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When did the Fighter become "defender"?
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<blockquote data-quote="nogray" data-source="post: 5905662" data-attributes="member: 28028"><p><strong>Bad Fighters</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The 4e (PHB) fighter that does this is being actively bad. He only marks when he attacks, so if he hasn't attacked the enemies, he hasn't begun to do his job. He is not only giving up his damage from that first onslaught, but also the potential damage from his combat challenge or opportunity attack. In fact, that's probably why the 4e folk (myself included) have never seen this behavior.</p><p></p><p>In fact, there is no 4e defender that would operate that way. Here is a run-down.</p><p></p><p>[sblock="4e mark mechanics"] <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Fighter (PHB / Weaponmaster)</strong>: marks when attacking. Might mark with a thrown weapon, I suppose, but is attacking each round or is not doing the (defender) job. Since mark punishment is a melee basic attack, there is a lot of system-based encouragement for the fighter to be in melee with their target.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Paladin (PHB)</strong>: marks at a moderate range with an active power use, but that mark goes away if, by the end of their turn, they have not attacked or ended adjacent to the target. (There are also numerous powers that apply marks to enemies in close proximity, but those are active powers, not the paladin's player saying "I just stand there.")</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Swordmage</strong>: marks at a short range with an active power use; this is the defender most likely to mark one enemy and then try to get away from it to engage another enemy, thus potentially keeping two enemies occupied.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Warden</strong>: marks in essentially melee range with and active power use, meaning they tend to run up to mark a group or the biggest baddie. Mark punishment is melee or short range, so once again, the warden will stay close to the marked foe.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Battlemind</strong>: marks at short range with an active power use. It's possible that the battlemind might mark one (or more) foe(s) and go after another, but less likely. This is because (unlike the swordmage) the battlemind's mark punishment depends on being in melee range.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Essentials Defenders (Fighter-Knight, Barbarian-Berserker, Paladin-Cavalier)</strong>: have a defender aura; that means they must generally be adjacent to their enemy to do their job. (If the terrain is <em>just right</em>, I could see this sort of defender moving to some ideal position and not attacking, doing the defender thing by enforcing/controlling a bottleneck. Still, that would be a corner-case scenario.</li> </ul><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's precisely what the fighters that I've played with do. That way, they are doing something on their turn and actually marking something so that their defender mechanic is active for the coming enemy turns. In fact, all the defenders that I've played with are similarly active.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nogray, post: 5905662, member: 28028"] [b]Bad Fighters[/b] The 4e (PHB) fighter that does this is being actively bad. He only marks when he attacks, so if he hasn't attacked the enemies, he hasn't begun to do his job. He is not only giving up his damage from that first onslaught, but also the potential damage from his combat challenge or opportunity attack. In fact, that's probably why the 4e folk (myself included) have never seen this behavior. In fact, there is no 4e defender that would operate that way. Here is a run-down. [sblock="4e mark mechanics"][LIST] [*][b]Fighter (PHB / Weaponmaster)[/b]: marks when attacking. Might mark with a thrown weapon, I suppose, but is attacking each round or is not doing the (defender) job. Since mark punishment is a melee basic attack, there is a lot of system-based encouragement for the fighter to be in melee with their target. [*][b]Paladin (PHB)[/b]: marks at a moderate range with an active power use, but that mark goes away if, by the end of their turn, they have not attacked or ended adjacent to the target. (There are also numerous powers that apply marks to enemies in close proximity, but those are active powers, not the paladin's player saying "I just stand there.") [*][b]Swordmage[/b]: marks at a short range with an active power use; this is the defender most likely to mark one enemy and then try to get away from it to engage another enemy, thus potentially keeping two enemies occupied. [*][b]Warden[/b]: marks in essentially melee range with and active power use, meaning they tend to run up to mark a group or the biggest baddie. Mark punishment is melee or short range, so once again, the warden will stay close to the marked foe. [*][b]Battlemind[/b]: marks at short range with an active power use. It's possible that the battlemind might mark one (or more) foe(s) and go after another, but less likely. This is because (unlike the swordmage) the battlemind's mark punishment depends on being in melee range. [*][b]Essentials Defenders (Fighter-Knight, Barbarian-Berserker, Paladin-Cavalier)[/b]: have a defender aura; that means they must generally be adjacent to their enemy to do their job. (If the terrain is [i]just right[/i], I could see this sort of defender moving to some ideal position and not attacking, doing the defender thing by enforcing/controlling a bottleneck. Still, that would be a corner-case scenario. [/LIST][/sblock] That's precisely what the fighters that I've played with do. That way, they are doing something on their turn and actually marking something so that their defender mechanic is active for the coming enemy turns. In fact, all the defenders that I've played with are similarly active. [/QUOTE]
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When did the Fighter become "defender"?
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