Well,

I hope I made my question clear in the title. If not here is the explanation:

Im going to make one mighty foe for my four members kill team. It will be a Space Marine gone chaos (he will be helping them in the first place, but once they fullfill their mission on retrieving an item he will turn against them).

He will have combat master and many more skills to show his prowress in close combat, but also counter attack (fitting for a wulven).

So, how much incoming attacks can he actively block? Can he dodge shots from other kill team members? He has two Lightning Claws. Also, sine he is ambidextrous does he now get a penalty or not. Sometimes all the things are sp far strechted out in the rulebook that it's hard for me to grasp (I have to translate it into german for my players, which doesn't help either). If he can't do a lot I want to add a fenrisian wolf, but I don't want to overdo it (they are a starting party). I can't remove the Lightning Claws (it was a wish of the person controlling this NPC) so I don't want to add another threat.

I would be thankful for anyone who can give me a better breakdown on how this will work (and combat in general).

Thanks for your time. If you need further intel, feel free to ask me about it

I would use some kind of flame weapon to start the fight.
That works good versus multiple opponents and can be rather devastating.

Some kind of granade could work for example.

About dodging multiple attacks: You normally can only dodge or parry one attack per turn.
There are two talents that increase this amount. Step aside gives another dodge and wall of steel gives an additional parry.
Without them it's just one.

Umbranus said:

Thank you so far.

Since the foe will have two Lightning Claws, will it be one parry per weapon - or can he just parry one attack, regardles of this?

However this can make me add a Fenrisian Wolf to this renegade marine. Since these are starter chars who are fighting the Lightning Claws (and he might break their weapon). Every additional blow is welcome the party can deal to it. (Well the Libby will have an easy time, concerning his forceweapon, which should stand against his LCs if I'm not mistaken)

I generally find that one enemy versus a party can usually be taken down pretty quickly, unless they are so powerful they can threaten a TPK by themselves. I usually include some underlings, if only to soak a few of the party's attacks. But a solo character that can threaten an entire party is very possible. Lots of toughness bonus and wounds. Fields help, or abilities that are effectively fields (such preternatural combat abilities giving a 50% "field" chance with no overload). Good initiative and senses help him not get surprised (that +30 to attacks and surprise round can end a character quite quickly). Tactics and prepared ground can be a great force multiplier. If the enemy is agile, they can hop over difficult terrain and focus on weakened party members. If they are stealthy, they can ambush and set traps.

If you say he's turned to chaos you could have him use forbidden combat drugs that give him the ability to dodge more attacks than he normally would be allowed.

During combat he would act weird and move quicker than he should be able to. Should they defeat him the team could discover he has some empty and at least one full vial with him.
Upon analysis the stuff in the vials shows massive chaos taint and hints to being able to warp time in a mind bending and very unholy way.

Or you just give him some sort of protective field, as was already suggested and have their superiors in the deathwatch take it in the armory afterwards.

The good thing about deathwatch is that you can equip enemies with lots of cool stuff without the danger that the PCs use all that after the fight.

Also, if you're worried about players turning renegade and using the warptainted gear (unlikely but it might suit an unusual campaign), feel free to add abilities from unique talents. e.g. a combat talent that gives all the character's attacks the Felling (1) or Razorsharp qualities.

Psyker abilities are also a handy way for a character to gain a boost or unexpected combat powers.

Don't forget about mobility talents. Assassin strike, hard target, etc

First of all, thanks for that lot of feedback. To explain a bit further. Form the backstory of my main villain for this is a Space Wolf turned to Nurgle.

He got ambushed (with his kill team) by a lot of tyrannids and since he learned the hard way, that the emperor didn't protect, he reached out to nurgle to go on revenge. With a bit of deamonic help, he got back to the DW and sabotaging missions. Right now my group will get their first mission. To find a rouge trader hiding at a forge in beseritor. The rogue trader was responsile for tracking xenos artifacts in the reach (esp for Inquisitor Quist), but gave her forged artefacts, while he sold the good stuff to the adeptus mechanicus (they pay a whole lot better).

Right now one of his customer is hiding him and the kill team is assigned to leash out some fury, but they just can't walk into the forge, not to enrage the adeptus mechanicus (thiswhy the inquisition couldn't just blaze in). Also not knowing how powerful the artifacs are quist is thinking that some kill team members might be a good idea to have around. the watch captain assigns the kill team, but also assings the renegade space wolf (which he isn't aware of that he turned nurgle) to help the "freshlings".

The space wolf things assumes (and he might be proven right in that) that those artifacs can bring doom to mankind and when the kill team finally succeeds in the mission, he reveals that he was for a long time bros with nurgle and they have to go down. The reason why I included this villain, is that we might get a new player in our group (we started over chars to include one person so far). So I want him everytime around and also feel good and mighty in the first time he plays, so he gets a good feel for the game and hopefully adds to our group. He expressed his favor for lightning claws, but since the kill team are lvl 1 chars, they won't have access to weapons that won't break (as far as I remeber LCs can render other weapons useless). He has about 5X in agility and dodge +10, swift attack and hatred loyalist marines. also protection from chaos (30something) and a high enough WS (5X) to make him capable of parrying. I also added counter attack for him, because all wolven have them in their codex. Also with 44 (he has a mark of nurgle with a tbx3 but without the deamonic side effects) and a touched by fate (1).

Since the lightning claws can destroy the majority of weapons and he will closing in in combat everytime he gets a chance I don't want to kill off my party in the very first mission.

The party consits of a tactical, a devestator a libby and a sanguine priest.

Again the questions stands can he block 2 times with two lightning claws, or is it one weapon at a round (excluding the libby)?

Also with the intel so far should I go with a fenrisian wolf (first founding), since it would fit to a space wolf and it's not some "suddenly nurglings!" also in the adventure some samech renegades will be very fast to close in (getting the artifeacts) and the magos will try to protect him (once the truth is uncovered) with some servitors (which I try to focus on the group rather than the wulven). I really want the group to get a full investigative story with some action and while they will fight a cool villian, the new guy can get his own glory moments without overshadowing the whole group.

Thank you for the intel and feedback and sorry that I took the thread a little bit further, I really don't want to overdo my group, but I don't want them to be like "yeah, killed him, d'uh".

Make him a Kill-Marine. Give him his own Cohesion pool and Squad Mode options. Give him a mechanic to more quickly regain Cohesion in combat - landing wounds, taunting, acting to his Chapter, etc. Maybe base it around his Mark of Chaos and the Chaos God he serves.

If you're worried about his survivability, load him down with defensive Squad Mode options. Nurgle in particular has good precedent for increasing Unnatural Toughness to x3 or maybe even x4.

Kiwamu said:

Once per round. Doesn't matter if he has 2, 3, or 4, weapons. One parry per round, unless you have Wall of Steel, are a psyker with Iron Arm, or have Squad Modes that give additional reactions or let you share them between the party. Or if you have a piece of gear that gives you an additional reaction, which is always an option.

The balance is going to be between preventing this opponent from being killed in one hit and having him be untouchable and destroying your PCs.

Kshatriya said:

Okay now I will put out a Fenrisian Wolf to distract some members (mostly the libby) from attacking the WOLF. I didn't give the Space Wolf Char a class, I just took the Khorne Berserkers profile and took it up a notch. If somebody want to help me balance him I can post his profile later on. He should be a foe to remembered and I want to bring doubt in the ranks of the DW.

The backstory of our devestator (a dark angel) is that he set out to catch fallen ones in the reach (the DAs learned that some slip to through the gate). also we have a black shield libby brainwashed by the inquisition (ordos malleus), because his chapter got pretty much wiped out. I made his backstory more of a cencored report that just gives the details in short... I really want to feel my players uneasy as a team. followup mission shall include some "bonus mission" (I will hand out letter and give a reward if they seek these things out) that will require team members wandering away from the team and circumstances will be that the other party members think he turned on them.

Kshatriya said:

I'm more worried that he will shred the party into bits and pieces or let them burn a bunch of fate points early on.

How is attacking going to work with his two lighning claws. He has swift attack! (and with him having dw training and touched by fate (1) he will have rightous fury)

Since I can't edit (working on a different PC right now) here is the stats for the space wolf

Two words:

be, sneaky

A chaos marine would do his best to sow discord amongst the kill-team. Even while he is "helping" them. He may or may not try to do this clandestinely. Bring up points of contention between the two chapters. Stroke one of the marine's chapter ego, but secretly go behind that one's back and talk to the other marine, about how "conceited" the first one is. Break down the lines of brotherhood, try to force them to be more self-centered. Get them almost to the point of openly fighting amongst each other. The big bad should work on this from second 1, starting out small but gradually ramping it up. Focus your division along known lines at first, Space Wolf vs. Dark Angel; Black Templar vs. Librarians. Then branch out when the big bad learns any of their secrets: Marine A is on bad terms with techmarine cause of incident Y: Assault Marine thinks Marine B is a glory hound for stealing kills that were his: Some team members don't agree with leader on some choices (either they are too hesitant or too reckless). Use all of these things to turn the players against each other.

Then, and only then, do you hit them.

Start off by taking one down (or attempting to) in a manner that would blame another brother. If a fight looks like its going to start, you can side with the one you talked to, not the "conceited" one and push him against the other one. Or go ahead an 'betray' the one you secretly spoke to in favor of the "conceited" to enrage the other one into starting a fight, hoping your open (false) praise to the "conceited" marine gets him to side with big bad. Get them to start throwing punches and do your best to continue fanning the flames. Focus the fight on the more powerfu game-breaking characters (i.e. librarian) or their support (apothecary). Put in a few licks but try to stay out of the bloodshed, but continue to urge them on. When the dust clears, if one or more of them isn't dead then bad boy truly reveals his colours. Finishing off the weakened ones. Focusing on taking out support guys to prevent any healing or coming back. Then picking off the hopefully divided remaining marines. If fight looks like it could still go bad for big bad at this point, have him escape for another showdown later on.

herichimo said:

Also with the Space Wolf having counter attack, I'm on the fence giving him Wall of Steel instead of Swift attack, so he will take more punishment, but doesn't kill the PC too easily. Also he will get a lot more Counter Attacks, which makes him a potent threat. In addition I added a Fenrisian wolf, which takes away from the Space Wolf.

With two Lightning Claws, how much attacks can he do normally and does he face any penalties?

Edit: Nevermind Got it. Two-Weapon Wielder with -20 WS (but -10 with the Hatred ability). I guess he is now not so much the killing machine. But still capable of meeling the marines. So the fenrisian wolf does make sense.

Don't forget that space marines are ambidextrous. So two weapon wielding is at a -10, not -20 with the TWW (melee) talent.

Is the killteam likely to use lots of squad mode abilities? Because the rulebook mentions that encounters scale differently depending on whether killteams use them or not. In my own experience as a player and GM, a single well-timed squad attack or defense pattern can make a huge difference to how quickly and how messily a killteam brings down a given enemy. Solo modes are well worth considering too. The dark angel one makes characters quite a bit harder to kill for example.

You should also consider whether or not you expect this guy to come back. Even if the party chop him up and burn the body, the warp is mysterious and can bring him back to life later on. Possibly in a hideously mutated form. You should still work out how much reknown you're going to hand out for beating him though.

On a side note if you have black crusade, there are tonnes of options for chaos tainted warriors, though the more obvious "gifts of chaos" may not be what you are looking for. Oh and the bounty hunter on p364-5 adds a few weapon traits to his attacks on a called shot.

Decessor said:

My party does not usually go into squad mode - during our three missions they never considered it. Also he will turn on them when the mission seems successful, thus catches them off-guard. The Inquisitor will be going ahead and make the ship ready for take off (so they are on their own). He will mutate during the attack (his face melts off and other gruesome things happen, old wounds start to tear arpart and show rotten visceras etc.). He shall be a one time foe and introduce my team that not everyone working for the Imperium is not rotten to the core (and even the adeptus astartes can fall from grace). I want them to see, that this world offers so much more, than just chaos marines vs marines / imperium vs xenos. They should question everything in the next mission - maybe distrustig themselves.

For black crusade I don't have a copy. I'm considering buying the translated (german) rulebook for my party (one of them is pretty bad in english - so he can't read the rules for himself), so there is no money left for another system.

Thanks for the ambidextrous tip. Which makes him now 0 for two weapon due to ambidextrous and hatred (if I'm not mistaken). For Renown and Requisition, I'm settling on these when the mission is ready. Luckily I have all their charsheets with me, so I can playtest and do some last minute changes. I gave Björn Unnatural Agility now, too... For "Bounty Hunter" the person who will play the space wolf wants to use exclusively lightning claws. I respect his wish (since I want him to join our playgroup, I really do want to feel him a bit badass )

Kiwamu said:

Then they are seriously gimping themselves, because those abilities make you many times more powerful.

bogi_khaosa said:

Well, it's not up to me, it's up to them.

Kiwamu said:

I try to push mine to do it, especially when they're in bad situations. They don't seem to do it much. I don't feel bad for shredding them when they openly ignore their options.

The group I play in have used rare but cohesion-costly abilities, usually the Raven Guard attack mode.

The group I GM for use Furious Assault a *lot* and with three out of the four leaning towards melee, that works marvellously for them. Hopping about the battlefield on jump packs, murdering all in their sight (though slaugth take a little more murdering than most).

One way to hit non-squad mode forces. Bring in fear causeing enemies, daemons, or other similar Wp sapping enemies. Especially those who have psychic powers or abilities that work off of Wp tests.

Its your old double whammy. The creature weakens your Wp then hits you with a Wp based power.

Marines in squad mode aren't affected by many Wp penalty sources, although they may take cohesion damage from the fear check the team leader takes (perhaps forcing them out of squad mode). But the marines in solo mode have to deal with those horrors on their own, and are at a significant disadvantage for it.

herichimo said:

Well I will try to show them their options of what they can do, but nothing more than that.

For FEAR. If I'm not mistaken, and this question is just for clarification, -10 for every degree of Fear to WP (in Solo Mode) Fear 3 would cause the Willpower to crumble down to -30, right?

If in Squad Mode, they will loose Cohesion for every degree of Fear, if the leader does not pass a WP test (with modifiers). If I understand this one right, the the Squd would loose immedeatly 3 points of Cohesion, if the leader does not pass a WP -30 test, if the enemy would have Fear 3, right?

Since this thread is so lively, I'm gonna ask two questions about psychic powers I don't grasp, since english is not my native language. Here it goes.

Rulebook p. 185 Focus Power Test: "You may add a bonus to your Focus Power Test equal to 5 times the Psy Rating used for the power." Since a small part before covers opposed test, does this bonus only apply to opposed psychic power, or everytime the psyker uses a power?

Rulenbook p. 186 Unnatural Characteristics: "Characters with Unnatural Willpower may add the multiplier to their Psy Rating" If I understand this correctly If a creature with Psy Rating 4 and Unnatural Willpower (x3) He can add +3 to his PsyRating (boosting it two 7). Can he also use these 7 to get the bonus to his Focus Power Test, as described above?

1. You are correct, the Wp penalty is the same amount as the fear penalty and they only take the penalty if they are in solo mode.

2. Again, correct. You only test on the Highest degree of fear encountered at one time. Pass or fail, no other tests are taken that encounter unless a creature with a higher fear rating enters the fight.

3. This is how PR and focus power tests work according to the rules. I would like to see it changed, since this rule makes casting psychic powers increadibly trivial, almost impossible to fail, and resisting them practically impossible.

4. Yes the Unnatural Wp bonuses stack with the above rule.

There's a perfect talent for this, can't think of the name. Devastators i think can get it and certain Chapters. Basically if they don't move they can make a Parry every time they are hit in melee and get an additional +2 TB or AP, not sure which. But it's perfect for when they're getting ganged up on.

Stalwart Defense. (Devastator rank 1, Tactical rank 8, or Storm Wardens) Full action spend a fate point. can't move or dodge. get a free parry attempt against any/all melee attacks. take 2 less damage from all attacks. opponents do not get bonuses for outnumbering. Lasts untill you choose to end it or can't fight any more.

Great for plugging a hole and/or standing your ground. not so good if you want them to get away.