archhealer
SOC-12
Ok. I have not been GMing T20 very long, and we're well into our first really long-term campaign. I'm discovering a few rather nasty little problems. Specifically, providing worthy challenges to my players. The RP challenges and ethical dillemmas havn't been a problem,, I've thrown them some doozies. The problem is combat.
Not only combat, but any action that uses the combat rules. One of my players is a level 8 mercenary, no multiclass. Just merc all the way. And, he's super badass. And, he has a Gauss Rifle. Now, the problem I'm having is that a 10 round burst from the gauss rifle will pretty much just demolish ANYTHING I put in their way. Doors, locks, bulletproof glass, alien monsters, etc. It's disgusting. 2d12 damage is bad enough, but with a ten round burst they get a couple of extra dice of damage, it just gets insane. I'm aware he's blasting through ammo like there's no tomorrow, but the party is aware of the usefulness of this gun and is pooling most of their funds to keep him rolling in bullets. Now, I assume this isn't the only weapon with this kind of damage potential, as I looked things over and there were a few others... Should a character be able to blast holes in armored vault doors with a personal firearm? Are they meant to be THAT powerful?
The second problem is stun weapons: Stun batons and the Stunfist from TA1. These things will drop damn near anybody, most of the time. I had them facing off against veteran high-tech guards... and they managed to drop nearly all of them in only a few rounds of combat. Granted it was (Almost) without actually killing any of them, to the PCs credit, but still, not much of a challenge. And, the charges running out didn't matter so much because the guards had batons too (But were mostly just shooting at the PCs, hoping not to get that close) so the PCs would just use one till it fizzled and grab one off the nearest downed guard... Again... Are stun weapons MEANT to be that effective? The fortitude save doesn't seem all that tough, but the guards rarely made it, or maybe I was just rolling badly.
Any suggestions on how to make combat a little more interesting? The PCs so far are enjoying just leaving a blazing trail of destruction in their wake, but I'd like them to have to think things over a little better before just blasting doors open.
Not only combat, but any action that uses the combat rules. One of my players is a level 8 mercenary, no multiclass. Just merc all the way. And, he's super badass. And, he has a Gauss Rifle. Now, the problem I'm having is that a 10 round burst from the gauss rifle will pretty much just demolish ANYTHING I put in their way. Doors, locks, bulletproof glass, alien monsters, etc. It's disgusting. 2d12 damage is bad enough, but with a ten round burst they get a couple of extra dice of damage, it just gets insane. I'm aware he's blasting through ammo like there's no tomorrow, but the party is aware of the usefulness of this gun and is pooling most of their funds to keep him rolling in bullets. Now, I assume this isn't the only weapon with this kind of damage potential, as I looked things over and there were a few others... Should a character be able to blast holes in armored vault doors with a personal firearm? Are they meant to be THAT powerful?
The second problem is stun weapons: Stun batons and the Stunfist from TA1. These things will drop damn near anybody, most of the time. I had them facing off against veteran high-tech guards... and they managed to drop nearly all of them in only a few rounds of combat. Granted it was (Almost) without actually killing any of them, to the PCs credit, but still, not much of a challenge. And, the charges running out didn't matter so much because the guards had batons too (But were mostly just shooting at the PCs, hoping not to get that close) so the PCs would just use one till it fizzled and grab one off the nearest downed guard... Again... Are stun weapons MEANT to be that effective? The fortitude save doesn't seem all that tough, but the guards rarely made it, or maybe I was just rolling badly.
Any suggestions on how to make combat a little more interesting? The PCs so far are enjoying just leaving a blazing trail of destruction in their wake, but I'd like them to have to think things over a little better before just blasting doors open.