When Innsmouth first came out one of the first things I did was look at the new characters. While I was happy with most of them a few of them struck me as say sub par. I am sorta interested in other peoples take on them cause I'm sure other people will have strong opinions on them. My point is not to whine about weak characters. Rather I want to start a disscusion maybe to see some things I missed.

Akachi Onyele

While her stats don't suck her starting items and abbilities are fairly unimpressive. She esentually has 3 abilities. The one less clue to seal esentually means she generates 1 clue token per seal but that clue token can only be used to seal. On a very good day 1 investigator may get 4 seals. Considering how other investigators (Patrice, Rex, Luck, Roland) can easiily generate this many clue tokens I'm not impressed. Her next ability is the +1 to checks made to seal. This basically raises her lore and fight by one but only when shes trying to close a gate. While this may be nice generally this isn't the check where you desperately want a +1. Also anyone with a lore or fight of 6 essentually has this ability as well since it bumps her best sealing stat (lore) to a max of 6. Her final abbility is the seal no matter what abbility. This I admit can be very good like when a certian environment comes out (you know the one). The thing is there isn't enough things in the game that prevent sealing. This makes it like Beloved of Bast which is very good but has such a little chance of actually being used it can be ignored most of the time.

As for her starting items she pays 7 for a gate. While this is nice it seems like too much since she starts with too few clue tokens for an early seal. If she goes the the sciene building turn one she can get enough but it still seems like an unfair deal.

Her stats actually aren't that bad. Lots of speed and lore as well as a decent fight and will. Bad focus but oh well.

To recap 2 weak abbilities and one strong but not often useful one. Decent stats but not great starting items.

Personal Veiw: Very often its the abbilities that make the character. When a character has a sub par ability they usually get a bad rap and while her abilities aren't terrible none of them seem very good. The I'm also not sure what to do with her starting gate. Maybe get a blessing or go for an early gate jump to get an ally even if you can't seal.

"Skids" O'Toole

I'll never understand this game's fasination with 3 sanity 3 will characters (I believe 3/6 have this problem). It just feels like kicking a character that's already down. In Skids case he has 3 speed as well so there's another kick. Now his hard knocks ability is nice but its more or less an indirect blessing. I think his second ability should have helped with his will rather than be a detriment ability like reroll 2s as well on will checks but with just 1 die. He doesn't have the stats, starting item or ability to justify a detriment ability though 3 clue tokens is always very nice.

Personal Veiw: Admitingly the game I played with him in was one of our easiest games ever but this is probably because we started with 12 clue tokens divided among 4 characters. While I don't hate him I really hate how many 3 sanity 3 will characters this game has. Though it doesn't make the characters unplayable it is usually a huge turn off and makes them much harder to play if they don't get some plus to horror checks.

George Barnaby

First of all I fully understand what his ability does. My problems aren't so much with his abilities but with his stats. His abilities are both not terrible but I've never been a fan of abbilities that require payment to be used. Most of the other characters who only have payment for use abilities either have great stats and items to back it up (Joe Diamond) or have very powerful abilities (Jakline Fine, Charels Kane). In Barnabies case his skills are useful but not game affecting like Fine's or Kane's can be though I suppose protection from arresting is nice specially with innsamouth. As for his stats I veiw them as the worse in the entire game. He does not have speed nor can he fight well. He is not a sealer with his highest stat 4 and no real gate oriented abilities. In fact I have no idea what he should be doing. I want to point out that I veiw Sneaking and luck as the 2 least useful stats in the game. He is the only character to have Sneak and Luck equal to 5. There are only 2 other characters with (max)Sneak + (max)Luck>=10. Sistem Mary (before her personal story nuff said) and Wendy Addams (Specialty character that uses sneak moreso than fight or will, doesn't count).

Personal Veiw: Once upon a time while trying to undersand this character I thought that maybe I missed something and that his first ability could be used on any die roll rather then just skill checks (you know like upkeep rolls) but no such luck. As he is I just don't know what to do with him. He has no clear designation and no easy way to be molded to fit a designation. With his bad stats giving him a better plus per clue token probably would have been okay.

Hm, well I agree with most of your statements, but I have to stick op for Oneyle, she's awesome. Clue token thing granted, sealing thing granted, always seal gates point granted... but even so. Mainly the important thing that I think you've missed is that her personal story reward is one of the best in the game. No horrible effects for her (like poor Silas Marsh getting Devourered), and she sows clues on the board like so many grains of Professor Rice. As I said, one of the most benificial and not *too* hard to accomplish. Needs 3 gates, starts with 1 so that's 1 down. She starts with 2 clues, but basically 'as if' it were starting with 3 because of her gate ability. So first turn pick up 2 clues if possible and she's good to dive, 2 gates down. The third you have to work for, but shouldn't be too tough, and the fail condition is easily avoidable if you coordinate with your other party members, most of whom I think will agree it's worth trying to get Oneyle to pass.

What are you talking about? Akachi is amazing. She's a guaranteed Professor Rice. If you're playing with IH and DH she often generates between 11-15 clues on the board (not to mention her -1 to sealing ability, 2-3 extra). She's an excellent character. Sure, she's no Patrice, but if you asked me to name the second best character in the new expansion, I'd say Akachi.

Actually on second thought, The Fed would give her a run for her money, and Silas is pretty good too— especially if you use his ability to seal a gate after he's sealed a first gate (you get a new character with new items and cash and you also get to instantly seal a gate anywhere without risk of failure). I don't think Silas is quite as good as the other two though.

Also, regarding Skids O'Toole. School of Hard Knocks is an *amazing* ability. Combine that with a blessing or one of the +1 to rolls on skill checks skills and he's essentially unstoppable on whatever ability you want to invest his points in. I agree that a will of three is a handicap, but nothing is stopping you from picking up a +2 will or a +2 horror checks ally for him (he should be able to get it fairly early in the game). His lore is very nice after he gets his upgrade (which he almost definitely will), it's unusual to have a meele character who can effectively cast spells. When it comes to the final battle (if you get there) he will be an absolute demon (due to his ability). Also, his sanity is effectively four, not three, since it is very unlikely that you will fail his mission. Don't underestimate his power, this character is a major league tough bastard if you equip him properly.

re: Barnaby, I'm not particularly crazy about him. I really dislike his stats. On the other hand, give him a few extra clues and stick his lor luck on 3/3 and send him exploring ::shrug:: Knowledge is power can really save your ass sometimes (especially if you're cursed). ::Shrug:: at least he has decent starting cash (provided he doesn't lose his retainer on the second turn). I'll admit that he's my least favorite of the new investigators. Still, he's not *that* bad, unless you need a fighter, in which case you should transfer his items and try to get him retired or devoured. The one interesting thing about him is his spend clues to raise dies ability is that he has a built in guaranteed way of passing a skill check (provided he rolled a die). No other investigator has this. I still don't like him though and would rather draw any of the other Innsmouth investigators ;'D

I was going to take issue with your assessment of Akachi, but I see that's already been done. Suffice it to say I agree with the previous two posters about Akachi, except for the statement that her Personal Story success is "guaranteed". Nothing is guaranteed in Arkham Horor. We had Akachi last game, but eleven gates opened in twelve turns and the AO awoke right before she could get that third gate trophy!

Skids I've seen my fellow game play with, and that Hard Knocks ability IS useful, and his Personal Story was pretty easy to complete, with the benefits already listed.

Barnaby we've never played with, so I can render no real opinion on him.

Hmmmm well I wasn't really considering personal stories in this assesment but I will admit that hers Iis very good but sealing the spending of gate trophies for a few turns is a pain. More often than not I find if someone needs to buy something quickly gate trophies are spent first but that is a very specific situation so don't look into it too deeply. Also She is not set up for the quick seal. She starts with only 1 clue token (2 counting her ability) meaning she needs 3 more for the seal. In a game your more likely to give the inicial double clue tokens to someone with 3 rather than someone with only 1 (or 2)

I'm afraid that no one has yet to convince me of her greatness. Even with her personal story I'd round her to about 5th and thats only if I'm being very very generous to her. If I'm being only slightly generous to her I'd say with her story she is around 10th. Her fight and will are pretty poor for fighting so she'll be in trouble is she bumps into something vicious.

As for Silsa he's amazing with innsamouth in. His will is 6 and his fight is 8 most places there. He also can go to and from the island part of the board easier than any other characters. Slightly less so if its not in but his stats are very very good so I wouldn't devour him as quick as you suggested. I'd rather wait for 5 seals or wait until there are 5 open gates with the next person 1 turn away from sealing to use his ability.

oh and for my best characters I would say

Pactrice: Nuff said about her but she seems too good so we've been afraid to use her.

Roland : Geez comparing this guy to the student is sooooooooooooo unfair. Not only does he get an extra stat point he gets an ally instead of a skill, and a very good ability. Heck consider this, had they taken away a clue token and $2 and given him a spell he would start with the same items as the student but double her money and clue tokens.

William: You know when you're the designated monster killer had you have like 20 monster trophies? Most monster killers aren't set up to help with gates cause they're too busy slaughtering everything rather than collection clues. When there's a lull in the monsters they uasuall twittle their thumbs for random encounters. William on the other hand is more than ready to go sealing a gate when he doesn't need to kill anything anymore making him the only character who specializes in both monster killing and sealing.

Norman: He IS set up for an early seal. Not only that he starts with a top tier item. True his monster fighting stats suck but since he esentually can cast greater banishment every 2 turns who cares. He can be great if there are a bunch of monster surges in a row or if an early dole or color out of space appear when no one is ready for them.

These are the characters I veiw as the strongest. There are 5 other characters who I veiw as very good. While I admit Akachi's raining clue tokens is very good, better than I was giving it credit for there are just too many other characters who are more useful early on than she is. I will concede however that there are almost no other characters who can jump start the game again as she does halfway through when the clue wells have dried up.

I've played Barnaby twice now and been underwhelmed each time. His main thing is his cash, starting with $7 + a retainer is pretty good early money, by the 3rd turn he has as much money as Jenny, assuming he hasn't lost his retainer. His bailout ability seems ok, but Jail hasn't been much of a problem in Innsmouth for us so far.. His clue token ability seems good, but there just isn't much to use it on. He has sucky fight stats, less than impressive lore and isn't much use as a gate closer with a 4 lore and few clue tokens to start. He starts at Administration which is inconvieniently just enough to make him unable to get to the Curiositte Shoppe or General Store first turn, so if he wants to spend his starting cash he has to spend 2 turns doing it.

Solan said:

Heh... I didn't say that success of her mission is guaranteed. Sorry, I could've phrased myself better. What I meant is that if she's in a game she doesn't have a tendency to disappear like Rice does (either due to random ally selection or terror rises).

allstar64 said:

Also, no one said you need to seal with her twice. I would probably go for a first sealing the first time, and if there's an elder sign or a KiY waiting for her when she comes out, I'd take it and go for a second seal, otherwise I'd just go for a gate closing. It's well worth it for the extra clues, and it's not very late into the game. 1/4 fight/will isn't unusually bad, and you didn't mention her five speed, often a useful stat.

In your assessment of characters you seem to have been privileging combat strength, which is a mistake in my opinion as sealing is usually the most important part of the game (especially against Innsmouth AOs who are very tough to beat in direct combat). Norman is nice, mostly for his find gate, but his fight and speed statistics are both awful. I'd try and kill him after drawing him. His ability is only likely to work two or three times for you over the course of the game, because, after all, you're not just going to close gates without sealing them, are you?

Silas is useful, especially if you're playing KH and IH, but I would still consider sacrificing him relatively early. Getting another character with full equipment is an excellent ability if you can trade away all of Silas' equipment prior to doing so.

Who compared Roland to Amanda? He's clearly a far superior character, especially once he completes his personal story.

William is okay as a monster killer, except for his 3 speed and one focus. I'd much rather have Hank Samson. I've played William twice now— in one game he was vastly overshadowed by Patrice, in the other he was an average character. In neither case was he essential. There are better monster slayers out there. Really the only nice thing about his monster to clue ability is it saves you the turns you would otherwise waste at the science building. So... ::shrug::

If you asked me who I think are the five strongest new investigators I'd say...

1) Patrice

2) Roland

3) Akachi

4)Min Thi Phan (you do realize that her +1 to skill checks ability works even if you then move the investigator elsewhere, right?)

5)Silas

Hank Samson gets an honorable mention, but I'd rather draw any of the above five— they're all much more useful when it comes to the main part of the game— sealing (although Roland is also a bit of a cash machine).

Avi_dreader said:

Still, his personal story is often going to be trivial to pass, since he starts with 3 monster trophies - probably 6 toughness total on average - in the church. That solves the focus problem nicely (and a blessing is probably worth 2 or 3 starting clues, since it'll make it much easier to get them back while keeping the town clear for everyone else).

cim said:

I'm not sure if it's worth spending five toughness for a blessing and +1 focus, I'd rather have three clues or potential ally exchange material.

<<Norman is nice, mostly for his find gate, but his fight and speed statistics are both awful. I'd try and kill him after drawing him. His ability is only likely to work two or three times for you over the course of the game, because, after all, you're not just going to close gates without sealing them, are you?>>

I had Norman in one of my first Innsmouth games. I found that his ability got quite a bit of use. I think he ended up closing 4 or 5 gates, and every time there seemed to be plenty of monsters of a single symbol that could be wiped off the board, or a tough monster in a key location blocking another investigator from doing something important.

I like Akachi, too. I am not in so much of a rush to seal gates anymore due to the DOR track. I've started sealing the low and medium frequency gates as a strategy. So long as I don't dilly dally, I can get the job done. I do try to seal Innsmouth gates immediately, however, especially Devils Reef and Yghthrapstiddle (or whatever its called.) I think I'm on my firth or 6th Innsmouth game and I've only had to call the Feds once.

One last item is that I found Silas to be very useful in the end game. The team was down to the wire and his sacrifice got a key seal with one or two doom tokens left on the doom track. The his replacement was Wendy, with her Elder sign. She had an encounter that brought her out of the Other World in one turn, and bang-game over.

Haven't played with Patrice yet. Looking forward to it. So far I've played Akachi, Skids, Silas, Norman, Finn, and Hank. All random draws form all available investigators. I found Skids to be the least valuable player, but that might just be dumb luck. Current game has Agnes, and she is kicking butt, just like she is supposed to.