Thanks for the advice with Deadpool, I made a few alterations and my playgroup has really liked how he goes mad over the course of the game, receiving clues and doing well in combat. Teleporter Belt still lets him use 2 movement to move 2 without fighting but he must fight what he lands on. Katana is just a basic +3 common physcial weapon for Flavor.

I've made a lot that I'd love to post but my other favorite would be Rick Grimes. His ability to gain allies while needing to avoid combat do his disability has been a lot of fun.

Rick is actually really strong. He starts with an ally which puts him effectively 2 points above most characters on average, the only crux being that you don't know what 2 points you are going to get.

He has an ability that lets him choke monsters to death with food and whiskey, and also gains 1 toughness worth on every monster he kills for more allies.

Also, why wouldn't you fight with him? Sure he has a broken hand, but he also has a good Fight/Will track combined with a one-handed +3 weapon AND has a 1/3 chance of getting free common items for fighting things in the streets (or 1/2 if he's blessed)

He seems pretty solid, but some of his abilities and strengths are slightly questionable. Scavenger is actually a great ability, but I feel like it should only trigger on rolling a 1 or maybe a 1-2 (why does being blessed or cursed affect your ability to find things in the trash?). Resourceful is definitely interesting, but at the same time he starts the game with 4 common items which makes it a little too strong right off the bat (could be wrong here). I don't know how to feel about Enigmatic Leader or even what it suggests. Is Rick better at forming allegiances just on account of the pile of dead bodies he's gotten along the way, or even that the things he's killed are somehow more compelling than other people's trophies. See, this ability shows up on the Bounty Hunter because it makes sense there: he's hunting bounties, of course there's extra reward to what he's doing. Here, I'm not so sure.

If you leave Rick the way he is right now, he'll probably be fine. Most of what I'm offering here is food for thought; he's not really busted or anything.

Hey all,

First time posting one of these. Just want to say right off the bat, I know he's going to be overpowered - hopefully not in a game-breaking way, but it goes with the character if you know anything about him. Still, any suggestions on how to tone him down a bit would be helpful. Also, I have a feeling his second ability is either going to not work out at all, or is going to need a lot more detail - but I was running short on room. Oh and I can't seem to figure out how to put these images side by side...they looked great when I added them, but no matter how I adjust them, they look the same in the preview.

Sorry, no disrespect meant, but a Fight stat of 6, and all Horror checks passed automatically implies the guy is the best existing fighter in the world (and one of the best sealers). If you sum up that he never goes Unconscious, you're basically making him immune to a pletora of secondary effects (including Corruptions, specific encounters in the OW, and so on), not to mention that there are a plethora of timing problems (Blood Magic for instance, or several AOs' attacks)

Now, if this investigator's raison d'etre is because you want to hommage the wrestler Kane, ok, but if it's for real play... is unplayable and totally game-breaking.

Finally, the wording "Kane cannot be in the same space as another investigator" is non-sensical: let's say he's at the Asylum to recover San, and another investigator is sent there by failing a test. What happens?

As said, sorry, I don't want to sound rude, and I know it's your first attempt, but the real key to create a good investigator for Arkham is understanding that for each benefit there must be a detriment, that there are a few very important stats that need to be balanced, that interactions with other cards is to be considered. A really good investigator is not an overpowered investigator, but an investigator having something "special". You may want to check Tibs' custom investigators, or Soakman's

The first advice I can give you on the matter is this: try to define in which way you want your investigator to be "special". Then try to build your cretion around this idea. If you don't know properly what to do, then feel free to post here the idea; there are several people still following the thread and we'll gladly help you in the process.

If you want Kane to be a bane for the others, try to define how you want the others to be affected by him, and then let's check a game mechanic that can translate this.

One idea at the time, it's the best way to go

Lol, yeah I had a feeling I went way overboard with that one don't worry, no offense taken on anything. Also, this guy's the only custom investigator I went that crazy with (I hope).

Ok so let's try this: get rid of the instant horror check pass. Get rid of the whole can't be unconscious thing, but keep the stamina loss modifier. How does the 6 fight do now with those changes? Is it still overpowered?

As far as the Danger to Others ability, yeah, that has problems written all over it on second thought. The idea was it would make thematic sense since he's such a whack job, plus he can't trade items or have allies and it forces all players to consider where they are moving - possibly trapping them in a location or blocking one they want to get to. Sort of a penalty for Kane being so overpowered. I also thought that making it hard for him to gain back his limited sanity would compensate for having a lot of stamina.

Also, I changed his starting madness: I felt like since he was such a good fighter, Violent Outbursts (while thematic) didn't matter since he'd hardly ever have to sneak or evade. How's this look:

It's better

First observation: you have him starting with Hearing Voices. It's a nice idea, but to play this you'll need a copy of Miskatonic Horror. Are you ok with that? For me it's not a big problem, because you can easily proxy the card if you don't own the expansion, but generally investigators are better when non-expansion dependant (plush MH is for a more restricted audience than any other expansion in AH).

If you're ok with that, try to have that Madness trigger. The Madness forces the investigator to lose clues upon losing San; hence, give him a strong drawback, changing Danger to Others into " Upkeep: if Kane is in the same area as another investigator, he loses 1 San ". This should be nasty enough to compensate some of the other stuff.

Starting values: go with 3/7; investigators stats summing up to 11 are nowhere seen but Hank.

Strength from Madness : just an idea, like: Kane gains a +1 Fight for each point of Sanity lost during the Horror check.

Here you have the boost in combat from insanity, without breaking too many rules.

Feel free to discard the suggestion, your ability works ok too Just change the wording to "regain" for Sanity

Yay it's not terrible now

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions, I really appreciate it.

Hey all, here's another one for you: Hopefully I've gotten the hang of making characters balanced, but just in case feel free to point out any mistakes.

These are purely just for fun. Eglantine Price is Angela Lansbury's character from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Ned Land is obviously from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Bruce is from Family Guy - don't watch it much these days, but I always thought his character was the best.

Do you have the various items made to go with these investigators? Specifically Eglantine?

Has anyone posted a John Constantine Investigator? I was thinking about creating one whose special power was that he could use his Lore, with the boost from spells and other items, in place of his Fight for combat checks only. Suggestions?

Make it only once per turn, or give him some other detriment to balance it out.

If a character can afford to max Lore as Fight while also having Will maxed out, their ability to fight is insane.

Regardless of source, let it not be said that I don't constantly experiment:

Stupid IE crashed while I was trying to fix my post. Here's Kolchak the Night Stalker.

Great on the Kojak, I was just thinking if anyone done him.

I made something disgusting

Labyrinth is one of three movies I own. Investigators for Hoggle and the others would be awesome. I think I might make those, if you don't beat me to it.

Actually, Jareth would make a great Herald. .

This is Steve Steveson, the Normal Human.

His lack of money, fight, speed and a generally lackluster ability are intended to be compensated by the things he starts with, specifically 5 clue tokens and a flamethrower, though he is not intended for proper play, as he could potentially end the game by turn 3 if you have bizarre gate luck.
His story arc involves him appeasing an ancient one. Upon a success he gains the 'Call Ancient One' spell (by turn 6 at earliest), and on failure he loses gate trophies and bad things happen.
Even as a period-appropriate character he is meant to have blue hair.
There is nothing unusual about him.
He is perfectly normal.

I am interested in any feedback.

Steve Steveson:

His ability works, his stats mostly work, and his items mostly work.
But the investigator doesn't. Why?

It's because of all the conflicting themes.
5 Will and a Flamethrower = Big time monster fighter / Mark Harrigan fanboy
6 Lore, 7 Sanity and starting 5 clues = Fearless Gate Runner
Ability designed around being elusive with trophies = Generally all around character, with some fighting.
Instead of creating a Jack of All Trades, you've made a Master of all Trades, and that's unfortunately not very interesting.

You're currently working three themes, maybe consider narrowing down to 1 or 2. In my opinion, the most successful thing you've created is the ability "Blend In", which is both thematic and interesting. I think your efforts would be best spent exploring and refining that angle of approach: Cut out the gate running focus, tweak the combat focus to make it feel more "subtle", and maybe take one or two more cracks at "Blend In" to make it really good to play with.