As far as I understand it, the popular wisdom is that most Investigators have $25 which is spent on starting items.

Each Clue Token costs $2, each fixed posession costs its list price with Spells costing various amounts depending on what they do. Random items cost $3 for a Common Item, $4 for a Spell and $5 for a Unique Item. Any money left over is given to the Investigator as starting cash.

For example, Carolyn Fern. $7 + $2 (1 Clue Token) + $10 (2 Unique Items) + $6 (2 Common Items) = $25

But if this is the case, there are several Investigators who don't add up. Even accounting for the variable cost of fixed spells and those who start with special cards like a Blessing or an extra Skill, or Trophies, or even have variable Max Sanity/Stamina ...

Hank Samson. $3 + $2 (1 Clue Token) + $1 (Food) + $6 (2 Common Items) + $5 (1 Unique Item) = $17

Tony Morgan. $6 + $6 (3 Clue Tokens) + $4 (Handcuffs) + $3 (1 Common Item) + $5 (1 Unique Item) = $24.

Wendy Adams. $3 + $6 (3 Clue Tokens) + $5 (Elder Sign) + $3 (1 Common Item) = $17.

Now a case can easily be made that Hank Samson's extra point of Stamina is worth $8. But then, by that logic, Wendy Adams should be given an extra $16. So she's $8 short anyway and, going on Hank Samson, is a further $16 short - so she's $24 short. Does starting with an Elder Sign REALLY balance her out? I'd say not ...

But even if you disagree, and think that 3 Monster Trophies should be worth $5 etc., what the heck happened to Tony Morgan??

Hank's case is cut-and-dried. In the case of Wendy, I think that she was compensated in other areas:

• She has a couple bonus stat points above the investigator norm (3), making her overall stats add up pretty high.
• Her Streetwise ability is pretty useful; better on average than most other investigators, I'd say.
• Starting with an Elder Sign gives the investigators a huge leg up, certainly more than the $5 the item is worth.

As for Tony, it was probably just a misprint. Bob Jenkins was shorted just one dollar in the 1st edition print, and FFG actually went out of their way to correct it. Jenny was shorted $3.

Another possible explanation for Tony (although unlikely) is that he was given his bonus point of focus, and the designers thought that a whole bonus point of focus was just slightly too much compensation, and docked him a dollar. But that seems quite too nitpicky to be plausible.

If you want to really get into the "why in the hell" mode, take a look at investigator stats. The minimum slider positions of each stat and the investigator's focus is supposed to add up to 8. There are a number of investigators who were given a bonus point of focus. Some of these make sense, others don't:

• Amanda Sharpe has a bonus focus, I assume because her ability rarely comes into play. Some players thought it was because she had no stats that went above 4, but Leo Anderson has this stat arrangement but no bonus point.
• Joe Diamond has 1 bonus point. I think this is because the designers thought that in order to use his ability, you're sacrificing clues that are needed to seal and win the game. Others thought it was because he was the only character whose minimum Fight/Will/Lore/Luck add up to below 3, but Finn Edwards meets this condition and doesn't have a bonus point.
• Rita Young has 1 bonus point. Her ability comes into play only rarely though. I think this is fair.
• Wilson Richards essentially has 2 bonus focus points (his focus is 4), but this is part of his ability.
• Daisy Walker has 1 bonus point. This I do not get: her ability as written is a bit too strong and abuse-able; if anything, she should be docked a point. This is the only character who I enforce a house-rule that her focus is actually only 1.
• Lily Chen has a bonus point, but she also has a sanity/stamina maximum above 10, and starts with $15 in starting funds.
• Lola Hayes has a bonus focus. I can see this being fair, since in order to take a new skill, she has to give up a skill.
• Rex Murphy has a bonus point. He also has $30 in starting funds; $25 if you count his Curse as +$5. His Family Curse disability probably justifies the bonus point.
• Tony Morgan has a bonus point, as I explained above. Probably because his ability isn't all that good.
• Wendy Adams has 3 bonus points.
• Roland Banks has 2 bonus points. Probably because his ability only works when he drops below a certain amount of money and clues, and usually doesn't below of both at the same time.
• Silas Marsh has a bonus focus. He also has a disability of being more prone to the Innsmouth Look.
• Trish Scarborough has a bonus point, but that's related to the function of her ability.

In the above examples, Daisy is the most confusing case. I guess the designers really thought that a casting cost of -1 on all spells was no big deal.

Also note that in the base game, distribution of the six skills was equal (five 0-3s, six 1-4s, four 2-5s, one 3-6). With all expansion investigators mixed together, there is no longer an equal distribution, though it is close. Additionally, in the base game there was a slight imbalance in male/female investigators. There is a similar imbalance in Innsmouth investigators, further widening the gap. I'm working on 16 custom investigators with the purpose of fixing both these balance issues, for anyone who cares.

Wendy is one of the best investigators in the game. Top 3 IMO. I bet you don't like sneakiness very much! And yes an Elder is worth a whole lot more than it's list price. It saves 5 clues ($10) (while costing a stamina and sanity), so $6. It removes a doom token from the doom track. Worthy maybe $10? (or more) The fact that its available from the first turn. Priceless.

Hank is also an above average investigator and yes his additional stamina is probably worth $8 plus seldom having to spend or lose sanity is a great combo.

I'll have to look further into Tony. Think he can buy a gun for $1?

Tony might be able to buy gum for $1.

Tibs, what about Diana and her $10 Lodge Membership that I can buy for $3 with an Encounter? She may indeed add up to $25, but it's still crap.

If you are curious enough to want to know every detail of how a particular investigator is valued, you can take two minutes and recreate him or her in Strange Eons. It's valuation matches all of the official investigators point-for-point (assuming you don't change the default rule settings).

For better or worse, the rationale behind the $10 value item like a blessing or Lodge membership is that they carry a premium as they are unique to that investigator.

Cheers,
Chris

mageith said:

Teydyn said:

Hank is very good and certainly an above average fighter but I don't think over the top. The reason is that defeating monsters does not win you games. If somehow you could have investigators that never needed to fight a monster, you'd win easier and faster.

OTOH, if Wendy is getting 3 seals per game in a 4 investigator (or more) game, that might almost qualify as Over the top. You've clearly figured out her secret. In addition, Wendy doesn't even need Hank to do it, since she doesn't need anyone to clear the way. Also, I think Wendy only starts with 3 clues.

As I said I put her in the first 3. The others are in order of over the topness: Patrice (definitely OTT and self teaching one trick pony), Daisy (with the right spell) very probably OTT* (several trick pony) then Wendy (one hidden trick pony). Mandy comes in 4th.

The good thing about Daisy and Wendy is that their OTT is not readly apparent and its fun to watch casual players figure out the OTT strategy. Usually they don't. Patrice on the other hand is so broken, its hard to miss her OTT.

I

Some of the dollar values are really debatable. Amanda pays $10 for a second skill, but they cost $8 to buy. If we go by the in-game exchange rate, 5 thoughness equals 2 clues or $5. By that alone, clues should already be $2.50 each, but since no one ever exchanges trophies for money, $3 for a clue would only be fair. Especially since clues at the beginning are worth more that later in the game. The sooner you seal your first gate, the better.

We toned patrice and daisy down. Both can use their abilities once per round each. That is still too strong for patrice in our opinion, we will try 3 clues a turn max next. Daisy is still good, but way toned down (no more voice of ra fun though)

Thelric said:

Not to mention that Diana can't lose her Lodge membership. This makes her close to immune to negative encounter effects at the STL, which is one of the better places to acquire quality items.