Hello everyone!

I'm working on my first custom built adventure for RT but I'm having some problems with gauging the appropriate combat difficulty when designing the combat encounters. I have previously run some DH games but those were all FFG made so any input on the subject would be greatly appreciated!

I have four players at starting rank: Rogue Trader, Arch-militant, Explorator and a Navigator. The big fights will be against a Bone conqueror (from the Koronus Bestiary) and possibly some Rak'gol carvers (stars of inequity). Both types of enemys seem a bit on the heavy side but then again the players have some pretty formidable weaponry and armor to begin with. As I said I've only ever played DH with under-powered characters bringing army-surplus lasguns to the fight (at most!). If there are any wise RT GMs out there your personal experience in the subject would be very helpful!

A bone conqueror? That's gonna be nasty, let's hope they're packing flamers.

The biggest problem when it comes to gauging difficulty is that the explorers can have a lot of armsmen covering their butts. If it's just them then I would hesitate to send them up against a bone conqueror. Possibly the Rak'Gol too, haven't had a whole lot of experience with them.

Knowing my players they will probably not bring a whole lot of backup since they're not used to the idea of having NPCs under their command. I would anyhow try and limit their quota of soldiers so I'm gonna re-think the enemies and probably replace the bone conqueror at least. It's a shame since it fitted quite nicely into the plot of having the players exploring a Yu'vath necropolis, but I appreciate the feedback. Wouldn't want my group slaughtered on their first mission!

The Rak'gol carvers seem, at least on paper, to be easier opponents. I still fear though that their knack for close combat will overwhelm my players if they act too boldly.

Well obviously the easiest way to gauge the PC's strength against the opponents power is weaponry and damage. Meaning, the Bone Conq has Toughness of 4, Armour of 4, and Wounds 60+. So, good boss fight. Damage though is 2d10+10+, Pen 4+ (with Warp Trait, this is where it catches ya). So your PC's armour means little with it's weapons. Would 2d10+10 kill any of them outright? Probably. Having massive amount of guardsmen would be helpful to bring it down in wounds, but as they die they fuel it. But, there is nothing stopping you from dropping the damage to 1d10+10, Pen 4, with wounds of 35+, saying it's in a weak-end state due to various factors (decomposing bodies, time, damage from previous encounters, etc etc).

The Rak'Gol are actually pretty tough. Tough 6, Ar 6, wounds around 20 I think. Damage 1d10+10+, pen 2+ (or there abouts). The normal Rak'Gol Muarders are like T 8, Ar 7, wounds about the same, and damage of a Hvy Stubber. This means your regular guardsmen would stand no chance, and boarding actions against their vessels would more than likely fail if not equipped with heavy weapons (oddly enough the ship bonus for boarding actions is only like +10 -20 or something, which is silly and should be like +30 - 50 with a Leadership skill of 25 - 40). But, one on one fights between a Rak'Gol and a decent equipped Rank 2 Arch-Militant (or 2 no combat classes) are okay. You could take their Armour away, and say they were a work force and not a fighting force. In this case, the regular equipped guardsmen/household troops actually stand a chance.

My initial thought was to pit the players against two Rak'Gol carvers but as you point out they have pretty fearsome close combat capabilities (1d10+12 R; Pen 6;Tearing to be exact). The carver seems to be the weakest of the Rak'Gol fighters but is still a tough opponent. This is especially true since my players are all lvl 1. I like the idea of removing their armor but it still leaves them with a nasty close up attack. I would probably remove some of the weapon dmg or pen, or simply pair all the players against a single Carver. Although this latter idea seems a bit irrational (after all, would they really attack if outnumbered 4 to 1?) but maybe it's the easiest sollution. I should probably mention that I want to err on the side of caution when it comes to possible combat fatalities.

Thank you for your in-depth analysis and suggestions! I will most certainly take it into account when I make the necessary modifications.

To be comepletely fair, you would be hard pressed to find a scenario where the Rak'Gol will NOT attack.

As for danger, yes, it would definitely be present. They are known to tear stuff up in CC. One successful attack and you've got a PC missing a limb or two.

I suppose I should ask how exactly they find the Rak'Gol. That might help you figure out a solution.

I mainly chose them as opponents because I remembered reading somewhere that the Rak'Gol where interested in Yu'vath artifacts, which I thought would make a good plot device. My current idea is to have the Rak'Gol either ambush them in the tomb city or have the players stumble upon them already on the site which (as you point out) inevitably would lead to combat. An equally valid opponent would be the Eldar since they also have a interest (although for quite different reasons) for opposing the players delving into the ruins. My initial thought however was that the Eldar would pose more of a challenge for the players but maybe I was to hasty in making this assessment. A couple of Aspect warriors would probably be more balanced in some regards.

Another option would be fellow looters. Most opening adventure fights are against other humans, just to keep things on the level.

The sample adventure in the back of Edge of the Abyss is a good example of how to use Rak'gol.

I glanced through the adventure in EotA and it gave me some good ideas for the future. Thanks for the tip!

Hey

I'm having difficulties with maintaining difficulty level for my players. I sent Striking Scorpion assassin after them when they were all alone in the forest. I expected a long melee fight in which only the RT would match the skills of an eldar, in which the alien would run and jump all over them, but my nawigator did just one thing: opened his warp eye. The highest level Lidless Stare is just too powerful. Two tests - WP and T - failed and the assassin was dead.

I'm starting to Wonder what would be a challenge for them? Probably something mechanical, blind or mindless.

Just came up with an idea of the invasion of the horde of deadly, blind cave-axolotls. Stare at them, nawigator!

But seriously, Lidless Stare forces me to send waves of enemies against the players first, to make nawigator use LS and raise his fatigue level and only then bring up the important fights. That's not my style of play. It changes whole session into hack and slash...

Why are you sending melee combatants at someone with AOE insta-kill weapon. You should be sending Eldar Rangers who shoot the navigator at Extreme range, or Warp Spiders who are jumping in and out of reality and so hard to spot, or heck an Exarch if you wanna go overkill. Also consider non-combat challenges, where a characters weaknesses can be exploited by difficult skill checks.

Hey I'm having difficulties with maintaining difficulty level for my players. I sent Striking Scorpion assassin after them when they were all alone in the forest. I expected a long melee fight in which only the RT would match the skills of an eldar, in which the alien would run and jump all over them, but my nawigator did just one thing: opened his warp eye. The highest level Lidless Stare is just too powerful. Two tests - WP and T - failed and the assassin was dead. I'm starting to Wonder what would be a challenge for them? Probably something mechanical, blind or mindless. Just came up with an idea of the invasion of the horde of deadly, blind cave-axolotls. Stare at them, nawigator! But seriously, Lidless Stare forces me to send waves of enemies against the players first, to make nawigator use LS and raise his fatigue level and only then bring up the important fights. That's not my style of play. It changes whole session into hack and slash...

You could try it again, but have it be a surprise encounter where the Eldar is immediately in hand-to-hand combat with said RT. And to utilize said power would also hit the RT. Or any other surprise encounter (sand sharks in a desert, ripper swarm vines in a forest/jungle, etc etc.) And as Kasatka so elegantly put it, conduct range encounters with them. Heck, that lone Eldar Striking Scorpion might of had back up of 4-5 Eldar Rangers. Having two shoot at the PC's about 100-150 meters out, with another 2 flanking them, and the 5th in hiding, is a good way to get a PC to use fate points. However, always give them a way out if things start to turn from bad to worse for the PC's.

Striking Scorpion surprised the navigator by falling on him from tree and lightning attacked him. He was aiming at the head and managed to take away all of his wounds. In the next turn he may have inflicted critical damage and force navigator to use Fate Points. But the mutant Stared then.

Why are you sending melee combatants at someone with AOE insta-kill weapon.

Thing is I am big fan of "Predator" movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I imagined Striking Scorpion to be an excellent lonely hunter, like the one from the movie. I just didn't expect him to go down so fast.

In my campaign he was relatively young and arrogant aspect warrior who wanted to show off and bring three-eyed navigator head to his exarch to show his strength. His failure will now result (as I presume, because I doubt whether they will want to give the aspect armour back) in clash between PC's and his Craftworld.

You should be sending Eldar Rangers who shoot the navigator at Extreme range, or Warp Spiders who are jumping in and out of reality and so hard to spot, or heck an Exarch if you wanna go overkill.

Speaking of exarchs, are there any rules for them? Profiles?

By the way, is there a maximum range for the Lidless Stare Of Death ?

Striking Scorpion surprised the navigator by falling on him from tree and lightning attacked him. He was aiming at the head and managed to take away all of his wounds. In the next turn he may have inflicted critical damage and force navigator to use Fate Points. But the mutant Stared then.

Why are you sending melee combatants at someone with AOE insta-kill weapon.

Thing is I am big fan of "Predator" movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I imagined Striking Scorpion to be an excellent lonely hunter, like the one from the movie. I just didn't expect him to go down so fast.

In my campaign he was relatively young and arrogant aspect warrior who wanted to show off and bring three-eyed navigator head to his exarch to show his strength. His failure will now result (as I presume, because I doubt whether they will want to give the aspect armour back) in clash between PC's and his Craftworld.

You should be sending Eldar Rangers who shoot the navigator at Extreme range, or Warp Spiders who are jumping in and out of reality and so hard to spot, or heck an Exarch if you wanna go overkill.

Speaking of exarchs, are there any rules for them? Profiles?

Striking Scorpions aren't as stealthy as they are made out to be, actually they are heavy melee combatants (by eldar standards). It's Howling Banshees that excel at melee duelling more.

There are in the Deathwatch books i believe, hence me saying it'd be overkill. Otherwise take an aspect warrior, +5 to all their combat stats and allow them to have a few fate points and whatever Eldar wargear you want them to have.

By the way, is there a maximum range for the Lidless Stare Of Death ?

It's 30m. I believe 5 in bad weather.

Honestly, I've found that there are few things that can put the hurt on a team of Explorers better than a heavy weapon from 200m away using suppressive fire.

And the biggest issue with the whole Predator thing is that Psykers/Navigators kind of negate that strategy.

That being said, you could create a Xenos mercenary who happens to be untouchable. Or use one of those weird blue things with the four nostrils. (It's a lot more threatening than I made it sound)

Or, if the navigator becomes too much of a problem, a navigator from a rival house. I have no idea how a navigator duel would go down, but I have to imagine that it would be messy.

Navis Primer actually adds rules for it; they basically hadoken each other with the lidless stare until one navigator gets 3 more degrees of success than the other.

I’d like to suggest a different method; fudging during the session.

The task of the GM is to provide an entertaining game. Players killing off opponents without much difficulty is not much fun, unless they are facing mooks. So plan ahead what you want to happen in an encounter. A good boss fight should ideally see at least one player expend a fate point to stay alive (just be sure to award fate points too when deserved). So fudge the stats to achieve this during the session as you can´t predict in advance how well or not the players will do. Never forget that players have fate points and thus aren´t easily killed. And nor should important NPC´s. So things like damage, wounds, abilities should scale with the players and their actions.

Also, add a standard +20 modifier to your NPC’s actions as players can easily work the angles to get the most bonuses but GM’s are typically swamped running the entire encounter and often forget to add up the modifiers for their NPC´s. So make it easy on yourself. Don’t set out to kill the players, just provide them with fun and challenging encounters. IMO, the actual stats are not that important. It’s the flavour of the fight and the ‘oh, ****’ experience of the players that gives it meaning. If you expect a striking scorpion to fight in a certain way, make it happen without bothering too much with the RAW. One-shotting an end boss is fun occasionally but it gets old very quickly if it happens every time. For the players and the GM.

After all, you are not playing a table top battle where the rules should be enforced. You are creating a story and entertaining your players. That requires a different mind set but it is what sets RPG´s apart IMO.