im starting to see a bit of an issue with my current group in that some of the players are starting to tank up alot.

both the guard and the marshal are starting to become imunne to small arms while most of the others have TB3 and AP3 for 6 damage reduction. the guard has TB5 starting guard armour so ap4 and a 4AP modern sheild for a 13DR if it hits the sheild. he is going to get a better shield and better armour

how do i scare( scare not destroy) him without mincing the soft characters. i know i can target him with harder weapons and that the softer characters should be more carefull but in a ambush this wont always work.

so far it has been a matter of dangerous combat monsters that he has to engadge to protect the softer guys

i sufer from the fact that the characters are partly mine as they are written into my story universe so while i am happy to break them i dont want to oblitertate them

wheatiess said:

High Pen will hurt armour&shield wielding characters without having the same devastating effect on poorly armoured characters.

Your "regulars" will be just as hurt by a gun with pen 3 as pen 12, but your guardsman would feel the difference. Melta weapons? A Psyker with WPB 6 wielding a Psychic Blade (Pen 12, 1d10+12 DMG).

The tech-priest in my group was causing me similar headaches, and so the enemies adapted and grappled him. One held him as the other stuck a melta-bomb to his metallic ass, then they "maneuvered" him so he fell down some stairs. Boom. Stairs gone, he falls down to the floor below, on fire. Oh, and explodarised. He actually survived that, but it still hurt.

Or get him onto a boat. Then sink it. And laugh as he tries to swim wearing all that heavy armour.

Then theres the fact that guardsmen tend to have very weak WP. Let them run away in fear from enemies with a Fear Rating, or let him meet a Psyker or Sorceror with the Fearful Aura power. Even better, have some nasty enemy Dominate him, and turn him against his allies.

*** SPOILER for House of Dust and ASH ***

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...

...

The fat, nasty evil "abbot" on the airship did this on the Feral Guardsman wielding the Eviscerator in our game, and turned him against the psyker. One Lightning Attack later, and the Psyker was minus 2 legs. Good times!

What Darth Smeg said

+

let the "squishy" characters get their hands on higher armor bonus armors that fits their style. For example Best Quality Flak Greatcoat. 5 AP on legs and Body, very stylish, and wearable in many situations. Or Mesh- armors which are thin and can come in many designs.(Xeno is not the origin but only the production technique it resembles - so not heretical)