Hi everyone I'm currently having issues matching my players with equal enemies.

My group consists of a 4th level rogue trader, a 4th level astropath, a 3rd level kroot mercenary.

I thought they would be able to handle a group of dark eldar of equal size with an incubi (using the stats from the death watch rulebook). My group would have been fine if I hadn't given the dark eldar a halucinagen grenade (I thought the dark eldar would have gotten murdered by my players but I think I over compensated).

Any way what ended up happening was their 4th level missionary ended up being captured (he's still missing 9 sessions latter) and the RT had to burn a fate point everyone else was critical.

Was it a case of bad roles? Or was it to much?

In any case if anyone has any good ideas for a good match would be great.

I'd prefer human adversaries like storm troopers or like gland warriors or something.

I don't believe anything is to much. With that said, even if I accidently force my players to battle an opponent who in all right would smear them to a pasty cream without even braking a stride, then I don't allow that nemesis to do that. I pretty much do what you did, and have them get captured. I am curious though, is the Missionary still being played by someone, or is that player no longer around/coming back? If it's the former, than probably having some unforeseen events transpire which would release said prisoner would be most beneficial (like orks attacking the DE and the Missionary escaping during the fight, the DE sells him to a rival RT/Enemy/Merchant/Vile Villain of the PC's who implants "something" in him and them mind wipes him and releases him on Footfall, the DE all get killed by a beast(s)/critter/bug they "acquired" and the Missionary escapes, and/or the Missionary gets sold to another DE faction who sells him to a Merchant who uses him as a Gigolo and the Merchant later travels on the PC's ship for crew moral If it's the later, than please, do as you will.

Anyhoot, in all honesty it's tough to figure out what is a match for players and what isn't. Simple Statistic comparison is fine if all you are doing is RAW combat. A good adversary is one the PC's have to fight tooth and nail, will over spirit, blood and spit, etc. etc. to overcome. So I think you did a good job there actually. Now this shouldn't happen all the time (unless the PC's are intentionally looking for those fights and shoot first, then av at it), but once or twice every campaign is okay (5-10 sessions).

One good adversary I did utilize was the Intelligent Deceptive villain. Long story short, having a merchant hiring the PC's to take some medical supplies to a planet or hiring them to plunder a defenseless pirate stash, only to later while the PC's have the medical supplies (or raid the stash and find out it's medical supplies), do they hear information that the supplies are stolen (or belonged to a RT) and a space station, dying colony, is in dire need of them and is looking for the culprits. Or a "Priest" asks them to retrieve a Drusus Relic held by some vile xenos at location XY on planet Z. Upon arrival, it's Kroots, feral humans, a race friendly to the PC's, that are on the planet and have the relic. The relic is seen as a sign from above for peace, and once it's removed everyone fights everyone. Which is precisely what the charlatan "Priest" wanted so she can steal the resources/treasures/xeno relics on the world when they are all dead.

I don't think you went over the top. Sometimes the PCs lose. I hope they're looking for that Missionary, and you should probably provide an opportunity for a heroic rescue.

I think you should make more use of GM fiat to scrub some stuff if you feel it's too much. But honestly, no, I think that's fine. As long as there's an opportunity afterwards, the experience should be enjoyable and tense for all.

My GM's probably thinking of hurling a WAAAGH! at my group right now. We waded through the Frozen Reaches with vastly increased enemies easily and with style.

If it's going too hard on your players and they're not having fun (the important part), then ease up a bit and move the game along. Give them a hint. If they're enjoying it then turn it up a tad...

It depends on your group and their play style. My players are inteligent and regularly figure out ways to come out on top of opponents that should smash them flat. If things just aren't working out, or I seriously underestimate an opponent I allways have NPC's around to absorb the Chaos Dreadnaught's attack and die valiently instead. Most players are going to have a number of (disposable) personal guard. The death of a NPC is often the sign that a fight is serious.

That said, I almost had a wipe last session when I had the Magos' ship boarded by Thousand Son Traitor Marines with a Sorcerer and a Dreadnaught. The enemy had hidden in a transport ship and gotten into range where they were able to initiate a boarding attempt before the players could stop it. It worked out in the end, but their ship and defense crew need some serious repair. In that case, I had one of the Magos' personal guard take the risk to run behind the Dreadnaught with a meltagun and blast it. It made enough of a difference to allow them to kill it. Total for the fight: 25% of ship population, 35% of combat troops, one very pissed off Magos (the attack too, place on the edge of the Lathes while he was transporting Knight manufactorum equipment he has spent almost a dozen sessions trying to get.) and a dead ship of Thousand Son marines. The players blasted the enemy ship until the plasma drive finally went up.

I've never played Dark Heresy but from the materials I've read from it I have the suspicion that the game was a little better balanced back then, personally the problem i keep running into is it's hard to find a middle ground between enemies the party will stomp and enemies that will stomp the party. A big part of it is a result of the armory, it seems like weapons fall into one or two categories 1:Slightly annoying and 2:Instant murder.

Most of the canonical enemies in the official material seem to carry the former ie Hadarak Fel and his derpy monosword aside from the ones that seem to be written as intentionally unbeatable under normal circumstances ie Calligos Winterscale and his **** you in the ass power axe and win all rolls whenever he wants rule etc.

Most of the canonical enemies in the official material seem to carry the former ie Hadarak Fel and his derpy monosword aside from the ones that seem to be written as intentionally unbeatable under normal circumstances ie Calligos Winterscale and his **** you in the ass power axe and win all rolls whenever he wants rule etc.

Hey.....

I happen to like that rule.

I don't think you went over the top. Sometimes the PCs lose. I hope they're looking for that Missionary, and you should probably provide an opportunity for a heroic rescue.

Um they are looking for him but there's really not much they can do. He stabbed Aspyce Chorda so she put a bounty on his head. The last they saw of old Borrus was on a servo skull recording that she released to the general media in footfall (they must have some sort of mass media in 40k) of her cutting his hands off.

I'm kind of really mean to my players. I try to make everything make sense so if there is not really a good reason for something to happen I don't allow it. Thats why I was woried about him getting captured but there wasn't really a reason he wouldn't have been so it happened.

I will kill characters if they are out of fate points and I very rarely allow for miraculous rescues to occur. I think it's reasonable to say if your in Commoraugh there's little chance of escpae. Borrus is in commoraugh and is therefor f u c k e d.

The captain traded an eldar diresword to a dark eldar who contacted them who claimed to be able to return Borrus but the dark eldar was lying. He has no idea where Borrus was.

Currently Borrus is in a Homunculuses lab. I figured a priests blood who have some sort of use in his experiments. A chaos space marine is coming to bust him out so that the marine can use Borrus as bait for a trap to kill the captain in my group.

The only upside of all this is that technically Borrus hasn't had to burn a fate point.

The captain traded an eldar diresword to a dark eldar who contacted them who claimed to be able to return Borrus but the dark eldar was lying. He has no idea where Borrus was.

Currently Borrus is in a Homunculuses lab. I figured a priests blood who have some sort of use in his experiments. A chaos space marine is coming to bust him out so that the marine can use Borrus as bait for a trap to kill the captain in my group.

I think this would be a good opener for the next session (I am of course making the assumption here that the diresword wasn't easy to come by in the first place), since your players are making a solid attempt and giving up resources, but not making any progress because of how the plot is working out for them.

My suggestion would be to have the Chaos Marine show up with the diresword, having killed the Dark Eldar that the players gave it to, and let the players 'help' him with a mission to an outlying area of Commoraugh as part of some circuitous revenge plot. That's where the trap would be, and the players have to fight their way out of it with the Missionary (who is 'conveniently' there) to rescue him. I doubt it would be an easy fight, and the players would definitely feel accomplished if they pull it off.

Otherwise, it sounds to me like you're stringing your Missionary player along. He hasn't had to burn a fate point yet, sure, but he hasn't had a chance to die yet either and roll a new character.

Are you sold with the Missionary having been taken to Commoraugh? The Soul Reaver gives a very interesting description of a Dark Eldar outpost in the Koronus Expanse which could work just as well.

My suggestion would be to have the Chaos Marine show up with the diresword, having killed the Dark Eldar that the players gave it to, and let the players 'help' him with a mission to an outlying area of Commoraugh as part of some circuitous revenge plot. That's where the trap would be, and the players have to fight their way out of it with the Missionary (who is 'conveniently' there) to rescue him. I doubt it would be an easy fight, and the players would definitely feel accomplished if they pull it off.

Otherwise, it sounds to me like you're stringing your Missionary player along. He hasn't had to burn a fate point yet, sure, but he hasn't had a chance to die yet either and roll a new character.

Well I don't really care if I string him along, and I think having the players ally with a chaos marine is kind of stupid.

I know you didn't know this but the marine has a personal vendetta against the captain.

And I'm not returning the diresword, they completely blindly trusted the dark eldar on his word, they didn't do a background check on him or even think to try to do a deceit check. Some times my players are dumb and they should pay for their stupidity.

Also they should have never attacked Chorda in the first place their profit factor is like 37 she has 81. Their all probably going to end up burning fate points at some point since she wants all of them dead. If they didn't want to deal with the ramifications then they shouldn't have attacked her.

This is not a problem that's going to be dealt with anytime soon they have no leads on where he could be and their to busy trying not to get killed by Chorda to be able to find him.

Like I said I like my world to feel realistic. For a world to feel that way it has to have a sort of internal consistency and maintaining that sometimes means that the players suffer for a very long time. If my players do something stupid they can die. This might sound harsh but it actually adds a lot to the game since you know your playing for keeps.

Are you sold with the Missionary having been taken to Commoraugh? The Soul Reaver gives a very interesting description of a Dark Eldar outpost in the Koronus Expanse which could work just as well.

I've read soul reaver and I liked the setting. But I like Commoraugh better.

Regardless my group wont be going there, alot of them are not familiar with 40k lore which is great because it is much easier to create a sense of mystery for those players.

All they know of the dark eldar is that they are a sadistic bunch of killers who hail from some place called the dark city, some say its a planet others that it is wholly within the warp and few other madder voidsman that it exists in a strange inbetween realm created by these xenos long ago and that these eldar are actually demons.