I'm sure that most folks who would poke their head into this sub-forum are well aware of just how awful some of the base game characters are, even if you choose to ignore comparing them to the crazy overpowered characters from various expansions. This has long been a point of irritation for myself and my friends who play semi-regularly, and while we have talked about making various fixes, we never really got 'round to having a serious, goal-oriented discussion about how to correct the broken characters.

A few days ago, we finally got to work, started some play testing, and came up with a set of solutions that we like. We haven't corrected everything we want to, and some of these fixes may not be exactly what we want, but they're a good start... and more importantly, the changes have made so far make the characters way more fun .

Comments, suggestions, further ideas, and critiques are all welcome, but try to keep the pure theory to a minimum. If you think something is too good (or not good enough) I encourage you to try out what I have here, as well as your ideas in a few games and see how they feel in actual play. I'm considering tweaking a couple more characters from the base set, but I figure that making changes to half of the base characters in once testing cycle is probably enough for now

In no particular order:

Amanda Sharpe
Reduce Focus to 2. Add the following special ability:
College Try
Any Phase: Once per turn, Amanda can move one of her skill sliders one step.

Basically, we took the idea that she was a flexible, well-rounded character, and let her be a little better at using her non-specialized skill tracks more efficiently. The way we intended the ability to be used is that she can use College Try after reading encounter text, or even between horror and combat checks against a monster. The ability has been a lot of fun, and has proven to be good, but not overpowering since Amanda doesn't have the raw skill points to be a beast with it. A major goal here was to add a slight buff that also gave the player a fun choice to make - hopefully making Amanda a more enjoyable character to play.

"Ashcan" Pete
Add the following special ability:
Ridin' the Rails
Pete does not have to pay any money to ride the train.

This is purely a flavor ability, as it just made sense to us that the Drifter would be able to jump trains. Pete wasn't really in need of a buff, but I personally feel that all of the abilities that only affect how you draw items from the various Investigator card decks to be pretty dull. At least Scrounge is better than the ultra-bland 'draw an extra card and discard one' abilities, and involves some player choice, hence adding a flavor ability that won't come up very often was the only fix we felt he needed.

Bob Jenkins
Reduce starting cash to $7, add 1 Clue Token, add the following special ability:
Art of the Deal
Any Phase: All dollar costs Bob pays are $1 cheaper, to a minimum cost of $1.

As with Pete, Bob didn't need a lot of fixing. The dollar / clue token change is there to solve the unspent dollar error in a more interesting way than just bumping his starting cash to $9 as per the FAQ. Art of the Deal is an ability that we aren't entirely sold on, but it seems like the Salesman should have some kind of ability to represent that he's got some talent with getting the better end of a deal that involves money. Of all of the changes in this post - especially with the potential shopping abuse - this is the one that I'm least sure of.

Dexter Drake
Add the following special ability:
Latent Talent
Upkeep: Draw a Spell.
Any Phase: You may cast and discard this spell without making a Spell Check, and without paying fixed Sanity costs.
Mythos Phase: Discard this spell at the end of the Mythos Phase.

Ah, Dexter... arguably the worst character in the entirety of the game. Latent Talent adds a potent, but very unpredictable ability to Dexter's card, and in the play tests that we've had so far, it has been a ton of fun to play. You won't always get a spell that is going to be useful (I'd say about half the time we didn't have any use for the drawn spell), but when you do find a good use for it, it can be great. To answer the inevitable questions: Latent Talent only ignores *fixed* Sanity costs, so anything with a cost of X, or where the amount of Sanity spent or discarded determines the benefit gained, you must still spend Sanity. For any spells that require a spell check to determine the potency of the effect (Heal, etc.), you make a spell check to determine the potential results. For spells where the number of successes on the spell check determines whether or not you succeed or fail entirely (Mists of Releh, Bind Monster, etc), you are assumed to roll enough successes to succeed. Yes, Dexter's Magical Gift ability works when drawing the spell for Latent Talent.

Jenny Barnes
Add the following special abilities:
Chauffeur
Movement: Once per turn, Jenny may spend $2 and all of her movement to move directly to any unrestricted and stable location in Arkham.
Charming
When an Encounter provides the opportunity to acquire an Ally, Jenny automatically acquires that ally at no cost and without any rolls needed.

Jenny is pretty weak right out of the box, and the only thing she does really well is shop for Elder Signs, which is just about the worst idea ever in AH game design (beaten only by the Odd Jobs ability to avoid having encounters). Chauffeur gives Jenny a way to compensate for her poor speed, and (more importantly) encourages her to spend her cash *not* shopping. Being able to zip across the board to stable locations allows her to be a great 'team player' by helping item exchanges or hitting critical board expansion locations. Charming was thrown in as an abilty that is good when it comes up, but will probably come up less than once per game on average - mostly a flavor ability, but it feels really cool (and can be quite potent) when it happens. The intent behind the wording is that if gaining an ally is a possible outcome in an encounter draw (and that ally is available), she doesn't need to pass any rolls or have / discard any of the specific cards called for in the encounter text... Jenny just charms the ally into following her, regardless of what she may have (or not have) in her purse. Obviously this ability doesn't allow her to pick up free allies through the location ability of Ma's Boarding House.

Monterey Jack
Add the following special ability:
Secrets of the Past
Any Phase: Once per turn, when an investigator gains a unique item, Monterey gains a clue token.

Again, 'draw an extra card...' abilities are dull. The inspiration for this ability came from Diana Stanley's Dark Insight. It is a nice ability that probably won't come up every turn, but it is a very nice boon when it happens. We haven't been able to get a really good feel for how potent this ability is yet, it seems good but probably not awesome as it stands, but it has the potential to be amazing if the Investigator team gets a unique on most of the turns of the game.

Sister Mary
Add the following special ability:
Unwavering Faith
As long as Mary has a Cross in her possession, she does not have to roll a die for her Blessing during upkeep.

The issues with her Blessing having the potential to just get removed via bad dice, while also having a huge creation cost on a character that is already generally considered to be on the low end of the power curve are well documented. Frankly, I just laughed when FFG made her Personal Story 'Pass' effect a half-assed attempt to 'patch' that particular bit of design fail. Many attempts have been made at fixing the issue, and the one that my group eventually settled on was to give her 3 tokens that she could discard instead of losing her blessing any time that she would have otherwise been forced to discard it (either by rolling a 1 during Upkeep, or if she was Cursed). This newest version feels a lot more simple. Barring being Cursed, it is very unlikely that Mary would ever lose her Blessing with this rule in place, but with a re-roll (as per her story reward), or with 3 ablative tokens (which have the added and potent effect of shrugging off Curses), she's not all that likely to lose her Blessing via die rolls anyway, so it is a pretty minor jump to just eliminate that upkeep roll entirely. We will have to redo her story reward though...

Also, I realy just like the idea of having her ability to stay Blessed being tied to her Cross. I kind of want to make a special Cross card (or maybe a rosary) for her, just so that it is *her* cross that she starts with... I think it would add a nice bit of RP / flavor to her.

Vincent Lee
Reduce starting cash to $7, add 1 random monster trophy to Random Possessions and add the following special ability:
Anatomical Research
Upkeep: Choose one Monster Trophy in Vincent's possession. Until the end of the turn, Vincent gains an additional die on all checks made against monsters of the same Dimensional Symbol as the chosen Trophy.

Heal 1 Stamina / Sanity is a bit dull as far as special abilities go. It's not bad, it's just not a lot of fun. Also, compare Vincent to Carolyn Fern and take note of how much better Carolyn's points are spent on possessions, then take into account that Sanity is usually a more valuable resource than Stamina, and you have a pretty poor Investigator. Anatomical Research adds an interesting, flavorful, strong (but not amazing), and interactive ability for Dr. Lee to use that can help him to either sneak away from bad situations, or fight certain monsters if he's got a corpse he can study in order to figure out just where to hit 'em for maximum effect.

Were you able further test and/or update your fixes?

In no particular order:

Amanda Sharpe
Reduce Focus to 2. Add the following special ability:
College Try
Any Phase: Once per turn, Amanda can move one of her skill sliders one step.

Basically, we took the idea that she was a flexible, well-rounded character, and let her be a little better at using her non-specialized skill tracks more efficiently. The way we intended the ability to be used is that she can use College Try after reading encounter text, or even between horror and combat checks against a monster. The ability has been a lot of fun, and has proven to be good, but not overpowering since Amanda doesn't have the raw skill points to be a beast with it. A major goal here was to add a slight buff that also gave the player a fun choice to make - hopefully making Amanda a more enjoyable character to play.

I like your idea. My fix is to give her her choice of her second skill. Your idea gives her stuff to do each turn. I think its better and sounds like more fun.

Bob Jenkins
Reduce starting cash to $7, add 1 Clue Token, add the following special ability:
Art of the Deal
Any Phase: All dollar costs Bob pays are $1 cheaper, to a minimum cost of $1.

As with Pete, Bob didn't need a lot of fixing. The dollar / clue token change is there to solve the unspent dollar error in a more interesting way than just bumping his starting cash to $9 as per the FAQ. Art of the Deal is an ability that we aren't entirely sold on, but it seems like the Salesman should have some kind of ability to represent that he's got some talent with getting the better end of a deal that involves money. Of all of the changes in this post - especially with the potential shopping abuse - this is the one that I'm least sure of.

Bob is one of my favorite characters just as he is. His special ability doesn't come into play much but he's well designed. otherwise. Bob knows basic stuff, that's why his original ability is limited to common items. The ability to buy Unique items, spells and other items (which now include the Rail pass) doesn't feel thematic to me.

Dexter Drake
Add the following special ability:
Latent Talent
Upkeep: Draw a Spell.
Any Phase: You may cast and discard this spell without making a Spell Check, and without paying fixed Sanity costs.
Mythos Phase: Discard this spell at the end of the Mythos Phase.

Ah, Dexter... arguably the worst character in the entirety of the game. Latent Talent adds a potent, but very unpredictable ability to Dexter's card, and in the play tests that we've had so far, it has been a ton of fun to play. You won't always get a spell that is going to be useful (I'd say about half the time we didn't have any use for the drawn spell), but when you do find a good use for it, it can be great. To answer the inevitable questions: Latent Talent only ignores *fixed* Sanity costs, so anything with a cost of X, or where the amount of Sanity spent or discarded determines the benefit gained, you must still spend Sanity. For any spells that require a spell check to determine the potency of the effect (Heal, etc.), you make a spell check to determine the potential results. For spells where the number of successes on the spell check determines whether or not you succeed or fail entirely (Mists of Releh, Bind Monster, etc), you are assumed to roll enough successes to succeed. Yes, Dexter's Magical Gift ability works when drawing the spell for Latent Talent.

I don't like this. I think it loses the flavor or Dexter the wannabe wizard. If he finds a suitable spell, he's not going to want to discard it. Before the personal stories came along we allowed Dexter to draw a spell each upkeep and discard another spell if he wanted to keep the one he got, sort of like Lola. So its a similar skill, just carried out differently. His personal story goes a long way to fixing him but its a little difficult, IMO but the reward is too good (This is offset by the fact he doesn't usually obtain it and if he does its late in the game). I'd make his personal story just to have two tomes (He can get them from other players), then he can cast 1 spell per turn at one less sanity loss.

Jenny Barnes
Add the following special abilities:
Chauffeur
Movement: Once per turn, Jenny may spend $2 and all of her movement to move directly to any unrestricted and stable location in Arkham.
Charming
When an Encounter provides the opportunity to acquire an Ally, Jenny automatically acquires that ally at no cost and without any rolls needed.

Jenny is pretty weak right out of the box, and the only thing she does really well is shop for Elder Signs, which is just about the worst idea ever in AH game design (beaten only by the Odd Jobs ability to avoid having encounters). Chauffeur gives Jenny a way to compensate for her poor speed, and (more importantly) encourages her to spend her cash *not* shopping. Being able to zip across the board to stable locations allows her to be a great 'team player' by helping item exchanges or hitting critical board expansion locations. Charming was thrown in as an abilty that is good when it comes up, but will probably come up less than once per game on average - mostly a flavor ability, but it feels really cool (and can be quite potent) when it happens. The intent behind the wording is that if gaining an ally is a possible outcome in an encounter draw (and that ally is available), she doesn't need to pass any rolls or have / discard any of the specific cards called for in the encounter text... Jenny just charms the ally into following her, regardless of what she may have (or not have) in her purse. Obviously this ability doesn't allow her to pick up free allies through the location ability of Ma's Boarding House.

I like Jenny just as she is. In addition, we usually get a loan for her and shop until she drops (all of her money). Since I have all the expansions, mining for Elder signs isn't really the goal. However the chauffer idea is very good, I don't like the implementation though. Also unclear on what "restricted" means (probably monsters in the way). Why not let her go to unstable locations? I'd just give the vehicle a movement value (maybe +6). We don't need another helicopter in this 1926 game.

Charming is actually my fix for the politician. I don't call it that though. It turns out its not very strong, as you point out, however. If you have all expansions, there's only a 1/3rd chance of the ally even being there. Does she get the alternate prize if the ally isn't there. What do they call that prize, again?

Monterey Jack
Add the following special ability:
Secrets of the Past
Any Phase: Once per turn, when an investigator gains a unique item, Monterey gains a clue token.

Again, 'draw an extra card...' abilities are dull. The inspiration for this ability came from Diana Stanley's Dark Insight. It is a nice ability that probably won't come up every turn, but it is a very nice boon when it happens. We haven't been able to get a really good feel for how potent this ability is yet, it seems good but probably not awesome as it stands, but it has the potential to be amazing if the Investigator team gets a unique on most of the turns of the game.

Monterey does need a little boost and this does that and its just a little boost IMO. This can be exploited tho. Does gain include trading items? Then investigators can trade back and forth. Maybe when a new unique items comes into the game or when investigator draws and keeps a unique item.

Sister Mary
Add the following special ability:
Unwavering Faith
As long as Mary has a Cross in her possession, she does not have to roll a die for her Blessing during upkeep.

The issues with her Blessing having the potential to just get removed via bad dice, while also having a huge creation cost on a character that is already generally considered to be on the low end of the power curve are well documented. Frankly, I just laughed when FFG made her Personal Story 'Pass' effect a half-assed attempt to 'patch' that particular bit of design fail. Many attempts have been made at fixing the issue, and the one that my group eventually settled on was to give her 3 tokens that she could discard instead of losing her blessing any time that she would have otherwise been forced to discard it (either by rolling a 1 during Upkeep, or if she was Cursed). This newest version feels a lot more simple. Barring being Cursed, it is very unlikely that Mary would ever lose her Blessing with this rule in place, but with a re-roll (as per her story reward), or with 3 ablative tokens (which have the added and potent effect of shrugging off Curses), she's not all that likely to lose her Blessing via die rolls anyway, so it is a pretty minor jump to just eliminate that upkeep roll entirely. We will have to redo her story reward though...

Also, I realy just like the idea of having her ability to stay Blessed being tied to her Cross. I kind of want to make a special Cross card (or maybe a rosary) for her, just so that it is *her* cross that she starts with... I think it would add a nice bit of RP / flavor to her.

There are many ways that allow sister to keep her blessing. Her personal story already gives her this ability as you note. I think she's fixed with her personal story myself.

Vincent Lee
Reduce starting cash to $7, add 1 random monster trophy to Random Possessions and add the following special ability:
Anatomical Research
Upkeep: Choose one Monster Trophy in Vincent's possession. Until the end of the turn, Vincent gains an additional die on all checks made against monsters of the same Dimensional Symbol as the chosen Trophy.

Heal 1 Stamina / Sanity is a bit dull as far as special abilities go. It's not bad, it's just not a lot of fun. Also, compare Vincent to Carolyn Fern and take note of how much better Carolyn's points are spent on possessions, then take into account that Sanity is usually a more valuable resource than Stamina, and you have a pretty poor Investigator. Anatomical Research adds an interesting, flavorful, strong (but not amazing), and interactive ability for Dr. Lee to use that can help him to either sneak away from bad situations, or fight certain monsters if he's got a corpse he can study in order to figure out just where to hit 'em for maximum effect.

Vincent is horribly boring and slow. Giving him two spells is wasting his points. And how can a doctor not have at least 1 random unique item? He's just the weakest character in design. Your fix is helpful, but a bit fiddly IMO. Adding a monster trophy hurts his personal story. Is that what you want? I don't like it because his "knowledge" keeps changing based on which entrails he looked at in the morning. I'd increase it to allow him to get +1 for the symbol of all monsters he owns, then his knowledge is increasing (until he sells them, of course).

I changed his personal story goal to merely avoid defeating moon symbol monsters (humans). So you and I are thinking along the same lines and opposite of FFG. He's not a pacifist, he's a doctor, Jim.

Great name VINCENT LEE

There are lots of little tweaks I'd like to do to a few characters.

Tony should have a starting weapon, for sure - it makes no sense to have handcuffs and no weapon as a bounty hunter. That one's an easy fix, replace his random common item with a .38 revolver.

Monterey should be my favorite character; but I'm just altogether dissatisfied by him- he is not spec'd to fit the flavor of an actual archaeologist at all, and he is kinda of lame as even a fictionalized cinematic one. I'm just not sure what to do, though. I would think he needs to be more of a versatile jack-of-all-trades than his official incarnation.