Question: What adjustments would you suggest making when a group reaches Knight play? Ideas for scaling up numbers/toughness in fights, or just how to "up the ante" so that the stakes raise with the difficulty.

I let my group's XP sneak up on me, and realized as the session started that I needed to make some changes to keep things interesting. The buffed bad guys made for what's been the most fun they've had in a fight to date, and I was curious as to what other changes you guys make for Knight level stuff. Any suggestions on scaling combat specs would be great, I felt like I gave some of the baddies a little too much soak and it was grinding things down just a little too slowly.

Tough to say without knowing the PCs composition and builds, as well as, what you used.

As a general rule if there are more target groups than they can address in a single round you've already set a challenge to an extent.

Bumping up minion groups and more ranks of adversary are the classics, but a good way for more challenging fights is to keep the players on their toes with the environment. A good example is the final battle from Onslaught at Arda I. No matter how good the PCs are at fighting, they have to use their environment to damage vehicle scale opposition. No amount of XP can replace clever thinking and using information to your advantage.

Make your encounters more than just shooting the enemies, throw stuff at them from multiple angles. Maybe they have to hold off stormtroopers, while at the same time repair their hyperdrive to escape... and don't forget that rancor charging at you, so you better get to those door controls!

Also if the PC's strength comes from their arsenal, you can create scenarios where they can't bring their precious repeating blasters, maybe even make it part of the adventure to acquire some flimsy holdout blasters on a world with very strict weapon laws. Don't do that all the time though, if PCs bought heavy weaponry they should be allowed to use it (from time to time ).

Try ditching Team Deathmatch. Make combat encounters about more than just killing. That not only forces the players to get up and do something beyond shooting, it also gives you as the GM freer rein to dump as many bad guys as needed onto the field. If the objective is to load vital cargo and get airborne it won't matter if every Stormtrooper killed is replaced a turn later, because the body count is irrelevant.

For combat, the opposition needs to keep pace with the PC's dice pools, their damage output needs to keep pace with the PC's soak, and their own thresholds need to keep pace with the PC's damage output. If the PCs are enjoying increased Defense, you might need the NPCs to start using "Accurate" weapons, or Improved Inspiring Rhetoric from a captain.

Yeah, a lot of it is going to depend on how the players build their characters. Even with 150 additional XP, it's very possible to build Knight Level PCs that aren't much better in a fight than a PC with no additional starting XP.

Your best bet in the early going is to simply up the number of minions you'd include in a group by one. Personally, I've found that using a default of four minions per group can make said minion group a notable threat to Knight Level PCs, but without being so difficult that only the combat-centric PCs can defeat them.

For Rivals, default to at least one level of Adversary, two if the Rival is meant to be a serious combat threat. Nemesis should be at two levels of Adversary, with three or more ranks reserved for the big-time major league threats.

I have an unfortunate but entertaining mix of combat deadly to nearly combat impotent players. The Jedi Tank put points into armourer, with his high brawn and armor he has about 10 soak, and then there's his Parry and the double bladed lightsaber he just crafted. I guess my first concern would be removing his sense of immortality without jeopardizing the other players with what would be an invincible enemy to them. Using snipers, traps, and GM boosted meat shields feels like it's only going to work as a half answer.

Use area-effect stun weapons, glop grenades, etc…. Once the Jedi is immobilized, he’ll be a lot easier to deal with.

Oh, and remember that it’s kind of hard to reflect or parry flamethrowers.

Or maybe a miniature tractor beam that is designed to hold a person immobile in the air?

Perhaps it draws energy for the field from their struggling and their consciousness?

I have an unfortunate but entertaining mix of combat deadly to nearly combat impotent players. The Jedi Tank put points into armourer, with his high brawn and armor he has about 10 soak, and then there's his Parry and the double bladed lightsaber he just crafted.

Combat impotence isn't that hard to fix. I have a Diplomat player who for the longest time had no ranks in Ranged Light, with Agility 2. But with a blaster with Accuracy 2 and two Aim maneuvers, he was actually pretty effective. (I'm AFB so I can't recall the blaster, but it's not uncommon.) The system is designed to deal damage, it favours offence over defence. So once the party knows they can do that, you can buff the minions and focus them on the Jedi.

You can also give the Jedi Conflict if, with his amazing immunities, he doesn't distance himself appropriately from his less capable party members...basically impose a "hiding among the civilians" ethical penalty if he doesn't throw himself into the thick of it and/or lead the opposition away from his friends.

Breach1 just so happens to negate up to 10 Soak, while not putting undue penalties on those with less.

Just a thought

I actually like to go with lots of single minions represented by miniatures, and letting the 1 crit = 1 dead minion rule work any way, 20 or so minions, having a number of rivals equal to the number of PCS and maybe 1 or 2 nemesis. Combats last some where between 2 and 5 rounds depending on particulars