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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6298439" data-attributes="member: 82106">I think the problem is with people's perceptions of what a defender should be. In AD&D it was insane for a rogue or wizard to ever risk a hit at all, meaning the fighter was by default a sort of 'tank'. Then WoW came along and made PURE tanks as the only kind of 'defense' and just solidified the idea in everyone's minds apparently. It is NOT the job of the defender to suck up all the hits. Defenders are (usually) designed to suck up more than a wizard or most strikers, but their real job is CONTROL, to seize the enemy's ability to choose targets and make that decision for them. The ideal result is that each party member takes damage in proportion to their toughness. At the end of the day your example battlemind should be pretty much tapped out, and so should the wizard, the cleric, the rogue, and the ranger. If the rogue is flanking and he can take a hit then the battlemind should let him take it. Now, I admit, this particular battlemind, or many warden builds, are pretty close to being tanks. Because they have such high surge values healing them adds back a lot more hit points to the party, so it can make sense to use (particularly surgeless) healing on these characters and so they will want to take even MORE of the hits. That's OK, but its far from the only valid type of defender.Think of a sword-n-board dex fighter. His job is shoving around enemy creatures, knocking them down, pulling them off an ally when they threaten to down your buddy, impose a bunch of -2 to-hits on the enemy, and dish out extra damage. He's NOT going to want to attract a lot of extra hits to himself. He's fairly tough, and his AC should probably be around 2 points higher than the other PCs, but this is a character that should often be saying "OK, that goblin is one more than I want swinging at me, I'll just mark him and shove him over by the rogue and the ranger. They can afford to take a hit or two." I like this whole aspect of 4e. Each combat role has a certain amount of thought involved. You really can't play even the simplest fighter or barbarian without any tactical consideration and get full effectiveness.</blockquote>

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