Hello!

So despite having all of the Dark Heresy books, a busy semester kept me and my friends from playing. However, I REALY wanted to play so after a while I decided to try hosting my own Pbp game.

Now Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with Tabletop Rpgs and even less so with Gming a game! Despite having only played a few games of Call of Cthulhu, I decided it couldn’t be that hard and that would probably be able to manage the less frantic pacing of a Pbp game.
Though I have a campaign idea in mind, I decided to start slow and use published scenarios. For my first, I picked Daniel R. Robichaud's "Idyll Heresies", I thought it was realy cool yet easy to run.

Now this is where I screwed. After reading the scenario, I thought that it was wasting something good with the whole Floating Sub-markets and the "Hot Spot" deals. I felt like it would be a cool opportunity to give the players a slim chance of finding a cool piece of gear or something that will help them with the second half of the campaign, which is much harder.

Story wise, the acolytes are part of a sleeping cell that has been recently activated to deal with this specific issue. They have been on Malfi several years, and I wanted to reflect that. As such, I allowed them to start with... a lot of money... a lot of money... that would be able to spend at the floats if they got lucky and found the item they were looking for.

I had told them that I didn’t want them to buy anything at character creation... but suffice to say that the situation degraded.

Some of them had all of the books, some of them didn’t have any books, which resulted in a monster mutant tech-priest with like 60 toughness right at the start of the game. When a guy who didn’t have any of the other books made his (puny) assassin, misunderstood what I said about starting gear (Start with your gear from the book...) and went ahead and bought quite a bit of stuff, I realized two things: One) Players want to spend at least PART of their starting gold and Two) I had to let them do it as not to have some players outshine all of the rest.

So I set rules, and I set limits to what you could buy. Mostly weapons and armour with common availability, one weapon with scarce if you had the appropriate contacts and/or peer talents and it made sense in a story-telling perspective, limited to the hive world armoury. Upgrades were fine, so were tools, those relatively didn’t matter that much and won’t change anything in the long run.

Now the kicker, I have six acolytes playing this game... and I fear that despite their limited fire-power, they will rampage through this scenario. I will be able to tell instantly, right from the first encounter, how the rest of the game will go.

But I have no idea how to balance this!

For the regular encounters, I can just throw in a few more mooks, fight smarter, stuff like. But what really worries me is the Boss at the end: the plague bearer! I dont want this fight to be anti-climactic. Granted, I kind of shot myself in the foot with that...

Anybody has any suggestions to make this thing last more than a few rounds? Should I up its stats? Have minions attack with it? I could constantly boost it by rolling a few times on the creature anathema "upgraded enemy" list. I also thought of making it more memorable by having it inflict a differant poison effect every time it attacks, or have it explode on who-ever is in melee range when-ever it is hit.

I realized its sword is primitive, so flak armor that the acolytes are wearing would count as double. Combine that with their toughness, and this thing is only rarely going to be able to harm them, and only so with its toxic ability. Then Again toxic is pretty though.

I guess what i am asking is, seeing I have never played I have no idea how strong this thing actually is, and how strong a bunch of acolytes actually are: i have no clue how to balance encounters at all. I can only guess that a single plague bearer cant possibly be a match for six people who all have weapons that are capable of dealing anywhere from 2 to 5 damage if they roll a five.

The trick is not to go from Under kill to Overkill! So confused...

Ps: I know, I should have put my foot down and been like "No, You cant spend any of your thrones" but in all honestly, the game is still about having fun and the players clearly wanted to buy some stuff. I did put my foot down on the much stronger things, and explained that anymore then what they have and the game would be boring as they would rampage trough everything. I find its the gms Job to adapt, and I believe (at least I thought) that with their level of gear, I could scale up things accordingly! Starting to doubt though, and regret it

Any help would be appreciated, how do you guys boost up your bosses?

Balancing combat can be tricky business, especially if you are new to being a GM.

IMO, a 'boss' battle is more about something cinematic and memorable, more than a mechanical challenge and risk of death. So the key is to make something exciting and fun, more than deadly to the PCs (though these often coincide).

There are a few important points about the plaguebearer that you must keep in mind.

Fear. The plaguebear is Fear(3) creature, combined with its Daemonic Presence (-10 Wp) means that on encountering the Plaguebearer, the PC's must pass a Wp test at -30 or flip right out. This will increase the Daemons survival.
The errata amends the Daemon's sword, it should be 10+3R P2 Balanced,Toxic(1d10), which is much better.
You can change its stats, fudge its rolls or whatever is need to create an exciting encounter for the PC's.
The Plaguebearer can dodge and parry ( i often forget NPC's can do this...)
You could always give it Psychic powers...
There are no real mechanics for it, but the infected wounds could certainly be used to horrific effect.
Personally, I would dole out corruption to anyone injured by the daemon.
The Demon's TB of 10 is not reduced by Pen, all damage is reduced by 10.
You could also add some minions for the Plaguebearer,

A couple of Cultists with autoguns for supressing fire would also be quite an nuisence (remember the demonic presents would reduce their pinning rolls)

Add the Demonic trait to the Slithering creature profile (DH pg 349) and you've got nurglings

Add some random Psychic Phenomena to simulate the after effects of the summoning.

If the PC's are present at the end of the summoning, you could look over the summon rules in DoTG for example Insanity and Corruption damage.

What exactly are the PC's equipped with?

Hope this helps

Why I have a different approach then Almar (trying to thing about mechanics that make an endfight dangerous), the post of her/him sums it all up quiet nicely. Here are my ideas to "beef up" the endfight.

"Minions" for the Plaguebearer:
6 females had been sacrificed to summon the beast, the seventh sacrifice properbly being the cultist himself. So, their are seven corpses laying around. You can make them swell over the course of the first two rounds after he appearance of the Daemon. If the pc did not stated that they have an eye on the corpses doing the fight (which the might have!) a challenging (+0) awareness check should be asked for to be able to react to the 1-3 pest tickles pooring out from the bellys of the dead. Remeber, "outnumbering" gives +10 for 2:1; +20 for 3:1 etc. This will divered "firepower" away.

"Foul Powers" for the Plaguebearer:
I understood that they have a lot of gear with them. How about "upgrading" this Plaguebearer a little? Perhaps a "Wave of Wearing" sweeps the room as this daemon of the father of all rott enters the real world. All weapons and armour (and gear) one step in quality until thoroughly taken care of (not in combat; poor quality items becoming USELESS/falling appart).

He could make use of "Foul Fumes of Festeredness". I would use this as a the Minor Psy Power "Flash Bang", but with a the "Sustained" and a range of 5m. The "victim" can deside to test Toughness instead of Willpower, respiration gear giving a bonus as against gases. If a victim becomes "stunned", it can´t help but throw up. It a victim achieves "levels of success", it does not need to check for a nother number of rounds equal to the success levels achieved. Since the Plaguebearer as now Psyrating, use his unmodified TB instead for this "embodyment of his rottenness" . And DON`T make it "fart" to use this power...

That is amazing advice from the both of you!

thank you I appreciate a lot, It actually reminded me of a few things I had forgotten: For example, that Daemonic means Immunity to penetration! Nurglings are cool too to balance out the numbering, and a Psychic phenonema to set the mood. I particularly like the idea of having a wave of decay that reduces the quality of their equipment for the duration of the fight, and if they manage to act too quickly too often, the wave of festering rot to keep them from abusing the system.

Well, unfortunately, combat rolls are out in the open, so i cant fudge those! But seeing as they dont know its stats, and I did mention I would take liberties with them, I can shift the fight accordingly to help them out.

Just for laughs, I am going to list up their weaponry:

Hive Arbitrator, with BS Ws has a Westingkrup Model 20 "Scalptaker" Stub Revolver. This is probably their weakest weapon.

Hive mutant Tech-priest, with 31 BS and Meat-Hammer. This is probably their strongest "Effective" Close range weapon (2d5+5).

Malfian Noble Adept, with 30 Ws and 31 Bs. This girl is the one who spent all of her money. and she had tons of it. She has a "Joke Lethal Weapon", which is a power sword which she stole from her father, granted she does not have the talents to use it, so even though its around if she manages to hit anything with it then they deserve the kill. There a gene lock on it that prevents any-one else from using it. She has several guns though, a few are good, a few wont matter much, her strongest are a Good Hand cannon a Good stub automatic, she has two more guns with 1d10+2 dmg.

Mind-Cleansed Psyker, but He didnt buy anything. Then again, and Seeing as he only has a Psy rating of 2, He's more of a danger to the party then to anyone else

Schola Commissar, from the Dark Reign Homebrewed Commissar Class. He has a chain sword, it's not even mono though. And a boosted up Las-pistol with a couple of overcharge packs.

Imperial Assassin, bought mostly tools, and a Long Las and a hunting riffle.

I have not mentioned the armor they are wearing, most of them have Flak and stuff along those levels, so for this scenario they are pretty well set.

Should all get lucky with their rolls, they that thing in two rounds, that's not counting the Emperor's Fury! Should the Tech-priest trigger that, he could finish the demon by himself.

But this requires them to get lucky... Maybe i am Overestimating their chances. I am mostly worried that by that point, they will Out-number it Six to One They could kite it around the room while shooting it down!

Though if I find they have an incredibly lucky first round, I will use some of the above tips to tip the balance back in favor of the demon. After all, if this guy survives, it should be the end of the Hive

Thank you for your advice, and as a New Gm I look forward to posting more around these parts!

-Saldre

Glad the advice was helpful

A couple more pointers for you based on the characters.

Chainswords can't be mono, it's only an upgrade for Primitive weapons.

The Long las and hunting rifles are very powerful if you use the Updated rules for Accurate weapons in the errata, the longlas can do up to 3D10+4!

The equipment power levels seem a bit all over the place for your players, I would recommend you try and even them out a bit. if some of your players don't have all the books, then help them make good choices about equipment, as GM its your job to ensure everyone can contribute, otherwise you'll have sad players.

Also: as a boss, the Plaguebearer should be able to use Righteous Fury as well.

Yeah hehe, It was because I wanted everyone to contribute that I let them go crazy with the buying! Good point on the chain-sword, thank you, I had not noticed that.

I admit i dealt with the players privately by Pm, one by one, so I did not get much of a chance to compare then lot until now. Though I did not think the difference was that important. Though the funding contributed massively to the problem: Seeing as I gave them a LOT of starting money, but based on their starting careers. Meaning the Malfian Noble started with a fortune, while the Arbitrator had considerably less to work with. Though some of these players limited themselves as well, the Arbitrator would not take a stronger gun, i believe he is the only one without a "Scarce" weapon, because he got attached to this gun (It was his partners, that got shot down ). Even then, his gun is more then enough to have him contribute. I took into account that he probably wont pack the hardest punch, and made him Team leader so he could still participate. He, along with Adepts, have the Highest investigative abilities in the cell: he even took a back-round package that I proposed from the Radical's handbook "Justice, not law".

I am going to try to get everyone involved though by catering to their strenghts, after all the mission is not limited to the Plague Bearer encounter at the end. I am thinking of adding some way to beat it through brains as well : if they can lead it into a trap of sorts, that would help In case i accidently make it too strong to combat.

Hmm, Nurgle's fury? If the Plague rolls a Seven, he does splash damage as the rot from his sword splashes on everybody

But yeah, If the fight ends up being more "cinematics" then actual dice rolling, everybody will be able to contribute and it wont just be the Techpriest and his shot-gun, or (Strangely enough the laz-riffles) doing the damage.

Saldre said:

Great ideas on everything and making that Plague Bearer a bit more interesting to handle. 2 questions though, Radical game i'm guessing from a Hive Mutant TP and Malfian Noble? and what kind of mutations does the TP have exactly. If any of them can fit with Nurgle you can make it even more challenging for him as his corrupted flesh tries to rebel against him. Just ideas I have, Also if you want a great example of a fight against a Nurgle Worshipper pick up Thunder from Fenris and listen to the descriptions of everything from that fight.

Hmm, I didnt want to revive this topic seeing as my issue is solved, but it would be rude not to answer!

Also, I couldnt find a way to Pm!

On a side note, the Techpriest took Tough Hide and Brute . This is the kicker: he rolled, using the forum roller, where all could verify: necrophage and tox-blood. So he is the ultimate Tank-priest, and he's rank two.

Regeneration, resistance to poisons and plagues, more natural armor and LOTS of toughness (Rolled a 16 + 25 (mutant bonus) + 10 (two advances) + 10 (brute)).

You can see why, after this guy was created, I felt compelled to give everybody else some sort of compensation! This guy's a monster! But he is going to have to deal with the consequences of being Huge, and he's already caused the toppled a few crates in the warehouse, causing the entire to revert back to slapstick comedy as they try to stop the chaos!

It was pretty funny, the adept tried to shoot down the box before it dropped in an attempt to destroy it, or stabilize it, or anything really. I let her pull out her biggest gun, the one with the man-stopped rounds. She screams "HEADS UP!" because well, any chance of being quiet is about to vanish as soon as she pulls the trigger! She fires! The gun turns! And...... nothing.... pure silence.... then gun had jammed!

The funny thing, It was reliable. She actually rolled a Ten on her second roll! It was pretty far. If the forum roller keeps on going this way, with everybody fumbling constantly (The Assassin fumbled his attempt to catch the box and tripped on some wires, almost falling into another pile of boxes if the Commissar hadnt caught him in the nick of time) .

This same Techpriest failed four different attempts at examining the servitor too, it was quite funny, even though I allowed the Hive-world arbitrator to assist him! It was actually the Arbitrator who ended up getting the roll... and he's aiming for int/2

The Scenario actually calls for the Plague bearer to attempt and corrupt them, and i fully intend to promise then great glory should they join in and help out with the inevitable fall of the Malfi first, then the world, as they are clearly more competent then the puny adept who summoned him. So he's going to bribe them to the dark side, massively: but more so with promises of survival in the new world and not actual mechanical benefits. Especially since he's going to foreshadow the rest of the campaign: this is only a gateway scenario, as I get the hang of Gming more and more.

Hmm, so far two characters are Radical. But it hasnt played into the story. They know very little about their Inquisitor. I know this isn't original at all, but the Inquisitor himself is going to be the Big Bad at the end of the campaign, as he's mostly using the Cell to further his own Agenda. I think I might post up a general outline of what i had in mind, the big picture, and see what you guys think about it!

Ps: I should mention, they received a letter from said Inquisitor trough a covert agent informing them that their cell has been activated. To say that things happened quickly is an understatement. Though they do, as Characters, owe him a favor and or bargain, this is all Hush hush, and will remain so. I Dont intend on them every meeting the man. Or giving them any full Inquisition authority. They are, for all intents and purposes, an underground cell.

You... you cant edit your posts anymore either... and my post is full of terrible mistakes, words that have been skipped... words that have been converted... and I only noticed this after coming back to re-read it ten minutes later with a clear mind.

I apologize for the fiasco!

Agmar_Strick said:

True. But if you read the descriptive text for Chain weapons, the reason they are not considered Primitive weapons is because the teeth of the 'chains' are already mono'd. Hence the non-Primitive status and the Pen 2.

@The Tech-Priest-Mutant-Combo

To be honest, I would not have allowed this combo to begin with

1) Background-Wise, this is an abomination
The standard mechanicus has tendency to view normal flesh as weak. It is hard for me to believe that the AdMech would take a mutant as tech-priest. And a mutant that isn´t "born" ist undoubtly a spawn of chaos (which won´t be tolerated as well). To me, it it a bloody shame that the RH didn´t putted Career restrictions on the Mutant. "RAW", a mutant could be even used an Sororita!

2) Game-Wise, it is a munchkin
Besides "being shunned by the imperium", one of the "drawbacks" of the mutant is the low fellowship. But Tech-Priest isn´t having any fellowship at all! But he get´s a lot of shiny little gimmicks.... and good ways to raise Toughness even further. No sir, a M-TP is Munchkin-Tank-PC and not much more.

I would disallow Mutants to pose as

- Techpriests
- Sororitas
- Arbitraitors (unless used to be an Investigator-Type with NO connection to any official agency..and limited in Talent/Skill choices accordingly)
- Imperial Guardsmen (Mercs are fine as well as other "reasons" for the soldier carrier)

If you MTP was "mutated after" and has good story why is in service of an =I= and why he is able to still advance his TP-Aspect (self-study and self-improvment?) it should be finde.... but he should better mask himself. I cannot see how a regular member of the Mechanicus would see him with different eyes then a Redepmtionist would see him through.

Gregorius21778 said:

Got to agree. I can't see the Mechanicus allowing a mutant Tech-Priest any more than the Ecclesiarchy allowing a mutant Cleric. Without a solid, well developed character background, I would tend to limit mutants to Scum, Assassins and Guardsmen (which do allow abhuman regiments). Any member of an official body of the Imperium would have to go out of their way to hide the fact of their genetic corruption.

I do realise where you guys are coming from, but I have taken that into account into the general story for the campaign should it continue.

He was assigned to the lower-hive, and when I say lower I mean –lower- hive, in order to maintain the sewers, and is constantly exposed to Toxic fumes. His “Brute” mutation is the only one that’s not hidden, and I don’t think that’s enough to have him kicked out, and he is constantly draped in robes: he would be 40k Quasimodo, mostly kept underground doing work that no one else wants to do. Once he actually goes up, he is a Tech-priest, so his bulk would not draw much attention.

Like I had mentioned, their “Inquisitor” has his own agenda. And he is in a perfect position to maintain and delude most of them, especially the Tech-priest. I don’t know how heretical this is, but I was thinking of having him be an Iron-man. Push comes to shove, he could have been taking care of the Tech-priest himself.

We had the same sort of techpriest when we first started gaming, though his was the divination mutation. Toughness and Strength in the mid-high 40s; Agility 19. We just RP'd it the same way you guys seem to: "He's a techpriest, of course they're big and weird looking". Comments made out of character were usually along the lines of "If we ever see you out of your robes you are one dead mutie".

Ironically, for the time he was with us, Techpriest Dekko Callus was particularly good friends with my sororitas (odd couple jokes, anyone?), despite coming from radically differing creeds. Because he could throw firebombs at heretics like no other. And take damage from heretics like no other. And when the player tried to get him killed so he could play a different character, he ended up killing a daemon like no other. And still didn't die.

very cool and thanks for posting, am glad things worked out.