Translating my AH custom characters over to EH! Feedback wanted!

By Soakman, in Fan Creations

For fans of my original creations for Arkham Horror, I am working on Eldritch Horror variations of these same investigators!

I don't know how many of you have used these guys and gals, but with just over 500 downloads on BGG, I thought I would see if any of you would mind looking over the EH variations I have in their current iterations before I take them to playtesting. The only reason why I am posting this in the Arkham forum and not JUST the Eldritch forum is because I think there might be an element of insight that my fellow Arkham players (who also have knowledge of how Eldritch works) have.

I'm excited to get this process rolling so I will leave these here and hopefully I will hear from some of you. ^_^ For comparison purposes, you can see the original Arkham versions of these investigators in my gallery here or just follow the link in my signature.

And without further ado:

Anna Anderson: The Imposter (?)
Sanity: 6 Stamina: 6
Starting: Axe, Space 16
Lore: 3 Influence: 1 Obs: 2 Strength: 3 Will: 4
Action: Discard one Exposure Condition and gain One Focus.
Passive: When Anna Passes a Horror Test, gain a Sanity
Anton Pavel: Romani Acrobat
Sanity: 4 Stamina: 8
Starting: Lucky Cigarette Case, Istanbul
Lore: 2 Influence: 3 Obs: 2 Strength: 3 Will: 3
Action: Test Influence -1, gain a random Trinket from the deck.
Passive : After his encounter phase, Anton may immediately spend one Stamina to perform one additional action.
Eunice Goulding: Geometrician
Sanity: 7 Stamina: 5
Starting: Clairvoyance, The Pyramids
Lore: 3 Influence: 2 Obs: 4 Strength: 1 Will: 3
Action: Test Obs -1, look at the back of any spell you own and gain one Clue.
Passive: After resolving a spell effect, Eunice must discard that spell and gain a new one.
Hosea Mayhew: The Emery Miner
Sanity: 6 Stamina: 6
Starting: Lantern, Minerology Report, Arkham
Lore: 1 Influence: 3 Obs: 3 Strength: 4 Will: 2
Action: If Hosea does not have an ally, discard an improvement and gain a random unique ally asset.
Passive: When Hosea gains an ally, gain a random task asset.
Edmund Moore: Streetrat
Sanity: 6 Stamina: 5
Starting: Silver Key Artifact, Arkham
Lore: 2 Influence: 2 Obs: 2 Strength: 3 Will: 3
Action: Trade with an investigator on your space, the perform an additional action.
Passive: Gain a Focus if Edward is Detained or Delayed.
Astrid Lee: The Gossip
Sanity: 5 Stamina: 7
Starting: Newspaper Report, Rome
Lore: 2 Influence: 4 Obs: 3 Strength: 2 Will: 2
Action: Test Influence -1, spawn a discarded clue of your choice.
Passive: Once per game, solve an existing Rumor and gain a Dark Pact condition.
Sadie Godfrey: the Survivor
Sanity: 5 Stamina: 7
Starting: Purifying the World, San Francisco
Lore: 2 Influence: 2 Obs: 2 Strength: 4 Will: 3
Action: Spend one Focus and discard a Condition.
Passive : Sadie cannot be cursed; she receives an additional die in combat checks for each focus she currently has.
Obi Leveau: Voudoo Bokor
Sanity: 8 Stamina: 4
Starting: Banishment, Space 7
Lore: 4 Influence: 2 Obs: 3 Strength: 2 Will: 2
Action: Roll a die. Remove and item in the reserve from the game with cost equal to or less than your die roll. An investigator on your space gains an Improvement of his choice.
Passive: Investigators receive an additional die on tests when having an Otherworld encounter at a gate that matches the current Omen.
Let me know what you think!
Edited by Soakman

Anna's remove Hypothermia ability is pretty narrow. It won't come into play very often. How about gain 1 focus, then you may use one card with a Rest action.

Thanks Jake Yet Again! I've seen this concern a few places already and I'm working on a possible change.

I think I have a solution based around the particular nature of her Personal Story in AH. To do so, I will have to alter her stats around a bit. This is what I'm angling for.

Lore: 2 Inf: 1 Obs: 3 St: 3 Will: 4
Action: Spend one Sanity to resolve a spell effect using Anna's Will instead of her Lore.
Passive: Recover 1 Sanity when Anna passes a Horror test.

Do you think this works better?

GeneralRevision Ideas:

In regard to Astrid's once per game ability, I want to avoid players picking her and then killing her off once it is used, but still give her a powerful rumor-based ability.
Astrid's action will remain the same, however her passive will read either (1) Passive: When a rumor is in play, Astrid receives two additional dice to all skill tests. (2) Passive: Gain up to two improvements for a stat of your choice when a rumor is solved. Thoughts?

With Anton , I would like to keep his passive slightly better than Voice of Ra (otherwise I would have given him the spell to begin with, but it does raise a question about power creep should he end up with the spell as well). I'd also like to permit his action to happen after the encounter phase to keep him interesting, but also to allow opportunities like closing a gate, but then being able to begin the trek to his next destination. This third action could not be a duplicate as per the standard rules. I might change this passive, but only if it becomes a mechanical problem during playtests.

Hosea's action ability is really quite powerful and unique allies do not come up very often. There has to be a significant sacrifice to obtain them as he can trade his allies away since they are assets. I'm more worried, actually, about how powerful he may be able to make the team if someone uses Feed the Mind on him continuously. Tasks are QUITE good themselves, but they require specific goals to be met to activate them. Doling them out to those most suited to the task would be costly in terms of actions. I think the Doom track keeps him from making the team too powerful in a typical game, but I should probably playtest this first. Also, the lantern is a relatively insignificant item, but it is thematic and I think a one-time use. I will check when I am home.

And finally, one possible thought about changing Obi's active ability which may be too confusing for simple play. Action: Return an artifact you own to the box and place a "!" token at your location. If a gate would open there, do not place the gate, retreat the doom by 1, and remove the "!" token. Artifacts are pretty rare, and quite a trade-off for doom reduction, but it is a powerful ability. Thematically this item discarding idea relates to his ability to create Gris-Gris (a type of beneficial spiritual totem) from items of significance or power. If you want the whole story, check out Arkham Horror's versions of the "the story so far/personal story." Also, his passive does affect all investigators board wide. This is one reason why he is an 8/4 character. They are significantly harder to keep alive, and most 8/4 characters have this trade-off. Jacqeline's clue trades & gains, Charlie's asset buying and action transfer, Georges's ability to free detained/debted investigators etc are all board-wide abilities. There are exceptions, but I believe this is one of the balancing ideas that has been in place since launch. At least one of the exceptions, Mark Harrigan, can spend the higher of the two tokens for an effect (the more he has, the more willing he will be to spend them).

Edmund is a little difficult to feel out. This is mostly because FFG has not shown us how or if Wendy Adams is going to show up and compare to other investigators currently in the game. In Arkham, Wendy starts with one of the most powerful items in the game but has significantly lowered stats. The Silver Key in Eldritch is pretty good (it is also a part of Edmund's original back story from his AH version). I'd like to keep it, but, again, I'm worried about people just trading it and then letting him die. I could add a "The Silver Key cannot be traded" addendum, but it has yet to be done in EH, so I'm not sure if I ought to implement it. Thoughts?

Are these improved ideas? Or do these only complicate matters with these characters? Thoughts?

Edited by Soakman

As long as the sum of stats is 13, the investigator's certainly balanced. As for her special ability: sounds interesting, yet really powerful (with a Will of 4, I expect her to pass quite a few horror test, so basically she can consider using a lot her ability).

Thanks Julia. That's the idea. And still, she will only be able to use it for rituals I believe since it is an action ability (though I did not specifically use the keyword Ritual because I need to comb through the spells to make sure I'm not missing something).

Also, I added some more thought to the previous post as I didn't want to double post. Feel free to respond to any of it or none of it. I know you don't typically handle investigator related custom material Julia, but your voice is always welcome. I will finalize these eventually regardless of how much feedback I receive, but the more problems I can root out of these the better.

Edited by Soakman

Thanks ;) First of all, you've done wisely not to use the "Ritual" keyword. Why? Simply because for now Ritual spells are the only spells able to trigger her ability: Nikki's adding different categories of spells with each expansions, and if you keep her ability flexible, then spells appearing in the future could also be affected by her ability (making the character more a jack of the trade)

Commenting everything right now is quite a task (leaving tomorrow for a 3-day wedding, with possibly no internet, and a prototype to assemble before Friday). I'll come back and add feedback when possible.

For now: Astrid. Solution 1 is to avoid. Basically you could have rumors triggering with no reckoning Mythos left in the deck, so that you give her a perma +2 dice on everything, cumulative with the rest. Giving her the opportunity to improve 2 attributes should be strong enough (and also a nice way to counter eventual negative attribute modifiers, you know, some on BGG said the new expansion comes with negative Will and Strength)

(more later, when I can)

No rush at all! Those are both very useful pieces of feedback. I'm wading into creating custom content when there is a load of new cards and mechanics on the horizon. It's always a question whether or not I want to use things like "unique allies" with these guys as well because it locks out those players who may only have the base game. Tricky place to be, indeed. ;) I'm very excited by all of what I've seen so far in regards to FFG's new content and Niki's work.

As a sidenote, I really liked the idea of Astrid (and friends) being able to push a rumor to the limit (and usually risking a deadly set-back!) in order to maximize on the window of her passive, but you are spot on when you consider that there may be no reckonings left in the deck or that some rumors are simply ignorable in certain circumstances. That would certainly break her.