I'm looking for advice on how to improve the following areas of DH combat/system mechanics

(1) Corruption/Insanity - my players are always able to avoid corruption/insanity by using the temporary Fate points. I refresh their Fate points at the start of every play session. Am I doing something wrong?

(2) Squishy Enemies - my players (now 4th rank) mow through opponents within a few rounds (e.g., 5 of them versus 7 mercenaries from "Purge the Unclean," with none of them taking wounds. I'd like to make combats challenging. How could I fix this? What might I be doing wrong

(1) Corruption/Insanity - my players are always able to avoid corruption/insanity by using the temporary Fate points. I refresh their Fate points at the start of every play session. Am I doing something wrong?

By the RAW - no. But personally I from the beginning established a houserule : "Fate points are refreshed after the end of adventure "

I'm looking for advice on how to improve the following areas of DH combat/system mechanics

(1) Corruption/Insanity - my players are always able to avoid corruption/insanity by using the temporary Fate points. I refresh their Fate points at the start of every play session. Am I doing something wrong?

Give them more things to spend fate points on, or intimate that spending one to dodge a few insanity/corruption now might come back to bite them later in the session. Use creatures that cause fear and pinning and tempt them to spend fate on things that might sound important now but will leave them without fate to dodge corruption/insanity later.

It's also worth noting that refreshing fate points at the start of the session and 'temporary fate points' are completely separate things. Temporary fate points give PCs essentially a free fate point to spend (not burn) for that session only and are generally given out for big-deal accomplishments.

By the RAW - no. But personally I from the beginning established a houserule:"Fate points are refreshed after the end of adventure "

This sounds terrible.

(2) Squishy Enemies - my players (now 4th rank) mow through opponents within a few rounds (e.g., 5 of them versus 7 mercenaries from "Purge the Unclean," with none of them taking wounds. I'd like to make combats challenging. How could I fix this? What might I be doing wrong

Sort of depends on why they're not taking damage. If they've got awesome armor, up the penetration on enemy weapons (actually do the math to see how much damage you need to roll to do damage). Focus fire on a single PC so they can't dodge all of the attacks. Unnatural Strength/Toughness will make enemies hit harder and able to take more damage. Use flanking and pinning tactics to separate the players and gang up on the weaker targets so that the combat characters are forced to come to their rescue.

If all that fails, make killing the bad guys hurt. There's a result on one of the crit tables that basically says all of the target's ammo and explosives all explode, hitting anyone near by. Take some inspiration from that.

(2) Squishy Enemies - my players (now 4th rank) mow through opponents within a few rounds (e.g., 5 of them versus 7 mercenaries from "Purge the Unclean," with none of them taking wounds. I'd like to make combats challenging. How could I fix this? What might I be doing wrong

I actually think that rather than the enemies being squishy, the problem is the players being too tough - although this also comes down to a matter of interpretation, and how "deadly/dangerous" we as individual players would like to see the game.

Call me biased, but what I'm seeing here feeds into my existing criticism of stacking Armor and TB making characters too resilient.

Do your players agree that combat is too easy; would they like to be challenged more? If so, you could try one of the many alternatives on TB's role in the combat mechanics that have been suggested lately.

Alternatively, if you'd prefer tweaking individual enemies rather than the system as a whole, look what exactly makes your players so tough, and replicate it on whatever opposition they face. Clever use of cover and flanking maneuvers should also be able to influence combat a lot. Usually, the enemy has the numerical advantage - make them use it!

It's also worth noting that refreshing fate points at the start of the session and 'temporary fate points' are completely separate things. Temporary fate points give PCs essentially a free fate point to spend (not burn) for that session only and are generally given out for big-deal accomplishments.

I think he means "temporary Fate Points" as in "spending Fate Points that are refreshed later"?

I've never heard of temporary (as in: limited to one session) Fate Points otherwise. Is this a thing somewhere?

Anyways, I agree on challenging the players with more situations where Fate would come in handy. Rerolling Tests in particular.

I think he means "temporary Fate Points" as in "spending Fate Points that are refreshed later"?

I've never heard of temporary (as in: limited to one session) Fate Points otherwise. Is this a thing somewhere?

Anyways, I agree on challenging the players with more situations where Fate would come in handy. Rerolling Tests in particular.

I had to look up where I knew it from. It's actually not in DH; it's in OW. One of the Ministorum Priest's abilities allows them to grant a temporary fate point to another player.

While we're talking about fate points, let your bad guys reroll with fate. Players never see that coming.

Yes, I should have been more clear - I meant that you get Fate points equal to your limit at the start of the adventure that you can use for any re-roll VERUS burning them permanently.

Yes, I should have been more clear - I meant that you get Fate points equal to your limit at the start of the adventure that you can use for any re-roll VERUS burning them permanently.

You should reread the fate points section in the rules. Particularly the bit that says you can burn a fate point even if you have none left to spend.

Speaking of FP, I find it's a good idea to adjust FP maximums based on how many PCs are at the table. For example, our group has 6 PCs, and FP works best for our group if the PCs generally have FP maximums around 2. For fewer players I'd increase the FP maximum, but probably not beyond 5 at most.

Caveat, though. We've significantly increased the benefits of Spending Fate Points:

• +30 to a Test, can be added before or after the roll.
• Negate any and all Psychic Phenomena and Perils of The Warp effects. Can be done before or after the roll.
• Assume first place in the Initiative Order of a Combat Encounter.
• Instantly recover from being Dazed, Stunned or Pinned.
• Instantly recover 3 levels of Fatigue.
• Complete damage immunity for 1 Round.

A reasonably simple fix might be to double the amount of enemies and/or their individual Threat Levels. Don't worry, it's actually pretty easy to do despite the lack of a solid formal system for doing it.

Moreover, if memory serves only one of the modules in Purge The Unclean gives the PCs an excuse for walking around geared up for war. If the PCs are walking around with assault cannons and full carapace, you shouldn't ignore it. The various Enforcer organisations of Scintilla might not be the pinnacle of policing, but there's no way they wouldn't immediately mobilise to contain, disarm and detain what would appear to be terrorists.