I have a player that is playing an arch-militant and using a storm bolter on full-auto he averages over 100 damage. He keeps tearing through any creatures I send at him. Whenever I mob him with more basic units the rest of the party takes care of those units. I've read and re-read those rules and it's completely fair. Am I just not sending powerful enough units at him?

Hiyas!

I have one word:

Ambush

L

send in some melee fighters. cant use a bolter in melee.

Adopt the Black Crusade rules for reactions (Dodge/Parry attempts don't auto negate one hit per reaction, but negate one degree of success per degree of success rolled on dodge)? It won't stop all the damage, but it'll certainly cut it down a fair amount.

Kroot said:

I don't think you've misread the rules - the Arch-Militant with a storm bolter is indeed a walking, talking god of death.

But then again, one would suppose that's what the player had in mind when he created the character. And why not indulge him? Let him shine in all the combat encounters, that's the role of the Arch-Militant. In my campaign a similarily equipped man-at-arms (lvl 7) PC held a critical choke position against a squad of Alpha Legion marines single-handedly, killing half a dozen before their captain finally closed into melee and chopped off the militant's weapon hand. The stuff of legend - and an experience the players will reminisnesce proudly about long after the campaign is over.

This is Rogue Trader - let the players be the heroes!

Then again, if for dramatic reasons you must offer a truly challenging combat encounter, use large mobs of goons, horders of hardy beasts like Orks or the Rak'Gol, dirty tricks like psykers and witches and fear-inducing horrors. A witch with the compel spell forcing the militant to turn his guns on his allies a particularily nasty stunt I pulled once or twice.

Also, consider including objectives other than just mowing down the foes - for example, in the Vaults of the Forgotten scenario, the players face an uneding tide of the Rak'Gol that must be held off until the players evacuate the excavation site. Easily an encounter that gives every character something meaningful to do (rigging vehicles, commanding NPCs, salvaging equipment and of course, for the arch-militant, thinning the Rak'Gol herd).

So when are you going to give the assault force automatics of their own? Remember, automatic fire goes both ways.

But remember, even the mighty stormbolter pales in comparison to the ships batteries.

Cornwallis said:

No but at point blank he gets a +30 to hit and a dead melee fighter can't even scratch his paint.

So charge him from two directions. Use enemies with Flight, or Jump-packs. Or use the Black Crusade rules where a standard shot is +10, semi is +0 and FA is -10.

send something after him that cannot be hurt by normal weapons but only psy powers or likewise.

I don't see a problem here, Stormbolters firing on full auto run out of ammunition eventually.

Of course he will kill lots of stuff, he is an Arch Militant, its his job. He has to wait on the sidelines while they do the technical things, the heavy investigation and the charming. His turn comes in combat. That stormbolter is a very powerful weapon, often used as a squad support weapon by human infantry (like an LSW or other light machine gun). However at full auto ammunition runs out fast and if you want to carry more than a reload or two, lets check that weight allowance before your taking Enc penalties.

So you can hurt him by having armoured and protected targets that shrug off the damage, hordes of enemies that soak up the damage and/or creatures that laugh at mortal weapons. You can hit him with an ambush, flying and fast enemies, things like poison gas and flamethrowers that can shoot round corners, grenades, missiles and other blast weapons. Remember enemies are usually intelligent and will see someone with a powerful automatic weapon and act accordingly, just like the players would. This is before the fun of Psychic powers enters the room.

Thanks for the suggestions. I wanted him to have a semi challenging fight.

Kroot said:

definitely keep an eye on ammo. he can only one-shot so many men before running out

Kroot said:

You dont get +30 when you are in close combat… you only get +10 and you cannot use Basic Weapons only pistols.

Cheers

One other thing to keep in mind, a Storm Bolter hits up to 8 individual times which means that your NPCs will get armour and toughness against every hit. The senechal in the game I run has a storm bolter and we were fighting orks…Ork Nob (T45, Unnatural Toughness x2 = 8pts of toughness) which means that any given hit will do 1d10-3pts of damage. That's better than nothing. Also put out more badguys and make him split up his shots. Sure he'll still drop a few of them, but as someone else pointed out…ambush and rush him. That Storm Bolter is not so good when a choppa hits you in the face (as my Senechal found out to the tune of -4 rending crit to the body.

It isn't so much a problem if he's doing his job, but do you feel like the party isn't bieng challenged becuase of it? Rak'gol and Orcs are both good options if you need that stormbolter to feel less like the golden gun of rouge trader. Through them into a combat senario where they have to assault something, and have some renders there to make that arch militiant feel less invunarable while giving him the damage output he disires. What level are the character's by the way? Becuase a render might not be a good Idea against low level characters.