So, I am running a (heavily) modified version of Deathwatch. Really, the only similarities are that it uses the system, and really nothing else. Won't go into specifics, as it's a long bit of text, but if any of you want, I can post it later. It's a pretty decent little world, actually. Pretty fun as well. Now, onto the discussion at hand. My party was on a retrieval mission from their higher ups, and ran into two very strong baddies who are main characters in the campaign. The fight goes fairly well actually, as my players were rolling pretty well. It was when the mage (don't ask, there is magic, yada yada) pulled a bs move on the antagonists. The main female villain was nearly killed along with the party, and was forced to burn a Fate point to survive. Then, the stronger villain took it upon himself to try to get revenge for his fallen comrade. Long story short, the very squishy mage made himself the target and was forced to burn a Fate point or die from the amount of damage he was taking from the baddie. It was then that another player got upset over 'me' targeting the mage and the other girl burning a Fate point to stay alive. "Bad guys can't burn Fate points." Is what he said, and then I scrolled through my books and found the Touched by the Fates talent. If you have fate points, you may burn them to survive otherwise fatal damage. Have any of you guys ever had this problem, where PC's do too much, and end up making themselves a target, and then complaining about that? I mean, if you have a Devastator mowing down rows of heretics, their not gonna ignore him. Their gonna focus on him and try to take him down, as he is decimating them. It was a very similar type of situation. Anyway, just wanted to rant a tiny bit, and get some feedback. Thanks guys!

So the problem here doesn't actually have anything to do with Fate Points, but rather players complaining about the consequences of making themselves a primary target?

I suppose an accurate analysis of whether the criticism was justified would depend on what exactly the bad guy used to put them down. It could be a result of imbalances in the combat system - DW is a bit of a mess there by default, and modifying it could well make it even worse. Can you recreate the mechanical steps that made up the attack?

I see nothing you did wrong here. Next time target a meteoroid at the complaining player...

Fate is fate, be it Player or NPC, and Touched by the Fates is a Talent that lets "important" NPCs have the same get out of death free card the players have. If a player would use it to escape the reaper, a qualified NPC would, too.

As for your players whining, that's their problem. If they expect your NPC's to ignore strategy for their benefit, that's dumb. I've played many wizards over the years, and can testify that, once you drop some AoE spam, or a particularly powerful spell to someone else who is "important", the opposition will target that magical artillery piece to the best of their ability, and this is where the wizard's power is often counter-balanced by their squishiness, and lack of high hp. At that point, it's the job of the wizard to defend themselves, and of the rest of the players to come to said ally's aid. If the wizard can do 10d6+15 damage in a single attack, , hitting several targets, and the fighter can do 2d12+9 to ONE target, you hit the wizard, and if you metagame a little, you KNOW he'll have less health than the armored tank. Your RPG isn't a video game with aggro, and threat modification, and your players should be aware of that.

Like the other guys said your actions as a GM are fine. NPCs, particularly elite or Master NPCs should act with a certain level of tactical acumen particualrly if a PC is making themselves the obvious threat. However there is difference between a sniper being discerning in his target and a tough boss absorbing a huge amount of damage just to get to 'that one guy'.

Genuinly surprised that a PC would complain about this though? My players in Deathwatch take this as standard and seem to be developing their own 'attack patterns' to deal with this kind of thing. I mean developing tactics to protect certain team mates in different situations is part of the fun surely.

(i.e Lascannon guy needs a round to line up the shot on the Gargants engine other PCs form around him to offer suppressing fire etc and hold off the orks).

As for Fate Points being burnt by NPCs again this is fine however use them sparingly . In this case I would be slightly more sympathetic to the PCs for complaining. It can be quite unnerving for PCs if they realise that for the first time they're supposedly unique feature isn't that unique. Wouldn't change my decision of course.

Incidentally when using Fate Points with NPCs who have the Touched by the Fate Trait I devide them into two types. NPCs who can spend fate points to activate abilities, get re-rolls etc and NPCs who can burn fate points. The former are slightly more common and really shouldn't be an issue. The latter should be very rare though. I would say no more than one type of this NPC per campaign.

Finally beware the PCs wrath now that they know NPCs may have fate points. You may find them instituing ritual post-mortem decapitations followed by cremation and air burial on thier foes.

Your best bet would have been to have the villian survive without the PCs realising she had burnt a fate point.

Yeah, I ran a KOTOR era Star Wars game some years ago, and threw a Gen'Dai bounty hunter at the party (General Dirge, for those who don't remember). I picked him partly because he was forgiving for me, as I was learning Saga ed rules at the time (it was new then), and parlty so that my players wouldn't "just kill him" because I made the mstake of introducing him to the whole party a bit early in the game. The first time they chose to fight him, they had no idea anything was up, until they were leaving, and realized his body was gone. When they saw him again, wondering if it was someone else, a clone, or whatever, they proceeded to down him, and then the merc emptied his entire blaster rifle clip into the guy's chest three times. It was a bit disheartening to watch the good guys take such gratuitous efforts to end him. When he lived through THAT, too (Gen'Dai really are that hardy), the Jedi actually sought him out, and efforted to decapitate him, as if that was somehow going to make him a Highlander, or at least stop the hunter from seemingly being one. They actually got pissed at me, and my goofy invented character, at this point, and got ready to walk, when I had to say Dirge's name, and they swore, but agreed it was Lucas's fault, first.

As above, in a Star Wars game, we might view the players as the "good guys", especially with an upstanding Jedi among them, and to watch them spend so much effort to try and KILL this one foe (none of them died, and he was certainly defeatable, and passable, once unconscious; he just had an irritating penchant of returning as the villain, later), sort of made me regret using him. Xorn was a fun antagonist, but they really hated his durability, and they started contemplating "checking for such", with other stuff I was using, which good guys on a clock might otherwise not do, or maybe shouldn't do.