Combat Challenge: Two Targets Marked at Once...

[Pbartender]

So, we ran into an interesting little tidbit last night...

In the midst of a fight with kobolds, the Fighter uses Combat Challenge:

Combat Challenge: Every time you attack an enemy, whether that attack hits or misses, you can choose to mark that target. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While the target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls if its attack doesn’t include you as a target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supercedes a mark that was already in place.

Right.

So, he marks one kobold. The very next round he marks another kobold, but the first mark lasts "until the end of your next turn". In other words, he's got two targets marked at once... Or am I missing something?

I don't necessarily have a problem with that, I just want to make certain it's correct.

 

[Plane Sailing]

We've also heard that there are fighter powers that allow him to mark more than one foe in one go (thicket of blades, revealed here )

Cheers

 

[Kobu]

So, we ran into an interesting little tidbit last night...

In the midst of a fight with kobolds, the Fighter uses Combat Challenge:



Right.

So, he marks one kobold. The very next round he marks another kobold, but the first mark lasts "until the end of your next turn". In other words, he's got two targets marked at once... Or am I missing something?

I don't necessarily have a problem with that, I just want to make certain it's correct.

It's just YAAR. WotC loves these since the Sage needs something to do.

Who creates the new mark? Who is it on? Whose mark on what supercedes whose mark on what?

Also note how 'enemy' and 'target' seem to be used interchangeably in the first sentence but do not have the same meaning (as far as we know). So, what if you have an attack that targets one enemy, but you also roll attacks against two enemies adjacent to that one. Who are you targeting then? The original target? An enemy of your choice? All of them?

 

[Piratecat]

Sure, Matt, that's fine. Until the end of his turn, he has two marked. I don't see any problem there.

 

[Zelgadas]

I agree with Piratecat. You could even do stuff like have a dragonborn fighter use his breath weapon on a bunch of kobolds, and since he can mark anyone he attacks--hit or miss--he marks them all for one round. Suddenly that 1d6+x breath weapon is a lot more attractive for the fighter, right?

 

[keterys]

Or multiclass Wizard and Scorching Burst. Any kind of area attack is good for the fighter.

 

[Kordeth]

Remember that nothing in the description of the fighter's combat challenge ability says "you can only have one creature marked at any time," it says "a creature can only be subject to one mark at a time. So yes, as long as you can make multiple attacks against different targets, whether through an area attack like a dragonborn's breath weapon or a whirlwind attack type power or by taking OAs against enemies on their turns, you can have multiple targets marked at once.

 

[Morrus]

The only other interpretation I can envisage is that "A new mark supercedes a mark that was already in place" is a separate statement to the one preceding it, thus meaning that you can only mark one enemy at a time.

But I'm more inclined to see it as an extension of the previous statement, meaning your interpretation is correct.

I'd love a clarification!

 

[gribble]

I'd love a clarification!

Hmmm... I'll take that as confirmation that it isn't clarified in the PHB.

Well, I guess most of us always expected a heap of errata once the books were released anyway.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

So, he marks one kobold. The very next round he marks another kobold, but the first mark lasts "until the end of your next turn". In other words, he's got two targets marked at once... Or am I missing something?

You'd have to be pretty ingeneous to come up with a scenario where that matters...

Your first mark isn't going to get a chance to attack somebody else before the end of your turn.