Hi there,

I could use some advice. We've almost gotten to the End of the Emperor Protects and afterwards we'll be switching to Black Crusade

having utterly slaughtered everything in their way, there's a great opportunity to finally give the kill-team a proper challenge and the pre-generated adventure says that a full-blown warp incursion isn't out of the question.

I want to pit them up against at least one Greater Daemon. How do you think the following would fair against a Bloodthirster? It would probably start by charging the Librarian (Khorne hates witches after all...)

All Rank 4

Blood Angels Assault Marine - Chainsword, Mastercrafted StormShield

Raven Guard Tactical Marine Sniper

Dark Angels Devastator with Autocannon

Storm Lord Librarian with Multi-Melta

Flesh Tearer Apothecary with Chainsword, Mastercrafted StormShield

Iron Hands Forgemaster with Artificer Armour, Heavy Bolter, Power Claymore

Should I be including the Bloodletters or is that overkill?

Depends: are you looking to kill your party, or just burn off fate points?

Bloodthirsters are BEASTLY. Like, really, really, ridiculously powerful. Whoever he attacks first is probably going to die.

Pairing him with Bloodletters....at Rank 4, I'm thinking a full-blown TPK. Depends on how many Bloodletters there are I guess.

Of course, you're not the only person that had this idea. Up until recently, our group had another GM. I was going to become GM once we wrapped up TEP, and my character (Lorgath, a Storm Wardens Tactical Marine....may he fight alongside the Emperor in the afterlife) had already burned one fate point, lost both of his eyes and a leg (that had to be replaced by Chaos-tainted cybernetics....). So at the end of the adventure, our GM cooked up a way to give Lorgath a rousing send off.

We beat Desak (sp?) handily, and then a rift opened in the room, with a gigantic red leg reaching through. Lorgath told the rest of the Kill-Team to get clear, and then rushed the foul Daemon with Power Sword and Storm Shield. The last thing the Kill-Team saw was Lorgath and the Bloodthirster crossing blades with a brilliant flash of light.

Certainly the best character death I've ever had. So if someone in your group wants a little roleplaying scenario, and is okay with rolling up a new character....

All of them have plenty of fate points. If all are forced to burn, I will have some Grey Knights teleport in and save the day.

To be fair, the party has slain pretty much everything I've sent at them with laughable ease.

One other idea I'm toying with is for all four types of Greater Daemons to show up at once, giving the party a chance to manipulate them into fighting each other, at which point, they get to fight the hopefully weakened victor.

The autocannon is a real game changer....for the rest, I think a single is doable but one lucky roll screws up your climax.
So I would say, have them devise a tactic, if it goes to easy throw in some blood letters, if it goes wrong, fudge some dice on your part.
Don't use the Grey Knight stick, it would ruin the climax. Reward heroism (fate point if he survives, bonus xp on his next character if he dies.)

Yeah, I wouldn't use Grey Knights either. It's the end of the campaign, you can afford a TPK. If they win on their own, that's a fantastic achievement, and they can go out knowing their characters ended as legends. If they die, that's still a great way to end the campaign, knowing that their characters went toe to toe with one of Khorne's champions, and at least they died with their mission complete. Win-win for everyone.

My recommendation is to start with the Bloodthirster alone, then if he really starts hurting have some Bloodletters materialize and immediately charge the party to break up their attention.

As far as having all four types of Greater Daemons show up at once....The Greater Daemons of the various gods of Chaos need no excuse to fight each other, and indeed would likely attack each other the instant they materialized. As cool as it sounds on paper, however, the party would probably be killed off just from being in the same room, what with psychic powers bouncing off the walls, and servants of those Daemons warring while their masters brawl.

Do not have the Grey Knights come in and save the day. That's really unsatisfying and cheapens the PC's achievements. You'll be suyrprised at how much PCs can survive/dish out IF they play smartly and tactically. Last night, I ran a combat with a beefed up demon prince against rank 4 PCs.

It was similar to the regular DP but had 160 health (double normal) and an extra rank of unnatural toughness as well as the ability to fly at 7. It was an epic battle and even though the party was severely beat down, they loved it, and they all got a laurel for it. The librarian had his leg hacked off at the hip and had to burn a fate point or die, the assault marine had his right (storm shield) arm cut off, the techmarine had his hand cut off and the poor apothecary had his arm cut off and he was disembowelled. The tactical marine was also badly hurt. None of the players escaped unscathed (only the tac marine didn't have anything severed...yay rending crits) but they actually thought it was awesome because a) it was an epic achievement to finally kill the bastard, b) they stopped a warp incursion and c) they had to burn cohesion, fight smart and use tactics or die.

Do not have the Grey Knights come in and save the day. That's really unsatisfying and cheapens the PC's achievements. You'll be suyrprised at how much PCs can survive/dish out IF they play smartly and tactically. Last night, I ran a combat with a beefed up demon prince against rank 4 PCs.

It was similar to the regular DP but had 160 health (double normal) and an extra rank of unnatural toughness as well as the ability to fly at 7. It was an epic battle and even though the party was severely beat down, they loved it, and they all got a laurel for it. The librarian had his leg hacked off at the hip and had to burn a fate point or die, the assault marine had his right (storm shield) arm cut off, the techmarine had his hand cut off and the poor apothecary had his arm cut off and he was disembowelled. The tactical marine was also badly hurt. None of the players escaped unscathed (only the tac marine didn't have anything severed...yay rending crits) but they actually thought it was awesome because a) it was an epic achievement to finally kill the bastard, b) they stopped a warp incursion and c) they had to burn cohesion, fight smart and use tactics or die.

YES. We've only done 5 missions of my campaign and I'm already burnishing my picture of a Keeper of Secrets for the end of our campaign which is over 15 missions away. If the KT dies, they died fighting the good fight against the baddest ****** out there. Have it mean something. And if they pwn the dude...well that's fracking awesome.