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When unique skills make the personality of the character you're playing, is the game impact more or less important?
After looking at the basics last time, I thought I'd delve into some of the standouts, for good or ill, of the 95 Investigators currently in the game. Granted, I "only" own 89 of them, so my perspective would be forcibly limited even if I'd had time to play (or played with others playing) all 89 of then, which I haven't because, again, only so many hours in this time-space continuum. But I have played a lot of them and with the assistance of Thilo's records, I think it's worth looking at some general trends among the various expansions, some exceptional characters and why they might be so, as well as what makes a "good" character: effectiveness or entertanment.
First off, a large caveat: Games are different things to different people. Some people sit down at the table thinking only about winning and all things are geared toward that purpose (In Magic: The Gathering design parlance, they'd refer to this type of player as a "Spike."), while others are more about the experience of delving into the game and seeing what happens (Mark Rosewater would call this type of player a "Timmy.") A Spike playing Cthulhu: DMD is about winning and proceeding through scenarios as fast as possible. A Timmy playing DMD is about the adventure of taking this or that Investigator against this or that Great Old One and seeing what happens. There are gradations to those roles (and we haven't even mentioned the third type of MTG player, "Johnny", since it's not really applicable here) and very few players are all one thing. When I, like so many others, had stalled for a bit on the hardest scenario in the game (Episode 5 of season 1: Accursed Tide) one of the regulars on this forum had asked why I didn't just skip that one for a while and move on. My inner Spike said: "Because I want to win it-!" but inner Timmy might've said: "We've had that adventure and lost, so let's just try the next one." Those perspectives also apply to the choice of Investigators in the game as a whole.
As I briefly mentioned last time, the selection of what characters you're going to play can involve the practical or the casual. If you really want an edge, you find all the characters that have Arcane Mastery and get a diverse selection of other basic skills, as well; preferably with Toughness, Marksman, and Swiftness and you go to town with the dice on your side. OTOH, you can also just pick whoever seems interesting at any given moment, whether their skills, including their primary, are going to work together or not. If you're good enough/experienced enough at the game, you're probably going to overcome the ill fit and triumph, anyway. But if you're picking characters that way in the first place, you may not even care if you win, choosing instead to have fun with Investigators, GOOs, and Episodes that are all going to generate a story, one way or another, which is kinda the whole point of playing games like this. But there are still characters that seem to have their own gravitational pull for a lot of players, whether it's effectiveness or identity (many "real life" figures in the roster) or the fact that they just do something cool.
From a statistical standpoint (if you're into that kinda thing), I tallied up the win rates for all of the Investigators and found a couple interesting notes. Keeping in mind what I said last time about sample sizes, relative experience with the game, and other factors, I found that (in rough release order) Season 1 (base game) had a collective win rate of 57.8%, Season 2 56.8%, the Unspeakable Box 59.7%, Comic Book Extras 1 62%, Comic Book Extras 2 66.2%, Season 3 58.7%, Season 4 62%, and the Unknowable Box 73.79%(!) However, the latter may be colored by the 5 Investigators who don't have at least 20 plays in Thilo's records (the baseline for percentage assessment), as it's 69.2% without them which is, of course, still the highest among any of the sets. What does any of that mean? I dunno. As mentioned last time, the power level does seem to have advanced as we've gone along and those percentages "confirm" that, but there's no way to draw a line in the sand on any of these numbers, so let's just talk about cool people.
Season 1:
As noted before, Rasputin checks a lot of boxes. He's a known and intriguing historical figure, so not just a name attached to a set of abilities but also, in true Cosmic Encounter fashion, he radically breaks one of the baseline rules of the game: With Unkillable, if he dies even before the GOO has set foot on our world, he stands right back up. At least once, anyway. If you improve it, he can do that up to three times. That also means that, like characters with Toughness, he can automatically assume more risk than other Investigators, since if he pays the "ultimate" price, he laughs it off and keeps swinging. However, despite his popularity, the character with the highest winning percentage on Thilo's sheet is Fatima. Is that because her two base abilities are the everpresent AM and Swiftness (the 3rd best of the six) or because her signature ability, Read the Omens, lets her influence a wider aspect of the game? Omens lets her redraw a Mythos card, sending the first draw to the bottom of the deck, which can be huge. Draw a summoning symbol that's going to advance the GOO? Skip it and try your luck again and heal two Stress in the bargain. So you don't even pay a cost to exercise it, but instead gain a benefit. Later stages let you draw two and compare and finally take a couple wounds to accept the card, but ignore its effects. That can be game-warping, making it a much smoother process toward disrupting the ritual and winning the game.
In contrast, the two with the lowest percentages are Ian and Morgan. Ian is surprising to me because his signature, Vengeance Obsession, lets him deal back a wound to his attacker (and heal Stress) if he takes any wounds. As it advances, he starts dealing a wound to every enemy in the room. "Enemy" means just that: Cultist, monster or GOO, which is a broader scope than many other abilities. However, it also means that he has to take wounds in order to get anything out of the ability, which is something that most people try to avoid. He also comes with Brawling (meh) and Swiftness (bueno.) Morgan is the Indiana Jones stand-in for the game and I think it's clear why he brings up the rear in that his signature, Protector, lets him redirect attacks on other Investigators to himself, which has limited application and can be rendered inefficient by circumstances (if Morgan is closer to death than others, etc.) However, he does have a basic ability (Toughness) which dovetails really nicely with his signature, so there's that. Adding Swiftness on top of it is another bonus, but I think the inherent problems don't go away, since it also means he's less effective at killing things, lacking either AM, Marksman, or Brawler (e.g. best defense is good offense.) My favorite of this group is probably The Kid, not only because her signature, Gate Manipulation, causes wounds to things simply for showing up at a gate but also for the maniacal laughter that is her tagline quote on her sheet, which depicts her clutching a tome and with one hand engulfed in flame, along with the psychotic smile on her face.
Season 2:
Leading the pack (barely) in this season is Mary who has an ability, Roll With It, much like Ian's, in that she has to take wounds to heal Stress. However, she does grant that Stress relief to other Investigators in her space right from the start and it improves as she goes along, so she starts being quite the helper if you're a group that trusts in the randomness of rerolls (or in those fortunate cases where you get back to 2 Stress in order to pick up a Companion from Investigating.) However, while she does come with Swiftness, her other tier 2 basic ability, Marksman, actually doesn't work well with her signature, since she wants to be outside the main combat zone (where other Investigators may be) in order to do the most damage. The other leader is Adilah, whose Vodou addresses and enhances a main aspect of the game. Let's face it: No one wants to take a Rest action. You do it because you know you'll need your Stress for Discovery cards (and rerolls and other things) and because you might die. But it's an inefficient action because it neither gets you any closer to achieving your goal nor removes threats. You just have to do it. Adilah can make it so that she and one other character can both gain benefit from that inefficient action and she can even save people from dying outright. It's overall a boost for at least 50% of your team (with 4 players), so it's easy to see how she might be on the winning side more often. Combine that with AM and Brawling and she's a versatile character that can serve many roles.
On the downside is Ariele. Her ability, Specialist Hunter, is very narrow in that she picks one non-GOO enemy and gains a bonus in combat (first just attack, but later defense, too) against it. If she picks a small but numerous enemy, like Cultists, it will often be overkill. If she picks a larger enemy, there's a significant chance that she'll never run into one of them or, even worse, if there's only one of them like the Shoggoth, that Mythos card may never be drawn again and she'll have no special ability whatsoever for the duration of the episode. She does come with Marksman and Stealth and the latter serves her interest by being able to avoid her non-chosen enemies in order to get to said chosen enemy, but it's still way too situational. Likewise, Alex has Supersleuth, which lets him regain a Stress every time he draws a Discovery card. There are anecdotal moments when that could be really key to picking up a cool Companion, but there's almost as many when it just isn't that important and, of course, if you're not in a safe space, your signature doesn't exist. Both of his basics- Swiftness and Stealth -enable him to get to safe spaces moreso than other characters, so he can be your primary Investigation player, but it makes him less generally practical. My favorite of this set is definitely Luke, whose Smite Evil (May ignore monster abilities) is often extraordinary. Combine that with AM and Toughness and he's a combat machine against the biggest threats to your team (until the GOO hits the floor.) Interestingly, similar to Beta Team in The Others, this group has the greatest number of subpar abilities (Hailia's is totally dice dependent, Margarethe's adds huge risk, Mario's only works against Cultists, etc.) of any of the sets that I've played. Sophomore slump is a thing?
Unspeakable Box:
Gonk is among the top 4 Investigators in win percentage and with a sample size significantly greater than any of the other three, so I feel pretty secure in suggesting that, from a practical standpoint, he's the best character in the game. Why? Because Time Management gives him 33% more actions (4) than anyone else. That gives him amazing, universal utility for every one of those situations where you're one action short of doing everything you want. The downside is that he only has 2 max Health, which is significant. But all of his upgrades reduce that deficit and he has Toughness, which eases the burden on him in a big way and makes it easier to use Brawling, as well. I have yet to see anyone lose an episode with Gonk on their team. In contrast, Maxim's Mad Dog isn't so obvious. He can deal out a wound to an enemy whenever he loses Sanity. You do generally want to lose Sanity to increase your effectiveness, so it is an upside, but nowhere near as stark as many other signature abilities, since it is situational (rolling tentacles or suffering GOO effects.) He does have AM (and Brawling), though, so maybe that's enough to elevate him. One cool thing about Mad Dog is that it's optional, so if you don't want to wound something like a Ghoul or Dark Spawn, you don't have to.
Meanwhile, Maki's Resourceful is the very definition of situational, since it lets her regain wounds when drawing a Discovery card. Unlike Alex, who can frequently use the resource he regains when drawing said cards, the Discovery cards that require wounds to take are much rarer. The upgrades to that ability are likewise quite narrow and subject to the randomness of the Discovery deck draw and what she's able to retain. Combine that with Marksman (maybe not useful if you're drawing melee combat items?) and Stealth and it's not hard to see why she has one of the lowest win rates in the game. Likewise, Fleur is a poorer version of Adilah. as Combat Medic lets her divide the results of a Rest action, rather than adding a bonus to it. You already don't want to take a Rest and now you have the chance to make it less effective? Eh. One upside is that her first upgrade means that she can heal 5 wounds/Stress instead of the usual 3, which is a significant bonus. But combining that subpar ability with Marksman (again, needing to be in the space to provide the benefit of her signature) and Stealth leaves her understandably lagging behind many of the others. There are some really unusual and interesting abilities in this set, like Olivia (Gain a success for each die if you roll no successes) and Meryl (pick an Investigator at the start of your turn and gain their signature ability) but my favorite has to be either Ernest or Bert, just because it's cool being Hemingway or Einstein.but it probably has to be Ernest. His signature, Demon Hunter, doesn't help with the GOO but it does help your team generally lay waste to monsters and, in the end, you're Hemingway.
Comic Book Extras 2:
This is an extraordinarily successful group with only one real outlier. Best among them re: win rate is Muñoz. Mystical Insect lets you flip the named token like a coin and gain 1 level in either of his two basics, Brawling or Tougness, based on the result. What that does is partially relieve you of the need to make a choice as to how to spend your Sanity upgrades, since you'll always potentially have an extra level in one of them. Of course, if you don't get the result you wanted, it can be frustrating and there is the potential of advancing one of them to the point where the token does nothing for you in the late game or heals your wounds (Toughness) or Stress (Brawling) when you're already at maximum. I think the ability is flavorful, but the randomness can detract from it. Similarly, Virginia can use Ruthless to deal 2 wounds to a Cultist or monster if one attacks her and there are no other enemies in her space. That's a pretty narrow application in my experience. However, the first upgrade is that she can kill said Cultist or monster, which is a huge boon if facing one of the larger monsters with 4 or 5 wounds. Her Stealth and Toughness can contribute to her ability to being alone with whatever she wants to execute, so I can see her upsides at a base, practical level, though.
Lagging way behind the rest is Ezra, whose signature, Impervious, is based around taking a Condition, which you never, ever want to do if you can help it. This lets you discard it and heal all Stress, which is good, but also situational. Most of the time, you'd always rather have the other half of the Discovery card. Combine that with Brawling and Stealth and it's not hard to see why he may be less than the rest. The only reason Olmstead is in this category is because he doesn't have the superlative win rates of the other four, as his setup is quite good. His signature, Officer, means he doesn't have to take Stress to gain a Companion or Item, which is usually great, albeit limited by the ability to Investigate in the first place. Upgrading it gives you the opportunity to attack after Investigating and, since he has Marksman (and Swiftness), he can be seriously effective in clearing space for the rest of your team. He's a solid pick for almost any group and, again, only suffers in comparison to the rest of this top tier group. My best playing experiences have been with Veronique, since placing the Magical Seal not only helps your fellow Investigators, but also can deal serious clean-up damage when fully upgraded if the dice don't go your way. She's a definite "finish the GOO" character, in addition to her AM and Marksman.
Season 3:
Leading the way in Season 3 is Stella. (Stella!) Her Chemical Explosives basically transcribes Brawling to her attacks, which she can use via Marksman to excellent effect. Having AM on top of that means that she can do a lot of space clearing for fellow players acting after she does. It's an excellent combination. Right behind her is Sandra, who gets to claim a Relic at the start of the game, even if you're not using Unknown Monsters. If you are using the latter, that means she can have two Relics to start the game, which is some good. This is all, of course, malleable based on the difficulty level you'd like to set, but combining those great advantages with AM and Brawling means that she can add serious combat effectiveness and/or versatility to the efforts of your group.
On the downside is Mike, whose Proficient lets him reroll two dice per Stress spent when attacking, rather than the usual 1. Many players use Stress on rerolls when being attacked, which this doesn't help with, but he also has Toughness (and Brawling) so I'm not sure where the consistent weakness comes in here. The first upgrade lets him use this ability on rolls that aren't attacks, so it seems like he should be not only durable but also useful in doing Episode objectives. That's an odd one, since he's a really significant outlier to this group (some distance behind all of the rest in win rate.) The next person ahead of him is Sally, who is the definition of "support character", since Avid Photographer simply lets her follow when another Investigator leaves her space. That's a great way to set up her upcoming turn, if the turn order works out in your favor, which it won't always. Later upgrades make her a cool person to have around, but still not one that is able to exercise a lot of initiative. However, the reason she's probably so far ahead of Mike is that she has both Arcane Mastery and Toughness, which is a combination that every Investigator in the game wants. My worst experiences with this group have come with Leon, whose basics (Swiftness and Marksman) don't often coincide with his signature, Show-Off, which needs other Investigators in his space. But my favorite, despite the incredible durability of Huikong and the interesting thematics of Julien, is probably Agatha whose Killer Instinct lets her take Stress to add wounds to her attacks (hopefully via Marksman.) She's put in the kill shots to the GOO more than once in our games. Plus, her quote ("I learned to shoot when people couldn't stop calling me 'Aggie'.") is excellent.
Season 4:
The frontrunner by far in this small group is Sylvia, who is among the most thematic of all of the characters in the game. Her signature, Reformed Cultist, gives her bonuses for killing her former brethren. Since they do tend to be the most numerous and she also has Brawling and Arcane Mastery, it's pretty easy to assign her to Cultist duty so that others can accomplish the Episode goals. But with AM, she's just as adept (ahem) as they are in doing so. Also, with her signature at its max level, the Stress recovery and free attack bonuses that she's wielded for the rest of the game now work against monsters and the GOO, so she's good at clearing the early game and, potentially, the late game. In second place is Bruno, whose Vicious gives him bonuses when he's operating alone (i.e. no other Investigators in his space.) He has Brawling to accentuate that, as well as Stealth to get to places where he's on his own, so it functions as a decent combination. If he does nothing but boost Vicious, he'll have a minimum of 5 green dice added to his rolls, as long as he's alone, which makes him a significant threat.
There's a stark gap between the bottom two and the other four in this group and the farthest behind is Rosario, who suffers from a distinct mismatch of skills. Her signature is Boisterous, which lets her add a green die to an attack, but if she does so, the nearest enemy not in her space moves 2 spaces closer to her. Unfortunately, that's paired with Marksman, which means she's going to get one shot before things are in her space and any bonuses from advancing that skill are lost. She also has Toughness, which compensates for that somewhat, but the mix of the other two is counter-intuitive. Brawling, obviously, would've been much better. Some distance behind her is Anika, who is an Arcane Student. Every time she rolls at least 1 Elder Sign, she gains a Knowledge token. She can discard those tokens to reroll dice and can eventually discard them as free actions to Investigate and even level up a skill. Combined with AM and Swiftness, it would seem that she's fairly versatile, but her signature is clunky and doesn't provide a whole lot of benefit that Stress doesn't already provide. I think she's intriguing, but I can understand the win rate. But I think my favorite in this season is John, whose Leadership allows him to take actions with other Investigators. It's a really good teamwork ability that emphasizes the co-op nature of the game, helping where and as needed.
Unknowable Box:
This is the largest of the Investigator groupings, numbering 18 in total. Foremost among them on Thilo's sheet is Steve, who reminds me of Golden Boy from the Wild Cards series. His Tackle allows him to push enemies out of the space that he Runs to. Its first upgrade allows him to deal 3 wounds to whatever he tackles, which is enough damage to kill the majority of monsters in the game. At its max level, he'll be pushing 3 enemies (i.e. including the GOO) and dealing 5 wounds to them. It's kind of ridiculous, especially when you consider that he also has Swiftness (free Run at level 2) and Toughness, in case he runs into a crowd. Close behind him in win rate is Ryan, who is Intense. This is an enormously fun ability that tests the player's ability to plan out their turns. If he hasn't Run yet, he gets a green die when attacking. If he hasn't attacked yet, he moves an extra space when he Runs. The respective bonuses increase as he upgrades the skill and the top level removes the restrictions. Meanwhile, he also has Marksman (so standing in one space and shooting things around him with plenty of bonus dice) and Stealth (to get to that space out of the target room.) It is a fun set of decisions to make each turn, but it's also head-and-shoulders above most of the other Investigators in the process.
Most of the characters in this set have significantly positive win rates (again, questions of game experience alongside potential power creep arise), but there are two that bend more toward average in that respect. The first is Anita, who is the most unusual character in the game. Her signature is Beast Tutor, which gives her the Command spell Discovery card. She can cast it to recruit a monster ally, who will then attack for her. To do so, she has to roll more successes than the creature has health, which means she'll be focusing on small ones early on, but can start recruiting real threats as the game goes on. But they also only have 2 health until it's upgraded a couple times. Anita is a bit tricky to get used to and, if you can't roll well when trying to use the Command spell, she essentially has no signature until you do. She has Stealth to get close to a potential target and AM in order to make the spell go off, so she can be capable, but it's definitely an Investigator to give to an experienced player. The second is Amelie, who has Gate Influence, which allows her rerolls or, even better, setting a die to a specific face at higher levels. She also has AM and Marksman, so the ability to get green dice and set one of them to *! can be a key moment. But she's also geographically tied, as her ability only works when she's near a gate. Like Anita, it's possible that she'll be without use of a signature for significant periods of the game, depending on the map size and location of the gates.
There are a lot of interesting characters in this group, from Agnes with Silent Killer (only Runs for 2, but gets 2 green dice when attacking) to Antonio with Aeon Knowledge (can discard Knowledge tokens for offense, healing, and even ignoring Mythos cards) to Charles with Inspiring Performance (Charlie Parker, who can ignore symbols on his own rolls to give them to others for later use) to Dali with Flamboyant (as in Salvador, who can reroll all of his dice) to Houdini with Escape Artist (can swap spaces with other figures (e.g. teleport), friend or foe) to Karen with Command (can move enemies into her space with Brawling and Toughness) to Robert with Cold Blood (who advances his Slaughter track for killing things, making him one of the best killing machines in the game in the late game) to Saito with Rigor (who can sacrifice wounds to set dice to any face but also heals wounds every turn at higher levels) to Taylor (who adds tokens to enemies to do extra damage or reduce their dice with one of the best-named signatures in the game: Song of Death) to Vanessa with Cosmic Researcher (who gains abilities based on the number of Summoning symbols in the discard pile.) There are a lot of great ideas here and, among them all, I think I've had the most fun playing Houdini and moving figures around the map.
Anyway, that's a mildly exhaustive look at the heroes in the game. Next time, we'll delve into the opposition, starting with the monsters and probably moving to a second part with the GOOs.
