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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Donovan Morningfire" data-source="post: 4745162" data-attributes="member: 39532">As for the "only one condition track affector at a time," if having PCs able to drive your baddies down the Condition Track that fast is a problem for your games, then do so.I might also suggest talking with the players and letting them know that by their engaging in such antics, it's causing you frustration.I haven't had an issue with the condition track affecting talents, but then again most of the PCs don't go out of their way to build "one-shot take-out" builds either.  The most they go with is one of those talents, with the gunbunny in our latest group having both Dastardly Strike and Debilitating Shot, and for her it's a rare occasion that she gets to apply both, and given the damage output she has with her sniper rifle (has Deadeye, Careful Shot, a pulse charger and double trigger, plus it's been modded for extra damage), it's not often that a baddie gets taken down from condition track penalties instead of outright damage (I think she's planning on taking Triple Crit for her rifle once she hits 12th level as she needed her 9th level feat for something else), with only major villains having to worry about it.Oh, another couple suggestions to help prevent major villains from being shoved down the condition track in a hurry.  If they are Force-sensitivie, either Equiplibrium (swift + Force point to remove all condition track effects, including persistent ones) or the feat that lets you move back up tne condition track with only two swift actions (blanking on the name).Might I also suggest giving a big bad some meatshields.  If your players are cherry picking Soldier to get Devastating Attack, then have some NPC mooks that dipped into Soldier to get Harm's Way.  Yeah, the NPC may very well drop from the attack (especially if at low levels and they've mostly got Non-Heroic levels), but it's an attack that didn't ping the big bad.Since I don't know how you set up your encounters, I don't know if this is an issue, but try to avoid having solitary NPCs, as it lets the PCs mass their considerable firepower against them.  That sort of thing may have worked for 3.X but even Darth Vader would get quickly overwhelmed if going solo against a group of 10th level PCs.  Better to have a main villain that's a couple levels higher and give him a bunch of mooks to take some of the heat of the head guy.  Squads (from CWCG) work good to this effect as it lets you make use of lower-level mooks in greater numbers without having to track quite as many NPCs in combat.A final suggestion is sauce for the goose.  If the players are seriously abusing that combination, have them go up against enemies that are built around a similar trick.  Heck, that melee knock-out combo I posted above, combined with Powerful Charge, Mighty Swing, and Martial Arts II gives you an NPC that can barrel in put a sudden hurting on all but the most resilient of PCs.  If they cry foul after that first encounter, politely advise them that you are just using the same rules they are using with their Dastardly Strike + Devastating Strike combinations.  A lot of sensible players tend to back down on rules abuse when they wind up on the receiving end of it and if it's discussed without prejudice after the fact.</blockquote>

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