This works better, though I would go so far as to simply change the wording for the personal story to this:

Pass: Place a Clue token on this card every time Eunice seals a gate. If there are (insert number of Clue tokens here) on this card, place 'Pass' in play.

Alternatively, you could go with:

Pass: If Eunice currently has at least X Number of Gate Trophies, place Pass into play.

Fail: If there are 8 Doom tokens on the Doom track, place 'Fail' in play.

It holds the same effect, you could increase the number of trophies needed without making it too difficult (since spending takes a LOT of time) and you can keep everything else the same.

I will play around with this. I will test with the prior PS, and if it does not work well, I will try her again with something similar to yours. I liked the idea of having to spend trophies thematically, but maybe there's a reason why the original investigators with trohpy related stories don't normally have to.

EDIT: Just a heads up, many of my images have been updated and shifted around so the direct links in this thread may have disappeared. Once I get these 3 Investigators finalized, I will start my "gallery" thread for finished characters where you will be able to find the final products.

I know in theme it makes sense, since essentially, she's dissecting the information harvested to help use it. I think the main reason is that spending them just takes too long. After all, you can only spend them one at a time (so far as I know) so it would take multiple rouns to spend what you just spent multiple rounds trying to harvest.

Anyway, good luck! I look forward to hearing the results!

Alright, gonna put up a new one I cam up with after scrolling through various images and the like on dA.This one I cam across and liked for some reason and decided to challenge myself by creating an entire character, workeable and in-theme, around her, and so, Sister Lucy was made.

Keeping in tone, she is blind, obviously, which gave me some trouble as to how to make her 'work'. I know blind folks, especially ones that have been blind for a long time, actually aren't bad at making their way around, so I gave her a 4 in Speed and Sneak. She won't be doing Combat much, being blind and a nun and so decided to give her a Dark Cloak to help her get around something that, again, fits--being a blind woman and a nun in the 20s probably left her a sitting duck for trouble makers, Arkham or not. The second skill (while also an effort to get rid of some extra spending points) also comes about since Nuns are generally set to learning some form of skill that can benefit the Church, the community and allows for quiet contemplation--thus, 2 Skills to start.

Next came her personal story and I hope that the mechanics of it came out right--essentially, I wanted to almost recreate the notion of 'Catholic Guilt' and self-flagellation, that is, the events of the game are a test and a response for something she's done and thus, she must take a certain amount of pain mentally and physically to redeem herself. The reward is relatively small but mostly because it is not as difficult to obtain. Any loss, including Spell costs, count towards her goal.

I'm sorry for saying so, but that entire investigator just seems very...uninspiring.

Keep in mind the first thing people are likely to see when selecting a character is the front face, where the actual abilities, stats and items are. Just looking at that and nothing else, Sister Lucy has no defining qualities and fails to stand out in any way. With her personal story, you have an investigator who's goals and abilities are all very disconnected, or at least it doesn't feel like there's even a shred of synergy spread throughout her...well, anything.

Honestly, I think you need to start over on this investigator, because right now there's nothing here.

When you create her abilities the second time around, consider her backstory and how her blindness may affect her in other ways. Practical changes would include things like only having 3 speed and definitely removing the skill penalty. I think there are more interactions or options for tackling horror checks with this character, so explore it a bit more.

I gave it some thought and realized that I had to agree that yeah, she was very boring all in all. I didn't want to over-complicate her, that is, Sister Lucy, in a way that would make her too much trouble to play, so I decided to take it from a different angle and snagged a cue from Call of Cthulhu.

For those who haven't played, you only suffer real Sanity damage if your mind can grasp what it is you're seeing. So I decided to mirror that with Lucy in her special ability. In a sense, it will almost always cut down on her Horror damage received in combat. Thematically, it works in the sense of "By limiting her knowledge of the Mythos, she can't see the horror either visually OR mentally." But, if her Lore and thus Mythos knowledge, are higher, she can grasp and mentally picture the horror--and possibly imagine something far worse than even what the horror is.

I will check back on this later, as I have quite a bit going on atm. But, I like the idea of the ability... my issue is that her only combat oriented stat (and her highest stat to boot) is Lore. This ability would fit better on a low lore investigator. Some horror checks are rather easy to begin with (-1, -2) and this means that Sister Lucy will always have a chance to take sanity damage (sometimes more than 1 per horror check). And if she is prepared to fight it (with spells presumably), she will likely take even MORE damage than if she minimized her lore and used a rifle. Especially considering spells cost sanity to cast.

I do like this thematically, but I'm not sure it fits with a character whose lore is so high. Perhaps lower her max lore and consider making her Will her high stat and upping her speed.

This being said, we then have the issue that will has become a fairly useless stat. Consider making her spell checks Will roles, and her Horror checks lore rolls with damage on success (with a lowered max lore). It's entirely possible, Sister Lucy has been "blinded by her faith" in the sense that she disbelieves that the horrors around her are possible as she has never known any "lore" other than her own religion. And would therefore take less stock in them.

All in all, more than anything, I don't like that this makes Will pretty useless as a stat because this also gets rid of one of her weaknesses (as it stands, it is only max 4 and paired with lore her combat stat).

I am interested in why you swapped the stat pairings for fight and lore though. This allows her to have high fight and will, which is a potent battle combo...but neither stat is particularly good with her, and she never rolls will for horror checks anyway.

My recommendation: Keep her lore high, and use lore for her horror checks instead of will at a cost. So she has a choice to use her will (which is worse) or her Lore (an advantage for a cost). This also makes it so will is still important (if she'd rather not pay the cost). The cost could be as minor as spending one movement point during the move phase, or as major as paying a spell. Just don't make the cost sanity, or the ability becomes useless again.

Or take a cue from Wendy and allow her to automatically pass all horror checks while she is either blessed or in a specific neighborhood/street area/other world.

Here's another of mine. She is very different... and bends the typical rules/archetypes of this game quite a lot. So there may be many balances required, but I've also come to the conclusion that it's just the nature of the beast.

Attempting to create a character around a "magical effect" is pretty tough. But I think she's ok. If her style is not your cup of tea, I would suggest just not using her instead of trying to re-tweak her. That being said, I am open to suggestions so long as Summon the Beast is her focus and her story remains similar.

Also, just a note. I grant that she is very good overall. But I do want you to remember that many of her gameplay choices may be eliminated by "The Turning." She is forced to move around the board some turns, and this may trap her between monsters she is unable to handle, or place her away from her intended destination. When this occurs, she will need to adjust her plans.

I am open to lowering some of her stats (lore for the PS if you think it is easy, fight if you think the maxed out 7 with inner beast is too high though I think it is pay off for the unpredictable movement, or even speed to create more trouble regaining her footing after The Turning has moved her). Basically I just want your thoughts.

I actually made a character that also used 'Beast Within' as a mainstay too, though yours is definitely more vicious then Brian (my character). While mine allowed him to simply move as a Moon monster and avoid others, yours actualy can attack them, and in some ways, I like that better. It's a trade off for me giving Brian the adjustable Health and Sanity. All in all, I like this gal in tandem with Brian and would be interested in playing them in a game at the same time to see what a double-team of 'werewolves' could do when they cover both the sneak and attacking ends of the spectrum!

I will check back on this later, as I have quite a bit going on atm. But, I like the idea of the ability... my issue is that her only combat oriented stat (and her highest stat to boot) is Lore. This ability would fit better on a low lore investigator. Some horror checks are rather easy to begin with (-1, -2) and this means that Sister Lucy will always have a chance to take sanity damage (sometimes more than 1 per horror check). And if she is prepared to fight it (with spells presumably), she will likely take even MORE damage than if she minimized her lore and used a rifle. Especially considering spells cost sanity to cast.

I do like this thematically, but I'm not sure it fits with a character whose lore is so high. Perhaps lower her max lore and consider making her Will her high stat and upping her speed.

This being said, we then have the issue that will has become a fairly useless stat. Consider making her spell checks Will roles, and her Horror checks lore rolls with damage on success (with a lowered max lore). It's entirely possible, Sister Lucy has been "blinded by her faith" in the sense that she disbelieves that the horrors around her are possible as she has never known any "lore" other than her own religion. And would therefore take less stock in them.

All in all, more than anything, I don't like that this makes Will pretty useless as a stat because this also gets rid of one of her weaknesses (as it stands, it is only max 4 and paired with lore her combat stat).

I am interested in why you swapped the stat pairings for fight and lore though. This allows her to have high fight and will, which is a potent battle combo...but neither stat is particularly good with her, and she never rolls will for horror checks anyway.

My recommendation: Keep her lore high, and use lore for her horror checks instead of will at a cost. So she has a choice to use her will (which is worse) or her Lore (an advantage for a cost). This also makes it so will is still important (if she'd rather not pay the cost). The cost could be as minor as spending one movement point during the move phase, or as major as paying a spell. Just don't make the cost sanity, or the ability becomes useless again.

Or take a cue from Wendy and allow her to automatically pass all horror checks while she is either blessed or in a specific neighborhood/street area/other world.

The main idea was this: With the Will being where it is, she can still be a very effective fighter, have a decent set up if a Will check arises AND keep her Lore high. I guess the wording was off but she doesn't do normal Horror checks, meaning that if you keep her Lore at it's minimum against a monster, you have a much great chance of competely receiving no Sanity damage at all then of losing it.

For instance, if you have her Lore at 3, the odds of rolling just one Success (not Cursed) is 4%. That is a HUGE margin. So, even if you add that up and make it 12%, that's still quite a big margin that you have to avoid any damage to Sanity. Add in that you could have her Cursed which would lower that margin even further and the probability becomes almost 0%.

Moving into Combat, if she kept her Lore at it's minimum, she still have a chance to cast even Dread Curse of Azathoth, giving her a plus 9 to Combat, then her 3 from fight, giving her a total of 12. She could take on most Monsters with the same effectiveness as anyone else. She has a tad-higher Sanity which will allow her to cast a bit freely, but I suppose adjusting it by taking her extra Skill card and putting that into giving her a slightly 4/7 split on Stamina and Sanity could also be doable.

I do understand how it function Dr. Faust. My main concern, is that you would typically want to use her as a spell caster, which makes having high lore a liability as you may end up with a horror check that would drop your sanity by 2 or (if you got a terrible roll) 3. And on top of that, then having to cast shriveling which would scoop out yet another sanity.

Sure, you could go in with your lore low, but with a -2 to a cast (as per dread curse or some more difficult spells) your chances of casting spells is significantly lowered and you will loose the casting sanity regardless of whether or not you succeed in the cast.

I, personally, wouldn't want to risk cast dread curse with only 1 die to roll. Because that means if I failed, I would be down 2 sanity and still have to deal with a failed combat check.

But maybe that's my personal problem. I'm just not THAT much of a risk taker.

The dual were-wolves sound interesting, haha. The payoff for Sadie's "attack" during moon monster movement, is obviously that she can't decide NOT to. She looses control and will end up wherever the mythos decide she ought to. Failing her PS could be disastrous if she ended up with agoraphobia, lol. But I think it's fair, as she is fairly powerful.

You do realize that Summon the Beast Within is a 0 sanity spell, correct?

This means Sadie is practically guaranteed to pass her story in 3 turns with no hindrance to her ability to move or really play the game.

Now obviously the benefit is a tad superfluous, but it's the fact that her story is almost impossible to fail.

I'm a little worried about the sheer amount of fixed possessions she has. Starting with Summon the Beast Within is crazy bonkers strong on some characters, and on top of that she has a free Knife and the Wanted detriment. I don't think the choices here are too strong (by any real stretch) , but it does feel like most of your starting possessions are the same every game. The only real variety this character has each game is 2 Commons and a Skill, which isn't all that exciting.

Also, one thing I notice about characters that try to design around Summon the Beast Within is that most are driven around this idea of "taming" the Inner Beast or switching between forms. The problem is that Inner Beast is such a powerful card that there's literally no reason not to have it as often as possible, almost completely discarding your human identity altogether. If this doesn't bother you then don't sweat it, but do keep it in mind.

While I agree with the notion about the Beast Within being a constant, there is the Sanity detriment. Tough monsters usually have Nightmarish, and losing Sanity automatically for just looking at one is a nasty price to pay. Add in things like Cthulhu being the AO, any Insanities that may come with it, amongst just simple bad luck and having raised stats elsewhere just isn't enough to counteract.

Good points Aquas. And actually I did think there was a sanity cost. I mostly decided to give Sadie the knife as a way to lower her total equipment value without providing a giant boost in firepower (since she'll already be quite strong).

The pass condition will need to be looked at further without the sanity cost I thought it had, but I did want to note that the casting modifier is -2 and her max lore is 4. This is a less than 50% chance she will successfully cast the spell every turn.

Additionally every time a moon monster moves, until she passes her personal story, she will transform (and transform back). The problem I see here is that there's no reason for her not to just cast the spell again as soon as her turn is up. This wasn't as big of a problem to deal with, in theory, when I thought there was a sanity cost for the spell.

I don't want a character that has a permanent advantage from this spell. What I want is a character that can tip the scales using this spell, but at a cost.

Any suggestions on how to limit the use of Inner Beast without making it completely useless? I don't find the "nightmarish" issue very convincing (thanks for that though Dr. Faust), but Sadie's will also isn't that high so if she wants to engage in combat, there's going to be some risk there anyway. And nobody really wants to waste clues on combats.

I also just had a thought that maybe you hadn't considered. When the The Turning leaves Sadie on a space with a monster with toughness above one, she will be forced to fight it. Regardless of whether or not her will check will pass.

Also, I had a suggestion from my boyfriend: Maybe, while Sadie has the "Beast Within" magical effect, she should not be able to enter locations. This would give you a reason to switch forms, and also makes sense thematically... Nobody is going to sell a rifle to werewolf. Or allow them into their roadhouse. I would say to apply this only to stable locations, but then you can still nab clues as a were-thing, which is the main reason why you enter locations to begin with.

Don't forget, there is a Lore check to cast it in the first place. That means that you have to actively remove the spell, and successfully recast it several times. Maybe lower Sadie's lore to make the casting difficult?

Yeah, I thought of this Dr. Faust, but the lowest I can make it is 3, where she will only have one die to roll. Might be worth it though. I feel like that will be plenty of time for her to possibly fail. Moons move a lot.

That they do.

I know I don't usually post anything here, but I thought I'd crosspost from my thread this time just because I really like this investigator.

There's a download link in my thread or you can download it directly here .

I will think about this and maybe add more (is this character an OC or is it "from" something?).

I like the idea of this ability a lot, but I'm uncertain about the wording on the ability description. Does the ability activate EVERY turn after one mystic environment comes into play? Or once per mystic environment that activates?

I'm not sure how often this ability is intended to play as, imo, it is very strong. Some location encounters lead to easy allies/unique items/seals (inner sanctum), and being able to shift through them until you encounter ally encounters is pretty dang good.

It also sounds like Journey may even be able to select addtional stacks PER mystic environment that occurs during the course of the game (IE if 2 were ever put into play during a game, every upkeep she would be able to check six encounter decks).

Not to mention the easily squashible rumors/doom addtions on the mythos deck. All you have to do is pick any path that is less harmful than the rumor...which is any encounter to be honest.

I feel like she has waaaay too much control over the board. Especially if this happens consistently after a mystic environment occurs.

I feel like she needs gimped in either how often her ability activates, or just in raw stats. Lower her maxes, and maybe make a less useful stat higher (luck/speed) and lower her lore/sneak/willpower.

EDIT: Also, I know this is a house-rule sort of issue, but it seems like a decent amount of people play with one of each sub-type of environment in play at all times. If the intent is to only allow her to do this whenever a mystic environment is in play, the environment will be in play much longer in these games than one sub-type games. I would suggest changing the activation to something like "whenever and environment is drawn." This prevents it from activating too often, imo. I don't know this character's back-story, but if there's no specific reason for the trigger to the ability, I would highly suggest changing it to tone down the ability. Or, like I suggested, severely gimp Journey. Or create a very harsh fail PS that activates if she uses the ability too often. Or some such thing.

EDIT: 10/16 - I was thinking, if you don't want to handicap her via lowering her total stat values, I would at least make her a 7/3 character. We all know these characters have a difficult time compared to more evenly distributed characters, and she looks pretty fragile. I don't know here backstory, so this may not make sense for the character, but if you made her a 7/3 I think that with a few minor adjustments to the frequency of her ability, she would become suddenly useable.

Overly powerful characters often are banned from my games (I'm look at you Patrice). And as she seems so original and cool, I'd hate to have to put someone like her in that pile.

The picture is definitely Alice, from American McGee's, Alice.

But getting to the ability, Soak, I think it means that as long as a Mystic environment is in play, she can keep flipping the cards to look at the top. Which is fine BUT I do agree. This is like a super-version of Jaquelin Fine's ability, And if you get a 'Mystic' environment and then get no other Environments for a long time, you're gonna have, like you said, total control of the board.

Maybe the wording is problematic, but the intention is that on an upkeep following a NEW environment (mystic), she gets to flip over cards. She doesn't do this every upkeep in which an environment (mystic) is in play, but rather only on upkeeps in which a new environment came into play the turn before and was also an environment (mystic).

The ability doesn't come up too often, but is intended to be powerful when it does.

Great then! I like her. I would say just adjust the wording to be more other-player friendly, and she seems pretty useful without being overly handy (her gate closing isn't particularly good).

EDIT: Unrelated note for those who are wondering, during my playtest of Anna Anderson, a gate popped both at the graveyard AND histrorical society. She never passed her PS as it soon became obvious that the gates there would need closed and nobody had enough clues to seal them. Actions were instead used to find clues, which then lead to having to deal with other looming threats. Her PS was moved to the back-burner. This experience leads me to believe that passing her PS is not too easy. Also, when she finally got the graveyard part of her task done, the gate that opened there delayed her. Bad timing.

Shining Aquas, you inspired my newest investigator. Let me know what you guys think, as always. He's got pretty conditional abilities so I think they shouldn't be "imbalanced." The biggest issue with my custom characters is that the flavor text is a little wordy and shrinks the text to difficult to read sizes. But I really enjoy theme, so players may want to whip out a magnifying glass, haha.

Also, I do realize that in the image, he appears to have "horns" but this is the best painterly miner image I could find.