Marked targets knowing about Combat Challenge

[Malhost Zormaeril]

Strictly, one could reason that monsters associate the marked condition to "if I don't attack the defender, I'm going to get clobbered". How much damage is another matter altogether... but the damage is a given. So technically, the issue in the OP should be resolved. Dance of Death or the Colossus' Immediate Interrupt are independent of this...

 

[Ginnel]

Strictly, one could reason that monsters associate the marked condition to "if I don't attack the defender, I'm going to get clobbered". How much damage is another matter altogether... but the damage is a given. So technically, the issue in the OP should be resolved. Dance of Death or the Colossus' Immediate Interrupt are independent of this...

Pfft not at all, monsters only meet heroes once then they're dead, when they are meeting all the other interesting monsters they fight or guards in towns they don't get special abilities and just the normal mark (this a lighthearted answer hence the )

Anywho my answer is near the bottom of page two go read it Hypersmurf is 100% correct in my opinion, Shabe's explanation of a fighter marking with other powers is not a corner case and does explain why a monster doesn't know they'll get hit if they attack someone other than the fighter after they are marked.

 

[Caliban]

Yep

Hype got you to answer a question first, you lose!

 

[Runestar]

Maybe we are just trying to apply logic to a situation which was never meant to be logical in the first place...

 

[Nail]

The Fighter has a class feature which allows him to take a certain action if the target shifts or attacks a non-Fighter target. But this isn't something that is imposed on the target; this is an ability possessed by the Fighter. The condition imposed on the target is "Marked". "Able to whack a marked target who does X" is not a condition imposed on the target.

Ah! Got it. Thanks!

Still, I'm likely to rule at my table differently, at least for the Fighter's Combat Challenge ability. It piggy-backs on any attack power the Ftr uses (even if he misses), so it makes more sense to think of it as an imposed effect (you could get whacked if you shift), rather than (as the RAW does) a choice the Ftr makes at the time the target shifts.

But I "get" the distinction.

To be fair, I'll give the PCs the same consideration when "locked down" by a monster.

 

[James McMurray]

Hype got you to answer a question first, you lose!

It's an internet argument. Everyone loses.

 

[Nail]

It's an internet argument. Everyone loses.

Oh no, no, no.

Everyone wins, 'cause everyone knows they're right!

I'm right, aren't I?

 

[James McMurray]

No. . . Loser.

 

[Afrodyte]

I imagine my Fighter showing a high level of profiency in the battlefield and circling his opponent as part of the combat challenge. If someone is looking at you straight on, weapon drawn and is circling you, it seems dumb to attack someone else. You're almost certain to be whacked from behind.

 

[Klaus]

I think this is less about RAW and more about "will it be fun".

If every marked monster knows it will be attacked if it shifts or attacks a non-Fighter ally, and therefore avoids those actions, the Fighter will never be able to use his Opportunity Attacks, and any feats spent on Opportunity Attacks will be wasted.

I think it's good DMing to make sure the players can use their characters' capabilities, and this includes purposefully generating an Opportunity Attack here and there, specially if the monster in question isn't particulatly bright or tactically-savvy.