I have a very clever party, all great role-players and greater friends. We have a core party of four and a couple who are joining the game. The core party consists of a Human Commando, a Nautolan Marauder/Emergent, a Human Infiltrator, and an HRD (Human Replica Droid) Scoundrel. The Commando wrecks with a Vibro-Axe and blaster rifle, and the Marauder with a vibro-sword and blaster pistol. I learned early on what makes an interesting combat encounter and what a dull. The Infiltrator and Scoundrel are fairly squishy, with the infiltrator more of an oddball of skills (no blaster, either, just a knife and shock gloves) and the Scoundrel a face who excels at disrupting the enemy in combat with his ridiculous Deception skill. They're all great at coming up with creative solutions and mesh perfectly as a party. We're adding a Pilot and Outlaw Tech soon.

Anyway, I am learning their strengths and weaknesses in and out of combat and how to challenge them. The Commando and Marauder are all fairly close-range in their dealings, so last time I threw a bounty hunter with amazing sniper skills at them from Extreme Range. He would've dropped one of the combatants, too, if the Scoundrel and Infiltrator hadn't sneaked around and dropped a Thermal Detonator in his face. I want them to encounter Storm Commandoes somewhere down the line... I've run some basic stat blocks on them and I'd like to know if this is challenging enough for the aforementioned party after accumulating about 100-150 XP.

Storm Commando (Minion)

Brawn 3, Agility 3, Intellect 2, Cunning 3, Willpower 3, Presence 2

Soak Value 5, Wound Threshold 5, M/R Defense 1/1

~~~

Skills: Athletics, Discipline, Melee, Perception, Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), Stealth, Vigilance

Talents: Commando Squad Tactics (skills are not group only but still raise according to number in group), Stalker (add one boost per rank of stalker to stealth and coordination checks), Adversary 1

Equipment: Storm Commando armor (enhanced optics suite, remove two setbacks due to darkness or obscuring conditions), blaster rifle, blaster pistol, vibro-knife, concussion grenade

Storm Commando Marksman (Rival)

Brawn 3, Agility 4, Intellect 2, Cunning 3, Willpower 3, Presence 2

Soak Value 5, Wound Threshold 15, M/R Defense 1/1

~~~

Skills: Athletics 2, Discipline 3, Perception 3, Ranged (Light) 3, Ranged (Heavy) 3, Stealth 3, Vigilance 2

Talents: Stalker 3 (Add one boost per rank of Stalker to stealth and coordination checks), True Aim (as a maneuver, may gain benefits of aiming and upgrade attack roll once), Adversary 1

Equipment: Storm Commando armor (enhanced optics suite), blaster sniper rifle + marksman barrel + telescopic optical sight (Accurate 1, Cumbersome 2, reduced range difficulty), blaster pistol, vibro-knife

Storm Commando Captain (Nemesis)

Brawn 3, Agility 3, Intellect 3, Cunning 3, Willpower 3, Presence 3

Soak Value 5, Wound Threshold 15, Strain Threshold 15, M/R Defense 1/1

~~~

Skills: Athletics 3, Discipline 3, Leadership 3, Melee 3 Perception 3, Ranged (Light) 3, Ranged (Heavy) 3, Stealth 3, Vigilance 3, Knowledge (Warfare) 3

Talents: Stalker 3, Tactical Direction (May perform a maneuver to direct one minion group; the group may immediately perform a free maneuver or add a boost to its next check), Adversary1

Equipment: Storm Commando armor (enhanced optics suite), blaster rifle, blaster pistol, vibro-sword

The scenario will be them protecting an Alderaanian noble during her stay at a family member's palace. The Storm Commando squad will attack by night, first disabling the power generator then entering the building... Most likely, there will be two Minion Groups of SC's sneaking around, one accompanied by the Captain. The Marksman will provide cover from outside, watching the doors and windows. The Commandoes will most likely get the drop on the PC's, though if the Nautolan upgrades his Sense power he could detect them beforehand. Thoughts?

By the way... I'm keeping light notes on our campaign. It is literally the best RPG experience ever... I'll flesh out a narrative based on it once it's over and post it to the forums, if anyone is interested.

Honestly, I'd skip over the minion category and just treat the basic Storm Commando as a Rival. These guys are supposed to be the "elite of the elite," being true special forces within the Empire.

I'd also suggest dropping Stalker down to just 1 rank for each of them. With an Agility of at least 3 and ranks in Stealth, they're going to be pretty hard to spot anyway, so having three ranks of Stalker is simply overkill. That said, you may want provide some sort of stealth-related bonus to the Storm Commando armor, since if I remember my EU lore correctly, the armor was made to be stealthier than the scout trooper armor it's based off of.

True, but at the same time I'd like to give the Captain the capability to use Squad rules...

Didn't the AoR Beta have stats for them? *checks* Yep! I thought I remembered using them.

Rival

3,4,2,3,3,2

Soak 5, WT 13, Def 1/1

Disc 1, Ranged 2, Stealth 3, Vig 2

Spec skill (pick 1) Gunnery, Mech, Pilot P, 2

Blaster rifle, Vibroknife, reflec armor (+2 boost to stealth in darkness or shadow)

Honestly, I'd skip over the minion category and just treat the basic Storm Commando as a Rival. These guys are supposed to be the "elite of the elite," being true special forces within the Empire.

I'd also suggest dropping Stalker down to just 1 rank for each of them. With an Agility of at least 3 and ranks in Stealth, they're going to be pretty hard to spot anyway, so having three ranks of Stalker is simply overkill. That said, you may want provide some sort of stealth-related bonus to the Storm Commando armor, since if I remember my EU lore correctly, the armor was made to be stealthier than the scout trooper armor it's based off of.

I disagree. Minion doesn't mean weak, per se. You can have tough minions. It's like the minion status in D&D 4e, there can be high level ones and low level ones, what it does is help with running combats (enormously) and thematically show who is who.

I say: Minions shouldn't have more then one talent, if at all, and certainly never Adversary. If you want them to be hard to kill, make them rivals!

Minions can't have talents. And Storm Commandos is the kind of enemy that should make PCs very nervous, so letting them encounter SC minions will definitely detract from that sense of worry. I'd put them a rival level, minimum, but for me I intend to run them as all nemeses every one of them. Storm Commandos and Royal Guards are the elite, and should be treated as such.

I'd drop the minions. I'd also probably give the Nemesis a bit more wounds and strain, just to make him last a little longer and possibly add another Adversary talent level. I'd probably increase Agi and Pre by one step, and then increase their Ranged and Leadership to match. You're only going to have 1 captain per so many squads anyway right? Might as well make him last a while.

Alright, neat suggestions. I'll consider using the beta stats, but I'd rather make my own.

I'll probably bump up the regular SC to Rival and tweak the Captain's abilities accordingly. Will post revised stats soon, then see what I should do from there.

EDIT: I already made the Marksman a separate stat block. Should I do specialized versions beyond just SC Marksman? For example, Demolitionist, Slicer, Heavy...

Alright, neat suggestions. I'll consider using the beta stats, but I'd rather make my own.

I'll probably bump up the regular SC to Rival and tweak the Captain's abilities accordingly. Will post revised stats soon, then see what I should do from there.

EDIT: I already made the Marksman a separate stat block. Should I do specialized versions beyond just SC Marksman? For example, Demolitionist, Slicer, Heavy...

Absolutely. Storm commandos are the evolution of the old republic commandos and arc trooper programs. It only makes sense that each commando team have, or pull from a pool of, specialists. Remember, special operations teams like storm commandos are NOT regular soldiers, their missions will be very specific, planned, and rehearsed whenever possible. So for most encounters with a storm commando team, you as the gm can sit down and say "what, exactly, are these guys doing here, independently of the players?" Then, just like all NPCs in this system, you take the basic storm commando stat blocks, and tweak them to fit, adding skills, talents, and equipment to fit the mission to a T. The end result should actually look a heck of a lot like a party of PCs....