gribble said:

Looking forward to how this plays out, but I'm inclined to think that with the sheer number of bad guys involved, it might be best to just give the boss Adversary 1 and leave the journeyman as-is to give the PCs a bit more of a fighting chance.  The Henchman are going to take at least a couple of shots (more if none of the PCs are packing blaster rifles or other high-damage weaponry) to drop, and there's quite a few Minions in the two groups, making them quite dangerous already.

Donovan Morningfire said:

Yeah… sound advice. Still, I'll probably leave go with 1 and 2 for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, they absolutely wiped the floor with the three groups of sand people minions in the first session. If that is anything to go by, the minions will be little more than speed bumps, and once the autofire crazies in the party have wiped out the minions and turned their guns on the main bad guys, I think the issues with autofire against single targets will rear their ugly head, and I don't expect the bounty hunters to last long.

Secondly, more use of the Adversary talent provides for more opportunity for playtest feedback.

:)

And I can always re-balance things through the techs making a fightback, or environmental conditions if things do get hairy for the PCs. Ultimately, the combat isn't really about taking out all the bounty hunters - it's about escaping, so for I'd rather the combat was balanced in favour of the bounty hunters than the PCs.

I don't mind the Adversary talent. I like the idea of shortcuts that let me develop NPCs on the fly that represent significant challenges for my players. I am almost never going to sit down and generate NPCs with the whole process.

My gut tells me that Adversary 3 would make it very difficult for starting characters to defeat an NPC, but a group of starting players probably should not encounter a threat like that unless you intend to railroad them into a particular situation.

From a narrative point of view, the Adversary talent gives me an opportunity to describe an NPC as having obviously better armor or training compared to other opponents. You can already do this with the minion/henchman/etc. mechanic, but I think the Adversary talent gives the tougher NPCs a better chance of lasting a few rounds against a group of NPCs.

I have not experienced the "super deadly" aspect of combat described by some other folks. I have barely been able to scratch my players while they mow down groups of minions. I had already decided to step up the difficulty of encounters a bit, and the Adversary talent gives me a quick and dirty tool to achieve the effect I want.

I am not bothered by rules that separate NPCs and players. However, I am not absolutely sure that Adversary needs to be presented as a talent in the same way as player talents. I like the idea, but I would be perfectly happy if it was rolled into the NPC rules in the same way as the skill bonuses for minions acting in groups.

I will try the Adversary talent in my next session this weekend and see how well it works.