Betrayal at House on the Hill characters: Strength and Weaknesses?

Question

The character cards for Betray at the house on the Hill are very complicated, in so much as the track you move the traits along are not linear. Different character's traits start in different places and progress at different speeds.

How can I factor this in when picking a character?

I can easily tell that Ox/Flash are the two physical characters and that Reinhardt/Longfellow represent the mental characters, but is it that simple? I've heard from articles that Flash, despite his speed is a weak character, but when I played him last he seemed balanced.

How should I interpret the other 6 characters, who seem to have a blend of traits? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Are all the characters born equal?

Are any of the characters weaker, overall, due to their traits? Or are they all balanced? Are there other strengths/weaknesses not shown in their traits?

A good answer would have a run down of the strengths, weakness and general strategies for playing as each character.

Answer 1

Short answer: They are all balanced in their own way.

Long answer: Each character has strengths and weaknesses, some are harder to spot than others. For example the professor and priest as you pointed out, are mental, but if you look at their stat growth and starting abilities, the priest has more stats that go up to 8, but the professor as more stable stats. It's like this for all the characters. Flash and Ox are both relatively weak mentally, but they each can grow in different directions.

Sorry if this answer doesn't make much sense, honestly this is a difficult question to answer.

Answer 2

A lot of it is going to come down to which scenario you end up with... which isn't any help when trying to choose a character at the start. Some scenarios will punish you if you are low in sanity, others if you are low in strength.

In my opinion, speed is the one thing that tends to be helpful in every scenario... some scenarios will make your level 8 intelligence 100% worthless... but every scenario can make use of speed. Because of this, I think Flash tends to be the "safest" character. You know that your best stat isn't going to go to waste. The trade-off is that you probably won't win the game with your speed alone. You'll still need a teammate with something else that's high, or to pump up other stats yourself.

I think what's important isn't just to look at what's best for your own character, but what's best for your team. You want at least 1 character who is at least decent in every stat, because you never know which stat needs to be high to win.

And as already mentioned, be sure to look at all 3 factors for a stat: The starting value, the maximum value, and the progression. If going up just 1 point jumps you from 3 to 5, that's a lot better than if you need 2 points just to add 1 die.