, only because of the slight possibility that Cthulhu will pop out and cripple my best character. I usually just let Rlyeh gates stay open unless they're on a high frequency location, and I've already closed the other high frequency locations.

Of course, there are also useful skills and common items that you can buy ::shrugs:: and there are some really broken combos you can pull off if you can afford to buy out an entire item deck.

I would much much much rather lose even, say, five character turns (distributed among various characters), and be able to cycle through 15 unique items and keep five of them.