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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5682761" data-attributes="member: 82106">Agreed. I would just say this. It is LESS critical for a wizard that is going to sit back at the back of the party to be holding a HIGH AC. At first level the PCs can expect to have most encounters where their opponents are limited enough that they can hold a line or control the situation, if they think carefully. Even then it won't happen all the time. The first fight I ever ran in 4e is pretty typical. Goblins holed up in an old manor with the PCs assaulting them (after waiting until half the goblins got good and drunk, players weren't dumb). Even so the Blackblade slipped out a window and backstabbed the dwarf that was holding the front door, and the big axe goblin came out a side door (which took him two rounds) and tried to hit them from the side. The defender was vital to keeping the situation under control, but most of the characters had to deal with one or two attacks before it was all over. By 13th level I recall that party fighting in the middle of a temple compound with enemies coming at them from 3 directions, a couple archers raining arrows on them from a wall, etc. EVERY character got attacked multiple times in that one, though again the warden tied town two tough enemies and the swordmage managed to keep the wizard up (the cleric OTOH went down hard even though she had a pretty good AC).AC 14 starting for a wizard? It might be viable if the player is careful, but the problem is building like that is basically assuming you'll always be in control of the situation. At the very least a character built like that will be wise to pick up something like Shield right quick.[MENTION=90057]Gondsman[/MENTION] The problem IMHO is you're just telling me what marking IS. I don't know that marking is a specific thing. Maybe in one case the dwarf is insulting the goblin's ancestry and getting them pissed at him. Maybe in another case it is just interfering with them and keeping them off balance, etc. One must also attribute SOME degree of tactical savvy to most monsters. Even animalistic creatures go after easy prey (and are pretty good at picking it out). Humanoids may not all be brilliant, but they're smart enough to survive and thus if attacking character X is good tactics then it is reasonable to assume they'll work that out at some point in the fight. I AGREE that RPing the monsters is what you're after as a DM, not 'winning' an idealized skirmish game. The monsters DO want to win though, and if the leader that is constantly debuffing them and standing the heavy hitters back up is the logical target, then you can pretty well assume there will be some attacks coming in on that character.Ultimately I'd just like to say that a defender is doing an adequate job if they tie up one enemy thoroughly, do some steady damage, and manage to disadvantage the enemy to any appreciable degree on top of that. There are 5 PCs and nominally 5 monsters. It isn't up to the front line to hold them all back all of the time. They need to stop key attacks and shape the fight in favor of their side. That isn't at all the same as being a wall. It might be as simple as locking down an elite or getting in the face of a controller and messing up his chance to work his tricks. The wizard may very well have to survive on his own for a couple rounds, just not against everything the enemy has got. There are various ways to do that, and being a higher AC wizard is one. Being a really low AC wizard is just dicey. You really are counting on nothing unexpected happening, and I can guarantee when I'm running the game that's a bad guess (as the wizard that got ganked once by Phase Spiders learned really quickly).</blockquote>

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